Love this thread. This question about b&m school is looming before us as ds is in grade 6. There is an option for a specialist math and science school from grade 7, and ds' social needs are propelling him in that direction. He's a competitive kid. But ds also has LDs and at the moment, tests horribly (this is my gut instinct, based on frequent errors) for these reasons. I would rather have him home so that he can mature and evolve deeper learning habits and test taking skills without the stress of exams at school. Don't get me wrong- we haven't really found our homeschooling mojo, except by way of outsourcing, and it is a nascent, fragile treasure. I've had dreams of throwing in the towel many a time! So it's great to finally see ds happy and engaged with his tutors, and he's developing a good work ethic to boot while I focus on looking for interesting material to discuss. At the moment, his heart is set on school. Because he responds well to tutors (no experience in a live classroom of 30 kids in recent memory), there is a chance that he may thrive. There will be curriculum overlap, but with LDs, it's always a good thing if ds needs to go through a subject a second time (or not- the school encourages testing out of the subject). But with the recent positive development with tutors, at least we have options to go back to homeschooling if the need arises.

Just saw this on my fb feed. http://phys.org/news/2014-11-wasnt-higgs-particle.html More fodder to chew on with our kids. :D

We just watched Particle Fever on Netflix last night. Awesome! The documentary follows the lives of several scientists through the start of the LHC up to the confirmation of the Higgs. The film was able to convey the excitement of the scientists ("they're like 6yos who've been invited to a party with all their friends and favorite candy" or something like that, weeee!). Will look up Physics Slams, thanks!

FP, you've given me pause. You're right - it's tutors, small group in-person and interactive online classes that have worked out well. Group classes have been less successful because of distractions, although the camaraderie is unbeatable. I need to bear this in mind because ds wants to go back to school next year. We definitely have this going on, which is what I'm referring to when I talked about "quality of focus". When ds is off on a tangent every few minutes, the quality of learning cannot be very good! Im using Derek Owen's Physics class as a practice ground - he likes the material but the delivery can be boring without interaction. Ds now wants to take notes, which is a great way to interact with the material. The going is slow, but there is good traction. Let's see how this goes. In my house, everything is good till it's not. :D

Hi Binip, this part of your reply seems to be addressed to me. I'm not the original poster. Your quote of my post is in reference to ds' sensory needs. Ds needs to move his hands/fingers throughout his school work. He takes a lot of breaks (water, toilet, discussion, chat, fold a plane :)). He goes out to the yard when he wants, but it's getting rarer as the weather worsens. I kept the basketball away during schoolwork because I sometimes sit next to him, and it's hard for me to hear the continued thumping. By giving him the football (started this morning) I'm hoping to change his focus from pinching his fingers to moving his feet. He's pretty good with getting his work done these days*, actually, possibly motivated by interest. With ds, things are always changing, so Im hoping that this improvement is developmental. *Because ds' quality of focus can vary significantly week to week, I don't have any set amount of work per week, except for the AOPS class which has its own requirements. Everything else is according to what he can muster. I do give him guidelines on what to do for the week in a checklist to help him plan, but what doesn't get done is just pushed to the following week.

I'm not FP but these have options have set me thinking (again). My ds needs to move. Unfortunately, no store bought fidget has done it for him ever, not even the inflatable rubber ball/seat. He'd bounce nonstop and get carried away. The current setup is a cushioned seat where his legs can't touch the floor. He's recently been kicking a basketball around the house, standing on it against the kitchen counter. I've kept the ball away during school work, but I'll let him put it under his feet. Amazon has tons of other options too. At the VT's too, he had better focus with the bouncy ball seat. I'm thinking of a bouncy cushion now since I already gave the ball away gah.

Not a problem now, but it depends on the subject. Even then, it can be unpredictable. Generally, amount and quality of focus depends on- interest level, how the subject is taught, and whether ds is tired/occupied with other thoughts like games, paper planes, play dates, books etc. There has definitely been improvement over the years. I leave ds to do his own learning most of the time. But when things are over his head, he will zone. I try to find that point where he launches and try to persuade him to get back on track, or he switches tasks. When I don't locate that point, ds can continue doing his work in a "not there" kind of way, without progress. FP, does your ds like classes? Ds loves the interaction and will work to fulfil homework requirements. It may take a few experiments (we had several failed ones), but I can see his tastes developing. If you change your lesson dynamic, do you think your son may be able to focus for longer?

Congratulations!!

