It is a year and a half later, and I thought I’d give an update in case anyone ends up with a kid in a similar situation and looks up this thread. DD finished up Horizons 6 in the middle of 6th grade. I decided to start Saxon 8/7. It was a bust. So then I switched her to Dolciani Pre-algebra. It was also a bust. Finally, I switched to the last program I had, Horizons Pre-algebra, and it worked out. I had to give up on having her write out the problems. It just wasn’t going to happen with this particular kid at that particular time. Horizons Pre-algebra ended up being a good fit and she finished it at the end of 7th grade. So, she spent a year and a half doing pre-algebra and she is now well positioned to start Algebra in 8th grade. I also got her standardized test scores back and her math scores improved over last year, so Horizons Pre-algebra worked well for this kid. There is a chance that she will go to school for 8th grade, so I am glad that she is ready to start a new math book at the beginning of the fall, like everyone else. There is also a chance that she will stay homeschooled and want to either graduate early or have a very light senior year, so starting Algebra 1 in the fall and doing only one year of Algebra 1 makes sense.

The introductory workbook is all level 1 problems. The regular book has problems for all three levels. Unless you need a lot of practice with just level 1 problems you will be fine with the regular verbal problems book.

Totally normal. No reason to be concerned. In fact, don’t be surprised if it also takes awhile to grasp that ten hundreds is a thousand.

I agree with everyone above who would make “license” the direct object of “got.” I would accept diagramming “got out” as either (a) the verb “got” modified by the adverb “out”, just as you did with the second “out,” or (b) a phrasal verb. A phrasal verb often looks like a verb + adverb, but the combination has a different meaning from what the words mean individually. (A phrasal verb is different from a verb phrase. A phrasal verb looks like a verb + adverb, such as “get out”. A verb phrase is helping verbs + main verb, such as “can get”.) When trying to decide if a word combination is a phrasal verb, I will often look it up in a dictionary that includes definitions of phrasal verbs. One of my dictionaries lists “get out” with the definition of “to produce,” which is the meaning used in this sentence. Your 10 year old did a great job diagraming the sentence!

It’s a fine paper for 7th grade. She has good vocabulary, sentence structure, and mechanics. She also has solid topic sentences. However, the fact that the paragraphs were initially written independently does show. If you want to do more with this topic, here are some ideas. -Try rewriting the paper in the 3rd person and cut out half the exclamation points. Most academic writing is in the 3rd person. Taking out the “you” and “me” can be surprisingly difficult. - Pick an overall structure for the order of the rides. In the current paper, these seems to be no particular reason for the order of the rides. For example, she could organize the rides by type, location, ridership, length, tameness/wildness, age, or some other feature. Then add in transitions based on the organizing principle. If you do this, I recommend using only 3-5 ride for the paper. - Include more parallel information across the rides. While the current paper lists the name and location for each ride, some features are only mentioned in a few rides. For example, the type of car, seating arrangements, end point, and height restrictions are each described in multiple paragraphs, but not all. - Pick one of the roller coasters and go more in depth in it. Brainstorm about the different sections of the ride. Look for more sensory details and emotional responses on each part of the ride to give a fuller experience. - Write a paper that makes recommendations for different rides for different types of people. Instead of simply describing each ride, you daughter will have to analyze and evaulate the rides, which is a higher order thinking skill.

What worked for my DD who struggled with spelling was repetition, lots and lots of repetition. While I used All About Spelling, I added in a ton of review of previously taught words. We spent far more time on reviewing old words than on learning anything new.

Farrar, Thanks for the feedback! I find it so helpful to get someone else’s views on DD’s writing. I know that she is on the right path; I just don’t know how far along she is compared to her peers. In the second composition, it sounds like tightening up the first two paragraphs into one would have made the purpose of the composition more clear. I think two things added to the bloat in the intro: she couldn’t decide between two different opening hooks and tried to incorporate both, and she is still new to figuring out how much background info to include. DD tends to have long rambling sentences that say the same thing in multiple ways. It sounds like she still needs more pruning.

