My routine with my 2nd grade son is almost identical. We are on week 11 of Autumn Primer and do FLL as well, usually not that much copywork but are working on his handwriting (it is very poor) with Ready Write worksheets, HWT, and also some free downloads of the morals from Aesop I found on Lulu to tie in. When we finish this program (next week!) I am planning to move to either WWE 1 or 2...haven't decided yet and I bought both used from a lovely lady on this board.

I did try that last year, we had a chart with the tables on them but my son has some learning disabilities and he never seemed to be absorbing the information. MUS Gamma has really slowed us down and is doing the trick. Btw, we tried Timez Attack last year as well - he liked it but was frustrated when he didn't know the answers. :P Just today my ds was telling me a "trick" he learned watching his MUS dvd - he really gets alot out of this.

I never had an opportunity to take Latin in my highschool or college careers so I am really enjoying learning Latin with my 11 year old. We are using Latin for Children and he loves to snuggle with my on the couch while we watch our once per week latin lesson, and we do the chants and some of the exercises together every day. I sit next to him on the activity pages and usually run through the quizzes mentally before giving them to him to see what he might struggle with (if I do he probably will but sometimes he corrects me!) I really love this part of homeschool. :)

Ditto on acting out the poems and my sensory kid likes to jump on the mini trampoline while we chant our grammar definitions and latin chants. :) (Such a huge kinesthetic thing for kids that you just can't implement in a 25-30 student public school classroom!)

I hit the same spot with my 5th grader. He didn't have his math facts down and it was making long division and fractions just horribly difficult. With that in mind I decided to do MUS Gamma this year and in addition got a CD of multiplication songs and "Times Tales" memory stories. Does he love this stuff? No. But he is finally really getting his times tables. I feel this is so foundational that I would rather take the first half of the year and get this solid and then I am sure that we will be able to fly through the other normal 5th grade math. He did well with the ideas last year but always got hung up on the math facts. This just isn't worth rushing through IMHO.

Interesting thread! My youngest is very sensory seeking and in many ways similar to my sensory seeking Aspie (oldest ds). He has a speech delay but mostly because he can't be bothered, I am confident in his comprehension. Almost 4 years old refuses to use the potty though he has control shown in many ways. My brother kept my boys one afternoon this week while I took my grandmother to an appointment and when I picked them up he took me aside to tell me that he is convinced my youngest was reading the captions on the tv show they were watching. He started out copying the other children who were laughing and reading aloud but my brother swears he got to the point of reading the words ahead of the other children. I know that he knows his numbers and letters but because of his slow development in other areas I haven't started any actual reading with him (he's watched a few Leapfrog videos). However, this could certainly be possible, especially if the words were short... these kids are so confusing sometimes! lol

What kind of kid is he in general? Does he have an attitude or is he generally willing to do his share of chores. Is he forgetful in general, impulsive? These are just a few of the kinds of questions a doctor should be asking before anyone makes a diagnosis. There are a dozen different reasons for a child who writes words differently on the same sheet of paper or who doesn't read well. Just from those examples I wouldn't necessarily jump to ADD, though I know more school teachers do. Here's an example: when you go out of the house with him does he get easily distracted? When he was younger did you have to keep an eye on him 100% of the time in a parking lot because you knew he wouldn't notice the car coming towards him? The examples you give on his academic performance sounds more like a visual processing issues or Non-verbal Learning Disorder. I would suggest looking more in that direction and talk to your pediatrician about getting some evaluations.

:iagree: But didn't want to say anything. :P

He sounds like an older combination of my two oldest sons. I would say he certainly resembles a high functioning Aspie and has definitel SPD issues. I second the recommendations of all the other posters for the kinds of therapy he needs. As far as why he may have stopped various therapies I just want to throw in some sympathy for the parents. If they are like my family, we have had consistently less insurance coverage and varying income of the last ten years. I can't get or afford regular therapy for any of my kids. It's just not possible. They may be at a point (at age 13) where they are doing some things that work for them and their son and feel that he needs to mature more and will grow into some skill sets. From your brief descriptions it doesn't sound like they are unaware of his issues (he had several kinds of therapies in the past). One of the realities as the SN kids get older is that there are only so many dollars and hours in the day available and therapies become less productive as they get older. They sound as if they are trying to find a balance that works for their son. I could be wrong. Having been through the piles of testing, therapy, and treatments that took a huge bite out of our one income family budget I know how it feels to throw money at something and see nothing come of it - only months later to realize that the child would accomplish the task on their own if given a loving, supportive and stimulating environment. I am doing some sensory therapies at home with my boys and am starting (today!) a social skills group for my oldest undiagnosed Aspie (at a local organization) but am not taking my middle son to the ps for language therapy and OT because the quality of services he receives is just not helping him! I feel that I can do more at home. My youngest has a speech delay and is hard to understand but I am confident that he is understanding our speech and feel sure that in the next year or two he will be talking non-stop just like his two older brothers. Going through another round of testing only to be offered sub-standard services (if we even qualify with the stricter budget-regulated guidelines today) just seems like a huge waste of energy and effort. When you say that you wish you could have raised your nephew I wonder just how aware you are of all the things his parents have done for him. If you aren't really close you may not know all of the things they have tried. Noone in my family does - even my mother who lives with us just doesn't know everything we do on a daily basis. The disappointments faced, the sacrifices made to get kids to therapy, the struggles to help the child have self-esteem in the face of not being "normal". Your nephew sounds like a lovely child who just has some issues, some may or may not be overcome before he's an adult but these issues don't mean that he won't have a happy and successful life. To be honest, I have resisted being in family pictures before as well - to me that doesn't seem like such an odd thing to make a big deal over. And thinking about the teenagers I know...here is a teenager who actually wants to talk to adult family members? How many 13 year olds fit that bill? lol You know what they say, until you've walked a mile in someone else's shoes... Maybe have a conversation with the mom or dad about the son and offer to be a support system, offer to drive him to therapy if they need help but I urge you to be careful about sounding judgmental of their efforts. Parenting special needs children is an emotionally, physically and financially draining experience. We already get so much judgement from the outside, we need all the support we can get.

