I think that if I do go to the book fair I will at least get some phonogram manipulatives if they have them for cheap. If my DS won't use them my DD might. Hopefully the curriculum sale that I am going to is just a bunch of homeschooling parents who are just getting rid of excess stuff they don't need. I like the mateials that have been "loved" :) or, if I find phonograms on the internet myself, maybe make my own set with my laminator for them. Not sure how well it would help with kinesthetic side of learning, but I know I could always put prefixes or suffixes in different color or strange vowel combos.

Heather -Thank you for your honesty. The worse part of being a teacher is being told I've been wrong, the best part is being told how I've wronged someone and how to fix it. To be told I have been totally wrong is demeaning. And makes me not want to homeschool. Not saying you did that, just saying, cause that is what would push me. Things I didn't do, which might have read wrong on this thread. I didn't grade him on any subject UNTIL these last two and a half weeks. Math, science, grammar, history, reading,writing, were all ungraded. With the exception of spelling, which has been graded on and off, just because the different curriculum did it for me. Like simplex spelling ap. or spelling city. When I timed the Stanford 10, I didn't tell him that if he didn't finish, he would be penalized. I told him it was for accuracy, and that if we could try to get it done within a half an hour, that would be great. I'm sorry to complain on here. My impatience will grind on everyone who has btdt, and has way more patience than me. On Barton- thanks for saying what you said. I'm thrifty- if any curriculum isn't under $10 I think twice. I got burned with purchasing spelling power.

We have to keep on going or all the work we have done, or he will forget. And my daughter too. Friday we just had Phys Ed and that was it. I am happy he has come this far. Just because he is having issues it's unfair to dd that she doesn't get what she should. They love apologia science and all that is hands on. Oh, and we are so far behind in art because of the three r's between teaching them all.... Sigh...no rest for weary mommy ever---except when I get to hand them off to 4 weeks of vacation bible schools! Lol that's time for me to plan and regroup with NO teaching! I LOVE SUMMER! Cash in those read to succeed six flags tickets :) etc... I gotta read and watch all those Barton videos before Tuesday.

I think it's 1/2 day not mandatory for economically challenged students. But I think some are trying for mandatory full day. My neighbor said that the littles are tired from just half day. But full day plus homework is a bit much imo.

So I need to be prepared and structured. Wow, I just took a huge break to de-stress this weekend, but ugh have to be prepared and re- activate the syllabus next week, but in smaller increments I guess. This will be tough. We home school all year, cause we are constantly behind what we set out to do... The developmental optometrist appointment is on Thursday hope we get all our answers. And, a book fair is on Tuesday. Please pray that I get something like Barton's or AAS for dirt cheap so that I don't have to spend a fortune again. I already committed to try finishing R&S but if it doesn't work, then back to drawing board.

So... I just heard from a neighbor who teaches in public school, that people are pushing for full day pre-k? And our kids have to be able to write a full sentence in pre-k, and know how to add and subtract as well? Does anyone besides me remember doing that when we were in 3rd grade? And which generation is supposedly the less intelligent compared to the rest that people have decided that we should be putting kids behind a desk by age 3, 4, to fix the least well educated levels? Who knows what else they want our kids to "learn" at an inappropriate age? I feel like the public school kids in our nation could so easily be indoctrinated at a young age. I was all for starting my kids early, until I found out how much kids need time and space to develop mentally, and have the physical coordination for certain tasks and what not. I know that some kids are very bright, but when do they get to be kids and just enjoy getting their shoes dirty a bit? Yes, they are assigning homework for them as well. I used to think my kids had a public school as an option how about you?

I saw some scrapbook bins that could work as workboxes at costco.

One step- I am learning so much from all of you! And hugs cancer survivor! It almost seems that the better test is the CALT's evaluation first. And that the neuro psych is only good for accommodating how our kids function as compared to others for standardized testing for future possible public school or other 'dealing with outside' needs. Because technically, I'd be inclined to find what fits now as opposed to a neuro psych which tells me a label but not how to properly teach xyz subject to my kid.

