Horizons is pretty meaty. I always had my kids at a level behind their grade level, and their standardized test scores always came out pretty high. Some years more than others--but it seemed fairly on target grade-wise, doing it that way. I once compared Horizons 4 to Ruth Beechik's recommendations for 5th grade, in her book, Yes you CAN Teach Your Child Successfully: Grades 4-8. It was almost an exact match. My youngest actually did Horizons 1 the way you are doing K--over 2 years, for 1st and 2nd grade. (She played with manipulatives just for fun every other day for math.) Have you asked your daughter if she likes one better than the other or if she likes the variety? That might influence my decision. Eventually you'll probably want to decide to either do both in one day or just go with one or the other...but for her first grade year, I think your plan to alternate would be fine.

Flash cards individually can go a long way. You can also have them quiz each other, with a timer. One does cards for one for X minutes, then they switch. You don't have to be involved necessarily. We got a lot of mileage out of using a Math Shark for math facts practice. Also, games are a fun way to practice, and you can do facts with additional children this way, helping as needed. Here are a bunch of games for math fact practice that we've enjoyed. Another fun one we came across recently: Forget It. It's a dice game that has you multiply and then double, triple, or quadruple the score at some points--so it can be great for getting kids to manipulate numbers.

You can do this! It's like that old adage about eating an elephant...you do it one bite at a time :-). And if you don't try to swallow too much at once, you can enjoy the process too! My oldest goes to college in the fall, and I'm so glad we were able to do this homeschool journey--so thankful for the years we've had together! The high school years can seem intimidating, but they are also so rewarding. I had several freak-outs along the way. When my oldest was in 6th, looking ahead to junior high. When my oldest was in 8th, looking ahead to high school. When my oldest was in 10th, looking ahead to homeschooling two high schoolers, testing, and then college... Not that worry ever helped me any! Honestly...you just do the next thing, which is what you've always done. You might not have known how to teach a child to read, but you learned how, you found curriculum that worked, and you did it. Or you might not have known potty training or baby care, or what an X-year-old child should be able to do...but you learned those things and walked alongside your children. High school is like that. Maybe you don't know what they need to get into college. So read up on it. You can do that. Look at colleges you might be interested in and see what their requirements are. Most, unless you are looking at some really high-end schools, have fairly similar, routine requirements--things like 3 years social studies (many don't even specify US or World), 3 years science/2 with labs, 4 years math, 4 years English...etc... And, you think about what your child is interested in. There is leeway in topics (my son has done robotics for science, and a semester of Japanese History, for example). Talk about it with your children, find out what they would like to learn, and find ways to make it happen--maybe just like you've always done, or maybe this will be new. That's ok. And most of all...enjoy your children. We only have them for these few, short years. And when they are in high school, the years of them being home seem so, so short. Don't miss those years by worries and fears of your own inadequacy. Don't make decisions out of fear. Likely you'll do some things well, and some not as well--that's pretty much life, isn't it? You won't mess them up, and you have this incredible opportunity to share with them on a near adult level the things you are passionate about, and to learn what they are passionate about, and to develop a deeper relationship that is moving towards friendship. Think of high school as walking alongside your child to help him or her achieve his or her goals. And if your child has no idea about the future? That's ok too. Many of us don't--again, that's life. So just set your children up for the possibility of open doors.

:lol: So true!

