Gotcha. Happy to help.

I leave for SA on Friday, will be there Sunday. I will have my US number but that is probably better. His name is Kit. I have an 11 yr old and 7 yr old. Done the course intensively with beautiful results. Happy to share. Ek kannie wag om huis toe te gaan nie! Ons kan daar praat.

Mands

Call me  at my uncles. His name is 0837795335. I am in the US but arrive next Sunday in SA. Would love to help you!

Building on what was said, you have to look at Classical Conversations. This is an all encompassing curriculum. Despite it being Classical, the foundations part is like Doman. Kids are taught 7 facts for the week for each subject, English, Math, Science, Geography, Latin, Timeline, Music or Art and you can expound on it during the week. However, the morning class are these 7 facts flashed 7 times. If you are not in the US, you could simply buy the curriculum and do it at home. My kids were completely Doman Style, so this was a fantastic extension of EL. I am now a CC tutor. That is how much I believe in the curriculum.

Best
Mandy

I would love to hear her responses to those questions. When will be able to read them?

My dear, you are WAY too complimentary!! Honestly, I thought the same with the first group. Brain Balance. $6000 seemed a bit extreme but cost aside, it was the time that it took to do these exercises at home and then go to the office for 2 hrs a week. I had to be sure what I was getting myself into. I then have recently made friends with an optometrist. She performed the same tests and confirmed that they were correct. Ironically, the reason I took him for testing was to get him into the Davidson Institute. They are only worried about IQs but still, I was perturbed by this news. Especially given the rigorous phd program we followed verbatim! I have spoken to Iahp. They are trying to get my request to the right person. A green jacket I presume. Either way, thanks for your concern, I promise to keep you all updated. I am sure if you are pursuing this same avenue, then you will be interested. Hopefully, I can save you all the time and heartache....

I have just had both my kids tested and for some reason, despite all the Doman miles crept on the PHD course, both have convergence issues and have still retained their primitive reflexes???? How is that possible being on such a strict Doman, Shichida, Rightbrain course. Has anyone else been through this? Has anyone employed Vision Therapy or Neurofeedback to overcome these differences?? I still find this hard to believe as my 9 yr old was doing 13 hrs of gymnastics a week for 4 yrs! Yes, he competed and won state championships. How is this possible?? Any advice would be highly appreciated!

Would really love your feedback.
THanks.
Mandy

Hi Wolfwind

You give me WAAAAAAAAAAAY too much credit!! I know how tough that PHD course is, so only a mom that truly dotes on her child would take that on. I always call the phd course insurance for healthy living for our kids. I know they will be blessed by you doing that for them. I have to re-invent the wheel every day! My 5 yr old is on week 8 and it is starting too drag now. I am definitely older than when I did it with my first son. Not so much on the knees this time, as much as, cheerleading . I am going to post later about Vision therapy. I have just had both my kids tested and for some reason, despite all the Doman miles crept on the PHD course, both have convergence issues and have still retained their primitive reflexes???? How is that possible being on such a strict Doman, Shichida, Rightbrain course. Has anyone else been through this? Has anyone employed Vision Therapy or Neurofeedback to overcome these differences??

Would love your feedback.
THanks.
Mandy

I didn't think I was missing anything until I got there. It is one thing to read a book and put it into practice but completely different when seeing it performed by gurus. There are slight nu-ances that are never addressed in the book. For example, if your kid creeps and crawls with socks, it is null and void because your child isn't getting the sensory input needed to form the pathways. Crazy that I never thought of it before but making mistakes like that could set you years back. Okay, I'm being melodramatic but you get my drift......

I could go on and on. The mere fact that moms are up there presenting with 6 month olds that aren't ready to sit for an entire session of bits also helps you see that this is our newfound reality. Hope this is all making sense. Plus, when you get there, you can have professionals diagnose your specific problems. I remember asking them why, when I'm reading and pointing at words does my son at 6 mnths old keep shoving my hand away. They reconfirmed that he was reading and that my hand was in the way. Things like this seem too good to be true but they have years of experience and can set you straight.

