If he is not currently spelling everything correctly, I would be concerned about the student having to unlearn bad spelling later. Teaching is challenging enough as it is without having to re-teach something that was learned wrong to begin with.

Now that we are in our 4th year of spelling, I am glad that I started early with dd9. Next year will be our last full year of spelling, and after that will only be review. Next year, we need to start some formal grammar, and we need to ramp up the independent reading and writing. She is a decent speller, but natural by any means. I am glad that I gave her the tools early when we had the time to focus on them. I am doing the same with ds6 just because we can. But I am not so certain that he needs the early intervention that my dd9 did at that age.

I use HST+ to organize what I have to do each week. So at the end of the year, I print out a report of all assignments completed. Then I pick out a few assignments to keep as a portfolio. If they did any projects, I might throw in some pictures as a keepsake. Everything else I throw away. It feels really good to get rid of all that paper.

Right after I figured this out, FB starting doing the same thing. FB ads were a big reason I started using ABP. :glare:

I just figured out my problem. I have been using Ad Block Plus to block ads, and WTM has just added ads to their pages. When I disable ABP, the site works fine.

I would agree that the Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit are both good reads for those ages. We recently read Wheel on the School, which we really loved. We are currently working our way through The Breadwinner trilogy by Deborah Ellis.

We are just finishing our 4th year of SWR. I have always taught I and Y the way SWR says to, just to make sure that I didn't mess something up. Now that we are nearing the end, I have mixed feelings about it. I agree with Ms. Sanseri that doing it that way emphasizes the connection between I and Y, and it simplifies dictation. That is, if I say a short I sound at the end of a word, my child knows without further explanation that it is spelled with a Y. OTOH, so many of our words come from Latin, and in Latin, I/Y sounds like a long E. I think it is a mistake to ignore this connection with Latin. Having a background in Spanish, I feel it is often much easier to spell an English word when I know its Spanish cognate. Likewise, if you plan on having your student study Latin, or any Latin language for that matter, I think it is a good thing start to point out this connection as soon as it comes up. So when I am teaching SWR, I go by the book, but I mention these Latin connections, and I think it helps my student to understand the spelling better. Although I largely following the program, one thing I cannot do is teach that EY says /i/ (as in honey, monkey, valley, donkey), when one of that phonogram's sounds is /E/. It is way too confusing. They are trying to be consistent with the I/Y issue, but the connection is too tenuous for me. I really don't think that it matters that much which way you do it. My dd9 wants to understand why things are spelled the way they are. All of the Spalding programs give a very good foundation. I tweak it a little to suit our needs.

I would not start anyone at any age at WWE4. WWE gradually increases in difficulty, and dictation is a unique skill that needs to be taught gradually. As long as your student does not have any learning issues, I think you could start in WWE3. If you want a more gradual introduction to dictation, then you could start about half-way through WWE2 (perhaps at double pace). What I would do with a student that age is help him to see why he is being instructed to use the different narration styles. For each narration, I would tell him before he starts what type of narration is expected and why. After a few weeks, I would start to have him tell me why that type of narration is used. Then, I would branch out with other materials and have him read a book or passage and tell me what kind of narration is most appropriate, and then do the narration orally with me scribing for him. By the end of the year, I would see if he could write the narrations on his own.

After doing WWE1, 2 & 3 with dd9, starting at 1st grade, I decided to hold back ds6 from starting until 2nd grade. Each does really ramp up quite a bit. Dd struggled with the copywork of WWE1, but was otherwise comfortable at the end of WWE1, and even at the end of WWE2. But WWE3 just about killed her love of learning since those dictations got so long. It wasn't that it was too hard for her. She always did the work. But it really shook her confidence and made her feel like she was not good at LA, when in fact, it is a strength for her. We ended up stopping 5 weeks short to do something that would be fun and build up her confidence. We will be skipping WWE4 and waiting a couple of years for WWS. Recently SWB came out with new recommendations for WWE, indicating that starting WWE1 in 2nd grade was an acceptable alternative. So that is what we will be doing with ds6.

I read the entire series to my dd when she was about 7yo. I think the last 2 were a little over her head in places (the dating and marriage stuff), but she loved them anyway.

I am using Chrome.

There are lots of different activities. There are activity guides that have detailed instructions for very easy activities if you are craft-phobic, like me. There are extra ideas in the Student pages. There are long-term projects. For example, in Year 3, you can do a State project where you map each state as it joins the union. In Year 4, we are doing an Invention project, where the kids draw inventions on index cards, and put the year on the back. At the end of the year, we will have a stack of cards that we can use to play a timeline game. TOG suggests doing a Unit Celebration at the end of each 9-week unit, in which you invite friends and family to view all of your projects and assignments.