Love the read, helping me see what type of curriculum things and approaches I should be looking at. Math-I always was drawn to the colorful abeka math books for ds. And in fact, DS did it in 3 months in kindy, practically without my help. Switched to (friends sold it to me cheap) MUS and it was sequential, he did ok because of the blocks, but the black and white pages killed all the loved of the math at times. Every time Dh and I got sick of the messy manipulative explosions all over the floor. We switched to Singapore,and it's ok. I can't always explain the math the way he needs it explained (abstract math is hard to teach), but the colorful text keeps him way more engaged. So my problem here is the abstract approach to Singapore, that I would have to learn and the black and white approach to MUS. MUS= Sequential mastery was great at times, but the daggone black and white was killer as were some of the word problems.Dh was reading all of the word problems to ds at one point. Then I felt it was just too predictable. I shouldn't have felt that, cause it allowed him sense of achievement and accomplishment even though it failing his ability to determine order of operations at the time. Maybe I should have just been happy that his working memory wasn't overloaded. We still plodded through. Last summer he was a year ahead till we hit a roadblock on the last 8 units of MUS gamma with the word problems. We switched to Singapore 2a instead of 3a because I knew I couldn't expect him to figure out math their way without covering topics the way they did. Plus, they did division principles and concepts early. Still figuring out how PRECISE EXPLICIT MULTI-SENSORY (caps instead of bold, because I am on my iPad and can't, I am not screaming) Works and to what degree. Merry- sorry, about the non-separated thoughts, and overwhelming post. I realized platforms limit our communications in different ways. Highlighting text isn't happening on my iPad. I should have hit the carriage return a couple of more times while typing. I edited the first post to help parse my emotions and issues. Sorry it was mostly a vent thread. I am really getting a lot better at realizing how I have to change my style or really find the curriculum that fits my child. I didn't know how to do that till I vented first.

Love this thread.

One step Wow.. Now that is explicit. That's what I needed to hear. Holy moly...thank you for the explanation. Now that's catered learning! Serious applause for your being able to bend to the needs of your children. That's hard work. I wouldn't say it's courageous on my part. (Quote it takes courage) But I whole heartedly appreciate your encouragement. I'm not afraid because I don't deal with many stereotypes. I would get disgruntled and weary of spending too much money or time in the wrong direction though. I don't get ashame dor scared if there is a grouping of kids with LD's or learning challenges, or if I or my kids are in any of those categories, because I know so many people with issues that if it's not physiological, it's psychological, or vice, or what have you. I kinda look at life with kids and people like the autism speaks logo with the puzzle piece. I want to find what works so that we're not continually frustrated to get stuff working. Continually being frustrated is akin to a side of insanity that I don't want ~like finding a corner in round room. Sometimes we are just doing and creating out of necessity. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? I also am easily distracted myself. So I developed a check box mentality just to make sure I get something accomplished. If I don't get listy, I would just procrastinate and not get things done. I am a last minute type of person. Fighting my own short comings while dealing with their types of learning while I am not used to teaching that way is really hard. I guess everyone has to figure it out. Is the evaluation that you did for your kids the full neuro psych? In order to determine color stimulus learning? Or was it the developmental optometrist visit?

One step -you live up to your screen name! Thank God for you.... I love how you put me in my place. (I love your constructive non- condemning criticism.) Wished we all lived next to each other! Just scheduled my son with a developmental optometrist. Hopefully insurance will also cover anything beyond the first evaluation. I wish I could just upload all the research you all have done into my brain, so I can just teach him correctly the first time without taking things impatiently Kwim? Grr, so sequential box checker of me.... Wow Barton is expensive. Ds just complained to me of astigmatism type of vision issues, and some doubling when I pulled up a webpage about visual issues. I asked him if he saw his reading like the doubling example or if he saw it singularly. He said sometimes he sees it one way and sometimes another. I asked him about several books that we read in the past. And he said twice with one book and once with another. My husband said he probably sees the doubling when he is tired and reads late. He did say the view finders helped.

OneStep -you're right, and I've read Grace Based Parenting , and I do lack grace many times, because I just want things done. We were able to turn it in today HOORAY! We went to dunkin donuts to celebrate mailing it off to the testing center. It was hard for him, yes. And, yes, not all of his mistakes were careless, most of them were careful. He didn't want to know if his answers were right or wrong after mailing it off. (I photographed all his answers). When he took the reading comprehension portion of the test, he was with my friend doing the testing and he answered a ton of them wrong. I don't think he was paying as much attention as he needed to in the reading, that's why I said careless. When I did the spelling subtest with him at home, I made sure that he was being more careful, thus the time differential. Normal things that kids don't do like- check over answers etc, skim back over the reading, reading the question twice was what he was doing during the reading comprehension parts. The timing was more on par for the reading comprehension part. The spelling mistakes were legitimate. Meaning, glad I was watching his thought processes and had him writing things down, now I know how he thinks better, some more on how we need to guide his spelling in the future. Ex. How to help him learn the subject matter better and suffixes and prefix issues we need in word families. But while taking the test, I was exhausted sitting with him through every little word. It was difficult not being able to say remember this rule or that rule -which would have defeated the purpose of the test. I just did a blanket direction for all his words to keep him from marking all his answers wrong and get him to make sure he was checking all his answers. My DH was great, he helped my DS do the Science and Social Studies parts of the test. I think it is more me as a teacher, part of it is stamina and end of year burn out. On all the portions that I gave him I was more critical and the time it took for the test was longer, except for the dictation part where I couldn't repeat anything. There is something about going over your answers, something that my husband didn't concern himself until later even when we were teaching regular instruction. Do any of your kids take their educational mistakes personally? thus the easy shut down, rather than just fix it? How would you help fix that?

