Thanks for the tip - I've never visited Sonlight before, but they had the Mathtacular DVDs on sale for half the price of Amazon ;)

I'd try cookbooks. Maybe The Joy of Cooking. I used that when I was a kid. It depends on how old the child is, what reading level. Or look for kids' cookbooks. Or perhaps you've tapped into an underserved market :)

Good idea - yes, there are several fractions videos, some listed under Arithmetic and some under Pre-algebra. http://www.khanacademy.org/ My kids love this site :)

I think LOF would make for a fun review. I have also heard good things about Key to Fractions, which we own but haven't used yet. It looks very thorough.

IMO, kids that close in age are likely to simply be friends with each other. I wouldn't worry about being around other kids much until they're school age.

Here is my opinion, FWIW. Her birthday and size are not relevant. Just to make sure I have this correctly: she struggles in spelling and writing, reads chapter books and aces math. I think it would be a mistake to hold her back. There is a lot of research out there on retention, most of it is negative. Spelling and writing are the only problems? I really don't see these as a good reason to hold someone back. I'd try to get to the bottom of the problem. First I'd want to rule out vision issues with a checkup, preferrably with a developmental optometrist (www.covd.org). Is it a fine motor issue? I'd rather get an OT eval than hold her back. She would be bored to tears with repeating the same math. Retention could kill her love of learning. If the school won't allow her ahead (which doesn't make sense to me because I don't see how a person can "fail" first grade while getting 100s on math tests and reading chapter books), then I'd homeschool next year. My bottom line opinion in situations like this (as a mom to kids who have had their share of special issues, including writing, but love math :D) is that I'd move her ahead, along with whatever support she may need, be it OT or whatever. Also, assuming we're talking about handwriting, I'd teach typing (for example, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ ) That's my two cents :) ETA: is she a visual-spatial learner? http://www.visualspatial.org/what_is_a_vsl.htm . There are various tricks for working on spelling http://www.visualspatial.org/Articles/app2spell.pdf I remember it helped dd when she was in first grade.

I'd get an OT evaluation. An OT will have lots of ideas. Obviously he needs to learn to write by hand, but I hate to see fine motor issues get in the way of learning content. My ds's teacher got him number stamps so he could do math even though he struggled with writing numbers (they were dotted and he'd trace them afterward for practice). Is he interested in the computer at all? I don't know how young is too young for typing, but I'd give it a shot. My ds7, who struggles with fine motor skills, never draws either. He can never make a drawing match the image that's in his brain. It's complicated by a tendency toward perfectionism. If it's any consolation, he started K not being able to write more than his name (and then only barely!!! with all capital letters), and between OT and his montessori teacher, he finished K writing in cursive. If only I could get him to do that now... now he only prints. His writing takes a long time and requires patience, but it's nicer than his twin brother's who never had OT. They are both about to learn typing. Thinking some more, you need to figure out whether you're dealing with a fine motor problem, a perfectionism problem, or (more likely) both.

From my kids' recent reports, letter-number sequencing involves sequencing, mental manipulation, attention, short term auditory memory, visuospatial imaging and processing speed. Digit span has two parts - digit span forward involves rote learning and memory, attention encoding and auditory processing. Digit span backward involves working memory, transformation of information, mental manipulation and visuospatial imaging. Symbol search involves visual scanning and tracking, while coding requires more motoric output. Coding tends to be related to the ability to rapidly take notes and timed tests/timed assignments. Based on my kids' relatively low coding scores (low relative to their other scores), the psych recommended that they learn typing and avoid timed tests.

We're doing Getting Started With Latin and it's fairly independent. http://www.gettingstartedwithlatin.com/ It's heavy on beginning grammar with just enough vocabulary to teach the grammar lessons. The lessons are short and straightforward. I'm not sure where we'll go from there; maybe First Form (if my kids were older, my answer would be different. DD will be in 4th grade when we move on). Other than that, for a fifth grader I'd be looking at a middle-schoolish program like First Form, but I'm no expert. I'm pretty sure Prima Latina would be too young, and I believe there are no prerequisites to First Form, i.e., LC1 wouldn't be necessary. Other ones I'd consider would be The Great Latin Adventure and Latin Prep.

