Thank you all for this information. I have gone to a homeschool conference and have chosen some curriculums. I wondered what you thought. I also recently had a conversation with another homeschool mom who raved about classical conversations. Would this be a good choice? Decisions decisions ..... Here is the curriculum I have but I am not married . First Language Lessons Write shop Math u See Apologia Astronomy Story of the World A Reason for Handwriting

If there is a holiday for a week or so it seems hard to get back in routine. He has a hard time remembering where we left off in math but after a day or so he is back on with where we are. I love your idea about cultivating a hobby as he does not really have one. We started piano lessons about four weeks ago and he is loving it. I really need to think about what curriculum to use for next year. I am going to a homeschool conference this summer but know that can be overwhelming. Really hope the Lord will give me wisdom. I will look into the blog too. Thank you

I have to say you all are so full of knowledge and must have been doing this a while or having teaching backgrounds. Thank so much for explaining the different areas of math and language arts. I had thought about dropping All About Spelling and using words that I was seeing in his other book. It makes more sense to be focusing on what he has in letters and sounds. Since you are teaching the different sylables and special sounds etc. I had not realized that ETC was for reading, I thought it was a way for him to have independant work that he could do on his own. He has had evaluations, three actually. One was by a genetics doctor when he was about 3 and then he had another one 6yrs and then one just in the fall. His most recent said this .... scores also reveal significant impairment in many of the areas that comprise the conceptual domain of adaptive functioning (i.e. competence in memory, language, reading, writing, math reasoning, and the acquisition of practical knowledge). Adaptive functioning refers to an individual’s ability to meet community standards of personal independence and social responsibility. This term involves adaptive reasoning in three domains conceptual, social, and practical. While the current testing gives us an approximation of conceptual functioning, there is insufficient information to assess his reasoning in reallife situations and evaluate his current level of proficiency when performing practical tasks related to activities of daily living. As such, although his is considered to have an intellectual disability, the severity levels of both his diagnosis and the features typically associated with such a diagnosis are yet to be ascertained. Individuals with an intellectual disability may have many associated difficulties, none of which were directly evaluated. In addition to a more comprehensive assessment of adaptive functioning, a comprehensive evaluation of his ability to: use social judgment; self-manage his behavior, emotions, and interpersonal relationships; be aware of and adequately assess risk and motivate himself towards the accomplishment of self-imposed goals may be further investigated.The recommendations also include interventions that may help Josiah function closer to his cognitive and academic potential.

I am looking for wisdom. I have been homeschooling my son since Dec. he is 9 years old and delayed a bit. Previously he was in a school that has 9 children. We pick the curriculum that is being used for each child, it is like being in an old school house setting. Hi, I posted this on another board and they all told me that I should post over here. They were very helpful but they felt like you all could help me more. Below is the first post and the second section is my response to some of the questions. Thank so much. Currently I am using Saxon Math 3, First Language Lessons, Writing with Ease, Explode the Code, Handwriting without Tears , All About Spelling. I have also been using A Beka Language 2 and Letters and Sounds. As you can see it is alot, I feel like it is too much. I guess the reason I continued using the A Beka was because I thought it has a good base for phonics. I love Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons but I did not know if I should keep going with this list of work. I am tied up in knots when I think of what to do. I want what is best for him, I need wisdom and wish someone could tell me what they think would be the best scenario. I know that is hard as I am the one that knows my child but was not sure if anyone else is in a similar situation. As you can see I am not great at getting my words out on paper but hopefully someone out here has some wisdom. Thank you It might help narrow down: How is his reading? Reading is very good, he is currently reading a 4th grade book with A Beka. How is his handwriting? Handwriting is getting better. We just finished book 2 and are now starting book three which is cursive but not your normal cursive that is very loopy. This is much more like the Australian cursive. Can he remember how to form his letters? Yes he can remember to form his letters. Is he beginning to write his letters without thinking about how it should be written? I believe so. When he writes a sentence for a worksheet in Abeka he may ask me how to spell a couple words but he does pretty well. How is his spelling? His spelling is doing pretty well as long as he gets plenty of time to go over them each day. What level of AAS are you using? We are on level 3 of All About Spelling How is he doing with the dictation section? Dictation for Writing with Ease has been very difficult. I was doing it with him up to about week 15 or so but felt like we were not getting anywhere. I would have to repeat many times and I felt like it was frustrating for him to have to spend so much time on writing one or two sentences. It does look like you have a lot of repetition and overlap in language arts that could be pared down, does he seem to be learning with any of these curriculum? He does seem to be learing, he loves the poems in First Language Lessons and does a good job remembering what a noun is , verb is etc. Are you happy with Saxon for math? Saxon Math has been okay. He does well with the first sheet for the most part but the drill sheets can be overwhelming, once he gets started he can get going with it and is able to answer questions. We use a table with the numbers 0 through 20 and this has helped alot. Then he can put his finger on 5 and count up 4 and get to 9 etc. Does he seem to be learning and retaining from this program? I think he retains much but when it comes to the fractions and things it is harder. I think that since they do not spend much time on it, it is hard to learn it. As far as OT they work on many things, reflexes, helping him process, for instance talking about how to make and obstacle course, then doing the obstacle course and at the end talking through what he did. they do excercises as well and work on handwriting. We live overseas as we are full time volunteers for a charity. So we have the OT come to us which has been a huge blessing to our family. We used to go once a week for 45 minutes and that was terrible as it takes quite a bit of time getting from point a to b. So much faster where we lived in the US. Thank you all for your help. I will definitely post this in the other group as well. Blessings.

