I'm looking at some AP classes for subjects that I just don't want to teach. I'm more in favor of taking my smart down a more ecclectic route of learning in certain subjects. I hate having to learn for a test. Overall having to sit and learn from a different teacher and do papers and projects that he doesn't like is worthwhile as it is something he'll have to do in college.

Ok, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "brain dump", but AP Statistics sounds like a good class. I own the book and I could slog through it myself with my son, but it doesn't excite me to do so and I'm afraid we'd just let it slide. The hard part of the class will be him learning how to write free response answers.

An essay per week might kill my son, then again he's really stepping up to more writing. The class itself sounds like a lot of fun. When you say essay, I think full paper or five paragraph essay type of essay; I know others use "essay" to mean short paragraph answers. I guess my question is what exactly is the volume of writing? My boy is a math/physics kind of guy, but he loves LEARNING. I know I can't do him justice teaching him economics so I was looking at this as a choice.

Tell me about the PA Homeschoolers Economics classes - both macro and micro. How are they formatted? How much time did they take? How much reading and writing? DId your student learn and like the class? A big concern is how much writing I can throw at my student. He is severely dysgraphic, but improving in the area of writing.

Can you work ahead in the class if needed? How much time did this class take?

I'm interested in knowing more about the PA Homeschoolers Statistics class. (I've read Lisa's descriptions about her son now applying statitics to everything). I want to know more about how the class is run. Are there any lectures? Is it work at your own pace? Are there daily or weekly assignments. The math is no problem - but how much writing is involved? Actually this class might be really good because of the writing for my son. It sounds like it prepares kids well for the AP test - is this so?

We did random letter charts big (1inch) on the wall and typewritten in hand for accommodation practice. My smart kids could easily memorize them, so we had to swap out the charts and/ or switch from reading horizontal columns to vertical.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll definately look at Supercharged Science. Do you have any favorite documentaries or other educational shows on netflix?

It sounds like it might be great for some sets of kids, but it doesn't sound like it would work with my severely dyslexic kids. I don't want my kids to get in the practice of a lot of guessing by trying to read word they can't yet decode. Also the topics you listed as early first grade would be way too difficult for cure parent second grader as he needs controlled texts to practice his decoding skills.

I have three kids that are dyslexic - one high school, one middle school, and one in elementary. I have found a path that works well with my oldest. My question is about my dd, 11 yo, 6th grader. She's a very bright child that is held back a lot by her reading disability. I tend to break her learning into a few big areas: 1) reading - she's made huge strides in the past year, but she still needs explicit reading instruction ( Barton) and lots of basic practice. We are on a good path here. 2) writing - mechanics and content. I probably need to do more here, but that's not my question. 3) math - very skilled with the logic of math, struggles with some of the arithmetic. I can teach her math well. 4) knowledge acquisition - I lump history, science, geography, general knowledge, etc here. My question is how to provide means for her to better gain knowledge that are not very mom intensive. She listens to tons of literature and is in a lit discussion class. She has started listening to Mystery of History audio CDs and is enjoying this. In the past she has listened to science texts on Learning Ally, but is not currently doing this. Do you have suggestions for now or as she enters high school for more learning that is video or audio based? Edited to add: I am especially interested in how to teach her science in a non-textbooky kind of way. I don't think she needs to sit and listen to a science textbook or science lecture, but she needs to learn science in a less traditional way.

My own math excellent kids would find too many of these problems simply draining as they have dyslexia and if takes a lot of effort to READ the problem. I agree that the content of the problems is easy and I think tests reading comprehension as much as math skills.

We do a few free apps. We mostly use the ipad to listen to audible books, watch teaching company. and use it extensively for some dyslexia apps (Barton tiles and learning ally).

Muggins and Knock Out are great games - everyone enjoys them. Muggins would probably be too hard, but there are variations using just addition. Knock out uses just addition of simple numbers. ... Muggins is great when they star multiplying (and is fun into adulthood.)

