Any chance Mom might be able to get some tutoring, too?

My Side of the Mountain Hatchet

OH!!! Online learning games! Was Prodigy Math mentioned yet? LOL. It's free version is just fine. But the paid version is good, too. Especially if you can get a group buy. Which...speaking of...I need to do.

It's already been stated that there is most definitely some kind of learning disability underlying this, so I'm not going to beat that horse. But...and I don't even know if this is available in Australia, she should have her developmental vision assessed. Not her regular vision. Her developmental vision. With a trained developmental optometrist. I know you can find ones in the US at the covd.org website. Not sure if they have worldwide, but they could probably point you in the right direction. If dyslexia screenings have come back negative, this is potentially a vision issue, even if her vision is 20/20. It's also probably still a dyslexia issue. And, it's possible she's not dyslexic. It could be other issues. But I doubt it.

I started with Alpha for my dyscalculic DD. She had great success with it, where she struggled considerably with Singapore. She completed all of Alpha, all of Beta, and half of Gamma. I also used Alpha with one of my boys, IN ADDITION to Singapore. Actually, I used it a bit with two of my boys, to establish a solid foundation in parts and wholes. Why did we leave it behind? I hated it...lol. It's such a light math program, with very little depth. It was PERFECT for my daughter because she really needed the incremental approach MUS provides. But once we hit multiplication of 3+ digit numbers, Mr. Demme's approach confused the heck out of her. And me. So I did some Math Mammoth with her and then rolled her back to Singapore 2, at which point she was much better able to keep up and begin learning math CONCEPTUALLY. Now..my best friend used MUS with her child (a student with no learning disabilities), from Alpha through Delta...or maybe the level after Delta, not sure. Anyways, she pulled her kid out of it because her kid tanked on Standardized tests. Partly because she does not test well, partly because she had no experience with math terminology outside of the terminology MUS used (and thus, was confused), and partly because she had not yet covered all of the material on the test, due to MUS' unusual S&S. She has since pulled her daughter and put her in Math Mammoth.

LOL, derail away!! So the Mosdos curriculum only uses novel excerpts, not the entire novel? I don't particularly care for that. Though I could potentially work with it and just have them read the novel for summer school.

Anybody???

DS10 has been accumulating various "junk" objects for quite some time now. He would like to use these items to build a robot. He has all kinds of things...circuits, gears, etc. He also has the complete set of Snap Circuits. Can anybody suggest a book or a resource that might be useful in helping him combine his trinkets into an actual working robot? I would like him to work on this with his Dad, as a bit of a bonding project.

You know...because I can never just settle on something and go with it, lol. So far with my 11 and 10 yr olds, I've chosen 2-3 novels a year, had them read them, and then we've discussed...typically using various Lit guides from various places...discussion questions I've come up with, etc. They are now entering 6th grade and as of right now I'm planning on Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy (with a comparative slant between these two novels), and Bridge to Terabithia. I have Lit guides pending for Bridge to Terabithia and Anne, and there's an array of stuff available online for LLF. But then somebody mentioned Mosdos and I took a good look and now I'm second-guessing. If not for this year, then perhaps for 7th and 8th. The sticker shock is pretty big though. It's $200+ for the entire grade level...including test book. General thoughts/opinions of this program? Do you definitely need the teachers manuals (which is where the $$$ is), or can you get away with just the student book, workbook, and test bank? How independent is this?