I just wanted to add that just because you choose to homeschool regular academics does not mean you must homeschool both religion and sacrament preparation if you don't want to. You could always do the regular religious education offered to children who do not attend the parish school. Or you could homeschool the regular religious education and do the sacrament preparation offered through the parish. Call your church's religious education office (or check their website). Indeed, a large part of the reconciliation and communion preparation at our parish is done by the parents anyway - there are parent workshops and just a few workshops attended by the parent and child together, and parents are supposed to work through a book with their children.

:iagree: My kids have handwriting issues and the psychologist recommended teaching typing ASAP. So dd9 started at this site recently and she loves it http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ . Now I need to decide whether to get the kids a dedicated computer since I am addicted to mine :tongue_smilie: I have no advice on the other parts of writing at the moment.

I'm still strugglling with how best to afterschool. For us, it would make sense to do it in the morning if I could get my act together! The kids are usually up at 6:30 or so and we leave around 8:15, so maybe we could squeeze an hour in there. In the meantime, I have to get the little ones dressed and fed and make some lunches, and I'm finding it too hard to fit in (plus corralling the kids to sit down to work). Maybe Breann's post will inspire me - I could probably make it work if I get up a little earlier. I need to commit :). I'm so lazy... In our case, I'm teaching the kids Latin and trying to supplement their math (their strength) but I haven't gotten organized about the math part yet. I have some LOF books that at least two of the three older ones are ready for, and I have random Singapore workbooks, and we view videos at Khan Academy occasionally. I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished over the summer. However, I've had dreams of doing so in past summers that didn't quite work out (to be fair to myself, this will be the second summer in five years that I'm not having a baby). Thus far, I'm kind of treating Latin like piano, as in, no playing Wii until piano has been practiced and a Latin lesson is done. Currently, we're using GSWL so each lesson is fairly short, and I'm teaching the three of them individually. I agree that it can be very hard to get work done after school, between homework, other activities, and the kids' need to unwind and just play. Sometimes we'll get some Latin done that last hour before they go to bed (between 7 and 8 pm), after my little ones are in bed. But that only works if their homework and reading for school are already finished. We seem to get the most done on the weekend.

FWIW, on the probiotic issue, I vaguely recall seeing something about giving probiotics directly to the baby to help with dairy allergy/intolerance. It did not work for my dd though - she's 9 months and still appears to have a problem with dairy (at least she still did as of six weeks ago). However, I have used probiotics with some success when there's an apparent tummy bug making the rounds of our little ones - I can't know for sure, but it seemed to put a quick stop to the baby's diahrrea. I use Klaire Labs' Infant Formula probiotic and put it in baby fruit. In a few weeks, I may have her try dairy again and maybe I'll try giving her the probiotics with it. I'm procrastinating because I don't want to put her through it :( but she's getting to the age where I'd like to add yogurt and cheese (ETA: as table food for her). Part of me is hoping it's a lactose intolerance thing now as opposed to the protein allergy. The ped suggested her trying yogurt, since there's little lactose, so she'd be unlikely to react unless she has the allergy. Anyone know how old the baby should be before pursuing testing? One of my kids was first skin tested for food allergies at 12 months (he had reacted to peanut) but this is a new ped and a different issue so I'm not sure what she'll say. I have to remember to ask the allergist at ds's next visit... :glare:

:iagree:Yep! The most important thing is to have fun!!!

I think this is a wise approach. It would be good for her to take a longer view - if she chooses x, what will the result be and what will be the options open to her? If after graduating (from high school or whatever level of college), she chooses to work full time in a bakery, she should consider what that is going to yield as far as income level goes, and whether that will be sufficient for what she envisions in terms of her lifestyle in the short run, long run, etc. She might consider whether her ultimate dream is to own her own cake-decorating business, and whether she would be better off adding business coursework on the front end or later on, while she's working (I'd go so far as to look into what sorts of night school business degrees are available in your area, so that she knows what options may be available down the road. I think that's not an unusual approach, FWIW). For my own kids, one of my goals is to help them understand the potential ramifications of their choices so that they are not surprised and/or disappointed down the road. I'd like them to make these sorts of decisions with their eyes wide open, especially where career and finances are concerned. I want their dreams to be somewhat tempered with reality, or, I'd like them to know how they can realistically go about realizing their dreams. I want them to know what they are choosing, for today and for their future, and I'd like to help them hedge their bets when possible, leaving other options open.

