Ok, I'm back. :) Thanks so much for the input! My daughter hasn't had extensive Orton Gillingham remediation, unfortunately. She had an IEP in her public school last year and was getting remediation and "intervention" but I don't think any of it was dyslexia specific. She's doing well though and making progress. We have done some placement testing and she did pass the Barton screening as well as the placement test for High Noon Reading Level 1. The High Noon placement test says I should test her for level 2 but where do I find that test? The level 1 placement test is INSIDE the level 1 book! I'm just not sure if I should get her the level 2 or get some of the comprehension and fluency materials from High Noon instead.... or maybe something entirely different for reading? I also had her read the passages on the High Noon website for determining reading level. She could read all 5 sections well (only missed 2 words) but it was a bit choppy at times and she still misses or swaps out small words (of/on, for/from, etc) on occasion. She could summarize fairly well but had a little trouble with section 5. She still likes to pick out details while trying to summarize. Does any of this help as far as advising for a reading program? We are going to go ahead and try Rod & Staff Remedial English worksheets and/or Fix-It Grammar (I bought both) and we'll give Jump In a go for writing. If it doesn't work we'll try something else. (And like I said, we'll probably throw in Sequential Spelling too.) So I just need to figure out the reading. Her math placement test did NOT go well. I had her do CLE level 600 and she knew very little. :/ Part of it might be that she's been out of school for a couple months so I'm hoping that she'll start remembering once we actually get started. I did, however, convince her start with level 600 and told her, as suggested, that we can move up to 700 if it's too easy. :) And I should have her report from the neuropsych by the end of the week!

My daughter was in public school for 6th grade last year but I think we are bringing her home again for school this year. We are waiting for a neuropsych report but she was tested in 3rd grade and we know she has dyslexia and low working memory. Last year was kind of rough for her so while I want to try and get caught up on some things and certainly not lose ground, I also want to take it easy and focus on her emotional/mental health and general wellbeing, if that make sense. Having said that, as expected, she is definitely behind in reading and everything language arts but closer to grade level in math. We love CLE math and she likes workbooks so I think we'll do that, but I'm concerned about her being able to do the 7th grade level even though she feels very strongly about doing "7th grade" math. :/ I know we should do the placement test. We need to do some language arts placement tests too but here is what I'm considering.... -For reading maybe High Noon (2 I think) or maybe ABeCeDarian but I know very little about it. -We love Rod & Staff English but I am thinking either 5th grade (which she’s not especially happy about) OR.... I was wondering if there are any opinions on the remedial Rod & Staff English? That looks very appealing and I wonder if it would be a good way to solidify and get caught up. -Sequential Spelling -Maybe Jump In for writing. We definitely need to do something for writing. -I'm also thinking about Touch-type Read and Spell because I do want her to learn to type. I feel like there is some overlap here so, thoughts? I also want to do cursive (not sure what to use yet) and no idea what to do for science or history. I think I want to keep the time we spend on those things to a minimum this year. *I should add that she is a visual learner and does have some mild to moderate hearing loss.

Could I also be added? Please and thank you! :)

Thank you both so much for your feedback! No, we haven't done LiPS. I can't remember exactly why I decided to go with High Noon instead... might've been that I wasn't sure if we really needed LiPS and also the cost factor? I would still consider LiPS, and Barton for that matter, but I think we're going to try High Noon first. I really hope it's what we need. I can't send it back if it's the wrong level b/c I got it used....but I got a really good deal so I'll just resell if necessary. I only have the teacher book and student book so far. I'd really like to get the workbook and readers but I was wanting to make sure we have the right level before spending more $. It was helpful that I finally took the time to read through the beginning of the teacher book! I found that there is a placement test in the teacher book which I didn't realize! :). The placement test will tell me where she should start in level 1 or if she's ready for level 2. So I plan to do that asap. I am thinking that we will end up using level 1 though. I'm still concerned about grammar. My dd has speech therapy once a week at the public school and also meets with the resource teacher about once every 9 weeks. So far she's only met with the resource teacher once but what she said got me thinking that we need to be working more on grammar. In fact, here is what she shared with me in case anyone has any thoughts.... "For writing, she needs to pre-plan before writing anything out. When she was writing her story she would forget what she had already said and it didn’t have much flow. Also, she is still struggling with understanding what a complete sentence is. I would re-view understanding that a sentence needs a subject and a verb. I also encouraged her to re-read everything that she thought was a sentence to help it make sense. For reading, she has the read aloud accommodation so I read a lot to her. Her fluency is still very choppy and labored. I would encourage doing fluency reads with her. I can make you a copy of my fluency book. She would read three times for one minute each to try and raise her score. Doing this daily helps them understand unfamiliar words and has them practice. I also had to re-word a lot of questions. Please encourage her to look back in the text. She was pretty adamant about guessing what the answer was instead of finding it in the text. ;)" Thanks again!!!

