Thank you for the encouragement! I will definitely check that book out. Thanks!

Thank you so much! I guess I had pretty much figured that out from other's threads but was having a hard time accepting she may have any disabilities. I will call her pediatrician tomorrow and the school. And it looks like I need to do some research seeing as none of those acronyms are understandable to me :)

My dd is turning 7 in about a month. She was slightly delayed in speech...she didn't start really talking till she was about 3. We've been using Dancing Bears for awhile now but we are getting no where. Knowing things weren't going well I asked for help and was told she probably just needed more work with the phonograms. She knows them but seems to forget them when sounding out words. For instance she'll sound out something like tap and by the time she gets to the end she has already forgotten the first sound or she struggles at that moment to remember. Sometimes she simply says the wrong sound even though she did fine saying the sounds when we were going over the cards. Other times she will sound out three cvc words but by the time she gets to the fourth word she struggles to produce/remember what sounds those letters make. All this with me first demonstrating sounding the word out. So looking at the forum today I came across the Barton screening. Well she failed all three parts. We used AAS pre level and she struggled miserably through the whole thing. I'm at a loss! Also I don't know if it makes a difference as far as her learning to read but she struggles to count to 100. She knows how but easily/constantly loses her place when trying. Anyone have any insight into where I should go from here? I'm sure I'm not including enough info so please ask and I'll try my best to give the info needed. Thanks!

Word wizard. I've not used it but I know some who use AAS use it. And bonus...it's only $3.

Xtramath.org has an app that my kids enjoy.

My dd is 6 and a huge lover of crafts. She's wanting a book for Christmas to give her a little more direction with her crafting projects. She does great on her own and is very creative but wants something with ideas. I'm wanting this to be independent. It needs to have projects with supplies that your typical crafty kid would already have on hand, ie. pom poms, chenille stems, googly eyes, craft sticks, etc I don't want to buy a bunch of extras just for this. We're still working on reading skills so lots of detailed pictures is a must. Need something with ideas she can work on by herself while her sister and I do school. Anyone know of any great books out there? I'm hoping to get it used off Amazon but that's not essential. It may be worth mentioning she is more crafty than artsy right now so I'm not looking for art books. Thanks in advance for any ideas!

I love love love DB! I've been teaching my first to read and have been using AAR. We stalled a few lessons into level 2 and were both getting discouraged when I saw Alisoncooks posts about DB. I resisted the urge I was having to switch to something else because I hear so much about consistency so we plugged away at AAR but we just weren't getting anywhere and she was really starting to hate her reading lessons. I bit the bullet and bought DB. She had all the same obstacles your DS is dealing with but DB has helped her almost overcome them all. She still does reversals though. I can't believe the difference in her reading since starting DB just 3 or so weeks ago. It really is wonderful! Her fluency/decoding has really picked up and she is no longer sounding out everything. With her new found confidence she is comprehending her stories better also. All this to say I am obviously very glad to be using DB with her! It's working!

Maybe I just over thinking this but I just don't understand how to use this program. Once a student knows the first 26 phonograms and reaches the spelling list, am I suppose to read all the sounds? First spelling word is top. Am I suppose to say all the sounds for o? If so, do I pause between the sounds? Super quick pause saying the sounds fast or a more deliberate pause between sounds? Like I said maybe I am over thinking this but if I am saying three different sounds for one phonogram will she not think I want her to write that phonogram three times to spell the word? Also, I am suppose to explain/help her use the markings on her spelling lists, correct? Sorry if these sound like silly questions but I taught my first to read using AAR and I am not at all satisfied with how slow the program is and am looking for something faster to use with her sister but this is completely different from AAR and is confusing to me. Another question, I know they are suppose to learn to read using this book also. My daughter knows her phonograms, the first 26 anyway. If I were to give her the spelling word top and then give her the sounds she would be able to spell it but when she went to read it she will do something like this t,o,p....pop. Is this a sign she is not yet read to start reading. Should I be doing something else to work on phonics for now till she is more ready? She will be 6 in a couple months. Thanks for any help.

Excited to hear from happy users of this curriculum. I stumbled upon this one day and feel it is EXACTLY what I've been missing and casually searching for! Buying levels 1 and 2 to use with my K and 2nd grade students. I've been wrestling with spending the money because I had already bought everything for this year right before I found this. Excited to give it a try!

Thanks for the book recommendation! I am going to look for at my library this week. Thank you for the link to the coreknowledge website! That is some really great information!!

I've searched and can't seem to find what I am looking for. Does anyone use a checklist organized by grade level? I'm wanting something that I can review every year to make sure we are on track, to maybe help me recognize some things I need to teach that aren't necessarily in a "subject"; i.e. a human body study or things I missed teaching for whatever reason. Every checklist I have found focuses on common core stuff. Is there something out there like this? Preferably free :)

I don't know the answer to your question but just thought I'd share that my oldest dd has a beautiful pencil grip and has since the first day she picked up a pencil as a toddler. Her handwriting though, while not horrible, is not near as nice as her younger sister's handwriting. Younger dd holds her pencil strange but has very nice handwriting that just keeps getting nicer. She started writing letters at 3 and will be 5 in November. Younger dd also seems to be able to outlast her sister when writing, she doesn't seem to experience fatigue and will stop writing more out of boredom :/ I have decided not to try to correct it since it is working and not causing any problems. Others may disagree but we do what works :)

All About Reading's Pre Level teaches a lot of the things the other posters are talking about and it's fun too. It teaches using lots of games. I am glad we used it because I didn't realize how much they need to know before they actually learn how to read. I am teaching my first to read and this program has held my hand along the way :)

We usually have about 50-100 books checked out at any given time, with that in mind, I have 2 black $3 rectangle laundry baskets from Wal-Mart for library books.

