I tried doing an assigned day for each task - and do most of it during the morning and school during the little one's nap. I wrote about it in detail here: http://suchatimeasthis.com/2015/06/29/cleanups-more-for-the-large-family-large-family-cleaning-schedule-family-closet/ If I do not have a plan, I will lose my mind and get very distracted. I need to follow a routine or the "things to do" overwhelm me.

I'm really sorry that you are facing these challenges! Are you familiar with Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling? I think that might work really well for her. It consists of short lessons, hands on math, studying nature by taking nature walks, studying real artists and composers, doing mapwork ... lots of read alouds from the parents...copywork (words and then sentences as they get better). My oldest son has a lower IQ (around 45) so it is hard for me to know what kinds of life skills she will achieve. Is that something you could ask the evaluator? Our psychologist (who did the eval) helped us with those types of questions - we wanted to know what kind of job if any job he could do, what kinds of life skills to work on, etc. We are still unsure if he will ever live alone (probably not) because we were still not completely sure his IQ is as low as we were told. He is also autistic and sometimes mood and familiarity with the psychologist can change scores. His original IQ marking (at 2 and later at 6 was 70). He is currently 12 (7th grade) working at 2nd grade. Here is more info on Charlotte Mason: http://suchatimeasthis.com/2015/07/14/how-to-create-your-own-charlotte-mason-homeschool/

I'm glad to read this. My rising 5th grader has been using it and it has improved his spelling drastically (unlike anything else we've tried). He has dyslexia and dysgraphia and has struggled with spelling for years. Major breakthrough with Phonetic Zoo!

following ... We are trying to decide on this, too...

I recently posted on my blog a full review of CLE math. We've been using it for 3 years. http://suchatimeasthis.com/2015/07/13/we-love-cle-math/

Phonetic Zoo

I just bought Better Binders for the first time last week because they were highly recommended and on sale for $6 (1inch). I have bought the Target ones in the past and they have worked fine...I think they are much cheaper than the Staples binders, too.

We are getting ready to start in one week!

Thank you everyone for your replies!!!

Is that a crazy thought? Can you combine the two? I know they seem to be two completely different styles of curriculum. Is there any benefit in using both or am I just complicating things.

I love this idea. Years ago I started with charlotte mason type of homeschooling and over the years added more and more "stuff" and sometimes I feel like I'm trying to squeeze so much in that I'm failing at what the beauty of Charlotte Mason homeschooling is. I really like this and will have to try it.

subbing - this is a great thread. I really really need to simplify right now.

We like MobyMax. I also like Clever Dragons. We just started using that one but it has been super fun for the kids and educational. They have many categories of games and learning activities. You can even choose what grade level they are working at. It is free right now through homeschoolbuyerscoop - through Aug. 15.

CLE all the way! We love it for our 2nd grader and 4th grader (we are almost finished with our school year) ... we have recently started our child who is lower functioning/autistic with it, as well. I love CLE! (We've used other curriculum and had lots of trouble with retention before starting this program).

MFW Adventures? We did that and really enjoyed it! It was perfect for 2nd grade for us.

I used LOE last year and I did like it. After a while, we did switch to something else. We currently use Phonetic Zoo for Spelling, Read Naturally for Fluency. I wrote about what we used in a review: here. I hope that helps. We've used both O-G and phonographix.

I don't know about your child, but my oldest was diagnosed with CP and then later with CP along with autism and sensory processing disorder. His eval showed wide gaps, too. His working memory wasn't good. I'd have to pull the eval out and look at it again (it was done about 3 years ago). I know that his gaps pulled his score way down, too...Lower than his therapists and I thought it should be.

Thank you, everyone for your responses. I'm going to check out the online version. Is there a way to get the word list on my own (while also using the online version)?

It took a long time for our family. I was hoping to combine kids but as it turns out, my daughter is a "natural speller". She reads well and the words just sort of get in her head with know curriculum at all. She likes writing and spending that much time memorizing rules was not working. My son has dyslexia and for some reason memorizing the rules wasn't good for him, either. He didn't need the tiles - it felt like overkill. He is an auditory learner and has done best with phonetic zoo. I would consider again with another child but I didn't love that the tiles could easily get lost.

I just noticed that your one son is dyslexic. I'm not sure if this will make you feel any better, but my 10 year old is dyslexic and is a really smart kid - he is horrible at taking these tests. He also struggles with being timed. He needs extra time to think (even in regular school work math and LA). I think dyslexia can make it harder to process - they just need extra time to figure things out. I think I would retest, too. We used an online CAT test this year (even though it was timed, I've told him to just move on if he doesn't know it, etc. Not sure how much that helps - and kids with dyslexia would have an IEP in public school and most likely have extra time and other type of adjustments on standardized tests).

I'm so thankful I came across this post! This is the first time I've seen a curriculum geared toward kids with special needs. I think my oldest is just slightly beyond Level 1 - but I will be curious to see what level 2 is like. He is working on about a 2nd grade level (he is 12/6th grade).

I've struggled with this as well. My son was diagnosed 2 years ago with dyslexia and dysgraphia. He has come a long way in the past 2 years. Over the past few months he has finally started working independently in some subjects and doesn't complain (as much) about writing. I did scribe for him age 8 when he was first diagnosed. Over the past 6 months I've started to decrease the amount but not take that away altogether. I want him to be able to enjoy and learn the "content subjects" and not worry about how to spell every word. We did O.T. for 3 months after his diagnosis and that helped his handwriting a lot. We use the speak to text feature on the ipad for some of his work. I've been thinking of teaching him typing, as well.

My 10 year old son (just finishing 4th grade and is dyslexic/dysgraphic) did very well this year with CLE. We started him in 301 because that is where he tested in and it has been a great fit. I agree with the others, you can skip ahead if some is review. There is tons of built in review in this program. We didn't use it for spelling (just crossed out the spelling portions) but if we had, we might have gone down to the 200 level.

Thank you for posting this! Is this geared more toward younger kids or tweens?

I'm contemplating using an actual vocabulary program this year for our 8 & 10 year olds (upcoming 3rd/5th grades). Have you used Wordly Wise? I see that they have an online program available through homeschool buyers co-op - I'm not sure how that works. I was contemplating using their workbooks but using the same one for both of my kids (maybe the 4th grade book). Is there any reason not to do that? My thought was to list our vocab words in a central place and use them in sentences throughout the week - through conversation. Just thinking ... how do you guys do vocabulary?