Yikes! ;) Well...I'm not planning on doing it anytime soon, if at all. It took me SOOOOOOOOO much time to do the other one. I created it for my son, so that justified all of the time I put into it. I have so many other projects - still tweaking this year's science program I made, websites that I have to work on (paid work), etc. I honestly don't think I will be getting around to it (at least for now). However, sometime in the future, if I have time, I will consider it if there is enough interest. It's just hard to justify the untold hours for no compensation. I will say this, if a certain something happens in my life, I will do it for sure....can't say what that is though. :lol: I'm sorry there won't be anything on the near horizon because I really love to help out, when I can! I'm so blessed myself to hear that it is helping others! Thank you for letting me know!

Otter has had problems with reading too. He isn't Dyslexic, but he does have some dyslexic tendencies. Anyway, I've had a hard time getting him interested in books until recently. Here are some that he has really been enjoying lately: Usborne Readers Currently he has these titles: Samurai, Napoleon, Animals at War, Titantic, Robots, Julius Caesar, etc. He likes them so much - I'm going to order a ton more for August. They are easy enough for him to read and they also have lots of very nice pictures that break up the reading for him. He also likes the Usborne Puzzle adventure books. He also has enjoyed: My Father's Dragon series (short chapters and a sweet, gentle story) Little House series (He loves true stories) Captain Underpants Helen Keller If You Lived ....series (Like if you lived during colonial times) I've read these out loud to him but I think they'd also be good choices: Charlotte's Web Cricket in Times Square (and the other books that follow the characters) D’Aulaire books Here are some other's I recommend: Prairie Skies (series of 3 books about a boy) and other ready-for-chapters books by Deborah Hopkinson like the Klondike kid series

If she doesn't like books....hmm...have you ever taken a look at Prentice Hall Literature? http://www.phschool.com/atschool/literature/ We've got a couple copies of different levels and my daughter really enjoyed them. They are pretty nice and have lots of interesting and classic stories included. That's my only experience with any literature material besides just books themselves.

Go for it and good luck! Can I have a free signed copy? ;) lol

I've used it, but then I made it, LOL.... You all just made my day! :D I didn't use everything I scheduled. So if you do use it, be aware of that. It is probably way more stuff than you would need. If you have a good library you would only need to purchase some of the activity books like history pockets, etc. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll be happy to answer them!

You're welcome and thanks for the compliments! :D

Thanks for the update! I was thinking about you both. I'm glad that it's all over with and now you are just waiting for the results. I hope they come in soon! :grouphug:

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh I have to agree! Otter couldn't spell worth beans and I tried just about every spelling program out there (or at least it seemed like it). Nothing was working and we were getting to a point where he was supposed to be in 4th grade (we held him back though) and still spelling words like: bird as brid, noises as noseses, spider as sipter, black as blake, bowl as blole, etc. His writing was atrocious. Finally I gave Sequential Spelling a try. I also tried it out on Bear last year. It worked. For both of them. Now Otter is still not the best speller on the planet and he still has problems BUT he gets the words he learned in Sequential Spelling right consistently. It is so easy to use. There is no busy work to do. It's also really quick to get through. We spend about 10 minutes tops. I do have to add a note here...we thought Otter was dyslexic, but it turns out he has Aspergers and supposedly that was part of why he was having trouble some of his subjects, including spelling. Besides Sequential Spelling we are also using the Barton Reading and Spelling program. Even though we were told he is not Dyslexic, he does have some very dyslexic type tendencies. I know Barton has helped him a lot with the individual letter sounds and splitting words apart phonetically and that has helped his spelling too. So, I can't credit Sequential Spelling exclusively, but... I know that both programs have helped him because I see him using things he learned from both independently. They have a free trial on their site that you might want to check out: http://www.avko.org/sequentialspelling.html You can try it out for a week and see if it helps your daughter. :001_smile: Edited to add: oops I duplicated the link I quoted...duh. Ok it's late...that's my excuse. ;)

I got a request for a younger version of Otter's science so I went ahead and made one. I figured I'd use it as a schedule for readers for Otter himself. I'm still tweaking it a little, but I wanted to share it with everyone else! http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/otters_science_main.html Scroll down to the 2nd choice. :001_smile:

I really like it. I like that it's easy on the eyes and easy to read. I like the green around the pictures and your name as a graphic too. :001_smile:

Otter is doing: Bible Children's History of the World Various books I'm reading out loud to him (Usborne's Living Long Ago, Charlotte's Web, Old Yeller, The Chronicles of Narnia series and more) Spelling LLATL Handwriting Without Tears Math - we are still working with RightStart but I'm also allowing him to dabble in various workbooks we own and stuff on the Internet like the site http://www.thinkingblocks.com Science - various stuff like Usborne books I'm also encouraging him to read each day. We are taking a much easier pace though and he finishes his work in only a few hours a day at most. Bear is doing Thinkwell's Calculus at a very accelerate pace. He started this week and will probably be done with it by the end of August. He is doing it concurrently with Life of Fred calculus. He is also studying from an American history text, studying for the PSAT and doing plenty of free reading. Emily is taking the classroom portion of driver's ed through the Driver's Ed in a Box program and also studying economics with stuff from Bluestocking Press. She's also writing tons, but then she's always writing something or other.... If I ever need a good punishment for her, I don't let her use the computer to type, LOL...that's like torture....;) I told her in the old days I had to write it all by hand and it won't kill her. ;)

I got the high school portion up! This is what I'll be using with Bear. I was going to use Apologia Advanced Biology (Human Body Fearfully and Wonderfully Made), but it was too hard to combine that text with Otter's stuff. Also I really like the text I decided to use better (Emily used it last year because she hates Apologia). http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/bears_science_human_body.html This isn't as fancy as Otter's science, but I hope it helps someone! :001_smile: Edited to add: I haven't finished creating the supplemental microscope labs yet and I MIGHT add in an anatomy color book.

Here is our up and coming 4th grade year: WinterPromise Children Around the World (with extras) Children Around the World Readers for L.A. Shurley English 4 Sequential Spelling Handwriting Without Tears Cursive Success Barton program (for Dyslexics) Otter's Elementary Science: The Human Body RightStart math Level E Bible / Character - various books We also may do Latin for Children, but that depends on how we do time wise every day.

I would say it's best for 2-6, although a 1st grader could use it with some easier books thrown in like the Usborne Internet-linked First Encyclopedia of the Human Body, some help with the cutting on the cut/paste book and a few other easy books thrown in and harder/more mature books taken out. Many of the book reviews on amazon (when I was first researching and didn't have most of the books on hand like I do now) had reviewers who were surprisingly using some of the books with very young learners as well as older kids and having good results. At some point I may add in books for the K-2 set so little kids can study with the bigger kids, if anyone is interested in me doing that (let me know). It would be easy to do, since I have a lot of those type of books at home in our home library. I just "rejected" them since my focus was on designing it with "new material" for Otter. I would certainly make that portion much more gentle (less books, even easier reads). There is also a great activity book for younger kids I came across in my research - but again didn't include it, especially because I added in the Body book. I would also say that up to an 8th grader would still be learning a lot and while some of the books would be too easy, there is still lots of material and PLENTY of activities to learn lots from. So.... ideally we are talking 2-6th grade. Sorry, I know I said it would be up Monday, but I haven't uploaded it yet. I'll check over it this evening and try to post it to the site late tonight or tomorrow (Wednesday) night. I'll post here when I have it up. :001_smile:

Otter just turned 10 and he has Aspergers. Your son sounds kind of like mine did awhile back as he was entering 4th. He just totally hit a wall and started becoming frustrated and unhappy about school. He just was not ready to move on to things. He was confused in math. He couldn't write worth a darn, etc. Soooo, I did what at the time was a really tough decision but turned out to be the very best thing for him...I held him back and had him repeat 3rd grade (with all new material). I just explained to him that some people need more time at a certain level and we didn't make it into a big deal at all. In the last year he has come so far and his total attitude has made a 180. He has become totally enthusiastic and positive about ALL his school again. I started using WinterPromise for history and WP's Animals & their World program for science. It's very easy to use, non-overwhelming but solid with plenty of non fiction / visual and engaging books- that's a total hit for him. Instead of comprehension questions we do a little narration and that's been plenty. He's retaining so much more because he loves the material. I also switched to Right Start math and took him back to a level that was below him so he could succeed without being frustrated. He just needed more time to mature and needed a break from certain concepts before moving on. I waited until he was ready and then we no longer were spending 2 hours on one worksheet anymore. Right Start is good too because they aren't very heavy worksheet and drill-n-kill wise. The manipulatives were also a good match for him (he hated MUS, but loves RS). If K-12 isn't working for your son, maybe it's time to consider moving on. He just might be at a point where he isn't ready to move on yet, or things just aren't a fit anymore. Because of the way Otter's mind works, I find I have to be a little more flexible. So far with all the materials I've found this past year, we've gotten into a very good groove and I hope it stays this way! WP was my find of the year. I totally don't regret that at all. The schedule is so awesome and easy to use. It's so easy that when I have to run errands and Emily babysits, Otter can just look at the guide himself and actually get his stuff done. As far as spelling, we use sequential spelling and you don't need a schedule for that. We just do one "lesson" a day in it. Same thing goes for Shurley English (or LLATL which we are currently using in between Shurley levels this summer). I don't have him do the writing assignments in Shurley because he just can't wrap his mind around them yet. So I have him work with an Evan Moor workbook (writing fabulous sentences & paragraphs) on the days Shurley schedules writing. It's not that hard to pull it all together. I'm sure anyone here would be happy to try and help you put something together! :001_smile:

