Honestly, I might not switch if this is the only reason. I'd ignore most spelling errors outside of papers that she needs to revise. For those, give her a separate editing time that is JUST for mechanics (ie, outside of other rewriting she does for sentence structure, clarity etc...) Let it be her writing time or spelling time for the day and encourage her to find all the errors she can. Praise for any she finds, and also praise for any she knows how to fix. Then just walk her through the rest (if they are beyond what she has learned, just give her the spelling and let her move on--your main focus is to help her apply what she's learned.) There are so many steps involved in writing, and it can be hard for kids who really struggle to be able to put all of those skills together at once. I'd consider switching if you are seeing issues as she's doing the program, but for outside work, she probably needs more editing time and more training on how to look for and fix errors. Oh, another thing she can do--have her keep a list of her 20-30 most often misspelled words. After she writes a paper, have her check it against her word list. As she masters those words, they can drop off the list and she can keep a new list.

AAS works well for students with dyslexia. You might find their Dyslexia Resources page helpful as you explore what you want to do!

If I'm not washing towels that day, I hang the wet ones up to dry on the utility sink next to the washer. When I throw in towels, I grab anything that's there & add them in.

Good grief!

There are also apps that can catch plagiarism though. They'll do a "percentage" of similar words and even can link you right to the journal, article, site etc.... that is a match. Unless the paraphrase app happens to change all significant words, I bet the plagiarism could still be flagged. You'd think that would have been caught--again, if someone was really reading things. That's so incredibly frustrating!

LOL, that's what I was thinking!

I just did them at the end of the year. If it's a subject that has tests or if you give paper grades, you & your students will both have a pretty good idea of how they are doing anyway.

In 3rd grade, definitely not! As they got older, I found that they could do some things independently (I didn't have to ride them constantly to get their work done--though sometimes yes even that!), but they didn't just work from a list with no interaction ever. Now, could I, on a sick day or even a sick week, just turn my junior high and high schoolers over to their workboxes and have them do something for every subject without direction from me, sure. Or, could they do a lot of things independently here and there--sure. Did they go without me teaching, tutoring, correcting, walking through things, discussing etc...? No. Too much independence is disastrous. I remember my 5th grade son learning how to divide fractions one week when I was very sick. Took at least 2 weeks to unlearn the wrong way and reteach the right way after that!

Definitely something to celebrate! Congratulations!✋

Yes! Many that are on your list are actually ones we mixed in throughout highschool! YES! LOL, the great myth of homeschooling, LOL, that in high school they'll have these interests you can pursue and you'll be doing all this tailoring! My friend and I bemoan the lack of fruition of this aspect for our kids! That said--we were able to do SOME tailoring, but nothing like what I anticipated or hoped (or felt was portrayed to me....) School conferences with the kids were so beneficial here though! Even when they didn't have a strong interest, it helped us connect goals and desires and direction (hey, if they like what mom chooses, that's direction, LOL!)

I think you have a lot more freedom in junior high, but there is still quite a bit of freedom in high school to not go "all out." Since keeping the door open for college is a goal, I would see if meeting the minimum suggested for your state schools is doable. Usually something like: 4 years of English, 3-4 years of Math, 2-3 years Science (1 or more labs required), 2-3 years Social Studies, 2 years Foreign Language, 1 year Fine Arts--see what the requirements are. There is typically lots of room for electives. There is also typically a lot of room within the subject areas to pursue interests. Sometimes certain things will be required (for example, my state wanted a minimum of bio or chem with a lab for sciences but otherwise one could choose how to fulfill the other required years--I've seen ag-related courses for a real hands-on type of credit that wasn't book-heavy, or sciences where they might be able to do more hands-on observing and less book-reading/lab write-ups etc...) English/lit gives you a lot of room for reading that a student is interested in (I've seen people do courses on fairy tales, movies as lit, specific genre's, creative writing, etc...), Social Studies may require US or Government or both but may allow an elective (my dd did a Psychology class for a fun SS elective). All that to say--there's room to play around with what they "have" to do, both with regard to credits required and with regard to how to fulfill those credits. A lower academic SS credit could involve mainly reading and casual discussions with you or dad instead of lots of papers and tests. I've never seen a minimum number of labs required to call a class a "lab science," so you have some flexibility there. You don't have to do all academic subjects each year, so only do 3 or 4 on a year that needs to be lighter and fill in with hands on electives in their areas of interest. Almost anything can be made into an elective credit if you want. Think about things your student already does that might be able to count for credit. OTOH, think what's easy for you teacher-wise too, if you are needing it to be light on you as well as the student. Sometimes an open and go textbook is the easier option. If community college is a possibility as an avenue for getting into college (transferring to a 4-year institution later), you have even more options (because a student with gaps from high school can always take a remedial college class if needed.) In that case, you could go even lighter if you really needed to.

