I appreciate your edit. I'm new here and it's obvious that you speak from years of personal experience. I know per your original post that these replies were offered from a place of good will when you were having an off day (which we all have!) The reality for my family is that we cannot afford the course of therapies that you've outlined above. We're struggling to pay for the 1x/week session for my daughter and the summer and school break sessions for my son (who receives from the school district from his IEP during the school year). We have one income, are tied to the area due to family care obligations, and have abysmal medical insurance from my husband's work. We can't afford marketplace plans and don't qualify for a subsidy. I would appreciate guidance on how to afford sessions from 3 SLPs and an OT. I can better understand how to budget for the evals which are presumably a one-time expense or once every three years.

Hi all, My son turned 6 in August and is in his kindergarten year. We're finishing AAR pre-reading next week and should start AAR 1 soon; he's making solid progress with Heggerty preK, HWOT tK, and BYL Level 0 for literature/geography. He receives speech therapy 3x/week due to his previous evaluation determining he is in the 3rd percentile for articulation and has the intelligibility of someone half his age. In early December, he will receive a differential diagnosis between childhood apraxia of speech and phonological delays; in the late spring, once we have more data with phonics, he will receive a psycho-educational evaluation. We are seeing a lot of signs of dyslexia and possibly ADHD in him. As I start to plan for next year in anticipation of Black Friday sales, I'm trying to figure out our game plan. When I look at everything that I want to get done with him, I think I might be setting us all up for misery? My daughter would also be in her K year next year (OPGTR, Math with Confidence, Zaner Bloser, reading list from TWTM 4th edition and along for the ride with everything else). Here's my current dream for next year for him: First Grade Game Plan Phonics: finish All About Reading 1, start AAR 2 after Phonemic Awareness: Heggerty Phonemic Awareness K Spelling: start All About Spelling 1 after AAR 1 completed Penmanship: Handwriting Without Tears K, 1st Grammar: First Language Lessons 1 Composition: Writing With Ease 1 Math: Right Start Level B, Saxon Morning Meeting only Level 1 Science: RSO Life 1 History, Geography: SotW 1 Literature: TWTM 4th edition literature suggestions for ancients Judaics: one a day from My Weekly Sidrah, Yisrael Sheli, Our Jerusalem, and You Be the Judge Extras: speech therapy, swimming, karate, Hebrew School, Cubscouts, music lessons Am I correct in thinking this looks like too much given his speech delays? If so, what would you recommend cutting? I was thinking WWE first, then maybe Judaics at home since he'd still be in our synagogue's religious school for two hours a week, followed by FLL? Thanks for any advice from the more seasoned homeschoolers.

Love the idea!

If Phonics Pathways has been working well for her, then perhaps stick with it? I've often seen Phonics Pathways paired with Reading Pathways to reinforce the content with great success. I'm afraid by jumping around too much that you'll confuse her or miss material. Alternatively, if she enjoyed Reading Eggs, then that's worth a shot as well. My son is going to use Logic of English Foundations for phonics, handwriting, spelling, and grammar next year in K. He's severely speech delayed so I believe the O-G method will work best, and AAR/AAS was way too much cutting/coloring for reinforcement to keep his interest. We'll likely skip over the grammar component of LOE, though, because we're planning to use First Language Lessons starting in 1st Grade.

This is the approach I was thinking of reading through the thread. All About Spelling does a great way of reviewing the skills needed to decode while using the rules to teach encoding. Two birds, one stone and all that jazz. And it would be easy to find used copies to keep costs low.

I went to my local homeschool store to pick up some supplies for 1st grade planning. While there, one of the staff members warned me that when she used SotW with her oldest that he was really confused by the jumping around from place to place of the text. When it came time to do it with her second and third children, she did all the Egyptian chapters, then all the Babylonian, then all the Greek, etc. I think this goes against the idea of classical history - going in chronological so students can draw connections/themes between different groups of people in a logical order, etc - but I haven't used the series yet with my own children. I'm therefore interested in hearing how well your younger students were able to understand the distinct geographical areas covered in the text. Thanks!

For those having have issues with LOE Foundations' spelling lists, it may be that you are using them the traditional way (memorize, write them down so many times, use them in a sentence, take a test in a few days, etc). My understanding from the blog post is that they're meant to be used for spelling analysis. Hope that helps any who are struggling with it; mine is too young for us to have begun.

Thank you for your insight! My son hasn't been diagnosed with Apraxia, but he'll be four in late August and we're still working on phonemes that are typically mastered when children are two (medial p and initial m!) I'd say he's only 25% intelligible to anyone other than me. Knowing that it worked well with your son gives me encouragement.

Hello! We're trying to decide which direction to head in regarding an OG phonics program. I know LOE and AAR have both been used successfully for many families and I'm sure we could be successful with either one. I'm just trying to figure out from the beginning if one would be better suited to my son. He has severe articulation delays (3%ile), loves to move around, and is a bit "young" for his age (aka socially immature). I was thinking LOE because I've heard it does a better job of explicitly teaching how the mouth makes certain sounds in the beginning of Foundations, my understanding is that its lesson plans involve more physical activity games, and that it teaches all phonemes of a phonogram together (which I think my son would do better with, but that's just a hunch). My husband is more inclined to use AAR because it's now in color, the program's readers look more thorough, we've read that LOE moves quite quickly (too quickly for some), and because he thinks our daughter (1.5 years behind her brother) would enjoy AAR better, thus we'd have better chance to reuse the curriculum and potentially save some money. Are there any families who started working in one and then found the other was better suited to their child? Would you mind describing what kind of learners you have, and which program they personally did better with? Are there any others that you would recommend that aren't from a Christian publisher? A friend sent me The Ordinary Parent's Guide To Teaching Reading, but I don't think it's well suited to my son - I don't think he has the straight-forward, just get it done, black and white type personality that it appears (to me) to work well for. Any recommendations, insight, etc would be much appreciated.

