Sounds like MEP would really fit the bill here. Its all black and white, and would be great for an intuitive child. I find the lesson plans very easy to follow, although I've always liked math so I can't speak from the perspective of someone who isn't as comfortable with it. I think your daughter would really like it. I find that my son is really engaging with the problems and with math in general, and that I'm just there to guide a bit. Its all free and available as pdf downloads online. Elena

Can i hijack slightly, although maybe this will be useful to the OP since she has two children....Is MCT best done individually or together with two children? I was going to start t for my (will be) 9 year old next year, but now we've decided to homeschool my (will be) 7 year old and I'm not sure how to plan for it... Elena

I am using MEP for my 6 year old who goes to school. It doesn't match up very well with the progression in a typical school because their scope and sequence just does not match up with what most US schools are doing. But I like it because it offers more interesting and challenging problems than what she gets in school. To do the full program you need to go through the lesson plans, but since I'm using it as a supplement I often just have her do the student pages. Oh, and its free! May or may not meet your friends needs depending on what she's looking for... Definitely not a program that will drill the topics he's learning in school, but it WILL help with deeper understanding and having fun while doing math, which are often weak points in school math teaching. Elena

I do Spanish and Latin and have had zero problems with confusion. I think kids are able to learn lots of languages without much problem. I have found, though, that I have had to lower my expectations with Latin because I realized how much of an effort it would be with Spanish. I think to do both languages on a basic level would be easy, but to try to achieve fluency in both, for me, seemed like too much. So I ended up pouring my efforts into Spanish and then just doing what I can in Latin. I'm trying to get them as proficient as I can in Spanish and then will ramp up Latin later. Maybe if you are better than I am at multi-tasking this wouldn't be as much of a problem for you! As far as teaching Spanish, I really recommend this book for your situation: http://www.amazon.co...s stuff spanish But jeez, that price is ridiculous ..its is a very thin book. Maybe you can find it used somewhere? Anyway it basically has every phrase you would ever say to a child, so it is great for your situation. You can read through it and confirm to yourself that you have the grammar right. I'd recommend adding as much into your daily life as you feel comfortable doing. You can start just with "Es hora de cenar...te lavaste bien las manos?" adding in some hand signals so they understand you. Or if you are comfortable you can do all of mealtime in Spanish , or en entire morning, or the entire day! Try not to be too scared of making mistakes. How many times do you make mistakes or misspeak when you're speaking English, yet you don't beat yourself up? And my dad speaks terrible English but he still spoke it to us...it didn't mess us up too badly :) Elena

Does he seem to understand perfectly but is just resisting speaking? It can be very hard if the language is not seen as relevant to the child, i.e. he is not around other children who speak it. Is there any possibility for him to get together with other Spanish speaking families? We live in a very rural, very white area but we have managed to find some other families who are bilingual and try to get together once a month. I have many friends who speak only Spanish in their homes, go back to their home countries frequently, and still their children are very resistant to speaking Spanish at home. I think you have to have a very strict No English policy at home. I know many people pretend not to understand English or just don't respond to it, even though their kids obviously know they are fluent and see them speaking English outside the home. That might or not be difficult for your nanny depending on her personality. Good luck! Elena

I just posted a MUCH longer review on this forum, but Visual Link Spanish has been working very well for us! I also speak around the house a lot. I find that most of the things I say in English are very repetitive (put your coat on, wash your hands, do you want some more?, etc.) so that it is very easy to just start replacing these common phrases with Spanish. I also have done a lot of vocabulary with flash cards and books. But my kids have made so much progress with Visual Link that its astounding. If your son were younger, I would suggest'just switching to Spanish all the time at home but since he's at the age where I believe including some explicit instruction becomes necessary, I would recommend Visual Link in addition to speaking around the house. My son has always been able to understand me if I ask "Qué quieres comer?" or whatever, but after doing Visual Link he is now initiating conversations on his own, such as "Quiero tomar leche...es importante tomar leche!"which is so fun. If your son wants to learn Spanish I think he'd really like it and enjoy the fast progress! Elena

