At what point do you allow/encourage the use of voice typing (voice to text) to compose paragraphs? i have two 7th graders , one with significant learning challenges. So I got a microphone for him to dictate some sentences this year. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense since he can’t read most of what is getting put on the screen when he speaks, but I thought it would have some value since it is the only way. And seemed liked a reasonable accommodation for him. But then I looked at my other more typical 7th grader who has always hated writing . Last year he started to type his paragraphs, (which was helpful and less painful than handwriting) and today a thought maybe voice typing would help us get farther in the process of writing if the mechanics weren’t so hard and slow. (Mostly it is spelling and finding the keys, but can’t get him interested in typing practice too much) What are your thoughts for typical learners who might struggle with writing?

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It is set up to use with the online course, so I spent a bit of time weeding through what parts would be useful for us. I liked the maps and writing prompts especially, we used some of them but after a short while reading a discussing the text was as much as I could get from my boys. I have loved vol 1, we will finish this week. I could send you a pdf of some sample pages if you like

I know it's pretty new but has anyone used the Commonlit 360 curriculum? I'm an engineer, and everything LA related it like another language to me. My 6th grader currently does Rod and staff english, megawords, wordly wise, reading and reasoning, and writing on our history usually with IEW theme unit prompts/texts, and he is assigned ~9-10 novels to read with our history.He hates writing, but can type a somewhat adequate paragraph, but probably not 6th grade level, he also doesnt enjoy reading, and thinking. He avoids all of it and tries to whine his way out of it. I am attracted to the Commonlit 360 because as I think about preparing him for public highschool I feel like my LA instruction is insufficent. I'm looking for something he can take alittle more ownership, rather than me walking with him every step , jamming learning down his throat, hoping he swallows some of it. It feels like more of what he would encounter in the public schools as far a LA goes. I'm still struggling know if that is a good or bad thing.... I love that it is free and would guess that most of the topics would be engaging to him. I'm use to mostly open a go, It feels like it would take a bit of work in assigning neccessary work, though it looks like he could just fill in the worksheets on google docs, but It would be alittle learning curve to figure out how to set it up. Do you find set up combersome to set up? What could I cut from his LA line up if I used commonlit 360? The grammar doesnt look very rigorous, but how important is that? maybe Wordly wise? definatley the reading and reasoning . he really needs the megawords, and I will still expect him to read our historical fiction... I have to cut something so that he doesnt feel like Im adding a whole another subject. Any other thoughts? Thanks Dudley

@EKS We have worked through it all together. he rarely does anything independently. He doesnt have good mastery of the concepts but he is making progress. and me constantly there to halt any mistakes is definitely something I wouldnt miss. so yes I agree with that.

I have a 12 yo boy who struggles to learn to read and math. We are using BJU math . He has worked through 2,3 and is half way through 4 in the last 3 years. I want to work at catching him up closer to grade level and focus on basic computation skills. I'm kind of wanting to drop the chapters on Data & Graphing, measurement, and 3D figures. Spend extra time on 2 digit multiplication and division and adding fractions and just move on to Book 5. Am I crazy? Is that stupid? Am I going to regret it? The last chapter is pre-algebra dealing with negative numbers. do I skip that one or keep it? My sense is all these topics will be covered again next book. I think I may have to look through and at least introduce the vocabulary so he will have a start at learning the words (English language learner)

@Storygirl I have requested Evals from school district. They first required a English proficiency test. He had been in country 2 1/2 yrs at that point and conversed very well, but could hardly read or write. I was interpreting some issues He was having as audio processing problems and it felt like their test showed his problems (he struggles to listen and follow directions especially multi step ) and not how far he had come in learning English. They said the problems I see were typical of traditional language learners. So they would not pursue any testing. I was pretty angry. And the psychologist we were referred to by primary is impossible to get into, they are booked 6 mo out and actually wouldn’t even schedule me. I’ve called for the last 3 months @Kanin I think he generally understands before and after. He does often confuse yesterday and tomorrow, which I just attributed to a language learning issue , whetting the words mixed up not the concepts, but maybe I’m wrong.

I appreciate everyone’s help here. My frustration isn’t stemming from a math point of view at the moment (only because we aren’t starting math till next week, when I will learn how much of a mistake it was to not do math this summer) .but it is helpful to see how his math struggles fit into his lack of concept of time. I have hit brick walls in seeking evals. Don’t know where to look next. It’s hard to explain what I see. I think I’m just surprised he can’t understand that things happened in the past before his awareness and that people grow older . I wish we had pictures of him as a baby or could reinforce the memories he has from his past that help solidify that things and people change with passage of time. That would probably help. Maybe he hasn’t had enough consistent relationships in his life to see people grow older.

