Yay! This is why I decided to teach cursive to my youngest instead of trying to correct his manuscript formation. :001_smile:

Thanks so much for responding...all of you! I am excited to start the program! :001_smile:

Hi! I am going to start my boys on HWT Cursive, and have not used the previous manuscript books. There is a lot of mention of "magic C" within the book. I have read through the TM and can't find an explanation of it. I have a feeling it has something to do with "c" being the "start" of writing several other letters. Am I on to something? Can someone please give me a full explanation that I may pass on to my boys? Thank you! :001_smile:

This is fantastic! I am a ways away yet, but I am definitely bookmarking it. Thank you for sharing your hard work! :001_smile:

I am looking into teaching my boys cursive. One is in 3rd and the other is in 1st. My first grader has trouble reversing letters, starting his letters from the bottom of the line and then moving up, and has trouble writes a letter the same way twice. However, his handwriting is very nice and the spacing is great. I have been told by several moms that cursive instruction could take care of those issues. With that being said, the HWT site has cursive instruction starting in 3rd grade. Do you think his age will make a difference? Is there an advantage to doing the HWT manuscript writing before moving onto the cursive other than the special "language" the program uses? I figured we could pick up the lingo in the cursive books, or am I mistaken? FWIW...I found the TM and TWO student books collecting dust in my closet. I totally forgot I had them! :tongue_smilie: Thank you for your help!!:001_smile:

They are the disks that come in the AAS set. You could use anything, really, though...quarters, bingo chips, ect. They just need to slide easily. You line them up, say a word, and then the student "pulls" them down as they say the sounds. For example...for the word "stop" they would pull down one tile for each sound..."s" "t" "o" "p" and not "st" "o" "p". Make sense?

Great suggestions! He really liked using the discs to segment them sounds. He thought is was a fun game. He really needs a lot of work in this area. I gave him the placement/composite reading test this morning (I won't EVEn comment on the score :sad:) but he was consistent on saying "bl" instead of "b" "l" and "st" instead of "s" "t" and even said "m" "il" "k" for "milk". We're going to spend a lot of time on this as well as auditory processing...that is a mess! And you're right...sometimes we just can't win! :banghead: Sorry about that. It's my younger ds. This is my first time having to teach reading as my older son taught himself at a young age. Looks to me like I should join the RR and ABCD yahoo groups. Didn't think of that so thank you for suggesting it. :001_smile: I'm going to think twice about the ETC. He really was sad when I told him we were going to put them aside for awhile. I'll just have to pay better attention to what is being taught and modify it if I have to. I'll be PMing you soon! Thank you! Thanks for the link! This one works! :D

Thank you, Mary! We have been using reader from AAS and he does pretty good with it. I plan on getting the second book that just came out. They are delightful stories and illustrations, aren't they!?! We also use AAS and DS hasn't had too many problems with it. Again, just the blends. I talked to my adviser and she suggested I put aside AAS for now since learning the rules with that program but not with RR may be confusing for him at the beginning. I do plan on returning to it though. It is a fabulous program! I jsut may look at HWT again. it seems to be a favorite around here. :001_smile: Thank you for the link! I will defintiely look into these further as many people seem to think they are a great addition to a reading program! (Aren't these boards great?!! There have been many times I have said to myself, "My son does that" or "I need to check into that". So glad I was able to "help" you too! We'll have to keep in touch and compare notes! :D) I have a feeling my ds is not going to like the I See Sam books either. He is going to think they are "babyish". However, he is not the teacher, I am. :D I'll look into the notched card idea. Thank you for suggesting it. I hadn't thought of teaching him cursive now. I am going to be teaching his big brother cursive (HWT), I may throw him in there too! Thank you for your comments! Anyone else care to chime in? Pretty please?

