I decided to start the school year by finding a baseline for how DD is doing in the three Rs compared to her grade level. For reading and math, I used the DORA and DOMA tests from Let's Go Learn. But they don't have a test for writing. Is anyone interested in telling me what they think of this bit of writing? Here is DD's written narration of one of our field trips. We started by having her tell me what she saw and I wrote down key words. Then I gave her a brief outline of what to write: start with where we went, then describe what she saw, and finally write what she liked best. Then I left her alone. When she was done writing, she drew a picture to go with it. Here is her narration. I have retained her spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. ********** My mom my sister and I. Whent to the Houstn Ballet we saw rats. And got to take pictures with some of the dancers. And I saw a huge crystal light we saw a gril in pink she looked like a princess. in a chair becuse she was in a chair. I liked the princess best and of corse in the chair ********** Here's another written narration from the book "Ramona and Her Father." This one was written with no guidance, except when she explicitly asked how to spelling something. Again, her spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are retained. ********** Ramona wanted her father to stop smoking. Her father tried to but ended up smoking a few times. But one day Ramona had never this her father threw his cigarettes acros the the table! ********** BTW, I'm asking on this board not because I think she's advanced at writing (I don't know if she is or isn't). However, I'm afraid that if I posted on the K-8 board, I'd get slammed for making a first grader write so much.

The DORA test is the "Let's Go Learn Reading Assessment"

I had a good experiene giving the DORA test to my daughter. I really liked that it allowed testing "out of level." Here are a few areas where wish I'd better prepared my daughter. 1) My daughter had poor mouse skills, which hampered her ability to click the answer she wanted. 2) I didn't know that one of the sections is timed. I let my daughter daddle with that section, so I don't quite trust those results. 3) You can stop and restart in the middle of the test. My daughter got tired in the middle and would have benefited from a rest in the middle. She went straight through, and it took about an hour. 4) On the reading comprehension section you can take as long as you want to read the passage, but you can't go back to the passage when answering the questions. My daughter is used to skimming a passage and then looking back when answering the questions. I found most of the results to be good to know, and it helped me understand why my daughter struggled in some areas despite great ability in other areas. The only section I found useless was the phenomic awareness section.

It's an open syllable, and in unstressed syllables the vowel sound often gets muffled or turned into a schwa. E liz a beth = open syllable + closed syllable + open syllable + closed syllable. The "E" is a clear long sound because it is an open syllable. The "a" would normally be a long "a", but it is muffled because the syllable is unstressed.

Have you seen Susan C. Anthony's web site? She has writing samples for 1st - 6th grade students. She includes samples that are "average," "below average," and "above average" for each grade level. http://www.susancanthony.com/Workshops/writing_hand.html#Benchmark

bump. I also wonder if anyone has used the book on a regular Kindle?

When I was handwriting Sparkle's narration I found that I disliked the handwriting so much that it never got done. I couldn't handwrite fast enough to keep up with her thoughts. I suppose that it would be easier if we just did summary narrations, which are short, but I found those too hard to do. Now, when I want to record Sparkle's narrations, I type them on the computer, and then print them out. She copies a few lines and then draws a picture at the bottom of the page. This way we have the entire narration, her handwriting of a few lines, and a picture all on one page. It's working well for us right now.

I went into technical writing. I found it the perfect bridge between language arts and science/math.

I think that early readers are, by definition, accelerated. Of course, they might not stay accelerated. You can be accelerated without being gifted.

I hear you. Sparkle only recently turned 6. A month ago I gave her the DORA reading test, which is for grades K-12. She maxed out the word recognition part of the test (12th grade) and apparently has the vocabulary of a 4th grader. I didn't bother giving her a math test because I already knew that she was at a solid kindergarten level in math. Glitter (age 3) knows her letter sounds and can read CVC words. I try to look at each subject independantly and just do the next thing, regardless of grade level. I also believe in right-brain/left-brain dominance. Reading and language arts are more left-brain skills. Understanding math is more a right-brain skill. One thing I find hard about reading this board is that many of the familes on this board have kids that are gifted in math. I'm sure that other families have kids that are gifted in language arts, but they don't seem to be as vocal about it.

