Back in the days before everyone had a cell phone camera, the Fighting Irish Leprechaun might have been taken out by some overzealous Air Force Academy Cadets. They entire class was locked down for a weekend as punishment. There is always a big Air Force Notre Dame rivalry, but that does not excuse hurting an innocent Leprechaun.

Arkansas wonderboys. The grads I know will speak up for their mascot, though, and self identify if people are talking about bad mascots.

For my group classes, I bought 8 or 10 sets of magnetic letters. I put them in 2 tupperware containers, they race back and forth to grab a handful of letters at a time and then start building words when they have all the letters. If they have run off enough energy, the last few games I just dump the boxes on thr table for them. I just put them on chairs across the room from the table where they build, each group builds on one side.

Don't move to Moscow... I am sorry. I would complain, capture, write editorials, etc. Depending on the area of Texas, you could use the shoot/shovel plan and people would think that was acceptable, that might have been why we saw no strays when we lived in Abilene, Texas. I have lived all over during our years in the Air Force and have not seen that anywhere we have lived.

An older student learning to read can handle 2+ syllable words, I would try some of ny multi syllable phonics resources. The charts and cards linked at the end would be fun for your younger kids as well and multi sensory to move around. With students who need a lot of activity, I like to do relay races, play games with magnetic letters, how many can you make in a minute, run back and forth to get words to sound out or letters to build words. Writing on a white board and allowing the student to pick the marker color also helps add interest and activity. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

Normal. You can use my sound cards to make reading snd spelling words more fun and my phonics concentration game for fun practice. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/40LChartsCombined.pdf Recent brain research has found that good readers are actually processing every sound in every word, just really fast in parallel. It takes some students a lot more time and repetition to build up speed after learning to blend. My son took a lot more repetition than my daughter, and some of my remedial students take even longer. With some students, adding in a bit of spelling can speed the process. You can use the cards for spelling, too, or magnetic letters.

Your biology can be modified to include less general biology and more biochemistry.

A small bottle of metamucil and a black balloon.

The vision piece will be a big part, but also, if she was taught with sight words, the guessing and problems with nonsense words can be because of that, but amplified because of the vision issues. How and where did she learn to read and with what method or methods?

Can you tutor someone at his level in a subject or two once or twice a week amd work with them together? Or can some of your tutoring students work with him a bit in their strengths? Then, you get to tutor and he gets more interaction. Or, could some of the parents of the students you are working with help with your son a bit with his simpler work? Or just their favorite hobbies or games with him? (Parents and/or students) Our school next year will not look like what I had planned due to various constraints I have to work around. The kids are fine with it, but it will not be as much fun for me. Can you fold laundry or grade other work while he is doing work that you just have to loosely monitor?

Some children in some states we have lived have been disabled enough that they were not required to test, you had to get a doctor's note. The test was short, too, just the reading and math portion of the ITBS, but you could take all sections if you wanted, but just those two were required and tracked, but not tracked by student, just averages. A moderate disability or learning problem would have accomodations to fit the problem. I think Arkansas was one of them, I think they listed number of accomodation students and number of exemptions in their report. The data was interesting, they aggregated it by county and grade, and like the article said, every year the scores were above average, and a there are a number of homeschoolers in Arkansas, it is popular there. I do think the tests motivated a few people even though there were no penalties for doing poorly, in other states with less requirements, I knew a few homeschoolers whose children were behind and they did not realize it until later, it would have been easier for them to catch early. (I always tell people about my reading grade level tests and volunteer to help them get their kids in track if there are problems. With homeschoolers, the parents are usually capable of teaching, but I have directly helped out folks with deployed spouses or a parents lot of kids and toddlers, or those with speech or language problems.)

I am pretty sure they had accomodations and exceptions, but we never were their when the kids were old enough to test. Most states with broad testing requirements do have exemptions and accomodations.

That could be fun...a mini chess board and another small thing or two one one side and a giant left blank card. I like the sarcastic poster idea, too, but maybe a small postcard one. My favorite is the stormtrooper with his head in his hands, "Those were the droids I was looking for."

Summer cooking classes!! That is what I am planning. The kids cook their own lunch daily, part of the deal if they want to homeschool. They cook dinner often, sometimes my husband does. I have a bunch of food allergies, so my food is a pain, a few days of my rotation diet I will feed any interested parties from my food. I figure summer is a good time for them to expand their cooking selections, my son can make a half dozen things and my daughter maybe a dozen.