The phonogram (yellow) cards are mostly the same, but they do have some hand motions on them to help beginning students learn them. Also, AAR teaches the sounds more gradually. Many of the word cards are different though. With the readers, if you are willing to do some extra leg-work, you might be able to make that work. It may or may not be worth it to you though. The benefit to the Level 1 fluency practice is that the child can be successful because they have been given the tools to read every word on the list. If you substitute other books, just be aware that those books will introduce words with sounds that have not been taught yet. When using other books, you may find that you need to pre-read stories to decide when to schedule them, or that you need to pre-teach an extra concept or two in order to be able to use a story. AAR introduces letters and sounds in a purposeful, incremental fashion, so it may be difficult at times to find other stories that line up. Also know that when AAR schedules a story, it includes discussion in the teacher’s manual to help the child prepare for the story, to increase interest and comprehension skills as they read. All of the vocabulary and comprehension exercises specifically relate to the readers. Every other lesson will be centered around a story in the readers--so you really cut a significant chunk of teaching by eliminating them. This article on the difference between AAR and AAS also includes links to the Teacher's Manual, activity pages, and readers on a specific lesson, so that you can see how all of the teaching materials work together (and then it links to the AAS lesson on the same concept so you can see how different things are taught for spelling). Looking through those samples might help you decide if you'll want the readers or feel comfortable with substituting your readers. HTH some!

Core D would be perfect in your situation. It's for 8-11 year-olds, and it's part one of a 2-year US history course. I'll bet you find lots of tie-ins. Since you'll be traveling a lot, let actual experiences trump reading all of the books if you need to. SL cores can be very full, so don't feel guilty if you need to drop some books OR if you want to let the core take more than a year. Enjoy having it all planned out for you but don't feel like you have to do everything or that it controls your schedule. Like Tess, we didn't find that the LA worked too well for us. But, it comes with, so it's worth trying. We used most of LA D the year we did this core, but then switched to other things for LA in other years. Have fun, sounds like a great year ahead!

We did it over 2 years. Why rush through it, especially with a 6th grader? (My youngest was also 6th when she started). I do think you have to do 2 pages or so a day to finish in a year, and I felt my kids' retention would be better if they had exposure to the same concept over more days.

AAR levels 1-4 are different from the Pre-reading program, so it's possible you'd like that better. You can look at the samples of the Teacher's Guide, readers, and activity book online. They have a 1-year guarantee too.

A lot of kids do struggle with word-guessing. Take a look at this article for some ideas to help. Also, there may be ways to adjust AAR to make it less frustrating for him (cause less whining etc...). For example, some kids find the fluency pages really long, and you can adapt those to his needs. Here are some tips for the fluency pages (The customer comments section is good too). If there are other things that were causing some upset, let us know and maybe we can help.

I hear you on the lack of suggestions & the ones given not being that helpful. That said, it was helpful to go through the actual testing for us because it confirmed one diagnosis I suspected, and ruled out some other things. Sometimes it's helpful to tease out the threads of what's actually going on (since there can be a lot of overlap) so that at least we know what to research and pursue when looking for ways to accommodate and remediate!

What worked well here: Start with group time Move to one-on-one tutoring times as needed with each one while the other did independent work. End with everyone on independent work. Literature read-alouds at bedtime. I did 20-30 minute tutoring times with each student as needed. We went over the previous day's work (any corrections needed) and the current day's assignments. Sometimes I did 2 tutoring times with each, depending on the student's needs. Some years I did one in the morning and another after lunch, again depending on the student's needs/attention span. Here's a "Typical Day" I posted a few years ago, that has more detail.

Ironically, our sermon yesterday was "Worry or Worship," primarily focusing on Psalm 27 (I've always loved that Psalm!). I can be a worrier too. It was such a good reminder that there is "one thing" that is most important. Anyway...hang in there!

