My DS takes Ritalin ER in the morning and sometimes an afternoon IM dose, but when the drug is wearing off he is absolutely sluggish. Like the drug has been pumping him up all day and all of a sudden he is exhausted. I think it also has to do with the fact that he doesn't eat while the ritalin working. Once I can get him to eat, he usually regains some energy. My DS also has some trouble with agitation and melt-downs in general - usually before the meds have taken effect and certainly once the effects are wearing down. His psych started him on Kapvey twice a day to help with that. It does seem to help him some with this. It's a BP medicine, and is also supposed to help with winding down and getting to sleep. Anyways, I feel for you and your DS. This journey can be so difficult sometimes.

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Oh yes, I completely agree with this. I get to worrying about whether we're doing enough now -- for now we are, as long as I am diligent and self-disciplined. But then I worry about the long term scope of school and have to remind myself that we are doing this one year at a time - often one month, week or day at a time.

Oh yes, I completely agree with this. I get to worrying about whether we're doing enough now -- for now we are, as long as I am diligent and self-disciplined. But then I worry about the long term scope of school and have to remind myself that we are doing this one year at a time - often one month, week or day at a time.

This makes sense to me. Also by the time a child has a foundation in phonics, they are able to decode many "sight" words, right? We are still very early in the reading process, even through we've been trudging for years, but one thing that really helped my son is tons of fluency practice with words he knew how to decode. Words, phrases, and sentences. And the sentences are written in phrases -- so like the who phrase, then the next line down and the who phrase repeats and adds the did what phrase, then the next line adds the where phrase. Reading these words over and over again really helped him. With him, it's hard for me to determine what is the apraxia and what is the dyslexia, but all this fluency practice is really helping him.

I did Barton for a while with my oldest. I got through most of level 3 before we switched programs, but while we were doing it the charter school's special ed teacher wanted him to do Read Naturally program also. I emailed Susan Barton and she said that it was a bad idea to add it to Barton.

This is what we do for most things that require more than 20 minutes. So mainly with reading right now. I do 20 minutes with my oldest, 20 minutes with my middle, and then repeat. I can't do much of anything longer than 20 minutes without my kids completely losing focus, or melting down.

My son sounds pretty similar. I started off our homeschooling journey trying to do Charlotte Mason type schooling. Total failure. I have found that he does best with lessons that have a clear purpose, expectations, and end goal. So complete a worksheet, read this story, write a sentence, etc. We are using AAR - just starting level 2, and will be starting AAS soon. Once he has covered about 2/3 of AAR 2 I hope to be able to use MP's Storytime Treasures with him for practice with reading real literature, basic grammar, reading comprehension, sentence composition, vocabulary, etc. But it's really up in the air whether or not he'll be ready to read the stories. For handwriting, we are using a copybook and new american cursive 1 from Memoria Press. We're going to try out Core Skills Language Arts grade 1, but I'm not too sure about it. It seems to cover grammar topics shallowly rather than achieving mastery. We've just started a writing program (only at the sentence level) that seems promising, but we will see. My plan is to start Rod & Staff grammar when my daughter begins 2nd grade materials for much more in depth grammar coverage. Some kids seem to pick up on things automatically without being explicitly taught (my daughter for example). My son doesn't pick up anything that has anything to do with language on his own. So I'm finding that everything needs to be practiced and practiced and over-learned.

I don't have much in the way of advice, but I wanted to let you know that you are not alone in this struggle. My middle child has now outpaced (by a good amount) her older brother and it definitely frustrating for him. We have discussed that every person is made differently and his brain works differently than his sisters. That sometimes it is really frustrating that his brain works differently and sometimes it is pretty cool. But I emphasize that God makes each of us a particular way for a particular reason. We may not know what His reasons are but we can be confident that there is one. I also try to emphasize that he has other gifts -- being good at math, ability to internalize complicated information (like a baseball teams roster, line-up, and general baseball strategies). I have been having my daughter read aloud from an easy reader as part of our bedtime routine and my son wanted to participate also. It is really difficult for him that he is no where close to being able to read what she can read. I think the key is going to be to find readers that he is able to read.

Since Rod & Staff doesn't have a kindergarten level, some programs us R&S 1 for both K and 1st. So the worksheets can be helpful in making it stretch two years. We've done the curriculum straight through (not trying to make it last 2 years) and we've used some of the worksheets, but not many. Some of them are helpful to have, such as the blank forms for the flash card drills, or fact houses, but they are not critical. They also aren't very expensive though. You certainly wouldn't need to have your child do the workbook and all the worksheets in one lesson. It would be more for a lesson one day, worksheets the next type thing, imo.

