We watch them on YouTube all the time. :) Actually most of these shows can be found there.

Simply Charlotte Mason has several that might work for you under their science/nature study section of their bookstore.

Little Bear is my most absolute favorite kid show. It's calm, quiet, and filled with nature. Oswald was another good one. Maggie and the Ferocious Beast is good. The older Franklin isn't bad.

You might like looking at the samples in Mardel's A Simple Plan planner. I will be using it this year, I think, but the samples are great. Just a thought.

OK, please spill the beans on what planner you're liking... :)

:iagree: with Wapiti. I'd try it first and wish we did. My son is on Zoloft. From research, sometimes high doses are needed for OCD. It's rough for them and us, as parents, to watch them go through this. It's affected our entire family.

You can also do this in Skedtack which is free. :) Let me know if you need directions on it.

I bought this also to use for this fall. I really like how it looks. I read on her website that the next level is due out summe of 2017. I can't really give a review since we haven't used it yet but if you have any questions, let me know.

How about Notgrass America the Beautiful? Not my top, top fav but it's all laid out and easy to use and actually has interesting information in it.

We couldn't stay on CLE Math for my oldest son as it moved to fast for him also and he couldn't cement anything in his brain. Now he does have LD's in math, just so you know. However, R&S has been perfect for him and I wish we had stuck with it years ago when we gave it a try (I put him in too advanced a level though so it was bound to fail). We went back to it after CLE, Saxon and MUS. I've found it very important to do the oral drill from the teacher guide and we do alot of the work on the white board to keep it from taking so long or too much writing (he has dysgraphia too). I really couldn't be more pleased. Good luck.

Ivy-Kids kits and whatever else seems fun. :)

For both my special needs oldest and my daughter, I really have liked Essentials in Writing. It's given in nice sized chunks and worked with. Once the format is down, then you can work on polishing. Personally, I wouldn't worry about diagramming for now anyway, but that's just me. I'm not saying it's not good, but if they have a hard time with writing and language in general, it might just be a hurdle that isn't at the top of the list. Good luck,

There is a thread on the high school board about transitioning kids to college and although good advice, it doesn't always apply to special needs kids. If you have been there done that, would you mind telling us how it's going or went? Could you have done more to help? Should we do more to help them? Thanks, Cynthia

Thanks Hornblower. So she doesn't put on here daily assignments right? Like read pg. xx-xxx? It's just for due dates, tests, etc.?

Merry, that's how I did it up until now. More of a journal of what was done each day as we did it. Now that they are older, they don't want that. My daughter, in particular, wants to know what is expected for the entire next year and wants to see it all planned out on a calendar so she'll know if she's ahead, on schedule or behind. She doesn't want to have to work through the summers or year round anymore. I think I just need to give over more planning to her or we do it together just like you say in your post. Hornblower, I'm very interested in your semester at a glance. My daughter would love this and I think my son would too. So on one page, you put all subjects and their assignments, tests, etc.? How does that all fit on a page? Does it go by date? Any images so I could get a mental picture of how this would work? Thanks for so many replies and great ideas. :)

I can handle the chaos :) and my kids are used to it by now but I can't help thinking they should learn to be better organized. My oldest son is possibly worse than me, but much of that comes from his issues. My daughter is actually pretty good but I still think she could "learn" some more. My 5 year old tornado is the epitomy of chaos. I do have the big picture down. I keep spreadsheets when I'm in a planning mood and see where we are and where we need to go. I just always feel like I don't know who should be doing what at any given time. I know it would help them to be better about it, so I thought if I were "teaching" them to be more organized, it might rub off. ;)

Yes, mostly, but every day is a "what do I do now" kind of thing. I guess I should say I'd like to be more organized and how do I teach my kids to be more organized. I don't want them going to college without having that skill at least available to use.

I try to plan. I really do, every single year. And every single time, I never stick to a plan or it gets messed up and I just never fix it, etc. I hate it. I really want my kids to do a better job than me. What do you suggest? Student planners? Online? Doesn't matter?

My son was older when we started it, probably 12, but I used the cursor for a good long while. I credit it with really getting him reading. It slowed him down and made him consider each sound. I'm not sure I see the unnatural emphasis on letter sounds. I used the cursor for each sound. So reading for example I would show r then ea then d then ing. Hope that makes sense. He has no speech difficulties. We didn't have problems with the mastery tests except for slowness sometimes and since he has processing issues, I didn't make it a big deal. I would go with how you feel she's doing and sometimes that means not following the "rules" of the curriculum. I liked DB and A&P so much, I'm going to be using it with my youngest who has no difficulties. Good luck,

I used it last year. To me, it wasn't worth the cost. I only did 2 months. Most of it was printable stuff I could have done myself plus a few addons. We switched to Ivy-Kids and loved it. Good luck,

My dd15 will be finishing up Bravewriter's Help for High School around May. I have several books to use after but I am unsure what would be the best order to go t hough them. Elements of Style On Writing Well The Lively Art of Writing Writing with a Thesis Thoughts?

We've tried several: MP's First Start French, So You Really Want to Learn French, Mango?, etc. We've finally settled on Breaking the Barrier and its working very well. She's also doing Tell Me More on the side. We bought the actual books because my dd hates e-anything.

We've tried several: MP's First Start French, So You Really Want to Learn French, Mango?, etc. We've finally settled on Breaking the Barrier and its working very well. She's also doing Tell Me More on the side. We bought the actual books because my dd hates e-anything.

Any other options? Maybe something similar, not sure we're ready for AOPS, but more challenging with less problems? She doesn't mind the time spent, just the amount of problems. I had just planned on her doing Saxon Alg. 2 and then Advanced so I haven't really looked around or paid attention.

My daughter has done Saxon Algebra 1/2 and 1. She's done very well with it and has always gotten math concepts easily. She's not sure she wants to stay with Saxon just because it takes so long, even after cutting out odds/evens. She's not opposed to it, but wanted to know what alternatives there might be. What would you suggest for after Saxon Algebra 1? Thanks,