I hated going through FLL with my oldest years ago, but the repetition would probably be really good for my 7 yo. and wouldn't add a lot more time to our day. Fix It does hit grammar and vocab and seems incremental with short amounts per day, but plenty of review.

Good to know about HN. I will skip Megawords for now and hopefully HN will be the right fit for her at this time. That's also good to know about Spelling Power. In the past random lists didn't work (thinking of Logic of English Foundations), but am not sure how she would do now with them. I think Apples and Pears works with morphology, but will have to do some digging to know if something else would be better or get her farther. I need to think about this more with her given this is her weakest area right now.

Would MCT work well with both an 11 and 7 year old? My 7 year old would be fine listening into anything, but isn't reading yet. I am starting Foundation in Sounds with her next week (in the past I didn't know if she couldn't pay attention enough to pass the Barton screening or if she really couldn't pass part C which is why we are just now getting around to it). That is also good to know about Megawords. I think I'll cross that off my list for now.

I forgot about Librivox. We have used it in the past, but not lately. I will put this on my list too. ? I will look into a Hoopla membership. Our library just uses Overdrive/Libby and TumbleBooks (but that might just be children's e-books and not audio books - I need to check into that one more as well).

Thank you. That's good to know about Libby. I just downloaded it a few minutes ago and need to finish setting it up. I'm excited that I finally got this done, as small of a task that it is. It got pushed to the back burner too many times over the last year since I first learned about it. I will also take a look at the fluency levels and readers from High Noon. I don't know as much about the program options to be honest, but have liked what I have seen. I also didn't know if Megawords would duplicate High Noon so will check into that. I have plenty of unused curriculum sitting on my shelves and don't need to add more if it's not going to benefit us in some way. I don't mind doing the poetry with her. It would be good for me to go through it with her and refresh my memory of various types of poetry to help her get the most benefit out of it. I was feeling overwhelmed trying to sort through everything and line up the final pieces of my plan for my 2 school age kids, especially knowing that I need to make sure that DD7 gets the extra time she needs from me this year, but thinking through these ideas here and also finishing organizing our curriculum here today helps me feel better about tackling this school year and figuring out how to juggle it all.

Thanks. I haven't heard of Hoopla before. Is it a separate app, subscription service, or something through a library system?

That's a good idea as well. I just downloaded our libary's app to access the audio files. We went through many of their audiobook CDs, but there may be more that I haven't looked up in a while and I can also try requesting more for them to purchase or get through inter library loan. That's a good point about separating the books she picks to read on her own and others that I either assign as audiobooks or ones that I pick to read aloud with her and my other kids. I should have thought to do this a month ago, but I will make a list of books that I want her to either listen to or that I want to read aloud this year and then give her a blank sheet that she can list books that she has read as she goes along. I think she will really like seeing them all listed somewhere.

Thank you. I actually forgot about Spelling Power. If I remember right, it goes into the spelling rules. DD has really liked having the spelling rules taught and I've heard her trying to tell them to her younger sister at times. DD thrives on knowing the rules of language and it helps her remember and understand it better. I will look into Spelling Power more this evening. I gave DD the placement test for level 2 of High Noon today. Her fluency was 3 seconds slow on the story reading for part 2 and she struggled a bit with part 3. I am going to order level 2 to help fill in those gaps and build fluency. I also like your idea of reading along with her and working through what she has read, making predictions, discussing synonyms, etc. That would help me identify some struggles or gaps easier.

