I have hired one several times in the past 6 years (long story) and its been worth every penny.

My brain is fried right about now from learning. I had my 10 yr old dd testing for LDs and the results are a bit shocking and the school district wasn't much help since were homeschoolers. I spent an hour on the phone yesterday going over test results and basically what I got out of it was "she's a very very visual learner, gets virtually nothing from verbal instruction (oops! thats probably why we've been having so much trouble the past 3 years. EVERYTHING was done orally because I can't get the child to write and forget reading) and would not fare well in a classroom environment because basically all she hears is blah blah blah blah when listening to lectures." Her scores on the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test show low scores pretty much everything related to Language arts, it was low scores across the board to be honest but this seems to mainly be testing LA stuff based on what we discussed (I don't have the official report in my hands yet). Some of it was a bit surprising since when I put her in public school this semester (lasted all of 8 weeks) but when I first put her in school they tested her for title 1 reading and they said she reads at grade level, decodes fine, comprehends about 80% of what she reads which was good, she's just a very slow reader at 61wpm. The Wechsler did not reflect that she was reading/comprehending all that well. She was a very late reader, didn't start reading until about age 8, just did not grasp phonics well no matter what I tried. Finally got her reading with headsprout. Last night was the 1st time she's read a book, was something about someones paper pony. It was a level 3 I can read book. (I did some testing of my own and found out she does much better with large print and uncovered sentence by sentence.) I was over the moon! She's reading orally at an almost normal cadence which is a huge improvement over what she was doing just 2-3 months ago (they wanted her to do repeated reading to get her speed up, I thought she just needed to READ period. Your going to be slow when you never and I mean NEVER read beyond on screen directions for games. She's reading about 106wpm now. Anyway based on the scores and what they told me which wasn't much I started googling and I swear I just about started jumping up and down when I learned dyslexia was about a lot more then confusing b,d,p. Its like a check list for my dd! I did ask the tester is she was tested for it and she said they do not test for it and the state does not require it (yes it does! they are refusing to comply) and I can not afford testing privately. I remembered my dad mentioned years ago my little sister was dyslexic and since it was caught early she did really well in school (we were not raised together and I only saw her once from early childhood until college) found out my dad and my aunt are dyslexic too. I had no idea! (I was raised by my mother on the other side of the country) So after a lot of reading yesterday (yes I know, thats only 1 day) and talking to my dad I am 99.9% sure my dd is too. So, what do I do now? It looks like none of the stuff I planned on ordering for my dd would work well for a very visual learner. SOTW, FLL, WWE. What works with these kids? I need something guided that spoon feeds (ETA: "I" need the guided handholding so scripted stuff is great, in case you missed it, I need the spoon feeding lol:)) and is far more visual then auditory. In a prior post someone mentioned she needs to review phonics to get her reading up to speed. Its a bit childish for a 10 year old but would ETC online be a good choice? Does she really need to even if its more a fluency issue? I can kinda understand, latest testing shows she's not comprehending most of what she reads and she doesn't remember much of whats covered. I feel like I'm not making sense and yikes! Just realized the time, need to leave in 45 min and I'm in my pjs, kids are asleep and I still need to shower and cook breakfast! So, advice? curriculum reccs? (all subjects) (using TT5 for math and that seems to be working ok but she's having a fit over multiplication since she cant remember her times tables) In case it helps on the WISC she did ok on comp verbal (39%) and perceptual reasoning (55%) but bombed on working memory (9%) and processing speed (9%) but they don't think the processing score is accurate since its timed and she would not stop talking about everything. (she is a major chatterbox) ETA: more info in posts 20, 24, 27

I'm sure you could, the dry erase board was suggested by a fellow homeschooler along with a suggestion of multiple colors of markers to make math a bit more fun for my daughter when she was throwing huge fits about doing her math and showing her work and making a lot of mental errors. The board we use is 13x8 and magnetic so the markers stick to the board so they don't get lost (which happens a lot with lost pens/pencils for us). I like the fact we don't have to deal with messy chalk and that stuff is a nightmare to get out of carpets for some reason.

We use TT5 and do have the workbook but dd HATES writing on paper. Our solution was a small dry erase board with small thin tipped dry erase markers (that have no odor). Means no paper cluttering up everything, I just hate having to shell out the $4 every month for more of those markers lol:) Were pinching pennies so its an expense I do notice.

