Thanks. I like those Geography Songs, too. For math facts, I was trying to cobble together my own economical imitation of Rapid Recall from Little Giant Steps, but I've decided to just spend the money on their materials. I like their approach to input/output.

I am looking for NON-musical math facts mp3's, for all four operations. Rhythm is fine, just no melody, only spoken math facts. We've tried this, which is close to what I need, but my 12yo really disliked it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014DK0KC/ref=pd_mp3_als_qp_pa

I have this book on Auditory Sequential Memory. Is it similar? https://www.amazon.com/Auditory-Sequential-Memory-Instructional-Workbook/dp/0972776230 I am hoping to find some right-brained colorful charts to use alongside SCM's Spelling Wisdom, as that program will help with other writing skills at the same time. Is Saxon Phonics visually similar to Abeka? I could use my Abeka Handbook for colorful, visual ideas for presenting the spelling rules that come up as we work through Spelling Wisdom.

Phonological dysgraphia with low working memory in my 12yo ds: Has anyone used the Right-Brained Sound Spelling cards from Child 1st? They look wonderful but so expensive! Anything similar, and less-pricey, that you know of? https://child1st.com/blogs/resources/right-brained-phonics-spelling

We're very privately thinking of moving to Corpus Christi, and I have a new need for an educational therapist for one of my children. Are there any in the area who do Feuerstein therapy? Any who regularly help with low working memory, dysgraphia in written expression, SLP in pragmatics? NILD, AET, SCLE? Any private, therapeutic schools? (cross-posted to learning challenges forum)

We're very privately thinking of moving to Corpus Christi, and I have a new need for an educational therapist for one of my children. Are there any in the area who do Feuerstein therapy? Any who regularly help with low working memory, dysgraphia in written expression, SLP in pragmatics? NILD, AET, SCLE? Any private, therapeutic schools? (cross-posted to geographic forum)

I've come across Veritas Press's Pages of History, but I don't think it's an audiobook yet.

I'm hoping to find an audiobook(s) that covers the SOTW1 content chronologically, but keeping the civilizations together, even if it's a separate resource for Ancient Egypt civilization and history, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient Incans, etc. I have five dc, 9 and under, so it'll last me a while. We have some Jim Weiss stories, and we own SOTW2 audio, but I'm hoping to mix it up, and provide something more organized for the ancients. Mythology is great, but the priority is history and civilization.

No IEP, no evaluations. His grandmother has been teaching for 40+ years and she sent me an article on auditory processing. He does have trouble with lots of extra, distracting noise in the room. I do plan to incorporate music and other noises into his workday. The interactive metronome idea looks relevant, too, as he does not keep a beat with music. Thank you for the book recommendation; that looks like just the thing.

I am bringing my 9yo son home to restart 3rd grade, and I've just figured out that he has a low auditory digit span of 5. I'm learning more about it and planning to work on it with him, but I'm having trouble coming up with a good resource. I've seen the digit span cards for sale on Little Giant Steps, but I'm hoping to find some free lists somewhere, not just of numbers, but letters, words, anything to mix it up. I realize I could make my own cards or lists, but time and energy are at an all-time low. Have you come across anything good, preferably free? I prefer to keep him low-tech for now.

This is for a 9yo, struggling at school, coming home mid-year for a fresh start to 3rd grade. I'm taking him through a phase 1 of remedial 2nd grade language arts, finishing Abeka 2nd grade phonics and spelling before starting anything else. Plaid Phonics does seem like overkill, but I'm hoping to use it only this year, to solidify the phonics, as they relate to spelling. Maybe he only needs the R&S and LLfT until his foundational skills are up to par for a writing program. We're not doing a MFW program this year, only strong 3R's with light and incidental extras. I do have my eye on both Writing Strands and Imitation in Writing for the future, maybe to wait until 4th grade. Are they compatible with one another? I chose R&S for the grammar and don't mind skipping some of the composition.

Help me finish my 3rd grade language arts. I'm settled on: Zaner Bloser handwriting, Spelling Workout C, Plaid Phonics C, Rod and Staff English 3, MFW Language Lessons for Today 3. I want to add Writing Strands and/or Imitation in Writing. What kind of overlap is there with the two, and with what I have already chosen? Would both be too much? Thanks for your help.

We were homeschooling before this year, so I plan to fold him back into my original curriculum plans. I prefer classical and Charlotte Mason. My early elementary plans for my kids, in the 3R's, are lots of Abeka for 1st and 2nd grade, to transition to MCP and R&S in 3rd grade. He's on the last chart of the Abeka Handbook of Reading, so I'll take him through that with the last section of Letters and Sounds 2. He needs remedial spelling, so we'll breeze through the entire Abeka 2nd grade spelling, before switching over to Spelling Workout C, maybe with Plaid Phonics C. For other language arts, I plan to finish the MFW LLfT3, maybe along with Abeka Language 2, before we get into R&S Beginning Wisely and LLfT4. He reads chapter books on his own, but I'm not sure about reading aloud with me. We have several readers, and I thought I'd get him into SOTW because he enjoyed that last year. We were doing Horizons Math before this year, but Saxon is calling my name, mainly because it's what I grew up with and I did very very well in math because of it. I'm going to start him at the beginning of Saxon 3. We'll take the first few weeks to de-school with a box of Snap Circuits, an new art kit, and some xtramath.

Yes, I was hoping that a recommendation to repeat 3rd grade might buy us another official school year to delay the test. But I'm happy with what I've found out about a placement test at the end of this summer. Thanks for all the help.

Thanks for the help. I got a flurry of response on another online group tonight, and it looks like the PASS test is just the flexible thing we need. He can take a placement pretest that will sort him into the right subject levels for the test itself. I'm mostly concerned about his frustration levels, but if I bring him home now and he takes a leveled test at the end of the required time frame, before August, that's a good 6 months of school detox, and he'll most likely place in all 3rd grade levels by then, and we'll be just fine, legally, academically, emotionally.

In the state of Georgia, homeschoolers are required to administer achievement tests every 3 years, starting in 3rd grade. My child is in public school 3rd grade this year, but we're 99% sure we're withdrawing him to homeschool the rest of the year and beyond. Long story short, he needs to restart 3rd grade now, with some remedial 2nd grade skills first, and I hope to get him to the "end" of 3rd grade by the end of this fall. This will extend his 3rd grade year because his official start date was the public school's August 2015 start date. Do I need to test him at the end of the public school's school year, or can I wait until he might actually pass it? Will it depend on the public school's recommendations for him, maybe if they recommend that he repeat 3rd grade? Should I go ahead and do the test this May, knowing that we'll repeat it when we're ready to? I don't have to submit any tests or scores, only keep them in my records, but I don't want to break any important rules. Thanks for your help.

My third grader is in public school this year. We are having trouble transitioning from homeschool to public school, especially with the necessary afterschooling. I homeschooled him in preschool. He went to a different public school for kindergarten, where he had a great social time but didn't learn the 3R's, so I homeschooled him 1st and 2nd grade, and now he's in a different public school for 3rd grade. I would have preferred to continue our homeschool curriculum, or something similar in a classroom, but public school is the best option for our family right now. He is a basketcase. His teachers tell us that he has wonderful behavior at school, seems to be happy to be there; and the structured day, social interaction, and consistent schedule seem to be just what he needed and wanted. But he is a basketcase at home. Because of our different approach with homeschool, he does not line up perfectly with where his classmates are expected to be. In some subjects, I knew he was about a half a grade "behind," but in others, he is perfectly comfortable. We didn't want to retain him in 2nd grade and hurt his self-esteem. We wanted to give him a challenge, a chance to work hard. But he cannot do the assigned homework without our constant presence and help. I give him extra independent work to do, to get his 3R's skills up to speed. But all of it, the homework and the afterschooling, is a battle. He struggles with the academics because the approach is so different, common core and all that, and he takes his frustrations out on us parents with tantrums, defiance, whining, ugly words. I'm pretty sure it's a kid character/age problem, because our 1st grader is really soaring, in the same school, after two years at home with me. We have tried several approaches, and the latest we have landed on is to make sure that he gets plenty of free-range outdoor playtime for the entire afternoon block after school. After dinner, when younger siblings are settling down for bed, we work on homework/afterschool with him. And in the morning, on his way to school, he reads aloud the memory work that I put together each week to complement the classwork. We have already met with his teachers twice, and all agree that he should not go back to 2nd grade, but see 3rd grade through and repeat it next year if necessary. He will start one day a week tutoring with his teachers in a few weeks, and they will send tailored extra help home with him. This afternoon at pickup, he said, "Mom, I think I DO like school after all." Here is my question: Should I blow off the homework entirely and focus all our attention on working steadily through the 3R's curriculum that I believe he will not get if I don't provide it, knowing that it will undergird his work in the classroom, over time? Or should I drop the classical approach for now, and put all my energy into making this public school common core system work for us? Do you have any classical curriculum suggestions that complement common core? Thank you for your advice. Current Afterschool Curriculum: Horizons Math with fact families memorization (2nd grade+) Abeka Phonics and Language Arts (2nd grade+) Rod and Staff Spelling (2nd grade+) Language Lessons for Today (3rd grade level)

How was the Planning CM book? I constantly reread WTM and When Children Love to Learn, and I'm wondering if Planning will add to my shelf or just be redundant.

Well, I did it. I ordered R&S Spelling by Sound and Structure, for two days a week. This will give me a taste of R&S for next year when I use their grammar.

I have read aloud to him a great deal over the past few years. This past month, he has jumped to actually sitting down to read a book independently, even if it's Calvin&Hobbes or any of our easy readers that we did together in 1st grade. For 2nd grade, I've thought I might assign a timed amount of independent reading, both assigned titles and his own choices. I've wondered about having him keep a reading journal of the books he really enjoys. Maybe we'll do a shared journal of letter-writing to one another. I'm considering adding spelling with Apples and Pears or Sequential Spelling. I already know that I'll use Rod&Staff's Beginning Wisely for grammar, but only after Language Lessons for Today, both the 2nd and 3rd grade volumes. I think I'm afraid of adding either too much too soon, or too little too late. Thanks for all the ideas.

Yes, I'm excited about this one. It felt like a splurge, but I know I'll use it for all 4 kids. I'm happy about the color, the extension of the material, and of course the updated content. :-)

My 1st grader is finishing strong this year as an emerging reader with careful handwriting. We plan to finish Explode the Code 6 this summer. He has completed ETC2-5 this year with lots of oral narration and storytelling with Living Books Curriculum. I was going to wait to start spelling lessons until after ETC7&8, and formal grammar until after his first language lessons books, but now I'm worried that my transition plans for him aren't enough for 2nd grade. We plan to do: Explode the Code 7&8, with supplementary work in the Abeka Handbook and extra reading practice. Language Lessons for Today, 2nd grade, which is the newest MFW publication. If we breeze through it, I have the 3rd grade volume ready. Getty Dubay C, print to cursive, with copywork from Penny Gardner Italics. ETC7&8 seem like just the right jump in skills for him, and the Language Lessons books will be a new addition compared to what we've done for 1st grade. Also, we plan to use Story of the World with the activity guides. But is this challenging enough for language arts? What could I add if I find we need more?

Next year, we're switching from Living Books Curriculum (1st grade) to a faster-paced history cycle to accommodate our schedule and long-term goals for the kids. Summer Library reading program Learn chess and play lots of board games and card games Learn Veritas history cards to review history content from Year 1. Read New Testament chapters of The Child’s Story Bible, by Catherine Vos. ds7 to finish Horizons Math 1 Year 2 – Individual Studies ds7– 2nd grade Math – Horizons Math 2 with The Complete Book of Math Language Arts – Explode the Code 6-8, with reading practice and Abeka Handbook Language Lessons for Today, 2nd grade, (newest MFW publication) Handwriting, print to cursive: Getty Dubay C with copywork from Penny Gardner Italics ds5– Kindergarten Math – Horizons Math K with The Complete Book of Math Language Arts – Explode the Code 2-4, with reading practice and Abeka Handbook Handwriting: Getty Dubay A Year 2 – Combined Studies Bible Whole Year: Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing, by Sally Lloyd Jones Memory Work: books of the Bible, Luke selections, Psalm 23, Romans 8 Science Half Year: Human Body Usborne Encyclopedia of the Human Body The Flip Flap Body Book The Wonderful Way Babies are Made Half Year: Astronomy Exploring Creation with Astronomy, with study guide by Living Books Curriculum Library titles to supplement. Magic Schoolbus DVDs to correspond with science studies and other interests. Nature Study flowers and birds, and interest-led Art How to Teach Art to Children, Evan-Moor. Music Story of the Orchestra Terms 1-2: composers Terms 3-4: orchestra, possible symphony visit Meet the Orchestra, by Ann Hayes Poetry Mother Goose and Beatrix Potter Foreign Language Song School Spanish History Selections from Story of the World 1-2, with Story of the World Activity Guides, to cover Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Medieval Times, Reformation, and Renaissance. This will be our first year using SOTW. I have some extra priority resources that I've scheduled with the chapters we plan to cover. To integrate with history: Veritas history cards Usborne Ancient World Usborne Medieval World How the Bible Came to Us, by Meryl Doney selections from The Child's Story Bible, by Catherine Vos The Victor Journey Through the Bible, by David C. Cook The Church History ABCs, by Stephen J. Nichols and Ned Bustard READALOUDS: D'aulaire's Greek Myths, The Trojan Horse, The Bronze Bow, The Minstrel in the Tower, The Door in the Wall MUSIC: folk songs and period music PICTURE STUDY: Ancient Greek and Roman Art, by Susie Hodge; Byzantine, medieval, and Renaissance art. OTHER EXTRAS: Make a Castle, learn to play chess, study lots of extra Shakespeare (maybe to carry over into next year.)

This sounds like my approach so far. We're halfway through book 6 at the end of 1st grade. What do you use for spelling after book 8?

Wow, thanks. This has been very helpful. My plan for a while has been to homeschool through 4th grade and then help them tackle whichever foreign language they encounter in school. Maybe we can study those roots in 4th grade and do the younger Latin things from now until then.