She had a COVD eval and they found quite a few issues but since we also found out about the Pyroluria around the same time Dr advised waiting to start therapy as it would radically affect her vision system and there are reports from other parents that 1 year after treatment started they retested and all the vision issues were gone and the child no longer needed vision therapy (they never received the VT, just treated the Pyroluria). She's been on treatment 6 months now I think and we've already seen huge improvements but I haven't had the money to get the retesting the Dr wanted done after a few months on treatment.

You have a point, dd is on the far end of being a VSL with CAPD, visual processing issues which are resolving and she HAD serious working memory and processing speed problems which have been corrected over the past 6 months as those had a medical basis (pyroluria will cause these issues and its soooo easy to treat!) We have spent the past 10 months working on her issues and bringing her up to grade level. I'm actually looking forward to getting her tested again, I've heard from other parents there kids LD's disappearing and IQ's raising as much as 100 points a year after treatment started. One kid went from 55 to 150, its hard to believe the damage pyroluria can cause until your living it, I know dd suffered almost a 40 pt drop from previous testing. I've already seen huge changes in her learning/memory ability, it used to be she couldn't tell me what I said after reading her just 2-3 sentences. Now she remembers paragraphs, haven't tried pushing more then that yet.

There is one thing I do know, if a kid is motivated they will put in the effort. "at some point" could be in 2-3 years, why not wait then once the choice is made she is going back on X date then push it? Save everyone grief that way:)

Depends, are you talking just VA's like the K12 stuff or parent choice where the parents get to pick the materials as long as its secular? We've done/are doing both. I did 3 years with a k12 school (1-4th) with one child and it was not pleasant but at the time I didn't realize I had a visual-spatial learner, had I known that from the get go life would have been much easier and we would have enjoyed it more. Now for 5th I have her enrolled in a parent choice public charter and get to pick what I want. I'm very happy with it. For my kindy kid I went with the parent choice charter and found that wasn't a good fit for her as "I" need a level of planning and handholding other programs just dont give until 3-4th grade. So over xmas break I pulled her and enrolled her in a K12 school. School doesn't start for another week but the materials arrived today and I'm happy with them. Only thing making me nervous is the phonics kit. However I will probably move her back to the parent choice charter next year and just order the K12 courses I want. Don't know why I didn't think of that before I pulled her!

My dd is a VSL with CAPD like your dd, I wonder if that has anything to do with the hatred? Have you tried letting her type instead of write? I'm seriously considering it. Also debating on buying the writers jungle from bravewriter from the HSBC, just need to figure out if its in the budget.

That wouldn't work so well with my social butterfly even though her 2 months in PS last year were a disaster. She see's public school as play and social time.

ok, I'm beginning to feel like a total HS slacker here... I take it you all have auditory learners?

You know I forgot all about that! I took a pair of sweat pants and large shirt that I changed into as soon as I could sit up after my c/s. It really does change your mindset from being a "sick patient" to healthy ready to go home and you don't feel so vulnerable from walking around in a gown with your aft hanging out ya know? Also showing your confident and not timid about caring for baby can get you out sooner as well. When #1 was born the nurse had to show me how to diaper a baby and you have to demonstrate you are adept at babycare before d/c. When #2 was born, same hospital it was a radically different experience and that confident attitude got me a d/c the day after my c/s.

4 days for a c/s? I'd go crazy! I stayed 3 days after the 1st c/s and it was a nightmare. I was d/c and walking out of the hospital 36hours after my 2nd c/s. If everything looks good and mom and baby seem fine send mom home! They told me at the 24 hour mark I was being d/c but it took 12 hours more to do paperwork and waiting for the pedi to d/c baby.

