THank you! It is reassuring to hear of gifted bad spellers, my gifted 3rd grader is an awesome speller (he spells much better than his 10 yr old sister) so that is my main comparison. Anyways, I think for now we will use Spellingcity.com and keep a notebook of words to work on. She doesn't have spelling words this year, last year when she did she almost always got an A. If working like this doesn't help then I might again look into something else in a month or two. I'm going to look into what megawords is too. ~Erica

So my sweet DD who just started 5th grade is an AWFUL speller! Her teacher doesn't care one bit and she actually has the same teacher as last year, whom I really like, but she doesn't think spelling is important. However my daughter started gifted classes this year and her gifted teacher expects better! Some examples of her mistakes and this is when she was supposedly trying: biluldings (buildings) colapse diferent scientis (scientist) realy simplle dectetion (detection) matirial somthing gess (guess) streched These are from one page and she reads/comprehends at an 8th grade level! I was thinking about AVKO, but not sure if that fits what she needs, I don't really understand why she doesn't get it. Also I'd like a cheap/free resource recommendation for practicing her times tables.... I'm sort of questioning whether she should be in gifted, but she just started and I do like the fact that she has another teacher besides just the one, so I will give that awhile! Thank you! I've not been on here in so long, glad to stop back by! ~Erica

Hello, I've not been on here for awhile as I realized I don't have time or motivation to do much afterschooling, but kudos to those of you who do and to get those extras in!! My kids went back to PS this year and I've realized my daughter's spelling is HORRIBLE in my humble opinion. SHe is in 4th grade and get's 100's on most of her tests. But in day to day writing she misspells a ton of words. Some of her mistakes fase for face, eart for earth, faks for facts and many more. She remembers spelling, she's never had much phonics as we homeschooled in 2nd & 3rd grade when I felt she was past that, though a voracious reader (currently on the 5th Harry Potter book). We only used spelling workout. Her teacher thinks spelling is not important as she told me she is an awful speller and got by just fine and also she forgets to give them their spelling tests half the time. So do I leave it alone? Begin an intensive program? Or do some thing easy just for a little practice? Thoughts? Handwriting~ Her print is atrocious but legible and that is all she uses. I taught her cursive in half through second grade, looking back we should of waited and worked on her print, but I was frustrated having not been the one to teach her printing she learned to form her letter wrong and I did not work hard enough to correct it. So she did mostly cursive last year for me. Enter fourth grade at PS this year and they do NO cursive, go figure! So any easy tips or do I leave this alone ? Her teacher doesn't care at all, will other teachers care or is she beyond that now? My second grade left handed son writes neater than her! Uhm my handwriting isn't that good, but can be if I try! I do have good spelling though! Maybe I should make her learn to type and this would all be solved by printing and spell checking? A thought anyway! Didn't intend to write so much, good thing I type fast, any thought appreciated!!!!!!!!!

Well my kids started back to school and they are adjusting! But I just found out yesterday that my second grader hasn't done any science or history and my 4th grader hasn't done any history (but lots of science). I'm thinking about asking the teachers. Maybe they do more later. I want to do a little Bible w/them, but am thinking about adding some other! I'm kicking myself now for selling my SOTW and CKEB! So what things do you use to afterschool for history and science and Bible. I still have my Explorers Bible study, so I may do that w/them. But really I just want to be real simple for the most part. Ya know maybe reading them something at bedtime and some occasional science for my 2nd grader...oh he did watch a magic school bus! That must be their science! We have almost all those books, so I guess reading those would be good. THey have plenty of homework though so I don't want to overwhelm them. Do you all make a schedule or do want come naturally? Sorry for all the rambling I am a bit scatterbrained :blush:! Thanks ~Erica

My 7 & 9 yr old went back to school this year after 2 yrs of homeschooling. My 7 yr old son had only been to pre-k half days before. My daughter had done k & 1st. He started last week and hated it!!! I was ready to pull him out already! He wasn't paying attention and didn't know what was going on and kept getting in trouble for not doing his work. Now after two weeks and a conference w/his teacher I believe he is starting to like it!! He has made a friend and has a new seat and some new motivation for trying to pay attention. He is my shy and quiet and sensitive child, but he is adjusting! Had things not already started to get better, I was going to ask for a teacher change, but I think we are good for now. I do feel he has too much homework for 2nd grade. My 9 yr old daughter is doing good and likes it and hasn't complained one bit and I swear she has less homework than my second grader, but really she probably just does it faster! I think it is just important to stay involved and know what is going on and don't be afraid to step in where appropriate, of course I suppose for older kids they may not want you to! ;) ~Erica

