Thank you. I've sent the 1st one to my Kindle. I'll read it and give it a try.

He has a Right Start Abacus.

Hello, I'm new to homeschooling. My DS, age 8, and I have have been homeschooling since August 1st. He is in 3rd grade, but we're doing 2nd grade math because he's been behind in math for a few years. He has an hour of group tutoring in math 3 days a week with 4 other children at our coop. We're using Harcourt's 2005 math text and workbook. I supplement at home with Math Mammoth, Time4Learning (which I think we'll stop soon - he guesses), and I use Youtube videos to help reteach as necessary. He's always hated math, but now likes it because at home we're moving at a slower pace. We pretty much went back to the basics and worked on learning the numbers and place value. He has really done well over past few months. We have progressed to two digit addition - regrouping and subtraction but he's still counting on his fingers. He will count 4 plus 1 to get 5 or use his Abacus for any problems that he has using numbers over 10. I've tried very hard to get him to use mental math and he'll do it some while we're counting together, but if I leave him alone to work independently he goes back to counting on his fingers or using his Abacus. I've tried removing the Abacus, but he gets frustrated and shuts down. He says his brain won't do it. I'm not sure this is connected, but I'll share to be thorough, reading has been an issue. He's reading on about a 2nd grade level. Not terribly behind, but concerning for me. I just ordered Logic of English Essentials to help with that, but honestly, he's made progress by leaps and bounds in reading just in the past two months. He's transitioned to chapter books with the help of his love for the Magic Tree House series. But overall, he really does not like to read. He has a great fantastic memory. I think most of his ability to read and spell are because he's already learned the Fry list through 500. When he doesn't know a word he won't decode it unless it's short. He struggles with decoding the multi-letter phonograms and doesn't get the silent e words without help. I'm really hoping LOE will help with this. I think it's just a matter of learning it. DS has had a PPD-NOS diagnosis for about 4 years and we've had no other testing since then other than speech assessments - he has receptive and expressive language disorder. He received his diagnosis at the Marcus Autism Center here in Atlanta and was tested through the public school prior to that and determined to have a significant developmental delay and received services under autism in special ed pre-K4 and K. He attended a small private school for 1st and 2nd grade because I classroom size in PS was an issue. I knew he'd disappear but the private school was too advanced. We had 2 hours a night of homework. It was too much. This is why we're homeschooling. I have an appointment next month for further testing, but I'm not sure I want to keep it. He's very high functioning. Doing fairly well socially with the kids at coop. He's not excluded and he's happy. Kids want to get in our car for field trips. We're reading lots of social stories. The reason I'm thinking he doesn't need the testing is because I'm getting the sense that's he's a late bloomer and that we've found our solution to his issues in homeschooling. His tutor (his former 1st grade teacher) agrees and has always told me to be patient. I don't want to spend $1000 for testing that quite frankly as a single parent I do not have. I'm not being cheap. Like many of us, I've spent a small fortune on my kiddo. It's really my instincts saying I don't need him tested, so I'm trusting that. But I'm also open to sound advice in this area. My question is, what kinds of things can I do to help with the math? Should I have him memorize the addition facts? I really didn't want to do that, because I want him to understand math. I'm concerned we'll regret that later, but I honestly don't know. Maybe that's a way it's done and I just don't know about it. I've always been good at math. It just clicks, so breaking things down into smaller pieces to make it easier to understand is not a strength of mine, but with God's help and forums like this I'm really learning. I'd appreciate any tips. Thanks in advance. Sorry to be so long. I thought background information could help.

I am homeschooling an only. He's 8 and loves other children. My only other child is 22, so there's no one at home. His closest cousin is 5 hours away and I don't think there's a single child over 3 on my entire street. I have him enrolled in a homeschool collective. It's mostly used by working parents.. I telework full-time, so three days a week I take him to the collective where he spends the day with 13 other children from 1st to 5th grades. In the morning he has tutoring in math and works on science projects. They have devotion and Bible lessons. After lunch they have specials - music, P.E., chess lessons and bowling. Robotics are coming soon. They go on a field trip every other week. I help transport to P.E. and bowling and go on all field trips which has helped me to meet the kids and some of the moms and other homeschoolers in our community. It's run by his former 1st grade teacher. I love it. $30 a day and he's happy making friends and I can work uninterrupted. We school when he gets home on those days.

I agree. We are using MM to supplement, but it is extremely comprehensive. We just finished up subtraction of single digit numbers. We'll use it as our full curriculum next year since I purchased the Blue series CD, grades 1-6, I think that's what it is. I like it.

I outsource math. We still have homework, but I don't have to worry about teaching it the first time around. He goes to tutoring three times a week at our coop.

My 8 year old son took the SAT 10 (or 9) for the past two years in private school. Our Coop will be doing the Sat 10 this year. I think it's $40. Georgia requires a test in third grade otherwise I would skip it this year. Based on results from the past years, I can't imagine that I'd use it to make any decisions about curriculum.

Thank you for sharing that. It's encouraging.

I am new to homeschooling. I work full-time and have a small business. I'm also a single parent, so everything falls on me. I am homeschooling my 8 year old HFA son. I telecommute but I have very strict weekly deadlines so I choose to drop my son off at a homeschool collective 3 days a week. He receives tutoring in the mornings and then in the afternoons they have specials - music, P.E. bowling, chess lessons and they'll soon have robotics. The woman who coordinates the collective was his former 1st grade teacher. We love her. It's an exceptional program. He and I do school for about 2 hours in the evenings on the 3 days he goes to coop, 4 hours on Tuesday mornings, Friday mornings for 2 hours and I we school on for 3-4 hours on Saturday and Sunday. The collective cost me about $550 a month, but it's a good deal for what I get. The math tutoring is the biggest help and they also cover social studies and most of science during those days with project-based learning activities. He gets to hang out with the other 13 kids that are there as well which is great for him since he's an only child. Well, I have a 22 year old, but you get what I mean. With all that said, it's extremely hard. I'm tired and the money is a bit of a strain, but it's worth it. Taking him out of the private school he was in and the public school prior to that were both great decisions. Neither were a match for him socially and he wasn't learning. He's learned more working with me and his tutor at the collective in the past 2 months than he learned all last year. In some respects I think it's easier for me because I'm divorced. I can't imagine working, schooling, managing my business and having time and energy to care about a husband. I expect my business to become my full-time income in the next year so that will remove the 50 hours a week that I'm working for someone else. I'll still work 50 hours a week or more, but it'll be all on my own schedule and I won't need as many coop days to achieve that.