You know, somehow I had not seen Beast Academy before! I'd looked at AoPS before and was keeping it in the back of my mind for middle/high school but I hadn't seen the elementary books. Does Beast Academy cover all the basic money topics too or would I want to supplement with that? Because it looks extremely appealing and like the type of thing he'd thrive on. He has loved Singapore but even Singapore seems almost too easy for him. He doesn't need as much practice as it contains. I've added Challenging Word Problems this year but those seem to add more bulk vs challenge to our homeschool day.

We just completed annual testing for the first time for DS7 (second grade). We went with the Woodcock Johnson because DD14 had done that for her special needs and I had found the info useful. I didn't warn the tester ahead of time that DS was an accelerated learner at all....so the poor woman seemed shocked, lol! It was interesting to have an outside perspective on DS for the first time. We've always just accepted him as normal for our family but the fact is he's clearly way above even my husband and I. He's been complaining of boredom and I feel terrible that I haven't been challenging him as much as he needs. So, he tested at 7.5 grade for reading, 6.7 grade for comprehension, and 11th grade for spelling. We've done nothing but OPGTR and then let him read a bunch of stuff and do read alouds daily. No spelling curriculum ever. He started Wordly Wise 4th grade level this year and has done Voyages in English 1 and 2. In math, he tested at 4th grade for calculation and 5.7 grade for applied problems. He's finishing up Singapore 3B this year, which he does pretty much independently and flies through. In General Academics he scored 5th grade. We've done Life Science so far and he reads science books for fun. We've only done Geography and some light US History. He reads widely so his literature exposure is high but we've done very little art and music appreciation. I'm trying to plan for next year as I got these testing results and I'm flummoxed now. The tester said he easily could have gone higher in math but just hadn't been exposed to them. Ie: it wasn't an ability problem, just a "what we've covered" problem. So I want to expose him to higher math concepts but I also don't want any gaps in his math by grade-skipping. Any math supplements you recommend that don't break the bank? For Language Arts, I'm thinking Voyages in English, while great, is pricey considering how easy it is for him. But what else should I do for grammar that includes diagramming and such? I talked to him about maybe entering some spelling bees for fun and to play off his strength there and give him motivation to study advanced spelling like root words and suffixes. He definitely needs more writing practice, but hates anything that requires creativity....so what writing programs would you recommend? Would WWE be a good choice for him? For Science we've been using Real Science Odyssey and he likes it so I'm thinking of moving on to RSO Earth and Space but maybe I should supplement with nonfiction books too? For History DD14 really needs more US History and I'd like to have DS7 go along with us for that, but maybe he should do something else instead? Yet again I find myself overwhelmed by my child! And I have 4 other kids to teach, including one with special needs so I need to come up with an academically challenging and interesting plan that is also simple to execute for me. Thankfully DS7 is extremely independent and self-motivated as long as I chase him back inside periodically ;) (he runs outside to play between every single subject, lol!)

Yup, this is what was our deciding factor too. And it's true, even with 5 kids, a move, and a pregnancy DD has made more progress at home in 2 years than she did in 6 years of public school.

