I recently visited the webpage for the boys' old school and pulled up some of the teacher blogs, etc. My oldest (at home) would be behind in math now but our scope and sequence has him on level by the end of the year. Just a different order for a few things. His writing is behind but that doesn't bother me. My youngest has severe dyslexia and would be so far behind in reading, spelling, writing, etc. He is on level for math. But, that is why we brought him home this year was his anxiety related to his dyslexia. He'd still be behind if we had left him in public school. They want to go back next year. Dh and I are not making that decision now. But, I did check to see where we'd be.

I'm using Primary Phonics for my struggler. I like that the pace is much slower than ETC. We're in book 3. We're also using the readers so I ordered the comprehension workbooks for a couple levels to try. Not needed IMO and I will not order more. They have a small 2-3 page TE but I also ordered this TE for levels 1,2,3 (It's an all one.) It is totally worth it IMO.

We're using Soaring with Spelling with my natural speller. (Since we're using GWG). It takes him about 5 minutes a day. We're moving through his level pretty quickly. Day 1 introduces the words and we do the pretest. That requires my help obviously but is quick. Days 2,3,4 are independent work in our house. Day 5- test.

This! And we had a party line until I was a teen in rural MT. We'd click to let the neighbor know their turn was up. (neighbor had teens too)

We're going to do this too. If we can keep the squirrel from doing acrobatics to get all the seed first.

We did China with 1 copy. My boys shared but they are close in age and it was not a big deal to take turns, etc. They would have devoured it if I had not paced them though and mediated who had the next turn. Angela- Thank you so much for the list of countries.

We just did Top Secret Adventure for China. I purchased off ebay because I wanted to try before I subscribed. I posted on my blog. My boys are 8 and 10. They really enjoyed it and were asking again today if we could order more. I paced them and only let them do a clue for each portion each day to stretch it out to match our geography study. They shared it. The others have described it well, an actual puzzle to start and then working through the Highlights book of mazes, etc., with an actual Guide Book to look up the facts, etc., on the country. It came in a handy file.

If he is practicing he can always write them the correct way, both numbers and letters. We do use the HWT for his penmanship. We will continue to practice though. It is maybe a dyspraxia issue? When he is in deep concentration mode is when he makes his reversals.

Thank you for the ideas. #3 is something I know I need to work on. I will let the reversals slide a bit so that is not adding to the frustration. I like your idea for making graph paper.

This helps a lot. Thank you. He actually can hold the numbers in his head for the problems like 99 + 41, etc. and then writes the number left to right for the answer. He does show his "trading or carrying" but holds the answer in his head until he is done. I just worried as we get into larger problems with thousands, etc., that it would become too much. I also was worried about scribing for him because typically math is a stronger area than the language area. Trying to get out of public school mentality is a process for both of us. I feel better and wonder if my expectations are a bit high for him right now and adds to the frustration.

We had ds tested for dyslexia at age 8. He has moderate to severe according to our school district's testing team. Reading, spelling, is progressing, very slowly but we're making headway and I see the repetition sinking in. He still makes many mistakes confusing letter order in words, etc., but can frequently self-correct. But math has become our biggest stumbling block. We're doing 2 and 3 digit addition. I *thought* he understood but I see he's struggling with the orientation of going the opposite direction in reading. We're emphasizing ones place, tens place, hundreds etc. and he has manipulatives but he doesn't like them. Today was a mess. He still writes many numbers backwards though he will recognize it if I point it out. What program have you found successful for teaching math with a struggling learner/dyslexia? Or any great hints on teaching strategies. This is our first year at home btw. We are considering vision therapy currently as well.

Oh I just shared this with my son who is 14. He read almost all of the books when he was in the 10-12 range. He was bummed too.

So for everyone that says the buy the lunch meat that is nitrate free where do you find it? In the meat section or the refrig. cases? I just went to Costco yesterday for the first time in a very long time with a visiting parent. I found TP, Tillamook cheese, organic milk, organic pasta, and cleaning/laundry supplies to be a very good price there. Now, I think we'll get a membership of our own. I was skeptical because it is a drive for about 45 minutes but I think it would be a good once a month place to shop.

We are seriously considering POE for next year. Any other opinions? Adding, boys will be 3rd and 5th next Fall.

We play a 2-player math game using a deck of cards taking out the jacks, queens, kings. We've used several variatons. Each person(usually1 child and myself) draws 2 cards, then add them together (or multiply- depends on the child). Whoever has the largest sum/product gets all the cards. Continue until you run out of cards. A version of the card game War. We've also done the same game where we draw 2 cards and use as a 2-digit number, draw 2 more, and add together. Great mental math. Singapore's Home Instructor Guide is where these games came from.

I, too, would get this error. It meant the file had not successfully downloaded. I only know this because after my third attempt for the first 2 downloads, the file size was larger and then when I clicked run, it did not give me the above error that had happened the first 2 times, but instead did just like the directions said. So, hopefully you'll finally get it to download. I really want the Funnix2 (third part) but will try it again tomorrow.

We're enjoying the Bananagrams as well as Word Shout (we rec'd free for the Million Minute Challenge).

If you sign up for Ebates and search for Kohl's, use their link to connect you to the Kohls website, you'll also get an additional 4% back plus $5 if you are new to Ebates. Worthwhile if you are making a big purchase. You'll still be able to use your codes above.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-monet-claude.htm My boys just learned about Seuret and Pointillism. Very intrigued by the method, etc.

I mostly lurk but just wanted to say PTL. I've thought of your son all day and just came back to see if there had been an update. Yay for the ruling.

We're going this Friday. (school days but they include home school families. I think the reenacment is lighter). I've been once before 3 years ago. We packed a lunch but bought some kettle corn while there. Overall, it was a good experience and something my boys really enjoyed and remember.

I don't have a link. I just went to their site and don't see them there. She did say they were new. It was a pack of 5 small paperback books. The title is Confidence Builder (1-5), Decodable Reader by Hilary & Tom Burkard, Illustrations by Ed McLachlan. The inside cover says there is an additional of 6-10. Also on the inside cover, it tells you when to introduce after each X page in Dancing Bears A. They are kind of silly stories actually but my since my son is 8, I think they'll be better than the readers we were using. They're pretty short, Reader 1 has 28 pages. Maybe they'll be introduced soon on their website?

I mostly lurk here but have been following this board for 2 of my boys. One is a real struggler with reading/spelling. He has been in public school, but we brought him home this year. He's 8. I ordered the Dancing Bears book from Sound Foundations after reading about it here. It came today and looks great. For some reason, my original order has been stalled for more than 30 days at UPS in Dallas according to the UPS tracker. Hilary Burkard graciously tried to solve it on her end and when that was no avail, she sent me the book from England with their new Decodable readers free for the problems. Great customer service!

We paid $350 through the local high school- the class was there but taught by someone else. This was summer of 2009.

The exact same thing happened to my mother and she refused it. The half-siblings kept saying that the estate couldn't be closed and she would just shrug her shoulders. Not sure what ever happened but mom felt if she was only thought of to keep from contesting the will (I think hers was $20) she didn't want any of it. Sort of a bitter way to handle it but I think it made her feel better to at least have a say so when she was hurt so deeply.