My daughter couldn't rhyme until she was 8, and had I to explicitly teach her with math, she was reading at the 12th grade level at that point. The other skills can be worked on easily, work on oral blending, I have a pre-reading YouTube playlist with ideas. My blending video explains why blending is hard. Since he knows his letter sounds, you can skip Don Potter's videos in the playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l3aBN-qowg2u8BdGYM64pTi You can also do some oral spelling in the meantime, both my kids could spell before they could blend. My son could also blend before he could rhyme, but he learned rhyming at 5 or 6 on his own.

I use magnetic abc and kids doodle with my younger remedial students to make simple words with fun letters.

So, a fellow tutor recently started a YouTube channel, her videos are great for beginners. She is adding more and will eventually teach all the sounds, if your child is having trouble with a certain sound, this is an easy supplement: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnIVm9OG9zIdtOtUHAtoUw/videos Most of my videos are for older students, but I have a few for younger ones, the Know Sight Words and Fast Phonics Facts are especially good for young children on my Phonics in Order series, and "W can be a vowel" is fun when you get to 2 letter vowel teams: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l0Z941Cy1INrADEO9Sy4ZWz I also have a few videos for the teacher about how to do phonics games and how to make phonics fun, including a few links to a homeschool mom whose games look fun, I am looking for good videos to add to this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l3xMEiyplhkRuEEd126A5b1 Don Potter's videos are good for teacher tips, he had trouble accessing his old channel and has moved here, he moved over some of his more popular old videos and will upload all new videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrE2sfPXJZv4sS_cmxfP7Dg And, any more favorites in any category, add away!

The new Sweet Sounds of Reading phonics videos are good for days you aren't feeling well, she just started a YouTube channel and is uploading her phonics lessons: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnIVm9OG9zIdtOtUHAtoUw

You can keep your 8 year old doing a bit of phonics until she is at the 12th grade level! It makes school and everything else so much easier if they can read anything. Your 6 year old will get there. My son needed a lot of repetition with the basics. I like to use my one page chart while they are learning, they learn faster if they have to look up the sound themselves, plus then you don't have to repeat yourself as much, first you guide them to the sound on the chart and help them through it, then they learn to use it themselves, sometimes with a general wave towards the chart. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/40LChartsCombined.pdf

You can work quickly through my Syllables program with both to see if it might cover most of the phonics you need for your 8 year old. The nonsense word work might also make your 6 year old ready for a less expensive phonics program, do not skip the optional nonsense word document in the teacher folder and play the phonics concentration game daily. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

I would have her work in 2 or 3 thirty minute blocks, you get more out of it that way than one big chunk.

https://newrepublic.com/article/113505/did-ritalin-make-kids-quebec-dumber

Another idea: find what they would really like and love to do and reach out to churches, volunteer groups, etc in the area and see if a group or church would be willing to adopt them for their honeymoon. Someone could meet them at the airport, help them get settled then have a different person to help them each day. There is a lot of fun stuff to do in the Colorado Springs area, the Air Force Academy might provide cadet volunteers to help if you reach out to them. there are also a lot of Christian groups is the area that might want to help out, like Focus on the Family, I know it is a big area for Christian organizations.

You can transport soups and other hot foods in this device, they stay warm for hours. I use mine often because of my food allergies and it is very durable, I have had it for 2 years. https://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-SL-JAE14SA-Bento-Stainless-Silver/dp/B000246GSE/ref=pd_bxgy_79_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=HFVJ9X41TFM89EXK8BND

If they like water slides, maybe a Great Wolf lodge hotel near an attraction? There is one near Disney. https://www.greatwolf.com/southern-california There is also a big hotel in Nashville that holds a lot of conventions that is supposedly a fun hotel with a lot to do at the hotel and near many attractions. ETA: This is the hotel: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bnago-gaylord-opryland-resort-and-convention-center/?scid=bb1a189a-fec3-4d19-a255-54ba596febe2

I had to rescue my daughter once when I was 8 months pregnant. She was a short 2 1/2 yaar old and got up but couldn't get down. A 6 year old boy came along and saved me a lot of torture, he got her for me, it was a pain climbing around, luckily I hadn't gotten too far when he came in.

I don't have Lial's PreAlgebra, but I think so. It goes back to the basics, even back to basic addition and multiplication and fractions and decimals basics. It eventually covers a bit of higher level stuff but does an excellent job reviewing basics in an adult manner.

I just wrote a Linkedin article about it, if you guys could copy and paste your comments there, that would be great. Vanessa is a nice lady trying to support herself with her tutoring and her books and she is helping a lot of people, I'm trying to help her spread the word about her program. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-black-students-need-different-reading-program-liz-brown

Those are all good resources. If you get him set up on Kahn, he can follow up with that at home for homework. I would try Lial's basic college math for the basics, older editions are very reasonable: https://www.amazon.com/Basic-College-Mathematics-Margaret-Lial/dp/0321557123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503600850&sr=8-1&keywords=lial+basic+college+math

A fellow tutor whose books I have successfully used with my remedial students now has a YouTube page, she has the first 16 of 51 videos that is a complete phonics program up to a 3rd to 5th grade level. I have some of her old series of books and they are good, I have used her "Letter Sounds Save Their Soul" books 4 and 5 with my remedial students. https://www.youtube....G9zIdtOtUHAtoUw Here is her website: http://www.sweetsoun...or-Parents.html I have used her later materials with success with several different remedial students, and used a bit with my son, too, when he was finishing up his upper level phonics work (things like -tion, -cial, etc.) The samples and videos for her earlier work look good, but I have only used her advanced phonics books. I also posted on the General and K-8 boards, but thinking about it, the pace and focus of her material may make it work for some struggling students here.

