What about doing Analytical Grammar in one year?

I'd been leaning toward R&S to remediate my bonus homeschooler for next year (rising 6th grade) in math. She struggled a lot with some areas of R&S's 4th grade placement test, so I'm thinking of starting her there.

I apologize - I've skimmed but not read all the posts. I have a fairly severe anxiety disorder and panic disorder. The benzos (kolonapin for me), sleeping meds, and Effexor are great at stabilizing my thoughts - I don't go into the spirals of anxiety that I would before where I would be convinced of something terrible happening. However, I had a lot of issues with the heart palpitations - and they sent me into a spiral (heart rate causes anxiety over a panic attack and the anxiety causes the panic attack). I did a round of biofeedback therapy, hooked to sensors to learn to control my heart rate, breathing, etc. It might be worth exploring for DD?

We tried everything we could before making the jump to LIPS, then Barton, and I regret the time we spent on the other programs. Barton has just been the ONE that works for DD8. She's able to identify ending and middle sounds, blend words, etc. We've gone through Barton VERY slowly - she has memory issues, so that might be part of why it's so slow for us. But we're seeing actual progress - progress that we didn't see in other homeschool programs or public school interventions.

SWI-A in 30 weeks with my oldest two, but we also went through the Partnership Writing section of Bravewriter and Writing Strands.

We live in Florida. My second to youngest DD is technically supposed to be going into 3rd grade - she's no where near ready. We pulled her out of public school in March after multiple years of failing IEP goals and no progress. We're making more progress, but I'd like to keep her in second grade another year. Any ideas what that process is? Thanks!

My DD (almost 8 now) has a series of diagnoses from a variety of evals.. All the "dys-", memory deficits (all the memory), processing speed deficits, auditory processing, visual processing, etc. Since pulling her out of school, I'm noticing that she loses focus VERY easy, and when she does, it derails everything we've been doing. She'll be understanding just fine, then suddenly you can visually see her get distracted, generally by something I'd not even notice. And then she's totally lost whatever concept we're working with. While I know that, if this is ADD, fixing it obviously won't fix all her problems; and I know we have a lot of remediation to do to get her to a level where she's functional and able to do things like hold a job, etc.. My question is could ADD contribute to any of these thing? Is it worth asking her doctor?

What are your favorite tools for helping with memory? We're doing the auditory memory on Hearbuilder. We have No-Glamour memory. What do you use? What's helped?

We got Barton Level 1 in the mail today (woo-hoo!). There was a flyer included for the Imagine Reading Games, that, from the little flyer, follow the Barton scope & sequence and provide extra practice. They're not cheap, but I'm willing to pay for them if they'll provide reinforcement in a way that's less discouraging. Anyone have any experience with these? nks, Meg

I get a nice discount, so if I LOVE it, I can get my own. That'd be happier for him, lol.

I have the 9.7" pro. Hubby has the full-sized, though. Maybe I can convince him to trade?

We homeschool all four of them. The older two are much easier, with no learning disabilities. They're also now new to homeschooling (never in public school), so they have a fairly consistent system down. Not remotely independent, but easier. The youngest is just at a very basic age for school, and also absorbs a lot by being around the others. Our main focus is Barton and Ronit Bird. Some of Ronit Bird is easy for her, right now (we just started this week), but we're still taking it slow, doing lots of review to get it into her memory. From just starting Barton this week, I'm envisioning it taking a long, long time. But I'd rather be using something that works - we did 18 months of public schools, essentially spinning our wheels, as they kept pushing rote memorization reading tactics at her. At least this way we're using a program that might work. I'm not even at the point of thinking about the writing in Barton. I can't even really imagine doing handwriting with her, honestly, except for basic letter formation. She's just not ready yet. We're not stressing science and history. She watched a movie about eggs and how they hatch (magic school bus or something) and was fascinated. So, we're going to spend a few weeks hatching eggs and picking up books from the library about eggs and birds. Super easy, very low stress for her (and me). She absorbed some of the movie, and wants to learn more - so, that's what we'll do. Very low stress. STOW is going to be too much for her. It's just too advanced for her to be able to comprehend, even with audio books. We're going to start on a way lower level, when we do. I don't want gravy subjects taking away from the meat of her education. We can always catch history up later. Typing we will add, at some point. VT is in the mix, just slowly progressing. The waiting list is forever just to get seen. We're playing a lot of games, going places, getting experiences. They took a tour of the local football stadium earlier this week, science center next week.