It has been a couple of years since we read this series, but I thought that it did a nice job of demonstrating that there is bad and good everywhere. To start, the Ingalls went into Indian Territory before they had permission to go. That explains a lot of the antagonism of the Native Americans. And then not all of the Native Americans were antagonistic. This is a normal part of any culture. There is good and bad. Sometimes, there is bad done with good intentions. People are different within a culture. And those of different cultures struggle to understand each other. Some individuals (from both sides) try harder than others. Sometimes people are wronged by another individual from another group, and they struggle their whole life to forgive and understand, and instead blame the whole group. It is stereotypical to say that everyone from either side was without fault, and I thought this was evident in the series.

You have to keep your eye on the prize. That is, remember why you are doing this--so you can find your groove before you need to start having those awesome Socratic discussions. Do not let the buffet distract you. Do not fill yourself up to the point that you are uncomfortable and unable to move. You really need to start with a strict diet of reading. Start with the Core and In-Depth History and the Literature, and see if your dd can read it on her own. My dd just turned 9yo, and we have been experimenting in anticipation of going fully into UG level next year. This has helped me see that she cannot spread out a single book over a week. Once she gets started, she does not want to stop. She wants to hole up in her bedroom until she emerges with the finished book (complaining that she doesn't agree with the ending, lol). This was a very important insight, because I was planning on a little reading everyday. That is the sort of thing you are looking for in the first week--figuring out what sort of scheduling will work, figuring out if your dd can handle the readings, both academically and emotionally, whether she needs some help from you, etc. After Week 1, if you feel like you are doing okay with the reading, then add something else. A writing assignment, a map activity, a craft. Then take stock and consider whether you can keep that up every week. I cannot do a weekly craft. But dd9 is old enough to do some of the crafts on her own (or rangle her father into helping). So I provide the books, and she has at it. I also found that most of the map activities did not really meet our needs. They were either way too complicated, or way too easy. So we do the activities orally, and only the parts that I think my dc will really benefit from. We are in Year 4, and we are doing the Invention Cards. That has been a great activity for us. At any rate, add one thing at a time. And every week, figure out if you feel satisfied or like you have just pigged out at the dessert table. And do not let yourself feel guilty for not eating dessert.

When I go to the forums site, all of the formatting is absent, and everything is text only. At first, I thought perhaps it was a site issue, so I waited for it to be resolved. But maybe it is my computer? Can anyone suggest what I can do? I am having a lot of trouble navigating the site this way.

In the SWR Yahoo Group, they often mention how some children need a very broad exposure before they start to see the patterns. They may recite "CK is used only after a single vowel that says its first sound," but they don't really internalize it until they have analyzed many words over a long period of time. This is why Spalding and SWR recommend dictation of large numbers of words per week, because a larger pool of words will encourage the student to see and internalize those patterns.

I remember reading in TWTM that you shouldn't really expect the spelling to be applied in writing until the 4th grade. LOE and similar programs are very good programs, but the material is not the sort of stuff that you learn once and automatically retain. I have been doing SWR with dd9 for 4 years now. Every December, her spelling level spikes at a whole year or two higher than she tested in August. And every August, she tests at least 6 months below where she tested in July. Sure, some kids are natural spellers and need only a brief exposure. But for my kid, she needs those rules to be a part of her everyday life in order to remember and apply them.

My dd is the same way. I give her something else to fidget with. Anything will do, a pencil, a bean bag, a Wikki Stick, a rubber eraser. Perhaps you can place the book on a table, and let her put her finger under the words with one hand and give her something to fidget with in the other. It won't stop the fidgeting, but at least the book will stay still. Here is a page where lots of fidget products are sold--Heads Up Now! You can try the weighted animals, the exercise balls, the cushion disk. I have heard the cushion disks can be really helpful.

We use the schedule of 10 words dictation over 2 days then test on day 3, because dd9 is really, really slow. (I suspect slow processing, which we are getting her tested for.) She is highly distractible and has a hard time focusing. And does she love to talk! So on a dictation day, it might take us 30-45 minutes, including reference pages and quiz. When my 6yo is at this level, I am pretty sure that he will be able to do the same work in half the time. I combine enrichment activities with the quiz, because she just wouldn't have the energy to do a separate enrichment activity. This is our 4th year with SWR, so I don't formally teach the reference pages anymore. I mostly use them as collection pages, and that saves me a lot of time, as well.

