Thanks for your sentiments folks! Yes, definitely my NT boys often drive me nuts...especially my oldest (because the kid is so.much.like.me). But no matter what they do, I still manage to maintain a fondness for them. DD...the poor thing...I honestly have lost all fondness for her. And again, that's awful, and I'm ashamed to even admit it, but it's true. (There is another piece to this...I am adopted, and was adopted at age 5...so I have a history of attachment issues stemming from my first 5 years of life, and those attachment issues are primarily with females...it's something I am working on with the counselor....but my poor kid, in the meantime, has this double whammy of being a difficult child AND she has a mom prone to weak attachments). She really is a sweet kid....you mention her at our church and ALL the little old ladies...every one of them...will gush about her. When new families arrive, she beelines right to them to introduce herself and to show the children "the ropes". So I try and focus on these positives, but they are so few...and then I feel so guilty for only seeing the negative in her, and for being so critical. I've been trying to encourage her to be more responsible. She wants to help in the kitchen, but her hygiene is so poor, I really can't. Anyways, now I'm rambling. Just...thanks for letting me sound off. This is so hard, and sometimes I wish she would have the kind of mom that would have embraced her differences, loved her the way she is, and made her feel important and valuable. Maybe someday I can be that kind of mom, but right now? And for the past few years? I've been missing the mark big time.

Goodness, I'm not even sure how to title this...but I'm really struggling lately to connect with this kid. DD11 is such a sweet kid. She really is. I love her to pieces. It seems as though, over the last year, her social skills have tanked, and tanked hard. She has always had learning disabilities (ADHD inattentive, dyscalculia, motor integration, receptive language), but her social skills were fine. She never struggled to fit in with her peers, they accepted her just fine, she engaged appropriately, etc. But then she hit 10 and...I think the rest of her peer group made some big social jumps and she just has not made those. Neither is she even remotely ready. She is still struggling with hygiene (hair combing, despite a shorter haircut, wiping her nose on her sleeve, sneezing boogers all over the place). Sometimes her laughter is off par (louder than it should be, or she'll laugh hilariously at something that's really not as funny as she's laughing, if that makes sense). Some of her social interactions are immature. I'm seeing some of her peer group starting to leave her out, snigger behind her back. I saw a pair of slightly older twins mocking her. At home, she is ALWAYS in trouble for something. She's not "bad". But she is irresponsible. Poorly completed chores...constant distraction...a complete and utter lack of common sense. Seriously...the lack of common sense is driving me nuts. She took a frozen chicken water from one side of our chicken coop (a side with just a couple of chickens, so they don't drink it very quickly), and gave it to the main flock. Frozen. She often forgets to latch the chicken coop doors...and this has caused significant weather issues during snow storms. Somehow, she has managed to lock herself into the coop more than once. I mean, the coop doors have eye hook latches...how in the world...I don't even know!!! We have begun discussing upcoming tween and puberty issues. I gave her a book and we've gone over things. She wrote me a note in her journal asking, "So when does the egg hatch?" I was like, "Huh?" She thought the ovary would produce an egg like a chicken egg. At the Y, she'll come out of the shower with the towel wrapped around her mid-section...bottom half and top half completely exposed. I swear, I birthed Amelia Bedelia! And I know that my reaction to her has been less than accepting. And she's picking up on it. Which...is awful. But I'm not really sure what in the world to do. I am going to see a counselor and we will discuss these things, but I thought I'd run it through here, because I can't be the only one struggling to "like" my difficult child. Can I? Please tell me I'm not. Please tell me how you managed to build up a kiddo who seems to always do the wrong thing. And if somebody can tell me that kids like this grow up and successfully manage to navigate through the real world without burning down their homes, or walking off with strangers, please tell me. Because right now, I'm not sure how this child is going to survive on her own. (Also, I'm SERIOUSLY considering ADHD meds...something I said I really didn't want to do...but I'm not sure I'll have any other choice).

In certain areas, yes...we've had to use radically different materials and approaches. My 11 yr old has math-based learning difficulties and so she used MUS for awhile and is now in Singapore Grade 2 with my youngest two boys. My 10 yr old son, on the other hand is accelerated, especially in math. He used Singapore, Beast Academy and other enrichment stuff. There was no possible way to keep them together for math. But for language arts, despite some big differences in these two children, I DO keep them together. They experience the curriculum somewhat differently (talking about spelling and composition here). Sometimes I ask different things of them, or my expectations for his essays are higher than for hers. Personalization is where it's at! But I do try and combine when I can, because they are so close in age.

