I can't imagine the shells not getting soggy...

Put a light pencil X next to each line that has an error--one X for every error. Have him re-read it for his language arts assignment the next day, and see if he can find the errors. Praise for any he can find, and praise if he knows how to fix the error. This may be more of an editing issue than a knowledge issue. No one likes to see those kinds of errors, but it's really not that awful--I'll bet he knows how to fix a lot of those, and was just more focused on the writing/idea/creativity/word-generating aspects than the mechanics, which require one to use a different part of the brain. I find that many kids simply need more time and direction with regard to editing. He'll get there.

Maybe an occasional sight-word, but I wouldn't do a lot. One, AAS gets those words in eventually (it covers 3000 of the most common words, combining several common word-lists like Ayers, Dolch etc...), and two, doing too much can undermine what kids are learning--if the patterns don't stand out, they start to think spelling is completely arbitrary. Sometimes we included words they needed for history or science, for example (like the planets when we studied Astronomy). Usually I walked through the spelling patterns if I did that though.

AAS is not in grade-level order, so it doesn't surprise me. There may not really be a spelling issue at all. AAS level 7 goes up to high school level words, so they eventually get it all, just in a different order than "grade level" might be.

I'd take a different approach: 1, choose ONE thing to start your day with. (for us, that would have been devotions--read the Bible, pray, and maybe sing a song.) 2, do memory work separately. Then there won't be shenanigans. We always did things like that one on one, rather than in a group. 3, audios books are really fine. Keep it up! If you can read to them a little, do so--I think it's great for kids and important. But maybe consider a different time since they are squirrely first thing in the morning. Maybe it would be to read something for science or history, with them sitting on either side of you, looking at pictures and talking about each one. 4, maybe they need to run around or do something active for 30-60 minutes before they are ready for school in the morning. Hang in there!

I found that we almost always liked Sonlight's readers and read-alouds, so I started there and formed the bulk of my list. Then I also liked to check the following: Illuminations - Bright Ideas Press Winter Promise My Father's World Diana Waring as well as the forums here and on Sonlight.

One thing that can help when this happens is to have her read *exactly* what she wrote. If she says "from," then say something like, "Actually, this would be pronounced fer-om. Do you know how to change it to make it say 'from?'" Helping her read back what she wrote will, over time, help correct errors like this one. (My kids needed LOTS of segmenting practice and tended to either leave letters out or add additional letters in. As you said, she'll get there!)

AAS was the only thing that worked for my kids. I wish AAR had been around when I was teaching them to read! Here's a review and update that I did awhile back. (I keep meaning to update again--both kids have since finished the program!)

All-in-one type programs never worked here, though I know it does for some families--my kids were always at very different places in reading, spelling, and writing. I think spelling does reinforce reading, and that in the very beginning stages, it can help reading to "click" for some kids if you play around with words a lot (showing both blending and segmenting). If I had waited for mastery in spelling before moving on in reading though, it would have really held my kids back. Here's an article to consider about separating reading and spelling. Do what works for your kids.

I've gradually been working more as my kids get older. I think I'm going to want a "breather year" where I don't really start something new so much as just take time to process the transition. As another mom posted, helping my student transition has taken more of my time than I initially thought (mainly with papers--he's good on studying)...so I'm not exactly sure when I'll be "done" so to speak! Although, I think the load will lighten after speech is out of the way, LOL! Anyway, I know I'll continue working, and I occasionally think about various volunteer opportunities through church or with homeschoolers...but I don't know if I'll "jump right in." I think margin in transitions is good too :-).

I was just reading your other thread--you could start your older one who isn't reading fluently yet. AAR has placement tests, so you would place her at a point where she either has to work to sound out the words, or where she has something new to learn. She wouldn't have to start at level 1 (unless she needs work at that level).

I think helicopter parenting is doing everything for the child and never allowing the child to fail. That is much different from walking alongside your child and scaffolding towards independence. In the latter model, you do allow the student to succeed or fail--but the consequences of falling one level of a scaffold or one rung of a ladder are much different than falling off the top of a building. Helicopter parenting never allows the student to experience any type of failure, doesn't have the student making decisions along the way, doesn't walk alongside and show the student the consequences of serious and significant decisions but instead makes those decisions for the student who is pretty blind to all of the processes, and so on. There is a lot of wisdom that can be passed on if a student is willing to avail himself of it and a parent is willing to take the extra time it takes to allow the student to lead the process with parent as coach, sounding board, and sometimes silent partner. I learned to ask questions, such as, "What's your plan for xyz?" You hear within the plan whether the student understands all of the details involved. You can ask questions if the student doesn't, and you can check in again later if the student does. This looks much, much different than stepping in and taking over for the student, or not even letting the student know something needs to be done at all because you've done it for them, or not letting the student know there are any consequences out there because you stepped in, and so on.

Congratulations!