Farrar, thanks for the feedback. I”m glad you liked the intro for the first composition. That intro puts together a lot of concepts that I’ve been working on with her: brainstorming, types of intros, parallel structure, and old-new flow. The intro probably took a quarter to a third of of the entire time to write the entire composition. The second composition was supposed to be answer a question DD came up with—“Why did Johnny adhere to Rab’s teaching and not Mr. Laphams?” Basically, DD recognized that both Rab and Mr. Lampham tried to get Johnny to be a better person, but Mr. Lapham failed while Rab succeeded. I didn’t think of the composition as literary criticism or thesis-based, but it was supposed to be more than a summary. Do you have any suggestions for making the purpose of the composition clearer?

If you want something only a tiny step up from two piece puzzles, what about the game HISS? You match pieces to build a snake, matching colors. Sometimes you have to rotate the pieces to get the colors to match. https://www.amazon.com/Gamewright-5219-Hisss-Card-Game/dp/B00005NQE8/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1550236601&sr=1-1&keywords=hiss Something a bit harder would be the game Carcasonne. You have to match different tiles to connect roads, towns, fields, etc. You could just play with matching up the tiles without actually playing the game. Then after she can match up the tiles well, you still have an awesome game that is fun even for adults to play. https://www.amazon.com/Z-Man-Games-ZM7810-Carcassonne/dp/B00NX627HW/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1550237518&sr=1-1&keywords=carcassonne

Here is another composition. It took DD about 12 hours spread across an entire month to produce it. I coached her very extensively at each stage of the process, especially with the brainstorming, outlining, and revising. She did convert the outline to a first draft by herself. This composition is very heavily influenced by the Lost Tools of Writing, because DD and I spent a semester on LToW last spring. However, I would not consider it to be a LToW essay. ******** Johnny was the best apprentice silversmith on all of Hancock's wharf, but he did not treat people with respect or kindness. In Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, he called people “squeak pig”, “you lazy good for nothing dish mops”, and “pig-of-a-louse”. He was constantly being rude and unforgiving to people. Johnny, easily annoyed, threw insults without thought, judged people harshly, and was mean to innocent people. Two men, Mr. Lapham and Rab, tried to change Johnny’s cruel habits. Mr. Lapham tried to change Johnny’s horrible ways by asking him to be more patient. Mr. Lapham wanted Johnny to accept some people’s mistakes without yelling at them. Although Mr. Lapham’s intentions were good, he did not make a lasting effect on Johnny’s horrid behavior. Rab, on the other hand, wanted Johnny to be kind, genteel, and forgiving to everyone who makes a mistake. Rab wanted Johnny to think about his words, small or large, before saying them. Johnny tried Rab’s way and was more polite. Rab was more successful at changing Johnny’s behavior for four reasons: different circumstance, different method of teaching, different events after attempting to change, and differences between Mr. Lapham and Rab. One reason Rab made a more lasting effect on Johnny was that Johnny was surrounded with different circumstances at the Laphams compared to the print shop. At the Lapham’s Dove and Dusty needed to be forced and pushed to get any work done. Without Johnny’s constant bossyness, the shop would have failed due to poor work. In the Lapham household, it was necessary for Johnny to boss everyone around whereas at Rab’s print shop Johnny had no one to look after. He was at the bottom of the pecking order. Johnny had a different perspective at this point; most people had the authority to boss him ruthlessly, yet they did not. Everyone treated him with respect and kindness, so no fights or anger broke out. Because of Rab’s nurturing environment, Johnny was more motivated to change. Another reason why Rab was more successful was because Mr. Lapham and Rab had different teaching approaches. Mr. Lapham was much more direct, clear cut, strict, and bossy. Mr. Lapham liked to embarrass the boys as they learned their lessons. Johnny had to read bible verses saying that pride was bad. Rab, on the other hand, hinted, suggested, and questioned Johnny more. He asked Johnny why he went out of his way to make people feel bad without telling Johnny it was wrong. Mr. Lapham’s commanding strict way of teaching didn’t affect Johnny as well as Rab’s gentle coaching did. The next reason why Rab was more successful than Mr. Lapham was because the events after attempting changing his ways were vastly different. Just after Mr. Lapham tried to change Johnny’s behavior, Mr. Hancock asked for a prestigious basin, which required a lot of work and attention. The new project only made Johnny bossier as he tried to get everything perfectly finished. While hard at work, Johnny was sabotaged by his co-workers and his hand was forever crippled. After taking up Rab’s advice, Johnny got new friends, Sukey and Sam Adams, and enjoyed time with them while eating pie. With his new attitude, Johnny got better rapport with the customers he encountered. Trying to change for Mr. Lapham resulted in a worse situation, but changing for Rab made Johnny’s life better. The last reason why Rab was more successful was because Rab was more similar to Johnny than Mr. Lapham was to Johnny. Mr. Lapham grew up in different times, and generations from Johnny. He could have been Johnny’s grandfather! Mr. Lapham was not very successful and his shop was suffering, so Johnny did not see a reason to follow in his footsteps and take his advice. However, Rab was only a few years older than Johnny. In addition, Rab was a good role model because did not slack on his work, and helped a successful business. Johnny did not follow Mr Lapham’s advice because Johnny did not want to end up like him, unorganized, poor, and lazy while Johnny followed Rab’s teaching because he was a hard working, smart boy, more similarly aged to Johnny. Although, a hard smart worker, the best on Hancock's wharf, Johnny clearly needed to change his attitude towards customers, co-workers, and people. Rab was able to change Johnny’s behavior when Mr. Lapham could not for four reasons: different circumstance, different method, different events after attempting to change, and differences between Mr. Lapham and Rab. If your teaching isn’t working, try a more supportive approach like Rab. He hints, suggests and rewards unlike Mr. Lapham who bosses, lectures, and punishes.