I am planning for preK! I'm mostly planning with my son (4 at the end of August) in mind, but I know my younger daughter (just turned 2) will be along for the ride. I'm purposely picking as many play-based curriculum options as possible given that we're skewing young. My son ranks in the third percentile for articulation, which is the skill set I most want to work on; I think it's holding him back in other areas academically and socially/emotionally (such that his preschool teachers asked us to have him repeat the two-year-old program this year). MAIN CURRICULUM Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings: Play-based preschool at our synagogue Tuesday and Thursday mornings: A Year of Playing Skillfully, modified to fit our family's religious views SUPPLEMENTARY CURRICULUM Math: Preschool Math at Home Speech Supplements: SPEECHercise and resources from mommyspeechtherapy.com Hebrew: Hebrew Through Movement Fine Art Exposure: Simply Charlotte Mason

I graduated from Hendrix in 2007 cum laude as a Hays Scholar (tuition, room and board 4 year scholarship) with a double major in Spanish and International Relations, and think it sounds like a good fit for your child. If he's interested in applying, and being considered for the Hays, I'm allowed to recommend students for consideration each year and would be happy to pass his name along. DM if you'd like to discuss this further. Dr. Campolo and Dr. Resinski were the Philosophy and Classics professors, respectively, in the Classics department that developed a cult following on campus while I was there. While Hendrix is a smaller school, it is a school that offers amazing research opportunities in the form of the Odyssey project, study abroad options, and the option to create independent studies for courses that smaller schools like Hendrix may not be able to offer on the regular. If your son would like to talk to those professors, let me know. I am in regular contact with my professors from all those years ago. I made life-long friends. There's no Greek system, which has created a wonderful social scene of inclusion. It's finally got the football team that seems so important in the South, but when I was there, the Flying Squirrels ultimate frisbee team had a bigger following. I think it does an amazing job of taking solid kids but who aren't Ivy League students, and turning them around in 4 years such that they can compete with the best of them for grad school. Hendrix students hold their own because we've benefitted from the personal attention of our professors (like my Spanish major capstone had an essay section for each of us that was unique, because the faculty knew exactly what kind of question would challenge us as individuals), small classes with genuine, cooperative classmates, and enrichment studies that may be available in name only in larger schools (the risk of studying abroad, credits not transferring, graduating in 5 years is very real at many of the schools my friends from high school decided on). As you can see, I'm still so happy with the decision I made all those years ago, and think Hendrix is a school that so many others can say the same about.

Thank you so much for all of your advice. I've tucked away a lot of practical knowledge from y'all already! I will be sending you a message to hear about the dayschool arrangement! We aren't frum either, more like traditional Conservative (in the vein of Isaac Klein and Heschel). I like both Behrman House and some Torah Aura products based on my experience teaching at a religious school. We also plan to go the private tutor route, with the final ceremony at the Egalitarian "Kotel" space. Nice to see a similar situation on the board! You may valid points here, especially because our children attend our synagogue's preschool and have already made friends with many who would be in their religious school class.

Shalom chaverim, We're about to embark on the homeschooling journey, but I'm wondering if I can pick your brain a bit about the decisions your family made regarding Jewish education. Did you provide a Jewish education at home? Did you send them to a Hebrew/religious school at a shul? Did you enroll them in an online religious school like the kind run by Chabad? What has it been like to classically homeschool when the curriculum is very Western- and Christian-centric and not always in line with Jewish worldview? Anything that caught you by surprise as you were educating your own children? Kol tuv!

My family is very early in the process, so I'm trying to wrap my head around something that I'm hoping seasoned pros can help explain to me. I've read both the 3rd and 4th editions of TWTM. I agree with SWB and JW's ultimate conclusions that no one can follow the schedule they provided in the 4th edition (required by the publisher, is my understanding), that each family will have to prioritize some subjects at the expense of others. I guess I want to know how other families have done that in practice. When I read the descriptions of curriculum, I want to do everything with my children. When I look at all the work that would involve for me and for them... I hesitate for my sanity and for what is developmentally healthy for each of them. Did you make different choices for each child (child A gets Art and Logic, child B gets Music and Latin) based on their interests or skills, or did you make choices for the entire family (Children A and B are doing Logic and Music) to minimize the planning, shopping, etc required of you? Some other system that hasn't occurred to me yet? Thanks in advance for the discussion.

I graduated from Hendrix, and which is also part of the SAA. Your description of Oglethorpe and your son sounds so familiar to me - so many of my classmates at Hendrix weren't the world's brightest, but they were passionate, humble, hard-working students that blossomed at college. So glad to know these schools still exist out there! May your son only have continued success!

My husband and I started discussing homeschooling our young children roughly a year ago. We have some time to prepare, as they currently attend half-day, play-based preschool at our synagogue. North Carolina is a wonderful place to homeschool; given its popularity, the social prejudice in the larger population isn't as strong. We have lots of homeschooling groups to circulate in locally, but I am so tired of reading comments that disparage homeschoolers who use formal curriculum, stick to some sort of a schedule, and don't believe in (completely) child-led learning. There seems to be a happy balance here! So happy to be here, and we look forward to absorbing your practical wisdom from the trenches!