Most honorary degrees are just honorary, this one was truly earned! Great story, thanks for posting.

If you are sensitive to VOCs and want something powerful for the future, I use Hydrogen Peroxide spray or Oxygen Bleach powder for jobs that need a more powerful cleaning.

I use a mix of water, baking soda, and fragrance free Ivory dish soap.

The Miracle Maker is a mix of claymation and regular animation. There is at least one scene that was a bit scary, but my kids watched and enjoyed it pretty young. I would preview and skip anything that is not age appropriate. https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Maker-Story-Jesus/dp/B00004WI56/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1495514868&sr=8-2&keywords=The+miracle+maker

zaner bloser for adults and older students: https://www.amazon.com/Self-Instruction-Handwriting-Students-Improve/dp/0880853794 If you follow the book and don't write in it, you can use it for all age children, use bigger lined paper for younger students, smaller lines for older students. Start on a white board for all younger students and older students having trouble.

I would keep working phonics, reading is such a foundational skill. A bit of phonics work daily will make everything else easier in the long run. My multisyllable stuff free to print: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html You could also do Wise Owl polysyllables or Phonics Pathways or Word Mastery.

If you want to try some OG techniques for cheap as a trial, you can use the OG manual "Recipe for Reading" and add in some nonsense words. The manual is less than $20, you can use it from a white board and have a complete basic OG program for simple words, workbooks not necessary. https://www.amazon.com/Recipe-Reading-Revised-Expanded-Traub/dp/0838805051/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495304803&sr=8-1&keywords=recipe+for+reading Nonsense words, free to print with my game: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html and more in links 2, 4 of student folder and 6 of teacher folder: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

It could be a phonological awareness problem. Here is a free screening test: http://www.spelfabet.com.au/2013/02/free-phonological-awareness-test/ My blending page and the sound pictures of sounds vs. syllables on my dyslexia page explain how and why phonological awareness interacts with words and how the letter sounds change when put together. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/dyslexia.html Many boys need a lot more time to learn the sounds and achieve fluent blending and reading, I have found that it goes faster if you let them use the one page chart on my blending page above to look them up themselves while reading. I also find nonsense words and word lists speed the process, you can do them in fun ways--my phonics concentration game, put the words on cards and run back and forth to get them, make the words yourself from the sound cards, etc.

Some of these teachers guides might give you good ideas: https://classicalacademicpress.com/series/walking-to-wisdom-literature-guides/

Phonics Pathways and OPG both teach phonics to a 4th grade level, Word Mastery free online to a 3rd grade level, from Don Potter. I would pick one of those. You could do a bit of my phonics to finish out the year, free to print: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

I have had several students who did not have dyslexia who had that many problems and guessing habits just from the sight words they got in public school K who were later switched to phonics via private school or homeschooling. I have also had a few students like that who had either dyslexia or a vision problem. Either dyslexia or sight word guessing problems will both be helped with explicit phonics instruction that includes nonsense words. My students all made rapid progress when they switched to word lists only, no sentences or stories, and just word lists and nonsense words for a few months. The predictability of sentences and the inclusion of so many sight words in sentences triggers the guessing habit. If it is true dyslexia it will take a lot longer and you will need an OG program. The cheapest OG program is Recipe for Reading, you can get the manual for less than $20 and use it with a whiteboard and without the workbooks--I actually like it better that way, the whiteboard is more fun for my students and writing everything one letter at a time from left to right helps reinforce the sounding out every sound from left to right habit. https://www.amazon.com/Recipe-Reading-Revised-Expanded-Traub/dp/0838805051 I have some ideas on my blending page: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html and my dyslexia page, with a link to a free assessment for phonemic awareness: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/dyslexia.html If you suspect vision problems after ruling out everything else and reading the symptoms on the COVD website, you can purchase this book and work through the exercises in the book. If it is easy, just do a bit and move on. Hard, problem area, do a lot and work up gradually. For a student with no vision problems they will all be easy. Eventually you will need to see a COVD doctor but you can get a start with the book while saving up money for vision therapy and figuring out a good COVD doctor in your area. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1556425953/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I work in 20 minute sessions with 5 minutes of a game at the end, at the beginning always my phonics concentration game which is fun and makes both real and nonsense words. Later, Greek and Latin word root bingo. For older students, I do two 20 minute sessions broken up with a snack or short recess. It is better to do two 10 minute sessions than one 20 minute session when you have that luxury for a younger student. This is the program I use with my remedial students, all free to print: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html You can track fluency and progress by doing a timed reading of 50 nonsense words per day, track time and accuracy, from the nonsense word document in the teacher folder in the link above. (But a change from simple to harder types will be a bit of a slowdown, for example, moving from simple short vowel words to mixed short vowel nonsense words and finally to a mix of all types of words once all phonics patterns have been taught.)

I use Spelling Plus, it focuses on the most frequent 1,000 words, which account for 90% of any average running text. That is one use of frequent words that I can get behind. She has the lists organized by pattern and includes rules. I could teach it all myself from my years of teaching phonics, but it was way easier to just buy her book, it was just under $20. I have the dictation book to show people who need dictation sentences, but my son didn't need them. My daughter didn't need either book, I used Natural Speller with her and taught her the rules quickly. While not a good beginning book for most, is a good follow on for 7th and 8th grade level words for a non Natural Speller. (Spelling Plus words end at about a 6th grade spelling level.) http://www.susancanthony.com/bk/sp.html

I find it interesting that our European board members are confused! We lived in Germany for 4 years, perhaps Germans are too efficient to do things in an inefficient manner and then come up with a principle to fix it! The European schooling system seems a lot more efficient than ours. Especially in the early years, American education, especially public schools but also to a degree private schools, do have a lot of busywork and work on the 80% side of the scale, that is probably one of the reasons many of us here have for homeschooling. But, there are also some homeschool programs that are not efficient.

