Okay, I will make the evals a priority. We are on Spring Break next week, so I can work on that. But I don't like not having plans for the Fall! :glare: Thanks, OhElizabeth!

I am not sure if there is a working memory problem. When we do dictations, no matter how long it takes to write them down, she rarely ever forgets anything in the sentence.

Yes, my sig is crazy out of date. I just fixed it. No, she has never had an OT eval. She was writing by 3yo on her own, and her handwriting is good. We worked on writing stamina a couple of years ago, and she has not complained of tired hands since then. She continues to use Stetro grips on mechanical pencils, or she does begin to complain again. I am convinced that it is more of a slow-processing issue. (I am looking into neurological evals now.) She stops after every single word, looks around, fidgets, etc. (This is actually an improvement from when she used to stop in the middle of every word.) She is distracted by everything from her surroundings to her own thoughts. (Yet give her a book to read, and nothing can get her attention.) We have made many accommodations for her, including making sure she gets enough sleep, teaching her to use routines and habits, using tools like schedules and timers, paring down school to the bare minimum + those things she most enjoys. The last 2 summers, she has worked on typing, but she is not proficient enough yet to prefer it over writing. I want her to work on it again this summer, but I am thinking it is time to buckle down and really get her proficient, even it if it means giving up writing for a while. I don't see how I can add it in without bumping something else out. What is Metronome and digit spans? She likes the passages in WWE. She finds them interesting, sometimes even exciting. But the composition part of it, even orally, is challenging. She talks about wanting to be an author, but I have never seen her write anything of any substance. One of the reasons we have used WWE is because she has such a hard time composing anything original. So on one hand, she has this fantasy of wanting to write and has a lot of general ideas, but for some reason, she cannot get them out, even orally.

Dd9 is advanced in reading and spelling. She has a great vocabulary. She understands basic sentence construction and mechanics at least at grade level. But her Executive Skills are really behind, and the physical act of writing is very difficult. We are finishing our 3rd year of WWE. It has been a very good program for her, helping her to learn to orally compose good sentences, analyze the writing of others, and write sentences correctly. WWE4 would seem to be the no-brainer choice for writing for next year. But it kind of has me in a panic. I think the dictation is going to be too much for her. I would like to consider alternatives, but I don't really know what to even look for. What should my goals be for this child? Where do I start? (FWIW, I also have on hand MCT Island, TOG WA, and I have also considered taking the year off of writing to just focus on typing.)

I don't know if anybody else appreciates this, but as for me, thank you OhElizabeth for this! I get so wrapped up in how my dd ought to be able to do something at her age (and with her intellect) that it is easy to create a program that is a constant slog for her. I am still not sure how to create that balance, but understanding the goal I suppose is a good start.

Thank you! This plus the other suggestions should be enough to get me through.

A little background: Dd9 is very verbal. She has a great vocabulary. She reads well. She spells above grade level. But writing has been difficult for her. Part of the problem is that from very early on, she could compose sentences that were too advanced for her to write. As she gets older, that is becoming less of a problem. The other part of the problem is that she has ADD tendencies. She gets really distracted when writing anything (whether LA or math or whatever). She stops after every word and looks around, fiddles with things, etc. We are working on this, and I have accepted that this will probably always be a challenge for her. I am not looking for help with this particular aspect--just giving it as background. This is our 3rd year with WWE, and we will finish WWE3 this spring. It has been a very good program for her. She loves, loves, loves history and literature, and she is often excited about the passages used in WWE. It also challenges her weak areas without requiring any busy work. At this point, I am very happy with her ability to narrate and write from dictation. She has an age-appropriate knowledge of capitalization and punctuation rules, though she still needs occasional reminders. I am on the fence with continuing with WWE4. WWE has always been challenging. But I fear that this next level will put her over the edge next year. We are starting MCT Island next year. I have considered using that for writing. But I am concerned that it is too free form and not enough structure for either of us. I also have TOG WA. I got it on sale, and I haven't yet used it. I would love to integrate writing with her history. I feel very comfortable teaching writing on the high school level, but I am unsure how to get there from where we are now, especially with some minor learning challenges. I am not sure what my goals ought to be at this point, and I would love some suggestions.

I just need the passages, because I don't have time to look for them. I have StartWrite, so I can copy and paste and make it the size I need. Thanks so much!!!

I have the tools to make my own, but I don't have the time. I have too much going on for the next 2 months.

