I too was this way. I mean how could you concentrate when you have music playing? I know I couldn't. Our dr. was the first person to suggest that I do this for dd. I can see the stress just melt away. Our dr. also suggested that I read The Gift in You: Discovering New Life Through Gifts Hidden in Your Mind by Dr. Caroline Leaf. This helped explain while my dd did better with music playing. She explains scientifically that we all have 7 pillars in our brains that information loop through. If say the musical pillar is more dominant, then to get any info in the brain it is best to start with music. I am doing the book no justice. My library had it.

Another thing I recently discovered with my dd. She is super musical. She too has problems memorizing the English rules, etc. Sounds very much like your dd except no problems with reading. Her weakness in Math. Anyway, I have started to let her listen to classical music when doing her school work and WOW!!! a huge change for her on many levels. Does your dd try to hum or sing at all when doing her work? If so try letting her listen to music.

Not sure I can help with everything, but if your dd can memorize things she hears quickly, then I believe that Phonetic Zoo would be a HUGE help to her. My dd is very much like this (catches on very quickly to things she hears) and we are switching to Phonetic Zoo for next year from AAS.

I emailed her at the yahoo address. With that said, at the end of last week, I emailed asking questions about her Grammar curriculum and have failed to hear anything back. If you want to pm me your address, I'd be happy to forward you the email with the samples that she sent me.

Well for your child to read a variety of genres, I would check out this HOD page. Click on the different levels where it says book packs and there are books suggested for 9 different genres. I also really like Sarah Clarkson's Read for the Heart as a book list to read to your dc. HTH.

I know certain level of HOD use MOH and others use some SOTW.

http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante/

I thought I read here that MUS was going to somehow sell the extra teaching material (answer key) separate for those who already had the textbook and DVD for a level. Is this true? Does anyone know how much it is? I know I'm not wording it well. Thanks for any info.

Me!!!! I am struggling what to do for Spelling next year. My ds is finishing up AAS Level 5 and dd AAS Level 3. They love it but I am tired of spending 40 min/day teaching Spelling when it seems to me they are starting to be old enough to do it themselves. Plus in the upper guides a lot of what AAS is just spelling lists. There's not as much work with the tiles or teaching new rules. No offense to anyone. The are learning a few new phonograms, but they could do that independently. I have no clue what to switch to. I have looked at gobs of things repeatedly. I also am struggling what to do for Reading/Literature. I tried DITHOR when ds was in 3rd and it was just too much, this past year he's used CLE Reading and at first he didn't like it, but now he loves it. I feel like dd needs to being doing some kind of program now and I'm seriously considering DITHOR (which I no longer have). I don't know that CLE is a good fit for her. She is my free spirited one. I was thinking about doing DITHOR with both as I love the looks of it in the older levels, but ds would not rather switch. AAAACK!!!

Although we never used Little Hearts (Started with Beyond), we have read and loved the Burgess books. I too would suggest continuing on. They are definitely written differently and I think it is something your dc will grow into.

I contacted her and she is still selling Simply Spelling. Her site is just down. She sent me samples and everything. Just thought I'd let you know.

I used the extension books in Bigger as read alouds for my then 4th and 2nd grader and they both loved them. We did read Bud and Me. My dd said it was really good and ds said he thought it was adventurous and humorous.

WOW!!!! This looks great!

Sequential Spelling has DVD that you put in your computer and it does the "teaching" for you. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

I have some basic go to's but would love more ideas. I only have 2 children though, but don't mind joining in. I don't know if there's books or websites with ideas. Thanks for any info.

I have a 3rd and 5th grader that I am using AAS with. My oldest is finishing level 5 and my yougest is finishing level 3. I am looking for something more independent and personally thought about PZ, but my kiddos want to stay with AAS. I've read hear that R&S and AAS are similar. Maybe I should stay with AAS, but again would love something more independent. We use and love R&S English. I would love to hear everything you are willing to tell me about R&S. How long does it take each day? What levels do you think I should start them in? My dd is pretty good at spelling, ds seems to struggle with implementing it into his daily writing. Thanks for any info.

