My son had an eval beCause we truly thought he was on the spectrum. The intake therapist thought it was a high possibility, and suggested the ADOS. We saw a second therapist who administered the test and scored all the gazillion questionnaires and scales I filled out. His scores on the ADOS were below diagnostic limits, but everything else was pretty high for a spectrum disorder. His final diagnosis was anxiety. She said she gave him that diagnosis because of his scores on the ADOS being so low...and because he interacted different with me than with her (saying that a child on the spectrum would act the same way no matter who they were with). So her theory was that his autistic like behaviors were really due to his anxiety. We had an intake last week with a play therapist, and she thinks we need to revisit the spectrum diagnosis. She says she'll get a better feel for things after she gets to know him, obviously. But she feels it's worth taking another look. So my question.....has anyone heard of the ADOS missing a true spectrum diagnosis? The therapist who did the eval went on and on about how it's the gold standard and very sensitive. But to be honest, I was shocked and speechless that he wasn't diagnosed with a spectrum disorder. So how accurate is the ADOS?

My son did the same thing with Headsprout. There was this happy face that would pop up at certain times and he would scream and run away and be obviously terrified. It was so scary to watch his reaction. We've dealt with everything everyone mentioned above for years now. We took him for an eval (I totally expected an autism spectrum diagnosis) and he was diagnosed with anxiety. We're actually meeting with a play therapist this week and I have high hopes that she can help him through many of his fears/anxieties. I often say it's like living with a grumpy old man! ;-) I never thought about the connection to boredom/lack of intellectual stimulation. But it makes sense. I know sometimes I need to occupy myself to get out of my own head.

I always hear about skipping levels. Can someone explain why? Is there really any reason not to do them in order? I mean, other than repetition, which isn't always a bad thing. Just curious.

I cancelled my order this weekend. I figure if they're going to be on the coop, I'll just buy the DVDs there and support one of our many local art supply stores for the rest ;-) (and still....not a single acknowledgment or apology for the massive delay by Jerry's. That part irks me the most!)

Also, I had a free shipping code. And if I cancel the back ordered item my total will fall below the minimum for free shipping and I'd be out MORE money. Really, a truly frustrating experience. ETA: The back order date has also changed three times since I ordered. First early July, then late July, now late August.

No, I haven't received anything. They have it set up to ship your entire order, so you can either cancel what's backordered (which you'd have to reorder and pay more shipping on) or wait until everything is in stock. You'd think after this long they'd go ahead and ship the part of my order that's ready and just eat the shipping costs to ship what's back ordered. But no.....even when I called and emailed to update my address, not a single acknowledgment that it's taking so long. Ms. Volin told me Jerry's was having delays in some supplies, so she told me I may not want to order those items. I wish I had listened to her. I asked her if she had plans to use another distributor and she said no. Hopefully she changes her mind! And hopefully you don't have a massive delay with your order!

Gosh, I wish!!! We must not have ordered the same things ;-) Mine are still on back order until August 27. So by then it will have taken over three months to get my order. I even had to call them to change my address since we moved in June, and still not a single apology or acknowledgment of the massive delay! So, if HAS does come to the coop, I'll get all the DVDs and buy the supplies elsewhere.

I can tell you this.....if you order Home Art Studio from their supplier (Jerry's Artarama) DON'T order the supplies too. I placed my order in MAY and it's still back ordered. And not a single apology or offer to make it right. I hadn't heard it may be coming to the coop. That would be great! Because let me tell you.....I will never order from Jerry's ever again!

:iagree: Us too. I started RS A and hit major walls. He just wasn't ready for it at all. We did Saxon K, which was FUN! After that we easily moved into RS A. Saxon K is very heavy on manipulatives, and each lesson is just like playtime. FWIW we didn't always follow their schedule or do the Meeting Book.

I saw that too. I've been debating. It's a total of 16 lessons, and that's a great price for a semester-ish of health.

I just checked Dr. Heather's website and she has samples up of each curriculum. Looks like a LOT more has been added to the curric. than what is in the workbook I have. From the examples I looked at it looks like a short health type class (taking pulse, etc.). Here is the page for the circulatory system curric.

I did a review of one of the books on my blog (which is no longer active...) but I honestly think it's a lot of money for what you get. The stories are good and engaging. They feature two sisters who basically end up inside the body and have adventures while learning a particular system. I haven't seen the "curriculum", but the set I have came with an audio CD and a workbook that was pretty much just word searches and the like. Nothing really exciting. So I'm not sure if the curriculum set adds more than that or not. I have one of the iPad apps and it's really well done. But I remember thinking that they were nice supplements when I did my review, but not near meaty enough for a full program. If you have extra money in the budget and want a fun supplement to learn the body's systems, they're cute.

We're doing an Around the World study for PreK (just very gentle exposure kind of stuff), and then plan to use Adventures in America for K. That should give a nice framework to start SOTW in 1st, at least I hope! Plenty of people just go straight to SOTW so I'm sure you'd be fine if you went that route, too. You could always add an extra Geography study to SOTW if you wanted...

