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ElizabethB

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  1. For once you finish vision therapy: my 10 lesson syllables program, phonics to the 12th grade level, free, includes spelling. Most of my students gain a reading grade level. You may need to work through it twice. The 1879 McGuffey readers are also good for gaining grade levels and improving vocabulary and reading stamina once you work through the program. They have difficult vocabulary defined and diacritically marked and gradually build in difficulty. Syllables program: http://thephonicspage.org/On Reading/syllablesspellsu.html McGuffey's free PDFs, you want 1879 Eclectic versions: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/5671 For improving spelling, the online LOE foundations lite focuses on spelling and is free. https://elearning.logicofenglish.com You can also advance fast through Spelling Plus, K - 6th grade spelling, arranged by rule and pattern. It teaches the most common 1,000 words, which make up 90% of any average reading passage. https://www.amazon.com/Spelling-Plus-Words-toward-Success/dp/187947820X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=spelling+plus&qid=1624502083&sr=8-2 The online letsgolearn DORA tests are computer adaptive and separate out vocabulary, spelling, and reading. So, you could be 8th grade level vocabulary and 2nd grade spelling and 4th grade reading and it will tell you all that with one test. You should be able to catch up the spelling and writing now that the vision is being addressed. I wouldn't hold back a year, just work from where he is in each area.
  2. My syllables lessons are designed for older children, it teaches phonics to a 12th grade level, you can work through it in 10 hours: http://thephonicspage.org/On Reading/syllablesspellsu.html Marcia Henry's Words is also good: https://www.proedinc.com/Products/14834/words-integrated-decoding-and-spelling-instruction-based-on-word-origin-and-word-structure-second-edition.aspx And, Logic of English Essentials online is now free, it focuses on high level spelling. You need to watch everything in the lower videos, even things that seem simple, she has a different way of explaining things. For example, there are things you need to know even in the A to Z phonogram video, it goes over all the sounds of every vowel, from the title it looks like something you could skip. https://elearning.logicofenglish.com
  3. Talking Letter Factory DVD. Here is my chart, G is for Goat. Not quite as cute as a giraffe but much better, sound wise. Why teach a preschooler the soft sound of g right out of the box, crazy! http://www.thephonicspage.org/On Reading/Resources/40LChartsCombined.pdf
  4. We ended up moving out. The houses were tested out to try to move in had similar issues, we had to try a bunch before we found one without issues for me. We don't know for sure what it was, but possibly some kind of farm chemical seeping up in some of the houses, the area was previously cornfields. It got into the fabric, too, anything that was fabric that was in the basement had to be thrown out, it was a pain. Even repeated washings didn't help. It was some likely kind of weird chemical/VOC. It actually got worse down in the basement and sometimes you could see a bit of colored fog, I felt terrible even when the levels were that high. We got a charcoal VOC removing air filter that helped a bit but was overpowered as it got worse, so we moved out--we had to find a house without a basement for me to not have issues--we found one house with a basement that was OK but it was in a not so great neighborhood.
  5. One of the highest paying fields in the drawing area is medical illustration, most artistic types are not good at science and/or don't enjoy science. https://www.ami.org/medical-illustration/learn-about-medical-illustration You can count any high school level subjects on a transcript either way, subject or year, if done in middle school.
  6. I would do a lot of oral spelling. Logic of English essentials lite is free online right now: https://elearning.logicofenglish.com You can also work though my syllables lessons, 10 hours to work though, phonics to the 12th grade level. http://thephonicspage.org/On Reading/syllablesspellsu.html After that, you could work thorough all of Webster's Speller's 2+ syllable words.
  7. All uppercase for a few months. B/D. Then, B/b follows the same pattern. Write and read everything all uppercase. Don Potter has versions of his programs all uppercase, or you can easily change the case of things in a word processing program. Then, have her write a B/b on the top of what she is going to read once you move back to mixed case. Take a blue highlighter and have her find and highlight all the B's. B buh blue. Then, write D/d on top, have her highlight all the d's in a different color. The, read the passage.
  8. There is really only the Meltzer book and the Black Book. However, 1600io in their free section (just want an email) has a document with links to the full passage or book for every SAT reading passage if there are certain ones or types you need to read more of. I think they have a R-Smart reading tool in the free area too, haven't tried it yet.
