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khall

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Everything posted by khall

  1. For my DD9 (dysgraphia and a whole bunch of other stuff), we do MEP on my iPad. There's an app (PDF expert....best $9.99 I ever spent) that allows you to save and write on PDFs. She does great with this because she doesn't have to write at all. She just uses her finger on the screen, and can make the page so big that there is only one problem taking up the entire screen. It has completely eliminated the writing aspect from math, and she is FINALLY being successful with math. This won't help you if you don't have an iPad or a tablet of some sort, but it's such a great tool for a kid with dysgraphia!
  2. Were you given a typed report for your records? When DD9 was evaluated, the audiologist was able to tell me on the day of testing that she definitely had an auditory processing disorder. We received the actual typed report several weeks later, and also had a phone consult to follow up and discuss the results. In the report it specifically says that she is diagnosed with CAPD, and gives recommendations as far as following up with speech/language therapy, as well as recommended accomodations for school work. You should have received some kind of written documentation that explained exactly what the results mean.
  3. Both of my kiddos read several grade levels above, and are abysmal spellers. For DS10 we use Megawords, and are starting to see results from it. For DD9 (diagnosed with dysgraphia and poor short term memory) we use Apples and Pears. She is doing better after a year of this, but will never spell well. I imagine a child without learning difficulties would make great strides with either of these programs.
  4. Yes, this. We also add in Megawords for spelling because he truly stinks at it.
  5. We tried these last year. DD8 did The World of Vertebrates and DS10 did The World of Tools and Technology. They both liked them, and learned quite a bit, but I found it labor intensive for me. You have to print out the little booklets, and the kids can assemble them and read through them for the information they need. I liked that there are a variety of suggested activities for different ages/grades, along with suggested books to read. There were also some experiements to do and other hands on activities. Both kids have retained what they learned, so I'm pleased with that. I would use these again, but for this upcoming year we're doing an online science with minimal teacher prep because that might work a bit better for me. Hope this helps!
  6. I like the looks of the independent student sheets from the winter promise program guides (look at any of their samples on their website to see them). I made my own modeled after them. I just inserted an excel spreadsheet into a word doc. One page for each week. Across the top is day 1, day 2,....5 days on each page, all the way through day 180. Down the left side is list of materials/curricula and I spread the assignments out throughout the year. Sent it to Staples, printed and spiral bound for less than $5, and I don't need to sit down every week to make an assignment sheet, and the kids know the expectations for the year, and are free to work ahead if they want to. Downside is it took forever to make it, and if we change something midyear it will be a pain
  7. Same problem for us this year. 5th grade is the year the kids go to the "big" school, and DS10 is hearing lots of excitement from friends. He's excited to still be home though, because we let him choose EVERYTHING! He feels totally in control of his schedule. This is our 3rd year home, so we had tried a few different LA and math programs, and he picked his favorite to use. He chose to do a year of world geography, and thinks he's getting away with something because he picked an online science. He also asked to do German (online), architecture, and take drum lessons, and he's amazed that we're letting him. It's an unusual schedule, but he's delighted. No matter how exciting the middle school might seem, he's very aware that his friends have absolutely no choice in what they study, so he's happy. We also have a field trip lined up for every.single.week! He looks forward to these, and learns a lot, so they are well worth the hassle and time they take.
  8. Is there anyone who has used this with the lesson book that can tell me how many lessons there are? I've ordered the package from CBD (text, lesson book, and art cards), but I'm trying to finish up our schedule for the year in the next day or so and it will take longer than that to get the package! I just want to know how many lessons, so I can put them into our schedule. thanks to anyone who can help!
  9. :iagree: I've never used it either, but did look into it, and I got the impression it was very much like CLE. It's Saxon and Hake Grammar, or something like that.
  10. Ok, I promise I was about to hit reply and offer this suggestion anyway.....but it became funny because of your "AHA moment" comment. Have you looked at AHA! Science from learning.com? http://www.learning.com/store/ahascience/middleschool/ They have a complete program for grades 3-5 and then the grades 6-8 is supposed to be an overview that you could supplement with books, experiments, etc. It's $15 for the year and it has online learning videos, interactive games, journaling, quizzes,and printable activities as well. I thought of it when I read your initial post because you mentioned your son had liked an online course, and then I read further down and you were looking for an AHA moment and I just :lol:
  11. For $15 for the year, you can get a subscription to EasyTech at learning.com. It covers EVERYTHING!
  12. :confused: You seem a bit unclear on what your concerns are. To meet his needs now, use materials that are at his level, regardless of grade level. Also, he doesn't seem old for a rising 3rd grader. With a late summer/early fall b-day, he's one of the older ones, but somebody always is. If you really want to grade skip him, you need to think about how he'll do as the very youngest, as well as some long term planning and some "what if" planning. Will he return to school at some point? If so, what if it's 6th or 7th grade? Do you want him to be youngest or oldest in that situation? Is he at all interested in sports? Being oldest might make him faster, stronger, more skilled. Being youngest might mean he won't be competitive against older kids, or might not make the cut at tryouts. What about high school? Do you want him to be first or last to get his license? There are many many issues that are totally non-academic that come into play with a grade skip. If meeting his needs academically right now is your primary concern, than buy materials at his level, and keep calling him the grade level he would be in if he had remained in school. As someone else mentioned, you won't run out of things to learn about. What if you call him a higher grade now, and then discover in 5 years that he would fit better in the lower grade? How would he feel? Another idea might be to tell him that he is a 3rd grader, but he's working on 4th grade math and LA. Depending on personality, he might really like that!