Hi! :) Thanks for your reply and helpful input, as usual. I have borrowed several books from the library and read parts that I found helpful....but have yet to read one in its entirety. They're generally very large books lol! I should probably buy one or two to keep as references. Overcoming Dyslexia seemed like a good one... What other books would be favorites? Thanks for the advice on guessing. I am anxious to start High Noon but need to figure out which level. Since I already have level 1 we could go ahead and start it but I don't want to waste time if she'd be ready for level 2. Hoping to figure that out before starting if possible. Hopefully some High Noon users will chime in. I considered Barton but the cost was a problem and I decided to try something else. I can reconsider Barton if High Noon doesn't work for some reason... Thanks again! :)

My 5th grade dd has dylslexia as well as some working memory and auditory processing issues (I guess they all go together). I decided to try High Noon to help her catch up a bit with her reading and I bought level 1 (haven't started it yet) but I'm wondering if I should've bought level 2. She took the placement test and was able to read and understand the first 3 paragraphs and read but did not understand the 4th. Even with the ones she understood, she did read a few word incorrectly and did some word replacement. She doesn't replace words with similar meaning words - she replaces them with similar looking words (his for this, show for store, etc). I haven't bought the workbook or readers yet because I'm not sure which level we should start with. Also, we haven't done much grammar b/c we've been focusing on reading but I know she's so far behind in grammar and we need to put some focus back on that. I used Rod & Staff with my older kids but would that work for a child with dyslexia? I know she wouldn't be ready for the 5th grade book...maybe the 3rd or 4th grade book at the most. I also know she would NOT be able to do all the writing so maybe we read it together and only do a little writing and/or the workbook? We will likely keep using WWE and Sequential Spelling along with High Noon and whatever we end up with for grammar. Any advice? Thank you!

Will do! Look forward to your reply when you have time. :) Thanks!

My 5th grade dd has dylslexia as well as some working memory and auditory processing issues (I guess they all go together). I decided to try High Noon to help her catch up a bit with her reading and I bought level 1 (haven't started it yet) but I'm wondering if I should've bought level 2. She took the placement test and was able to read and understand the first 3 paragraphs and read but did not understand the 4th. Even with the ones she understood, she did read a few word incorrectly and did some word replacement. She doesn't replace words with similar meaning words - she replaces them with similar looking words (his for this, show for store, etc). I haven't bought the workbook or readers yet because I'm not sure which level we should start with. Also, we haven't done much grammar b/c we've been focusing on reading but I know she's so far behind in grammar and we need to put some focus back on that. I used Rod & Staff with my older kids but would that work for a child with dyslexia? I know she wouldn't be ready for the 5th grade book...maybe the 3rd or 4th grade book at the most. I also know she would NOT be able to do all the writing so maybe we read it together and only do a little writing and/or the workbook? We will likely keep using WWE and Sequential Spelling along with High Noon and whatever we end up with for grammar. Any advice? Should I post this on the special needs board? Thank you!

Thank you both! So far we're feeling better about Glencoe and you helped confirm that we shouldn't jump ship and get one of the other programs just yet! Thank you! :)

Anyone? :)

I just bought Glencoe World Geography for my 8th grader and when it arrived in the mail we were both overwhelmed by this massive 900 page book. We flipped through it and neither of us are exactly excited about it. The photos and maps are great but it's...just...so...much! And frankly, from just reading a few bits and pieces of the text, it just didn't seem very interesting either. I'm trying to decide if we should give it a chance or find something else. I'm liking the looks of Power Basics World Geography and Discovering the World of Geography. Can anyone compare them? I'm thinking the workbook style may be the way to go for him this year. We are doing world geography in place of history so I don't want it to be too light but also not overwhelming. I'm wondering about the grade levels of the "Discovering" books though. I'm looking at the third and fourth books which are grades 6-7 and then 7-8. Would they work for an 8th grader? I may keep Glencoe to reference the maps and photos but I just don't know if we can really use it for our main text. Help? :) *Edited to add that he started reading Glencoe today and so far he's not hating it! Thinking I may have jumped the gun and maybe we should give it a shot. I know we'll never get through the whole book though, and the workbooks do still appeal to me....

Going through the chapter reviews to find gaps/weaknesses sounds like a good idea! I bought copies of Lial's BCM and prealgebra AND the solutions manuals.... all for under $25 (Amazon and eBay)! :) I'm also working on buying the Key to books so we should be all set! Im just hoping that he continues to like Lial's! Thanks again, everyone!

Well I think I found it but not as cheap as I hoped ($36). The description says...."Holt Science & Technology: Chapter Resources CD-ROM Physical Science Audio CD – Audiobook, January 1, 2007". BTW, can you, or anyone, tell me if the experiments are doable at home? I already have Apologia so if I don't get this figured out soon I'll just use that lol!

Thank you so much for taking the time to lay this all out for me! :) It's making more sense to me now. Yay!!! BTW, would you advise getting the Lial's prealgebra and BCM solutions manuals? Thank you SO much for your help! ALL the replies have been extremely helpful. :)

OK, so yes, I've noticed that both Lial's BCM and prealgebra can be found at very cheap prices so I'll get both of those. (Do I need the solutions manuals? I have the one for Introductory Algebra.) I'm just not sure if I want to keep going with the Algebra or make one of those our main text. I looked at the Key to books and while each individual workbook is cheap, it would get expensive pretty quickly for me to get every workbook and answer key for several topics (unless I found some amazing deals). I think the books look great though so I'm not sure what to do about that. Now that I'm talking about have 3 of the Lial's books and several Key to series books.... I can see myself getting overwhelmed and not knowing what to use though lol!

