Yep, I do. I read a book by Mary Pride (can't remember the title) where she called it "educational clutter". Next year I will be homeschooling only my younger son, since my older son is graduating this year. This is the first year in FOREVER that I have not bought anything for the next school year. It's killing me!LOL

Sounds like my sons at that age. They are 15 and 19yo now. First, give him instructions one at a time. Tell him to go get dressed, then to come tell you when he's dressed. You might even set the timer for 10 minutes (so he gets the feel of what 10 minutes feels like). Do the same for brushing his teeth, then making his bed, then any other morning activity/chore you have for him. Reward him with some extra privilege when he's done all these little 10 minute activities. Before you know it, he will have developed HABITS. You will eventually get to move to the point where you can set the timer for 30 minutes and tell him to do his "morning routine" (dressing, teeth, bed for my boys). Then, one day you won't even have to use the timer OR even tell him to do his morning routine, 'cuz it will be his habit to do it. This same thing works for his school lessons. Start with extremely short work sessions (like 10 minutes). It always amazed me what my boys could do if they knew they only had to do it for 10 minutes. What am I saying?! This even works for me! I'm only on my computer right now because I told myself that I could have this little break only after I scrubbed the bathroom. See, it's not about motivating, it's about setting manageable goals, then meeting them.

This is what my son, a senior, will be doing in the fall. He has Asperger Syndrome and is 2e. Ask this question again around Thanksgiving and I'll let you know how it's going:)

My sister, who teaches 3rd grade math, science and social studies in TN, has been sharing with me a bit about CC. Honestly, it almost sounds as if the CC developers looked at MUS for the idea of how math should be taught. I was excited about what she told me about CC math. Her students, 3rd grade, will be expected to memorize math facts, but she will not be allowed time in class to work on helping them memorize (test the memorization, but not practice in class). Parents will HAVE to work with their kids at home on this skill. Now, CC reading sounded disappointing to me and her. She says that CC has the students doing mostly non-fiction readings. Sounds like studying literature is going to be a lost art with the CC. She says that thankfully her school uses Accelerated Reader, so the students at her school will still be reading plenty of fiction because of that.

I totally agree. This sounds like something my boys would have said in a classwhen they were younger. Now that they are teens, they would for sure make the comment about Jesus and the abs (in fact, I would too!) in class, but not the vomit pix, but probably would still not choose a typical pix to draw. They are both creative and extremely out of the box kids. Now, as the mom I would want to know the teachers concerns. Mom can help her son to know what is "socially acceptable" to say in class, especially with younger kids. Also, he can learn that some of his teachers in life are a little more sensitive than others and that it's polite for him to be sensitive to that. I've had these conversations with my sons many times.

I'm wondering if your boys might be like my sons, who are now 12th and 9th graders. As active and tactile as my sons are, they have always hated hands on activities that centered around something they were learning. There have been times that they thought of something to create or act out (pretend play) while playing, but they have never enjoyed what I call directed play (parent/teacher ideas for crafts or other hands on ideas).

My 15yo is using IEW SWI level B and Fix-It Grammar. If she's had some formal grammar already, she might be ready for Fix-It. I found my ds needed to a bit of formal grammar before starting Fix-It.

I have learned to give info when my boys ask. If they want to know how to spell a word, I tell them. If they are struggling with a word problem in math, *I* sit down with them, read it aloud and just tell them what do to while I'm reading it. Also, do this with my 15yo son's writing. If he forgets some punctuation or spells something wrong, I just tell him. This has helped my younger son, the 15yo who has dyslexia, to loose the "I'm so dumb" attitude for the most part.

I used to wear running shoes with not only work out wear, but also jeans and sweaters. A couple of years ago, I started wearing Birkenstocks. I LOVE them! They are with the money since they last forever and ever!

Honestly, I would go with MUS. This program is popular enough that it's usually pretty easily to find the TMs used. In fact, if you have a local homeschool group, you could explain your situation and possibly find folks who are willing to loan their TM to you. Then all you have to purchase is the workbook. I've used MUS's lower levels with both of my sons. My senior was in middle school when I used the lower levels with him. My 15yo just finished Epsilon last week. He'll begin Zeta tomorrow. HTH

I highly recommend doing dictation and lots of oral narration for a few years. That's what I did with both my sons. My older son has AS, but is a natural writer. He is a senior this year. When he was younger he couldn't get words on paper because his thoughts went too fast. Dictation and oral narration helped this. We highly suspect my 15yo as dyslexia. He has struggled with writing too but in a different way. He doesn't have the natural creativity with words and stories like my older son does. Dictation has really helped him with sentence structure, punctuation, vocabulary,etc.... Also, when he orally narrates, I've always made sure he uses complete sentences and retells the reading in the order it happened. Eventually, in 8th or 9th grade, IEW has helped both of them. For my older, more creative with writing son, just using the IEW structures helped. My younger son is benefitting from IEW's structure and style. Hope that helps!!

Thank you for sharing!!!!

Thank you for reposting this! I soooooo needed that!!!!

Thank you for reporting this! I soooooo needed that!!!!

Sounds like my son a few years ago. I started using AAS with him when he was almost 12 (he's 15 now). He didn't like using the tiles either, so I just had him write everything. AAS really helped my son's reading and spelling.

