I tried searching the forums, but I'm not finding much about this. I have a couple of children who were adopted internationally. They've been home for 5 years (now 11yo) and 8 years (now 18yo), so language acquisition isn't really the problem anymore. The problem lies in their processing and memory. We've done neuropsych evals, and they simply cannot memorize. This hinders almost everything we try to do: basic phonics rules (the 18yo reads at a 5th grade level, but comprehension is 3rd/4th), spelling, writing, math facts & problem-solving steps (the 18yo has never gotten past 2nd grade math, and the 11yo can barely do Kindergarten math), and of course vocabulary across the curriculum. I have tried so many methods to help them, so many educational philosophies. I am loving doing classical overall (I'm not a strict classical, but mostly), although I haven't dared try a foreign language with them, not even their home language. But I just can't get anything memorized with them. When they finally get one thing, they forget previous things, and when we go back to work on those, they forget the new things they had. It's like their brains can't hold more than a couple of things at a time, so we can never keep going because we spend so much time reviewing what they had previously "learned." Any ideas or words of wisdom for me? I'm not new to homeschooling - I've graduated my oldest (in her 2nd year of college) and have 10 children overall, both bio and adopted - but these two... I'm just stumped. Thanks, all! Sara

Oh, my goodness, you just saved my 17yo an entire class! I did not even think about how much time this girl spends outside ID'ing plants & animals, growing gardens, experimenting with plants/fertilizers, etc! Between all of that over the past 3 years, she most definitely has a Biology AND a Botany credit! She earned 2 Astronomy credits because that's where her passion lies. All of her science has totally been unschooled (she's my only "natural" unschooler, except for math LOL). Thank you!!! Also, I loved how you pointed out that we can take things slowly, at their pace. I've almost always believed I should, but somehow still felt they were "behind," and so pushed them above their abilities. I am finally figuring out how to embrace where they are right now and work with what we've got. Slowly and steadily.

Thank you for all these ideas! Lots to think about, for sure. I'm really glad I still have a couple of months before I need to get up and running again. I will have to play around with the search function. I'm bad at search terms. LOL I have realized over the past few weeks that my ASD dd will be 16 next month, but she's still solidly at middle school level in most subjects, and I've been trying to fit her into high school level. No wonder she pretty much wasted this entire year! I was asking her to do hard things. 😕 I definitely need to somehow combine as many kids as possible for as many subjects as possible. That is one thing that HAS been working well! We actually had 3 in school this year but decided to homeschool them, as well, when all the schools closed down in March (mayhem is an understatement if I'd tried to keep up with what the schools were planning to send home for them to do, plus the 7 already here!). And it's been going so well, we're going to keep them all home next year. I definitely feel like it's the structure of the many subjects that is calling to me. That, and logic, because my kids need a heavy dose of that! LOL I will keep on reading through the book and take notes of what I am loving or feeling a pull toward. Thank you so much for your detailed reply! It really helped me pull some more of my thoughts together.

Hello, everyone! I am new to Classical, though I've done Charlotte Mason when my oldest few were younger. Then we switched to more unschooling/relaxed, and the past few months we've been doing a little more trending toward traditional. I just got The Well-Trained Mind from the library and loved the first half so much, I bought it. LOL I'm just not sure how on earth to do this. I have 10 children, 17 down to 5. 5 of them are internationally adopted, so they are pretty far behind their typical grade levels plus some special needs going on (trying to figure all of those out). My 5 bio kids also have some special needs (ADHD/giftedness, ASD/ADHD/anxiety, anxiety/dyslexia, and jury's still out on the other 2 but obvious there is something). Am I crazy for even wanting to attempt something like Classical? How can I make this work? I am feeling like I need to do some remedial reading work with all 10 (my oldest is the dyslexic), and even though she has her own track trying to graduate on time next year and then go on to become an astrophysicist, she is, for the first time in her life, asking for direction, schedules, and a bit more "thinking matter." Tips, suggestions, advice all welcome! Thank you!