he hates the analog clock so will use the digital whenever he can. We have made progress with the digital, but there is a lot of relearning that goes on each time. And the concept of elapsed time on the analog clock is also very difficult Every time a place value section comes up in math it feels like a disaster and usually leaves me in tears. I think we are making progress, but still. That is another significant learning issue. counting by five has been a struggle. We have made progress there too. He can. At this point he struggles to count on from a number by 5s I guess I do need to look into dyscalculia … thanks

My son is 12 and really struggles to understand time . He is adopted with trauma background and is likely dyslexic. I just don’t get why time is such a difficult concept. Couple of years ago we were reading my fathers dragon about a boy telling a story about his dad as a boy. We had to stop after that description. That was way too complicated for him. .Yesterday Dad was talking about how we were married 29 years ago and he asked if he was alive then? Today we were working on setting up a timeline for history and he was getting exasperated because he was so confused. I put today on the time line , when he was born and when he came to the US. I was seriously messing with his brain. Time seems like such a straight forward idea. Everyday we talk about what the plan is for tomorrow and then we live the plan. Topping on the cake is he has learned to read the digital clock but just reads the first number. So twice in the last day we had significant discussion(arguments ) over the fact that 9:55 is or is not 10. Sorry I’m just ranting because I don’t know what to do

We used the first 2. I would put it more in the category of theology lessons rather than bible study. Each chapter has a story, (often continued through out the book, that works to illustrate the topic. Then there is “teaching” with many scripture references through out the rest of the chapter. I would say it is organizes topics pretty throughly. It has frequent sidebars dealing with interesting topics that are somewhat related. I did not use the journal or do much more than read it and discuss. I intended to use it for my bio 10yo, but it was so engaging for my newly adopted 10yo that I dropped his simpler program in favor of this one. It laid out pretty clearly who God is. It was great discussion considering our newly adopted son had a vastly incorrect view of Gods character. It painted a good picture of heaven as well and steps to take enough that he chose to be baptized after the first book. He went from “that’s what you believe” to “I am so excited to be a part of Gods family” The second book dealt more with how God views us and how we view ourselves. This was helpful, not quite as earth-shattering for him, but still gave us good discussion topics. i chose not to do book three this coming year because I felt my boys needed more of a biblical overview to be more familiar with the Bible as a whole and also its individual stories when I realized church wasn’t providing that as it had for my older children, probably because of Covid but also frequent changes in leadership.

I second this. It’s short and sweet, it has great projects, just about every day has some hands on activity. I really liked how you built something and then used it for the next couple weeks to explore the science concepts. We did it together but it is set up to do independently , open and go with all project supplies included

Guess I should reply to this and say I’m making my own, just dividing up the reading into manageable chucks and picking the pages/activities I want him to do from the student guide. I pm’ed you.

Im not decided either but this is my start. I have 2 6th graders next year at two drastically different levels. Together Bible - OT overview with memory verses. Still trying to work this out thinking about Most important thing you will ever study, or MP christian studies. I really want something mostly just for discussion, structure, and review . I want more than just reading, I want to increase their bible literacy. I want incorporate some videos from bible project or what;s in the bible with buck denver. long way to go to figure this out. History - Human Odyssey vol 1. , Ds 1 will do many of the student guide activities Read aloud - selections from SL G Science - Earth science with Science Fusion independent for Ds1, I was hoping to do the online portion for Ds2 but looks like they discontinued. so I may piece together a series of youtube videos for him and then together discuss and do labs DS1 - Math -BJU foundations. 1 day of Singapore word problem review LA -R&S grammar 5, Megawords 3 & 4, Wordly Wise 6 and Word roots (CTC) (Roots to fill in after finishing WW) Writing - possibilities : HO student book writing assignments, Paragraphs for elementary school or IEW ancients Reading - Selections from SL G and Reading and Reasoning 1 (second half) typing.com DS2 -somewhat recently internationally adopted and dyslexic Reading AAR finish 2 continue on... Spelling. Apples and Pears Finish A, move on... Math BJU finish 4 move on.. It feels like his list is too short, but we spend enough time on math and reading that there isn't alot of focus left for more, and hard to believe he will grasp anything else.

My only beef with Singapore math over the many years I have used it is what seems like a lack of review. While I knew and experienced that I forgot It here with my last kid and don't know if I have ever figured out the best way to fix it. My youngest is finishing up 5B at the end of 4th grade, and while he picks up the concepts well he doesn't really remember them very well over time. Give me ideas on how I should go forward. Should I spend the summer in 5B intensive practice? Should I go ahead a start 6A since it is mostly review and do the 5B intensive practice each a couple of days a week? Are there other books beside the intensive practice that would be better? Im afraid the intensive practice would be too...well.. intensive , he just needs to keep using the skills. I don't need to drill him to death. I just don't know how to get the right balance of practice and review that isn't too much for him to handle (he has trouble focusing so gotta keep it shorter) (We usually do math 2-3 days a week in summer and he will move to BJU fundementals after 6B) Thanks Dudley