Beast Academy commented on their FB that 5D is going to the printer today!

Beast Academy ------------> Best.math.ever. Seriously, it's a fun math. You should absolutely buy both the guide and the workbook. Much of the math teaching is actually in the workbook, and if you just get the text, you will miss out. My kiddo does it pretty much self-directed. But I also use it a year behind his Singapore curriculum. They complement each other very well.

I totally could have written your post. Blasted middle school! And to make matters worse, I feel guilt that my younger two are not having the relaxed elementary years the older two had.

And Lori, you always have the best replies!!!

How old is he? I'll throw my hat into the ring for Beast 5 (or lower if he's young and/or not had any Beast). If he's older, and really should be able to start working independently, and there isn't a good reason why he's not, then I'd spend the summer specifically working on independence. Put him on Kahn Academy,for example. Let him work through that on his own. Or set him up on Prodigy, but not just to play, go in and set assignments, and give him a time frame to get them done. My own DS is finishing 5B this year as well, and I plan on having him complete Beast 5 over the spring and summer, which he'll do pretty independently. And then right into AoPS Pre-Al. But I anticipate some hand-holding, at least in the beginning.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I especially like the suggestion to take a break and study World Cultures. My kiddos are a bit off sequence in the history cycle. The oldest two have done all four years of SoTW, the third oldest has done three years, and the youngest has only done two. So I want the younger two to "finish" the series by starting over with Ancients and Middle Ages, but I don't want the older two to repeat the steps with the same book. I was thinking Tapestry of Grace, which I own a portion of the Ancients year...but it's such a time suck, I just don't know. It's one of the things I need to research over the next few months.

I've been slowly moving them towards this over the past year. DS is fine, catching on just grand. He always was the kind of kid who asked open-ended questions, even as a toddler. DD, on the other hand...man alive, I'm not sure she'll EVER get to that point. But then again, I wasn't sure she'd ever get to a point where she could count backwards over a threshold and she has so...we'll see.

I think Pentime looks to be about what I'm looking for. Thanks everyone for your thoughts!

We'll have completed through level 6 of AAS at the end of this school year. I'm going to look over AAS7, but unless there's material in there that seems really necessary, I think we're about ready to move on from spelling.

I didn't read the responses, I'm sorry. So maybe this was mentioned already. But what I do is I alternate science and history. We study history during the "cold" months...October through March. And then we swap over to Science and study that from April through September. Yes, we do summer school...but I cut our schedule WAY back in the summer and sometimes, it's just science and review of other topics. I have written my own science programs for the past few years. It takes a LONG time, and is a lot of legwork. So this year, we're going to try Science Fusion from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

I am trying to wrap my head around the idea that my oldest two are even CLOSE to middle school but....they are. Both are very different and I would so appreciate some guidance/advice on what to plan, what they must take, etc. So... DD11...I'm not so concerned about her course progression. She has some math-based LDs and her poor reasoning/critical thinking skills mean her education path is pretty remedial. As of right now, I'm planning: Math (Singapore Grade 3) Process Skills in Problem Solving (Grade 2 first half, 3 second half) Critical Thinking (using various programs I have around here) Latin or Vocabulary (I'm not sure how she'll do with Latin) Writing (EIW Grade 5) Grammar (EIW Grade 5, should I add something else to this?) Literature History Science Bible/Character Health Anything I'm missing? How about in the next two years? What else should she cover? DS10...this kiddo is accelerated, but I have held him back somewhat to avoid maturity issues. His birthday is right after the grade level cutoff and so, he'd be in 4th grade in PS, but I have him at a 5th grade in most areas. He will likely follow an advanced college prep course as he moves on to high school. He *may* enroll in public high school when he is old enough. For next year I'm thinking... Pre-Algebra with AoPS and/or Elements of Math (would doing both be too much?) Process Skills in Problem Solving, Grade 5 (I always do this book a year behind the grade level) Finish off Beast 5 (should be done by fall) AoPS Alcumus (again...is this too much?) Latin Health Science (topical or general?) History Writing/Grammar (EIW Grade 5) Literature Bible/Character Again, anything I'm missing? Aside from the Arts...I still need to figure out how to provide art and music. I am highly unskilled in both. Typing? Computer science? Anything else I need to know?