Paradox5, thanks! She was very heavily coached!

WTM Grammar might not be a good fit for you and your DS. There are many other grammar programs, each with its own approach. My favorite grammar programs include - The Sentence Family - Michael Clay Thompson Grammar - KISS Grammar - Analytical Grammar They are all very different and come in very different price points.

In the main clause, the direct object of “planned” is the complete infinitive phrase “to destroy both him and his tribe.” Within the infinitive phrase, the object of “to destroy” is “both him and his tribe.” I like to think of the complete verbal phrase acting as a single part of speech, but within the phrase there are different parts. I don’t have access to the book, but I imagine that the infinitive phrase would be on its own little stand.

You can use the “type” feature in Anki where you type your answer and it compares what you typed with the answer, showing any differences. You would need to make a custom card type for this. The card type would have two fields: - audio (where you record yourself saying the word along with a clarifying sentence, if necessary) - word (where you type only the word) The template for the front of the card would have the following: Type the word you heart. {{audio}} {{type:word}} The template for the back of the card would have the following: {{FrontSide}} As they review the deck, they would type the words and when they tell Anki to show answer (probably by pressing the <enter> key), Anki will display a comparision of what they typed with the correct spelling. Because Anki uses spaced repetition, you would need to teach the proper use of the “again”, “hard”, “good”, and “easy” buttons.

My DD didn’t show a hand preference until she was older. I don’t remember the exact age. When I was teaching her handwriting, I let her pick which hand to use each time. Sometimes she would get frustrated and want to switch hands, but I wouldn’t let her switch hands mid-stream. For example, if she started writing with one hand, I told her she couldn’t switch hands in the middle of the word. If she had multiple worksheets, she might do one worksheet with one hand and the next worksheet with the other. She tended to use her left hand for things on the left side and her right hand for things on the right side. Eventually she settled on using one hand for handwriting, and the other hand for pretty much everything else.

