Welcome! Based on what you've said about your daughter, I'd suggest that WWE3 would not be too difficult. My 2nd grader uses it...and it's definitely not too difficult. She typically does two lessons per day. I'd also encourage you to look at other spelling programs. You may want to board search different programs (spelling workout, all about spelling aka AAS, natural speller etc) in combo with terms like 'love' 'hate' 'didn't like' etc. How is her spelling? For handwriting, I love Getty-Dubay and other Italic programs. Generally, handwriting of equivalent 'skill' levels (in italic and loop cursive) will look better in italic. It also tends to be faster and easier to write. one tip for subtraction facts.....thinking of it as 'going up' instead of 'taking away' was very helpful for mine when she was subtraction averse. Iow, 13 minus 9 might be stated as 'starting at nine, how many do you need to go up to get to 13'? Also, the mathgames from rightstartmath.com were huge lifesavers for us. All the best, Katherine

In girls, ADHD is often (though not always) the 'inattentive type' as opposed to the hyperactive type. The current name is still ADHD though....there is no "ADD" anymore. :) K

One thing is for certain: there will be mixups in this early phase. Information is coming in so quickly that it's totally overwhelming. {{{{{{hugs}}}}} :) Katherine

Yup....my dd7 has been using it since she was 5. K

That's not unlike what started happening with my stepdad's mom when she was in the early stages of alzheimer's. She was irritable and would say and do things that were out of character. Eventually, she started accusing my mom of taking things from her house......and accusing other people of taking things and leaving things. It just went from there.... I'm seeing some classic dementia though in my MIL....classic forgetfulness, unusual gift buying (buying the 7 and 9 yo gifts that would be appropriate for a 2-3 yo)..... :( K

Hmmm, generally difficulty concentrating is linked to lower dopamine and norepinephrine levels. Higher seratonin levels can lead to difficulty concentrating. The book _Depression Free Naturally_ is extremely helpful. The most helpful of all of the natural/orthomolecular books when it comes to mental health. I have a hx of depression and definitely have adhd. It's a tricky balance for me: enough seratonin to keep me happy but not so much that I'm spacey/zoned happy. Optimizing my dopamine levels via SAM-e helps my ADHD symptoms/focus by about 50% but makes me very 'flat' emotionally (which for me is kind of nice......higher seratonin makes me very emotional.....very happy, but very weepy too). Adderall though....wow, helps the focus for me by about 90%. It's incredible. It's amazing with my kids too. Esp my dysgraphic/dyslexic one. Her handwriting with the meds and without the meds show about a three year difference. Her reading does as well. I'd not toss out the possibility of dyslexia. Unless they did a TOWRE or GORT *and* and CTOPP you can't rule out dyslexia. We were told 'no dyslexia' when dd was tested at 6y7 mo.....by an experienced tester (18 years) who did the WISC, W-J and WAIT. She also observed dd in school for 3 hours and extensively questioned her teachers. Everyone agreed there was no dyslexia. Everyone was wrong. I knew it then. They all thought it was the untreated ADHD just causing symptoms of dyslexia. The edpsy thought that once the ADHD was treated the dyslexia symptoms would resolve. But the bottom line? She didn't just have dyslexia 'symptoms', she had the classic results on her testing.....the cluster of results that is highly indicative of dyslexia 1)depressed rapid 'automatic' naming scores 2)word retrieval difficulties There were other things too. She had the *classic* signs of a phonological weakness and it should have been diagnosed when she was six - treated ADHD or untreated ADHD - it doesn't matter. It was crystal clear. If anything, they should have said 'classic dyslexia.....symptoms of ADHD might be caused by the *dyslexia* and may resolve once the dyslexia is treated". That's a bit of a stretch;p but honestly, it helps highlight the bias and misunderstanding. Having gone into homeschooling assuming 'only' ADHD and not dyslexia, I can tell you that h'schooling the ADHD kid, when that's all there is, it easier than it is with the dyslexic kid. The dyslexia remediation is intensive. it can really take over a schedule:) But.......now I know my kid is both......and I'm managing. Most days right now we're doing 90 min reading, 60 min brainware safari (cognitive skills training), 30 or so minutes of FLL and WWE and about 45-60 minutes of math. Everything else is in a holding pattern b/c we are *flying* with the reading right now and imo, it's *the* most important thing we could possibly be doing - bar none. All the best to you! K

It's interesting though how the medical community and media dumbs it down to 'cold medicines' when really the concern is very specific to pseudoephedrine as it has a narrow margin of safety. In other words, it's critical to dose it properly. The main problem occurs when parents unknowingly give to much, usually because they're giving multiple medications for multiple symptoms, inadvertently overdosing the pseudoephedrine. An additional concern, but a significantly smaller one, is giving cough supressant inappropriately (ie when no meds or cough expectorant would be better). Guifenisen (expectorant) is exceptionally safe and has a wide margin of safety. The bottom line is that one must be fully aware and knowledgeable regarding individual and combination 'cold' medications, especially those containing decongestants. If one does choose to use them, it's probably best to use only single ingredient meds rather than combination meds.....and short acting rather than extended release. :) K

