When I used to teach special education, I had many parents in your shoes, who were vehemently opposed to medication. I understand. I wouldn't want my child medicated, either. However, may I humbly suggest you get him professionally evaluated and if he, indeed, does have ADD, then reconsider the medication route. Think of it like glasses. If your son couldn't see well because of poor vision, you would have him evaluated by an optometrist and then have provide him with the proper eyewear. If he had a headache, you would give him an painkiller. ADD is really no different. ADD is not behavioral; it is a medical diagnosis. It is biological and has nothing to do with being lazy, not trying, not wanting to put forth the effort. Sometimes a very little dose of medication is all that is needed to help a child focus. Many a parent has shared with me how their entire home was different once their child had the appropriate medication. I will add, however, that in all cases, behavioral modification strategies were recommended, as well. Specific consequences, clearly laid out, were very effective in helping the children learn appropriate behavior. Medication, without behavioral modification strategies, would be like giving Advil for a broken arm, but not putting a cast on it.:tongue_smilie:

We, too, used Saxon in K and our DS, too, flew through it. What I found with my son, however, was that he is very bright with higher level thinking, figuring things, etc., but wasn't having fast recall of the basic math facts. What worked for us was to switch to R&S for the math facts and then use Singapore for the higher level thinking. It's been a great fit for us. Saxon was very cumbersome and I felt it held DS back. R&S is so simple to implement, it gives us more time for us to experiment with more advanced topics.

The first 10 lessons are just recognizing and writing the numbers 1-10. Adding doesn't start until lesson 11, so if you started then, you'd be down to 160 lessons. Since there are 180 days in an "official" school year, you wouldn't be all that far behind if you switched now.:001_smile:

We, too, had finished all of Saxon 1 and part of Saxon 2 when we switched to Rod and Staff last year. We started over with R&S 1 and are now about a third of the way through R&S 2. I wish I had known about R&S at the beginning, but I'm glad I discovered it when I did and I'm thrilled it's working so well with DS. It's a solid and thorough program and the TM's are excellent. There were many parts of Saxon that I liked, but it seemed very cumbersome to me and I wasn't content with DS's mastery of the facts. I find it much more peaceful to use R&S and I like it's emphasis on the basics. You might be interested in this link, which was given in another thread on R&S math: http://www.thelatinschool.org/Mathematics.html

I thoroughly enjoyed reading their article on why they use R&S arithmetic!

Well, I've never used CLE so I can't speak for that, but we love, love, love Rod and Staff. My DS has made great progress with it, once we switched over from OPGTR. I can't say enough good about their Bible Nurture and Reader Series. It's gentle, yet extremely thorough. The TM's are a great help, too.

There 5th and 6th grade books are called "Maintenance of Manuscript and Cursive." Perhaps your son wouldn't mind them, as they're only a bit below his level, as opposed to 2nd grade books. Check out: http://www.zaner-bloser.com/educator/products/handwriting/index.aspx?id=274

I hear you! Unfortunately, sometimes the opposite happens for me when I come to these boards and I start to get the "grass is greener over there" syndrome. Thankfully, we've settled into curriculum that is working well for us, so I'm doing less contemplating of other programs these days. Isn't it so tempting, though, to keep researching and looking for the "perfect" curriculum?:tongue_smilie:

I laughed when I read this, as I often hear R&S referred to as "dry and drill oriented," but you know what? It works! Interestingly enough, my son absolutely loves it! One caution I will give is with switching math programs. In my experience, children tend to struggle quite a bit when parents jump from one program to another. It actually would be better to stay consistent with a "less than perfect" program, than to keep switching, trying to find the perfect match. Just my opinion ... take it for what its worth! :001_smile:

Let me start by saying I'm a formal math teacher (grades 6-12). Then let me say that many, many children struggle with geometry. I've always loved math and done extremely well, but high school geometry was not my cup of tea. It wasn't until years later, when I had to teach it, that it finally made sense. So, don't let your bad experience with geometry lead you to believe you are math phobic. :001_smile: Now, this is just my opinion, but I've found in my life, when there are things that cause me anxiety, if I try to avoid them, I end up more anxious. I wonder if you do a "hands off" approach, if you wouldn't just end up increasing your anxiety. Rod and Staff is a very gentle approach with excellent TM's. If I were you, I would learn right along with the children, doing all the activities in the TM with them, 1:1. I have a feeling you'll start feeling much better about math and pleased with yourself that you are able to understand and then help your children. You also would be teaching your children a very valuable lesson, in that when things are difficult, we don't give up, but instead do whatever is necessary to learn and succeed. Down the road, such as in high school, you might find it necessary to higher a tutor and that's fine; however, for grades 1-8 I would really recommend taking advantage of the outstanding TM's and textbooks for R&S 1-8, and utilize a hands on approach.