No, he won't have Calculus completed...he'll have the courses UP TO Calculus completed. I'm assuming they would complete Calc I and Calc II in high school, if available. AP Calc, or other advanced mathematics, or perhaps even a course at the local Community College. So in middle school, they will complete Pre-Al, Alg. I and II, Geometry and I *think* Trig? Maybe not Trig. Not sure. You have to administer a placement test to see if he's "ready" for their program. It's a test, not really of math, but more of thinking abilities. DS scored a 37, which was high enough to be strongly recommended for the program, but because he had not completed all of his Primary math, I opted to wait a year for Elements. But, I can say, I generally have found reviews of it to be quite favorable. And yet, I don't see it mentioned here hardly at all.

They have not updated but...my guess is probably later in the month. They haven't even sent it to the printer yet.

You might consider checking out Elements of Mathematics: Foundations. It's online, advertised as targeting accelerated math kiddos and it says they should have all of their high school math up to Calculus by the time they finish 8th grade...if I understood correctly. I'm considering it for my own DS, who sounds quite similar to yours, lol. He scored 99th percentile on his math standardized test last year (we are in NY and the school administers testing for homeschooled students). Unlike yours, I kept mine a year behind in Beast, from where he is in Singapore...so he'll be finishing Singapore 5 this year, and will be starting Beast 5 just as soon as they finish 5D. From there, I'm likely going to go the AoPS route for pre-al, and then I'll sign him up for Elements of Mathematics. At least, that's the plan for now.

Oh....I totally agree on cursive writing and acronyms. I usually just use print when I have to write any kind of acronym or initials.

I took a look at HWT Cursive and I will not be choosing that one, lol. I hate the way it looks. After doing some looking, I think I want a Spencer-type cursive, but with limited flourishes. Though I would like to retain the option to keep those flourishes as my 8 yr old (the goofy guy in my thumbnail pic) is exactly the kind of kid that LOVES flourishes. He's been begging me to teach him cursive for the last two years and I had to forbid him from trying to learn it himself, lest he learn bad habits. I gotta say, Hunter...I don't love Spalding's cursive either. My own cursive is more Spencerian...that's what they taught us in grammar school. I could always just teach them from my own hand. As for slanting, you know, I distinctly remember them teaching us to slant, but now that I think of it, I rarely do. My cursive is mostly vertical, unless I'm implicitly trying to slant. But it will be a consideration for my lefty. I'm still trying to get him to slant his paper, just for the sake that he IS a lefty and has that age-old difficulty of erasing his writing with his hand. I'm also trying to get him to angle his writing implement so that he is writing slightly above his hand instead of directly to the right or below. His handwriting is a struggle.

The time has come. The Fantastic Four are all ready to learn how to write in cursive (though I have doubts about my lefty littlest guy...his handwriting is TERRIBLE). I'm planning on teaching it over the summer. We used HWT to learn print and so naturally, I plan on checking out their cursive program. What do I need to know? Any suggestions aside from HWT? For what it's worth, aside from the littlest guy and his lefty writing issue, my oldest has some spatial/integration issues. Learning how to print was VERY difficult for her, particularly letters that had any kind of swoops...like lower case e, s, etc. The directionality of the letter messed her up. So while I would like a "pretty" cursive, I'm thinking, at least for her, I need something that is more straightforward. Also, I introduced them to cursive at the beginning of this school year. I wanted them to learn how to read it first, so that it would be easier when it came time to learn how to write it. So all four can pretty reliably read it. Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I agree with the others on skipping Beast, unless he REALLY wants to. No harm in him breezing through for fun, but I wouldn't require it. You might want to look into this course, though. https://www.elementsofmathematics.com I'd like to get my mathy 10 yr old in it as soon as he finishes 5th Grade with Singapore and Beast.

One source that my kids love for math practice is Prodigy Math. They beg to play.

Any updates on this? We purchased through Homeschool Group Buys last spring (March, I think it was) and I would like to renew for another year. I wonder if Homeschool Buyer's Co-Op has anything for Prodigy yet?

Take heart! My very dyslexic husband, as an adult, is able to spell his last name with no difficulties. They do eventually memorize it!

I agree with others that said don't worry too much about it. Our last name is not very long (8 letters), it is MOSTLY phonetic, but it's Portuguese and my youngest kiddo, 2nd grade, is only just now learning to spell it. And he still has to ask. Our last name has a lot of vowels (which ALL make a sound) and he often gets the placement of them wrong. No biggie. Now adults that look at our family name and butcher it? That irks me...lol. People have given some pretty out there pronunciations. For example, the first two letters are GR and people invariably pronounce it GAR. I can only shake my head and ask, "Really? You got THAT from what you saw?"