It's just the same sort of format year after year, slowly building on the previous year, from what I can tell. But I'm just judging that from samples. There's not necessarily repitition week after week within the same year.

Thanks! What do you use for spelling? We have gone through all of LOE Foundations and his spelling is pretty decent but he is slow to spell. More practice is definitely needed. Mine won't do copywork though. Yesterday, I tried to get him to copy one word in the sentence. He couldn't get his first letter perfectly how he wanted it and after 3 attenpts, gave up, upset. I'm not sure what to do with that. It's not like I'm demanding it to be as perfect as he's going for. I will keep up with the games and look into your other suggestions!

Is writing necessary for grade 3? Could I just use EWS C, and some Lit House learning level 1 guides or her history guide and call it good? I don't think he'll be ready for W&R without some sentence composition first. He doesn't do much free writing so writing is pretty foreign to him. I could use ideas from Peggy Kayes Writing Games which he likes, just to get him more practiced in the act of writing things by hand. He still finds handwriting very cumbersome. He hates answering questions orally and doesn't like narration so I think WWE would not be a good for him (EWS seems to be about all he can handle of this). For instance, he really hates all the oral conversing about grammar in LOE Foundations D and hardly pays attention but ends up learning it because there are activity pages where I can reteach him to show him what he needs to do. He does great with activities that teach content. I've looked at EIW which I like (although I'd probably have to make it more fun at this age) but I think it would be best to wait a few years since the program seems quite repetitive. Any other programs out there with a structure like EIW (teaching sentences and planning/outlining paragraphs in different genres among with self editing rubrics - even better if it includes grammar) but maybe with activities or some way to make it fun? Assuming writing doesn't include grammar, do you think Beowulf's grammar would be good for a kid like this? He doesn't like cut and paste lapbook type things - but little activities that help him learn the content or gamify the content is great. It's hard to get him to pay attention otherwise and I feel like I'm just yelling at him to please return his attention to me every 5 seconds.

Demand avoidance is definitely from anxiety (at least in part). It's why we live a very low key lifestyle. It's not like he can help having a hard time. His anxiety has improved a lot - hopefully it continues in that direction with support.

I love the way you put this. I've talked to him a bit about it but finding the right words is difficult so I appreciate this. I had actually given handwriting (and many other things) a break this past semester because I was tired of always trying to "fix things" about him which was hindering me from just enjoying him for being him.

Thank you, yes. I'm not opposed to the right drug - I do feel like we likely don't have all the right diagnosises which will hopefully help sorting out drugs in the future. For right now, we are okay but making a note of this.

Oh I don't. I have only used it once - for math - and it really helped turn things around. I made sure I was also putting in more effort in our relationship at the same time. For the most part, I just try to make things fun.

Ha, thanks. Sorry maybe I misread! It's all very frustrating to say the least.

Thank you, this is great. Super helpful. I will give it a go if I can't find more OT services.

I'm not blowing it off, I'm explaining the difficulty of getting access to services like that here. I emailed 20 OTs before I found one accepting patients. Once I got her, my funding only allowed her to come once a month. This gave me absolutely zero help. We live in the capital of Alberta. I spent $3000 to get a damn autism diagnoses to "open up services" (which by the way, it doesn't if there is no one to serve you). He was diagnosed with SPD and IED. I still got all the services an autistic child would get but a once a month OT who is 20th in line in terms of "fit" is not helping a whole lot. I will try again (I said that before) but I don't have a lot of hope after my previous experience. Nor do I know how to get an OT to help with this kind of thing because it's usually funded through the school and the only OT provided to homeschoolers here is terrible (I've met with her explaining my issues) and she knows nothing about crossing the midline.

Can you explain further re: joined letter pairs? Do you mean double letter phonograms or something else?

I have looked into this a bit but it seems quite expensive and seems to require quite a bit of at home exercises, is that correct? A regular structure of exercises is very difficult unless they are game like - I could maybe institue a reward system though. I find your comment re: IQ very intriguing as he has very low non verbal IQ.

Thank you, I will look into those kinds of writing things. Re: Lego, he just built a large Lego police station with very occasional help - so no issues there.

Unfortunately, the OT I had was not able to help much with these issues (not the same OT that assessed him) and finding OTs in these speciality areas that are accepting patients is really difficult. BalavisX looks a lot like crossing the midline work. I have tried to do similar activities (actually many of the same) with my son myself but he couldn't even begin to do so many of them and I don't have the expertise to know what to do or how to help him when he's unable and far too demand avoidant for me to slowly take him there the motion. I don't know how or if I can get funding for OT for these issues (Canada) but I'll look into it - the funding for OT was for emotional regulation. Narrative language is ok - not great. Emotional regulation is poor - he's diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder but is a whole lot less explosive than he was between 2-6.5. He still has frequent meltdowns and we live a very low key lifestyle now. I don't take him to stores at all. Demands are very low. He reads at a 5th grade level - haven't ever been concerned about convergence issues because of this but I know it's still a possibility. Comprehension is good if he paid attention...

I need ideas for handwriting for my 8 year old son. He never cared about drawing or writing at all until he was 5 and it's still pretty minimal. His 4 year old brothers drawings are more elaborate than his. I started Logic of English Foundations cursive handwriting around age 4.5 but he just couldn't make sense of all the loops and swirls and we moved onto manuscript using TPT handwriting heroes. Similar concept as HWT. From there we went back and did sandpaper letters and then did OT Size Solutions which helped some. He was also still switching his hand at age 6. The OT said he was right handed and he was dominant in his right hand at the time but often wrote left handed. He's demand avoidant and when I told him he was right handed he switched to fully writing with his left. He's 8 now and still 100% writes with his left but uses his right for lots of other tasks. He also had IQ evaluated and was borderline low in visual spatial and working memory which I'm sure affects handwriting. He refuses to write certain letters left handed and really struggles even when he wants to write. When he doesn't want to write, it's a miracle if I can get him to write a single word, much less a sentence. Usually it is outright refusal. If he's writing on his own time, he has more stamina but gets upset about how poorly his letters look. And he refuses to write quite a few letters in lower case. Right now I am having him do writing assignments on the computer which he doesn't mind at all and it takes so much less time. But as such, he's not getting much handwriting practice. He does like fun/games so I'm looking for advice on games or ways I can get him writing more but also practicing correct formation without pulling teeth. I'm also wondering, at what point do you just give up and let them use a computer full time?