I've also seen where a student does well on certain facts one day and then the next, acts like he never learned them. From my experience it's more common than not with students with LD. It's not that the student isn't trying; it's that they truly don't remember.

Truthfully, it sounds very much like a LD in math to me. Have you ever heard of dyscalclia? When I taught special education, if we had students make it to age 13 without learning their facts, despite working year after year on them, the psychologist would add "use of calculator" to their IEP. Then, we would move on with higher level math. We had many a student be successful in math once they could use a calculator. If you have been working this diligently with your son (and you have used R&S, which is an outstanding math program for learning the facts), but without success, I'd truly recommend having him retested by a different psychologist.

His website is homeschoolwithsaxon.com and he has fantastic information on it. He highly recommends not skipping any lessons and not using the tests to move quickly through a book. Check out his site for his reasoning. He also has published a book, "Using John Saxon's Math Books," which I found to be well worth the money.

There is a statement on the front cover of the placement tests: "For Students New to the Saxon Math Program."

The 1/2 hour I mentioned doesn't include my working with DS. I actually allocate 1 hour a day to math. Half of that is when I work with DS, going through the R&S lesson, doing flash cards, going over Saxon "meeting" type questions, etc.

Look on p. 41 of the TM, under #4. That's what you're doing with the steps. Look on p. 41 of the TM, under #6. You flash the cards for 1 min., doing as many as your are able in that minute. For the triplets, that's covered in Drill time. There are 20 triplet cards, so they don't take as long. FWIW, we use R&S 2, but supplement with Saxon 2. Is it necessary? I'm not so sure, but it's what's working for us right now and DS loves it. Basically, DS does all of R&S and then select problems on Saxon that are not covered in R&S. It takes him no more than 1/2 hour to do both. Right now, I'm leaning on only supplementing through Saxon 3, but I'll see when we near the end of 3.

Both my children have thoroughly enjoyed them. Barnes and Noble carries them in their stores, if you want to thumb through some, to get an idea.

When you purchase the blacklines, some of them are of the flashcards. I copied mine onto cardstock paper and cut them out. It's worked well for us!

I ditto what all the other posters said. We love R&S here!

We're going to do it as a read-aloud this year, with DS narrating back.

My 7 year old DS and 2 1/2 year old DD both love R&S's "Little Jewel" Books. We also enjoy "Bible Stories to Read," along with "Bible Stories to Color" from their preschool workbook set.

I've purchased quite a few of their materials and have found them all to be high quality. Even their "Little Jewel" books, which are very reasonable, are made of thicker paper.

by Art Reed (see www.homeschoolwithsaxon.com): As long as the editions* are the same, whether the textbooks have a softcover or a hardcover, the contents of the schools' classroom textbooks are identical to the contents of the homeschool textbooks. *by edition, he means 2nd edition, 3rd edition, etc.

We used Zaner-Bloser. They teach right handers not to slant the paper for manuscript. (Later on, they do teach them to slant for cursive.) Others, like A Reason for Handwriting, teach a child to slant the paper from the beginning. My son actually did better not slanting it, plus I think it will help down the road, with cursive, when he does slant the paper. We also followed their guidelines for letter formation and I was very strict that my son do it the correct way. It was harder for him in the beginning, as he wanted to do it "his" way, but I'm glad I stuck to my guns, because now, at 7, he has great handwriting and is frequently complemented on how neatly he forms his letters.

It starts with the basics and goes slowly enough that children have time to understand and master the material. Plus, although the teaching time is 1:1, the worksheets are designed to be done independently, freeing you up to work with your other child.