It was the 2nd level that really got me too. So much to learn but NO instruction! My son is also a natural reader. He was always five steps ahead of me when we did HOP. But like I said, now I'm seeing those holes when he comes across new, big words. He doesn't have the ability to sound them out because the phonics rules just aren't there! I looked at several options for fixing this but ultimately decided on OPGTTR because it's fairly cheap, and is so thorough. I'm just flipping through it and finding things I think he needs a refresher on. I'm not dong the lessons word for word...but I'm using the book as a guideline for what he needs to know. Does that make sense? I also got some ETC books, but I'm not sure how helpful they're going to be. They have a lot of writing, and even the highest level book isn't going to be too challenging for him. But it would be good reinforcement, if I can get him interested in it.

My son flew through HOP PreK-2, and then we moved on to lots and lots of having him read out loud. We started AAS, but he just wasn't really ready for that. So I shelved it and plan to pick it up again in the Fall. Recently though, I'm noticing the holes left from HOP. I posted about it a few weeks ago actually. His reading ability is really quite high, but he stalls on "big words" because HOP didn't really teach phonics. As you probably know, it's a bunch of lessons on sounding out things with zero explanation. So. I bought OPGTTR and I'm going to to try to fill in those gaps. When my daughter is ready I plan to use OPGTTR as our main program, and the HOP readers...but that's it. I wasn't impressed with HOP at ALL! Yes it got my early reader up and running.....but it's far from a complete phonics program. Off my soapbox ;-) As for where to go.....I think the others have given you some great ideas. I chose AAS for spelling because it does a nice job of teaching those rules that they aren't getting in HOP. If you want vocab, we started WW3000 K level a few weeks ago and it's a BLAST!

I've used the San Diego Quick Assessment. Not sure how accurate it is, but it gives me an idea of what level books to look at.

I asked this awhile ago and several people suggested Analytical Grammar. It's expensive but it looks to be really thorough and moves at a faster pace. A cheaper (FREE!) option is KISS Grammar. I keep trying to use KISS for myself but I just don't "get" the program. I think the author has recently made some changes so I should give it another shot. Hope that helps!

Thank you! I looked at the TOC for each book and I think we need to start around level 6. I was wondering about the TMs, but figured since I'm just using them for review I probably didn't need them. Thanks for the reassurance on that! I think I've finally decided to just get OPGTR and those last few ETC workbooks....and see where that takes us. It's a lot cheaper then REWARDS ;-) Interesting about your experience with Megawords being boring...I was thinking it would be a nice follow-up. I'll have to keep that in mind. My son can read pretty much anything you put in front of him....he just makes a lot of guesses with big words. I think since he flew through HOP at such a young age, and since HOP isn't really very thorough, he just needs a refresher on some of the phonics rules. And I don't want to wait until we get to each of those rules in AAS. So hopefully this combo will do the trick! Thanks everyone for your advice!!

Where is a good place to buy REWARDS?

Haven't heard of that one. I can't find any samples online...just a description (which sounds GREAT!) Can you tell me a little more about this program?

Thanks...I hadn't even thought about ETC but it really does look like it would fit our needs. I was also considering getting OPGTR, but wasn't sure if it would be overkill. But I think I will. It will at least show me the specific phonograms he needs work on, and then I can use ETC to help with that. Thanks!!

My son finished HOP awhile ago. He does daily reading, and his reading level is quite advanced (I'm guessing high 3rd to mid 4th grade). But I'm noticing he's stumbling on big words. Sometimes I can get him to figure them out just by slowing down and taking it piece by piece. But others he isn't getting because he doesn't really know the "rules" for sounding them out. I plan to use AAS this Fall, and I know he'll get more exposure to rules there....but is there anything else that I can use to help him with advanced reading? I'm looking at HOP Master Reader (which I sort of hesitate on because I really wasn't impressed with the regular HOP)....or maybe Megawords (but I worry it may be a little too advanced). Oh! And I also have Wordly Wise 3000 which we'll start next week....so that may help too. Thoughts?

When I took Forensic Anthropology classes in college, we used it. There are three main groups of humans, in anthropological terms, and negroid is one of those. I think it's a very different term than the racial slurs that sound similar. I would use it with my children, if we were studying anthropology (I'd assume they'd be old enough for a discussion of racial issues by that time, and could understand the difference between the word negroid and...well, others).

I have it and use it often. Especially if we're doing a lesson that uses two abacuses (abaci?!). I think you could probably use it on its own, especially since you have a hands-on abacus already. I think, for my son anyway, the tactile sensation of manually entering the beads on the hands-on abacus is a big part of it. So I wouldn't want to rely solely on the app. At least not until the child "gets" the abacus, KWIM?

We have the new set....and I have one level of the old. The new books are more engaging and colorful. But the old set seems to have more to do. More activities. I read a few years back, when they made the last update, that some parents preferred the old version for that reason. Our experience with HOP is that it is VERY repetitive. If you don't care to upgrade, you could combine the sets (the teaching order is just slightly off between old and new...but you could easily match it up).