Hello again! 
Cheryl, you are so onto of your responses, it is awesome, but I don't know if you can always put two posts together and remember everything about everyone, so, I wanted to summarize (this helps me too!) a bit about our family and ask for a few suggestions.
1) I have child born 8/23/09 (girl), 9/11/1 (boy) and 2/9/13 (girl)
Child 1 - 6 year old girl
She is a very creative, imaginative child who loves to draw and create things. However, her drawing skills/fine motor do not allow her to create what I think she would like to create. Her writing is below grade level, but not terribly behind. (she tested about 5-6 months behind at an OT/PT evaluation) She has every verbal as a toddler and most people thought she was older than she was. I did not realize how easy of a toddler she was, until I had my next two! As a baby she loved to sit on the floor and play with her toys. While her initial entrance into the world was rocky (i.e colicky), once we figured out what made her thrive, life was ok. I never really realized, again until I had two more children, about her lack of emotion/ need for touch was though. At her OT evaluation, we did learn that is because of her sensory issues. She is "anti" touch. It becomes a problem if she gets a small wound. She literally can not function for 20-30 min and it is hard to find something to calm her down or soothe her, since me holding her is not one of those things. (hopefully you don't read that I never hug her or hold her, but it is definitely not a calming method and she is definetly not that cuddly type). I have yet to find something that "works". She will sit out of an favorite activity until she feels she is ready. (My arm has a scrap, I can't go in the pool"). This past summer has not been good and after this one, we will continue with some sort of routine/schooling from now on. She recently switched her sleep needs, and it caught us all off guard. She had been my only 1 of 3 that slept all night, went to bed at a predicable time and woke at a predictable time. We also live in central Indiana, on EASTERN time, so in the summer it is light until 9-10pm. Thankfully, the days are finally starting to get shorter. It took all summer to figure out what her actual sleep needs are and now she is falling asleep and waking at a predictable time (though we need to move this to an earlier time since it is currently 10-8). She misses the K cut-off her in Indiana and we wavered on what do with her (put her, wait?). We decided last year to give homeschooling a try (long story there) but I never found anything I really "liked" so we did jump around a lot. Despite the jumping, she is definitely further ahead than she was last year and we would have never gone to a an OT/PT because it would have been missed at school. The therapist commented that her "problems" would likely have gotten her to 3rd grade with no issues and then it would have come out of "no where". So, thankful for that step. She thrives on the whole spinning/swinging thing, but music therapy was a bust. She also requires hours of "alone" time. I finally figured that out when her younger brother stopped napping and we ended her quiet time (which began when she was 3 and quit napping) and she was having epic meltdowns. I also realized her need for complete structure and predicable schedules. We purchased the K core (but I was debating K, 1st or SC1). I'm still in flux about how I feel about it. We are easily into book c, but the recommendations are to start with A, which I understand. However, because of her personality, I feel like we need to still move forward in reading. She isn't quite ready for Little Bear, but she can read a lot of the readers, etc. We had started working on phonograms like OO, OW, etc before I decided to go with MP. She does need the writing component and I love that the writing matches the phonics lessons. The math I have decided to stick with the numbers book, use the writing practice sheets (the "fun" sheets) and continue on with our Montessori Math lessons (I had originally thought we would go that route to homeschool but because quickly overwhelm, math is something I am comfortable with though!) We signed her up for a homeschool gym/swim class, she will attend religious ed classes at our local Parish and we may add in gymnastics as the OT/Pt said she needed some core work as well. Her current interests are arts and crafts, learning to sew and cake baking/decorating! (P.S. - medical conditions are asthmatic, and allergic to peanuts - the asthma requires a 2x daily preventative breathing treatment, and sometimes more if she is sick)
My son has been a bit difficult since the beginning. The short story is he has never slept well (as I mentioned in a previous post, so I won't repeat that) and was diagnosed with food severe food allergies at 15 months. We also believe he has several (which we are working through to fully determine) sensitivities (rashes, behavior, etc). He was also evaluated by a PT/OT and he had sensory issues also. He has the need for constant touch and before we sought help would crash into things/people just to get that input. He is responding very well to music therapy (through a specific kind of headphone), but we have lapsed in that recently. We will get back to that soon! His sleep habits are so erratic it is hard to get him on any type of predictable routine even, which makes it hard to have the family on one. However, despite some of his troubles, he is developmentally ahead. He was 3 at the time of his evaluation, and he was testing more like in the 3.5-4 range for most things. He has great concentration, can sit for a long period (longer than my oldest!) and is very interested in math right now. He requires an hour of music therapy a day as well as sensory input therapy (jumping, hanging, swinging, spinning, bouncing, etc). He is also signed up for the gym/swim class and we are thinking about adding gymnastics for him as well.