I just. Wow. Also speechless, K

I'm wondering if there aren't some LD type issues going on that could be remediated with specific styles of teaching. What you're saying about her reading/handwriting rings familiar bells.....dd9.5 was dx'd WAY to late with dyslexia......dd7 is also slightly dyslexic - which didn't show up when she was in montessori....b/c of the great reading instruction that montessori offers. But in regular school, it became apparent right away. It may not be an issue at all with your daughter, but if it is, it's better to know sooner rather than later;) K

This is one of the many reasons why homeschooling is wonderful. Does it really matter what grade she's 'in'? Can't you just call it whatever you want then give her work at whatever level is appropriate? My dd9.5 is in 'fourth'grade. But b/c of adhd and a late dyslexia dx, she was very behind in some things, on age with other things, and ahead in some things. But she's still in 'fourth grade', yk? Fwiw, she was definitely 'behind' in math until this year....she's really pulling ahead now and will finish this year at least a year ahead maybe more. So feel free to be optimistic;p She's still significantly behind the curve in writing....she can maybe write a paragraph if she's very inspired and in a very good mood but usually a couple of sentences would be a reasonable expectation. She can talk a blue streak, well well above age level (she has high receptive/expressive language and verbal reasoning) though her difficulties with word retrieval (dyxlexia component) are becoming more apparent as she gets older and the expressive language of her age mates improves. So anyway.....call her 'grade' whatever it should be, then give her appropriate work and support. All the best, Katherine

Sounds like there are two things going on here: 1)the chronic post nasal drip 2)the added congestion from the cough We have that too:) My 9.5 yo has severe environmental and seasonal allergies. She's finally doing immunotherapy (allergy shots) and we're hoping they'll be extremely helpful. She's been using nasal steroids for about 2 years....and they're sometimes helpful, sometimes not (depending on what allergens are around at the time). The key with the nasal steroids is daily use. The simply don't work if they're used randomly. Nasal steroids are veramyst (sp?), rhinocort, nasocort......and i think that's it. She takes claritin occasionally.....without decongestant.....and it's not terribly helpful. Zyrtec is very helpful but it knocks her out. Benedryl....same. We save the benedryl or zyrtec for nighttime when the congestion/post nasal drip is bad. She's tried singulair but apparently isn't her allergies don't have a leukotriene (sp?) component. Sudafed or similar decongestants shouldln't be taken routinely as they can cause blood pressure to rise so we don't use allergy meds containing decongestant and use generic sudafed (regular not 12h) only as needed. Keep in mind that effective decongestants MUST be purchased from behind the pharmacy counter. The will not be on the shelf. The ones on the shelf that say "decongestant" are no more effective than placebo. Nasal lavage/nasal rinsing is very helpful as well. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/nasal-lavage/MM00552 My dh and kids like the neilmed bottle: http://www.neilmed.com/usa/products.php I prefer the nasaline: :) Katherine

IMO, no. My scary-story-tolerating 9.5 yo loved it. My sensitive-to-scary-stories 7 yo HATED it. The 9 yo loves harry potter, percy jackson (lightning thief), chronicles of narnia etc. The 7 yo really really hates all of those things and can even find upset in Little House on the Prairie. I know plenty of people who's young kids like Tales of Despereaux but even I found it pretty upsetting (but I'm really sensitive and can't stand Chronicles of Narnia) K

One problem with the detangling shampoos/conditioners is that they contain silicones in various forms (in 'natural' products too). When the 'cones build up they can actually cause more tangling. My child with thick hair gets 'cone buildup very easily. She's best off using no silicones whatsoever, and her hair does best if washed and conditioned everyday with 'cone free products. Some do much better with much less frequent washing. Some curly folks do best using ONLY conditioner to wash hair....no shampoo (see naturallycurly.com ) The younger one has very fine, thin, delicate hair that breaks with suprising ease. She needs silicones in her products to protect her hair. So she uses them, but once a week, we use a mild clarifying shampoo to strip the cones out and start over (so her hair doesn't start to get ratty). If you're finding yourself on the snowball of ever increasing rats nests....consider that silicones in shampoos and conditioners and detanglers may be the culprit and act accordingly. :) K

Yes, and I love them. But they don't replace a white board. It's more for kids to practice on......especially ones who don't like writing. K

Fwiw, we do FFL 3 and WWE 2 and it's fine. I think it would be fine to do WWE 1. :) k

There are tons....I thought I answered this yesterday but I don't see my post. Apologies if it shows up twice. checkout epsbooks.com. They have spellwell, sitton spelling, spectrum and two more iirc. sopriswest.com apples and pears spelling prometheantrust.org sequential spelling could be done workbook style....abecedarian....explode the code (sort of) :) K