I use SWR. We dictate 10 words per day. After dictation, we enter relevant words in our reference pages (e.g., homonyms, E's dropping words, Y's Exchanging words, etc.) Then we quiz all 10. We do 10 words the next day in the same fashion, and on the 3rd day, we test all 20. That is all we have ever done.

How much you can expect from a child is going to differ quite a lot from child to child. I have a dd9 who needs constant reminders and lots of practice with daily routines, and then still more reminders. OTOH, my ds6 is much more independent. He has his daily routines down pat and can follow a schedule with minor changes each day. Chores are attached to other things that they already do so that there is somewhat of an automatic association. In the morning before breakfast, they are expected to make beds, get dressed, put dirty clothes in the hamper, brush/comb hair, and feed pets. This has become quite automatic for both of them, but when the routine gets changed (because of schedule, illness, dad being home, etc.), then it is as if they don't know what needs to be done. At meal times, they clear their own dishes from the table, usually without reminders. We are now working on clearing the entire table (cereal boxes, salt/pepper, beverage containers, etc.). And I will soon be adding putting emptying clean dishwasher to their after-breakfast routine. One day per week, right after breakfast, they sort their own laundry and put the first load in the washing machine. The need a prompt to start, but they do the rest without reminders and largely without supervision, but they do sometimes require mediation. I do the rest of the laundry, and we are now working on having them help with folding clothes. They put their own clothes away. One day per week, right after breakfast, they strip their bedding to be washed. (Ds6 does this automatically, but dd9 needs a reminder.) I put the clean bedding on their beds. Teaching cooking around here has been a complete fail. They are afraid of getting messy, making messes, making mistakes. I am like that, too, so I have not been very good at exuding confidence in this area. Plus, I was just diagnosed with celiac, so we have to change everything related to cooking and eating. Dd9 can pick up her bedroom floor if I make her stay on top of it daily. If I let it go, it gets too overwhelming for her, and I have to provide more guidance, reminders, motivation, and sometimes even physical help. Ds6 still needs physical help for this job. Dd9 is very good at doing things that I ask her to do "right now." So I will ask her to swish the toilet, sweep under the table, dust, etc. as I notice it needing to be done. Ds6, OTOH, has a hard time with that approach, so everything I want him to do needs to be either part of a routine, or asked ahead of time, e.g., "Will you do such-and-such after dinner?" During the winter, the kids would shovel the driveway when we had a light snow. As far as school work goes, ds6 is surprisingly independent. He really doesn't want one-on-one time. So I give him independent work and check it when he is done. Dd9 is surpisingly not independent. She is a delightful, bright, creative young lady, who is the daughter of the absent-minded professor. There is no way I can expect anything with school to be completely independent, even with the things that she wants and likes to do. I share this just as a caution to be realistic with your expectations of your very young children. If I could not have dd9 at my elbow all day, I would either have to put her in school or be satisfied with unschooling. ETA: The chores that my kids do are the result of years of training. I would not expect kids to start doing these things all at once, especially if they have poor executive skills.

Phonics for reading and phonics for spelling are two different things. So I would not drop phonics altogether until you do some phonics for spelling. If you discover she also a natural speller, then you might choose to drop phonics. My dd9 is a natural reader but not at all a natural speller. However, she really thrives with an explicit phonics program. We use SWR.

Is this what the OP is talking about? That kids are behind because they don't understand profanity? I am truly trying to understand.

I am really confused, and maybe it is because I haven't experienced this with my kids. But what exactly do you mean that your kids seem behind socially? Can you give some examples? To me, my kids seem light years ahead of their peers socially. They pay attention to others. Not just kids their age, but everyone. They worry about the younger kid who is left out, the widow is who is alone, or the child who hasn't shown up to church in a while, and then they actually do something about it. They can talk to anyone comfortably, because no one has ever suggested to them that kids their age in their own class are their only potential friends.

Well, I am more reactive rather than proactive. I tend to grab on to those things that the kids are currently interested in and capitalize on that by getting related books and finding websites and YouTube videos. My dh is very creative, so if he hears the kids fantasizing about making or doing something, he will say, "Okay, let's go do that." My dd9 has become quite the little magician with this approach. Without dh's willingness to just drop whatever else he has to do so that the kids can experiment and be creative, I would have a hard time with this.