[This is a cross-post from the k-8 forum] I've been following some threads on here about Visual Link Spanish and I decided to get it last week after receiving a good coupon from them. I bought the bundle which includes all the levels. My kids have been using it for one week now and I just wanted to post back and say how amazed I am with the results in case anyone else is looking for a Spanish program. I really just can't believe how much my kids have learned in only a week, spending about 15 minutes each day. Even my 6 year old, who I have done almost NO Spanish with has picked up so much and can now tell you how to say "I want to go to the pool" or a dozen other phrases after just one week! My son has always had good comprehension and a decent vocabulary, but now for the first time he is actually putting sentences together on his own. Their method of focusing on sentence building rather than isolated vocabulary has really gotten my kids speaking, and I'm really excited to see how much they can learn with this program since the first week has gone so well! At first I really thought it wouldn't work since the first lesson seems like it has so many phrases to learn, but it has really been very painless and effective. I just have my kids repeat the lessons each day until they have it down, then they move on to the next one. The combination of listening, speaking, and seeing the little GIF's has really worked for them. Even my husband has said he wants to use it after seeing the results, and he has always rebuked any other attempts to teach him Spanish (ever since I SUPPOSEDLY corrected him 15 years ago in S. America when he attempted to order coffee :glare: .) What I Love: it has them speaking in full sentences, tear-free (even though kids normally really resist speaking!) almost completely independent and excellent for non-readers. (To do the games I do need to sit at the keyboard and type for the kids, but for the actual lessons the child doesn't need to be able to read or type at all, which is great.) the clear accents of the native speakers (I particularly like that in the pronunciation section they let you choose between a more neutral accent and an Argentine accent.) You can record your self and compare it to the native speakers (and even play a bowling game where you knock down more pins the better your accent is. This is a little glitchy, but still fun.) Lots of repetition and reinforcement Good mix and pacing of different types of activities. Kids can repeat lessons as many times as they want to adjust pacing to different learners Games are adjustable to make it easy or insanely difficult I contacted customer service about a small problem during my order, and they responded almost immediately and cleared it up. What I don't love: Teaches Usted (formal 'you') before Tú (informal 'you'.) I get why they do this (because the conjugation is the same as for 'he or she', but I wish they started with Yo and Tú which is much more useful for a child in my opinion. Wish they started off with more immediately useful vocabulary like foods and drinks, but they do get to that stuff fairly soon. At least its not as bad as all the programs geared towards business travelers that start off with phrases about needing to find a fax machine and recommending restaurants. The games are great, but do get a little repetitive (for me at least, the kids have not complained.) One part of the bundle that I bought is online, not a download. This seems to be very slow and glitchy. For this reason I would not recommend going the monthly online subscription route. The download seems like the way to go. Overall though, I am extremely pleased and its going down as one of my best HS purchases! The more advanced levels are also good, and they cover ALL the verb tenses. I am finding the games useful to brush up on grammar, and there is something called a Spanish Comprehension Trainer which seems very useful. Overall, this seems like it would basically cover ALL levels of Spanish learning. My young kids are learning from it, but it would be just as useful for a high schooler or adult. HTH, Elena

I've been following some threads on here about Visual Link Spanish and I decided to get it last week after receiving a good coupon from them. I bought the bundle which includes all the levels. My kids have been using it for one week now and I just wanted to post back and say how amazed I am with the results in case anyone else is looking for a Spanish program. I really just can't believe how much my kids have learned in only a week, spending about 15 minutes each day. Even my 6 year old, who I have done almost NO Spanish with has picked up so much and can now tell you how to say "I want to go to the pool" or a dozen other phrases after just one week! My son has always had good comprehension and a decent vocabulary, but now for the first time he is actually putting sentences together on his own. Their method of focusing on sentence building rather than isolated vocabulary has really gotten my kids speaking, and I'm really excited to see how much they can learn with this program since the first week has gone so well! At first I really thought it wouldn't work since the first lesson seems like it has so many phrases to learn, but it has really been very painless and effective. I just have my kids repeat the lessons each day until they have it down, then they move on to the next one. The combination of listening, speaking, and seeing the little GIF's has really worked for them. Even my husband has said he wants to use it after seeing the results, and he has always rebuked any other attempts to teach him Spanish (ever since I SUPPOSEDLY corrected him 15 years ago in S. America when he attempted to order coffee :glare: .) What I Love: it has them speaking in full sentences, tear-free (even though kids normally really resist speaking!) almost completely independent and excellent for non-readers. (To do the games I do need to sit at the keyboard and type for the kids, but for the actual lessons the child doesn't need to be able to read or type at all, which is great.) the clear accents of the native speakers (I particularly like that in the pronunciation section they let you choose between a more neutral accent and an Argentine accent.) You can record your self and compare it to the native speakers (and even play a bowling game where you knock down more pins the better your accent is. This is a little glitchy, but still fun.) Lots of repetition and reinforcement Good mix and pacing of different types of activities. Kids can repeat lessons as many times as they want to adjust pacing to different learners Games are adjustable to make it easy or insanely difficult I contacted customer service about a small problem during my order, and they responded almost immediately and cleared it up. What I don't love: Teaches Usted (formal 'you') before Tú (informal 'you'.) I get why they do this (because the conjugation is the same as for 'he or she', but I wish they started with Yo and Tú which is much more useful for a child in my opinion. Wish they started off with more immediately useful vocabulary like foods and drinks, but they do get to that stuff fairly soon. At least its not as bad as all the programs geared towards business travelers that start off with phrases about needing to find a fax machine and recommending restaurants. The games are great, but do get a little repetitive (for me at least, the kids have not complained.) One part of the bundle that I bought is online, not a download. This seems to be very slow and glitchy. For this reason I would not recommend going the monthly online subscription route. The download seems like the way to go. Overall though, I am extremely pleased and its going down as one of my best HS purchases! The more advanced levels are also good, and they cover ALL the verb tenses. I am finding the games useful to brush up on grammar, and there is something called a Spanish Comprehension Trainer which seems very useful. Overall, this seems like it would basically cover ALL levels of Spanish learning. My young kids are learning from it, but it would be just as useful for a high schooler or adult. HTH, Elena

