Like others have said, I would get him evaluated if possible. Sound like perfect timing with bringing him home as well so you can really teach him the way he needs to learn! I have a very similar 13yo (with a few other issues as well) and after struggling with him for years it made SUCH a difference to me to know what it was he really needed. Some of it was quite different than what I expected. Understanding some of that may be the key to your helping him de-stress about school. I read something a long time ago about 'taking the school out of homeschool'. Trying to find ways to spark his interest without being 'schooly' about it might help. I will be honest with you that it's not easy to teach kids like ours! I'm sure you're expecting that, too. Lots of patience is needed and teaching him to deal with his own frustration has probably been 1/2 of the battle with my ds. (I taught him for years but he's in a school now) Good for you for wanting to find what's best for yours!

I've been where you are, too! My ds (now 13) is dyslexic and a few other things. After doing a couple of different phonics programs, what finally got him reading more fluently were Pathway Readers. They were very gently incremental in the way they added new words so it removed some of his stress, and he enjoyed the stories. They're inexpensive, too! http://www.pathwayreaders.com/ There are samples on this site. I think Rod and Staff sells them, too, as well as Timberdoodle.

Pm'd you!

Thanks for trying! I can get to that point but then it tells me it can't be downloaded outside of the US. I think the step past that is what I need.

I pm'd you!

From India it stops at a notice saying that it can only be downloaded inside the US. I couldn't get to that link from my computer address. Thanks for trying to help me, though!

I would like to use ILL with my ds. I know that it's available on Google Books for free, but since I live in India it only says that it's not available outside of the US when I go to the website. Would someone mind giving me the link from the US Google Books site so that I can download the PDF of it???????

Thanks, ladies!!! Someone from here just emailed me the PDF and I love the look of the book. My ds is actually a pretty good speller but think that the 2nd 1/2 of the book will be great practice for him and work on all around skills quite well. I didn't know about the 2nd book. Will put that on my 'to get' list but I can already see that I'm going to have the same issue as with the first. Oh my, nansk, your download link works!!! I can't even get that option in India. Just a notice that I can't download outside of the US. Thanks so much everyone. :001_smile:

Thanks for checking for me! I can see the full text at archive.org to view it online so at least I can see how fast it progresses. I can't download from the Google Books PDF, though.

Thanks! I did a Kindle download but the format was terrible so I clicked to read it online (can't do the PDF, that takes me to Google Books) and can view it to preview it that way. I can at least test him in a few spots to see if it's too easy and then order a print copy if it fits him. Free online would be better, of course, if there is a way! Thanks!!!

It looks like I could download the one you linked to but not Wheelers. Weird!

I've been seeing this mentioned a lot lately and would like to take a closer look. Unfortunately you cannot download from Google Books outside the US so I would have to order a print copy. I see that people are starting it in 1st and 2nd. What would be the upper range of use for this book? Too easy for a 4th grader?

What is HOD? I haven't been around much for a while, thanks!

What she said. I used level one with a 10 year-old. Dyslexia is such a tricky thing because it's different for everyone and often goes hand in hand with something else. I knew my ds had Dyslexia and studied up on that quite a bit, but had no idea that part of the reason he wasn't writing well wasn't only the spelling issue but also Dyspraxia. I also totally understand the not remembering words later thing since he has short-term memory issues as well. He's made tons of progress but if I could do it over again I would have had him all around tested much sooner.

I'm in New Zealand and it IS well and truly over here! And somehow my kids didn't notice yesterday and I haven't reminded them. One dd in particular will be very sad when she realizes it!

Thanks for posting this! Not something that's comfortable to think about but very real. I live in Phoenix currently which has been discovered to be one of the cities that a large ring rotates girls in for periods of time and then out to different locations to avoid detection. Later this year our family is moving to India to help rescue women exactly like this by teaching them skills and providing a job for them otherwise who were stolen or sold into the trade at a young age. So this is very close to my heart!

LOL!!! Now THAT'S a blast from the past! Hang in there and I hope that you won't need to state that soon because it will be obvious that something's happening!!!!

Oh my, let's see. There are so many! In fact, my dc just roll their eyes and offer to read for me a bit now. What is it about speaking the words that makes it worse?! The Witch of Blackbird Pond Eric Liddell Johnny Tremain Little Britches Cheaper By the Dozen Those are the first ones that come to mind.

Well, I've been back in the States a couple of years but I move away again in just 4 weeks so maybe I count? We'll be in New Zealand and Fiji (used to live there) over the next 9 months and then we'll be in India long term.

Great thread!!! The things that others have posted are great. Seems to me that a good way to summarize an effective way to do this is to intentionally and methodically get them out of their comfort zones. I agree very much with what some have said about using everyday life to teach them, highly valuable (!), but it's quite likely that in an American lifestyle that kids might never really come face to face with issues like poverty, injustice, etc, and that looking for service opportunities and exposure to the plight of others up close and personal for our dc is very important. My dc have spent most of their lives in the 3rd world, but that was their comfort zone. It wasn't until we'd been back in the States for a couple of years and my daughters went last summer on a missions trip back to where we used to live that the fact that our neighbors were poor sunk in! And it has changed them. They'd grown much more materialistic while we've been in the States and that has been reigned in considerably as well as lots of other excellent results in them from that trip. I also think that it's important to do this sort of thing our whole lives! It's too easy to grow comfortable and we need to be reminded that many of our issues are trival in the big picture to keep our character sharp and to keep us looking beyond our comfort zones to serve. I have a good friend who had a abusive childhood and went through years of therapy over it. She said a major turning point for her was being a group situation where someone who'd had it even worse than her was sharing. She realized that there's always something worse so it's changed the way she lives her own life day to day into gratutide and joy! I've just used a mission trip as an example, but I'm sure there are lots of other good ways to accomplish this if we look!

I think you're absolutely right! I'm not organized enough (or have too many dc!) to supplement from 2 programs all along like some do but I can see definite benefits of switching programs sometime.

I did the MUS placement tests with them and they went back a bit and one did Epsilon and Zeta and one just did Zeta. They're both in different places in Albegra I now.

I switched my oldest dc to Math U See after Horizons 6. I discovered that even though they'd done great in the program and 'passed' just fine, that unless I prompted them how to approach a problem they were stumbling. I don't mean that as a criticism of Horizons, though! They just didn't understand the 'why's' of Math (which I thought might be a good thing before going on to High School math!) so I thought the very different approach of MUS would be good for them. So far so good!