Stop and Think Workbook - Impulsive Children

Sorry it has been so long since I updated this topic of Impulsive Children. I purchased the Stop and Think Workbook by Phillip Kendall and was pretty unimpressed with the appearance - but we shouldn't judge a workbook by its cover. It was a spiral bound photocopied Kinko's style workbook that I bought off of Amazon. It did have some interesting lessons inside it though. The nice thing is that it gave my son and I some time to work through some exercises 3-4 times per week... some good together time.

The basis of the exercises is to put the child into situations where they will fail or come close to failing at which time you help them learn to STOP and THINK. Essentially, the workbook contains a number of games the two of you can play together (or you can pay a therapist big bucks - no need to do that!). During these games you ask your child to walk you through their thought process when approaching a difficult or challenging part of the game. You try to get them to come up with alternative options, hopefully helping them to logically decide the best course of action before their impulses kick in. Your child verbally iterates his thought process and soon, after much repetition, this become the type of inner dialogue your child will have when faced with difficult situations in the future.

The workbook also contains a nice little reward system for doing a good job. In each session your child starts with 5 "bucks"... each time they act on impulse you take a buck away... (of course the first few times you do this it gives you the opportunity to take another buck away because they explode again, but they get it pretty quickly). Any bucks left at the end of the session go into the child's buck bank... those bucks can be used later for picking out a prize.

Another good lesson... When your child does a good job and makes a wise choice they need to audibly tell themselves, "I did a good job". If they blow it, they need to audibly tell themselves, "Oops, I made a mistake, I'll do better next time." Again, this audible dialog becomes part of the child's inner dialog over time.

I spent 30 sessions with my (now 7 year old) son. The sessions were fun... doing things like playing checkers, or solving puzzles. I did see some improvement and it has given us something to talk about when we have episodes in day-to-day life. I tell him when he is doing a good job and ask him many more questions about his thought process.

He still has some issues, but I think some of these strategies, coupled with just getting older are having a positive effect. Getting the workbook, cheap as it is, probably would not be a bad idea... the main lessons of which were described above. I can only imagine some therapist charging you $100 per session to go through the same book - which I am sure you would be plenty competent to handle yourself (and it teaches you some important things too!).

January First and Still Alive!

Well, I've been taking generic omeprazole from India for more than a year now... and I'm still alive and no apparent side effects. I do wish however that I did not need to take these stupid pills for my GERD. My docs says I need to take them every day for the rest of my life. I've been researching on the net about some various diets that could possibly help. I'm resolving this year to get started trying one of them.

Generic Omeprazole from PurpleDiscount.com

Still alive and kicking, one year after taking Indian generic omeprazole... and no problems with the esophagous! Happy with the service provided.

Fred Meyer - Kroger is stealing from shoppers through Meat Tares too!

I found this link which shows that Kroger is also stealing from shoppers through meat tares too. It appears they do not tare off the weight of the package the meat is in, even though it is the law. Fred Meyer (division of Kroger) is getting sued for over $1 million. A dishonest retailer could even fill the "soaker pad" put under the meat full of water to make it heavier... it can weigh up to 0.2lb... imagine if your cut of meat is supposed to cost 8.99 a lb but your soaker pad is filled with water - it would cost you $1.79 for that water... watch our for these retailers.

Supermarkets Stealing from Shoppers!

Perhaps supermarkets have decided they have had enough from shoplifters and now they are determined to fight back. I recently discovered that my Kroger store is ripping me off every time I buy produce, or anything that comes in a bag that is weighed on the scanner. How did I find this out you might ask…

It all started when I tried shopping at Whole Foods. They have some very expensive stuff in that store. So expensive that I actually wondered how much money I was paying for water mist on the produce and for the bag itself. For example, the Shitake mushrooms I bought were $13.99 per pound, yikes. What was interesting was that I noticed on the receipt at Whole Foods that they subtract some weight from the purchase… something called a tare. I figured Whole Foods must have heard people complain about this in the past. Whole Foods removes 0.01 pounds to account for the weight of the bag. So, in other words… almost $.14 was removed from the price I paid for the mushrooms because of the bag weight – that would have been an expensive bag.

I wondered if other supermarkets also “tare” off the weight of the bags. After asking around a bit and searching on the internet I learned that all retailers are supposed to tare off the weight of containers/bags – it is in fact illegal for retailers to charge for the weight of the bags. I learned that retailers must tare off the weight of at least one scale graduation (technical scale jargon from weights and measures police for how fine the resolution is for the scale). In the US that is normally 0.01 lb. for every produce item sold. But some bags may weigh more, and they must tare off the weight of heavier bags accurately.