Just took the stanford 10 across the board all of the subtests that were untimed -- I timed them and he took twice as long on every subtest. Math procedure and spelling being the worst at most time taken. All this with someone by his side, and many breaks in between. Spelling was closer to 3 hours for a 1/2 hour estimated allotment or average. I know that it would screw up the results, but I had to help him- I told him to write down all the words how he would spell them then compare it to the examples then decide whether theirs looked more right or his spelling looked more correct. Holy moly almost every answer would have been wrong otherwise. Thank goodness I didn't give him an official timed test. LOTS of careless errors. Sigh.. So for our VSL's we're going to have to write EVERYTHING? Sigh... at least there were no essay questions or fill in the blank and everything was multiple choice. Next on the hit list: return the stanford 10, get eye doctors appointments set and piano recitals and adjudications out of the way.... VT? Sorry I need to find the LD acronym list.

Thank you for the practical application materials. I have been watching this DVD that I borrowed from a friend. I just talked to my cousin who is a nurse and I never tested his vision. We did a iPhone app for visual acuity and astigmatism. He didn't pass for the astigmatism test, but visual acuity was magnificent. I will have to take him to a eye doc.

We finished reading Moby Dick - We were studying whales in Colonial history and Apologia, so that's why it was Moby Dick illustrated and unabridged, he thought it was kinda neat, kinda difficult - it challenged him, he wasn't thumbs down about it at all, Queequeg was interesting character, especially since we had studied some geography in SOTW. He actually can't wait to dive into Wizard of Oz after the Civil War ballad book. So I have been doing the WWEish idea since the Red badge of courage read. I kept on taking down his summarization and scribing for him. But, today I did something different. So it only took me 20 minutes for me to scribe his summary of the chapter and for him to COPY what I had written with the viewfinder. YAY! that was a 1 hour and 40 minute save!!! THANK YOU EVERYONE! He did drift off twice, but not so bad! Now, I understand it takes spelling out of the equation, because he is constantly copying, I assume it helps him think about words in a sentence and what it looks like. Maybe with enough summarization sentences, he will be able to type a book report later. But since I am working with spelling separately, it would just serve as a quicker isolated help. YAYYYYY! Too bad that the dragon dictation didn't work for him when he narrated it-- his cute little voice wasn't registering on the dictation device so well. Maybe we can graduate to vocal recorder app, after enough sentences that I scribe for him. Then he can rewind and pause to help him remember what he would write, Then have him copy. Isolating the working memory... WOW. I think I understand now. ONE STEP AT A TIME and everyone else HUGS :grouphug: . This info was most invaluable. I needed to understand the particulars of how to teach this grade and to this crazy idea. I was expecting too much :blink: . Poor kid. If he can't think how to spell the daggone word, he sure as heck isn't going to put it on the paper... SIGH... I understand now how frustrating it is. I told him to not worry about the spelling many times over, but he didn't want to be corrected later and erase all the miss-spellings. That's why he doesn't like it. The disappointment of having to rewrite and erase most of his words is so discouraging. Let's hope that by copying his own words he will start spelling better too just because he has a good example and also with the new spelling- to- picture- card will help solve it all. Poor first borns, they always seem to be the homeschooling guinnea pig.

I was talking to a cashier friend and she had problems with her kid between 2/3rd grade, she told me to get ds tested too. She said that K12 does that kind of testing. Anyone know? She told me that her son was just VSL and that was why he was doing poorly with the teacher he had so, she got another teacher. I was also talking to another friend she said that we can just "redshirt" our own kid. So I could technically put him back in 3rd grade in the fall/next semester until we catch up with all the writing and spelling. Then, pressure would be off of the both of us. We're 1/2 a year behind in all our curriculum anyway. Then, he'd feel "ahead" (we have other co-ops and some public school friends) I would be less pressured to make sure that he is/isn't writing up to par. Besides he was only born 1 month before the age cut off, and he's always the shortest at everything PE (although he LOVES being able to dodge and whizz by all his friends - he stealthily moves about the soccerfield/football field and they underestimate shortstuff) LOL.

