How old is your daughter? Does she need to learn handwriting strokes for printing? Or does she know how to write her letters individually but struggles to write them correctly when writing words or sentences? Have you considered starting to teach her cursive? Or is it cursive she is struggling with? We are currently using Zaner Bloser for handwriting. I really like it and so does my son. It helped him focus on stroke order and writing his letters the right size. At the beginning of the year his writing was pretty messy. It has definitely improved since starting the workbook. Don't feel ashamed. It sounds like you had a lot to deal with and seeking advice from the wonderful people on this forum is a good place to start.

Maybe you could just practice with books he likes or is interested in. I found that after doing Hooked on Phonics with my five year old he disliked reading random sentences that were meaningless to him. Who cares if the cat sat? He wanted to use readers that had storylines and he wanted to practice reading his favorite books so he could eventually read them whenever he wanted without waiting for me. Doing this did take some time. Some of the words were difficult but he learned a lot and actually wanted to learn. I would suggest trying readers or real books. If he still complains wait awhile before trying phonics again. If you are worried about missing blends by reading real books make a check list and as you read together check them off as you go.

I would get free stuff from Craigslist or other garage sale sites or Facebook groups to help with supplies. I gave my son a large laundry basket that was sturdy with lots of holes. This is where he keeps his supplies. Sometime he uses the basket to test out ideas. He created a pulley system by putting sticks through the laundry basket holes, using plastic chains from Michael's, coat hangars and metal pails from Easter decorations. If I come across some "junk" while cleaning it goes in the basket for future projects. How Things Work by David Macaulay How it's Made TV series BOTH great.

I hope you don't mind me replying to your post. I am new here and still trying to figure out the boards. My little ones are in K and under, but I am a tutor. There are a few things I wanted to suggest. 1. Try having the child read a passage silently before reading it aloud. Students can sometimes find having an audience be distracting, or that they are so focused on reading smoothly, they struggle to comprehend what they are reading. 2.Practice can help. Sometimes using a guide, answering questions and reading the right answers can help a student figure out comprehension questions. This can help with testing, but it also gives students a different perspective on a text.. 3.Build up vocabulary. A child might be able to decode words and decode quickly, but they might not know what the words mean or how to determine the meaning from the text. Practice looking for clues in the text to figure out the meaning of an unknown word. 4.Pull sentences from the passage apart. Break them down into parts of speech and build them back up. Then start seeing if he understands the sentence than two sentences, then three. Move on to larger paragraphs, pages, chapters and books. 5.Study writing. Besides actively practicing writing paragraphs, study different types of paragraphs. How paragraphs are structured. Is the writer starting with the most important fact first or ending with it? Is the writer informing the reader or trying to persuade the reader? Understanding how paragraphs can be built and expanded can help students with comprehension. 6. If there is any concern about a learning disability or other issues an evaluation might help. If you are looking for books Critical think has a few called Reading Detectives. Wordly Wise or Latin Roots could help build vocabulary. Those are just a few things I have found that have helped. Good luck!

I bought Draw Write Now for my DS5. You don't actually write in the book. You draw a picture and write the sentence in a copybook. It has space for the picture above and lines for the sentence below. Technically, you don't need the copybook. You could just use blank paper or buy a notepad of picture story paper. The instructions are very clear and simple. It is nice that more than one child can use it.

Big Skills for Little Hands. You can find them at Amazon, Timberdoodle and Michael's craft store. My boys love them.

We use the Zaner-Bloser books for handwriting. They are simple but interesting.

The bubbles have actually been helpful for us. My son could do the math, but didn't want that much writing. The bubbles were easy for him to fill in without stressing him out. Instead of coloring he would cross things out. By the end of K he actually wanted to color the pictures. The workbook is very gentle. It's simple and efficient and it gets done. Some of the pages my son can do on his own and some I do with him. And you are right about how they teach facts. My son just did all the facts that equal 9. So for fun we used c-rods to build number bond walls like on educationunboxed. We just followed the problems in the abeka workbook. You can use manipulatives, but you don't have to. I've also noticed that my son is becoming more interested in math in the real world. So he is taking what he learns in the workbook and then applying it to his life... like making sure his little brother gets exactly half of the bag of chips. For awhile I kept thinking he needed something more rigorous, but the truth is Abeka is working for us nicely. He is learning and he is learning without tears or stress.

My son used Abeka for K and we plan on using it for 1st. I still look around for a "perfect" math program even though I know it doesn't exist. I like how simple Abeka is. We do two pages a day, more if he wants. If my son needs a break from workbook pages we do other fun math stuff. I prefer the images in Abeka compared to Horizon. Oh, and those dot-to-dot pages my son loves. If he is close to reaching that page he will work ahead to get there. I did think there was quite a bit review in Abeka 1, but my guess is that it would be helpful if you take summers off. Also, the size of the 1st grade book could either be motivating or overwhelming. Many other math programs seem to be divided into 2 or more books. Abeka for 1st grade has one 300 page workbook, a small workbook of drills and tests and a teacher's manual. I have never used the teacher's manual. There are instructions in the workbook. My son hasn't even noticed that Abeka 1 is twice the size of Abeka K. If finishing a workbook is a motivator than maybe using a program with multiple smaller workbooks would be good, but for us so far Abeka is working great. I hope this helps. I am new to the boards and I'm still learning the language of the Hive.

Try the David Macaulay videos on YouTube. He has movies based on his books about Castles, Cathedrals, Roman Cities and Pyramids. My boys love his books and movies.

I loved historical fiction growing up. There is a series called Little Maid. The Little Maid of Mohawk Valley, Little Maid of New Hampshire, and others. There isn't any gore as far as I can remember. They are on amazon... sorry I couldn't figure out how to include the link.

I'm new here. I hope you don't mind me responding. One way to help children learn how to revise something is to ask them to read it to you. Kids pick up on a lot of mistakes simply by hearing them.