My daughter when she was young thought the passages in tests like this were so stupid she didn't bother to work hard to get the right answer, I noticed that she did well only on passages that were interesting to her at that age. I would test her myself and see if there is an actual problem with comprehension or related to the test. Other people's ideas could also hold true--bubbling problems, bad day, etc. (Next year after I figured out the problem, I told her to read the questions first and work hard to answer them correctly even if the passages and questions were not interesting or well written.) The McGuffey readers have comprehension questions starting in the 4th readers and are free to print from Gutenberg press if you need some ready made questions. If there is an actual comprehension problem I have ideas, too, but it may be test specific and not a problem.

Interesting idea!! I'm not sure if it holds true for upper grade material. But, applying that principle has made my phonics tutoring 5 to 10 times faster and more efficient. Based on the way words are distributed in sentences and stories, 50% to 90% of the words in any passage are repeating, so working on targeted word lists instead of a mix of word lists and sentences and stories has made my tutoring and phonics teaching much more efficient. (Also nonsense words and syllables are more efficient for breaking guessing habits, but that is a separate issue not related to the 80/20 principle. However, limiting sentences and stories during remediation keeps sight words out of the study of words I use, I find that the sight words also trigger guessing habits.) I add in games and exercises to make the study of word lists more fun, but find that working on targeted lists with breaks in-between is very efficient. The way words are distributed in passages is described by Zipf's law, it is similar to a logarithmic distribution but slightly different. Perhaps reading efficiency might be one area of upper grade level work that would apply if the student is reading below 400 WPM. I have a theory (based on recent brain research about reading) that targeted study of nonsense words along with modified quick use of the program I use with my remedial students may help an older student improve their silent reading speed, which would speed up their work in other areas. Here is what I use with my students, it includes a silent reading speed test and the nonsense word document. It has improved the reading speed of my remedial student but has not been tested with non remedial students. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html Literacy level is more highly correlated with earnings than IQ, and only 5% of Americans are reading at a college level (they dropped that level for the most recent adult literacy survey and now the top level is around the 12th grade level, but still less than 20% of Americans are reading at that level.) Here are the percentages and correlations to earnings: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/litpercent.html http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/profitable.html

Fun blending ideas: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html I think CAT phonics has some interactive worksheets, free to print, click on each lesson for worksheets and games. http://www.phonics4free.org/mona-mcnee-biog

It is also good to up potassium, lots of fruits and veggies, google for best ones for potassium.

My kids had seen one particular Star Trek monster that scared them a bit but laughed at the sleestacks in comparison.

Singapore, no regrets, it was a strong foundation for both, one a natural at math, the other a natural at LA but needing more work with math. They are both better at mental math and flexible solving of simple math than me thanks to Singapore.

I watched a few episodes of Land of the Lost with the children about 5 years ago. They could not believe that I was afraid of the sleestacks when I was little, "they are so fake." The shows got repetitive fast but I did enjoy the awesome fakiness and cheesiness and 70s clothes for a few episodes. I also enjoyed a few McGuivers with my son. My husband quit after two, I watched about a half dozen before they got old and I started reading a book while watching with him, looking up if there was a particularly cool scene or explosion. My husband quit after 2 minutes of Land of the Lost, LOL.

I would try building simple words with the cards linked on my blending page, read the whole page. Start with just a few consonants and one vowel, then add a vowel, then add a consonant. Beginning L and R, and any position M, N are good easy consonants to start with, but just pick one of m and n if she confuses them. Also, let her use the chart to look up things for a while, it helps acquisition of the sounds for many of my struggling learners. I like the one page chart best but if she needs larger, the full page vowel and full page consonant charts until she can handle the smaller one page chart. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html

I use and like their Building Thinking Skills series, I looked at a lot of their products and chose just that one and have been happy with it. It does not take much time and teaches a lot of good skills. My son recently applied to a 1/2 day math and science school, one of the tests was similar to things in those books, but he said they were harder then the high school book. I moved him to his sister's books this year, it does get a bit repetitive after a few years so she was done with the books but did maybe 1/3 of the exercises in them. Anyway, he was given 40 minutes for 200 questions and completed 197 and thinks he got most of them right! Both of their spatial reasoning skills are better and faster than mine after working through the books. I have to think longer then them and sometimes check the answers. I am a bit faster than my son in the verbal ones but my daughter can do them as fast as me. I have never had to check the verbal answers. I could do the verbal ones in 12 seconds per question, but no way could I complete as many as he did with a mix of the two, he said it was a mix of verbal and spatial questions. The lower levels are one book, high school is two books, figural and verbal.

Ideas to make blending fun: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l3aBN-qowg2u8BdGYM64pTi&v=6Q4KTyqpg5o http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html

concentration game: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html Mona mcNee's games, at end of each lesson, british phonics but should work fine: http://www.phonics4free.org/mona-mcnee-biog Phonics Pathways Boosters: https://www.amazon.com/Phonics-Pathways-Boosters-Teaching-Jump-Start/dp/1118022440/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1493524534&sr=8-5&keywords=phonics+pathways

Free to print, focuses on spelling and multi-syllable phonics. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html