This is great to hear. My dd doesn't have an official diagnosis of dyslexia, but had trouble learning to read (in particular, blending sounds) and now is getting therapy for language processing issues (at this point, vocabulary and reading comprehension - making inferences, visualizing, etc. In the past, she's been through vision therapy and combo OT/listening therapy). I'm teaching her Latin specifically because she has these issues. The help with vocabulary is obvious and dovetails nicely with what her language therapist is doing (pointing out roots, etc.). As for the grammar, I'm hoping that the systematic, mathematical nature of Latin (see, e.g., http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/apology-latin-math.html) will be a sort of back door to English grammar. Math is a significant strength for her. I have no idea whether any of this will work out as I'm hoping. So far, we're almost half way through Getting Started With Latin, and she breezed through the beginning - stunningly, really. Now it's getting more meaty, so we'll have to slow down quite a bit, I think. I haven't figured out yet where we go from here curriculum-wise. ETA: my thinking kinda reminds me of that scene in My Fair Lady when the professor explains that they taught her French, because if she could learn French, she could learn English. :) (Of course, in that situation, they were talking about pronunciation.) I'm hoping to start Spanish in six months or so. DH's first language was Spanish so I'm hoping he'll help :)

For typing, my dd9 likes http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ . Someone posted it here last week (thanks!!), and it turned out that she had been using the same website during her technology class at school.

Sounds like maybe he's overtired, or for some other reason unable to fall back to sleep after waking up at night. What's his schedule like? (and how about molars?) FWIW, if he's capable of climbing out of the crib, I'd remove the side of the crib or put him on a mattress on the floor. I try to avoid this as long as possible with my kids, because they find it sooo interesting when they realize they can get up :glare:. But it happens when it happens. I have no experience with crib tents.

Thank you for this input! I really appreciate it. My dd will be in fourth grade, so I'm guessing she won't be ready for Wheelock yet. So far GSWL is mostly grammar, which I think is good for her. We'll probably end up with First Form Latin, anticipating a little review in the very beginning. I took Latin in high school, but it seems as though it was in another life - I barely remember it (25 yrs ago). I'll go back and look for your older posts - I have noticed that your posts always contain interesting information :). Thank you for being so generous with your knowledge!

Why hold her back? Strike while the iron is hot! :) I'd let her do as much as she wants. It's mostly vocabulary. My third grader finished it in a few weeks. She didn't listen to every single song on the cd either - only a few. When she finished, we started Getting Started With Latin, and when that is done (possibly in a couple months) I'm not sure what we'll move on to; probably First Form.

Just to confuse things further, one of my kids recently got a very high score on the digit span subtest of the WISC, but he very clearly has some sort of auditory processing issue. We're starting therapy for language processing. (Also he's still in speech therapy at 7 y.o.) On the other hand, his vision processing is excellent, at least according to the Beery-something test of visual-motor integration (though the motor portion, not so much! big disparity there.) ETA: apparently at least part of the digit span subtest involves auditory short-term memory. There are two components, digit span forward and digit span backward. My report says that forward involves rote learning and memory, attention encoding and auditory processing. Backward involves working memory, transformation of informatin, mental manipulation and visuospatial thinking. Anyone want to place a bet on which one my ds did better at? Unfortunately I don't have that detail in my report.:tongue_smilie:

:iagree: The place we went to for OT believes that ocular motor activity is a subset of sensory processing, which at its broadest includes the whole central nervous system. Indeed, we saw great benefits to dd's vision from OT (we could literally see the difference in how she was able to move her eyes; it was coincidental in that we were doing the OT for other reasons, SPD). Interestingly, one of our local developmental optometrists (www.covd.org) has an OT on staff.

Now I'm curious - what grade level would be the youngest for which you would use Wheelock? And what kind of pace would you plan on for that grade level? (I'm so confused; I've been considering FFL as our next step after GSWL, but my kids are fairly young). Thanks!! :)

My ds struggled with handwriting, but is very into math. His Montessori teacher got some number stamps, the kind with dotted lines, so that he could still progress with math in spite of his handwriting issues. (He'd stamp the numbers he needed for the problems and then trace them for practice.) I'd hate to let a motor issue keep a child from learning content.

Just curious. DD9 is hounding me. I think I was around 12.