Well we've been homeschooling for the past two years and for various reasons are sending the oldest two to public school this year. They will be in 2nd and 4th grade and it is suppose to be a really good school! I will still have a 3 1/2 yr old home w/me who is ready to learn and a 7 month old. So I will do some preschool everyday. But I can't decide if I want to add to the other kids school. Of course part of me wouldd love to, but is it practical? Of course they haven't started yet so I don't know what homework will be like. And I can imagine they are going to have more 'work' than they are used to here. So I don't want to give them more 'work'. I was thinking bible and spanish and/or sign language. Maybe do more under the pretense that I am just reading to them? Also a big concern I have is what reading material they will come across in school. Right now my 9 yr old dd is an avid reader, she has recently read the little house series and most of the narnia series along w/some nancy drew and a few others. I always screen her books and I'm thinking I will not get this opp any more! What do I do? I feel the same about my 7 yr old ds, except he is not the avid reader she is, he can read well, just doesn't care for it as much, so I know he won't be hunting down books in the library! I'm not super strict, but don't want my her sweet innocence ruined Wish I could protect them forever! Thanks for any tips! ~Erica

FLorida here =) Compulsory age: 6- not sure not relevant yet NOtice: give notice of intent to homeschool within 30 days of starting your program and give notice when ending program records: Maintain a portfolio and keep for 2 years, must be able to produce within 15 days if needed for some strange reason, but they can't judge it just look at it! testing : Do one of the following annually: 1) take any standardized test or a state student assessment test which is administered by a certified teacher, 2) be evaluated by a certified teacher, 3) be evaluated by a licensed psychologist, or 4) an evaluation by another valid tool that is mutually agreed upon. Most I know do evaluations, you just have to know a good evaluator! Mine happens to be my Mother, which is legal =) I just have to send in my evaluations every year certified mail of course! Everything is certified return receipt just in case! Really it is not a big deal, I keep the portfolio for the evaluation and just to have and nothing specific is really required for it. No required hours/days or subjects! So to me Florida laws are pretty easy, though a few do have it easier!

Thank you all! Yes he says things like "I buyed, bringed, readed instead of read(like red)" My 8 year old never has had this issue, though she may occasionally say a verb tense wrong, it is not very often. He has been doing this awhile and I guess I thought he would start growing out of it or pick up on my corrections (which I do by restating it). I think I will pay attention to which words he uses incorrectly the most and then make something simple up to practice. I don't really intend to teach him the rules, but wanted for him to learn by some kind of repetition game. Sort of like FLL does with the oral language use, but an occasional reading isn't going to help him, he needs some fun practice with it. I could leave it alone and see if it gets better, but I don't think some practice will hurt and if I can keep the wrong from being imprinted for too long I'm thinking that will help. Just looking for the easiest way to do it. I like the idea of having different sentences with the different forms of the words. I guess I will have to write something up because I'm not good at winging it ;)! Oh and he has undx mild aspergers if that makes a difference. Thank you ~ Erica

I actually read the required books, I've never been good at skimming! But I don't feel I had a lot required, or at the least there are still plenty out there I've not read! SOme I remember 'having' to read are the Scarlet Letter, Grapes of Wrath, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, Hamlet. I read the Green Gables books as a young girl. I read the Lord of the Rings books for fun right out of high school. I used to read a lot of junk in school too, like VC Andrews! Things I don't want my kids reading LOL! Currently reading the Harry Potter books :D! ~Erica ~ I've always enjoyed reading!

Okay, my 7 yr old 1st grader was in free speech from our school system till the end of kindergarten (he started when he was 2). He is constantly using the wrong tense of a word, especially irregular verbs. It drives me crazy and I correct him often but to no avail. I was wondering if there are any good resources for teaching this at this age? I've found a few things online, but they seem to be too much for him. Something like flashcards would be great! Maybe I need to make some flashcards myself! Or should I leave this alone for now? Thanks!! ~Erica

My 1st grade DS is now into the magic tree house books, he has read things like Henry & Mudge and Nate the Great, or sometimes I would just tell him to pick a certain level on those leveled easy readers at the library (there are Arthur books like that). He started off in level 2 this year and now reads a 3 or 4. I try and make him get a least one book that is a slight challenge. But for my son it is more about building attention skills. Or in other words in has no patience to read a very long book! Also at the library I will let him and my daughter (age 8) pick out whatever they want (within reason) and then if I don't think they picked anything that is at least at their level I go pick something else for them too! And this has really helped my 3rd grader pick up on her reading. She was still reading the books my first grader was earlier this year and because I got certain books for her she is reading books that are at a 5th or 6th grade level! Of course that is probably more than you wanted to know :D! ~Erica

Yes, I think that is very good! My third grade dd tries her best to make everything as short as possible and often misspells simple words she should know! Instead of this "Along the way they got kidnapped by two men named Odo and Simon." she would have written They got kidnapped by Odo and Simon. So yes I think that is good :D