I think you should decide how many credits she will be earning. That would help you decide the schedule, which classes might only be for a semester, and so on. I'm guessing that Algebra, history, biology, Latin, and "English" (combo of Literature and other skills) are each 1 credit classes that will take an hour per day, and the rest are electives. If Religion and Economics are both half-credit electives, you could do one in the fall and one in the spring to have 6 main classes. For the English course, I usually did Lit for 30 minutes and composition for 30 minutes. I had a separate "tutoring time" a couple of times a week to discuss the reading and/or writing. We did about 15-20 minutes per day for remedial spelling in 9th grade in addition to the other time. If you have a specific program for reading comprehension and fluency, then you may want to make that more of a focus. I think you need to decide what's your "core" here--what's most important for you to focus on. (For example, I wanted to continue working on reading fluency, but not with a specific program--so we read Bible together daily and my kids each took turns reading aloud. That gave me opportunities to offer reading support in the context of our daily devotions, which we would do any way). You could also do things in units--for example, make comprehension/fluency and spelling something you do daily if these skills need work, spending about 20 minutes each, and then have 30 minutes to work on either composition or literature (in units, or alternating--as in read a book, write an essay, read a book..., or by semester). Choosing your priorities and what you really need to focus on to give her solid, foundational skills will dictate what way you go with this subject. Algebra I & II (finish Algebra I, then into Algebra II) Religion Wars of Independence (history) Biology Latin Literature Language Skills (dyslexic, so this encompasses composition, reading comprehension and fluency, and possibly still spelling) Economics (an "extra" that she wants)

You read to them and use audio books. I never found my struggling readers to be behind in content subjects or vocabulary because we read tons and they listened to things while they played with legos etc... too. You work at their pace and don't worry about comparing them to same-age peers. Kids all progress at different rates. Why do we expect them to all be the same? One-room school-houses didn't work that way; it's too bad our educational system moved away from that model. The Matthew Effect may be true for PS kids, but I think it's far from predictive of the hs child. You don't give up. Another encouraging story--Marie Rippel & their son. They were told he would never read or write and to prepare him for a life without reading! Crazy! You encourage them and make sure to also focus on their strengths. Make sure they have time to pursue a passion. One of mine has a passion for science and has done a science fair for years, starting in mid-elementary school. That meant in the beginning that I read everything, the report was done orally and I scribed (with lots of prodding, prompting, and questions to help clarify parts done by me), the words for displays were dictated and I typed them & printed them out, and so on. In junior high, the pendulum started to swing where my dd did more of the work of writing by hand, I typed and helped with revisions, then eventually she typed more and I mainly coached through revisions--until this past year (10th grade) when I mainly helped with proof-reading. It took lots and lots of coaching and walking alongside--but the passion she had to pursue her project gave her lots of reading, writing, and science skills all together. For my kids, I saw the final "catching up" happen in high school. I still see some lingering effects for my oldest, but he's off to college in the fall with some scholarships he had to write essays to earn--and several years ago I wouldn't have thought that possible. I let him be himself though, and pursue his interests. He liked things like pokemon and yugioh, which about drove me batty--but they made him think through logic and strategy and helped him with social skills. They also led into an interest in studying Japanese for foreign language, and sometimes had tie-ins with history or culture--and these things led to interests in subjects like psychology, philosophy, and world-views. Some kids might "catch up" sooner. Some might never "catch up." Truly, I dislike even using that phrase because it implies there's some hierarchy or standard to achieve instead of letting kids be who they are. Catch up to what? I feel like the phrase cajoles us to view kids as being "not quite enough," and that's such an unfair burden to put on a child. I think the biggest thing you do is rest. I don't mean quit teaching (far from it, continue pursuing meeting his needs, encouraging him, providing needed accommodations, pursuing therapies as needed and so on). But what I do mean is rest from comparing. Rest from worrying. Rest from feeling like he has to be something he's not--and just let him be who he is now. He's a little boy who loves some things and hates others, who probably excels at doing some things even while he struggles with reading/writing/spelling. Don't miss enjoying him and encouraging his passions, don't let struggles strangle out the joy of these years with him. Rest. The Eide's and Kathy Kuhl both have awesome materials. I really like the perspective of The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain, and The Mislabeled Child helped me tease out several threads of struggles and to know how to pursue help beyond what we received from therapies and diagnoses.

Interesting, what part looked like busy work, the first section on sentences? My kids needed that work (extra reinforcement on clauses, preventing run-ons and fragments etc...) After that they write paragraphs, and then essays and a research paper. If you don't like the topics, choose topics that relate to your school work (my dd usually does her science fair research paper for the research paper portion, for example). For us it was a good opportunity to work on skills, and the topics allowed my kids to write about things they knew something about or that were important to them (sometimes I was surprised at just how applicable some topics were and that my kids wanted to write on them.) When they can write about things they already know or already have an opinion on, they can focus more on technique--which was also helpful.

