It might just be a habit and she is sort of skipping the easy words. You could try covering up part of the word so she has to read it bit by bit. But I would only do that for phonetic words, probably not "said." It could just be a matter of getting her to pay attention. My dyslexic did this and I know it's common with dyslexics, but I almost hate to mention that because she is an early reader and I don't want to worry you!

Sum Swamp - math game that even your little one can do but is fun for the whole family. I bought a second one after the first lost its pieces. It's a big hit in my house! Inflatable Globe - popular from toddler to 5th grader...for different reasons!

FIAR AAS Level 1 Making Math Meaningful with Cuisanaire rods Spelling U See Artistic Pursuits Music for Little Mozarts HWOT Poetry, nature walks, artist and composer studies, etc with family

You could try CLE Reading. It's no frills and she can do the light units by herself. There are 5 light units (workbooks) to go along with the reader for fourth grade and up and it's meant to be a half year course.

You only need the TM for grade 1 math. Once they think the kids can read they put the word problems right into the light unit. I've done 2nd and 3rd without one and it's been fine.

I'll have to look into OT and our insurance coverage. We did have a "consultant" provided by the state of Texas who came over weekly for awhile when she was about 2. It wasn't a bad experience, but not really helpful and the consultant finally told me I was already doing everything she could think of and asked me if she needed to keep coming! Thinking about it now, I am sure a private OT would not be at all the same. And having some exercises to help would be good. I am sure my dd would love to go. I just need to find out how to go about it. Geodob-I am pretty sure she knows how to form the letters. She spent lots of time tracing them with her index finger in our Montessori letters book. And she has been fascinated by letters since she sat with her brother and I when I was teaching him how to read. So, she has had lots of practice with writing letters in the sand tray and with sidewalk chalk, etc. Heathermomster- the wheelbarrow idea is great, and she loves that kind of thing. I have been thinking of that ap, but she has already done a lot of letter writing ap work, so I haven't bought it yet.

This is my first time having a younger child who wants to and can write and I am just not sure if how she does it is normal! My dd turned five in Jan and she loves to spell cvc words. The thing is no one can tell that she is actually writing words because her letters look more like hieroglyphs. They are sideways, upside down, backwards and maybe even inside out! I just would like to know if I should be concerned. Big brother is dyslexic and she does have similar difficulties hearing sounds, but she can rhyme and tell me the beginning and ending sounds of simple words as well as spell very well (cvc only) so I am just wanting to hear that hieroglyphs are normal at age five...please tell me they are! Oh, in case it helps to know more about her, her fine motor skills are a bit delayed. She is just now confident with cutting and still can't color at all neatly or draw anything recognizable. (Everything she draws kind of looks like an octopus.) She was also a late walker and talker and used sign language for over a year before starting to talk much.

It sounds like she is learning and progressing well even with your illness. My kids have some sensory issues which makes being in large groups uncomfortable. Do you think if she were in school she would be able to handle the constant stimuli? I also wonder how she would be after school. Honestly no matter what you choose it may not be ideal. I've never had anything like brain surgery but I used to get crippling migraines that sent me to bed for the day. At their worst they came on 2-3 times a week. Only my oldest was homeschooling and we got through with audiobooks and CLE. It turned out for me that MSG, gluten and low hormones were the culprits. I still get some headaches, but I am not taken down by them. I hope you find a solution. It sounds like you have been through a lot! Have you chatted with her OT about this? What does your husband think? If it were me I think I'd keep homeschooling, but I really don't have any experience with the kind of behavior issues you dd has. There is a new book out from Memoria Press that takes about Classical Education with special kids. I'm not sure if anything in there would be helpful, but maybe it would be encouraging. Also, what about hiring a babysitter so you can take dd to co-op? If you think that co-op would make the difference, it might be worth finding your little one a sitter so it's possible for dd to go.

I think it's a bit random and depends on what you ask for as well as what they have in stock. For instance, they sent me a TM for one grade but not another, and no readers or anything like that. But I think you would probably receive the core curriculum you request. You can also just write and ask for curriculum for first grade and say you don't care who the publisher is. That would probably guarantee good results. You really won't know unless you try. However, in my personal opinion, a little curriculum goes a long way with a first grader! Unless you really want workbooks, you could probably find most of what you need at the public library. I remember checking out phonics pathways four or five times...now I own it, which is much nicer. ;) But we all have to do what works at the time. Good luck!