  13. :iagree: School year round doesn't need to look like formal school for learning to take place. We start in Sept, and by this time of year almost all the curriculum we used is done. I don't want them to forget what they've learned though, so anything formal we do is "review". We use Daily Math Review and Daily Language Review by Evan Moor. The kids do one of each maybe three times a week. Only 5 problems each, but it keeps it fresh! They play Math Rider on the computer, which they love. The summer reading program at the public library assigns a different genre a week, so this week they are each reading biographies. DD9 just had her birthday and is writing thank you notes and addressing envelopes (I tend to skip the letter writing assignments in the LA book because it annoys me to have them write pretend letters when they can write real letters to real people.) We visit local museums, and the rest is interest led. DD9 found an enormous snail in the yard last weekend, and wants to know about snails. We checked out library books about snails and mollusks, she has made some snail art, and we talked a lot about invertebrates. She had learned about vertebrates for school this year, so I love that she's discovering invertebrates outside of curriculum. We did CHOW for history this year, and are still finishing it up. We just read a chapter about Roanoke, and DS10 is obsessed. He has checked out a bunch of library books and is pouring over them and coming up with his own theories.
  14. We like these from CLE http://www.clp.org/product/language_arts_reference_chart_grades_3_4_2194 http://www.clp.org/product/language_arts_reference_chart_grades_5_6_2197
  15. :iagree: I don't think it is really a difference in whether it's Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, but more of a difference in who the leader is. Our experience has been that Daisy Scouts was a total joke and DD got nothing out of it, yet "earned" all her petals. A different leader took over for Brownies and the past few years have been excellent. Lots of trips and hands on activities, and girls only are awarded badges when they have actually met all the requirements. Cub Scouts ended up being the opposite. First grade was fantastic, with lots of exploring the community and hands on learning. New leader took over the end of the year and it was terrible. She did NOTHING with the boys, but gave them badges every month. We ended up dropping out partway through third grade. DS dreaded going to the meetings at that point. See if you can sit in on some meetings and see what the troop is doing. Then you should be able to tell what kind of leader you're getting and what kind of activities are being done.
  16. True, but I personally would rather not have it be my child! :D There are huge advantages to being the oldest, and in high school classes are sorted out by ability instead of age anyway. You could call her the lower grade if it's a better fit socially/emotionally, but continue on with academics, and she'd just take advanced classes towards the end of high school.
  17. LLATL First tried it for 3rd, and then again for 4th, and had trouble seeing the big picture and where it was going. It seemed a little scattered and both times we ended up shelving it and doing a little of this and a little of that. I wish I had been able to look through the upper level editions, because now that I have, I understand the approach. We are back to using it with rising 5th grader, and just love it! Everything is coming together for him, and I think he would have enjoyed the earlier levels if I had understood the process.
  18. Ummmmm.....in ours (I have math for grades 3-5), it's a total of 17 lessons. Lesson 5 and 10 in each book says "tell your teacher you are ready for a quiz", and lesson 16 is the test. Lesson 17 is fun enrichment material. If you do every lesson in every book, it is 170 lessons for the year. When we were using it, I skipped the quizzes, because I could already tell from the We Remember sections what they still needed to work on. That made it only 150 lessons, and I liked the extra wiggle room!
  19. I'm not familiar with the other two, but we're just now finishing up the Howard Pyle version, and DS10 LOVES it. DD8, not so much. We've been using AO for some read aloud selections, and it was on the literature list. There's some older language in it, but it's great fun.
  20. Ok, I can't attach the file here, it's too big. I even tried just saving the first page and attaching it, but it's too big also. If you look at the WP site and click on the samples of any of their programs, you'll see what the independent learner schedule looks like. The schedule I made looks like that, but instead of having empty spots for LA and math, I actually have ours all filled in. I like it because the kids haven't figured out that I'm the one assigning work. :lol: It's more like "oh, let's see what you're supposed to do today". Everything is already neatly prepared.
  21. We're heading out for a fun day trip now, but I'll try to get a link on here tonight so you can see. It's a HUGE file though, so I don't know how that will work.
  22. I really like the set up of the WP guides, especially the independent learner sheets, but we use a hodge podge of different resources and I wanted it ALL on the schedule. I ended up using WP as a model and making my own. I used a word doc and inserted a spreadsheet into the middle of it. It looks like the WP guide, but includes all of our materials for the whole year. It took forever to set it up, but it's easy to tweak, looks nice, and just makes life easier!
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