I schedule 30 minutes per day for writing. My kids didn't always need 30 minutes, but it was a good target.

For a student like this, it's very important that you not include a lot of words that have concepts she hasn't been taught yet. You can confuse and un-do the hard work you are doing with her in AAS by including too many words that use phonograms or spelling patterns that are new to her. So, as you evaluate materials, make sure that the vast majority of words are ones that use familiar patterns, and that you take time to teach new ones so that she doesn't start to think spelling is arbitrary. I wrote more on copywork/struggling writer issues in my blog article on 6 writing mistakes. You actually are working on some beginning writing instruction through AAS. It has a gradual progression for increasing the student’s stamina and fluency in writing that’s very helpful for reluctant writers. It starts with just words and short phrases in Level 1, bumps up to phrases and short sentences in Level 2, and progresses to 12 dictation sentences per step in Level 3. Partway through this level, the Writing Station is introduced. In this exercise, students write sentences of their own that they make up using some of their spelling words. In this way, students have begun to use words in a more real-world context through dictation and writing, to help them transition to longer writing assignments. Dictation and the Writing Station both serve as an important bridge between spelling words in the context of lists (where the patterns are similar), and more “real world†writing. By the end of Level 3, students have mastered about 1000 words from the regular and reinforcement lists, and they have developed stamina and some beginning editing skills that will help them when they start a formal writing program. The gradually lengthening dictations help to expand working memory, which is important for both oral and written communication as well. I love copywork, but more for building up fluency a bit later, and for teaching literary techniques. Students who don't struggle with spelling can often start earlier, but students who do struggle are sometimes better served by waiting. Anyway, just something to be aware of and watch out for. Do you have a read-aloud time when you read quality literature to her? If not, I would add that into your day as a way of working on building vocabulary. When you come across words or phrases you think she might not know, ask her to define them. If she struggles, help her with a definition, give synonyms and antonyms, stories, or other associations that will help her understand the word or phrase. Sometimes books naturally restate vocabulary, and that's something I sometimes do on the fly too. Discuss what you read--"why do you think the character did that?" "Would you have done the same or something different? Why?" and so on. Teach her to ask whenever she doesn't understand a word. This won't feel natural at first, but it's a very important strategy for her--respond and encourage her when she does ask. Another helpful strategy is to work hard at making home a safe place for kids to experiment or take risks with language. Give her time each day to describe an event, something she read, a movie or game, time with a friend etc... Make sure you don't interrupt or supply the words she needs--let her try to work it out. Speak in full sentences as much as possible when you talk with her to model good language skills. Purposeful conversation can go a long way towards helping with this over the years.

Sorry to take so long to respond, I was on vacation for a week. Anyway, what she does is use the email function. There's a button with a picture of a microphone--press that and start talking. That's it. You can specify punctuation, paragraph breaks--all kinds of things (I had her try some of the ideas we heard on the Dragon Naturally Speaking commercials, and they seem to work.) It will misunderstand words at times (her science fair report this spring actually had some funny errors!), so you do have to proof it, but for the most part it's worked well, saves her a lot of time, and encourages her to write longer rough drafts. She emails it to herself, and then copies/pastes it into Word on our computer for editing.

100 EZ is a blend of phonics and whole language. The student is basically still a beginning reader when they finish, unless you have a student who just kind of takes off on her own--and certainly there are kids who do that! It can work well for some kids, but some kids get confused by the teacher script on the page and the non-standard script for the words they read. If it seems to be working well and you both like it, you could continue on and then have her do the placement test for AAR when she's done. I've known kids to transition into AAR 2 after 100 EZ, and others who needed more review and work who did better starting with AAR 1 to build up confidence and fluency. A few things (like vowel-consonant-E words) that 100 EZ covers are in AAR 2, while some things like some of the additional sounds for letters are in AAR 1 but not in 100 EZ. Kids who don't struggle can pick those up at the beginning of AAR 2, while kids who are still needing to sound out a lot of words need to back up and do at least part of AAR 1. HTH some!