For mine, I crossed out some review and that did bring it under your time limit. He is doing third grade math now without crossing out much and I give him 45 minutes, but he does daydream for part of that time.

Hank the cow dog, but I'm not sure a five year old would enjoy the series. If he does and you like them they are totally funny.

There's a curriculum you could check out called Flowering Baby. I was just looking at it because my two year old doesn't get enough mom time to do fun stuff. I think it would drive me crazy, but that's just me! It has a little list of activities to do with you kid each day.

It's a super time consuming way to teach reading and writing, IMHO. I found it OK until younger sister started to sleep less, LOL. I think I liked it more than ds, actually. We spent about 45min- an hour to do one lesson a day. Sadly, my son did not like the farm, games or poetry. He didn't mind the handwriting or sight word readers.

If he likes workbooks he might enjoy CLE's Kindergarten II. it's meant to be done after finishing the Rod and Staff ABC series. My son at that age really enjoyed the cut and fold Kumon Book that has the kids make little toys. It was so great for him, sigh. I wish homeschooling stayed that easy.

Well, they aren't as sturdy as Legos. My son used them to build a tower and balanced a couch pillow on top, which broke several of the sticks. Of course, if you just use them for school you should be fine. They are fun to blow bubbles with, too. I ended up tossing them because the set I bought was too small to do anything very interesting with and I didn't feel like investing in a bigger set.

As far as the sight words, I just taught them by sight. When we had to read one, I uncovered the entire word. My son didn't have a problem with it. But we only did level A. His reading really took off on its own after that and I am very grateful to Dancing Bears as all the phonics in the world weren't clicking in his brain. The cursor was so helpful to really teach him HOW to read/look at a word. I recently made my own cursor to use in Phonics Pathways with my five year old dd. I may use DB with her but for now wanted to avoid the stories as they are a bit, hmm, inappropriate for a little person. My son kind of liked them, but he was eight when we did DB.

I see you've decided on HOD, and after using all three, it was what I was going to recommend to you! One thing I have noticed about HOD at the earlier levels is that there are less books, so it's easier to keep track of them! Also, with MFW you have the constant need for the library and sometimes it's just hard to get things back on time. I must admit I like the science supplies that SL sells, but haven't had an issue with our HOD experiments or art projects. Good luck and give yourself and your child time to get used to HOD. I found it to have a bit of a learning curve at first. Firstly because it was hard to get used to the daily boxes rather than a grid schedule, and secondly because the type of work required was different than what my son was used to. He is used to it now and so am I and I find it easy to teach!

There is a very silly one or preschoolers, Maisey goes Camping.

I can't help with laser, but we have had good luck with our Epson WorkForce. I think the key is buying a printer made for a small office, it should be build to last longer than one marketed for home use.

My ten year old loved it. He actually "stole" it and read on his own rather than wait for me to read aloud. My five year old listened in a bit when I was reading and got the main points, but I wouldn't have read it to her alone. Also, if you are worried about your son being scared by perilous situations, I might wait.

I just bought the lesson book and CDs. It was fine! The CDs were too fast for my son to play along with, but he enjoyed listening to them, and the little story line makes the lesson books more personable. He did level 1 and 2. I keep meaning to pull them out for my dd. I can't comment on the other parts of the program, but you can teach straight from the lesson book even without a lot of piano skills, you just might not be able to play the accompaniment. My son didn't like playing along with the accompaniment anyway, and so we skipped that part. Personally, I would only buy the workbooks if they are workbook loving kids.

House cleaning pixies

My ten yo son loves, adores and coddles his two year old sister, born when he was eight. I think it's a great spacing, but yes, the whole baby thing is a bit of a shock after so long! Totally worth it, though.

If you wanted to have school that day, I wouldn't. We had a class at nine one year and never really got back on track those days. On the other hand, you could just count on it being a light day. For my family it wouldn't work well because the kids really thrive on routine.

You might be able to find affordable help from an excellent chiropractor. I recently discovered they can adjust shoulders, clavicles, elbows, wrists, and even feet. I had had shoulder issues including lots of pain and limited range of motion, not as bad as yours, but still hurting for over a year and it was better after five visits. We have never had insurance that covers chiropractic, and here it is $60 per visit, which is pricy, but not compared to the numbers mentioned above!