We've just decided to homeschool our youngest next year. It will be similar to what my son does this year: [b]Math[/b]: MEP w/ Life of Fred (which she loves) [b]English[/b]: Probably Barton just to make sure there are no gaps in her reading. Possibly AAS [b]Literature[/b]: Sonlight Read-Alouds Latin: Song School Latin, possibly Prima Latina History: SOTW Science: BFSU [b]Spanish[/b]: Visual Link Typing: Read, Write, Type Thats probably about it...I try to keep to the basics or I get overwhelmed and feel behind. I bolded the things we absolutely will do consistently. The rest are gravy as far as I'm concerned Elena

My answer exactly! Elena

I have never used Flip Flop although I have been tempted to. I bought and returned Spanish for Children-- I found it confusing, disorganized, and not child friendly. I loved Song School Latin, but Song School Spanish sounds grating to me. Sorry, not much help! There isn't much for this age group :(

That is exactly how I felt about SFC. I returned it right away (and I'm a curriculum hoarder...I never return anything!) Thanks for this thread...making a list now of all the prospective next steps. My son is not learning much from GSWS but maybe we're just not far enough into it yet (or maybe he already knew too much.) Guess we'll keep plugging away and I'll research what to do next. So far I'm leaning towards Visual Link...

Thank you!!

OK, between these blogs (including Satori) and this one I found http://enchantedschoolhouse.blogspot.com/p/story-of-world.html I don't think I could possibly need any more resources...awesome! (I've also found some stuff on pinterest.) We are trying to do history at bedtime now with a lot of the extra reading materials added in, even though I was originally just going to read SOTW without supplementing it. Its fun for now, I hope I don't burn out on all this history. Thanks everyone! Elena

I would personally not spend money to formally test in your situation. In fact for my 8 year old who had more severe struggles than your son I just went ahead and started remediating for it without a formal diagnosis (although I did have a friend who was a reading specialist work with him for an hour and she said she thought he was mildly dyslexic.) If he continues to struggle at age 7, and he is showing signs of dyslexia, and your money is tight, I personally believe your money would be better spent on Barton or another program to help rather than on an expert diagnosis (depending on how much an eval costs I guess). If he needs help with reading, he needs help with reading KWIM? I'm sure many would really disagree, that you want to make sure you are treating the right thing, etc. But I think as he gets older you'll be able to tell what he is struggling with and whether it fits the symptoms of dyslexia or not. FYI, as far as b-d and b-p, have you tried this? http://www.cometoget...l-solution.html It really helps my son, and my daughter for that matter, who is not dyslexic as far as I can tell but does have a lot of trouble with reversals. Good luck! Elena

I think its very normal for prospective parents to sit in on classes. I don't know about helping out (some schools around here have rules about who is aloud in as a volunteer) but you should definitely be able to observe for as long as you want. I would also think your child could attend classes for a day if he wanted to. I know that's fairly normal in the public and private schools where I live for kids who are thinking of switching schools. Elena