My youngest so far seems to be the model for what a child should act/do! She's still a toddler, so she has her own troubles, but nothing compared to the other two. She did have sleeping problems, but we are working through them (she had/has acid reflux so sometimes food bothers her).
I'd love suggestions for how to incorporate therapy with the work in Level B from SC and the K core (I also have the A level, but I bought that primarily for how to read the books to my youngest - we do it for a few minutes each evening...if there is something that strikes me that I want everyone to do we do it..otherwise I am mostly just reading the books to her with your promts. (specifically during the 30 minutes he is doing music therapy, which he protests almost daily...it works best if I use this for "alone" time with him - he is supposed to be doing fine motor skills during this time and follow it up with a gross motor skill session. - total time for this though is 45 minutes and there are 2 other kiddos who need me!) Also, you mentioned in your book something about not letting them get in their own world, even if they "needed it. My oldest must have this quiet time, but I'm hesitant after reading your statement. I'm just wondering if you mean it needs more structure to it? She MUST be alone for at least an hour though! Lastly, not sure what to do about the reading with my oldest. I was thinking about following along with the first start, only doing the core skills if needed, but I'd like to add readers immediately. The biggest hurdle with this is, by the time she gets to reading one fluently, she has basically memorized the words. This is a problem, because if I have her read a word list that contains all the words, but out of the normal order, it is like starting all over again! Thank you for the time you take to thoughtfully prepare your answers!

Cheryl, you are so onto of your responses, it is awesome, but I don't know if you can always put two posts together and remember everything about everyone, so, I wanted to summarize (this helps me too!) a bit about our family and ask for a few suggestions.
1) I have child born 8/23/09 (girl), 9/11/1 (boy) and 2/9/13 (girl)
Child 1 - 6 year old girl
She is a very creative, imaginative child who loves to draw and create things. However, her drawing skills/fine motor do not allow her to create what I think she would like to create. Her writing is below grade level, but not terribly behind. (she tested about 5-6 months behind at an OT/PT evaluation) She has every verbal as a toddler and most people thought she was older than she was. I did not realize how easy of a toddler she was, until I had my next two! As a baby she loved to sit on the floor and play with her toys. While her initial entrance into the world was rocky (i.e colicky), once we figured out what made her thrive, life was ok. I never really realized, again until I had two more children, about her lack of emotion/ need for touch was though. At her OT evaluation, we did learn that is because of her sensory issues. She is "anti" touch. It becomes a problem if she gets a small wound. She literally can not function for 20-30 min and it is hard to find something to calm her down or soothe her, since me holding her is not one of those things. (hopefully you don't read that I never hug her or hold her, but it is definitely not a calming method and she is definetly not that cuddly type). I have yet to find something that "works". She will sit out of an favorite activity until she feels she is ready. (My arm has a scrap, I can't go in the pool"). This past summer has not been good and after this one, we will continue with some sort of routine/schooling from now on. She recently switched her sleep needs, and it caught us all off guard. She had been my only 1 of 3 that slept all night, went to bed at a predicable time and woke at a predictable time. We also live in central Indiana, on EASTERN time, so in the summer it is light until 9-10pm. Thankfully, the days are finally starting to get shorter. It took all summer to figure out what her actual sleep needs are and now she is falling asleep and waking at a predictable time (though we need to move this to an earlier time since it is currently 10-8). She misses the K cut-off her in Indiana and we wavered on what do with her (put her, wait?). We decided last year to give homeschooling a try (long story there) but I never found anything I really "liked" so we did jump around a lot. Despite the jumping, she is definitely further ahead than she was last year and we would have never gone to a an OT/PT because it would have been missed at school. The therapist commented that her "problems" would likely have gotten her to 3rd grade with no issues and then it would have come out of "no where". So, thankful for that step. She thrives on the whole spinning/swinging thing, but