I'm looking for a cheap open-and-go resource for working on following auditory directions. I would love to find something that goes from more simple to more complex directions---adding steps for multi-step directions, directions including negatives, before/after directions, etc. Any recommendations? ETA: I found some free downloadable worksheets through a search engine, but they only had about 2 directions per page and were color. Printing in color is expensive for us so I'd like to find something that I can just read from. Thanks!

I don't know much about piano--either Suzuki or traditional methods of instruction. My question isn't a general one, but I'm wondering which method would be best for MY children in particular. My boys are 8 and 5, and in July I purchased Pianimals piano books. They have been completely self-taught (though I've spent about 15 minutes total in those months reading bits of instruction that my 5 y.o. couldn't read). I don't have to encourage them to play. Most days our piano is being played 2-3 hours, and they *love* it. They just finished the Pianimals series, and now I'm looking for someone to give piano lessons. I inquired with some parents about local teachers, and there are some good traditional teachers and good Suzuki teachers nearby. I hadn't considered Suzuki before. My kids don't need a gentle approach because they really love the piano. They learn new songs but still go back and play some old favorites. They have memorized their favorite pieces. Would there be benefits to Suzuki for them? Learning to sight read is skill they are becoming more adept at, and I really want that to continue. (My husband is a vocalist, and knowing a pianist who can pick up an unfamiliar piece of music to accompany him makes such a difference. I imagine that someone my children may serve that role for someone else.) Does Suzuki negatively affect the ability to sight read music? TIA!

Thank you for your recommendations! I'm looking forward to investigating them! My son does receive group speech therapy at school for some mild articulation issues, volume (i.e., shyness), and use of pronouns. At this point, I am very confident that his speech issues (more extensive than what the school has identified) are just a symptom of auditory processing problems. I spoke with the speech therapist and expressed concern about his auditory processing, mentioning specific problems. I requested a formal auditory evaluation. She was very dismissive. The teacher is more concerned and does see some issues. But my son's academic skills are above average, and he functions quite well in the classroom (picking up well on nonverbal cues). I'm not holding out much hope that the school will give us any more help than they already are. I plan to talk with the teacher again soon and see what she says since she seems to be the one most likely to advocate for him. ETA: We have started working through the Auditory Sequential Memory Workbook by Cusimano that I bought off Amazon, but I didn't realize she had a website. Listening to her videos about auditory problems now. HearBuilder looks like it would be really helpful too! Still need to check out a couple of the other resources you mentioned.

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/497980-potentially-new-ohio-law-on-homeschooling/ "The legislation Cafaro is pushing, if passed, would require the background checks and interviews before the children are allowed to become a part of a home school or online program. School and children service officials would be able to access a statewide data base to determine whether there are past or current abuse investigations against anyone in the child's household. In addition, the guardian must submit to an in person with the child's parents or guardians, and they must allow the children to have age appropriate interviews. If there are records of child abuse by anyone in the household or if the interviews elicit negative information, it must be passed on to the local superintendent or educational leader."

My son is still too young to be assessed, but he has a lot of trouble forming sentences verbally--huge pauses, words in the wrong order, just using wrong words altogether. His auditory memory is a big problem too. If he says something and I ask him what he said, he often can't remember. (He also can't remember what he hears, but I'm very concerned about his ability to hold a sentence in his head long enough to put it down on paper.) I had originally planned to use WWE with him, but that will be completely impossible. He's not able to listen to a passage and know what's being talked about. We're working on his skills, and we don't have to start writing for a while yet. I'm just wondering what *does* work for kids like him--poor sequencing, poor auditory memory, strong visual-spatial learner. Thanks for the bump and responses so far! It will be very helpful to have a list of what has worked for others, as I suspect this will be a frustrating skill to teach/learn.

I *am* seeking both good math and science courses--just trying to find the math course that would be the best fit for my kiddo. That's all. ;)

I don't have other courses to compare to, but so far the class honestly seems to contain more math than science. It's designed to be taken in 8th or 9th grade (so probably at the same time as prealgebra? I'm not sure what grade is typical for prealgebra/algebra these days.). If you watch the 3-minute sample video here, you can see what the course is like: http://www.lucideducation.com/?p=PhysicalScience.php

Just curious (and perhaps thinking too far in advance)--If your child has auditory processing issues, what approach/curricula works for teaching writing skills?

I don't know why, but it never even occurred to me to look at his math courses. This is why I need these boards! :)

Hmmmm . . . I feel like I'm not finding the "right" fit. I haven't looked closely at the more traditional algebra/pre-algebra programs (Jacobs, Dolciani, Forester) since I was pretty sure we'd give AOPS a go. Maybe I should take a look at some of those pre-algebra texts. LOF didn't work well in the past (no retention) but could be different this time, especially since ds can't wait to get to pre-algebra and algebra. A lot of the reviews of Zaccaro mention real world application as a strength of the program, but ds is already getting a lot of that through Derek Owens' Physical Science this year. I think it would be more of the same. Jousting Armadillos looks very intriguing and different. I am sure it would capture ds's interest. Would this be adequate preparation for AOPS algebra? Or perhaps we should try AOPS pre-algebra and see whether it works for us? Nothing makes me feel as indecisive as facing decisions about educational fit.