Thank you, Renee. I appreciate hearing your experience. Can anyone else please help me? :confused:

:lurk5:

DS is showing some signs of dyslexia...adding letters and sounds to words, getting letters and sounds mixed up within a word, ect. I have not had any formal testing done, but rather than lose this precious time, I have decided to give him a very solid foundation in reading until testing can take place. I am in the midst of reading through Reading Relfex and like very much what I have encountered. I've decided to use ABCD once we hit the advanced code, which will probably be the beginning of next school year (2010-2011). Here are my questions: 1. We have been using ETC (which my ds loves), but I noticed they are teaching the beginning blend sounds as "st" and not splitting them up as "s" "t" like RR does. Example...for the word "stop" they have "st" "o" "p" whereas, if I am reading it right, RR would teach it as "s" "t" "o" "p" to make sure they are segmenting every sound. Am I right so far? Anyhow, I have decided to quit ETC, for now, so there isn't any confusion. Is that a good move on my part or should I continue them? 2. What handwriting program do you recommend to use in conjunction with RR and ABCD? DS has very good writing, but does not write his letters correctly...reversing "d" "b" "p" "q", starting from the bottom rather than the top, no consistency in writing the letters the same way, ect. I looked at HWT but think it would be too much to try to reteach him handwriting as well as phonics the way RR teaches it. 3. What readers do you recommend to use along with the program? He needs a lot of practice. Am I making any sense at all? I feel like a fish out of water! Thank you for your help! :001_smile:

Jean Fritz's books Toliver's Secret Johnny Tremain Sign of the Beaver The Golden Goblet Little House on the Prairie Douglas Bond's books

So glad to hear this and thank you for the update! You were able to encourage me by reminding me of God's faithfulness. :001_smile:

Thanks for your replies. :001_smile:

Is there more teaching and explanation in the Lt. Blue series than the Blue series? Or is the only difference being the Blue series is grouped together by topic/concept but still offering the teaching and explanations? Thanks! :001_smile:

This year in history I used the TT cds and concentrated on early American history. We covered the Colonies and the Revolutionary War at length. We had a great year, but my oldest son really missed not learning about what was going on in other parts of the world during that time. My plan for next year is to continue in depth with American history (Lewis and Clark, the Oregon Trail, Pioneers, CA gold rush/missions, ect.) but I would like to throw in a little World history as well. I will probably use STOW 3 but after looking at the chapters, I am not sure where to start. (This is where your help comes in...;)) Do I: 1. Start at the beginning of the book even though we are past that time period as far as Am. Hist. goes? 2. Start with the chapters right after the Am. Rev.? But, will they have an understanding what is going on since we missed so much of the World Hist. between the Exploration time and the Rev. War? Let's say I go back and cover some of what they missed, how far back to you recommend I go? 3. Do you have any other suggestions that may get us "caught up" or that might be an easier way to do it? For example...I have the audio for SOTW 3 already and thought to have him just listen to it on his own. He LOVES listening to audio books and learns well that way. I am not really concerned that they get a thorough knowledge of World Hist. during this time period right now (we have 2 more rotations for that). I was/am mainly concerned with them have a clear understanding of Am. Hist. during this grammar stage. I just want to be responsive to my ds's request for more World Hist. Oh...and we are not going to get to the Civil War and beyond yet. We're starting with the Ancients the year after next and saving the modern times for the next two rotations. It helps so much to sort things out by composing a post and hearing your suggestions! Thanks for your help! :001_smile:

Look into Barb's program...http://www.harmonyfinearts.com/ :001_smile:

The link is in my signature. :001_smile: Hope you have a great weekend! :D

:grouphug: to you. I pray the situation will be resolved for you soon.

Have you seen this? :001_smile:

I love that you decided to do this! Will you be blogging about it? I would LOVE to see what the year ends up being like! :001_smile:

:lurk5: Anyone? If you are a lurker and have used this, please come out of hiding and tell me about it. :D

That's great! :thumbup: I am looking into this program for my struggling reader. Are there any other people who would like to share their successes?

Has anyone tried this? How was your experience? Did you feel it was a good fit for a struggling reader?

Hits: Math Mammoth Blue series (will be doing Light Blue next year) Headsprout.com Liberty's Kids DVDs NOEO Chemistry I (Especially the Super Science Concoctions book. We LOVED it!) MCT LA IEW SWI A Atelier Art DVDs (My boys LOVE this!) Artistic Pursuits Artist/Picture Study AAS Gets the job done: Phonetic Zoo (I love it more than my son but he is okay with it) WWE FLL (My son likes this more than I do) Misses: Growing with Grammar (No retention for my son...just busy work) Latin...not the curriculum's fault. It was all me. :blush: OPGTR (Not a good fit for my son. He is showing symptoms of dyslexia though.)