I'm not sure what the expressive language disorder guidelines are but DD14 is WAY behind in language skills because of deafness and it's been interesting using Barton with her. I would say that it can work for any child who can speak at the 5-year-old-level or higher. Ana speaks at a 6 year old level. So yes we have issues with her not understanding a lot of the words she reads however it's still been beneficial to go through the program. I have to keep in mind that though she can decode on a 4th grade level, she can only actually comprehend on a 2nd grade level still so I adjust expectations accordingly. Ana also has a lower IQ than Susan Barton says is required to do the program because we didn't realize she was intellectually disabled when we began. I think it's good that Susan Barton puts that sort of warning on things but I don't think it should be a firm limit. I'd say that Barton can be extremely useful for anyone struggling with reading and that *if* your student has a language delay or low IQ that you simply need to understand that they may never get up to the same mid-9th-grade level that other kids do, or at least not at the same rate. But they can still be 100% remediated in decoding which can hopefully increase vocabulary over time. Our experience with Barton has been overwhelmingly positive but I am OG trained and so I bring in other aspects of OG to the program and do not hesitate to alter it as needed. I've used it with Ana, 14, in spite of her hearing loss and intellectual disability with amazing success. This kid had made zero progress in 5 years of school and now she can decode on a 4th grade level and comprehend on a solid upper-2nd grade level. She reads now. It's as simple as that. Before Barton she didn't realize signs said meaningful things...she couldn't read birthday cards or baby board books. Now, she not only does all those things but she also picks up simple chapter books for fun voluntarily! She asks questions about words she reads. She can understand television shows because though she can't hear them well she can now read the subtitles! When she misspeaks a word I'm able to say "oh, no spinach ends in a CH not an SH" and she gets it in a way she couldn't by me simply repeating the word louder in the hopes she'd hear the sound correctly. I'm also using Barton and OG in general with several other students, all of whom are making progress. Student 1 was "barely on level" but dyslexic at the end of last year, then slid all the way back to a reading level E over the summer! The kid didn't have the solid base to build his reading upon so new skills were learned and lost easily. Now he's back up 6 levels to a K after 5 months of tutoring. His teacher re-checked his test because she thought she must have made a mistake because there's no way he made that much progress in half a school year. Student 2 is homeschooled and had been taken through part of AAR but then they hit a wall and were unable to get consistent progress or lasting results. It was very frustrating and she was starting to think she was a bad student :( She failed the Barton pre-test and we had our answer! That's why of course AAR wasn't going to work, she wasn't ready for it. So I did LiPS with her and now we're in Barton 1 and it's hard but it's working. She wasn't even able to correctly identify 3 sounds in a row before and now she does that with 95% accuracy. Student 3 was 12 and very behind in reading, about 3 grade levels. She struggled with consistency in reading and spelling and had been diagnosed as dyslexic. This in spite of being homeschooled with very conscientious and educated parents and being a smart kid herself. She did not read unless required to. Two months ago her grandma told me she had started reading chapter books for fun on her own! She's reading middle school books and enjoying them for the first time.

Following: my 7 year old has lyme symptoms, had a bullseye rash, and we're waiting on test results this week.

I totally agree! I am trained in OG but I still use Barton as my primary structure because it's just that good and it's all scripted and ready to go. No need to come up with nonsense words on my own, etc. It's like a normal OG lesson on steroids, lol! So for parents I recommend just getting Barton and making progress immediately. My DD at 12 was illiterate, hearing impaired, and intellectually disabled and Barton has gotten her reading on a 4th grade level already. You really can't beat those kind of results.

Most OG training only requires you to have a bachelor's degree. I do happen to have a teaching degree but it's not necessary generally. I was trained in Maryland by Fran Bowman. Basically you can get trained by any fellow of the OG Academy. I found the training super interesting and I highly recommend it! It could be a great way to put your experience into practice to help other kids. I find tutoring to be very similar to homeschooling, much more so than teaching in a classroom. Basically what I've realized is that homeschooling is like one-on-one tutoring in every subject :)

It depends on which kid :) For my kids who don't need special curriculums I'd say about $400-500 each. But for the one who needs Barton Reading and Spelling at $300 a pop, I spend about $1000 a year. Still way cheaper than private school and no need to wake up at 7am or argue over homework ;) I could see spending $1000 per child for each year of high school, but I plan to keep it to under $500/year for K-8th, and likely less when I get to the fifth one. ETA: we do soccer because it's affordable and provides tons of exercise and is equally accessible for boys and girls with minimal equipment. Oldest DD did swim team but isn't terribly competitive so we might switch her over to tennis lessons or something, which will be more costly than soccer but I figure it's a life skill so worthwhile.

