Please help me decide what to do...

[nitascool]

A little background first... My school age boys are 8yo and 6yo. With a almost 4yo and a 1yo tagging along.

 

My oldest has a label of Gifted Underachiever and Cognitive Processing Disorder with a Very Low Processing Speed. In August he will begin SOTW 3 and Chemistry doing both 3rd and 7th grade materials. He reads on a 7th/8th grade level and writes on a 5th grade level. His math is average for his age and he will be doing MUS Beta, Gamma and SM 3A & 3B. Buying material for both 2nd and 6th this year cost around $1,500 and we still have to use the library a lot.

 

My 6yo is labeled as ADHD (which we don't think he really has), SPD with Fine Motor Delay (he has other processing delays due to the SPD as well). We just had him evaluated for developmental vision problems and he has 3 developmental things wrong with his eyes beside being farsighted. They want him to get Vision Therapy, which we will do as so as we figure out how to print our own money lol. He will begin SOTW 2 and Life/Earth Science in August. He's reading on a 3rd grade level and writing on a Kindergarten level. He will be doing MUS Beta (pos. Gamma) and SM 2A & 2B. Buying material for him this year cost around $500. He used many of his older brothers books, but we had to buy workbooks for writing, vision skills, and math.

 

So now to our decision. We buy new materials every year in February. Dh and I are trying to decide if we should spend the boys 4th, 2nd & K/1st school money (that would be 2009-2010 school year) on our usual school material or have them do Learning Rx and Vision Therapy instead. Learning Rx will cost $1,500 each (the older two) and lasts 26 weeks while Vision Therapy (only for the 6yo) will cost $1,792 and will last at least 16 weeks.

 

If we did this we would still buy SOTW 4, MUS Alpha just the student book, Delta and Epsilon, and a Chemistry and Physics kit. Everything else would come entirely from the library. This would also mean that my youngest ds (who will be 5yo) would get nothing new for school... all that he would have are the hand-me-down books that we already have (which are probably enough), but no workbooks, except math.

 

I feel like this is shortchanging my youngest boy. And I wonder if the other two will get behind doing so little. And then there is the issue of our state requiring that we do certain subjects every year. I'm just not sure what we should do at this point. There is no way we can do both.

[suzf242]

Have you ever looked into ambleside online?

 

Suzanne

[JeanM]

First of all, I definitely don't think it is short-changing your 4 yo if you don't spend a lot of money buying him new workbooks. Honestly, using lots and lots of library books, and stuff that you have from your older two should be plenty to keep him busy.

 

A former person from this board used to recommend this book strongly:

http://www.amazon.com/Developing-Your-Child-Success-Kenneth/dp/1878145002

 

It has vision and other exercises that you can do at home. I bought it, but never really used it because my ds's issues seemed to mostly resolve on their own. I don't know if that would help you or not.

 

Good luck,

Jean

[nitascool]

We've done AO alongside WTM since my oldest was 5. They like reading the stories... but don't like spending a ton of time reading off the computer. And if I print it all up I might as well just buy the books for the cost of ink and paper these days. So we just do those we can find on the list that are also at the library.

 

As for the other book I'll have to take a look and see about it thank you.

[summer]

Someone who is working on MUS Beta is really unlikely to be ready for Singapore Math 3A. Did you have him take the placement exams? My son tested in to Beta and in to Singapore Math 1B. By 3A, your child will have had to have mastered everything presented in Beta and much of what is in Gamma and some of Delta. It was in 3A or 3B, I do not recall which, that I borrowed someones Epsilon video to help us with fractions.

 

Please go back and have him take the placement exams Either he is not ready for the Singapore Math you selected or he is way beyond the MUS you selected for him.

[summer]

I am also curious as to why one child is doing SOTW3 while the other is doing SOTW2? Even SWB said when a neew child starts in, just have them come in at the level the other is at. It will burn you out and take up way too much time, energy, and money, and has no purpose or benefit at all, to try to keep multiple topics going at once like that. Even if your children were far apart in age, it still makes most sense to have them all doing to same time period at a time and the same science subject at a time. But your child are even close in age.

 

You seem to have science going 4 directions too... Life, Earth, physics, and chemistry? Pick the one you think will interest them the most (or that you already have on hand) and do that one with all the children.

[love2read]

do Learning Rx and Vision Therapy instead. Learning Rx will cost $1,500 each (the older two) and lasts 26 weeks while Vision Therapy (only for the 6yo) will cost $1,792 and will last at least 16 weeks.

 

Yes and use your public library for other things. The older they get the harder it is to correct processing disorders. Our opth. recommended a vision therapy software that our insurance covered and that we could do at home. Of course it may have been a different kind of therapy than your dc needs, but it worked for my dc. I'd ask if I were you or get a second opinion if your insurance will cover it. Don't put off the vision therapy, it will make a huge difference.

[nitascool]

Did you have him take the placement exams? My son tested in to Beta and in to Singapore Math 1B.

 

Please go back and have him take the placement exams Either he is not ready for the Singapore Math you selected or he is way beyond the MUS you selected for him.

 

In August of 2006 I had my oldest ds take the SM placement test. He placed into SM 1A. He did 1A-1B Aug.- Nov. [That is with 30 min. of math 4 days a week not the recommended 60 min 5 days a week SWB suggests]

 

In December of 2006 I had ds take the SM placement test again. He placed in 2A. He did 2A-2B. In August of 2007 I had ds take the placement test again. He placed into 1A (and no that's not a typo). I had him redo 1A-2B in 2007, I added IP and CWP 1-3. He got stumped on Unit 6 in CWP 3 so we shelved it. He can do much higher word problems then computation.

