Love love love CM picture study with SCM portfolios. Develops habit of attention, eye for detail, memorization, appreciation of beauty, narrating... It's a lovely part of our week.

My oldest read fluently at age 4, my middle more "normal" and progressed steadily through age 5 and 6. At 7 he read "The Story of Dr. Dolittle" aloud independently, so I'd say he was fluent. My youngest was a whole different story. She learned all her letter sounds/phonograms and could blend well, but it was obvious that fluency was sooooo difficult. She would decode the same words over and over and over without ever recognizing them. She'll be 8 in May, and we recently got her tested, and she is severely dyslexic. Barton is already working wonders... One early sign was her complete inability to come up with rhyming words. Even now she sometimes has trouble with rhyme. She is very very bright and easily learned letter sounds, but it's incredibly difficult for her to manipulate them even orally. I know every child is different, but for us, I should've had her tested sooner. I wish I wouldn't have "waited for it to click." She's put in so much work without reaping any benefit because her phonemic awareness just wasn't there. And actually, she's learned really bad habits of guessing words, etc. that we are now having to undo. Edited to add that she is also my child who walked at 10 months, could swim by age 3, could ride a bike shortly after, and is highly gifted artistically, athletically, and musically. Dyslexia has actually been an advantage is many, many ways.

Following with interest as well. Sounds so very much like my severely dyslexic DD, even similar scores. We ended up doing all the extra practice in Barton 1 even if she got through the first set of the lessons okay, just because I could still occasionally see issues. I wanted it rock solid, 100%... Well it's still not so, but we've done all we can with Level 1. We are using the rapid naming sheets- genius to move to metronome with them later! We haven't seen much improvement yet, but it's still very new.

I personally think Treasure Island is *easier* reading... Oldest DD enjoyed Kidnapped with Ambleside year 4 at 9 years old but she's a freak... My other two (including another very strong reader) definitely won't be able to enjoy it until middle school at least. Just the language and syntax can be very complicated. Oddly enough, I still remember a 52 word dictation passage- that was all one sentence 😬 I think both are invaluable though, and I would definitely have her read them both at some point. Robinson Crusoe set the precedent for that entire genre, including Treasure Island. Defoe was the first, and many, many other novels draw from (and even mention) RC. I think that is one reason to consider reading it first. I also love the idea of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Equally difficult but perhaps more enjoyable? Have you looked at Ambleside's lists? It's been a great fit for my oldest mentioned above.

We LOVE Farm Anatomy! It's one that really got us dreaming. Adding these others to the list!

Yay! Perfect timing for us!

Also, are there outside books/cards that must be purchased? What about for Omni? Or do they somehow include these online?

How much time per day does your child spend on the self paced courses? Is there a major difference between the bible and history?

Yes, I am currently reading aloud all of her math which works really well. It's good to hear someone else has successfully gone this route! You don't see it mentioned on these boards much and I didn't know if I was setting myself up for disaster ahead. But, I think that a year behind in a strong conceptual program is better than "at level" in one that doesn't teach conceptually. So glad it's paying off for you!

Love all these suggestions! We are hoping to do a little of both (raising animals and growing things) so both are equally relevant. Thanks again!

We are about to close on our first hobby farm, so we've been doing "farm school," planning and dreaming and reading lots of nonfiction/informational stuff. Would love to read aloud more fiction to inspire us as well. All I've come up with so far is Mountain Born, Charlotte's Web, and Farmer Boy. Anyone have suggestions?

DD7 is working in Singapore partnered with C-Rods, about a semester behind grade level because we had a year in private school that set her back. I really want to use RS but I'd hate to switch and push her back even further (before dyslexia was known, SM was my top choice and siblings have thrived with it). She does well with the TB and WB since they are both conceptual and way light on reading. I think IP would be too much reading/writing until she's older and we haven't attempted CWP but plan to include it. Wondering if you anyone else has used it successfully with your dx?

DD11 finished MM6 this year and I bought MM 7, AOPS, and Dolciani. She read the first section of AOPS and begged me for it. It's been the best decision I could've ever made. Yes, she KNEW her stuff with MM but now she's having so much fun and being appropriately challenged. Not one second of her hour of math a day is "wasted" and I couldn't say that with MM.

