You could try my free online spelling lessons, they have most of the spelling rules. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellinglessonsl.html I also have a list of free and cheap spelling resources with words organized by spelling pattern, there is also a link to a good site with spelling rules: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellingforsucce.html

I have links to some free spelling programs online, and a link to a list of rules. Also, there is a $13 workbook called "Tricks of the Trade" that lets them write down words they misspell according to their rule/pattern. You could make up your own notebook, but this one is inexpensive enough that you probably wouldn't save much money anyway, and it's nicely arranged, and very cute. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellingforsucce.html

We're still struggling with memorizing addition ourselves, but Don Potter has a multiplication matrix that you may want to try out, it has instructions. http://donpotter.net/PDF/Multiplication%20Matrix.pdf My daughter is way better at memorizing spelling words and Bible verses than addition facts. I'll sometimes do a few oral ones in the car, I probably need to do that more often. If I went over a few every time we drove somewhere, that might help, she needs a lot of repetition for them, unlike spelling words which come very quickly. You could try a few oral math facts in the car or maybe during the day, a few during each meal or during certain chores, or before getting to do something she wants to do. Also, Chisanbop may be something to try, I'm not sure how I feel about it, but you may need something different: http://www.cs.iupui.edu/~aharris/chis/chis.html I wish there was a fun DVD like leapfrog's "Talking letter factory" for math facts instead of letters. We have their number one, but it is very general, it doesn't teach many math facts. I've thought about trying to make a movie myself, but I'm very boring, I'm not sure it would be that helpful.

You're welcome! It's in the footnotes at the bottom of the page. I like to know the reasons, too! It seems to make things easier to learn. I also like the rules for spelling, even if it's only a few words that it's useful for. For example, I used to misspell truly as truely repeatedly until I learned the rule that the final e is dropped after u or w when adding a suffix. It applies to maybe four words, awful being another example, but just knowing the reason made it easier to memorize the spelling for me.

In my phonics research, I came across a website about France's version of Whole Language/Balanced Literacy type of method, called the "Global Method." This website promotes syllabic phonics: http://www.lire-ecrire.org/ It has a link to free pdf files of two books used to teach beginning reading in France using syllabic phonics. The books are Manual de lecture and Manual d' ecriture (click on Ecriture tab to get to second book.) (I think they're still free, I was able to download them for free about 6 months ago, I don't speak any French, but my Spanish knowledge allowed me to figure out how to send my e-mail, click on the link they sent, and download the books for free.) http://www.lalibrairiedesecoles.com/

I would not waste time with sentences or stories until he's mastered the basics. Work for 10 - 20 minutes at a time, twice a day, learning phonics skills, and learn them to spelling mastery at the same time. Learning to spell at the same time really seems to stick the information in their little brains. If he can't write neatly or fast, let him use magnetic letters on a cookie sheet. You can get a lot done when you focus on the basics and you only work when they're paying attention. Also, I wouldn't teach any sight words, it can be confusing. There are only 5 words that actually need to be learned by sight, the others can be learned phonetically by pattern, for example, s as z in has, is and as or words that end in v, like have and live. (Live can be long or short.) Don Potter has some great flashcards to help. I like working through Webster's Speller on a whiteboard, writing the words from left to right each time helps hold my daughter's attention more than working from a book, and keeps up interest--something is moving and happening. http://donpotter.net/ed.htm You could also try my free online lessons ( http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/phonicslsnslinks.html ), they're specifically designed for older students.

My husband owns a book about car math. He brings up torque curves all the time...I know way more about my car's torque curve than I want to. Your sons might like that and things like that. It's Called "Auto Math Handbook" by Lawlor. My husband is a C-130 pilot, and all of the things they do when flying are related to geometry, trig, and polar math (3rd year calculus.) There's a lot of math behind weaponry and targeting, too.

A good computer program that is fun is read, write, and type. Spelling work is also helpful, you could try both oral and written spelling, and also spelling with magnet letters on a cookie sheet. I have several fun games I play with magnetic letters, I give them 5 or 6 consonants and a vowel and see how many letters they can make. Once they get good, they can see how many they can make in a minute. I also have another game that is fun, my 6 year old loves it, you can see her playing it in the movie: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

My daughter loved the calendar at starfall at that age, it walks them through it and is very fun. Now, she likes our computer calender...she has her Webkinz's birthdays typed into it!

I have remediated many children who were suffering from too many sight words. Nonsense words, spelling work, and learning syllable division rules have been key to making it work. Also, avoiding any outside reading during remediation and just focusing on phonics, most text is at least 50% sight words so any regular reading leads them back into guessing mode. There is a test called the MWIA that you can use to determine if a student is suffering from too many sight words. http://www.donpotter.net/PDF/MWIA%20I%20&%20II%20Manual%20&%20Test.pdf If he reads the phonetic words slower than the holistic words or misses more of the phonetic words than the holistic words, he needs some daily focused phonics help, with nonsense words to break the guessing habit. It's best to use a program that doesn't have any stories or sentences associated with it, or just skip those until he's over-learned all the phonics basics.

We are currently using a nice tall mahogany dresser drawer in our dining room. Our current house has built in storage in the closet, se we had an empty one. I occasionally "lose" books or papers at the bottom of the pile in the drawers, but it looks nice because everything is enclosed. If I were buying a new piece and not moving every few years, I would buy a tall armoire with lots of shelves and doors that closed to hide the inevitable mess. I keep the books we use every day in the bottom drawer in the largest plastic bin that fit in the bottom drawer. The math manipulatives are on the bottom, along with 5 or 10 pencils, then the books we are working from every day are on top. Things we use less often are spread out in other drawers in piles. I also have some placemats in there. It's convenient to have the main stuff all in one bin that I can pull out and put back in.

I have a list of the Dolch sight words arranged by phonetic pattern, and also some of the reasons for a few exceptions, for example, "During the Middle English period, a certain type of angular writing was in vogue which resulted in some ambiguity for the reader when u was followed by an m, n, or u (sometimes written v or w.) Consequently, scribes replaced the u with o, and that spelling is retained in some words used today, e.g. come, monk, love, tongue, some, honey, son." http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html One actually has an explanation, but it's long and not that interesting, and I like words and their history! I think are is just padded with an extra e, I'm not sure, many strangely spelled 3 letter words were "padded" with extra letters so they'd look better. Even when I know the explanation, young students don't seem to find it helpful. Explanations seem to help older remedial students and adults, they just run off my daughter's back like water. (She's 6.) In fact, she'll say, "Mom, just stop, please" if I start explaining things like this. When taught phonics well, students are fine with exceptions. I do find it helpful to teach them in groups of similarly spelled exceptions when possible. "The ABC's and All Their Tricks" by Bishop is a good book that shows the most common exceptions from the most common 17,000 words in English. It has lists of words by their spelling patterns, with exceptions on the side of the page. It's worth the money if you're going to be teaching more than 1 child to read.

I'm doing a bit of work with my daughter this year from Phonics Pathways for my daughter (1st grade). Last year, we worked through Webster's Speller. You learn to spell and sound out the words at the same time, not moving on to the next group of words until you're able to spell every word in the current table. (We didn't spell every word, we just practiced enough until she could spell every word in each table.) You also start out with syllables, ab, eb, ib, ob, ub; ba, be, bi bo, bu, by (1st group short, second group long.) The work with spelling seemed to really get the concepts in my daughter's brain, we had done some conventional phonics previous and found Webster's Speller a much more powerful method. The syllables were also helpful for later learning 3, 4, and 5 syllable words. You could try Webster's Speller (free online!), or just work on learning the words from Phonics Pathways to spelling mastery before trying them in sentences.