I love Bravewriter and wish I had started it younger. TWJ is the core philosophy of the program. TWJ does not hold your hand and step you through it however. I love TWJ, but could not implement it myself so I ended up taking Kidswriter Basic which is a family class that basically goes through TWJ. The monthly guides are language arts guides telling you what to use for dictation and some grammar and lit to discuss based around a book for the month. You can purchase an old one for any book you want to do and try it out. I love the philosophy, but I need more hand-holding. I have found the online classes to be expensive but wonderful for my family. They are very specifically laid out and easy to implement. I've done some family classes (Just so Stories, Groovy Grammar, Kidswriter Basic) as well as some individual classes - Kidswriter Int., Expository Essay. Your kids are young. You might try Partnership Writing (downloadable pdf). It lays out a pretty specific plan. Jot it down is for the youngest kids as well.

Ideally I'd do SM and Miquon early and then so SM and Beast until starting AoPS with prealgebra. Then go through the AoPS sequence until college. With my oldest that is what I did (except Beast) With my second, I think AoPS will get too frustrating as we move along and we may jump ship to something less inspiring. With my third, I'm tinkering with Beast, SM and MEP trying to get her up to prealgebra. I think she'll need more practice than AoPS (not sure) and may keep on with some MEP. Child four is happily just starting Beast alongside SM. I dropped Miquon a little sooner than the others because Beast was actually published when he needed it.

Elizabeth, your little guy has always sounded so much like my little guy but to somewhat more extreme. My little one was/is apraxic and only communicated with sign language until four. It was always so hard for him to find the sounds he needed to make. Eventually a switch flipped and he started talking and hasn't stopped. It stilll took a long time to get him to say little words like prepositions and it was like he didn't even register the words "the" and "a". It took forever to get him to even try out those words when repeating a phrase or sentence. He just always left them out. It was noticed also in neuropsych testing that he could remember the nouns/verbs but none of the connecting words. Teaching him reading has felt so much like teaching him to talk. He has such trouble finding which sound goes with every single letter. Now he can remember the sounds, but it is sooooo slow in combining them. He's a few weeks from turning eight and on level 3 of Barton. On the dysgraphia side, my oldest has severe dysgraphia - both the language processing side of things as well as the physical output of letter formation. It's been a stuggle balancing how best to teach him.

My crazy smart 2e VSL student is tough to teach science to for just the reasons you listed. He is really enjoying Teaching Company videos. I'm tempted to let hm explore science in a non-traditioal way. He'll still learn lots of the basics, but will learn much more if I just let him learn. He's getting better at traditional textbook learning as he gets older, but it is not his style.

"I" like the content of MOH better and my 11 year old is currently listening to it (and my older boys read it when younger). "I" don't like the tone of SOTW as much - nothing wrong with it, but it just doesn't fit the style of me or my oldest. Since it didn't work well with my oldest, I haven't tried it with the next three as much. I do think SOTW might be better suited than MOH for your 6 year old (and maybe the 9 year old as well).

So cool to see the effects of the education.

Barton - I started separating out the spelling with my daughter a few years ago. She was mastering the reading, but just not ready for all the spelling (because she wasn't writing). I found that using All About Spelling was a gentler pace on the spelling and complemented Barton well. At the moment she's on level 7 of Barton. We do all the spelling of the lessons, but not to mastery. I am currently focusing more on copywork and working on spelling that she uses in her writing. My little guy is on level 3 and doing all the spelling at the moment, but I suspect that it'd be better to start him on AAS to give it more attention. Also, I don't think he'll be able to keep up with the spelling rules too much longer. My daughter remembers a ton of the spelling rules through Barton but it has taken much more work for it to translate into her actual writing.

If you are comfortable skipping lessons you can do that. Otherwise, I'd recommend picking and choosing a couple of review problems (maybe just the hardest ones). If these are done easily, then you probably don't need to do all the rest.

Pick something that is your priority - reading books on the couch or doing math. Make sure you do that every day or however often you set. Don't worry if not everything else gets done. Don't think of your curriculum as something to get done in a schoolyear. Just pick up the subject and do the next assignment. Does it really matter if you finish the book in Sept. or March? Just move on to the next thing. Take mom breaks - "teacher in-service" days where you just spend time on you and rejuvinate your enthusiasm for homeschooling.

I think trusting your gut is always good, reguardless of what the psych report says.

I suppose you mean the ones by Supporting Dyslexia - I had never heard of these before today so I don't really have an opinion. However, if you think they'll be helpful then I'd get them - ultimately it's a whole lot cheaper than doing nothing and paying for it later.

I have four kids and I just add them in wherever we are when they get to an age that they are participatng. I would consider doing SOTW with a 6 year old tagging along and just consider that they are starting at the beginning the next year.