Yes to all of the above! We're still trying to fully grasp DD's hearing impairment and what it means for her and us. As for school yes I would definitely get everything written into the formal IEP/504. This teacher may be cooperative but next year's might not, and for testing situations you want accommodations in place beforehand. For the classroom definitely ask for an FM system, he can use it for in-class lectures as well as computer tasks because it should be able to hook directly into the computer's speaker. Also, does he have any hearing therapy? DD had several years of hearing therapy at school to learn how to use and care for her hearing aids and to differentiate sounds better because like the previous poster said, hearing aids aren't quite like glasses. At home I suggest making closed captioning on the tv your default mode. Now that DD can read it's amazing how much more she picks up with CC on. And try to train yourself, and his teachers to never talk to him if you are in a different room or not facing him. He can also be guided in productive and positive ways to advocate for himself. DD used to break down into dramatic tears and "I don't get it!" when she was overwhelmed. With lots of practice she now says "could you repeat that?" Or "i don't understand" ...which makes life more pleasant for us and will get her a more positive response in life ;) I know there are a lot of moving parts to figure out but you will, you have time. The hearing aids will help a lot, they just don't get rid of the fact that he is hard of hearing. He's going to approach the world a bit differently because of that and that's okay.

I can so relate to this. 2.5 years into adoption and things are way better but that first year was as exhausting as having a newborn!

I can relate to this. Yes, hearing that woman speak in person was inspiring and heartbreaking. I cannot even imagine. If only this woman could experience the same forgiveness and welcoming as the mother of the amish shooter did. I was in 9th grade when Columbine happened. The year before a boy in my grade was killed by a boy in my husband's grade during a bus stop fight. The years after Columbine were full of bomb threats and the (for our affluent suburban school) typical suicide attempts in the bathroom. Several years before all of this a young man had shot and killed himself during class in our high school....my friends' cousin was there and wouldn't leave his room for 2 weeks. The fact is those 2 particular school shooters were not as unusual as we'd like to think. It was and is a violent time. I remember someone dropping a metal lunch tray accidentally one day at lunch and in 2 seconds flat all 300-ish students were under the tables thinking it had been a gun shot. That's the kind of atmosphere we lived in at school post-Columbine. Not surprisingly, a large number of mine and DH's peers are opting to homeschool. Columbine is very tied up in that decision for many of us. I'd love to read the mother's story in depth but I think I'd need a bit more separation from those events and that time period to handle it emotionally.

I love the PPP for homeschool lesson planning too. Now if only I could stick to my own plans... ;)

Very interested!

Can anyone here recommend a book or curriculum for higher-functioning special needs kids about friendships and social skills? We're preparing for DD14 to re-enter school in 1-2 years and I want to do everything in my power to prepare her to be successful and stay safe. I'd love for her to make some nice, like-minded friends. She has a tendency to be attracted to manipulative and deceptive friends, often getting taken advantage of in the friendship. I want something to help teach the following skills explicitly with examples and ways to practice: - different types of relationships: friends, acquaintances, new friend vs best friend, family, doctor/teacher, stranger, etc. - boundaries for different types of relationships - characteristics of trustworthy vs untrustworthy people - how to make friends (right now I think she waits for whoever talks to her then immediately says they're her best friend forever, which means the manipulative ones who are trying to use her are the ones she ends up friends with)

DD14, who was 12 when we began, struggled with level 1. We took I think 4 full months to get through it but it was soo worth it! Her working memory improved just from that alone when she was tested the next year. It was a slog for sure, and boring as heck, but it worked. I'd take the struggle as a sign that Barton 1 is really necessary and feel free to take your time with it. At 7 you have so much time and in my experience Level 2 goes fairly quickly. Then 3 was a slog for us because DD is hard of hearing and needed speech practice with blends. And Level 4 is just crazy long. BUT, when he picks up a chapter book for fun after Level 4 you'll realize it's so worthwhile :) I'd stick with it. Also, try covering up the tile to delete the sound before taking it away. And sometimes with my current 7 year old OG student it helps her to touch-and-say the sounds twice before I delete or substitute any sounds. You'll see improvement in a few weeks and he will make it out of level 1. I do think some LiPS concepts are useful along with Barton 1 but for most kids the whole LiPS stuff isn't necessary.

