My son recently turned 7 and is also reversing letters & numbers (just yesterday he reversed his "g" and "a" several times ... he still reverses b and d - ALL THE TIME - and some numbers are backwards, as well). For a while, when I asked him to read he would turn the book upside down and read it much better that way. He recently stopped doing that so much ... he sometimes reads words from the wrong direction or like you said, starts from the end of the word. I'm not sure what kind of testing goes into diagnosing this. Just wanted to say, we are dealing with similar issues.

I have a question about this program ... for those of you who used AAS with kids that already had some reading knowledge but were struggling ... do you start at level 1 and use it as a review or to "reteach" something that they might not understand? Can this be taught to more than 1 child at a time? I have my DD who is almost 5 to teach as well (she knows letters and the most letter sounds but doesn't blend yet).

My son who is going into 2nd grade (we start in May) is struggling a little with phonics. It took him a really really long time to blend and even now struggles a bit. He is at around a 1st grade level with reading and doesn't enjoy it at all ... he just read through a book that is on a 1.5 grade level but it took him a while and wasn't easy, at all. I'm thinking of starting with something else in the next month or so ... either all about spelling or CLE - LTR. I'm not sure which one would be better for a 7 yr old who is struggling with it. We just started using Reading Eggs and I've noticed a little bit of improvement ... they have his reading age as 5.75. He is really good at listening to me read and comprehending.

I own 100EZ Lessons and just bought Phonics Pathways...was thinking of using one of those programs and maybe having her practice her letters (she already can write her name ... just has to work on staying on the line, etc. For math, I own MUS Primer but I don't know if it will be too hard for her ... she can count and loves playing with counting bears, tangrams and c-rods.

Are you talking about this: http://www.christianbook.com/primary-arts-language-complete-reading-package/jill-pike/pd/471572?event=CF or this: http://www.christianbook.com/primary-arts-language-complete-writing-package/jill-pike/pd/471575?event=CF or something else?

DD is supposed to be in Kindergarten this Fall ... we start school in May and she will barely be 5. She is several months younger than my 2nd child when he started K because of birthdays. She does know all her letters and letter sounds ... can count up to 65. Can id and write her numbers 1-10 but I'm not sure of what type of curriculum to use. She still seems really young for "real school work". Should I not focus on written work (other than practicing handwriting) ... or should I buy her some workbooks ... what about math? With baby5 coming soon, I've decided to not stress too much over what she does ... maybe even start more desk work at the beginning of next year like after Christmas break. Any thoughts? Any good curriculum? She is not reading yet ... should I just go through the BOB books with her or do phonics?

I read through this just now. I love all the different ways to get organized! I'm trying to decide between a binder for the week, a binder for the term/quarter (9 weeks ... with dividers per week) or a binder for all subjects that have workbook pages (handwriting, math mammoth, singapore math, phonics, geography...) and dividing them by subject (and then maybe creating a folder for weekly use??? The big binder would hold all pencils, rulers, tape, erasers, extra paper...

Well, I'm now realizing some people do the "binder" system and some people do a "file" system ... does anyone do both?

I am thinking about making my 7 yr old his own binder for this coming school year. I am going to be using Singapore Math and supplement with some Math Mammoth. I also will be using some worksheets for handwriting and geography. We also have other books we use and the computer. My question is would you just print what is needed and put it filed into a folder by subject and then leave the workbooks whole or would you tear out all the sheets by week? I'm going to be doing 9 week terms so I could start the binder over after each term (4 terms total). What would you guys do? I like the idea of everything for the week being in one place ... but I'm not so sure.

We've been starting in May ... around Memorial Day and looks like we will try to do that again this year. I really like year round schooling. This year we will take a rather long break in April, though (probably 8 weeks) post-partum. Then we'll start back up (usually we don't take longer than 3-4 weeks off at the end of the year. We don't take "regularly" scheduled breaks through the year except for major holidays and whenever we need one/family days/vacation days or sick days. These are typically scheduled as needed... This year we are planning 4 quarters/9 weeks each ... with 20 flex days for each quarter. That way each quarter/semester has a start and end date and if we finish up early at the end of the school year we'll have a longer break then, too.

I wasn't going to post as well but I can't figure out how to attach it with an ODF doc. ???