I decided to test my theory and see how much I was getting ripped off. I normally shop at Kroger and during my normal visit I purchased some bulk whole bean coffee (which I learned is what weights and measures police use to sting supermarkets for this type of fraud), a jalapeño pepper, some shallots, and some pistachios. I discovered none of these items had any tare listed on the receipt like at Whole Foods. I asked the manager what was up – he said they don’t print a tare on the receipt. I double checked the weight of the things I bought and showed the manager that there is clearly no tare off for the bag weight – he had no answer for that! Look how much I was ripped off in a single visit!

Whole Bean Coffee: $9.29 / lb. Special Bag weight: 0.03 lb
Ripped off for: $.27
Jalapeño Pepper: $2.49 / lb. Bag weight: 0.01 lb
Ripped off for: $.02
Shallots: $3.99 / lb. Bag weight: 0.01 lb
Ripped off for: $.04
Pistachios: $5.99 / lb. Special Bag weight: 0.03 lb
Ripped off for: $.18

In a single visit I was robbed of $.51. This may not seem like much, or maybe I should steal a candy bar next time and not feel guilty about it! Just imagine the 2,477 grocery stores that Kroger runs. I figure they have at least 1000 customers buying bagged merchandise each day per store… if each customer was robbed of $.51 that would amount to (2447x1000x$.51) = $1,247,970 per day! No wonder those executives get paid so much.

What can you do about it? Well, you could steal a candy bar each trip and try to explain to the police that the supermarket ripped you off first – you are just getting even. Or you could contact your local weights and measures authorities and check on retailers yourselves, I know I will. I plan to check on a few more retailers to see if they are also ripping their customers off. Please send me your comments and let me know if you have had a similar experience. I’ll post updates based on things you share with me.

Generic Omeprazole From India Update

Still alive and kicking and the generic omeprazole from India appears to be doing the trick. I take 20mg per day and it costs 1/3 as much. Supposedly the Indian government may have some new laws which may make getting the pills a little tougher in the future. We'll see how that goes. My supplier at Purplediscount.com says it should not be a problem.

Silver Cure Slow but Might Be Effective against Molluscum

We have been using Silver Cure for 4 weeks now. Maybe it is working, but it is hard to tell. The area we have been treating is showing some signs of improvement, however, the Molluscum is spreading to other areas. We are almost out of the initial $34 1oz. bottle... so now we need to ask ourselves if it is worth another round. I'll attach an after picture so you can compare.

UPDATE: It looks like the Molluscum has cleared up completely! It took about 6 weeks to clear up the area in question and it did spread to another area... we started treating it as well... it seems to be subsiding more quickly (maybe if you catch it sooner it goes away faster).

UPDATE: After another 2 weeks I think we have the Molluscum beaten. I would recommend Silver Cure. Not sure if the Molluscum just ran its course or if the stuff really worked... needless to say, if we get Molluscum again I'll use Silver Cure on it.

Finally Getting Indexed on Google

Hooray, I'm finally getting indexed on Google. I think the advice from Blogger for Dummies really helped! I now have my RSS feed on my Yahoo page and am showing up in the Google Index. You can tell this by typing site:http://daisyknowseverything.blogspot.com into the Google search box. Theoretically now I should be able get signed in to Pay Per Post... I resubmitted my site (they rejected me the first time because I was not indexed). I also tried to get into ReviewMe, but they said I don't have enough traffic... we will have to see how much traffic is necessary to be a publisher for Review me - anyone out there know?

Received Silver Cure

I received the Silver Cure for Molluscum about 4 days after ordering it. The packaging was a bit amaturish. I was surprised how small the little tub of petroleum jelly + tea tree oil + nano silver appeared. It said it would handed 100 treatments. After 4 days my guess is that it will handle about 30 days (60 treatments), but we will see. I have been using it on my son for 4 days now... no noticable difference yet. The Silver Cure site says it takes 2 weeks before you notice anything so we will see. I'm including a before picture of my son, then I will have an after picture as well at 2 weeks and at 30 days. Looks pretty gross huh!

Update: After 30 days it was gone... not sure if that was just the natural course of things or if it actually worked.

Help to Get Blogger Site Indexed on Google

Finally, I found the answer to getting my site indexed on Google... there are some special tools for Blogger accounts. Check out this link... it helped me immenseley for getting my blog indexed with Google. I'll let you know how long it took to actually get indexed.