Does that help?

Your excitement is tangible! I would give anything to be able to relive it again. My friend Susannah is attending the course. I hope the two of you find each other. Enjoy!! Isn't it funny, how some women go to the spa for the week. I couldn't imagine anything worse. The Institutes is my idea of indulgence.

I call the Institutes "my slice of heaven on earth"! I mean it, I cried from joy nearly every day I was at that course. Here is my 2c worth, the course is EVERYTHING and more but more importantly, DON'T FORGET TO NETWORK WITH THE PARENTS. These are parents who are like minded. The bond that is forged there goes beyond friendship. I made two friends there that I call my soul sisters. And for good reason. These will be the people that you will celebrate with and cry with (on your challenging days). But most of all, they will understand you and where you are coming from. Second piece of advice, have all your questions ready and hit those yellow jackets for as many questions as you can. They are literally, worth their weight in gold. So take videos of your children crawling etc. They can analyze them there for you. Then of course, you have to say Hi to Connie and Susan for me . Waiting for your report back! Did I mention I was jealous of you. Please don't feel guilty for leaving your children, this is one of those airplane, parental air masks first situations. Enjoy!!

No problem, happy to help. I used Aloha. The classes are 2 hrs once a week and then they give you homework. It is lovely to be able to outsource something. Before that, I simply used different sites online.

HI ladies

My absolute pleasure to answer, sorry if it does take me a while to get back to you. Besides trying to convince College professors to take my son on, I have a younger one that needs my attention too. Since we homeschool, I am constantly organizing groups to be put into national and state competitions (as a side note, if anyone has a 4th grader that wants to join us in Word Master Challenge, I can add them to our group. We came 11th in the nation with only ten kids. We were up against some TX teams with 250 kids in a group!). That being said, the question to address is how did I do the juggling between kids. Honestly, I feel so ill-equipped to be giving you advice. I will at least tell you how I did it. Thank the Lord, in those days my younger one did lovely long naps. He would get up early, while the older one got up later etc. Now we have no more napping but my boys are only to happy to go to their room and play knights or jump on the trampoline while I work with their sibling. I hardly take more than half an hour of alone time.

You mentioned consistency and l have to agree with you. My children never sat for very long, so I could only do something long enough to hold their attention and then move on to the next play directed learning. I think mother's of girls would have an entirely different perspective to mine. You are right, I had my checklist and would tick off everything I did. It was the only way to appease my guilty conscience. I felt like I only have 6 yrs to get everything I needed to, in there and thus was always fighting the clock. Although, I have to say that I did take weekends off completely. My husband, only now (with my 5 yr old) will show flashcards. This was something I chose to do, he would support me but not do it for me. So with running my business, I simply needed two days off. I might add that they weren't off as Saturdays and Sundays were Chinese and Swedish and Sunday school.

Regarding the Abacus. I hear what you are saying. Actually, it was for that reason I taught my son everything I could at home. I am replicating that with my 5 yr old. They simply couldn't sit still for two hours of class work. So when Christian was 6 and could handle the sitting I took him to Aloha. They tested him and found out that he was on the Sr. level 3. They were shocked but he proved it to them. So from then on they did the multiplication and division. To this day, I still don't know how to do it. I can't say that my kids were as brilliant as the ones you see on youtube but they definitely can beat the calculator.

Again parents, I just have to re-iterate that I am totally unqualified to give advice. You are all selfless parents and I hope in some way I can help share the load. So fire away with the questions. Good night!

Yes, I had this checklist posted up in our play area. I always tell everyone, I will sleep when I die. I am finally turning in my immigration business after 15 yrs. College is taking up a lot of prep work!! Here's my oldest's summary of all the years.

Given the year, 2010 made Lucas 3 months old. I have one schedule per level of brain development that co-incides with Doman and again can post if interested.