Preferably without romantic themes.

Great suggestions-- our booklist is growing fast! How many novels would you all suggest? I always plan too much. DD is a crazy avid reader, so I'm thinking maybe 8-12 assigned and discussed, and then a long list of free reads?

Yes, this is for the year after next but we're already dreaming about it :-). We're thinking of breaking away from our norm for 7th/8th and really allowing her to pursue interests. She's VERY eager to read Austen, Gaskell, Bronte, etc. I've wanted to hold off because of the romantic focus... We've tried to give her the time and space to find herself apart from romantic aspirations, and she has. I feel like she'll have the maturity and sense to enjoy them without getting caught up in hyper-fantasizing/romanticizing her own life. Thoughts? She's done Ambleside mostly, is very well read, and definitely capable of high school work. She's read quite a bit of Shakespeare and Dickens, and is overall relatively familiar with British history. Should we do an overview of all of British History for the year? Or should we focus on the Romantic/Victorian Eras only? I really want it to be more comprehensive and inclusive than we will have the space for in later years. The rest of her plate is relatively light these next couple of years so we feel like it's perfect time. Has anyone done something similar and have a schedule/book list to share? Anyone have fun ideas or don't miss authors/poets? I have my Romantic/Victorian lit schedules from college and I'm thinking I could essentially just use those as a starting point. But I wanted to ask here and hear your thoughts.

We didn't have the WISC done, waiting on moving now to request with new school district since last couldn't get us in in time. I just bumped the thread with the RAN/RAS stuff. Excited to work on that alongside Barton.

Found it OhE! But it says the files have been deleted or moved?

She took it after two weeks of Barton 1 daily, and I think it shows! Blending and segmenting nonwords is very good (75th and 84th percentile). Memory for digits is high, but everything else was low, with all rapid naming really low... How do we work on that? I'm uploading the results here, hopefully you guys can see it. She's definitely dyslexic, categorized as "severe." But I already knew that...

Anyone have experience with this particular program? General thoughts?

Beast Academy. DS that I bought it for is the type that hates anything "unrealistic" and just could not get over the comic book format. We've tried a few times to supplement with it, but he just looks at it and thinks it's babyish. Yes, yes, he's silly. I wish he liked it because I do!

http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Poetry-Art-Around-World/dp/0792270711 We really enjoyed the poetry and art selections this volume.

Following. Refently took another look at MP science and it looks pretty wonderful.

My fourth grade boy is gifted/accelerated and also likely has some kind of LD... He honestly does very little "formal work." Last year he was in a rigorous private school, and he met/exceeded expectations but was emotionally a wreck. This year homeschooling again, we are giving him lots more free time. He does SM daily, as much done orally as possible. We usually only go for 30 minutes. Some days he does 5-6 lessons, some just 1. He also reads from two books (his choice from 1000 good books list) daily, one as partner reading so I can hear his pronunciation (he often reads far too fast and skips words...). He narrates those orally and does copywork/dictation. He listens to/narrates SOTW and also follows his own interests for history projects. We are going through The Elements and Tiner's Chemistry book (me reading aloud, once a week usually). He is also writing two books based on his current interests-- one about Endangered Rhinos and one about NFL Quarterbacks. He does a logic workbook when he feels like it. Weekly we do picture study and we focus on one composer that we read about/listen to in the car a lot or during math. We spend one morning a week doing focused Bible (discussion based) and one morning doing focused art (The Virtual Instructor). He meets with a French tutor once a week and we try to use it at home as much as we can. He does Duolingo app when he feels like it, and sometimes plays Geography games with Geopuzzles, Sheppard Software, or the intelliglobe. And he spends LOTS of time outside. He's leading his sisters in his own "outdoor survival" class :-) Total, he spends 2-3 hours a day on school. He's accelerated in math/reading, is a Geography master, passionate about history, passionate about zoology... I feel happy with where he's at and what we're doing, even though on paper it looks like far less than others.

Thanks so much for your reply! That is what I was hoping to hear!