The kindergarten enrichment has 5 sections. The read aloud -- this is the read-aloud package that MP sells. The enrichment guide has questions and activities particular to these books. A science topic and a history/social studies/culture topic. Probably about 2/3 of the time there is a suggested book to go with these -- these are from the supplemental science & social studies package. These books are picked because they are age appropriate, good books applicable to the topic. But you could use any book on the topic. Then there is a music and art selection. They have just come out with a new K-2 music guide so the selections in that guide and the enrichment guide don't line up right now. Whenever they reprint the enrichment guide, it will be changed. The enrichment guide lists read aloud as Monday, music & art as Tuesday, Poetry as Wednesday, Thursday as History, and Friday as science. You could do them in any order you wanted. We've done most of the K book and are moving into the 1st soon. We don't get to everything each week. It just depends. We do it as a morning time type thing but in the afternoon after our table work is finished.

We are just finishing MP K and love it. For phonics you would need First Start Reading and Classical Phonics. Core Skills Phonics is extra phonics worksheets that kids can do mostly independently. FSR could possibly be enough. You can see the table of contents for the Core Skills books at Rainbow Resource. FSR incorporates writing into learning to read which I really like. For most of the year, only the red primary phonics readers and the first American Language Series, Fun in the Sun, are used. So you could start with buying only those if you wanted. The American Language Series are really great. They give longer stories and seem a bit more grown up. You could substitute different ones for the Primary Phonics Readers. We liked the number books, but they aren't critical. The copybook covers one scripture verse a week, so it isn't a lot of writing. They are nice, but you could easily create your own copywork.

Thanks for the responses. His last eval didn't show memory issues. His working memory was the poorest of his scores I believe. I think he often is concentrating so much on how to spell the word, he forgets the sentence. But he is getting better I think. I tend to be so unsure of myself, doubting whether I am doing the right thing, but I think I will just push on repeating the sentence tons of times. He is using the HearBuilder software as part of his speech therapy, so I think that should be helpful. It works on processing auditory information and memory. He has had a CAPD eval and passed for the most part, but his arcticulation was really poor when he did that so he couldn't complete all the tests.

So I have one more question about Barton. I'm on lesson 2 of level 3 with my son, we're going VERY slowly, but he's getting it for the most part. When we do spelling phrases and sentences, I have to repeat them over and over again. Is this normal? I always say the phrase or sentence in its entirety rather than telling him which word to say when. But I feel like I am likely doing more guiding that Susan Barton recommends. Of course my guy is not "just" a typical dyslexic. Thank you!

Ha yes, I wish we could have more babies, but my head is barely ahead of water as it is. I do have some envy of really large families, though. Alas, it is not to be. NC does has disability funding, but to qualify the child has to have been in a NC public school for the previous semester (or be in K or 1st). So I'd have to enroll him in school for 1/2 a year. That's not going to happen, especially with the state of education in NC right now. I've been so lucky to homeschool here in CA through a charter school. They paid for his Barton tutor, some OT, and some good speech therapy.

He's had a CAPD eval and he passed it, although he couldn't complete some of it because he wasn't fully intelligible to the audiologist. I'm in the process (getting on the waiting list) of getting him a new set of evals at a major teaching hospital so we can get more information. I really wish I hadn't sold my Barton 1 and 2. But I would think I should be able to go back without having the manuals, now that I've done it. We aren't doing anything for working memory. Do you have any suggestions for that area? He receives OT through our charter school, but it is only twice a month, and is really only geared toward academic stuff -- fine motor control, being able to sit still, etc. I'm hoping to get OT set up once we get to NC, but that won't be until March probably. The only pediatric OT around here that takes our insurance is about 1 1/2 hours away. We are already doing speech 3 times a week. I'm always having to prioritize stuff. I wish I could do it all. I also have two other kids, a 6 year old NT and a 2 year old who is likely to have apraxia also. So he has speech twice a week and a teacher once a week. Thank you all so much for the helpful suggestions.