Short answer: No. Long answer - you need an IEP to get her special services whether she is schooling at home or PS. If you desire (and think you can get) any services from the school while you are homeschooling (like OT/PT) then you want to get an IEP. Likewise, if you are intending for your daughter to return to public school in the future you may want to have at least the documents and records to support her having an IEP at that time. I would say you answered your own question about an IEP and working at home. Homeschooling is a great fit for our SN kids because we can work around when they are most receptive to learning - as long as you feel confident that she can make adequate progress through the year I wouldn't worry about having an IEP for at home. (And I don't have one for my older son with Asperger's, my middle son had an IEP at school but I'm not even worrying about it.) I will be interested to read other responses, someone may have more experience than I.

Thank you for the Zaner Bloser link! That just saved me $50! :)

I started the school year with Prima Latina for my 2nd and 5th graders but it was dry for us and my 2nd grader didn't "get it" at all. I switched my older son to Latin for Children Primer A and finally started my 2nd grader with Songschool Latin from Classical Academic Press. The chapters in SSL are rather short, there is a song or two per chapter and then about two short pages of little activities/questions. I wish it was a little more in depth but it does seem to be about my son's speed. I wish there were more activities to go with each chapter because I would like them to last the whole week. Overall I am happy with SSL and we will be continuing with it. :)

We are using LfC Primer A with my almost 11 year old and doing pretty much the same as the other posters. I have no Latin background so I'm learning along with my kids and really enjoy it. Monday LfC Dvd, read lesson Tuesday - practice chant for the week, activity page Wednesday - " " Thursday - practice chant for the week (sometimes listen to all the chapters we have done up to this point for refresher) Complete Lesson Friday - Chant and quiz. Just this week I found the Latin Flashdash on CAP's website and my son did the computer vocabulary game for review. It is very well done!

We made the decision to convert our dining room to our school room. Our floor plan is very open so I'm still able to get up now and then and be nearby. However, neither of my children are able to work independently. Both have ADHD and if I'm not right by them pointing to the next line of work very little gets done. I have my computer desk against the wall so I sit about two feet away from both kids (I'm kinda in the middle on the "corner" of an oval table) and can turn around my computer chair to work with both or either of them at the drop of a hat. We have done work at the kitchen table before and that never worked well for us. Having to clean the table for every meal was a big issue. I do read alouds on the couch usually and sometimes go outside and read or verbally "quiz" the boys while they swing. I have a 3 year old running around as well - sometimes he sits at the other end of the dining room table and builds or colors, other times he goes to his (nearby) bedroom and builds train tracks, etc..

Which cursive "program" are you using? My 5th grader is remediating his cursive using HWOT, should I recycle?

Oh that is awesome! I'm definitely giving that a try!! Thanks for sharing Daisy!

I am currently doing Ancients with a 5th and 2nd grader and I am reading The Golden Goblet by McGraw aloud. My 5th grader is also what I would consider an advanced reader but the content and pacing of this book, and others of its kind, would be somewhat boring. He does enjoy it reasonably well as a read aloud. I recently graduated with a degree in Secondary English Education and taught at several local high schools this past spring. I can tell you that the language in this book would be challenging for many middle and high schoolers. If this is simple for your daughter that is wonderful but you may not need to push her school reading to be much more challenging than this. To get more difficult IMO would be to read something in a textbook format that uses different kinds of language. YMMV.

It's all black and white, wonderful for my easily distracted kiddos!

SWB had the first six weeks available at the website but I cant find them now either, probably they were taken down. : /

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions, Ladies! Re: the herd of turtles - I thought I made it up! Must have heard it somewhere. :) All three of my kids have a smattering of special needs, nothing dramatic, but enough to make us "unique" and needing lots of individual attention and work. :D

For my writing-phobic, pulling a nail, "I hate writing" kids - the copywork, narration and dictation formula in WWE/FLL works. The whole idea behind WWE/FLL is that most young children aren't mentally (and sometimes physically) ready and able to do straight creative writing. There are certainly some exceptions! For my oldest son (5th grade) I added in an IEW stand alone resource that lines up with our history (Ancient History Based Writing). It teaches outlining (using a KWO) and rewriting so far. For my son it's the perfect amount because this also doesn't require original writing that he really just can't do. There are lots of great resources for teaching writing, it's great homeschooling because you can find the right fit for what works for your individual students.

So true! Other options I have used are..."Fine, schoolwork can wait, how about you go get your laundry out of your room." :) And, "You know, your bedroom is a wreck, let's take a school break and you pick up all those toys." School work looks alot better with those alternatives I've found. hehe

I wanted to mention - my kids all hated art and coloring but maybe yours won't. Lots of coloring, drawing, painting, cutting and pasting, playdoh "sculpting", arts and craft projects. These tactile things are great for her age. Don't forget puzzles and legos/building as well. :) I miss the days of having only one child - but they can be demanding! Do you have any kind of playgroup?

I just got my copy of WWE3 in the mail too and while ordering was a little confused. The workbook contains instructor and student pages. The pages are perforated but not hole-punched. You can just pull out and either use or make copies of the student pages. I decided to go ahead and order the extra set of student pages so I didn't have to tear 150 pages out of a book and I plan to reuse the book for my two younger boys in the coming years. The extra student pages came hole punched and ready to be placed into a notebook. HTH!