Here is a composition from my 7th grade DD. The assignment was to write about something she learned from science. We spent about 7 hours on it, spead across 3 weeks. We spent about one week together picking the topic, brainstorming ideas, and forming an outline. The second week was spent coming up with an intro & conclusion and drafting. The final week was spent revising and editing. I was very involved in everything but the initial drafting. ****** In the woods, a fluffy, white rabbit leaps into the bush. A slimy, green frog hops near the stream. A sleek, blue bird rushes through the trees, and a human walks on the path with animals surrounding him. The fluffy rabbit, the slimy frog, and the sleek bird all have something in common with the human. These creatures are all chordates. Chordates are animals with common characteristics not shared by other types of animals. Their bodies are bilaterally symmetrical, and they all reproduce sexually. In addition, chordates share body elements and a development processes. When a chordate is at the embryo stage, it has a hollow nerve tube in the head and a notochord below the nerve tube, and a tail. When the embryo starts turning into a fetus, the nerve tube becomes a brain, the notochord makes the spinal cord and backbone, and the tail makes the butt. Although chordates all share those key body elements and factors, each type—fish, amphibian, reptiles, birds, and mammals—have their own characteristics. Fish are a type of cold blooded chordate, meaning they don’t produce their own heat. They have many specific adaptations to their life. Since they live in the water, they have gills to breathe. Scales help for movement and protection, since they cover almost the entire body. All fish reproduce with eggs, a common feature throughout many chordates. Some examples of fish are bass, goldfish, and angelfish. Another type of cold blooded chordate are amphibians. Amphibians live both on land and in the water. Their early life is solely in the water when they are tadpoles. Later, after developing legs and lungs and loosing their gills, they live more on land. At this stage, they are now adults. Amphibians have skin as their only covering while all other chordates have scales, fur, or feathers. Some common amphibians are frogs, toads, and newts. More cold blooded chordates are reptiles. Most reptiles live on land. Sea turtles are an exception, since they always live in the sea. Common features for all reptiles include lungs, even for the aquatic creatures. They either have scales or shells in addition to skin. And they reproduce with eggs. Some common reptiles are lizards, chameleons, sea turtles and snakes. Fish, amphibian, and reptiles are all cold blooded, but birds are not. Birds are warm blooded, meaning they can produce their own heat. They go between living on land and traveling through air. To be able to fly, birds have wings and lighter bones. Birds also have feathers, which streamline their body as well as provide a layer of protection and warmth. Birds also have lungs, even as little chicks. They reproduce using eggs. Some types of birds are bluebirds, owls, and pelicans. The last warm blooded chordates are mammals. Most mammals live on land, although whales (a type of mammal) live in the water. They all breath with lungs. Their bodies are covered in fur or hair. These chordates do not reproduce with eggs; the baby is born without egg covering. Some examples of mammals are rabbits, bears, and even people! Chordates are specific animals who reproduce sexually, have a backbone, and have an endoskeleton. This group contains the animals fish, amphibian, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Fish, amphibian, and reptiles are cold blooded while birds and mammals are warm blooded. Secondly, fish have gills and live in the water, while the others have lungs and live mostly on land. Next, they have a variety of skin coverings and textures. Lastly, all chordates lay eggs, except mammals. These animals are easily spotted around daily life, not only the woods, but everywhere in nature. ****** I’m not sure what type of feedback I want on this, especially since we won’t be spending any more time on this specific piece. Maybe I want to know if this piece is age/grade appropriate level work, both in terms of quality of writing and length of time to produce? I wish that she could produce something like this in a third of the time with less help from me, but she is where she is, and rushing her won’t improve her writing.

Perhaps you were thinking of “Dragonflight” by Anne McCaffery?

The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski. It has a has a strong female lead, epic fantasy, and no s*x. The sequels would probably appeal to girls more than boys, but the initial book is great for either gender.

