I offer no advice but feel I could have written your post to a T! I am relooking at my curriculum choices to see if there is something that would better fit my daughter.

I honestly do not know if the phonics are the reason why she cannot spell or not. I thought maybe if I revisited them maybe that would help? I just feel like a 3rd grader should be able to spell at least simple words. I feel as if her papers look like a Kindergarteners. However, maybe my expectations are too high? I guess my main concern is I do not want to skip a step. When we went back this summer and revisited 2nd grade math with CLE (instead of BJU) and drilled math facts over and over, she seemed to do so much better with math now. She lacks a lot of confidence even when we encourage her to just try and do her best. I feel I try to walk a fine line of not wanting to overcorrect and point out everything that is wrong with her work or letting it go to often for the sake of her self-esteem. I will say she has a lot and I mean a lot of trouble with I's and E's. Mixes them up a lot and she still writes her B's and D's backwards somewhat often. Maybe there is a bigger issue? I have no homeschooling friends to really help me address what is going on.

I am looking for some advice. My almost 9 yr old 3rd grader is really struggling with spelling and phonics. To give you a background we did Kindergarder BJU, 1st grade we were in the middle of moving across country (and having another child) so we did CLE workbooks. I also used Explode the Code. She learned and knew what vowels went together to make make the different sounds as well as what vowels follow C and K and things like that. I thought we had it down. We moved on and 2nd grade did BJU video lessons and she seemed to do well except for spelling and math. We then began to use R&S spelling and CLE Math. This summer she came along way with knowing her math facts which has made math so much better. We are in week 2 of 3rd grade and I noticed her spelling is just terrible. She cannot remember to spell easy words such as "asked". When I sat down with her and had her spell things I know we have worked on since 1st grade she couldnt even tell me which vowel sets go together to make the long vowel E (ex. ee and ea). I feel somehow she lost all of the phonics that we learned in the beginning. She spelled the word "asked" today as "ast." When I asked her to sound it out and spell it she did it correctly and then I asked her what suffix do we add to make it past tense and she knew it was "ed." For the longest time I ignored this problem and fussed at her because I thought she was just being lazy. However this is happening so much I am wondering if there is more to it than that. She is an excellent reader and can read most all words she just cannot write them correctly. I am looking for suggestions on what I should do. Can I add in some phonics curriculum that would help with both spelling and phonics? Are doing weekly spelling test even worth my time since it seems she isnt really retaining it? Should I use a different English curriculum all together? What I do like about BJU English is that is does alternate between writing and grammer. If I do away with BJU English all together then I would need a writing program. I currently only use BJU videos for Bible, English, Reading and Heritage Studies. I do Spelling, Math, and Handwriting one on one with her since she has trouble in those subjects. I do have 2 young children so I need some videos to free me up. Thank you for your help!!!

I have a question to go off of this one if anyone can answer. We just finished Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and my daughter is now reading level 1 books very well. Is Phonics Pathways something that would build off of this or is it basically the same thing teaching the basics of letter sounds and putting words together?

I am new here and have ready through many threads and I have to admit I am overwhelmed. My daughter is 5 (6 next month) and we breifly did MFW last year but for some reason I just didnt click with the curriculum. Instead I just focused on reading and some handwriting and lots of worksheest (she loves those!). We almost completed the How to Read in 100 EZ Lessons and she is a pretty good reader now. She understands how to sound out most words but still struggles with some of the rule exceptions. I did a placement test on the Sonlight curriculum website and it placed her reading level at Readers 2 level. She currently has been reading Dick and Jane books, as well as some Dr. Suess. My question is, where do I go from here? I plan to do a Kindergarten curriculum since she didnt really complete one last year. However, she is already a pretty good reader. What programs will build upon what she already knows? Or at this level should I move on to a 1st grade reading program. I also plan to do HWOT to work on the writing aspect. For math I am torn between Singapore (not sure if I should do the earlybird or the next level up) and Horizons. She can count to 100 and can identify all those numbers and can do simple addition and subtraction. However, she is still unable to write out all the numbers herself. I need something that doesnt require her to already know how to handwrite all the numbers. Handwriting is an area that needs a lot of improvement. I need something that pretty much spells everything out for me. I am not a good "go with the flow" kind of person. Thanks for your help and suggestions!