That's a really good idea to pull out the LIPs pictures again. We just went through until he could identify three individual sounds. He did that, levels 1 and 2 with a Barton tutor. I can see how integrating lips with blending the sounds could be really helpful. He is working on S blends in ST. So I can pull some of the practice things she's given us and work on those using the LIPS materials. I was also going to print out some CVCC picture cards for him to practice spelling with the visual cue. He sees a therapist that does PROMPT once a week (the other he sees through the school system). I am hoping to get her to do a major evaluation before we move in a few months so we can get a firm diagnosis nailed down. I am a major box checker and have a hard time doing things out of order -- like moving on from one step in Barton before he masters it. But I think it may make sense in this case. Thank you so much for your suggestions!

I'm on level 3 of Barton with my son, and he is doing pretty well. He is suspected to have apraxia but none of his SLPs have ever given him a firm diagnosis. He has a really hard time hearing some sounds in many CVCC and CCVC words. He also has a hard time articulating many blends correctly and they are working on those in therapy. So, for example, when we are working on spelling - if I say star, he hears sar. Any ideas on how to work on this other than lots and lots of practice? I was thinking minimal pairs, but I wouldn't sure if that would be helpful. Most of the minimal pairs change the first letter - like star vs tar. Thanks so much, Susan

So I'm going to be teaching a class to 10 1st/2nd graders at co-op. I'd love to do Atelier art, but there is no TV in the room. I haven't used Atelier before. Do you think a laptop could work with 10 students?

A couple of things - have you contacted your state's early intervention services -- you child should be eligible for free services in your home until age 3, at which point they are eligible for services through the public school system. These services probably aren't as good as private therapy but they're free. Is there a Scottish Rite Language Center nearby? These places often do free speech therapy. There is usually a long wait though. I would really suggest finding the early intervention program for your state. They are required to give your child a full assessment (motor, speech, etc). But if you have any option of getting private therapy through insurance, it is completely worth it. For suggestions - if you have a ipad - there are some good cheap apps. I like one called toddler flashcards I think, basically just pictures that say the word. Just sit and go through pictures, saying the name and encouraging your child to repeat. Sing songs, finger plays. Read books, point at items and name them. Sign language can be good as long as you verbally say the word as you make the sign. Signs can help them communicate which reduces frustration. Good luck to you. Both my boys have speech disorders and it can be very frustrating.

I don't have any experience with that med, but I will say that going on meds has been like night and day with my son. They have been so helpful! It's like all of a sudden he is able to learn!

Thank you all very much for your responses. I think part of my problem is that I am still in the process of accepting that my son truly does have special learning needs and isn't necessarily going to grow out of them. I had this hope in the back of my mind that he was going to do some LiPS and the 1st level of Barton and then be ready to tackle a regular reading/spelling program like his sister. Not. Going. To. Happen. I'm just going to have to have faith and trust in the Barton system. Faith and trust are not my strong suit. The HWT app is a great idea. His handwriting is bad, but to be fair to him, I don't have him to much more than a 1 or 1/2 pages of the HWT workbook a day. I think I might buy the 1st grade HWT book again for next year so the lines don't get too small for him. OhE I'd be really interested in what type of speech practice, if any, you do at home between therapy sessions. I definitely need to do more with ds but I'm not sure what to do other than articulation station or apps like that. He is somewhere between having moderate apraxia or a severe phonological disorder. He has some s/sx of apraxia but not all. And he talks a lot with long sentences but has the articulation skills of a 3 year old.

Thank you OhElizabeth! That is exactly the information I was looking for.

I'm trying to plan for next year . . . I know Susan Barton says that Barton is a complete LA program -- that you don't need to add grammar or writing, just penmanship. But I'm having second thoughts about this. My son is on level 2. I'm thinking about adding Writing With Ease/ First Language Lessons plus Handwriting without Tears probably. He really needs lots of fine motor practice and he could use the guided narration. He also has speech problems with syntax, so I thought FLL could possibly help with that. Thoughts?? Does the grammar and handwriting pick up in level 3? It only covers writing CVCs and marking the Who, Did What and Where phrases in level 2. Thanks!

I'm in the same boat. I was trying to do stuff that required way too much planning. I just started Elemental's Adventures in America -- it's pretty open and go and gives a very basic overview of American history from "discovery" to the civil war. It's also pretty cheap -- $15 for the pdf ebooks or maybe $30 for the printed Teacher's manual and student books. Each week has copywork and a suggested picture book. And I started Elemental Science's Intro to Science. Also pretty cheap, and they have an experiment kit available, which was helpful for me. Both programs are geared toward K/1. And I really like Handwriting without Tears. We're working slowly through the K & 1st grade books. I haven't added any language arts other than phonics and handwriting.