We have a 10 per card limit here per visit with a maximum of 50 per card at any given time. We all have cards because of these limits, even the baby :)

My 4 year old is using book 1 right now. I think it would work great for K :) thanks for the heads-up about there being more copy work in book 2 though. I may have to order that for my 1st grader cause she is kinda bored with just writing the letters but I wanted them on the same book so it would be easier to work with them both at the same time.

Pentime. Only $6.50 a book. Uses Zaner Bloser style. Just got book 1 and the uppercase and lowercase are on the same page with lots of room for practice. They also have number writing practice at the bottom of most pages. If you really love ZB, which my children did love the colorful ZB books more than Pentime which is all black/gray and white, you can always purchase the ZB books used in like new/excellent condition off Amazon. I got mine for $8ppd a book with only minor shelf wear off Amazon.

Best dry erase boards I ever bought cost me $1 from Dollar Tree :) Not sure about the Proclick going on sale now but I just called my "local-ish" Office Depot and it is cheaper in store, by $20 plus they have a $10 off coupon now. The ever popular Scotch laminator goes on sale at Christmas time for just $16 if you can hold off till then.

I recently picked up a copy of this and the cd is just the book and a few bonus pages. Not sure if you have had a chance to check out the book yet but honestly I am not real impressed with it. For starters there is a HUGE list of core resources. If you were to purchase these all used it would set you back a couple hundred dollars. The projects are also lacking IMHO. The literature lists look like they will be good but I'm not sure they aren't something you could put together yourself using google. The activity pages in the book are crosswords, mazes, etc. not really anything special. Have you checked out Expedition Earth from Confessions of a Homeschooler?

Thank you all sooo much! I am happy to hear that this all sounds normal and will pass in time. I have had so much anxiety over the thought of teaching someone to read so I am sure that's no helping her :( Thank you for the link to help with figuring out b and d. I am going to show this to her now! I wasn't sure if I should point out the repetition figuring she should figure it out on her own. So for now I will mention it as we read and see if that helps her. Maybe start pointing it out less and less as we go. So should I just jump in on words that I think she will leave out letters in or wait till she makes the mistake then go back and break them down with her? Cause like I said she will correct it and really she rarely even makes the mistake when reading from the word cards. Something about reading those same words in a sentence in a book makes her leave out the letters.

Hello. My dd is 6 and we have been using AAR Level 1. We are only about halfway through the book. We have been moving kind of slowly probably by most people's standards. We are only doing one lesson a week sometimes stretching that lesson over two weeks depending on how she is doing. She has the most problems with the fluency practice sheets and usually only does one section before getting burnt out and we have to stop. Here's an example of how today progressed: From The Runt Pig The Big Top The teennt tent iiss is uuppp up. Beexx Bex, no wait, Deexx Dex and Sssiillkkk Sik. Here she stopped and looked at me cause she could tell something was wrong. So she tried again Sssiillkk Sik. She did this a few more times with no luck adding the lll back into the final word. It seems once she has left it out she can't put it back in. At this point I have to pretty much step in and sound it out for/with her. She mostly does this with 4 letter words, leaving out one letter in the middle. trroott tot again repeating the above scenario. ffaasstt fast Also when reading Bam, bam, bam she will sound it out each time. baamm bam baamm bam baamm bam She doesn't seem to notice that the word is just repeating. When doing the fluency sheets she doesn't seem to connect that all the words she will read will start with the bl or br sound for instance and she has to sound that out each time. So instead of going brr-uusshh brush brr-aagg brag she goes brraaggg bb-rraagg brag b-rruusshh brush The last time we did them towards the end of the practice she seemed to start to get it but was sounding it out each time at the beginning of the practice. She also takes letters sometimes and mixes them all up. For instance she will sound out was but it will come out saw. Or like today when she sounded out gets and it came out segt. I asked her today why she left out the p in spot she said sspoot sot. She said "Cause I didn't see it" She has ALWAYS confused b and d but has recently started correcting her own mistakes there. We went over and over how the b's do the walking and the d's do the talking. So she chants this when she can't remember but I have noticed her being able to just look and know right away more often, though she is not perfect at it yet. Is this normal progression in reading? Should she be making these kind of errors still? Also I don't know if it matters but we don't use sight words except the few "rule breakers" included in the AAR curriculum, I think there are only 5 right now. We started the beginning of the year using them but I found her guessing words all the time. I don't know if it is because of the sight words she was doing this but she has stopped guess mostly since we stopped the sight words. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!!!

Yes it was just last month. We did once before and renewed this year. As far as I know no one has had any problems with them.

If you keep an eye on Zulily.com they actually have Justin's for kids for just $25 though the sale for them just ended so i don't know when they will have them again. That's a GREAT price though!!!

I don't know if this would work for you but our homeschool group, we have a FB page to keep in touch with each other, got a Reading Eggs subscription together and it is only costing $20 per student. I wanna say there was a 50 student minimum maybe, making the price $25 per student and maybe 75 student for the $20 price. It's actually pretty easy to get together that many students because it doesn't just have to be Hsers so you can send out the invitation to anyone with children who might enjoy using Reading Eggs.

Bringing Up Learners has a free history guide called Myths, Maps, and Marvels using SOTW or G.H Gombrich's A Little History of The World as spines. Also Guest Hollow also has a free history guide combining SOTW and MOH as spines though they say they focus more on MOH. This guide can also be edited to include/exclude things you want/ don't want. This will be our first year in history so I can't vouch for either of these but we will be following Guest Hollow's Schedule this year and it looks great.