  9. Panda Grammar/writing is also good. SAT Black Book has good general tips for all 4 sections, and very good explanations of the answers for the first 4 practice tests for all sections, much better explanations that help you do better on future tests--read the reasons for all the wrong and the right answer for questions you miss or guess on.
  10. Interesting that this is so prevalent with all the vaccines, and for some people, for other things as well. Probably a lot more people tracking their heart rates now, too, with Apple Watches and other devices.
  11. She had Covid previously but wanted to get the vaccine anyway. People's reactions do seem stronger for 2nd vaccine and/or if you previously had Covid.
  12. I was between 120 to 135 starting 5 hours after the vaccine, the rest of the evening after that. I'm not sure if it's gone down this morning, the doctor said not to worry about it since her EKG was normal. This 120 to 135 was while lying in bed resting. She is feeling a bit better this morning but still has a few flu like symptoms.
  13. She gave an EKG and checked out her throat and lymph nodes, she said based on things she observed that it wasn't an allergic reaction. Worry about an allergic reaction was why we went in. She said she had been seeing a lot of young patients come in, but none of them had been serious, but many were worried with the high heart rate. Given my allergies I'm holding out for J&J too but will wait a while and see, Covid rates are low here now.
  14. Just wanted to let everyone know, since that's listed as a "go to ER" symptom. Our daughter got a high heart rate and other normal flu like reactions 5 hours after the vaccine. She took it yesterday so we couldn't go to our doctor instead of the ER. The ER doctor said they've been seeing that symptom a lot, especially in younger patients. Interestingly, she also said that overall older patients seem to have less strong symptoms than the younger crowd.
  15. The best way to decide is to take a full practice test of each and compare the percentile scores. There are a lot more high quality test prep materials for the SAT if the scores are about the same. My daughter did about a standard deviation higher on the ACT, my son a standard deviation higher on the SAT. Most people score very similarly on either test. For the ACT: ACT Black book, For the Love of ACT Science, Meltzer Reading, Meltzer English. Mathchops is also good once you get to above 80% level on ACT/SAT, it's hard to find challenging problems at that level, it's not that expensive. You take their level challenge until you are at the level you are scoring on the ACT/SAT and then every problem is at your level, very efficient. For the SAT, the new 1600io orange book is good, it's a 2 volume set, has an appendix to go to teaching and problems for each question missed. Other good SAT books are SAT Black Book, Meltzer Reading, and either Metlzer Writing or College Panda writing, both are about the same. The generic books really aren't that helpful. Kahn is OK for SAT practice but books are more efficient. Uworld is supposedly good but we haven't tried it. 1600io has a good free section for the SAT with a fair amount of helpful material. There are also a ton of YouTube channels going over every single SAT math problem, Dr. Rogers math neighborhood is one.
  16. My daughter did better on the ACT English section than the SAT Writing section. She wasn't a big fan of the way either test worded the questions, but she's naturally good at grammar and writing, many of the sentences on both tests are a bit wonky and/or long winded. For some reason, all of the ACT sections were a better fit for her. The SAT is a better fit for my son. She scored high enough on ACT English to place out of both semesters of English in college, her SAT writing was good but would not have been quite high enough to place out, and the ACT was way better overall so we submitted the ACT score, not the SAT score. The ACT Black Book explanations and rules upped her score a lot, well worth the money.
  17. Also, I forgot, it feeds the topics to you in an order that don't often have anything to do with an orderly, logical presentation of the material. So, you do a few probability problems, a few problems with log and ln, a few graphing problems, a few factoring problems, etc. Two weeks later you do higher level log and ln problems, and higher level factoring problems, totally disjointed most of the time, an especially bad way to learn the topics if you are not strong in math.
  18. Her first math class at the University last semester was really good--all in person teaching, she only needed our help for a few things. They also had some finance things that were at the Algebra level but also they went over practical implications, it was a really well thought out and taught class. Ironically, she figured out halfway through this semester's math class that she wanted to switch from Psychology to Graphic Design and she no longer is required to take a 2nd math class, but it was too late to ditch, she's just suffering through for the credits. She would have loved to take anything else as an elective, though, but oh well.