music therapy was a bust. She also requires hours of "alone" time. I finally figured that out when her younger brother stopped napping and we ended her quiet time (which began when she was 3 and quit napping) and she was having epic meltdowns. I also realized her need for complete structure and predicable schedules. We purchased the K core (but I was debating K, 1st or SC1). I'm still in flux about how I feel about it. We are easily into book c, but the recommendations are to start with A, which I understand. However, because of her personality, I feel like we need to still move forward in reading. She isn't quite ready for Little Bear, but she can read a lot of the readers, etc. We had started working on phonograms like OO, OW, etc before I decided to go with MP. She does need the writing component and I love that the writing matches the phonics lessons. The math I have decided to stick with the numbers book, use the writing practice sheets (the "fun" sheets) and continue on with our Montessori Math lessons (I had originally thought we would go that route to homeschool but because quickly overwhelm, math is something I am comfortable with though!) We signed her up for a homeschool gym/swim class, she will attend religious ed classes at our local Parish and we may add in gymnastics as the OT/Pt said she needed some core work as well. Her current interests are arts and crafts, learning to sew and cake baking/decorating! (P.S. - medical conditions are asthmatic, and allergic to peanuts - the asthma requires a 2x daily preventative breathing treatment, and sometimes more if she is sick)
My son has been a bit difficult since the beginning. The short story is he has never slept well (as I mentioned in a previous post, so I won't repeat that) and was diagnosed with food severe food allergies at 15 months. We also believe he has several (which we are working through to fully determine) sensitivities (rashes, behavior, etc). He was also evaluated by a PT/OT and he had sensory issues also. He has the need for constant touch and before we sought help would crash into things/people just to get that input. He is responding very well to music therapy (through a specific kind of headphone), but we have lapsed in that recently. We will get back to that soon! His sleep habits are so erratic it is hard to get him on any type of predictable routine even, which makes it hard to have the family on one. However, despite some of his troubles, he is developmentally ahead. He was 3 at the time of his evaluation, and he was testing more like in the 3.5-4 range for most things. He has great concentration, can sit for a long period (longer than my oldest!) and is very interested in math right now. He requires an hour of music therapy a day as well as sensory input therapy (jumping, hanging, swinging, spinning, bouncing, etc). He is also signed up for the gym/swim class and we are thinking about adding gymnastics for him as well.
My youngest so far seems to be the model for what a child should act/do! She's still a toddler, so she has her own troubles, but nothing compared to the other two. She did have sleeping problems, but we are working through them (she had/has acid reflux so sometimes food bothers her).
I'd love suggestions for how to incorporate therapy with the work in Level B from SC and the K core (I also have the A level, but I bought that primarily for how to read the books to my youngest - we do it for a few minutes each evening...if there is something that strikes me that I want everyone to do we do it..otherwise I am mostly just reading the books to her with your promts. (specifically during the 30 minutes he is doing music therapy, which he protests almost daily...it works best if I use this for "alone" time with him - he is supposed to be doing fine motor skills during this time and follow it up with a gross motor skill session. - total time for this though is 45 minutes and there are 2 other kiddos who need me!) Also, you mentioned in your book something about not letting them get in their own world, even if they "needed it. My oldest must have this quiet time, but I'm hesitant after reading your statement. I'm just wondering if you mean it needs more structure to it? She MUST be alone for at least an hour though! Lastly, not sure what to do about the reading with my oldest. I was thinking about following along with the first start, only doing the core skills if needed, but I'd like to add readers immediately. The biggest hurdle with this is, by the time she gets to reading one fluently, she has basically memorized the words. This is a problem, because if I have her read a word list that contains all the words, but out of the normal order, it is like starting all over again! Thank you for the time you take to thoughtfully prepare your answers!
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