Well I have a beginning kinder who's about 1/3 into Headsprout level 1 and a 4th grader who's a veryyyyy slow reader and in need of reviewing phonics. The little one I figured ETC Online would be fine but I'm wondering if it would work for my older who is a struggling reader or if I need Beyond the code for her. Also thinking of just using OPGR but thought ETC online might be more fun for her.

They make you pay for a placement test? Thats just wrong imo. You'd think they would make it easy to figure out which levels to buy.

I'm looking at their website and I must be missing it, where do I find the placement tests?

It could be he simply doesn't know how to interpret/filter/identify the information he's reading. Its designed for much younger kids but we had a lot of success with Headsprouts Reading Comprehension program. eta: sorry, I just realized this post was a year old! Was looking at posts that discussed Brainware Safari, sorry for dredging up such an old post!:)

Thank you for your thoughts, my kid is weird, she LIKES scrubbing floors and toilets. This morning she begged me to mop the bathroom floor,of course she then proceeded to flood the bathroom in her fun which did not make me happy and she did clean it up but it took her an hour. This is one of the problems, normal punishments are fun to her and there is nothing I can really do to her to make her do something (really I have tried darn near everything short of a cattle prod). She really doesn't seem to care:( We just started having a therapist come in for an hour 3 days a week to work with her to figure out some form of discipline that works on her. hmm.. you just gave me an idea, I just put in her karate lessons for a number of reasons. The master is wonderful with difficult kids, did wonders for me as a teen. I'm hoping he can do something similar with her, anyway, he happens to own a ranch a couple miles from here, I don't think being a maid for life is a threat since she likes deep cleaning but I do not see her being happy about free labor for the ranch (she's supposed to work on the ranch for a few hours 1 Saturday a month anyway to help pay for lessons since we can't afford the whole tuition). Wonder if he could use her on days she doesn't feel like doing school work. Planting season is coming and lots of weeds need to be pulled and seedlings planted:) Anyway, for now I think having someone else teach the writing might be a good idea until she's a bit more accepting of the idea of me teaching. She says she doesn't understand when I explain things but I think a lot of it is her just trying to be difficult. Were still trying to figure things out and I have a very limited budget so paying for T4W is a big thing for us. I'd rather not if I can get away with not using it but I so far have not been able to get her to do work on a daily basis for me but were going through a lot of changes in the past 2 weeks. I've been shocked that I can get her to do the TT 5 days a week for the past 2 weeks. Its time to add in another subject. (slowing adding up to a normal workload)

Older dd is 10 and hates LA with a passion. Getting her to read is impossible, we found out that was due to the fact she's a very slow reader. She decodes fine, comprehension is fine and she reads at grade level, just reads very slow. (Planning on buying ReadingPlus to help with this) 62wpm according to the school when I put her in PS for 2 months this semester which was a disaster. She's being testing for learning disabilities right now but a lot of it is, at least feels like, she is a lazy child and will not do anything that requires effort. She learns quickly but again, if it requires effort she puts up a fight of epic proportions. Her writing skills are terrible and we need to start from basic grammar on up. We have a lot going on right now and are finally getting the help we need to deal with mental health issues that we have never really been able to address. I had no idea they had things like anger/stress management for 10 yr olds. We’re dealing with serious behavior issues but her education has been put on hold long enough and left her to own devices she will not do anything that includes getting an education and I have had enough. She is capable of learning and I expect her to do so. The mental illness aspect has been addressed and now were left dealing with behavior which is a choice. I am trying to figure out what to do here, I was going on just pay for time4writing and start at the grammar level and go on but I am wondering if that is appropriate. She does not do well with my teaching her and will refuse to participate when I try teaching so I thought it best to use services that have someone else doing the teaching. For math I have her doing TT5 and she's doing wonderfully and without the frustration she was having using K12's Math+. I was thinking T4W might be a good fit but all the WTM stuff seems to indicate this level of writing instruction is not a good thing at this age. (just going by what I'm seeing online, it’s been a few years since I had a copy of TWTM in my hand, need to order a copy) Would T4W courses back to back be a good thing? Start with grammar, then sentence structure, paragraphs then essays. It would take 8 months to get though all 4 courses. or Should I save the money and used SWBs Writing with Ease? It seems to be very slow though for remediation and I feel a bit stupid but I can't figure out which level to start with. She can not write a decent sentence and seems to have no knowledge of grammar despite the fact I have tried to teach it. I'm also worried about how am I going to get her to do it? (yes, I know, I'm the parent but she is a very difficult child to put it mildly) It seems children are expected to be writing essays at this point but is that realistic? ETA: Found a writing sample she did in school last month, was an opinion essay on muffins. Took a pic with my phone as I really couldn't type that mess up. Where would you start with a kid writing like that? My younger dd turns 5 in June and is happily learning to read using HeadSprout at her request. I am assuming by fall she will be reading without much problem. She's learning to write her letters easily and thinks it’s a great game. I'm thinking I should pick up AAS1 to help her learn spelling while phonics are fresh in her mind (thinking it would be a good thing to use with older dd too, her spelling is awful!) but when and where would FLL or WWE come in? Kindy or 1st? I'm just trying to figure out what to order and when. I'm guessing by fall she will be adept at writing her letters as well and might be able to do copy work. My girls are polar opposites from each other, little one loves school stuff, learning to read, writing, even math and she does it with ease. My older one... not so much. I mean she CAN do it, she just chooses not to and I'm not going to allow this anymore but I'm trying to figure out the how's. Now I know how my mother felt! I refused to do school work all through grade school but I was a veracious reader and loved learning on my own so I was the perfect unschooler type kid and I did end up fine educationally. My older dd worries me and I'm just at a loss on where to start with her.