I had this done as a child - at least I believe this is what it was - (when I was about 6) and honestly it is a very traumatic memory. When I was around 10 I had an IVP done and I don't remember why (because I don't think an IVP requires one) but they mentioned a catheter and I about flipped. They would have had to sit on me after peeling me off of the ceiling. Thankfully I didn't have to get one at that time. I NEVER want a catheter as an adult because of what I went through. It hurt A LOT, I was embarrassed, the staff didn't explain what they were doing as they were doing it, I felt like my bladder was going to burst, etc. Thinking back it would have helped a lot to have a numbing agent applied. It would have also helped to have the staff explain everything as they went along. The best thing you can do as a mom is be really positive and never leave her side. Find something they will let you bring to distract her like a nintendo DS or music w/headphones or something. I'm not sure if she can have them around when they do the x-rays, but maybe for part of it or while you are waiting it will be ok. She's 10, but I'd bring a teddy bear or something too for her to squeeze, if she gets uncomfortable. If they had something like that back then, it would have helped get my mind off of things. Insist on having an experienced person!! I can remember to this day the staff talking about how neither one had ever put a catheter in a child. Best of luck to you both and I'll be praying for her for her procedure to be as comfortable as it can be.

Officially Bear was an 8th grader last year, but he's skipping to the 10th this next school year, so I guess last year counts as 9th. ;) He did: Bible - reading as a family and various books like "What's the Big Deal with my Parents", Boyhood & Beyond, etc. KISS grammar (free online) Shurley English 7 (last part of the year) Write@Home Jensen's Vocabulary TOG 4 Chalkdust precalculus Started Life of Fred calculus (and finishing it this summer along with Thinkwell) Apologia Advanced Chemistry Art - Photoshop, PainterX, Adobe Illustrator, Maya (3-d program), Bryce (another 3-d program) SAT prep Volunteering at a local assisted living and nursing facility He also did some Latin with his younger brother but we dropped it. He also started a computer club where he refurbishes computers and donates them to needy people or seniors in our community.

You can use sequential spelling in an auditory manner. That's what I do with my oldest son who is an auditory learner. I use it in an auditory and visual manner with my youngest (who is a little bit of everything learner, lol). You can try out 7 lessons online for free here: http://www.avko.org/Samples/SSH/SSFirstDays.pdf Sequential spelling is the ONLY program I've found that works for my kids. I tried just about everything else out there including phonetic zoo. I am SO glad I gave it a try. It's the only thing that's actually sticking.

I used their pre-chem and also their chemistry 1, some of the biology and the physics is still sitting on my shelf unused. What I didn't like about them is that they go too fast. My son loves science and the Real Science books didn't last long enough in our house. The books are very nice with good explanations/illustrations and the labs are interesting (for the most part) but we just needed "more" and it didn't match our style as much as some other things I've come across. I was also having to add too much to make the info sticky. You do need the teacher's manuals if you want the extra info, etc. for each chapter. HTH a little...:001_smile:

I'm not sure what you mean by a "mastery" math program, but perhaps Right Start would fit the bill? That's what we are using.

BTW, I noticed in my user cp that I got some "reputation points". Can someone explain that to me? Sorry if I missed that somewhere....I've just never experienced that on a forum before. :001_smile:

Thanks everyone for the compliments! Honestly, their science is kind of light for us and isn't what we're interested in doing right now. I did us their full core curriculum Animals & Their Worlds this last year as science while we were using their American Story 2 program. Otter loved it. We just wanted to study the human body and they don't have anything like that yet sooo............ Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to see if our library has this book. I can always make a list of supplemental books to include with the main study! We don't have cable T.V. so this is part of my entertainment, LOL.....;)

ooooh add gardening to mine too! ;-)

I would spend it learning even more about Photoshop, Illustrator, and Painter X as well as drawing/painting skills.

I've been reading these boards for awhile, but I finally registered. I just wanted to let you all know I finished creating my son's elementary science curriculum and would like to share it with everyone (it's free like the rest of the stuff on my site is). Otter's Elementary Science Curriculum I still have a little bit of tweaking to do (and am fixing a few mistakes). Also, by Monday I will have the high school portion of it up. Please let me know what you think. :D