Some kids just step up and take over. You know with those kids--they've got it. Others really need more help, and for those, I don't think there is simply a day when you suddenly stop helping and say, "it's up to you." Instead, I think you scaffold to that point. For example, have them show you paperwork but also tell you what they think needs to be done. They get that sense of being in charge by telling you what they see needs to be done--and you clearly see how much they do or don't understand by the things they leave unsaid/undone. Have them make daily task lists but show them to you--or goal lists, and the steps they plan to take towards that goal, laid out on a planner. Check up to see if they are keeping up--you can back off if it's obvious they've got it, but help if it's obvious they are forgetting. Have real conversations. I actually say to my son, "My goal is to be a help, and not to be a nag. I want you to have xyz [skill, advantage, whatever], and to take the steps to get there--but I don't want you to feel you have to walk this road alone either. Is it helpful when I [intervene, remind, check up on you daily/weekly etc...]?" If it's not helpful--what would be helpful? We scaffolded by independent work by laying out a course with a syllabus in high school. First I totally backed off--asked my son to make a plan but didn't follow up with him. After a month, I knew he was way behind--so I asked questions. "When is your test? What chapters will it cover? How much do you need to read each day?" and so on. When he realized he'd dug a hole, I had him get a calendar and figure out how to dig himself out of the hole--but this time he had to show me his plan. So, he got to do one test the stressful way, and one with a much more measured-out plan--and got to experience both at home. He did a much better job at college with studying as a result. Life skills, finances--all of these things are things that some kids will just seem to "get" and others really won't and are going to need some scaffolding, unless you are willing to walk the road of "hard knocks" with them. The stakes are huge with college these days though--it's not like when I went to school and the financial burden was actually doable.

You might like this blog post on planning language arts. I typically worked on grammar informally at this age (gently restating what they said with correct phrasing and having them repeat, etc...). FLL is a gentle approach if you want to add in a curriculum though.

Have you tried using the one-page yearly schedule that Sonlight has, instead of the daily one? I found it was much easier to go "off-roading" with the curriculum when I wasn't looking at that daily schedule. I used the daily only if I wanted to see how Sonlight scheduled a certain book. The yearly schedule is a one-page schedule that lists the books by week of introduction--and that seemed much easier for me to be flexible with (add a book in, cross one off if we ran out of time, etc...)

Generally you spend about 20 minutes on reading (unless you have an older student who needs more practice per day) and about 15-20 minutes on spelling. I always gauged it by my kids' attention spans--one did well with about 20, the other did better with a slightly shorter time. It's better to do shorter, daily lessons than longer lessons that don't get done daily. Here are a couple of blog posts on how much time to spend on each: All About Reading--how much time All About Spelling--how much time You can use AAS without the tiles if your student doesn't like them--you can use underlining to show when two or more tiles form a team, or you can demonstrate with the tiles but let your student choose to just write. I found the cards necessary for my kids--that's how you work in the review for spelling and make sure that they get as much practice as they need with the tougher concepts. (They do get review through dictation too, but the cards are how you track what is mastered and what still needs review--and they make it easy to customize to just what your kids need.) But some people come up with alternate ways of tracking for review, and some kids don't need as much review. Since you said you were looking for more spelling practice though, I'd be hesitant to cut them.

Loved this quote from the comments section:

You never know, but she really is doing great! I really love the upper levels--the last of the phonograms are introduced in level 5, and you can really start to put longer words together then.

AAS Level 7 takes students up to high school level spelling--it includes the Ayres list, which ranks words up to 12th grade, as well as words from other lists that are ranked between 9th and 12th grade. The last step in level 7 has a guide for life-long learning, so that you can continue to work on new words that come up in your student's writing. You can also work on additional Greek & Latin roots--this post on Teaching Latin Roots has some additional recommendations at the end. HTH!

That's so much to go through in a year! Praying your house will sell soon, and that God will lead you and give you peace of mind as you go forward.

Why does she love the co-op--is it the activities, or certain kids? If it's the activities or something else that the co-op also has, maybe she'd take to the switch a bit easier? I can't imagine two full days away from home--for us it would be too much, but some people would like it. Can you visit the co-op and see what it's actually like?

We just got the email today too.

What an interesting article! My dd is strongly considering going on in a STEM field, and she certainly doesn't get it from me! However, I've always enjoyed math, though the highest level course I took was Pre-calculus in college. That seemed like my threshold at that time. I never did well in science, and my college major was English. My dh has always enjoyed science though, and I think passed on the science gene! I often say, "ask Dad, he probably knows." From about 5th grade on, my dd largely educated herself in science, using books we chose together (I narrowed the field, she made final selections). She consistently participated in science fairs where I considered it my role to ask questions. I told her that if I could understand her project, she could effectively do her report and presentation--so I just kept asking questions until I was satisfied she was making sense. In high school science, I make sure she understands the explanation for anything that she gets wrong, and if not, I say, "We're two intelligent women. We can figure this out together! And if not, we'll find someone who knows." So...perhaps what I didn't have in natural gifting was made up for by attitude. But the interest was there first--she drove this train!

I've often wished something listed the income levels at which percentages change. It's probably not that simple of an algorithm though!