I agree, thats how I finally got my older dd to read and now my almost 5 yr old is doing HS with ease.

I would LOVE a max of $5, here they keep on until they reach the value of the book. We had a couple books disappear and ended up with $50 in fines even though they were returned (several weeks late at .25 cents a day). Now we buy books, it really is cheaper for us since I can not get my oldest to keep track of her library books no matter what I try.

$100? You can do it if you put all that into cheap ink and use what you find online and have access to a really good library. BUT, for us I need something thats good, easy for me and not a lot of hassle finding lots of resources. Call me lazy what ever but I already have my hands full. I don't have time to hunt down lots of stuff. We will spend about $800 between now and Aug for a 4th grader and preschooler. If your not totally against public education you can check for charter schools in your area. Here in CA there are a lot of them, parents pick the materials as long as its not religious (were secular so no biggie for us but an issue for some) and the school pays for it. They even pay for private lessons like music, dance, karate ect. I'm enrolling my 4th grader for fall, I'm on the fence about my kindy kid since I'm really not interested in a full program at 5. The down side is yes we have to report in monthly and take the state testing but I don't really care. I get $1,600 to spend on education for the year per child which means I can pretty much pick what I want and not have to worry so much about every little penny and we can do things like music lessons and karate which we really can't afford. Anyway, for us I consider $1000 a year reasonable for 2 kids and we live on about $16k yr for 3 people so thats a chunk of change for us and the reason why are enrolling in the charter for next year. btw, I agree with others, make a spread sheet showing costs new and used and be prepared to explain why you want this over that.

Its still expensive but they have a wellness program to help cover the cost for those who can not afford it. How long did you try the program? You really need to give it a year which seems like forever at first, I know 6 months ago I couldn't even picture today much less 1 year. The 1st I dunno, 2-3 months? Were really hard since the withdrawals off the meds were horrid but were mostly past that now. dd was doing really good until I enrolled her in public school. The stress of school made her go manic and its been a nightmare since. When she's been home for the day she's fine but when she gets home from school ugh! I've had enough and I'm bringing her back home. Just a thought, the meds used to treat the seizures could be messing with her moods and could be incompatible with the empower, I know lamictal and is a nightmare coming off of and is not at all compatible.

If you are open to a non drug option we have found amazing success with the TrueHope program http://www.truehope.com We just hit 6 months on it for myself and my 10 yr old who has BP1, we never found stability on meds and after 2 years decided to try the TH. My only regret is that we didn't find them before going on psych meds. ps: I promise I'm not a spammer even though this is my 1st post, I came here looking for curriculum recs that might be a better fit for my dd and saw your post:)