I think I'd just send the info they request.

I'm so, so sorry. Your kids are old enough that I would involve them in the decision. I would take some time to grieve and probably ease back into partial school days after a few days--I wouldn't do full days again until a day or two after the funeral. I'd also let the kids know that you are there for them and encourage them to come to you if they need to talk. I'd expect there might be some days where something comes out, even out of the blue--and you may find occasionally that having a conversation may be more important than finishing every single school subject on a day like that. Music is good--so is journaling if any of you are into that. You all may want counseling at some point--I'd watch for depression and PTSD. Give yourselves lots of grace and time for healing.

You can always look through online samples to see if that gives you a feel for what you might want to do--this page has links to all of them from every level.

Oh I wouldn't consider it "not finished" because of that! It IS a major accomplishment and definitely to be celebrated--and you ARE continuing on with learning new words in a way that works for you and your dd (your plan really isn't far off, actually!)

LOL, I lapse into song at just about anything!

I think in every day speech, I probably rush over the sound and don't really say /hw/ much. However, when I am teaching reading and spelling I do (and was taught that way too.)

When you're comparing though, remember that many programs just get kids to about a 3rd grade reading level, while AAR takes kids up to high school level word attack skills (in AAR 4, they can read words like horticulture, ocelot, limousine, chauffeur, and so on). Some people do 2 or 3 levels, their kids take off, and then they just use spelling to finish phonics instruction and also to teach spelling rules and concepts, while others find it beneficial to do all 4 levels. Also, the upper levels also cover things like literary analysis for comprehension (for example, making predictions and inferences, comparing and contrasting main characters and stories, discussing the main conflict and character transformation), as well as literary terms (hyperbole, simile, point of view, and more), reading reference materials, reading with expression, English words with Greek, French, Spanish, and Italian influences, morphology, and much more. All of these things are a part of reading, even if they aren’t phonics. So--you may find they cover a lot of the things you were wanting to cover while also working on reading. HTH as you decide what works for your family!

Congratulations! That's a great accomplishment! (And if you haven't seen it, here's what happens after All About Spelling 7!)

Yes, that's it exactly :-). The first time I applied, I had something in my accommodations at home (and in my written education plan for years) that wasn't mentioned on the report, and they denied it for that reason--so you'll just want to make sure they match up front :-).

I used to hear that a lot a few years ago but haven't recently. I would download the samples and scope and sequence links to see if you think it might work for your kids. One thing I notice is that lessons will cover a multitude of concepts. Foundations is more incremental than Essentials though. When I look at the word lists (see the bottom of this post for word lists by level), both programs seem to do a blend of focusing on high frequency words with some aspects of organizing by concept included--kind of a hybrid of approaches. Hopefully that can help you decide if it would work for you!

CB takes longer and isn't as "user friendly" in the process compared to ACT, but even if you initially get a "no" response from them, appeal and try again. I've heard of lots of people who were turned down initially but were able to get the accommodations later (sometimes after talking with someone on the phone). With them it's especially important to only ask for accommodations listed in the testing results (and if your psych. doesn't initially list things, call them and ask about whether that would be appropriate and can they add it in their report, and get a new copy.) I know sometimes it's all a headache!

Interesting--what I read said that most schools want testing within 3 years of college, which made it an easy choice to do them. It's definitely not impossible to get accommodations (though it's easier for ACT than for SAT--you still need the tests though.) For either, make sure any accommodations you want to ask for are contained in the report by the Psychologist, and then make sure you provide a record of having provided those accommodations in testing situations through your homeschool, going back at least several years. College Board has a lot of info up on what they want though, and that can help you with wording and what to list.

For a test in two days--just some basic tips you may already know. Does she use the "letter of the day" approach if she's going to run out of time, so that she at least has something marked for any questions she won't have time to get to? ACT doesn't penalize for wrong guesses, so it's worth it to mark something if time will run out. Science--some people find that reading the question first and then scanning the graph or other illustration for answers works for many questions and is faster than reading the whole text--that can help if she's running out of time in that subject. Reading--read the question first and then read the passage, so she doesn't have to go back and re-read again if she's not sure of the answer--that can help one get to more questions. Is taking the SAT an option instead? Some kids do better on that test, and maybe she should try that one if this test doesn't go better for her. I hope she gets the score she needs!

DD took it twice and got decent scores, but not as high as her practice test, so she was a bit disappointed. However, she really didn't want to study and test again a third time--she had put a lot of study into the second one, and I respected her decision. I too would go with the SAT instead of retaking the ACT.