No further insight. But it's heartening to read what Heathermomster quoted. We need the tshirt too! Fwiw, Ds' math tutor is on a break while rethinking his math PhD, and has had a very successful academic career thus far. He thinks he was as impulsive as Ds at the same age. His advice? "Take a deep breath before answering." He remembers disliking it when told to do that, and he couldn't do it either. Well, he's outgrown this tendency to rush, so our kids have hope yet. They need time, perhaps more than most. All the best.

:grouphug: Texasmama, this sounds like my situation too. Except I did the outsourcing thing. Ds is doing an AoPS class and has a tutor to help. :D It could be a Mommy-thing, tween/teen hood or not. Ds always thinks he's right, even if the answer book tells him otherwise. :svengo: But a lot of time spent on Alcumus has been good in that he can't argue with the computer :D. That aside, ds likes to read the text and does not want help from me, despite the fact that he sometimes comes away with an inaccurate or incomplete understanding. But it's different when it comes to his tutor. Ds is one of those who thinks much better when discussing with another person. His tutor, whom he loves, fulfils this role perfectly. It's also curious how he sometimes talks out the solution with his tutor with little or no cues, when minutes before the tutor arrived, he's befuddled. I've come to terms with the fact that sometimes, us moms are not the best people to bring forth this aspect in our kids. At least not in my case.

Interesting old thread. Fwiw, ds sees words. We first found out when he started to spell big words backwards for fun. He said he read from a picture in his head. This aspect has, if anything, been very helpful and not at all a disorder. His spelling is excellent. He's also great at math, but in an intuitive, visual way. I'm replying because I'm mulling over how ds learns. He's great at math, but in an unusual (to me!) way. His tutor said yesterday, "whoa you intuited the algebraic equation of the circle?", in relation to a specific question on Aops. Ds can read the text all he wants, but if the new knowledge isn't more convincing than his previous understanding, it won't stick, or he won't use the knowledge. He doesn't seem to care if he gets it wrong- he's not convinced he is! I recognise there are strengths to this, and am working with the tutor on balancing his knowledge with this intuition/confidence/something! He has CAPD, and VPD.

What Arcadia wrote is accurate. Gradient is pi. % error calculation: 1. Take two points from the graph you've drawn. Calculate slope. (Circumference 2 - Circumference 1) / (Diameter 2 - Diameter 1). This should be in the blanks just below the graph. 2. % error = ( | slope - pi | ) / pi. X 100% I'm copying this from ds' worksheet. Hope it works. Eta: ds goofed on this one in that he reversed the axis (vision issues). His answer is actually inverted. The formula above should work though.

Yeah Nemom. Ds was sad! Tks all. I'm off to prowl Amazon, but am thinking of the added costs :/.

Netflix seems to have dropped its cache of old Mythbusters episodes. Does anyone know where to find them? While I'm at it, does anyone know about Through the Wormhole too?

Hope you feel better soon. Hugs. - my pot of stock is in the crock pot. - prepped ingredients for lunch. - working with ds while cooking (I'm the headless chicken :P). - decide what to take out from freezer for dinner soon. - VT - meet new math tutor - cook dinner while ds is having session.

Oh Jean, this is wonderful to hear! Thanks for sharing this happy (ongoing) outcome. Kudos to your you AND your dd 😀ðŸ’.

Thanks for the advice, Elizabeth and OhE. Ds has been through SO much OT which clearly didn't stick either, yowl. It feels like an itch on the sole of the foot- we never quite get to the spot. Still, it's worth a check. I will take the advice. I came to the conclusion that his motion sickness is vision related because it doesn't happen when he's reading in the car (eyes are fixed within the car). Once he looks outside, he feels sick. The recent testing, revealed that his two eyes have gone in diametrically opposite directions - one eye is moderately long sighted while the other is moderately shortsighted. This must cause a huge stress on visual processing. (Eta: This divergence happened within the last 2 years). On a different note, I found this post on an ADD forum from a vision therapist who is a 20-year veteran. Very insightful, and exactly what you say about the VT pipe dream. It's good to go into VT with both eyes open :o. http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49458

Glad you have a good doc in your area :). The FCOVD that we went to put Ds through 2 tests which lasted over 4 hours, the total cost of which was around $500. I was very encouraged because the tester caught issues that we didn't realise were vision related. These are things like talking out loud while thinking- ds has difficulty processing visually, so he talks himself through to process auditorily! We just thought he loved to talk 😒. The problems you mentioned - word skipping, line skipping etc happen a lot to DS. After his first bout of VT at 6yo, he said that words stopped jumping on the page. But other problems remain. He's an avid reader, but the NP said his comprehension is primarily contextual. As a result, textbook reading is tough. When ds was younger, he worked on Singapore Math. There were a few problems with nets that he easily solved. He does this with words as well, as in reading letters backwards in his head for fun. But it's unpredictable how visual information gets into his head. The last few years, ds' issues have worsened. He's now car sick and feels like falling off the escalator (never before!), and he's afraid of crossing the road because he can't judge oncoming car distances. All of us can't wait for him to be started on VT! Ds is 11.5yo (Jan birthday).