It really shouldn't, but black students are behind white students overalll, and she is a black tutor who designed her material with her remedial black students in mind. She does also have a theory about the correlation between black students and song and rhythm and phonics. I have noticed my minority remedial students making bigger gains with phonics than my white students, but they also start out further behind. I have ironically only used her material with Hispanic and white students due to the timing and location of where I was when I got it. (I have had plenty of black students in the past, and a few in our current location, but I have her upper level material and the ones here were younger and at a lower level.) I have a YouTube video called "Closing the Gap in Reading" that talks about how phonics is even more important for minoritiy and poor students: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zORKu1F5wx0

The materials are designed especially for black students, but I have used them with all my remedial students with success. A fellow tutor now has a YouTube page, she has the first 16 of 51 videos that is a complete phonics program up to a 3rd to 5th grade level. I have some of her old series of books and they are good, I have used her "Letter Sounds Save Their Soul" books 4 and 5 with my remedial students. https://www.youtube....G9zIdtOtUHAtoUw Here is her website: http://www.sweetsoun...or-Parents.html

A fellow tutor whose books I have successfully used with my remedial students now has a YouTube page, she has the first 16 of 51 videos that is a complete phonics program up to a 3rd to 5th grade level. I have some of her old series of books and they are good, I have used her "Letter Sounds Save Their Soul" books 4 and 5 with my remedial students. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnIVm9OG9zIdtOtUHAtoUw Here is her website: http://www.sweetsoundsofreading.com/How-to-Teach-Reading-for-Parents.html I have used her later materials with success with several different remedial students, and used a bit with my son, too, when he was finishing up his upper level phonics work (things like -tion, -cial, etc.) The samples and videos for her earlier work look good, but I have only used her advanced phonics books.

A fellow tutor whose books I have successfully used with my remedial students now has a YouTube page, she has the first 16 of 51 videos that is a complete phonics program up to a 3rd to 5th grade level. I have some of her old series of books and they are good, I have used her "Letter Sounds Save Their Soul" books 4 and 5 with my remedial students. https://www.youtube....G9zIdtOtUHAtoUw Here is her website: http://www.sweetsoun...or-Parents.html

Good luck, sounds like a good plan! You can make a list of fun apps and educational videos online and save them for days you are feeling bad/tired. I like the online Read, Write, Type. http://www.talkingfingers.com/read-write-type/ I have a few online phonics videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l0Z941Cy1INrADEO9Sy4ZWz There is a good math one with manipulatives, ask here, I forgot the name and my kids are past that now.

I would have him watch through my online spelling lessons and work through my Syllables series. The syllables series has both spelling and word roots. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellinglessonsl.html http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html For combined spelling and word roots I also like Marcia Henry's Words, it is not babyish. It is usually cheapest from Pro-Ed. The Words sample is from early on, by the end you are working with multisyllable Greek and Latin words. http://www.proedinc.com/customer/productView.aspx?ID=989

If you look at recent brain research, the brains of good readers are reading every sound, just very fast in parallel. So, I would just teach the sight words with phonics. You can see my sight word page for an explanation how and why: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html I also have a lot of sight word movies explaining the same thing, and the Know Sight Words summary teaches them all very quickly: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l2AdSYtPS1d426P8rIv66eT You could also quickly work through my Syllables program, it teaches a lot of phonics quickly, the first 4 videos are online at YouTube and the rest there is a transcript for and the videos will release one per week until done: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html Here are some good videos about the brain research behind how the brain reads: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l1u9v4FTXD3CXgCBIGeSZpM My online phonics movies also teach a lot of phonics quickly, but are pretty boring for that age. They are all online, though, and you could try them: http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/phonicslsnslinks.html (I made the syllables series to teach most of the same thing but in a bit more fun way for a younger student.)

My new Syllables program integrates nonsense words and Webster: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html I would also give the MWIA, if the slowdown is more than 15% or misses any words on the Phonetic portion of the MWIA (an older student should not miss any), I would do a lot of nonsense words. Webster is also good but nonsense words are key.

:grouphug: You do have a lot of teacher intensive material. You need it for Barton, but you might want to look at some of your other choices and think about less teacher intensive things you could do instead. Or, maybe you could get a teen helper a day or two a week to do some science or history with them and free you up a bit. I would also look at some history with an audio or video component to free up some time for you. WWS is tough even for a regular student at that age. I would only do it once a week this year, maybe Wednesdays. Then, on Wednesdays instead of Barton, I would have them do my new Syllables Spell Success program together, the first 3 are now on YouTube and the last 7 will be released one a week on Tuesday mornings. (There are transcripts of the whole thing, so you can see the complete program in writing now.) My dyslexic students have all been helped by the syllables and nonsense words in the program. They can go through the series the first time with you, then a second time working together on their own, helping each other out. Then, I would figure out something else fun and easy they can do on Wednesdays for reading and spelling for a few weeks and then go through it again. You can keep using different higher level Webster tables if you print the whole Webster for the last 5 lessons. I would track their WPM progress with the nonsense words document in the teacher folder, it is marked as optional. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l2xN78qeGDDB1Lr5lyP6CHO