Oh my goodness, this is SO TRUE! (of myself and my two kids, LOL! Only my dh understands time!) I will have to tell him this quote! YES! Meta-cognition is a huge part of what we've worked on over the years. Love how you put it--the one goal is to get them functional. Interesting, how does this work? My youngest saved up for a Kindle Fire--and then she discovered how to use it to dictate all of her papers (and even add in paragraphing, punctuation etc...) and email them to herself so she can just revise on the computer. It's been a huge time-saver for her.

What I did was ask my kids what order they would like to do their subjects. I also had them tell me specific preferences, such as subjects they wanted to start or finish with, subjects they didn't like doing back to back, and so on. After I go the order from them, I looked at how well they would match. Is one going to have to wait for the other to use the computer? To watch a math DVD? To get my help with xyz subject? etc... I rearranged to make it work but trying to keep their preferred order. I set up work-boxes, so it was very easy to see who was doing what and when. So, I'd label the boxes and then walk them through the suggested order. Then we'd implement gradually--a familiar subject and a new subject the first day, and add more each day until we're up to full speed. Try it on, see how it works. Maybe part of it doesn't work for them. Maybe part doesn't work for me. We talk it out--they know the scheduling limitations of mom's time, computer use etc... My kids were totally able to understand that kind of thing by middle school ages. I could also say, "You can rearrange subjects # ____, but not subjects # ____ because mom's time/computer schedule etc...." Really, it feels like it took longer to type this out than to work it out with my kids, LOL! It sounds complicated, but seemed easy in practice!

How fun, sounds like she's off to a good start! AAR is phonics and learning to read (with things like literary elements and vocabulary added in as you go), while First Language Lessons is more grammar related. For a 5 year-old, I would probably just work on reading and handwriting, and add in grammar later, but you could do both. Here's a link to all of the AAR samples, so you can see inside the Teacher's Manual, Activity Book, and Readers, to see if it's a good fit for you. And here's a post on planning language arts that you might find helpful.

I think TOG could work if you are willing to flex with it. There may be times when you just let your girls read and do the projects they are interested in, but you don't get to the discussion ideas in the TOG manual. Then there may be times when you are home and can do that "full" day and you can do some of those discussions. Think about it...but be sure to show yourself a LOT of grace. Try not to think about what you "can't" do or "don't get done," and instead look at the things you actually DO accomplish. I think with either TOG or Wayfarers, there would be the possibility of being overwhelmed. Both have you pick and choose what you want to do, instead of just saying "do this." Wayfarers manual might be slightly easier to use or less to wade through than TOG though, so I would only get it if you think it's going to save you time and/or headaches throughout the year. I think it could be easy to get overwhelmed with either, so again, give yourself LOTS of GRACE!