There are some wonderful children's books about perfectionism. We read those, and it opens up discussion. We've even adopted some of the phrases from books into our everyday language--"having the courage to be imperfect," etc. It also seems to help if we talk about the situation ahead of time -- We're moving ahead in writing, and I know you've been frustrated in the past. I know you want to do it well, and that's great. But the real goal is not that you write the best paper ever. The real goal is that you write a paper without tears, tantrums, ripping of paper, etc. If you start to feel frustrated, what are some things you can do to help calm down so you can think more clearly? Honestly, one of the best things for both of my little perfectionists has been learning to play the piano. The first wrong note, and there was *sobbing* and talk like "See! I can't do it!!" But every day they make mistakes. Every day they can see that they are making huge strides by continuing despite the mistakes. I think that learning to cope with mistakes is a skill that comes easily to some. Others need consistent daily practice in order to develop it. They need to be challenged every single day in order to gain the practice they need. It can come in many many forms. For us, the piano was easy to implement and is working well. Often when they are frustrated by another task, we can talk about their early frustration at piano. It helps to have an "overcoming" experience to refer back to. (hugs) Perfectionism is the most difficult trait I've faced in parenting.

For the younger years, I *love* homeschooling around the kitchen table. Kids can work, and I can load/unload the dishwasher, supervise to make sure everyone is one task, start lunch prep, be available for questions, read instructions, etc. Now that my older child is becoming more independent in his schoolwork, he sometimes goes in another room for quiet. As the younger becomes more independent, I imagine us all back at the time table for a good part of the day.

Rummy Roots is a fun way to learn practical Greek and Latin Roots.

Yet another parent here with a math question. :) We're doing Singapore 5 this year with the plan of moving on to AOPS for algebra. I've read a few threads stating that AOPS prealgebra was more wordy and frustrating for children than the AOPS algebra course. My ds doesn't enjoy arithmetic (though his academic work is fine) and has some exposure to mathematical reasoning, which he adores. His WISC shows extremely high ability in mathematical reasoning as well. I have my eye on AOPS for him but am not sure it is the right step after Singapore 5 because 1) his frustration tolerance is very low, and 2) while he loves mathematical reasoning and can't wait to move beyond arithmetic, he will be taking on some tougher/more time-consuming courses next year. His goal is always to finish and have free time, and he's still young so I don't *want* him spending hours and hours everyday on schoolwork. I thought about using Keys to Algebra as a prealgebra course, and then moving on to AOPS Algebra the following year (when he has another year of maturity and has adjusted to other academic changes/challenge). Thoughts? Is this a good plan? Is Key to . . . too much review after SM 5B? Should we start Keys to . . . after SM 5A? Or is the idea of Keys to . .as a prealgebra course just not the best idea?

We only skip homeschool for weather if there is enough snow for sledding. The past two years, we've had zero "snow days" for homeschool. This winter, we've already had two!

We read lots of books about perfectionism. There are many excellent picture books about this topic. It opened up discussion without it feeling "corrective." We adopted some of the phrases from the book into our everyday conversations--having the "courage to be imperfect" as one example.

My kindergartener *loves* the Bible Study Guide For All Ages.

Ellen McHenry! Her science units are short, so you can easily do 2-3 in a year.

History! I thought I had a decent education, but I knew *nothing*!

We love, love, love Ellen McHenry's The Elements. We also did HS Share's chemistry unit and lapbook and ACS Middle School Science. But The Elements was super easy for me to implement, fun for ds, and had the best content. If I had to do it over again, we would skip everything else, do McHenry's program, and consider the "extra" time as playtime.

We had the same problem. I started assigning him half the work. If he makes too many errors, then I know that he needs more "practice." After I check his work, he is either done for the day or has to do the other half of the work. Assigning even/odd is the simplest way to do it. HTH!

LOVE them! They are non-fiction and rather content-dense for young kids. My son wouldn't have cared much in another form, but he hung on every word because it came from Jack and Annie. Years later, he's read all the MTH research guides at least twice. As we enter a new cycle, we pull some of them out yet again. They are quite different from the MTH books so it would be ideal if you can take a look at them ahead of time.

We are using Scholastic's Note Taking Made Easy and Youtube videos about Cornell notes.

We used McRuffy K last year, and both ds and I loved it. We had tried OPGTR, Phonics Pathways, and a couple of online freebie programs. After K level, we switched to AAR because the samples of McRuffy 1st grade indicated that there would be *a lot* of writing for him. (It probably isn't a lot for some kids, but it would have been a huge step up for my kid.) Because the scope and sequence of AAR is different, we wound up needing to do levels 1 and 2. I wish we had started with AAR 1 to begin with, but ds still speaks fondly of McRuffy and reaches for the colorful little McRuffy readers that he loves. AAR still has the fun, interactive elements that we needed and enjoyed from McRuffy so it's meeting our needs.

We started out doing AAR 1 as written and ds HATED it. The fluency pages were what he hated. I started tweaking--reducing the fluency pages and making sure we did some kind of fun activity every day. Level 2 still has the fluency pages, but it *seems* like a smaller portion of the program. The amount feels more "right" for us. Perhaps it's just that they are easier for ds now. We do them all in AAR 2. In fact, we cycle back to do them 2-3 times for sticky concepts. Ds doesn't mind them at all now. HTH!