Here is one of those things that just baffles me. We were reviewing states and capitals. i say the capital, and he gives the state. My conversation with ds today. Me: Trenton (he knows this one well) Ds: New Jersey Me: Hartford Ds: Conneticut Me: Albany Ds: New Jersey Me: New Jersey only goes with Trenton. Albany. Ds: New Jersey. Me: Say Trenton New Jersey 5 times. Ds: (says it five times) Me: Albany Ds: New Jersey Me: Let's write it down 5 times. Okay, is this normal? He is ADHD, so he gets mentally distracted. I'm pretty good at recognizing those moments. He genuinely is putting effort into answering (although it isn't 100% of his effort). He has these monents were I just explain something, and he can't retrieve the information. I know he gets it. It is times like this that i wonder if it is more than just immaturity. Could there be processing issues going on. I don't remember ever having those kind of issues in school.

The first two years of math I took the flash card approach. We did just a few at a time, added one a day when ready, and removed the "easy" ones. The facts just never stuck. I thought with constant no-pressure exposure they would eventually sink in. It didn't for ds. I think his improvement so far is the way RSM makes the child see that facts. Ds is ADHD. Writing seems to put him in a brain freeze (although it is much better this year). Because of that I use an app on my iPad. It shows him one problem at a time, times him, keeps track of accuracy, etc. He is ables to do his best with that. We worked one set of numbers at a time working up to sum of 20. We did have him tested. He is average (on the low side) on his math. I had not yet taught him subtraction though which is why it was a little low. The guy said he added all the subtraction problems, but they were all added correctly. With him being in the average range not even knowing subtraction, I haven't worried too much about it. At the same time, I am very surprised he hasn't improved with the amount of effort we have put into it. He always gets the right answers. I would like him to be faster, so he doesn't have that additional struggle as the math starts to build on itself. I'm curious about processing issues. Some of it I chalk up to ADHD but am wondering if there might be something else . . . I'm going to do another post for that.

This is the best app: Menu Planner by InnovaDev, LLC https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/menu-planner/id304945491?mt=8 You can download recipes from anywhere on the Internet or enter your own recipes. It keeps track of what you have in your pantry. You can schedule your meals on the calendar. Tell it which days you want to shop for. It knows which ingredients you don't have and will put those on your shopping list for you. You can add other things to your list as well. It will keep track of how much the items cost at the stores you shop. It can account for coupons. I could go on and on. The app maker seems to be very responsive too. I bet they would add things you needed to the app if you ask. It is great! Well worth the money!!! There is another app that is just a grocery list, but other family members can add things to it even as you are shopping. I forgot the name of it though.

I had a first grade teacher (in TX) tell me they expect their students to be able to answer addition/subtraction problems in 3 seconds. The kids have to do a 20 problem worksheet in 1 minute. Ds struggles with rote memorization of basic math facts. Conceptually he gets it. He is just slow in memorizing the answers. He do speed drills often, and he is just now getting close to getting it in time. He made it in time once. We did MUS for two years and are now doing 1st grade RightStart Math. RSM has been working well for him. He has made great progress with it. I don't know if there is any more I can do to increase his speed. I kind of feel like it will come along as he matures a little, but I don't know. We have been working on memorizing basic addition for about two years now. What speed are your first grader doing their basic addition or subtraction facts?

My ds only crawled for two weeks and then started walking at 12 months. He didn't start really talking until 2 years. Other milestones were ahead of average. We just started vision therapy a month ago. What I found interesting is that the vision therapist showed the results of retained baby reflexes (or something). For example, at 7 years old he could not crawl using his diagonals (right front with left knee, etc.). I had to just about move them for him to be able to learn to crawl. He couldn't turn his toes in without his thumbs also turning in. I had heard about the importance of crawling, but didn't really appreciate it until then.

Thanks for all the replies. I feel much better after reading all of that!

We started off with How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We made it to lesson 75 and moved on to Dick and Jane books. I found the easiest book to start with. I would have him read one story. We would read that story everyday until he could read it with fluency. Then we would move on to the next story. The stories build on themselves. He knew how to use phonics to read the words he didn't recognize. The repetition of the same story helped commit those words to his visual memory enabling him to read with better fluency. We moved onto Abeka for first and second grade. He has done well in reading. Although his speed plateaued at 75 wpm. We started vision therapy looking for a solution. They said his eyes had a slight tracking problem, and he should be reading at 150 wpm in two months. A lot of what they said made sense. If a child's eyes are working so hard to keep their place while reading they get tired quickly.

We just discovered vision therapy and wished we discovered it a long time ago. We are only a few weeks into it. My son couldn't catch a ball smaller than a soccer ball, and even then, it had to be thrown directly at him to which he caught with two arms. It tried a bean bag yesterday just to see. He caught it about half the time! His reading speed had plateaued. I dropped reading from our school when we started therapy. His therapy is only supposed to take two months, so I figured I would add reading back in after that. I'm now wondering if there are other helpful therapy programs out there. Especially with coordination and sports skills. My son is very active and likes sports, but is starting to give up since he just doesn't have the coordination to keep up with the other kids. I'm hoping vision therapy will help with that, but I would like to know of other therapies incase it doesn't.

I have always homeschooled my now 7 year old son. One of the problems we run into is he loses information some days. There are things he knows very well, but a day will come up where he acts as though he never learned it. The next day he knows the information again even if I didn't reteach it. It baffles me. I don't know why it happens or what to do about it. Wish I could explain it better. I chalk it up to just having an off day, but honestly it seems to be something more. We had a full psychiatric and educational evaluation done in September. He has ADHD which was no surprise. He was tested average and above in abilities and school work. He told us to keep on doing what we are doing. We just discovered vision therapy and started that. He has a slight tracking problem (his reading speed plateaued) and is basically uncoordinated (can barely catch a soccer ball). He has a big heart, is a people pleaser, gentle nature, and happy-go-lucky temperament. I'm hoping someone here could provide some insight. Those days make feel like I am not doing a good enough job homeschooling.

Just to rule it out . . . Frequent urination can be a symptom of diabetes. Would the teacher let you sit in the class for a day? Maybe there is something going on in that class that is making her really uncomfortable.

I feel ya! My sister was just bragging about buying a new vacation house. They are the type that try to keep up with the Joneses even if it means living paycheck to paycheck. We got the Dave Ramsey program a while back, and it has given us a whole new perspective. I actually feel bad for them now. We might be living on beans and rice for now, but it will eventually put us in a better financial position than they are. It is tough at times though.