Thanks, ladies.

I am asking for my ds who is 10. Any books with ideas that you would suggest?

We used Bigger for 2nd grade for my dd who is currently in 3rd and using Preparing. She also has a July b-day so could be considered a 2nd grader in the area that we live it. We had an absolutely fabulous year. No bumps and not too easy. Preparing is definitely a step up but Bigger prepared her for Preparing very well. Your dh sounds wise. Stay with what is working for you. If you have any more specific questions, I'd be more than happy to answer.

I am copying and pasting a review that I recently posted on another forum:When we first started Preparing 12 weeks ago the Draw and Write Through History book was hard for my dd (8 yrs). I sat with her for about four weeks every time there was an assignment from the book pointing out things, but she did all the drawing. I think a lot was a confidence issue. Now I try to never compare my dc, but seriously dd started to do better than ds (10yrs). One day I told her, I didn't know why she dreaded it so much that she was doing beautifully (had previously told her this), but when I showed her how much better her drawing was than her brother's it was like a switch clicked in her head. From then on she did the drawings by herself and they are just beautiful. She even this week did the advanced portion on the Phoenician ship. When ds was drawing a certain dinosaur for his science pg last week, he specifically told me, "Momma, I just applied Draw and Write principles to it." This meant a lot to me as I've heard from other homeschoolers that books like this don't actually teach a child to draw, it teaches them to copy. I can say this has not been the situation in our home. My children are learning to apply the principles to their other drawings. We are about to the end of the book, but I'm already looking forward to next year's book.

It seems to me that people talk about their child being mathy or non-mathy. My dd is definitely not what I would call mathy as a result I was always scared to use Singapore with her. I just wanted to make a post in case there are others who feel their child is not mathy and wanted to give Singapore a shot. It has changed my dd's school day when it comes to math. She was always really struggled with Math. We started with MUS (as it was a great fit for ds), then moved on to a little bit of MM, and eventually settled on R&S for a year. After a year with R&S I could tell she may have some math facts down, but for her personally she had no understanding of math and she was stressed. I had bought the Extra Practice book for Singapore and she loved doing it, but I thought the whole curriculum wouldn't work because she needed more practice that what Singapore offered. After all she could hardly remember much of anything that she was drilled thoroughly on. Well, for the summer I took her through 1B (with HOD's hands on lessons) supplementing with things from MM and ideas from educationunboxed (love your videos, Rosie). She is a different little girl. She calls herself a math genie now.:lol: It's amazing what she can do in her head and what word problems that she can solve. I wish I was better with words, but atleast wanted to put this out there for those who may be struggling and think they could never use Singapore because of x,y, or z, but it seriously has been a blessing to me and my non-mathy dd.

Love the book entitled Homeschool Supermom…NOT!

Not sure how much you know about yeast, but being a carb and sweets addict can give your dc yeast. You can google candida online and one of the side affects of having yeast is brain fog/forgetfulness/memory loss. I know from personal experience. I thought this yesterday when reading your post, but didn't reply and then when I saw today that you said your dc was a carb/sweet addict I had to reply. Read about it online and see if it fits. To be honest, you're probably going to get more help from a holistic dr. HTH!

My ds will start keeping one this year. I took both him and my dd to the bookstore and they both picked out a book just like you described. Nice picture on front, etc. They both are excited to start using them. HTH.

In the past, I've only printed our notebooking pgs on one side and then bound them after the year was over. I was wondering if this year I should print on both sides and have the books bound ahead of time? Then it will be done and we can just pull it out and mark the next spot and I won't have to pull papers out weekly, etc. On the other hand, it seems like the bound notebook would get more wear through the year. Also what happens if your child needs more room to write or has a HUGE mess up and wants to start over. I'd love to hear what everyone does and how it works for you. Pros, cons, etc.