She is reading for pleasure now. Our library has Overdrive with audiobooks (I need the download the app this weekend). She isn't registered with the National Library Service/BARD. I will have to check into that option. I will look into the VP history/lit book list. I know people that have used their history and loved it, but I haven't ever checked into their lit program. I may switch her to the VP online option at some point. I switched gears on history this year and bought Mystery of History level 1 (both the book and the audio CDs) so we'll see how that goes. She enjoyed listing to Story of the World audio books read by Jim Wise in the past. I gave DD the High Noon level 2 placement test this afternoon. She was 3 seconds too slow on the part 2 section and struggled with quite a few words in part 3. I am going to go ahead and order High Noon level 2. I like the idea of separating reading and spelling for her at this stage. I may also order the first book of Megawords or try to find better samples. I need to think more about studied dictation for her. She might be ready for it now. She definitely wasn't ready a year ago. We are doing Fix it Grammar this year which has some copywork daily. I may also add in other copy work or a copybook for her as well. She is really into poetry right now and asked me to order a poetry curriculum that will help teach her more about poetry and require her to write poems. I keep looking at MCT and IEW's poetry curriculum. I'm sure there are many others that I could look into as well. I feel like studying poetry will also help with another area of language and we can always add in copywork of the poems if it isn't scheduled in the lessons. We are also starting typing this year.

Thanks. Reading Horizons is supposed to be OG, but I feel lacks as much multi-sensory aspect being online. It has a certain amount of review, but could have more in my opinion as well. It does have her marking vowels, vowel teams, unit sounds, blends, etc. in words which I think helped her a lot as well. I need to figure out what she can read with fluency and automaticity well. Her reading comprehension is good and often I feel better than her actual reading level as she is a really good guesser if she knows the context. I am going to try to find the High Noon Placement test tomorrow and see how she does with that. I'm not sure what other placement tests or reading tests I should look at to get a better feel for where she is at right now.

Thanks. Reading Horizons is supposed to be OG, but I feel lacks as much multi-sensory aspect being online. It has a certain amount of review, but could have more in my opinion as well. It does have her marking vowels, vowel teams, unit sounds, blends, etc. in words which I think helped her a lot as well. This summer when we did DD11's 4th grade standardized testing (she was already 5/6ths of the way through the Reading Horizons online curriculum at this point), she tested at grade level 8.3 for reading comprehension, 12.3 for language arts, 5.7 for vocabulary, 7.3 for language mechanics, and 2.6 for spelling. That said, the results did say that anything more than 2 grade levels above (so above grade 6) wouldn't be accurate since it was only the 4th grade test. Considering her reading level was at the 3rd grade level the summer before and spelling at the 1st grade level the summer before when we had our teacher assessment a year ago, I can see she is making progress. That said, I don't know what her actual decoding level is yet and am trying to find an online test I can give her to determine her decoding level and also look closer at her fluency and automaticity. This summer she read through the unabridged Secret Garden on own and seemed to understand more than I expected (especially with the moor accent written in the book). She has also been reading through the original Nancy Drew books quite a bit. She has also been reading other books, sewing/craft books, and cookbooks but those were a few she talked about more. I can figure out a way to buy the next Barton level if I need to do so. I ended up purchasing Foundation in Sounds for my 7 year old last week with the funds I had saved for Barton level 4 (yes, I could have gone with LiPS for less money, but believe this will be enough for her and am too tired from a 12 month old who still nurses frequently at night to read an entire LiPS manual before I can implement it with my DD). DD7 needs a lot of other time of mine for therapy related exercises daily, reflex integration, and likely additional therapy appointments (speech and OT evaluations to come). I am also switching DD7 to RightStart as I can see how she will benefit from their approach and what we used before wasn't quite enough for her, but that is also teacher intensive. The thought of all of that with Barton with 2 kids plus other subjects and a toddler sounds overwhelming, but we will figure out how to make it all work if needed. That said, if I can find a way to keep DD11 moving forward with some independence (and less expensive than Barton would be nice), I am all for it. I will give DD11 the High Noon Reading placement test tomorrow. I forgot about High Noon. She wasn't quite ready for it when I considered it before Barton, but I do believe she would be fine now with it. I will also look into the free OG materials at the MA Rooney site. I think I saw it mentioned here about a month ago when I was reading and searching for ideas, but forgot to write the website down and couldn't find it later when I went to look. I'll look at Spelfabet. I haven't heard of it before. I have Apples and Pears book A sitting on my shelf so gave her the placement test today and she placed towards the end of level A. I may go ahead with that to start and see how that works for spelling for her and if it works well then move to the next level later this fall. I read about some people that go through Apples and Pears and then switch to Megawords so that might be an option. I may also look at some more online options as she likes a mix of work with me teaching and some independence as well at this age.