That does seem like a lot of topics, even though some of them individually are short (I know Daily Grams are like 10 minutes or so). Since transitions are difficult, you might think about some of these things in terms of quarters or semesters, rather than doing all of them all year. I would aim for a schedule that puts him at 4-6 hours of school time (my kids were usually in the 5-6 hour range at this age, and oldest had similar struggles), and know that you are going to need to help him know what to aim for for each subject. (Note, I don't include sports in that time unless it's really a LOT of time, but do include electives like language and music). Start with your core subjects--how long does it take to do all of the "together" items? Maybe 2 hours? Then build up from there. Which items are most important? I'd build up the schedule next in this way: Math - 45-60 minutes Language arts - 60 minutes. I usually do about 30 minutes of reading and 30 minutes of either writing or grammar. I don't do grammar every year, and I don't do a separate vocabulary program since I read aloud a lot to my kids and we discuss words during that time. Latin with Papa--this sounds like a good thing that I probably wouldn't eliminate because of the relationship with Papa more than because it's Latin. Latin is important and has value...but if I had to cut corners, it would be lower on my list than some other things unless it's beloved by the student. music--piano is school/mandatory. Cello is free time. It's good free time, and I'd probably work hard to encourage/foster that development--even to the point of eventually considering whether he could drop piano if cello is really his love. But I'd see if, for now, cello could be something he does on his own. I'm guessing that he's at 5-6 hours at this point. Logic and keyboarding are valuable, but would not rate as high priority-wise for a student who is struggling to get it all done. If his other subjects take more than 6 hours, I'd drop them until maybe a summer elective time slot (ie, do math and keyboarding for the summer, or math and logic...), or some other elective time. Start with some basic subjects, get a good flow going--and then think about whether you have time for some of the lower-priority subjects. (And of course, feel free to prioritize differently than I would, I'm just giving some of my thought process!) As far as streamlining school, I found that Workboxes were highly effective. They are like a 3-d schedule that break your student's work down into doable parts--you have one box for each subject (I'd do them mainly for independent subjects, unless there are notebooks etc.... for some of the together subjects), and you have everything you need in one spot. Teach your student to always return the items to the box before marking that box as done--critical for kids with ADHD! They lose things easily otherwise, and time is wasted looking for books or a pencil or a ruler or.... By focusing on just one subject at a time, it makes it feel more doable, and there's a concrete reinforcement with the velcro-stickers or whatever method you use to mark boxes as "done" that helps them see how they are moving through their day. One thing that helped mine to work more efficiently--set a deadline. If Math is an hour--don't let him take 2 hours. At an hour, see if he's about done & give 10 minutes to finish up, or have him move on. The rest is homework. Homework is done during the scheduled "free time." Announce that it's free time unless he has homework. Homework is done at the kitchen table or another place you choose (not lying in bed etc...). Kids often don't have a concept of time and just let things drag on--but if they have "free time" scheduled and it's taken up by "homework," it makes more of an impact. This strategy combined with workboxes can help even kids with ADHD work a bit more orderly and efficiently. And eventually the workboxes just take your place, so you don't have to tell him to move on etc... He'll know because the info is right in front of him. HTH some as you think through how to help him with his day.

Love this! I like to say...God's curriculum is not always my curriculum. My dh was disabled 15 years ago, and it has made life much different than we expected and added a lots of dr. appointments and traveling (some years to other states for doctors). But God has brought us through it all and will bring you through too. Kids will learn what it means for a family to truly love and support each other, how to care for someone who is sick, how to be watchful etc... Things you can't learn from a regular curriculum. Don't underestimate that importance, and the need to sometimes flex while your kids process, ask questions or just need to "be" with family. School will happen, but sometimes it needs to give. I used to have two schedules--one for "normal" school days, and one for "minimal" school days--days when I needed to give hubby more care, but I wanted to get in a "bare minimum" school day. Mine were younger at that stage and not independent yet, so it could look different for you than it did for me--but maybe that idea of having different schedules that you can plug in depending on the circumstance might be a helpful tip for you. For me, the thing that was "central" or "easy to do" was read-alouds. I always kept up a read-aloud as a way of connecting with my kids and spending some time with them, knowing it filled love tanks as well as having value for them educationally, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. (I still read to my teens, actually!) A core of Bible, reading, math, and writing can really go far. I second (third? fourth?!) audio books! I also highly recommend Adventures in Odyssey. They include a lot of history (I'm always amazed at things my kids know, thinking they remember some lesson I taught them & they'll say no, they learned it from Odyssey!), but they are also just good stories--some funny, some moving, some thought-provoking--great for long hours in a car, or listening to while playing with legos, etc..., and good value for many ages (my kids still enjoy them, and have listened since they were 8 or so). I pray your father's surgery will go well, and for God to draw your family close in this time. (((Hugs))) Merry :-)