Oh No... Molluscum

So my 6 year old son was playing with one of the neighbor kids and contracted a nasty skin disorder called Molluscum. Basically he has little bumps all over his body and they are spreading. They don't itch too bad, but they don't look good. The doctors say that they should clear up in 3 months to 2 years... who wants to wait that long! I decided to purchase a "miracle cure" from some internet snake oil salesman... we will see if it works. I purchased some Silver Cure. Supposedly things should stabilize in 2 weeks and should disappear within a couple of months.

Impulsive Child

Our 6 year old son has always been a bit reactive when things don't go his way. It has been a concern for a couple of years and we have considered getting therapy. He just entered kindergarden, we had our first parent teacher conference. We figured his techer would get a good view of his behavior and could provide some suggestions. The teacher described his behavior as impulsive, but said she could not diagose a specific problem. After doing some research we found that the term "impulsive" has a very specific meaning. I would agree based on those meaninngs that our son is impulsive - now what to do about it. We decided to first try a workbook called Stop and Think by Philip Kendal 1992. It looks like it addresses the core element of his probelm. I will update you on our progress.

Omeprazole from India Update

So far, no apparant adverse effects from the Omeprazole I've been taking for about 3 weeks now. We are saving big bucks by going this way, so far it looks like a good deal - no complaints about pain at all.

Received Free Samples of Omeprazole

Well, we sent away for our omeprazole from India and as promised by the vendor we received a 10 day supply for free within 3 days. It looks legitamate so far and the pills look like they come from a real drug company in India. I haven't taken any yet (still have some Prilosec to use up), but I plans to once the Prilosec is gone. If I die I'll let you know! :-)

Remember Toughskins from Sears?

Now you can get the same clothing "warranty" for kids with a program called Kidvantage. It has been around for a while, but now that my boys wear throught their pants in a few weeks I'll be sure to take advantage of it. Visit this Sears site to learn more. Just save your clothing receipts and become a member (which is free and painless)

Services Provided by the Dog Shelter

I was recently attacked by a dog and had to contact the police who then contacted the dog warden. While the dog warden was here, he noticed that my dog was pretty advanced in her years. He politely informed me that local dog shelters will actually euthanize (put to sleep) animals for no charge. Further, he said that a veterinarian usually charges anywhere from $100-$150. The main disadvantage to taking your dog to the shelter, is that you are not allowed to stay with the animal while the procedure occurs. The warden told me that I was to just drop the dog off and they would inject the shot and then dispose of the body. I'm not sure if this is the route I will take, but it would save some money.

Inexpensive and Fun Birthday Party

This past weekend I had a birthday party for my six year old. I was tired of spending $100's of dollars for these parties so I decided to make it simple this year. We had the event at a local playground/park and invited several families from the neighborhood. There was a nice shelter with picnic tables, a playgound and some soccer fields.

Before everyone arrived, I had set up an area with drinks and snacks. At the beginning of the party the kids played on the playground and the adults enjoyed the snacks. After about 45 minutes, we played a game of kickball. While that was occurring, my husband ordered pizzas. As our game was finishing, the pizzas arrived.

Once dinner was over, we had a family soccer game. After that, it was time for cake and opening the presents. I decided not to provide party bags this year for two reasons. First, it can get pretty expensive. Secondly, I dislike the unhealthy food items and inexpensive toys that fill these bags. As a parent, I don't appreciate my children coming home with these gift bags; therefore, I won't be giving these out anymore. When I added up the cost of the party, I spent just over $100.00.

The party went well for several reasons. I think everyone had a good time because there was something for everyone to do, the party was inexpensive and the cleanup was easy. After the party, my son thanked us and told us he wanted to have all of his birthday parties at the park. My older son was also excited and told us he wanted to have a flag football birthday party at the same place.

Omeprazole and Generic Prilosec

I have to take a drug called Omeprazole every day (supposedly for the rest of my life). It is amazing how much the drug companies can try to get for such drugs. At the store you can buy Prilosec for about $25 for a 28 day supply. At drugstore.com you can get a 6 month supply of the generic version of Prilosec for about $83... or you can go to http://www.purplediscount.com/ and get a 6 month supply for about $50. Of course, our insurance company is trying to get $160 for only a 3 month supply.

Anyone had experience buying online drugs from places like PurpleDiscount? We just tried it today. The drugs come from India, but I know they can make quality drugs outside the US - in fact a lot of our drugs come from India already. Supposedly it will take 15-20 days to get the drugs - I'll update you on the progress.

Update: Thank goodness these generic equivalents are now available!

Wow, My First Blog

OK, so now what... hmm , better put some interesting stuff on here. Probably random stuff at first.