Here's the background to this question....feel free to skip ahead to the BOLDED question if you just want to get to the meat. :) Last fall I was really struggling with my son's ADHD behaviors at home and feeling like he would do better in a more structured learning environment with a set schedule and routines, i.e. real school. We also were struggling financially and my husband, who works from home, really needed someone to do his billing and other administrative tasks. So school seemed like a win-win. My son didn't want to go, but after visiting the Catholic school, he loved it and couldn't wait. He left for school on the first day so excited and happy, but came back soooo stressed out and depressed. He said everyone knew how to read much better than him and that it was just work and drudgery all day long. He said at home if you do your work quickly with a good attitude, you can get done quickly but that at school it doesn't matter how well you work, you have to stay all day (!) Then to top it off he had homework to do when he was already exhausted and stressed out. This school is very small and a loving, family like environment--but it was clearly not working for him and didn't get any better. He was acting really badly at school (much worse than he ever does at home!) I'm sure some of this was due to his struggles with reading. As he explained it, he can't read and participate like the other kids, so he misbehaved to make his day more interesting. We tried to work things out for a few weeks, but then pulled him out. Thank God, I have my kid back! He is still totally ADHD, but he's not stressed out or depressed, and at least at home we can work around his behaviors and still get learning done! But this experience really made me change how I do school. Before it seemed like I had a never ending list of things I wanted to do because, well, there are just so many worthwhile things to do! But I was burned out. After this experience, I realized I HAD to deal with his reading more aggressively, and that the basics are really more important that the 'gravy.' So I've been trying to come up with what my priorities are and I wanted to hear from others. IF YOU ONLY ACCOMPLISHED ONE THING IN YOUR HOMESCHOOL, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT THAT TO BE? Then if you were able to accomplish a second thing, what would you want that to be? Obviously this is a thought experiment, because we are all accomplishing lots of things! For me the first three are easy, then it gets tricky, but it looks something like this: 1. Learn to read (if you can read, you can teach yourself anything anyway, right?) 2. Be surrounded with good stories and books (I put this above math because I also think you can learn math later in life, but having good stories and books in childhood is essential, IMO) 3. Learn math (I have more specific goals in mind such as creative thinking and fluency with math concepts, but I'll just sum it up as 'learn math') 4. Learn to speak Spanish (this is so high up on the list just because of my family background, not because I really think its more important objectively than the others) 5. History (though lots of this can be fulfilled in #2) 6. Learn scientific facts and thinking 7. Learn Latin Then there's other things like grammar and writing that are not on my radar yet, and probably some other things I'm totally forgetting. But I'm really curious to see what other people's priorities are! This is really helping me de-stress my homeschool. Now when I have limited time, I just focus on my priorities basically down that list. I have one hour? I do Barton. I have 2 hours? I do Barton and math. (We get the literature in at bedtime.) It really makes me feel like I'm not just chipping away at a never ending laundry list of ToDo's, but that I'm actually accomplishing the things that are most important to me. :) Elena

There is for us up here in the cold north :) Summer is the only time we can go to the lake or swim in the river or just play outside all day, so school just never gets done. We have to build up Vita D stores to last through the long winter :) I do try to do math and reading regularly though... Elena

SOrry I can't answer your question, but have you looked at MEP's scope and sequence? It might help answer your question. The topics bounce all over the place week to week, so you might want to go through Year 2 and pick and choose a few of the topics you need to cover and then move into Year 3 (or whatever level is new stuff.)

Thanks for the advice! He actually does have excellent aural memory...I often wonder if it is because he doesn't read. (I know I've heard that we as a society began losing our memory once we became readers...i.e. once we decided to write down the Iliad instead of remembering it and passing it on orally.) Anyway he can listen to just about any story out loud no matter how advanced and remember details....I am always the one who is saying 'huh? i don't remember that..." I don't know why I had just assumed he couldn't do MCT until he was reading fluently...glad i decided to ask!

I would love to start MCT at some point for my 8 year old, but I am wondering--must the child be reading and writing independently? He is mildly dyslexic and so far we can only do curricula that can be done completely verbally (with me reading to him and him answering verbally). He can do some amount of writing, but not much before he gets exhausted and overwhelmed. Thanks! Elena

Does he know enough in the language to write a sentence or few sentences with the word? I know for myself I don't usually remember a word until I have used it in conversation or writing.

In that case maybe it would still be easier for her to count up, rather than take away...i.e. for 54-36....36 up to 40 is 4, 40 up to 54 is 14, so the answer is 18? That might be easier for her than 54 down to 50 is 4, 50 down to 40 is 10, 40 down to 36 is 4. I don't know WHY addition is easier/faster, but I know that it is for me too. (Just noticed she is in MEP 2, so I used MEP-ish tactics in my example :) .)

If she get's addition easily, have you tried wording it like "4 plus what number equals 7" instead of "7 minus 4 = ?" It might be hard for her to get the concept of subtraction and the language of it at the same time.

You know, you all had me thinking that maybe I wanted to do coloring pages, maps, narration, extra reading and review questions--you made it sound so good! :p But alas, history is near the bottom of my priority list right now (sorry history buffs)...just trying to add some crafts in has me nearly overhwhelmed! So I don't see myself using all of the other extras anytime soon. Thank you to everyone for the advice and resources! I think I will check out what our library has for crafts books as Farrar suggested and look into the other resources listed, and then try to make a decision on the AG. I have been having a lot of success lately with scaling our HS down to the basics, and I'm a little worried about little by little adding the 'extras' back in which wasn't really working for us...but thanks for all the replies! It sounds like the consensus is that for crafts, the AG is not worth it, but that the other aspects of it are valuable?