I will also add that my furthest behind remedial students have all come from public schools. I do care about all students and believe they should have an opportunity for a good education. It is sad when a student is behind where they should be no matter the reason. It is especially sad for poor students who do not have the family educational or monetary resources to remediate their children, every time I think of that NY Times article graph of the gap it makes me mad and sad.

We lived in Arkansas 3 times, I actually liked their regulation--register, send in a short what you will do, test for info only. I know a few people in other states who could have used a testing wake up call. Interestingly, the testing requirement was done away with recently, the only free article about the test repeal I could find about it is from HSLDA. http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/ar/201504060.asp

I don't know if I agree, but here is a chart showing the "hidden rules among classes," something to add into the mix, I have seen it referenced somewhere before. I think there are definite regional differences in what people value having moved around a lot and lived in dozens of states and in Germany for 4 years. Los Angeles and DC were quite different in what people valued from the middle of the country, and different emphasis between the two. The south is different, and Texas similar to the south but also unique, and the Midwest has its own values and norms that are a bit different. It also varies by what type of employment industry you are in, not just class or region. And, people are individuals, too, but there are definite average differences by region and industry. https://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/mgt216/Mgt%20216%20Payne%20on%203%20Classes.ppt

I grew up in the Seattle area very near Jean. Not common, and I lived in a working poor neighborhood and then went to a high school that was a mix of working poor, many free lunch (some free lunch at my elementary) and middle class with a few rich kids. So, I met a broad spectrum of folks. My track team especially ran the economic gamut, as did my basic classes. In fact, my entire neighborhood growing up was mostly stay at home wives and moms, but some moms worked and no one judged either. There are now a few stay at home dads, too, in that area, that was not as common when I was growning up. Cost of living has gotten high there, though. There are probably more dual income people on the coasts because of cost of living issues, it is easier to survive on one income in low COL areas.

I am not a big fan of common core overall, but the sight words and reading problems are about the same before and after. I have remediated this problem with hundreds of remedial students over the last 22 years with nonsense words and word lists from a good mastery phonics program, no sentences or stories or outside reading for a month or two until the guessing stops and phonics is automated. You can use audio books and read alounds and read their math and science to them. Here is how to teach the sight words phonetically and why they cause problems: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html A child that young usually remediates fairly quickly, older children take longer. This is the program I use with my remedial students, all free to print: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html

Thanks. I am a stong writer, too, I think it could work in a similar manner to how you used it. I was planning on selling WWS 2 but I'll keep it just in case or maybe for ideas or follow on work.

I actually think she might do well with the whole program for a semester or two if it weren't DVD, she is a very checkboxy person. But, she also hates, hates, hates DVD instruction. She did extra chores to avoid DVD watching to finish up a DVD program she was using, she did chores while I watched the DVD and then I taught it to her... I like doing chores less than I like watching DVDs, but my daughter does not. We both prefer reading.

If you can do all housework duties in 10 minutes a day, write a book or make a video series about how you do it to and I will buy it and the rest of the hive will and millions of other folks, and you will be able to live off your book/DVD proceeds!!

My remedial phomics lessons are designed partly around that, 2 syllable words from the first lesson. Also, that is why people use Lial's Basic College math for remediation of math, it has college on the cover!! Webster's Speller with grade levels for words is also good, they see themselves moving up quickly from 4th to 5th to... and if they are really insecure I work with them on words a grade or two above their grade, or 12th grade level if they are adults, with a bit of support they can do it, it gives them confidence they will be able to get there and sound them out on their own. Middle school students are actually the worst in terms of motivation from my experience, and they don't like my game, I have to use lists of nonsense words instead. High schoolers and adults enjoy my game and so do elementary students.

If you do Art of Problem Solving, you might need to start with Pre-Albegra, it is pretty intense. Take a look at the samples and the online videos, there are online videos for all of Pre-Algebra. Also, I asked if I needed the solution manual, and everyone, even math and physics and engineering folks, said yes.

She does not enjoy WWS. I am considering WWS 2 if I don't find anything better for next year. She is capable of and does fine with it, though, but she reallymwants another format if I can get a good grading scale so we don't clash over that.