I haven't looked into it thoroughly b/c things finally started clicking for dd this year.....but my personal theory is that the same kind of instruction that works for remediating dyslexia works also for dyscalculia..... teaching, reteaching, overteaching direct, systematic, incremental, intensive, frequent instruction I'd search 'direct instruction' math, developmental math, transitional math and that sort of thing. While I have no evidence to support this, it would seem that montessori type activities, but with more direct instruction, would be ideal for a child who is dyscalculic. The key would be not to withdraw the support/direct instruction too soon (just like with dyslexia). :) k

I wish I had all of the answers. I'm currently using Wilson with my dd9.5 who 8 mos ago was reading at about a first grade level. Now she's reading most things (when forced;p) and stumbling over multisyllabic things, but getting them with enough assistance from me (ie assistance breaking down the syllables). She's getting very very irritated wtih the stilted decodable language of Wilson....which I understand. It's not normal prosody and is uncomfortable to listen to. So....I'm speeding through Wilson....even though technically we should still be on step 3.something since she's not decoding the multisyllable words 100% of the time correctly. 1)I've ordered REWARDS! (whichever is the first one.....secondary? intermediate?) since that focuses on multisyllabic words and has more interesting text. 2)I've ordered HEC Reading Horizons for home (10-adult)...the CD-Rom. We'll be skipping a bunch but really....sometimes *any* and all instruction is good if it doesn't come from me;p 3)Ordered Megawords. I'm not sure if we'll use it or not. Her vocab is adult level.....we'll see. 4)Considering AAS if we don't use megawords. or we might continue with the encoding portion of Wilson. However, sometimes we just need to move on. She needs change more often than I'd like;p Just some info on what we're doing....no real helpful info on what you should do:) I started ISS/3R's with my 7 yo who is also slightly dyslexic. She suddenly took off and I'm not ordering the next levels. Giving her minimal Wilson - basically a five minute here's-how-this-sounds - then letting her go to it. She's willingly reading both silently and aloud so my concerns for her are evaporating. She's also doing the Wilson workbooks. Odd kid. She loves workbooks;p K

honestly, spelling workout is among the worst spelling programs I have EVER seen. It'd be helpful to know the name of the program being used.....is the mom working on reading at home with the little girl? What is being recommended for 'homework'? I'd probably get either I See Sam/3R's or _Dancing Bears_ (prometheantrust) simply b/c it's open and go. Another option would be to use Wilson (very parent intensive but great) or HEC Reading Horizons....the home educator CD-Rom version. Something's going on.....either the reading instruction sucks....or the child has a bit of a reading disability (and holding her back is a vvv bad idea)....or a difficult time concentrating/learning in that environement (adhd?, poor fit?, sensory stuff?)....*something* is going on. You mentioned that the testing uncovered no ld's. But what *did* it uncover? Was there a CTOPP done? What were the reading measures used? Was it a full assessment? ie reading measures in addition to IQ and achievement? What did it show? All the best, K in Atl mom to a dyslexic/dysgraphic 9 yo who at 6 yo/1st grade was identified as having NO ld's. They were wrong wrong wrong.

2nd Christina. It's whole language in disguise. I'd recommend the mom get Sally Shaywitz' book right away (even though dyslexia isn't being discussed at this point afaict). It gives sound evidence for why 'holding her back' is a bad idea on every level. K

someone can do a GORT, TOWRE and CTOPP. Someone in the district can. What they'd diagnose from it might be a big fat nothing - here in Atlanta they won't call anything dyslexia and won't use any scientifically sound reading interventions - but if you can jump through the right hoops, they do have the tests on hand. Anyhoo, the big cost is associated with the IQ and the achievement testing. The CTOPP and TOWRE or GORT will be only a fraction of that....so if you have to find an educational psych or reading specialist on your own, at least you'll be facing minimal cost for that portion. :) K

Great! Tell her you want both:) an IQ like the WISC-IV and an achievement like the Woodcock-Johnson or the WAIT (or both;p) then also let her know you want the GORT (Gray Oral Reading Test) OR the TOWRE (Test of Word Reading Efficiency) **and** the CTOPP (Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing). :) K

Here in Atl, $1800 will get you acheivement testing, IQ testing and a few other 'small' tests depending on what the first two tests show....in the case of suspected dyslexia, the additional tests would probably be the CTOPP, the GORT and maybe a couple of others. Iirc, the LMB testing is not as comprehensive.....so no doubt, it does cost less (though their tutoring services are un-g-dly expensive:001_huh:) Just tossing it out for the sake of 'more info'.....like lots of things, I'm sure there is variation from area to area. K

honestly, i'd use FLL but only for the copywork, dictation and memorization. I'd wait on all noun, verb, pronoun work until 3rd grade. K

Personally, I'd use All About Spelling. It's so easy to use (totally scripted) and you can go as quickly or slowly as is needed. As an O-G based program, it is a thorough scientifically sound spelling program. You really can't do better. Webster's is great.....but having something 'open and go' is fabulous;) K