I have a 11 year old that I started using Barton with about 2.5-3 years ago if I remember correctly. We got part-way into level 3 when I ended up sick with complications in pregnancy. Barton got tabled for a long while. At one point in pregnancy I restarted level 3 since we had taken such a long break. After additional complications and then newborn challenges, we had taken another long break from Barton and then I had restarted level 3 again because I wasn't sure what she had retained. Eventually I bought a subscription to Reading Horizons online so she could continue to get some practice without relying on me with a challenging baby. Long story short, I wasn't consistent with Barton the entire 1st year of my baby's life and am now ready and prepared to jump back into with with both feet and create a consistent schedule. During 2018 though, my daughter has progressed through most of Reading Horizons and only has a handful of lessons left in Reading Horizons Discovery. Because of what she has learned in Reading Horizons, she really doesn't want to go back to "easier" levels in Barton where we left off. Her reading is doing really well (spelling still needs extra work). I'm struggling to know whether to continue with Barton (I am also starting my other daughter on Barton next week) and save to buy level 4 or switch her to something like Megawords or Nessy or something else entirely. There is no way she would have done so well with Reading Horizons if she hadn't done work in Barton first, but I'm not certain the next best approach for her. I feel like she still needs reading practice and extra spelling work, but I now question if she really needs Barton to continue making progress at this point. With another child starting Barton and needing additional therapy, I would love it if something else would work that might be easier for me since I am also juggling a toddler, but will figure out how to make it work if we should continue Barton with her.

We had a similar struggle. We did some HWOT (I should have done more in hindsight with more large motor movement incorporated) copy work with starting dots as reminders, etc. Starting LOE's Rhythm of Handwriting cursive this year has been the best thing yet. That said, we are still working on the number formation corrections, but the letters are much better switching to cursive.

Thanks. I will look at those as well.

Thanks for the suggestions. I put my responses below in red.

Thanks for the ideas. I just learned today about an audiobook book option our library has so will explore that more this month. I don't know what BARD is though. I have thought about getting a learning ally subscription, and may do that if our library doesn't have as many options as I would like. Do you have certain documentaries on netflix, amazon, or DVD format that you highly recommend? I will look at reflex and IXL math again. We have used DreamBox the last couple years, but always end up hitting road blocks and eventually work through them. We've hit another roadblock and am done and not planning to renew at the end of this month.

Thanks. I had not heard the audio reading for Apologia. That is good to know. I will check out the nature and Nova episodes. I think i have a Janice Van Cleave experiment book on one of my bookshelves now that you mention it. I haven't look at it since I bought it though. I will check it out. That is also helpful to know about SOTW audio. I may look at using parts of of the activity guide as an option. My oldest enjoyed listening to some of this in the past, but we didn't do anything else with it at the time.