I don't have a Kindle, A2, or RC, but I have been intrigued by the idea for a while. Here's what I could find by poking around the web. The A2 curriculum is mostly pdf and text files. The demo CD contains pdf files with printing disabled, but *not* the text files, as you can't disable printing of text files. A2 also includes a math worksheet generator that obviously wouldn't work on a Kindle. The RC curriculum has books scanned as image (tiff) files and special software for accessing them. According to Amazon.com, the smaller Kindle supports .pdf files only with conversion, and the quality of the conversion can be yucky depending on the complexity of the .pdf file. The Kindle DX has native support for .pdf files. Both Kindles support text files. Picture files (jpg, giff, png, bmp) are supported only by conversion, but the tiff format isn't listed. Kindle also supports mobi files. So, RC probably wouldn't work on a Kindle. However, A2 might, but you would probably need the Kindle DX and the actual A2 CD, not the demo CD to get all the books. Almost all of the books on the book list for both A2 and RC are in the public domain and available for free at http://oldfashionededucation.com/ This web site has links to the books at web sites like Gutenberg, Internet Archive, Baldwin Project, etc. and most of the books are available in text format or other formats that could be ported to the Kindle easily. Considering the cost of a high quality printer, toner, paper, and labor, a Kindle is probably cheaper than printing out the books. Of course, if you have young children, you might not want to put a multi-hundred dollar device in their hands. Or you could get a netBook for even cheaper than a Kindle, and read off that, but then you run into eye strain issues. If you're seriously thinking about the combination, you could buy a Kindle and then just use the book lists from A2 or RC but get the books for free from OldFashionedEducation. (Or just use the book list from OldFashionedEductation.) Heck, even AmblesideOnline has a nice booklist with links to many free public domain books.

Here's an update... I finally got up the nerve to have my daughter take the DORA test. I picked it because it is one test that covers K-12, it was inexpensive, and it was convenient. I got it through homeschoolbuyer's coop. Within minutes of submitting my info online, my daughter was taking the test. It took about an hour and she was really tired at the end. I find the results helpful, because it explains that even though DD's word recognition was at a high 12th grade level, and her oral vocabulary is at a 4th grade level, her reading comprehension level is at a mid 2nd grade level. Her spelling is also at a mid 2nd grade level. (Not bad for a kid who is still officially 5 years old.) Even though she can read and understand all those hard words individually, she really doesn't understand the complex story that uses them. Amusingly enough, the test said that her phenomic awareness skills are "poor." She really did bomb that portion of the test, but I don't think that she understood what she was supposed to do.

If your son is making lots of mistakes, his dictation passages are probably too hard for him. For dictation to be successful, the student needs to know how to spell and punctuate the passage the himself. You can accomplish that in a variety of ways. 1) Have the student study the dictation passage in advance. One way of doing this is using the passage as copywork first. When the student thinks he knows how to spell and punctuate everything, give the dictation. 2) Provide support for the dictation. Write tricky words or names on a separate piece of paper so the student can copy them when he gets to them. Use exagerated pronuncation so that the student can hear the question mark, or the pause for the comma. Tell the student in advance if there are any homonyms, unusual punctuation, or other stuff to watch out for. 3) Choose passages that have only words and punctuation that the student already knows. (This is the method I use.) As for making corrections as he writes versus after he's done, you can do it either way. Pointing out mistakes immediately makes them easier to correct and avoids having the wrong image impressed in the brain. However, it can also throw off the students train of thought. When you do make a correction, be sure to explain why the correct way is correct.

Sigh. I found out that some of the other moms in my homeschool group who have kids the same age as DD5 read my blog, and now I don't even feel safe bragging there very often.

I like Jennifer's answer! My kids are young (5 and 3) so I don't do much. We go to a local park/garden once a week. Mostly the girls just run around. Most of the plants are labeled, so when we see an interesting one, we look for the label. Then I see if they recognize the plant elsewhere. If they see an interesting leaf on the ground, we'll look around to see what plant it came from. The girls have "nature journals" where they can draw a picture of something they see, and we label it with the item name, date, and location. We have magnifying glasses and rulers to look at stuff and measure stuff. At this stage, I'm trying to get my kids to learn how to observe, measure, recognize, and wonder about things, rather than do specific experiments.