Level 5 is way easier! It's suffixes and such and just much easier. The first lesson is on plural s and es. I'm slowing down with Level 5 for my DD because she is deaf and I'm utilizing the suffixes to drill her in new vocabulary, but a hearing kid would breeze through this level imo. Plus it's encouraging because by now they can just decode a lot more words. Also, Level 4 ends on an easier note with a few vowel teams, so that helped us end on a more positive note with DD vs the darned Banana and Confident rules.

I think writing them on index cards and having him fold to divide the syllables is a great idea! That is one of the tips we did in our Orton Gillingham class. I just updated my blog today with a new tip that might maybe be helpful. We've been highlighting the syllables in words instead of dividing them by drawing a line. http://readingtherightway.blogspot.com/2016/02/marking-syllables-trick.html ...it works well for my student who is working through Level 4 and needing lots of practice to master multi-syllable words.

My DH is/was a Lutheran pastor and is converting to the Catholic church....so we can relate! Anyway, we've found that being open and honest always but easing into the idea is best. DH did not let his parents know for all 5 years this has been in the works until he left his call, moved, and started attending a byzantine Catholic church exclusively. Not the right way to go about it, lol! But he was scared of what his parents would say and he very much did not want to lose their love or the close relationship. One thing he's currently doing that helps is he's had periodic theological discussions on the phone with his mom to address her concerns. As the resident already-Catholic I keep my head down and try not to mention Catholic stuff around my in-laws. I just hope they don't think it's my fault! They're not pleased about DH joining the superstitious masses and ignorant peons of the Catholic Church :P I say lean heavily on prayer and your spouse. You'll be surprised how okay some people will be with it and surprised at how bigotted others will turn out to be about it. People are just flawed and all of us react badly to unexpected news sometimes.

I'd say by 10 unsupervised but an adult home of course. Our 7 year old just started using the (electric) stove with lots of supervision. I'd probably wait an extra year or two with a gas stove since there's an open flame and it's trickier to light. DD14 uses our stove unsupervised no problem. She likes to make herself eggs for breakfast :) DS7 makes instant oatmeal, heating water in the teapot most mornings and actually come to think of it he's only mildly supervised then (DD and my husband and I are in and out of the kitchen getting ready). But I wouldn't let him have at it making pancakes on a pan or stirring a big pot on the stove unsupervised. And he's an unusually responsible child...DS5 will likely be 8-9 before he does the same thing. But then again he has been making himself toast most mornings for 6+ months now. The first time he did it unsupervised (unplanned, he decided he was hungry at 6am and just started making toast) he grabbed cayenne instead of cinnamon, hahaha! It was some very spicy toast :)

Alright! Good job! I hope he finds it helpful!

Peace Hill Press' Facebook page is the main reason I check Facebook daily....they always give my husband and I a chuckle :)

The blog is up. I updated in the original post! If anyone has more tips PLEASE feel free to comment or even e-mail me pics and I can do a sort of guest post or whatever to make sure everyone can benefit.

This is our first southern winter in 8 years and I am completely baffled by the reaction to 2" of snow here! My kids are all "yay, first snow of the year!"....and trekked outside to have a snowball fight. My husband and I are planning on running errands and I'll be annoyed if the stores are closed. Of course the joke will be on me if I hit a patch of black ice while out but seriously, 2" is not going to keep me housebound.

Yay!! What a handsome little man!

In my experience Celexa's side effects the first 2-4 weeks are a beast and then it all goes away and it's all good. Try sticking it out for a month and see if things settle down.