My best friend, who actually got me on the homeschooling track (she was all about it, unschooling, freedom ......), decided to pursue her passion in the photography and send her children to very expensive Montessori school. Her words right now: OMG, this school is the best in the world, I love it, they teach exactly what I want them to teach. Everybody should send their kids to school, I am just a better Mom now. I just could not take them anymore I just do not get it, how somebody who wanted un-school is not so exited about school, even if the school is "the best" in town. I feel let down, if you know what I mean. And sometimes thinking, what if what I am doing is not in the best interest of my children :(.

Just-a-mom, I was reading a lot about bilingual children when I started to suspect that he might have some language issues. They usually have "delays" in the less used language and they mix a lot in the beginning. But, and this is the big but, they can repeat words when they are about 3 who are longer than one syllable or 3-4 words sentences in any given language that they use. When he was first tested he was 3, he talked very little and not in complete sentences. I was there during the test to translate any German words that he might be using and the language therapist scored it as he would use English word. First only a delay was suspected but after 1 year of hard work on his site, he did not progressed as fast as he was expected to do. He often told me that when I talk to much he does not gets it lol, the same comes with reading stories. He is very visual and as long as there are some pictures he is able to follow the story. He likes movies as well and he gets what they are saying because of the visual part of it. I am so getting what he is talking about. I can speak, read and write three languages and in the beginning of any new language I had to read a longer sentence few times to get the meaning even when I new every single word. I just forgot what was in the beginning of the sentence lol. The same was when there were more people talking or some background noise, my brain was just shutting off. I think the same is happening to him, but he got so much better with it. Elizabeth and Jen, thanks for the links, I will check it out :) Katharine

Elizabeth, he does not speak German :(. I gave up talking German with him after he was 3, because we started the speech therapy and I was told to just work on English with him. I did a test that I found online with him. He does have problems with recognizing "it", "at", "to" and so on as words, he also tends to skip those when he speaks. He recognizes very easy all rhymes but he can not form his own (when I say what rhymes with hop, he will look for words that start with /h/), he is very good in syllable blending and segmentation, not so good with syllable deletion. He is good in recognizing initial sounds in words but not the final. He is good with phoneme blending but not segmentation. Phoneme deletion and substitution are non existent but never worked on those. I will check out your links, thanks :001_smile: Katharine

HI everybody, I was wondering if anybody did the DORA | Phonemic Awareness Assessment Test at home? Little background about us: my son (almost 7) was diagnosed with speech delay with probable processing issues that seem to be not auditory or at least not all the way (?). He has also some low muscle tone issues. We corrected his core strength and now we are working on his shoulder, arm and hand strength for his writing. We did some Speech therapy but due to other family medical expenses we had to put it on hold for now. I am still working with him at home though. The problem is I am German and even that my English is kind of OK I know that I am not able, at least without help, recognize all the problems that could be there. Right now I can not afford any more test :(. We are now working on learning to read (I waited with this until now to give him more time to work on other issues and to mature) and I have no idea how fast he should be progressing and if he has the phonemic awareness required for reading. Any help would be really appreciated. Katharine

Thanks Merry and Holly :). I will try your suggestions out. Although we have many different pencil grips. I really wonder about the feel on the paper site of it. The crayon is one of those new once that you can use on the white board so it is very soft. I never tried markers with him for writing but now I am planning to. Thanks again :) Katharine

I need an advice about writing. My 7old son has some issues with low muscle tone, not much but enough to makes writing difficult for him. We are using writing without tears and his letters with pen or pencil are just terrible, and I mean really terrible, shaky. Today I let him do it with a crayon, the soft and thick one and he did great. What a difference, nice lines, he stayed in lines, he even copied some shapes that really looked like the shapes lol. He was so proud and happy. Now I am not sure if I just should let him write with it and later switch to a pen or it will only be difficult later on if we do not practice with a pen now. I just do not know how the writing progresses with time :( or how it should progress. Any help? Thank you so much Katharine

Thank you so much I really love this site :D

it helped me a lot to read your responses. I will just drop spelling and grammar for now and just work on letters, reading and writing. I think I will buy Peterson Directed Writing and give it a try. Rosie we are doing science and math and crafts and reading aloud :) and we will be doing it as well in the first grade. I guess I am stressing out about language and what to teach because of me being German and not really knowing much about English spelling and grammar lol. I guess we will learn together. We speak English at home because of his speech problems but I will be adding some German this year ;). Thanks again everybody.

Hello everybody!! I am a German living in US and homeschooling my two boys. My older son (will be 7 in 2 month) will now start 1st grade and I have to admit that I am starting to panic lol. He has some issues with speech as well as with his writing, drawing. I am working to get him up to the task but he is by no means ready to write now. I read The well trained mind and I love it but I am not sure how I can implement it to his needs. I did some planning and it seems so many h and so much new stuff, I know he will rebel ;). I am mostly worried about Language work. During last year we just learned the letters, phonics, he started few month ago to hear the sounds coming together to form the word. We worked on his hands and started to trace some letters but it is still hard for him. I am not sure if I even should bother with spelling, grammar at this point and just work on his writing and reading. Any advice? Thanks Katharine