I agree with Alessandra - I don't have a teenager, but I think paying him for his math time is a great idea. You can even say, I know you wanted to get a job, but your dad and I thought you should concentrate on school. So we're going to say that math is your job, and we're going to pay you accordingly. Just like any other job, if you don't show up, you don't get paid!

Thanks for the wonderful ideas! We do like Fly Guy, and I checked out some Bad Bears books which look adorable. I will look into the others, too! CraftyHomeschool, yes, the boys do sound a lot alike! Our favorite books by far have been the Cork and Fuzz series by Dori Chaconas. They are SO cute, and funny. We're also reading some Tom and Ricky books, although they don't have many illustrations. The books are almost entirely "decodable," and use really common words. There is a lot of repetition which is great, but they're also pretty good mysteries! You can buy them really cheaply on Amazon. Lecka, I'm not sure if there are phonemic awareness issues. He has no trouble saying a word in sounds, so on the one hand it doesn't seem like that's the problem. His spelling is not very good though. He can spell a word aloud much better than he can write it. When he reads, it's as though he doesn't see the separate letters in a word unless I specifically tell him to look closely - they are just a big mush. Lindamood-Bell was an absolute disaster for him, and it didn't really help much at all. His reading specialist at school told me we just need to abandon any sequential teaching method and instead teach him sight words, prefixes and suffixes, and how to visualize and guess the word accurately from context. I'm with her most of the way, but I still want him to sound out words... We are doing repeated oral reading, choral reading, typing, and lots of sight words this summer. I think Davis would help a lot, but he doesn't like building words with clay, with Legos, writing with chalk or any of that. He just wants to be a ninja and that's it! :-) Thanks again!!

Hi everyone, I tutor a fantastic, creative, brilliant, dyslexic 9 year old boy, and I need some great book recommendations for him. He is pretty severely dyslexic, and I'd estimate he's reading at an early 2nd grade level. He's going into 4th grade this year, and I really want this summer to be THE SUMMER where things finally click. He goes to a wonderful supportive school, but he needs to get reading! He already feels out of place with his peers. His attention span is really short, so part of the problem is that he's just not getting enough practice time. I hope with the right book, he'll stick with it a little longer and make more progress. Besides his attention issues, the main trouble is that his comprehension is sky high, but his reading is not. It's a challenge for me to find books that capture his attention, yet are easy enough for him to decode. He is a very visual-spatial thinker, so sounding out words does not come naturally to him, and he'll only try hard if the book is really interesting. He tends to guess rather than try sounding out a word. We're using a mixture of repeated oral reading, sight words, typing and Davis methods this summer. He loves The Hobbit, Harry Potter, ninjas, and Minecraft. Any recommendations would be so welcome! Thanks!

Wow, ElizabethB, the phonovisual book is a treasure!!!!

First of all, I'd just like to say that you sound like an awesome and very supportive mom! I tutor a 9 year old who sounds a lot like your son. He is very dyslexic, has trouble doing "boring" things like basic math and reading, but has excellent reading comprehension. He is also very physically mature - good at sports, balance, jumping, etc. My student is a Visual-Spatial learner, and your son might be also. Visual-Spatial kids think in pictures, which is why sounding out words is hard for them. They like to learn the whole word at the same time - no starting at one end and sounding out till the end. V-S kids are also good at building, abstract thought, complex math and difficult ideas, but not very good at basic math and spelling, for example. That means they have skills that will really help them in the future, but when they are 9, they get judged b/c they can't spell or do basic math or reading. This website is great to learn more about VS kids: http://www.visual-learners.com/ As for reading, your son might really like to illustrate sight word cards, play matching games with sight word cards, etc. You can also encourage him to try to read the "first three sounds" of a word, and then make an educated guess based on context. This won't work all the time, but he should be encouraged to use his strengths of predicting and comprehension. Books with vivid pictures are the best for V-S learners. Good luck!