Thank yu soooooo much! I NEEDED that, especially the "mini" sermon (for lack of a better word:) near the end.

Sounds just like my son at that age. He is now a senior and aspires to be a *writer*!!! He still does very little pen/pencil writing. He types pretty much *everything*. At the age of 9, I did dication with him almost daily (started with one short sentence). Since he loved reading, I always used living boooks, even for science. He orally narrated to be daily from at least one reading. By the time he was 12yo, he was able to do a longer dictation passage (maybe 50 words...can't remember exactly) and began doing one written narration (one *typed* paragraph) a week while still doing daily oral narrations. The only outlining he's done is the key word outling the way IEW teaches. He doesn't use al the stylistic techiques IEW teaches, but has found the way IEW teaches how to write multisourced papers helpful. BUT that was something we didn't tackle until 11th grade.

My older son *really* struggled with remembering the steps. I wrote out a sample problem using a different color for each step. Then I wrote out the steps using words (like you say LoF does) and I used the same colors for this that I did in the sample problem (does that make sense?) For my older son, this did the trick. He had to use this for MONTHS before he could do it from memory. I did this with my younger son also. Oh, and I also spent days sitting with them when they would do a long division problem and talk/walk them through the steps. This helped my younger son more than my older. The visual aid helped my older son the most.

Thank you!!!!

I tried it with my son. Didn't fit him at all. Math U See has worked well. Greta:)

I recommend All About Spelling. My son was in 5th grade reading on a 2nd grade level when I began using AAS with him. It helped with reading and spelling. Also, I did repeated readings with him about 3x a week for about 2 years (5th and 6th). I used passages from Abeka's Read and Think skills workbook for the repeated readings. This helps with cmprehension. Listening to audio books has been very helpful to my son. He eventually got to the point where I had him not only listen but also read along. Oral narration in COMPLETE sentences aleays followed this. At first, I would write his narration as he told it to me, then have him copy it (or I'd dictate it to him). HTH, Greta:)

Don't discount how much hormones might be making the ADD worse. Both of my son's issues were SO much worse during the raging puberty years. A daily checklist has always helped my boys. I always had them alternate a heavy reading subject with a writing and/or workbook type program. Some kids with attention issues do best to not have lots of breaks during school, but my boys have done better with lots of breaks. I'd just talk with her about that. If she won't give input then just try some different schedules til you figure that one out. Also, my 9th grade son (ADD and dyslexic) has done well in the past reading along to audio books. Since you did ask for curriculum ideas, I'll share. But just remember there is really no curr. that works best for all kids with attention span issues (or any issues). My ds likes workbook type programs. For history, we alternate between oral narration via key-word-outlining (IEW method) and answering specific questions about the chapter. Some ideas: Math U See IEW Easy Grammar Megawords Wordly Wise Story of the World (during middle school) History of US (started this year...9th grade) Globe Science Workshop series (just started this year) Almost forgot to add that one thing that has helped my ds SO much is to do something that tee-totally relaxes him on his breaks. For my son, that is either drawing or playing his guitar.

My struggling student is in 9th grade this year. He reads on about a 6th-7th grade level and is doing 6th-7th grade math. Here's what he's doing and my tentative plans for 10th-12th... 9th: -Math U See Epsilon (will start Zeta in a couple of weeks and continue through the summer) -English: *IEW (writing mostly about history topics) *Megawords books 5 & 6 *Wordly Wise book 6 *Easy Grammar Plus and IEW's Fix-It Grammar *Literature (The Hobbit & The Giver so far this year...just read and discuss with mom) -History of US books 1-4 -Globe Scienceworks Biology (written for highschoolers reading on a 5th grade reading level...just started this after Christmas...going VERY well) Tentative for 10th: -Math U See Zeta (finish) and Pre-Alg -English: *IEW *Megawords 7 & 8 *Wordly Wise book 7 *Easy Grammar Plus and Fix-It Grammar *Movies as Literature (homeschool class) -History of US books 5-8 -Biology (finish) Tentative for 11th: -Teaching Textbooks Alg. I -English: *IEW (Possibly Elegant Essay) *Lit (mom created course) -History/Gov/Econ: *History of US books 9 & 10 *Uncle Eric books with guides -Chemistry: Globe Scienceworks series -Foundations in Personal Finance (1 year course at homeschool classes) Tentative for 12th: -Teaching Textbooks Alg II -English: *IEW *Lit (mom created course) -Gov/Econ (homeschool class) -Speech (homeschool class...1/2 year) -Health (homeschool class...1/2 year) -Physics: Globe Sciencework series Guitar and art lessons as he wants them during the highschool years. HTH

This is what I use also. I'm 45 and have sensitive skin. I love Cerave Cream for the rest of my body.

Yes, regular twin sheets fits those beds. I might get a few calendars for her to hang on the wall. One with different flowers each month, one with kittens, dogs or other cute animals and then one with cute baby photos. This way there is a variety of cheerful pix to look at *and* the pix will change each month for variety. I like the idea of a pretty bedside lamp. Also, I might talk to my church about this lady. She really needs a church family to "adopt" her.