I know that the title of this may sound like an oxymoron. Next fall I will have 4th grader (tested and dyslexic with slow processing speed) and 1st grader (shows signs of dyslexia and low working memory, but not yet tested). I am also expecting a baby around the start of the school year as well. We are already using Barton with my current 3rd grader and Recipe for Reading with my Ker, but I am planning to try Barton with her as well when my level 1 gets returned to me. I know that both math and LA will be very teacher intensive with both kids. My oldest really WANTS to do more with other subjects as well and asks for more, but I know what we are using this year (both science and history have me doing a lot of reading out loud) likely won't work well with a newborn so am checking out other options for next school year. For background, neither child is reading anything outside of their reading lessons. I do all the other reading aloud to them. They do learn well from me reading to them, and love anything that is in story form. My oldest can listen to audio books for hours. However, when I am too sleep deprived, I will fall asleep reading aloud to my children. I need some history, science, or other good options that take me out of doing all the reading. I could think of a few, but thought you all would have some more great ideas for me to check into. For science, I know Apologia has some audio files of the author reading the book aloud. Does this work well to listen to and then do experiments? Are there other options for science to check into? My oldest especially loves science and just nature studies and science videos will not satisfy her craving for knowledge here (I'm not too concerned about the 1st grader given her age). For history, I know SOTW and MOH both have audio book options. Is listening to them and looking at maps enough? I don't want something with a lot of projects as I am concerned I won't have the energy for them and will drop it all entirely. I have heard of Veritas Press self paced history online too as an option since it can read everything aloud to the child, but am not sure how that will fit into the budget with a couple Barton levels to purchase and not being able to sell off old levels yet. Have you used any of these with success with a dyslexic? Or do you have other ideas I should look into? I could also do a year of geography instead of history, but the few options I could think of were pretty teacher intensive with me reading aloud a lot and doing projects and I'm afraid it wouldn't get done. For typing with the 4th grader, I would like to use Touch, Type, Read, and Spell since that is supposed to pair well with Barton. After she completes level 4 (we aren't done with level 3 yet), I will add in other LA. She is also doing well learning cursive this year so will somehow keep her practicing that in a way that will work with Barton, but am still figuring out that as well (I do own StartWrite software so have thought about copywork with Barton sentences). I also will have art videos (a big hit with both of them and my oldest definitely has a talent for art) available to them. I know my oldest would love art studies on famous artists, but haven't even looked into these options yet. I would love to expose them to more music, but am not concerned if it happens next year or not. I don't care next year if it is more listening to Classical Kids CDs (like Beethovan Lives Upstairs) and other CDs for the time being, even though I know long-term that is not ideal. In short, outside of math and LA, I would love non-teacher intensive ideas or ideas with audio books that we can use to cover other subjects for a 4th grader and 1st grader or I am concerned that they may not get done. My oldest is craving more "school work" and am trying ways to satisfy that while also being reasonable with what I can accomplish.

I was given the name of a neurologist in Seattle that works at testing kids for learning challenges and helps the parents understand how their child learns best. I have not followed through with this after the pediatrician mentioned it, but can find the name for you. The pediatrician said he had many other parents that were very happy with him in gaining a better understanding how their child learns and how to help their children. I can look up his information later today. Also, Susan Barton has a list of people that test for dyslexia and other learning struggles that she will email if requested. There were several psychologists (I think most were educational psychologists when I checked over a year ago) on the list near Seattle (I did not check Portland). If dyslexia is part of what you are looking at with testing, Susan Barton also sends a list of interview questions you can ask before any testing begins. It sounds like you have some people you are working with locally that may also help with knowing what type of interview questions to ask. An interview beforehand would be beneficial as the actual testing will require a lot of time and money and you may be able to know from an interview if someone will be a bad fit. Some people on here have had great experiences with some testers and not so great with other testers.

HOME2LEARN is also a free shipping code for orders over $35 that I saw on FB yesterday.

I put magnets on mine last month. That said, we are only about to start level 3. Right now I have all three levels stored on a cookie sheet. My DD wanted magnets (as did I since I was tired of setting them up each time) and loved it when I added them and told me how much better they were than AAR tiles. I used sticky back 1" square magnets off Amazon. I am still trying to decide what to do next when we add more tiles. I have seen large metal pans (I think from an automotive section) used on a couple blogs with AAR tiles and they looked like they may work. The fold up set that comes advertised with some of the Barton levels looks nice, but I can't justify spending $80 on it. As for the app, I thought part of the purpose of the app was not just the tiles, but also the prebuilt words for each level.

I use a different program for my dyslexic, so can't help you with Seeing Stars, but wanted to let you know that you may also want to post in the learning challenges forum. I know others there have used this and/or other products from the same company.

We got a time timer a couple months ago. Ours can be set in from 1 to 60 minutes. It has been very helpful.

I thought of Science in the Beginning as well when I read your description. Another option may be the God's Design for Science series. I understand they updated it earlier this year and each lesson is supposed to have an experiment or hands on work and they have papers/worksheets/notebooks that you download for the student. I haven't seen it in person, but reading about the updates made it sound appealing.