I didn't really pay attention to the bed to be honest but I did have a stack of pillows and my boppy was a godsend for nursing after my c/s. I just had a standard hospital bed and was out of there 36 hours after my c/s and was higher then a kite the first 12 so 24 hours isn't enough time to annoy me in a hard bed but I rather like hard beds. Soft ones kill my back. If I had #3? I'd make sure to take my boppy and pillows again!:)

I'm seriously considering adding copywork and dictation for my 5th grader and its a scary concept, this kid HATES writing. I mean has gotten violent about it hates it so much. She will type away but pick up a pencil? No. Would it get the same effect to just let her type rather then hand write? I have enough trouble getting her to do school work and I can see this getting very ugly very quick and it causing her to refuse all school work and make our lives hell. Yes, she hates it THAT MUCH. I figure at some point she will need to work on actual handwriting (hoping to get her to work on it this year but not holding my breath) but figure its not going to happen until high school when its a bit more important or she ends up in some outside class and gets embarrassed at her penmanship.

Halcyon, What age/grade? That looks more like a high school course load to me.

What type of learner is he? Visual-spatial kids tend to get reading a lot later, like 8+. I would start there because if you know he's a VSL you can relax, it will come, just a bit later:) If he's an auditory kid then maybe something like Reading Eggs or Headsprout? (both have phonics and comprehension programs)

I feel like I'm missing something. Math: TT6 LA: K12 5th (using their grammar, usage & mechanics, composition) Science K12 5th Reading Eggspress ReadingPlus Handwriting She's been using T4L but will stop that once the K12 OLS is active at the end of the month. I know I'm missing history, will worry about that later. What am I missing?

Can you use a 2nd email address or call them up and explain that you never actually got to try it and would like another 2 week trial? They are usually pretty good at that stuff.

headsprout has always worked on touchscreens:) Discovered neither iSwifter/Rover/Safari work on time4learning, it loads until you get to an actual lesson then stops. Any idea what would work for T4L?

So far its worked on brainpop, reading eggs, pbskids, roblox, k12.com, headsprout.com. Well worth the $5!:)

Thank you! We just got my dd's ipad today and Rover didn't work for all the sites but iSwifter paid is wonderful!:D

http://www.bigbrainz.com its free:) Download the full online version to get access to the addition/subtraction. Be aware is takes a while to load the game itself.

I haven't seen anyone mention it but k12.com seems to be following a classical approach. I like the fact that is all laid out right down to what questions to ask the child to check for understanding and it handles the scheduling and adapts when you miss a day.

:iagree: VSL kids pick up grammar much much later, 10-13 yr old age range and trying to teach them before that is just going to end up with both of you in tears. Learn how these kids learn and the time line they are on which is very very different from Auditory learners (not bad, just different) and you will find a lot of stress will go away. You'd have better luck teaching her via watching TV shows on grammar then book/verbal work. There is an awesome yahoogroup at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschoolingcreatively/ with tons of advice on teaching these kids the way they learn and adjusting our expectations for them.

Skipping several pages of replies but I'm willing to bet most are agreeing that its 1 year behind so for a 4th grader you would want TT 5 but a really good place to start is with the free placement tests they offer to buy the level your child needs and not what Jane in public school is doing who may or may not be working at the same level.

:blush5:I didn't even notice they had 2 years of pre-alg, I was just looking at 6th grade and made the mistake of assuming 1 year pre-alg then on to alg 1. To me if the kids are needing 2 years they are not ready for the class, maybe they are just calling it pre-alg to make it look more then it is? I'd have to look at the class content.

I've seen a lot of parents here doing it is why I'm asking. She would be doing the same level math, just different program.

I'm considering going back to a VA for 6th grade since I would like to use LA, Science and History from K12 but I want to keep using Teaching Textbooks for math which has been a wonderful fit for dd. Just those 3 classes alone (about $900) are more then the $800 semester we get allotted at our current charter. They had just switched to the new math a few months before we left and I just looked at how they are teaching the pre-alg and I'm not impressed. In the materials do they have an answer book where I can just copy the answers into the OLS as if dd did the work and keep on working with TT? I really don't want to go back but if its going to eat up all our funds and then I have to pay out of pocket still it doesn't make sense not to switch.