I've been following with interest as Ds is about to start VT. I would definitely go with the FCOVD (we're doing so). We tried two COVD associates (the only ones available to us at the time) since Ds was 6, but the small positive results could not hold. The therapy equipment set that this new FCOVD will be using is also markedly different - they look more than the Brock string or flippers that Ds was assigned. Ds also has a geometry problem. It's a strange thing, because he can manipulate nets of solids in his head easily from a young age, yet has problems with graphing. While he seems to be improving, I wonder if he's learned to compensate rather than improved his basic function. In any case, I'm delaying formal geometry till after VT. He'll enjoy it a lot better then.

I have a 6th grader whom I'm trying to move in the same direction. In his case, there are several components that we're working on simultaneously so that he can become more independent. 1. Good study skills. DS' key strengths and weaknesses play a big part such that he hasn't developed good learning skills. For instance, he finds textbook reading (as opposed to reading for pleasure) very difficult. So he doesn't like to read to learn (dyslexic). He also finds it difficult to listen (CAPD). But he's a very creative person who loves to think on the fly. The result is that, instead of reading the lesson part of the curriculum, he loves to jump into the questions. This works somewhat for math. But no wonder he doesn't like learning history formally. As he gets to the higher levels though, his methodology is less and less possible. Most days, I sit next to him to read the text together, although I'm slowly letting go and evaluating on a piecemeal basis. 2. Maturity. Ds is very independent minded (he hates getting help), which is very different from being independent! He's always been anxious to work on his own, but without study skills, it hasn't been possible. Actually, I'd say that this attitude has held him back because he would never take advice. But things are coming together as he matures. His study skills are slowly coming up to scratch even as he mellows and grudgingly accepts what I say (well somewhat!). His natural inclination of wanting to work on his own is helping to boost the process towards independence. We're at the stage where, if he hasn't learnt the lesson well, he has to move back to re-learn it, and finally, he's okay with it (whew!). So we're not there yet, but I see a roadmap towards greater independence eventually. It's all good!

This is a great thread with lots of ideas for DS and I. Death on the Nile (Agatha Christie) isn't mentioned above so I'll throw that in. I think there's a movie out there too. And any Sherlock Holmes is wonderful. Have you tried the Flavia de Luce stories by Alan Bradley? It's about a plucky 11yo chemistry-obsessed girl who has a knack for getting herself involved in murders. Her family is part of the crumbling British aristocracy that is going to seed as a result of death taxes. It's just wonderful, and ds and I are awaiting the next novel, due out next year in March. Here's a cute trailer. Re-reading above, The Pale Horse was one of my favourites too. And Melissa (Melbatoast) mentioned the Flavia books too. I heartily second! If you're interested in the poisoning aspect, there's a book - The Posioner's Handbook that is awesome. There is a PBS documentary, but the book has more. All these tie up very well with Flavia. Other non-fiction books that are chemistry/poison related - Napoleon's Buttons, The Deadly Dinner Party, and Wicked Plants and Wicked Bugs. (About the last two, ds says don't get fooled that they're natural - anything so small must use poison to kill.) In researching, I found a few more books for ds. Woot :).

Great idea to do a review. We have changes.

This thread struck a cord and helped me to appreciate how hard the reading must be for ds. Ds is math loving but has visual issues/is dyslexic. He reads a lot, and while he absolutely loves the style of questions in AOPS, he finds the reading to be difficult. His usual method is to plunge straight into the problems, very often not check if he's on the right track, and then do the exercises. I mark the exercises and talk him through his errors. He's fine by the time he hits review/challenge. Lately, I've had better success in encouraging him to read the problem solutions, but only because he's made more errors than usual. It's not a bad thing! After the initial frustration, he's set about to improve his hit rate by reading the book. I hope he keeps at this slower pace (not that he was fast :)). I'm hoping that with this level of challenge, he can develop a learning style that is beneficial for him in the long run.

Oh OneStep, This is just awesome! So happy for you and dd. Thanks for sharing the wonderful news!

I see what you're saying, Runningmom. Good luck on getting more info. It's so hard when you know the report isn't reflective of your son's abilities. Good on you that you're not stopping!