  19. Yes, people who didn't understand it the first time won't understand it without a good explanation the 2nd time--if they had good YouTube videos and explained it well it would be different, although they likely would be even better off with a good in person teacher. Sadly, most people who are good at math can make so much money in so many other career fields that they don't go into teaching.
  20. That makes sense, I didn't know that. It is fine as a review but is terrible for teaching. She gets 1 hour 15 min of instruction time and has to do 5 hours of Aleks work each week, more hours if you don't meet your topic goals. As it's gotten harder, I've been having to help her so she can meet her topic goals without have it take over her life.
  21. They have a short explanation of everything they teach, it is like a short textbook explanation, no video, and they are often terrible. They are only helpful if you took the math years ago and it jogs your memory. One terrible one: they had a bunch of +++++++------------ over each other as an explanation of how to graph on a number line (x-2)(x +3) > 0. Their explanation was incomprehensible. I googled the topic and found 2 great Youtube videos that made it clear within minutes and was able to explain it to her after that. (The YouTube explanation I found showed the parabola, Aleks never reminded you it was a parabola.) Other things they explain OK if you're good at math, but they are all static explanations, just like a printed math book on the screen, self teaching college algebra. My daughter is not up for self teaching algebra although she took Algebra 1 and 2 in high school, she's not great at Algebra. More and more colleges and high schools are using it, it's terrible. They also have time goals--you have to do 5 hours a week regardless of how many topics you accomplish, terrible at the college level, it should be mastery based, not time based. Her boyfriend who is good at math just does other things while doing his time and lets the clock run out. He is fine with self taught math, he remembers his high school math and is good at math. (He's in a more advanced math than her but it still uses the Aleks system.) So, it's the same system overall, they just have different topics and topic goals per week as well as the time goals. He has harder problems, higher level math, and more topics per week required.
  22. Oh!! At the 500 or below level for the SAT and its equivalent for ACT, mathchops is free. You take the level challenge to the level you are at, and then it dishes out problems for you. Any you don't understand you star, then you can later work on starred problems with someone, they get saved altogether in an easy to find section. That could be a good independent activity for the lower level problems. It's also efficient at the higher levels, serving up things just at your difficulty level, fairly inexpensive for what you get.
  23. My daughter's current math class at University uses Aleks. It doesn't teach that well, it's only really helpful if you are already good at math. I've been helping her do her Aleks problems lately. There is a reason it has 1,000+ one star reviews.
  24. CLEP is free from modern states. With CLEP and dual credit, check to make sure how many credits you can have before you're ineligible for freshmen status and freshman merit aid. You could also possibly study for some CLEPs and take them after enrolling if you have too many credits. https://modernstates.org There is also the possibility of being an RA in the dorms. My daughter has a friend who is working her way through college, she took one semester off to earn a bit more money. You can also take some summer classes and work a bit more during the school year when businesses need more workers because everyone is in school.
  25. There are a lot of good books that help. ACT Black book, For the Love of ACT Science, Meltzer Reading, Meltzer English. Our daughter was able to up her score on English section of the ACT after just 2 hours of black book study 5 - 6 points (10 actual points, but she was just getting a flu but didn't realize it when she took her first ACT, practice scores were higher than first test) from the Black Book. She had already taken Practice Test 1 - 3, the Black Book analyzes errors and points you back to rules for each problem missed. This got her out of both Freshman English classes, and overall ACT improvement got her merit aid. I do wish we had started earlier with her, though. She could have gotten the next level of merit aid with more time to study. We had our son start SAT study earlier, he does better on the SAT. Mathchops is also good once you get to above 80% level on ACT/SAT, it's hard to find challenging problems at that level, it's not that expensive. You take their level challenge until you are at the level you are scoring on the ACT/SAT and then every problem is at your level, very efficient. For the SAT, the new 1600io orange book is good, it's a 2 volume set, has an appendix to go to teaching and problems for each question missed. Other good SAT books are SAT Black Book, Meltzer Reading, and either Metlzer Writing or College Panda writing, both are about the same. The generic books really aren't that helpful. Kahn is OK but books are more efficient. Uworld is supposedly good but we haven't tried it.
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