OK, thank you. I think I want the middle school text... that's the one I've been searching for anyway. I have noticed that some of the texts/resources say Spectrum but didn't realize that meant they were high school. I was avoiding them anyway because I figured they were different somehow though. :) Does the CDROM have answers to questions, tests, etc, BTW? I had no idea this would be so difficult! :/ *Just noticed that the CD I posted above is Science Spectrum..... Guess I'll keep looking!

That was very helpful info about CLE! I had no idea that the prealgebra was spread over 7 and 8. OK, that helps and I suppose I'll eliminate that option. I guess we could keep going with Lial's for now and I can get a copy of BCM just in case. Although I was leaning toward the Lial's prealgebra as opposed to BCM... not sure if one would be better than the other?

Ok, still trying to figure this out. :) Is this it?... http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dxT2cHFpL._SL500_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Sorry about that. He started taking a Saxon placement test... I think it was an algebra readiness test (he did 1 out of 3 pages). Even though I don't intend on using Saxon I thought it still might be helpful. Then I decided to have him do all 8 pages of the Christian Light 700 placement test because I was/am considering using CLE. Honestly, it was rough. There was just a lot he either didn't know or remember. He struggled with some of the expression and equation problems (especially fractions and exponents) and really didn't know how to do the percent problems at all. He also doesn't know his formulas or U.S./Metric conversions. Like I said, I think he'll pick these things up quickly but of course with a placement test there is no help or instruction so if you don't know it, you don't know it. I would definitely like to find out more about where the gaps are but he did some Kahn Academy at his previous school and says he doesn't really care for online learning. Might be OK for a short term thing though? We've only been doing Lial for a couple days and so far, only the prealgebra review section. Even though it's going well, I'm worried that once we get out of this section and into the meat of the algebra section, it could be a struggle because of the gaps. I can't say for sure but that's why I'm considering Lial prealgebra.

I very recently brought my 8th grader back home after 2 years in a Montessori school and I need help figuring out math. Initially he was determined to do algebra this year because he supposedly did prealgebra lat year and he doesn't want to get "behind", but I think he's now open to prealgebra. I know we have some gaps and I think he might need to work on a more solid foundation. :( We did a couple placement tests and it didn't go well. The thing is, he's really bright and I know he'll either learn or remember the concepts fairly quickly and easily once we choose a program and get started. While I'm figuring this out I'm having him work on the prealgebra review section at the beginning of Lial and thankfully, that's going very well and he likes it! So now I'm wondering if maybe I should get Lial prealgebra this year and let him do algebra on 9th. I know he'd be perfectly capable of doing algebra this year of he hadn't lost ground over the last couple years... I also really like Christian Light math and wonder if the 8th grade books would be another good option? Is that pretty much prealgebra? I've also read good things about Dolciani prealgebra. Sooo....does it sound like a good idea to do prelgebra this year, and what would you recommend? Also, I should add that as of now I don't think I'll be homeschooling him through high school so that's another factor. I thought it might be tough to get the Alg I credit at home (if we could even get it done) and then do Alg II at school. So I'm thinking my best bet might be to just make sure he's very prepared for algebra in 9th.... ?

Awesome! Thank you! :)

As I mentioned before, I very recently pulled my 8th grader out of school and am frantically trying to get everything figured out for the year. For language arts I'm thinking... Rod & Staff grammar (have it and love it) but skip the writing. Jump In - just bought it but haven't gotten it yet. Will this equip him well for high school writing? Lightning Lit 8 - I used LL 7 with his brother years ago and liked it. I'm thinking we'll skip much of the writing since we'll be doing Jump In. Thoughts? Too much or not enough? We will probably not homeschool for high school so I need him to be prepared to go back to school when the time comes. Thanks!

Yes, it really sounds like what we're looking for. I pulled my ds from a Montessori school that wasn't working for him and he's practically begging for more structure and organization, etc. *And I should add that as of now I don't plan to homeschool through high school so I need to prepare him to go back to school.

Interesting! I do have Apologia Physical Science already but it's the older version and I'm not crazy about it. Is Apologia any better than Holt? Should I just use that? Should I look at Hewitt's Conceptual Physical Science? I'm just not sure what to do. :/ I pulled my ds out of school and am really overwhelmed trying to figure everything out so quickly. (I homeschooled previously but I mean I wasn't expecting to do it this year with my 8th grader!). I need something good but also straightforward and easy for us to jump into.... and not too teacher intensive because he wants to work fairly independently.

Thank you all! You were very helpful! Of course I missed out on the deal I was specifically talking about (lol!) but this will help me as I continue my search. I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out exactly what I need for Holt physical science so input would be welcome on that as well. Need to find used and affordable. :) Thanks again!