 

In January 2008 I had ds take the placement test again. He placed into 1A again even though he got no lower then a 90% on any of his work in 1A-2B. He was not in any way ready for 3A however. We tried to do the first two Units in 3A and shelved it. He just wasn't getting it.

 

In March I had him do the MUS placement test, he technically placed into Beta, but we decided because he was counting up and down, and didn't have all the mental math down, to place him into Alpha. He did Alpha in 30 days because I wouldn't allow him to do more then 1 lesson (A-F) in a day which took him 30 to 45 min. depending on the lesson.

 

I suspect that Beta will go fairly quickly for him (he probable doesn't need it but my 6yo does). When he is finished with Beta he will go strait into Gamma (he already knows times 0-6). If there are still days left in our school year after he has finished Gamma, I plan on having ds do SM 3A-3B (Those things which were covered in Gamma only). I already have the books on the shelf and don't want to have to buy Delta in March or April.

[nitascool]

I am also curious as to why one child is doing SOTW3 while the other is doing SOTW2?

 

Even if your children were far apart in age, it still makes most sense to have them all doing to same time period at a time and the same science subject at a time. But your child are even close in age.

 

You seem to have science going 4 directions too... Life, Earth, physics, and chemistry? Pick the one you think will interest them the most (or that you already have on hand) and do that one with all the children.

 

They are not far apart in chronological age, but they are worlds apart academically. For one they have different learning style. What works for one doesn't usually work for the other.

 

My 8yo did 2nd/6th this year... that is I had him read all the suggested reading in SOTW 2, WTM for 2nd and 6th and Year 2 and 7 of AO . When he finished with the suggested reading lists he read the rest of the books in our public library on Middle Ages in the Juvenile section {preschool-8th grade reading level} by then he was sick of the Middle Ages.

 

My ds8 has already read every book in the Juvenile section of our public library on Ancient times (that's 3, 469 books, he kept a tally cuz he's compulsive that way). He does all his own work in History. We did have issues with Narratives/Study Questions this year though and that was not fun.

 

My 6yo did K/1st this year at level (he's gifted but has SPD and some Dev. Vision Delays). So I read to him or had him read to me some of the 1st grade SOTW 1 and WTM listed books and that was enough info for him. He also listened to SOTW 1 on CD and the other available Ancient times DVD's and CD's from the public library.

 

My 6yo is very sensitive to "the plight of man" he was not ready for Middle Ages this year (legally it would be his K year with a Nov. B-day, but he did all things 1st except writing).

 

The only subjects that we have been successful in combining are Bible, Natural Science -gardens, bird watching, charting weather, raising a pet, etc. (we do NS every year as family projects) and P.E.

 

I want them to do the science cycle with their history cycle. According to WTM that means Early Modern Times & Chemistry in 3rd grade and The Modern Age & Physics in 4th/8th. I have the Chemistry books for my 8yo (for this coming year), but it will probably be too advanced for my 6yo when he gets to it next year. This year he will be doing half year of Earth, half year of Space Science and Natural Science (with the family). I have everything for those already.

[phathui5]

I would definately do the vision therapy. Is there any way your insurance will pay for part of it? Would you qualify for the state children's health program to help pay for it if your insurance won't?

[nitascool]

Thank you everyone for your input. We've decided to do the therapies and buy just a few books for the children throughout the year with any extra money we may have. Because both the boys are still so young we've decided that going light one year isn't going to rot their brains or anything like that. And I'm really thinking that having them do these therapies will actually make future study a little less of a challenge... especially for my younger son (the 6yo) who needs the VT.

 

Thanks again for all your advice.

[dmchr6]

You can get vision therapy kits to do at home, google and see what you come up with. Much cheaper that way.

 

We spent probably $3500 on vision therapy before I knew about that option. Plus you're doing most of the work at home anyway. We would go weekly, but then still spend 45 minutes every day doing the homework.

 

Another thing to do is get a second opinion. Did you ever get your son evaluated by anyone else? I'm sure your case is different, but in our case, after we finished vision therapy (he hit a wall and never progressed after a certain point) another dr told us that simply patching one eye would've had the same effect and been much cheaper.

 

Can you arrange to go every other week and do more at home? That would save money. Also, do you really spend that much money on books? If so, wow, you could go on some great educational vacations for that much! :)

 

While your kids might be worlds apart academically, it really seems like you're going to burn yourself out. Just reading what you were doing was making me tired. :) Family reading time can be so helpful for all ages, even of totally different levels. When I read to the kids (ages 2 to 14 -OBVIOUS ), they all enjoy it (the little ones mostly play, but they pick up on a lot more than I think.) If you can come with more stuff to do together and really try to simplify, you may help your sanity a lot - I remember doing the same thing as you when I had kids similar ages to yours and we were on the fast track to burnout. The kids started hating it and so did I. Now we just do family read aloud time (mainly for history and literature, but sometimes we'll do science and math together) and then the kids 8+ work on their own stuff (I help them set goals at the beginning of the week for what they want to do, and they ask for help as needed during the week), while the younger kids are much more relaxed. We do littles school where we play games and read more age-appropriate books to them, and they read to me and do workbooks if they want to. Remember, even Susan Wise Bauer and her mom said WTM was way too intense for the younger grades, they just put the schedules in there because the editors wanted them too.