With your son having dyslexia, that kind of throws your question for a bit of a loop. AAR is, imo, overhyped. I did not care for the pre-level at all and found it to be a complete waste of $$$. Level 1 bored my students to tears. The reader books were dull, the stories were uninspiring, and the practice/fluency sheets were overwhelming. Everybody says you don't HAVE to do an entire fluency sheet...but to my 5 and 6 yr olds, just seeing that sheet was intimidating enough. HOP's readers were far more interesting. Aside from the fact that they were colorful (which isn't necessarily a good thing for all students, but mine sure appreciated it), the stories were much more engaging and interesting. The fluency/practice pages were not overwhelming. Ultimately, I would start with HOP and use it until we got through CVC and into blends/digraphs. Then I would switch over to Progressive Phonics, which is free and available to print here. I'd typically pick it up early in the Intermediate levels, though with one of my students I went back and reviewed the entire Intermediate level from book 1. I'd throw in the remaining HOP readers as extra practice. Once they were fairly solid with digraphs/blends, I'd continue with the PP all the way through the end of that program, and I'd throw in Explode the Code as well for practice and to round things off. I found that ETC was that final piece that they needed to really cement things in. So we'd have the visual aspect of PP, and the physical/writing aspect of ETC. I also added in Spectrum Phonics through Grade 3 as additional practice. My students would typically complete all of PP by the end of 1st grade, and 2nd grade into 3rd would be the finishing touch. My youngest is entering 3rd this fall and he is just finishing up ETC. BTW, they did not complete every single page of every single ETC book. I'd rotate random pages into their daily work folders as review and practice. If they had the skills for books 1-5, they'd see practice pages from any of those books. ALL of that to say...your case is different, because your student is dyslexic and learning to read won't happen quite so easily. Honestly though, I'm not sure that AAR is the answer even for a dyslexic. Barton reading program is pretty much the gold standard in teaching a dyslexic how to read. But if you think AARs sticker price is an ouch...Barton is an even bigger ouch. The good thing with Barton is that it's resale value is very high. Susan Barton is easily accessible and is fantastic at helping her tutors. Over the past few months, my Mennonite neighbor has been coming over to our home to watch the Barton training videos on our TV (because they're not allowed to have electronics). She tutors students from within their community who were recently identified as dyslexic. She's also using a second program with two of the younger boys that weren't ready for Barton...but I can't remember its name now. IMO, if you *can* swing Barton's costs, do it. It's worth every penny. It's not worth it to waste your time, and your student's time, on programs that won't likely work to remediate the dyslexia. IMO, AAR isn't intense enough to do the job. But Barton is.

Grammar: Essentials in Writing 5 (we're a year behind...otherwise it would be 6), along with Spectrum for practice. Composition: Essentials in Writing 5 Vocab/Spelling: Word Roots Literature: Literature guides for Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy (as of right now), and Bridge to Terabithia. ****All subject to change at the last moment, because of course.

I've created my own science curriculum for the past several years but this year, I tried Science Fusion and really am enjoying it. I gave it some tweaks to fit what *I'M* looking for in science (plus, the modules are middle school and I have two elementary kiddos tagging along). It can be a little confusing figuring the whole thing out but overall, it's a neat science program and my kids are learning quite a bit.

I've not had mine play Prodigy on Chrome, they almost always play on their Android tablets, but yes this happens occasionally. Sometimes the software is a little glitchy. I've always assumed it was related to the android browser.

I trained in Shorin-Ryu for most of high school. Miss it terribly, lol.

Am I asking for too much? Middle school level. Not too long each (but if they are long, I still want to hear about them, because I'm only just planning). Maybe book series that explore topics? Isn't there a book series...Time Travelers or something? Anyways, what's out there? (Tell me if I'm being too vague...we're about to run out the door, and my lefty is trying to finish his cursive and I'm pretty sure teaching him cursive will be the death of me).

Ok...so if we can say that Latin does help develop logic and critical thinking skills, are you then omitting explicit logic and critical thinking lessons? Or is your student obtaining all they need for logic and critical thinking solely from Latin? Because for us, I explicitly teach logic and critical thinking. So I'm not sure that Latin *for that purpose* would be necessary.

Bumping this to see if there are any other suggestions. I was thinking of going with Old Testament history but...I don't know.

Anybody???

Thanks for sharing these!

I've not studied Latin, no. Which is probably why I do not see this connection. I've studied French, Spanish, even a small bit of Okinawan Japanese (for the purpose of martial arts). I would say that when translating ANY language, the same holds true...you can't just change the word from one language to another, as the translation isn't necessarily true. You have to evaluate the context, function, etc. Perhaps not to the same extent as with Latin. I did read Ms. Lowe's article and...still don't really see the connection, lol.

A couple of folks have mentioned that Latin helps develop logic and critical thinking skills. Would anybody care to elaborate on that? I'm having a hard time connecting the two disciplines, unless the reference is towards the technical terms of logical argument. Otherwise, I don't see it?

LOL, 2 and 3, please!

You know what, Lori? I think Little Lord Fauntleroy might just be the ticket. It has similar feel to Anne in that he is brought to an environment that is very very different from the one he was used to, and he is away from his mom. It does not involve much of the mischief that novels such as Tom Sawyer are heavy with. I'm going to add it to my summer screening list, lol.

See that's more or less what I'm thinking. My goal in teaching Latin would be to assist in learning other foreign languages, assist in vocabulary development, understanding roots, prefixes, suffixes, etc. I know it's the "Classical Way" to teach them Latin but, I'm thinking it might be better to just focus on the parts and then pick up a foreign language in 7th.

Since EIW nixed their pdf purchase option, I'm thinking of switching to something different. I liked the program enough but just want to see what else is out there. The pdf option meant that the relatively higher cost was worth it because I could print the pages for all four kids, instead of having to buy a consumable workbook per kid. My kiddos used EIW for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. So this would be for 6th on up. Suggestions and thoughts?