I am using it with my 5th grade son. We started in level 1 and he is now halfway through level 3. It has done wonders for him. He has finally made progress in spelling and has confidence. The rules make sense to him and he is able to remember them. Highly recommended!

What is the nursing mom's program like? I always gain weight during nursing and don't want to this time.

:iagree: I have had a similar experience. I also am an emotional eater and just love to eat! It's my favorite reward, but I also want to eat when I am depressed, sad, bored, or stressed. I got to the point I was just sick and tired of being fat. The reward of eating wasn't worth it. I have lost 20 pounds but now am pregnant so am waiting until after the baby to aggressively lose weight again. I haven't gained much though and have exercised more with this pregnancy than any other. I have to limit carbs and eat a lot of protein, veggies, and fruit. The carbs I eat are mostly whole grain or whole foods. If I get started on cookies or chips that sets me on a cycle of cravings that make me want to eat nonstop. I realized that this area of weakness was something that I could not handle on my own and I have to rely on God's grace that is sufficient in my weakness. I also have a friend that exercises with me in the mornings and keeps me accountable. I cannot do this on my own, but with the help and support of others I can be successful. I think a lot of it is a battle in the mind and replacing negative thoughts that lead me to eat with positive ones that keep me on the right path. Thinking on what is good, and lovely, and true.

:iagree: This is my experience too. If I eat more than 1500 calories even if it is all good, I gain weight. I walk 11 miles per week and do 30 minutes of pilates 3 times a week. It frustrates me that I can't eat more. I am hungry a lot. I am 5' 7" I have lost 20 pounds but still have 30 to go.

All my boys love them ages 14 to 9. My 14 year old has been listening to them since he was 6 yrs old.

We did it with MFW which has a supplement for 2nd and 3rd graders. SOTW 4 was perfect for my 6th and 7th graders. My 5th grader enjoyed most of it but I did not require him to do the outlines. My 2nd grader did not do it at all. I liked the fact that MFW adds in books for the younger dc and SOTW 4 is for the older ones. They also add in more American history including a study of the presidents.

How do you modify the KWO?

Any advice?

This was the problem we had today. There really wasn't enough information for a two level outline. So maybe the book is too easy.

I am trying to do the recs from SWB's writing mp3s but am having trouble. My dc are 8th and 7th grades so we are trying to catch up. They both did fine with the 1 level outline, but are having trouble with the 2 level. The problem is that I need an answer key. I am not sure how to direct them because it is difficult for me to determine the subpoints for the paragraph. Maybe the books we are using are too difficult to outline, I don't know. We are studying geography this year so I am having them outline part of the history chapter from the Enchantment of the World series on the country we are studying. We did SOTW 4 last year and I was thinking of having them practice outlining that without looking at her printed ones, but at least I would have an idea of what they should look like. Any other ideas of texts, books I could use that would be easy for them to outline while they get the hang of it. I was trying to keep it related to our geography study but that is not necessary. I also have SWI B and SICC B and wondered if they could outline the stories in that SWB style. I don't like the key word outlines because it is not enough information for them to remember when they try to rewrite it. Any advice is appreciated!

Get A plan for Teaching Writing starting with the grammar stage. You can start Writing With Ease in 1st or 2nd grade. Maybe when you complete those Writing with Skill will be available (SWB's logic stage writing course).

My son finished FLL 4 in 5th grade and went straight to AG in 6th. He is now in 7th grade and doing season 2. He had no problems going from FLL 4 to AG season 1. If they finish FLL 4 in 4th grade I would probably have them do JAG in 5th and AG in 6th, not because AG season 1 is difficult but because AG seasons 2 and 3 are complex. It helps to be a little older when you do them.

This free webcast by Susan Barton was extremely helpful to me. She will list the symptoms of dyslexia that can be seen as early as age 1. http://www.webcastgroup.com/client/start.asp?wid=0680831062670&auto=true I just found out that my 9 yr old is dyslexic. I was just like you at the beginning but now realize that it is correctible. My son is already making great progress. We are using the Barton Reading and Spelling System which trains the parent to tutor their own children, but if the dyslexia is not severe, AAS will work too. They are both based on the Orton-Gillingham method which is proven to work for dyslexics.

put your left hand in a fist and then raise the thumb up to form a "b". key word is balloons. balloons go up in the air like the thumb and the first sound is "b" in balloons so if you hear the b sound you make the letter that looks like your hand. Turn your hand upside down to make p. Pigs go down in the mud so if you hear the p sound the stem goes down like the pigs in the mud. The most important thing is that she teaches them to check their hand every time before they read or write the word so they get it right the first time.

Dibels sent me a username and password but when I typed it in it said it was invalid. Any ideas? Also what do you fill in for school and district? Nevermind, It was a typo.

I hate it I missed the beta testing. Anyone know an estimate of when this will be published?

It sounds like she should start in level 1 even if she goes through it quickly. The letter reversal tricks are excellent and greatly helped my son. When something was too easy I told him to do them anyway because we needed to learn the procedures for when we get to more difficult words. The lessons don't take long. Level 1 took us a week but was still important for us to do. Level 2 will probably take us 1-2 weeks but after that it should slow down drastically.

I bought Barton for my 9 yr old. He began at level 1 and that was right for him. My 5th grader would have been bored to tears with levels 1 and 2. Level 3 would have been right for him but I decided to do All About Spelling with him instead. Can your 5th grader read nonsense words and read and spell by sounding out? Does she have problems with letter reversals? Does she know the sounds for all of the letters and the digraphs wh, ch, sh, etc? These are the skills that levels 1 and 2 teach. The only problem with starting in a later level is that you don't learn how to do the procedures which are taught in the training dvds. There are a few procedures in level 1 and 17 procedures in level 2.

My ds also knew all of the sounds in level 2 but he needed the letter reversal tricks. I needed the training on how to do the procedures. Also the instructions for marking the phrases and teaching reading fluently were very helpful. It is a foundational level and a lot more is taught than what is obvious at first glance.

Well you were right about my 11 yr old. I am going to keep him in AAS. My 9 yr old may have done okay without Barton, but I want the training so I decided to try it. Thank you for all of your responses. They really helped me think it all through as I was making my decision.

Thank you for this!

Yes, he did pass the student screening on the website.

I emailed Susan Barton. She responded quickly even though she is out of town on a conference. She said because I had already been doing AAS that she would send me the posttests to use as pretests. She sent them to me for levels 1, 2, and 3. Just by looking at them, it looks like my 9 year old will place in level 3, but we'll see after I give them to him. She told me if they passed them all easily, she would send me the test for level 4. I have a question about level 3. Even if they can read the words well etc, would it be valuable to do just for the spelling rules? I noticed there were quite a few spelling rules in 3. Also, do you need the tiles from previous levels to use in the later levels? If I buy level 3 will I have all the tiles I need or will I need the tiles from levels 1 and 2? That may be a problem as you can only buy extra tiles for levels that you own. ETA: Wow, the posttests are more difficult than they look. My 9 yr old placed in level 1.

With dyslexia there is a 50% chance that other siblings will have it too. And grandchildren as well.

Thank you for your input. How long per day do you do it? I have 2 children who would use it one on one with me at different times and am trying to figure out how to fit in into our schedule. Also how many days per week? Do you mind telling how long it took for each level? I was thinking that they could do a lesson a day in the early levels which would mean they would be finished with levels 1-3 in a few weeks.