Thank you for suggesting Open Office ... I never had used that program and ended up making a planner to fit my needs. I ended up doing what the lady in that blog did (one page for Language Arts & Math and one page for Science/History/Bible/Geography). I probably could have condensed it into one page but I am happy with what I have. This is the most organized I've been and I love to see how much we need to do each day to get done per term, etc. I also didn't put Monday, Tues, etc on it I left it as Day 1/ Day 2/ Day 3 ... with a week number on it. I'm not sure if that was the best way to do this planner. We school year round but for next year I decided to do 4 terms of 45 days each ... with 20 flex days scheduled in at the end of each term (except for Term 3 where I scheduled 2 weeks off around Christmas and more 10 more days later) ... that way if we need a day off here and there I know I can only take 20 per term and still be on track. I like that amount of flexibility (not completely open ended but not too strict, either ... with having 5 kids I'm sure things will come up like sick days/dr. appt/ needing a break with a newborn). That was part of the problem with my planner from this year ... I would schedule in actual dates and then get completely off track and loose my place ... I ended up ditching the planner all together. We are still doing fine but would love to be a tad bit less frenzied about it.

I'm so glad you posted about this. I have found myself in a place where I can't really be a part of a co-op or any extra things (unless they happen in the evenings) ... We have young kids and one of our children has some disabilities, including autism, it makes it difficult for me to be anywhere with all of my kids. A lot of the activities that are local are really only for mom's of toddlers ... where I would be bringing my 7, and almost 5 yr old along. There are also a few hsing "clubs" but they are about 45m each way ... just doesn't work.

Our first year, I used no planner ... this year I tried to use one but I got off schedule and it wasn't detailed enough ... and I tried to fill it in throughout the year and it just didn't work for me. I would LOVE to find a planner that is either free or I am willing to pay maybe up to $10 for one but would like it to be able to be customized. I love this idea: http://livelearnandlovetogether.blogspot.com/2010/06/planning-progress-part-1.html I have no idea how to start making this ... Anyone have any ideas? Links?

I'm thinking of not using an actual history curriculum this year but instead using geography (2nd grade). I'm getting a few books on historical topics but not doing an actual curriculum. Does anyone else do that?

At the end of May we start the new school year ... usually after about a 3 week break. We like year round schooling. We build in a break around Christmas ... and sometimes do short weeks (4 day weeks) and extra time for whenever we need it.

Thanks for this... DD took placement test she scored just barely in the math 1 ... and DS scored barely (at the end of) math 1. I'm thinking this could be good review for him?

Thank you for all the suggestions! I did some "tests" with my son this morning and found that he knew more than I gave him credit for. There are gaps in his math knowledge. He knows doubles addition (2+2, 3+3) he knows all +1 addition ... he knows most +2 and +3 ... those he doesn't have memorized but figures out rather quickly. However, I did the Saxon test on him which is supposed to tell what level he would be and because of some other gaps (counting money and some skip counting he couldn't remember that we did last year...) he would be right on the border of math 1 and math 2 for Saxon (technically math 1 because he was off by 1 question). I guess my next question is ... what would you use for DD who is going to be in Kindergarten? I would prefer to do a curriculum that teaches clocks/calendar/coins/counting for kindergarten because she never did those things this year (we skipped preschool) and she is 4.5 right now. Is there a more traditional curriculum for this? I'm a bit nervous because this is the first real year of having 2 school aged kids (plus other toddler and expecting a baby soon) ... I want to learn the concepts without me spending an hour per student just on math...

Good question ... I'm thinking he's (hopefully) outgrown that need a little bit ... but maybe not. I'll look at Horizons ... my problem is I really need something that tells me what I need to be teaching and how to teach it. I'm not sure I feel totally good about how I teach math. I don't feel that this is my stronger area of instruction and feel unsure if he is learning well with what I'm doing.

In a few months we'll be starting our 3rd year homeschooling ... my oldest will be in 2nd grade. Our first year we used MUS - Primer and he did ok with it. He seemed to need more pictures and colors, etc. based on what he was telling me ... he didn't like the workbook. So, we switched to Singapore. Book 1A he did pretty well with ... we are now in 1B and a lot of it has been a struggle. I think we haven't done enough drill work ... I'm not completely pleased with myself and my teaching of this because I don't find the way they are presenting it to be as to the point as I'd like. I'm looking into switching curriculum or at least switching for several months to catch him up on more math basics and memorization. I'm really trying to decide between Saxon and R&S. I wouldn't mind doing several months of "review" because I think it would help him get the concepts better than he does right now. My DD is starting Kindergarten this year as well and I'm wondering if there is a curriculum I can use for both of them or if I should stick with 2 different programs? If I got Saxon 1 could I use it for both DD in Kindergarten and DS in 2nd grade and supplement with SM for DS? Thoughts?