Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Avi and Diana Wynn Jones are two prolific writers who are dyslexic. Yes, they're not English teachers but obviously they deal very much with the written word. Somehow they got around that hurdle. Guess what I'm saying is it's probably not an insurmountable problem. Depends on how much she wants to teach English.

Could you email me your schedule? I am at lipingblume@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Yes, that will work nicely. It's nice to have a change of tempo. We supplement with Writing with Ease and it has really been nice to come back to that (CC ended last week) after 24 weeks of IEW. It might not look like much from the outset, but doing an outline, training them in narration, writing a draft, discussing the edits and dress-ups - each of these steps can take 30-45 minutes a day. And I had two kids to work with, one of whom is not terribly independent with the physical act of writing yet. Just a thought about one other thing you might be able to do - depending on the flexibility of your Essentials tutor. Last year CC did Cycle 3 with U.S. History. So the writing assignments were mostly pulled from IEW's theme-based U.S. History book. Our tutor, however, was flexible enough to allow my family to choose our own source material because I have expressed the reservation that my children simply do not enjoy writing history, particularly from the modern period. So we chose source material from Aesop's fables, Chinese myths, books on bugs and hippos, etc. We had a real blast. But I digress. My thought is that maybe, just maybe. you may use the passages in CAP W&R as your source material. Or you may not. I've heard that CAP W&R generates good discussion with its own layout.

Thanks for the link. It points to the 4th edition though. What I have is the 3rd edition, and I don't know how much difference there is between the two.

We did CC Essentials and the IEW portion was plenty for the 24 weeks. You may supplement but I think it may wiser to do it outside of the 24 weeks. Not at the same time.

Can someone enlighten me on the difference between the two? I have a used copy of Saxon 76, 3rd ed., and I notice at the beginning of each lesson, the text refers to a test , e.g., Test A from Test Masters, for facts practice. I tried googling around and come up with both Test forms and Test Masters. Are these the same thing? Or different?

Thanks. That is helpful.

Geraldine McCaughrean's retellings of ancient myths are good. My 11 year old daughter enjoyed Gilgamesh the Hero.

I have the Rod and Staff Math tests but not the Teacher's Manual. Can anyone advise me if these tests are timed? If so, for how long? I'm doing tests for 4th and 5th graders. Thank you.

Try A Little History of the World by Gombrich.

I haven't read this myself but I do like the sample pages on Amazon for Tales from China by Cyril Birch. This title was recommended by SWB.

We did WWE and IEW and I've noticed with my kids (9&11)' that narration comes easier to them than composition, but they DO enjoy compositions, when they have something they are EAGER to write about. In my own public school experience in Singapore, I loved compositions, not narrations. I know at 9, some schools there focus on just dictation, but by 10, we were certainly attempting compositions. I cannot remember concretely what writing instruction looked like and I have wondered often if that meant the type of instruction didn't matter or if it's just a piece of amnesia on my part. I guess what I'm saying is that one size really doesn't fit all. I don't agree with Pudewa or SWB that creative composition is hard if a child has something to say. And I've used WWE with ease (hallelujah!) which others have pointed out is NOT composition in the usual sense. In the end, what works is what gets done and what you're comfortable doing. Your long-term goals would also make a difference. If i plan on homeschooling all the way, I would feel more at liberty with a CM approach. But if I am planning on putting my child in publi school in a few years' time, I may need something a little more structured.

IEW's TWSS is specifically designed for teaching parents to teach writing with application across curriculum. I think. WWS may be a good choice as well if your focus is expository writing for the older kid.

My kids aren't there yet, and this isn't a book, but the first thought that popped into my mind is Khan Academy. I just checked - they have online lessons on stocks and bonds. Check out this link: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-finance/stock-and-bonds

My kids read and understand spoken Mandarin very well. Speaking has declined about a year ago. I'm not terribly worried about it. As the semester winds to a close, I will include daily games in oral Mandarin. (We do year round schooling) This is my take on learning another language. As long as they can understand (the input is there), the output will come when there is a practical need for it. Meanwhile, the exposure you consistently give will continue to wire their brains for the language. Remember: you are in a good situation. In many foreign language classrooms, they teach by focusing on the output without really consistent input. The result is speaking canned sentences without a huge stock of comprehension which is a waste of time.

I did IEW with CC and the experience has transformed my reluctance to teach writing to a sense of liberation on guiding my kids to write. Definitely worth it!