Ds6 (K) finished up his spelling early. (If I had known, I wouldn't have told him that we would take our summer break after List I.) It is not worth the fight to get him to keep going. But I told him that we will still have to play phonogram games and do some copywork so he doesn't forget how to write. (SWR is our only writing at this point.) I would like to make the copywork as painless as possible for me. Does anyone know where I can find some free copywork? I would love if it were literature-based. (We will start WWE in the fall.)

Once-a-Month Cooking

SWR recommends ABC's and All Their Tricks.

I suppose it might have been a clue when, after being born by emergency c-section, she was laid on her stomach, and she lifted her head and looked around the room. I guess our next clue was that by 6mo, she demanded we read to her all the time. And then her first ten words after "mom" and "dad" were counting to 10.

A non-addictive sleeping pill with no side effects, available for all ages.

They need to understand why things are spelled the way they are. When can we use CK (as in PICK but not in BREAK)? When do we drop the silent E when adding a suffix (as in HOPING but not in CHANGEABLE)? When do we double the final consonant when adding a suffix (as in HOPPING but not RAILING)? I do not drill the rules, but I do expect my kids to be able to explain why they should spell things the way they do.

I very loosely use Cursive First, which is designed to go with Spell to Write and Read. But I only use the philosophy, not the materials. The philosophy is awesome. The materials . . . not so much.

My ds has learned cursive first, and he has actually had a harder time learning to read cursive than print. But then he did recognize letters before we started writing.

I have wondered the same thing. Both of my kids were adept at using a calendar by 4yo. Last night after I put my 6yo to bed, he insisted I check the calendar for him to tell him what phase the moon was in. :D

In our homeschool, you will learn magic, juggling and fire-eating from a former circus instructor. You will do physics (as opposed to just learning it). And you will play so many geography games that you will not be able to help memorizing the entire map. Oh, and I almost forgot that you will fall in love with Vi Hart and The Piano Guys.

The big difference for me when I was looking at WWE and IEW was that WWE was designed to start at 1st grade, and IEW was designed to start at 3rd grade. Between those two, WWE was kind of a no-brainer as I contemplated what to do with my then 6yo. WWE works really well for my dd9. She loves language and good literature, as well as history. She she is always happy with the material we work with. However, the act of writing is hard for her. WWE gives her a minimum amount of writing practice without busywork or burdensome and intimidating assignments. I attended an IEW demo a couple of years ago, and now that my dd9 is of the recommended age to use it, I don't think it would work for her. She would try to memorize the passage and recreate it exactly. That is not the point of IEW, and it would be frustrating for her, I am sure. I would be reluctant to spend the money on IEW unless I had tried less expensive alternatives first.

I have never used a program for cursive for my 5yo's. I just have them do their spelling words and their copywork in cursive.

If you understand what a preposition is, what is the point to memorizing them? I suppose if your student is having trouble understanding the concept of prepositions, then memorizing the list would be detour, so to speak.

I have some books like this in my Literature-Based Geography book list.

I am in the same boat with a highly distractible 9yo and a very motivated 6yo. The book Smart but Scattered really, really helped me a lot, and I highly recommend it. It showed me that although my dd9 is very bright, working ahead in most subjects, her executive skills (ability to focus and manage time, in particular) were 2 years behind her age-peers, while my 6yo's executive skills were a year ahead. I realized that I was comparing a child that was struggling with a child that had a particular gift in this area, and that wasn't fair at all to my dd9. The book gave me lots of ideas for how to approach the problems. First and foremost, you have to start by eliminating anything, particularly writing, that isn't absolutely necessary. So dd9 only writes for spelling and composition. Math we do mostly orally with a whiteboard, and she does minimal worksheets. (I chose a program that is discussion-based.) History is oral. Geography is oral. Science is unschooled. Art is unschooled. Foreign language is on audio CD's and YouTube. You have to make peace with what your dc can do. You do not want him to look back and regret that he couldn't do what was expected of him. I know how hard it is. I grapple with it every single day. I kick myself every day for some harsh word about how she is not paying attention or trying hard enough. All I can do is what I expect her to do--to just keep on working at it and apologizing for what I do wrong.

We also do swim lessons and VBS. Our library offers a ton of summer activities, including the reading program, where the kids get prizes for what they read. They also have lots of classes, like story times and science-y things, usually around a theme. Check local park districts, forest preserves and nature centers for fun things to do. When it has been really hot, I liked to take my littles to children's museums. It is especially fun to go with another family so the kids can play together, and the moms can chat. My dh likes to "go on an expedition" where they ride around looking for parks they haven't been to before (though he already has an idea of where they are going.)