:iagree: Building the habit of doing what they're told is an important skill - at this age more important than any math or reading skill. Here's one suggestion: Cut the amount of work way back until it is rediculously quick and easy, and insist that it be done with no complaining. After the habit of attending to lessons is built, you can gradually increase the amount of school work, if you want to.

My DD5 is currently working through RightStart B. Math is tough for her, so I take the lessons really slowly. Some lessons have taken a week to complete. Most days she can take only about 15-20 minutes of RightStart math. I supplement (at a different time of day) with word problems from "The Math Lesson" and addition drill sheets.

I'm a lefty, DH is a lefty, and DD5 is a lefty. None of us use special lefty supplies. As far as scissors go, just get regular scissors and make sure that they are tight and sharp. Use them in the left hand.

Thanks y'all for letting me know that I'm safe discussing the reading textbook without misleading people because of my daughter's advanced reading ability. A local mom commented on how well my daughter reads and then asked me what I used with her so that she could teach her own child. I told the mom, but the back of my mind was wondering if I was unintentionally setting her up with unrealistic expectations. (I don't mean to disparage her or her child, or to sound snotty, but statistically it's unlikely that he'll read at my daughter's level when he is her age.)

Necessary - not for levels A & B Useful - maybe We're in level B. I got the games book but don't use it. I'll hold onto it for when we do level C. I found that we don't play many games, and when we do play games, they're the same games over and over again. If my child had a hard time and needed more fun drill, I might use some of the many games in the game book to practice those concepts, but for now she is progressing fine without without them.

Hi Paula, I just used the book. I got it from Amazon for less than twenty dollars.

My daughter has held many toads and never gotten sick from them. She likes to catch them when going for an evening walk with Daddy.

Okay, I used "The Reading Lesson" to teach my daughter to read. It comes up occassionally, but not nearly as often as 100EZ Lessons, OPGTTR, SWR, AAS, Phonics Pathways, Reading Made Easy, etc. Here's what I liked about it that sets it apart from the other programs: The pages are uncluttered. There were a few small pictures or one big picture per page. All the text the student sees is text for the student to read. The program is open and go. Just open the book and start reading. No flashcards, no chalkboard/whiteboard. No pre-reading instructions. No looking for readers. No games to setup or put away. The book uses a special typography to indicate what vowel sound to use and letters that work together, like "th" "sh" and "ch." But the special typography is faint and doesn't obscure the normal letter shape. The student had to actually figure out each word. The pictures were few enough that they couldn't be used to guess the words. In general, words weren't listed with all the same ending sound. We did a totally new page each day, so the student couldn't memorize the text. The book includes sentences and full stories for the student to read from almost the beginning. The stories were cute for a young reader. I didn't need to find separate readers. The text starts very large, and gradually gets smaller. There is no handwriting. Here's some qualifications: My daughter learned her letters from "The Letter Factory" and "Pocket Snails: Letter Adventure" videos before starting the book. That is, she could easily recognize the 26 letters of the alphabet (uppercase and lowercase) and knew their first sounds. My daughter could already blend sounds together before starting the book. This blending work was done informally and orally.

Something has been bothering me. I really liked the textbook that I used to teach my daughter to read. So, when someone has questions about it, I like to repond, in part because it isn't a popular program, so there aren't lots of other people chiming in on it. Now my daughter reads very well for her age. I don't know if it's due to the textbook I used, or if she simply has a nack for decoding words, or a combination of both. Is it fair for me to say how much I liked the textbook when people ask about it? If my daughter really has a nack for decoding words, am I missleading people by praising the textbook? Should I qualify my experience with the textbook by saying that my daughter's results probably aren't typical? Would it be more ethical to simply not reply to the question at all?

No, I didn't find my daugther guessing with "The Reading Lessons." I liked the balance of pictures and words. For what it's worth, my daughter knew her letter sounds from the LeapFrog Letter Factory video and could blend sounds together before we started the book.