While, percents, fractions, and decimals are all related, I think that it is mentally easier to establish the relationship between percents and decimals without going through fractions first. While “shifting the decimal two places” is a “trick,” the trick is just a mental shortcut for multiplying or dividing by 100. In the examples you gave (5% => 0.5, 525% => 0.525), it looks like the student is moving the decimal to the right of all the digits, and not paying attention to the actual number of place values the decimal moves. If you want to go through fractions first, the easist method to undertand would be to use the percent (keeping the decimal where it is and dropping the percent sign) as the numerator, and 100 as the denominator. (To remember that “percent” means “per 100,” teach that “cent” means 100. There are 100 cents in a dollar. There are 100 years in a century. A centenarian has lived for 100 years. A Roman centurion originally commanded 100 soldiers. Also, the symbol % has a line and two circles, which can be rearranged to look like 100) 5% => 5/100 => 0.05 50% => 50/100 => 5/10 => 0.5 (or 50/100 => 0.50 (fifty in hundredths place) 500% => 500/100 => 5 0.5% => 0.5/100 => (0.5/100) x (10/10) => 5/1000 => 0.005 You need to make sure that the kid doesn’t do things things like 50% => 1/2, 10% => 1/10, or 25% => 1/4, because they have these conversions memorized. If they do that, they won’t see that the denominator is always 100. You also need to make sure that they keep the original decimal point in the percent in the same place, and don’t do weird things like 0.5% => 5/100 (instead of 0.5/100). Once the student understands that the denominator is always 100, assuming that the student knows the shortcut for multipling/dividing by a power of 10, it should be easy to transition to the shortcut of moving the decimal place two spaces. By learning the shortcut, you actually put emphasis on place value, because the student has to picture the different place values that aren’t written. E.g. when converting 5% to a place value, you have to recoginize that there is a 0 in the place value to the left of the 5.

Oh, it’s definately a good skill to have, but I think that if a studen’t doesn’t already have that skill, trying to learn it and the relationships among fractions, decimals, & percents at the same time is too much.

You say that he was converting percents to fractions and then decimals. This order seems strange to me. You can convert between percents and decimals without converting to a fraction in between. Just move the decimal point two spaces and add or drop the percent sign. The trick is remembering to always move two spaces, even when only one is written or when there is already a digit behind behind the decimal point. While understanding place value is important, going back to place value drills is probably overkill. A short daily drill (like 3-5 problems) for a few days might be sufficient. e.g. 500% = 5 50% = 0.5 5% = 0.05 0.5% = 0.005

For me, I do spelling one-on-one, but it is quick (5-10 minutes max per day). I heavilly adapted AAS to eliminate prep-work and supplies. All we need is my phone, pencil, and paper. I put all the spelling words in the space repetition flashcard system Anki, on my phone, at the beginning of a new AAS book. I put the concepts from AAS into my brain. Each day I dictate the words from my phone, and DD writes them. If it is a new word, I explain the spelling. If she gets it wrong, I have her immediately practice the word. Then we move on to the next word. After DD writes the daily limit of words (which has varied from 20-40, depending on age), spelling is done. Some days we only get review words done and no new words. Some days half of the words are just practicking misspelled words. On a good day, we get to new words. The lack of prep and unvarying routine make the process quick, even though it is one-on-one. I also had to give up on handwriting for spelling to get done. As long as I could decipher the letters, we moved on.

If they liked “First Position,” they might like “TuTu Much.” It is a documentary about girls at a ballet summer intensive in Canada.

Ha ha. That’s funny. I’ve been fighting DD for 7 years to get her to properly head her paper with her name and the date. There is absolutely no way that she will ever write her full name, the day of the week, or the complete calendar date on schoolwork until she goes to a real school. The best I can get her to do its to scrawl something that vaguely looks like the digits for the month and day somewhere on the paper. On the other hand, all of the days of the week and the months of the year are in her spelling review deck. They will all eventually come due. As for her name ... it is short enough that she knows how to spell it without review. It sounds like you had a method of acquiring vocabulary that worked well for you. I do not think that method will work for this particular DD. I already have her doing a different vocabulary workbook. Sorry for being so negative.

Thank you. It felt like a major accomplishment to me. I already have a plan for after AAS. DD will continue to practice her review words every day, and I will continue to add new words to her deck as she misspells them in other writing. I do not plan on following the AAS plan, so technically DD hasn’t finished AAS7 as she will never do the very last lesson.