It might help narrow down: How is his reading? Reading is very good, he is currently reading a 4th grade book with A Beka. How is his handwriting? Handwriting is getting better. We just finished book 2 and are now starting book three which is cursive but not your normal cursive that is very loopy. This is much more like the Australian cursive. Can he remember how to form his letters? Yes he can remember to form his letters. Is he beginning to write his letters without thinking about how it should be written? I believe so. When he writes a sentence for a worksheet in Abeka he may ask me how to spell a couple words but he does pretty well. How is his spelling? His spelling is doing pretty well as long as he gets plenty of time to go over them each day. What level of AAS are you using? We are on level 3 of All About Spelling How is he doing with the dictation section? Dictation for Writing with Ease has been very difficult. I was doing it with him up to about week 15 or so but felt like we were not getting anywhere. I would have to repeat many times and I felt like it was frustrating for him to have to spend so much time on writing one or two sentences. It does look like you have a lot of repetition and overlap in language arts that could be pared down, does he seem to be learning with any of these curriculum? He does seem to be learing, he loves the poems in First Language Lessons and does a good job remembering what a noun is , verb is etc. Are you happy with Saxon for math? Saxon Math has been okay. He does well with the first sheet for the most part but the drill sheets can be overwhelming, once he gets started he can get going with it and is able to answer questions. We use a table with the numbers 0 through 20 and this has helped alot. Then he can put his finger on 5 and count up 4 and get to 9 etc. Does he seem to be learning and retaining from this program? I think he retains much but when it comes to the fractions and things it is harder. I think that since they do not spend much time on it, it is hard to learn it. As far as OT they work on many things, reflexes, helping him process, for instance talking about how to make and obstacle course, then doing the obstacle course and at the end talking through what he did. they do excercises as well and work on handwriting. We live overseas as we are full time volunteers for a charity. So we have the OT come to us which has been a huge blessing to our family. We used to go once a week for 45 minutes and that was terrible as it takes quite a bit of time getting from point a to b. So much faster where we lived in the US. Thank you all for your help. I will definitely post this in the other group as well. Blessings.

Thank you Rosie, I have read up on that and will look more into it. He definitely has some of those things. He was born at nearly 32 wks and his weight and measurements were that of a 27 week old baby. We are so thankful that he is doing as well as he is. We have OT four hours a week and this has helped him so much.

I am looking for wisdom. I have been homeschooling my son since Dec. he is 9 years old and delayed a bit. Previously he was in a school that has 9 children. We pick the curriculum that is being used for each child, it is like being in an old school house setting. Currently I am using Saxon Math 3, First Language Lessons, Writing with Ease, Explode the Code, Handwriting without Tears , All About Spelling. I have also been using A Beka Language 2 and Letters and Sounds. As you can see it is alot, I feel like it is too much. I guess the reason I continued using the A Beka was because I thought it has a good base for phonics. I love Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons but I did not know if I should keep going with this list of work. I am tied up in knots when I think of what to do. I want what is best for him, I need wisdom and wish someone could tell me what they think would be the best scenario. I know that is hard as I am the one that knows my child but was not sure if anyone else is in a similar situation. As you can see I am not great at getting my words out on paper but hopefully someone out here has some wisdom. Thank you

I have a son in first grade and he is currently doing ABeka language arts to get a good base in phonics. I am wondering what level should i start him in for second grade next year? I was not sure if I should do writing with ease level 1 and first language lessons level 1. We are going to be missionaries and I am trying to figure out my budget and what we will take overseas. Thanks:001_smile: