Yes, they can be closed. But they do not have a set expiration. Thanks for the clarification. While I am thinking of special ed as a long-term thing, I suppose it is possible that they would no longer recommend her for special ed at some point if she made enough progress even if she struggled in a mainstream class. Homeschooling is seeming more and more attractive for her future.

It is my understanding that IEP's do not expire. They are renewed annually with new goals, but they never go away as learning disabilities do not go away. A new IEP would be written in a new state, but having a paper trail would give better precedence, just as my private eval made the public school eval meeting go very quickly and smoothly. We are currently pursuing an ISP through the public schools. We will see what is actually offered. I have an HRA to fund some therapy, but the expectation is to eventually get her on Medicaid that will cover it. Regarding Florida, there are several new amendments to the Gardiner Scholarship that I find appealing, especially for siblings and no prerequisites on previously attending public school. Whether it is the best is probably up to the same debate as what makes the World's Best Coffee. 🙂 It doesn't hurt that I am from there either. But it is likely not happening anytime soon.

Thank you for your thoughtful response. It is very helpful. I am so sorry for your loss. I will continue to consider all of our options, but there are many reasons we believe homeschooling is the best fit for her for now. We always take a one year at a time approach for all of our kids, and I fully recognize there may be a time when homeschooling is no longer the best fit. I do agree that private therapy will likely be better. It will just depend on what we are offered through the schools and what we can afford to do on our own.

Oh - I will have to look at it more. I assumed from the preview on Amazon was that it had worksheets.

In my state, Medicaid on its own does have an income cap. But per our neuropsychologist, she is eligible for a waiver, and she's providing me with the necessary paperwork. The waivers are handled through the county in my state, but there is no income cap on the waivers. For SSI, yes, there is an income cap. I am sure this varies by state. We used to live in California, and I just learned they have a program that will pay you minimum wage (going up to $15 an hour, maxed out around $3300 a month) to be your child's special needs caregiver, so yes, every state is definitely different.

Grateful for all input to look into. My thought with Miquon was that it might be too advanced?? I will look more at Ronit Bird, but does it include the manipulatives? Would I just compile my own? Is it worksheet-oriented? Maybe it would be better for 1st grade and up. I think for kindergarten, I want to keep it gentle with lots of manipulative play to build number sense. How does Ronit Bird fit into that?

Good to know. I was under the impression that she would qualify for Medicaid as she has been diagnosed with such severe epilepsy and now learning disabilities. I will look into this more with our neuropsychologist and county.

Thanks for your input. I live in a huge metropolitan area and am a current private school teacher who has interacted with other therapists before. I have lots of private and public opportunities for therapy here, and the county has a list of special needs therapists available too. My neuropsychologist and neurologist with the children's hospital can also refer me to someone. We have decided we can no longer live anywhere without a children's hospital. She will likely receive a Medicaid waiver soon that should also cover some therapy. Finding someone for therapy is not really a concern as much as affording therapy. That said, I am not opposed to working with the district if that is a good fit for her, but we are not limited. I don't know if the public school will provide therapy though. They are not required to do so here...it is dependent on funding. They will do the evaluation. I must say, Florida has been tempting us lately for a few years down the road, and I noticed they have state scholarships for special needs. Maybe having an IEP in place will make it easier to transfer should we choose to do so. 🙂

Thank you for your feedback. My initial thought when I first approached homeschooling her was to go with RS as we have used their games before, but when I came across Shiller Math, I thought it was more visual and hands-on. I'm also concerned RS might have some concepts that are too advanced for her. I know there is going to be lots of trial and error here as I want to give her every opportunity without overloading her. At the same time, I don't want to underestimate her. Maybe we will look at RS when she is a little older, but I am thinking the more manipulatives, the better right now. Montessori is good with that. I may even do some of the activities from our Saxon K book, although I would never use Saxon after that. I have the book from my boys, and it is all manipulative play in the K book, but I will have to look and see how verbal it is. Ronit Bird and the others mentioned here also look like great options. I think math is such an auditory subject, in general, but we will do our best. Thanks for excellent insight!

Her social connection is strong, but she comes off a bit younger. She is small for her age, and she blends in more in preschool for now. I have talked to the local special ed teacher, and everything felt like a bad fit for her and for us. It was more than just the social aspect. While I don't think we will be stigma free, we have a community of friends and church, and she has her siblings, and we can find multi-age outlets for her. This is one of many reasons I think homeschool will be best for her. There are many special needs resources in our area as well. Nothing is perfect or easy, but it is still the best option. She loves TV, especially princess shows and normal preschool/Disney shows. And I am planning to start signing time too. She is verbal and fun and likes people and playing with dolls, etc. She has fooled professionals before. But she has a disconnect when she is overloaded with auditory input. She might repeat a question instead of answering it or turn away or wander off. She has a very short attention span. She struggles with language processing and doesn't always have all the words intelligibly. With Dravet Syndrome, they start off normal in their development and then stagnate for some time or suffer seizure damage. The stagnation or slowing is creating more of a gap than a year ago. She's had fewer seizures than some (although they were serious ones) and has found a good medication and is one of the higher functioning Dravet patients, but she still has many hurdles. We are blessed to know all of these things before she starts school. She will be 6 when we start kindergarten next year. As far as the speech eval, I am prepared to go private if necessary. If I am planning to homeschool anyways and go private for therapy and don't need it for her evaluation, what is the advantage of having the IEP?

I just saw the last comment at first and responded to that. Thank you for your feedback. Right now, we are blessed that her seizures are under control with a good medication. She's almost 2 years seizure free! I appreciate your perspective about a good life. I am honestly still grieving and processing all of the diagnoses and coming to grips with what all of them mean compared to what I see in her. Thanks for the encouragement. Truly. I think the portfolio is the way to go for this, but I wasn't sure if I need the IEP to show her diagnosis to prove she is making adequate progress or just her medical records. As far as therapy, it'd be nice if it works our for the public school to provide it, but I am prepared to go private. I just want them to do the speech eval right now as our neuropsych didn't cover all of that. But if there is a big con to getting an IEP with homeschooling, I just want to do due diligence up front before I find out later. Thanks for helping me navigate this new road.

There are a few reasons we want to keep her there. It is very play-based, which we feel is a good approach for her. We definitely intend to keep that into homeschooling. She has also had a TON of crazy transition in her life, and we want to keep her there this year to add some stability. She is also just not ready for kindergarten, and Jr. K is really our only option while we plan for the loss of income and transition home next summer. However, it is not rosy. She started in January, and by February, we were meeting with the school to discuss how behind she was. We were initially thinking kindergarten where I teach, but she was not ready, and now we know why. She struggles to sit still during a story and needs a lot of one-on-one hand-over-hand to stay on task. They have a good ratio of students to teachers that helps. They can also struggle to understand her, and masks do not help anyone with that! But the sensory play, social connections and play-based learning have helped her grow...even if it is still delayed. After Jr. K, her only option would be public school special ed or homeschooling. We think homeschooling is the better fit as we can encourage play-based learning and give her the support she needs without social stigmatization.

My daughter has cognitive delays and poor auditory processing and executive function, but she is highly visual. Her problem solving is very weak. I am trying to find a math program that plays to her strengths, yet math can be so auditory. So far, I am looking at either Right Start or Shiller Math. I like Right Start and am familiar with their games, but I wonder if it is too advanced. I want a multi-sensory, not too wordy program with lots of hands-on manipulative, visualization and games. I also looked at Touch Point Math, but I wasn't sure about it. Open to other ideas too. Thanks for any ideas!

Hello, My 5yo DD has Dravet Syndrome epilepsy. We just had her evaluated, and she has several learning issues stemming from seizure damage and the genetic epilepsy itself: weak auditory processing, cognitive delays, loss of executive functioning (really short attention span...doctor recommended no more than three words of new information at a time), and language processing issues. They are recommending special ed along with speech and OT/fine motor skills therapy Good news...she is very strong in her visual learning and social connections. She has strong gross motor skills. Our plan is to keep her in her preschool's junior K program as she is loved and doing well there. Next year, we will start to homeschool her in kindergarten. I am a teacher and would like to teach one more year before I stay home with her. I have homeschooled before with my older children and have every confidence that it is the best path for her right now. She is my youngest. I am in Virginia. I am looking at trying to get speech therapy in the public school and setting up an IEP or ISP. TBH...a lot of this is new territory for me. What is the advantage of setting up an IEP/ISP if I plan to homeschool? What are the drawbacks? Virginia has a testing or portfolio requirement. If I don't have an IEP, how do I show adequate progress for her diagnosis if she is under the 25th percentile? Is that where the IEP would be helpful? I am a little overwhelmed with all the paperwork trails and want to make sure I set myself up well. I have reached out to HEAV and HSLDA, but I have gotten little help so far, especially since I am not yet a member of HSLDA since I am not currently a homeschooler yet. I would so appreciate any help and advice.