CAPD? Oh, and funny you should say that -- I did 2 online IQ tests in the middle of the night and scored a 143 /144...then I was tinkering with trying to figure out how a visual sequential person teaches a visual spatial/kinesthetic . LOL http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/ I am a visual logical, he is a visual physical. My friend with 2 dyslexic children was trying to explain to me - I was like Hypothetical - if my kid is vsl, then why did FLL which is mostly an auditory curriculum work with him? She said because of the blatant wrote memorization and repetition. It totally made sense. So, if my ds, was able to memorize by rote all the poems even though they are auditory, then there is something to be said of consistent drills in a lower dosages for any student. Like what you all were saying. He was able to memorize all the 50 states and capitals because it was an musical auditory and visual thing. Wakko's 50 states and capitals. We did a verse 3 times every Thursday for 24 weeks.

Do you think that maybe I should ask my state portfolio evaluator?

I want to see if this new picto word idea works first for the next month before starting over. If it worked today... it might work again. I don't want to ditch the R&S that I'd already invested $$ in. I purchased Gr2,3,4 cause I needed to understand progressions of words and how it taught stuff. I don't grade off on writing content. I just correct him and he hates it when I correct him. Part of it might be a perfectionist attitude from him.

http://flic.kr/p/nFhV2Z http://flic.kr/p/nHniat Just to let u all know it's helping a ton... His spelling oral quiz today on spelling city ipad link grade 2 lesson 13 for R&S word list was 100% With a bathroom break. Spelling- I did help him with the word girls. Which he got wrong last Friday. Spelled it out ten times before, and in a sentence and did the picto-word before the test. Then during the word test as he was about to hit enter on "grils" I said, are you sure? I shouldn't have said anything, but he eventually fixed it. We did the viewfinder for writing and had me scribe it while he copied my scribing. It was 2 sentences at 45 minutes. We will see how the words work on long term memory... That's a big issue too. He spelled "fun" -"pone" wrong yesterday. He said ph says f was his reasoning. He knows the short vowel rules don't include silent e yet he always wants to add an e.

oops edited post above while you were typing. LOL I am fascinated!

covd doctor? and when you mean 1 sentence per day - all 5 days? Cause after wwe 2 I got up to 2 sentences doing all worksheets and following all formats (still a 2 hour function), and with spectrum writing i got up to 3 but, it's been 2 plus hours with bathroom breaks and sometimes a food snack and me constantly trying to help him get focused. (C'mon kid- try to pay attention, let's get back on task, you can do it, after the 10th time, this is where frustration sets in). But I did spectrum maybe every other day or every 3 days. Trying to understand where mechanics hits frequency and if it helps resolve the issue. The way that spectrum writing works is there is two pages of fill in the blanks and then maybe a graphic organizer- (important for vsl) (venn diagram) or word web, a list, and then the composition of 3 or more sentences for a paragraph of some sort- It might be for a compare contrast,write about a top to bottom view of a cave to describe, it might be for a personal letter. So the thought to paper happens every 2 to three days. So I am still trying to see how explicit i have been (as I write this) or haven't been already and what else to modify. Spectrum has been better than WWE to help organize thoughts to paper with visual stimuli and diagramming, but some of the harder lessons like the lesson on writing to a specific audience had him really stumped. And he's still taking a long time zoning, but less balking and crying than with WWE, that's why I changed it -he doens't cry with Spectrum, but will zone if he doesn't get it, even though I constantly remind him, if you don't get something ask or whatnot. My friend with 2 dyslexic children directed me to a person who would help write an IEP for me. (private -$400) Not sure if I should call her just yet. Just trying to check out my options before I make any financial leaps.

Tiramisu- we've done wwe 1 and 2 up to lesson 26 or 28? it was great that he liked the picture on the workbook page but it was hair pulling for him to do the writing = 2 hours- plus seriously, his thought to paper is redonkulous. He has completed a reason for handwriting Transition book. His cursive was better than mine at one point. One step- Thank you for your example. I might want to take him to a ophthalmologist. Never had his eyes checked. We don't use things like far away chalkboards, but I have used rulers for reading, for tracking, no matter if he didn't like it or what. Tracking to write... Interesting. I should use it for his copy work and see how fast he can do it. The only other issue is thought of his own words to paper... That's the bigger hump. Thanks for your isolation of mechanics methods. Have you used a viewfinder? Like cut out a hole in an index card the size of the line of font and let him move it as he copies each word? It blocks out all the other words above and below his current line, so as to help him track even better?

Elizabethb-For spelling, I think I will use the chalkboard iPad ap and continue the spelling city for rod and staff, the lists were already imported from another HS mom. One step-Dancemat typing is great, my son already used that. His typing isn't near fluent yet. But self typing to transcribe might be better goal. I had done lots of scribing for my son. Every chapter of red badge of courage and half of moby dick I scribed for him, his summaries. He didn't type it out, cause he said he couldn't read my hand writing to type it... I think it was just an excuse. Maybe I'll get him there eventually.. Lol we also picked vocab words out to define them. I defined most and he looked up some. Torn between iew and spectrum and LLATL- I have the latter two.