So, we gave public school almost 2 full years, and we've just not seen the progress we wanted (or, really, any progress at all). Over the last few months, we've gotten tired of the constant fighting - over too much homework, over homework she can't do, over the fact that they'd fail her on her report card and pass her on her IEP report, just over everything. So, as of Monday, she's homeschooling. By way of history, she has multiple diagnoses - all the dys- (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia), auditory processing disorder, visual perception disorders, memory deficits, etc. etc She's almost 8, and in 2nd grade (though in no way functioning on a 2nd grade level, in any academic subject). We're going right to Barton for reading/spelling/language arts (after 18 months of LIPS), and Ronit Bird for math. Kinda of unsure what to do for science, history, and the like? Her auditory memory is much better than her visual memory. She's not in any way a kinesthetic learner. Our focus is, obviously, going to be reading and math. But we'd like a well-rounded portfolio. Any suggestions for things that would give her some background in science and history? She adores animals and science, especially, so I really want to give her something in her day she'll love.

I'm dyslexic (mildly),DD#2 is dyslexic (moderate/severe); neither of use are visual learners at all.

Yep! She can request to move on to another topic, color, draw, read, go to one of the stations, do one of her computer programs, etc.

Our IEP includes her right to request breaks to pursue another topic or to just get outside for a bit. It was actually offered by the school, not something I had to request/fight for. My DD is very much a low-key introvert, but we accepted it on the IEP, because it gives her the freedom to be done with a certain topic for a while and move onto something else, if need be. Even during standardized tests.

It looks interesting.. does the table to contents match Barton's Scope and Sequence (or close enough)? We're considering starting Barton. Also looking into SPIRE. The "not enough repetition" in Barton worries me, as my DD has a long-term memory deficit (it takes a lot for her to remember something, and requires a lot of review to keep it).

We met with an O-G specialist today to look at Barton tutoring starting fairly soon. She recommended S.P.I.R.E. instead - her reason being, while still multi-sensory, SPIRE is a very auditory program, and that's our area of relative strength? She noted that when DD was trying to remember the names of letters, she would use the sound as a "trigger" to help her remember the word (i.e., she'd look at a C, say /k/, which would jog her memory for the actual name of the letter).

I so always appreciate your replies/insights. You're truly amazing, and have been a blessing for me/us! Thank you!

updated the first post

We're using it. Only a few weeks in, and DD has poor memory, so we're still finishing up consonant sounds. I bought the manual, the fold-able magnetic whiteboard (yes, pricey, but we have a tiny house and is very handy), and the lips magnets. I make word documents with the letters, the vowels, and the small and large colored squares. Had them printed and laminated at Office Depot, then cut them up and superglued magnets to the back. Total cost about $15 and took about an hour. Used a hand-mirror I had in my makeup kit. When we need syllables, I'll make and print those, too. Saved a few hundred bucks doing it that way. :)

Both my older kids went through this stage. I think they want fluency, and in an effort to expedite the process, they might guess at it. I just remember saying a lot of "sound it out" and "I don't see an 'i', do you?" and "look at what's really on the page, please?". Notecard idea might be good. :)

I personally am a fan of manipulative at this stage. Littles at this age tend to be very concrete..... manipulatives help them learn the skills of math while they're still very concrete thinkers, which allows them to progress into abstract. That being said, I haven't used MUS for my kids. For my NT kids, we use Singapore with manipulatives.

Maybe 2E?

Maybe 2E?