He took a Virtual Virginia class for Spanish this year in his private school, and it did not go well. It would count his answer wrong if he added an extra space or made the slightest variation. He hated it. I fear distance learning through the public school will be similar. He really needs the accountability of a classroom to really thrive. This whole thing stinks.

Thank you! It sounds like it would be very difficult to switch him back. We could do private in the future, but there is the cost aspect. Lots to think about....

After 6 years of homeschooling, we switched to a private K-8 school last year. My oldest was set to go to public high school for 9th this fall. They just announced they will only do distance learning this year. Their track record with distance learning is dismal. I am considering homeschooling him for 9th grade. Can I return to public school for 10th in Virginia? How do I best keep track of his credits? Would he need to take a placement test? I want to make sure I don't remove any future options for him. Thanks for all of your help!

I don't love everything from A Beka, but I love their grammar. It is very solid and has a lot of review built in. My son hated the oral component of FLL/WTM too. He is a get it done type who loves the workbook. All you need is the workbook and tests and maybe the curriculum guide. The curriculum guide has more than you need, but it has the writing assignments. If you are doing writing elsewhere and are strong in grammar, you can do without it. The workbooks have a text box at the top of the page that goes over the concept. We felt it adequate since I know grammar well and could help with any concept he didn't get.

Thank you!

We have used it without the student manual, but it is really helpful. There are several fill in the blank or circle the correct answer questions or cross out the..., and it's a lot easier to hand the book to the child and let them work rather than sit and do each question with them orally or in a way where they can't see the answer.

I have a 7th grader this year, and I am looking at Warriner's grammar for his grammar homework. I was thinking of getting the complete course and taking two years (7th and 8th grade) to go through it slowly with his other writing work, etc.. I know there is also Course 1 and beyond. He's pretty bright in language arts, and grammar is grammar. Is the Complete Course really only suitable for grade 12? I don't want to do just Course 1 and 2 and miss covering concepts. Is there a specific version that is better than others? P.S. I searched through the forums first and had a hard time seeing this question answered.

Thank you all for your responses. It will actually be Dad teaching him this year, so I should get his input. I just saw that there is an IEW Ancient course at our co-op, and I think that could be an option because then it is done for me. I know it is a good program. As far as the time investment and all that, I guess IEW just doesn't really jive with my teaching style whereas I LOVE Writing and Rhetoric. Maybe it's because my husband and I have more confidence teaching writing. My husband is a professional writer/editor, and I am no stranger to academic writing. Watching videos on how to teach writing formulas sounds like torture to me, and I am sure that would come across to my kids. However, some of the assignments and Fix-it grammar look appealing when I have enough patience to wade through their website. I do think their website is just plain cumbersome and confusing. I'll think about it some more, but it's good to know that I could just get the Ancient writing lessons. That is far more appealing to me than a $200 kit that will likely be reviewed in school next year anyways.

I have always stayed away from IEW because it looked complicated with many moving parts, videos and formulas, etc. I love Writing and Rhetoric for its user friendliness. However, my fourth grader is going to be attending school next year, and they are starting IEW this year in fourth grade. I am wondering if we should do IEW for my fourth grade son at home this year so he is on track with his class. I have always thought he would be my kid who might like IEW the best. Then I go their website, and it's so overwhelming. I find the pathway, but do we honestly have to start with the giant $250 package before we do anything else? We are doing Ancient history, and they have a theme based ancient history writing book that looks appealing. It covers all of the same topics such as note writing, etc., but with ancient history as a focus. Could we do this book without going through the "PROGRAM" with all the teaching videos, etc. Because honestly, I don't want to... It looks daunting and cumbersome. My husband is doing the bulk of the teaching of this year, and I need streamlined, not time consuming. Maybe we will just stick with our Writing and Rhetoric plan, and they can catch him up with IEW in school. I need some advice from someone who has waded these waters before.

My oldest is my math dawdler, and he was going through it very slowly. We actually switched to a more traditional curriculum this year for 7th for greater accountability with him. The BA website says some may go through a few pages at a time, and some days might be a problem or two that is challenging. They recommend 45 minutes a day.

Mindbenders has some fun logic puzzles, but they are different than your examples from BA. But Critical Thinking Company (the company of Mindbenders) has a lot of puzzle type books you might like. Zacarro has some challenging thinking problems too, but again, I dont know if they are what you are looking for.