It started out with his old toys and things around the house we were going to get rid of - he asked if he could get a space at the "antique store" (junk shop) and we went to see what that involved. You pay by the square foot and then 5% of all sales. We signed up for month-to-month and gathered up everything he wanted to sell and brought it up and put it all into his space. Within a day we were getting email notifications he was selling things! Over the first month he made $200 after paying his rent and used that to look on Craigslist for more stuff and when we were on a road trip, we stopped in another "antique store" and he found a booth selling everything for $1.....so he bought a ton of stuff there and added it to his booth. Now he checks online sites like CL, then local FB swap pages, local tag sales, etc. and buys things he thinks he can sell for more and/or fix and sell for more. He's doing pretty well with it - we go up once a week for him to organize the booth and keep it clean, he takes his inventory list and checks off what was sold and checks to see if everything else is still there and brings up anything else he's gotten. When he had put aside $1,000, he took half and we discussed stocks and investment growth and long term investing. He picked 3 stocks and put $500 into a portfolio we set up for him. He now checks that often to see how it's doing and has committed to putting another $500 into his portfolio when his savings again gets to $1,000 (we've advised him to keep $500 aside for "unforeseen" expenses with his booth) again. His longer term goal is to buy a duplex house when he turns 18 so he can rent out one side and live there free! LOL

I wanted to add that fifth grade, last year, the work in content subjects - the level of reading required - was a lot for my son. We did a lot of audio books and signed up with Learning Ally to get many of his textbooks in audio format so he could read along while listening to the book read to him. He was able to stay on pace with everything as it was in audio for him without me needing to read it all to him - it was a lot to read if he had to do it silently and I'm pretty sure he would have been very discouraged by the amount to read if he didn't have the audio option. You may want to look into it as it is definitely helpful to have!

My ten year old is 2e also, a memory to die for, math skills that make my head spin, but reading that hurts to listen to (dyslexia). The biggest breakthrough for him with his reading and decoding was actually something so simple I kick myself for not highlighting it sooner. It is that letters are just pictures of sounds - those with dyslexia often think in pictures (my son does and is quite articulate about it) - my son's lightbulb moment with reading was that the letters are just that, a picture of a sound and those sounds all blend together into words. Over the last month to six-weeks, he's taken leaps and bounds with his reading as we've hammered away at letters and letter combinations = pictures of sounds, and works on strategies for decoding (ie. counting vowels for syllables, one consonant runs, two split, blends stay together, etc.). I've been using two things - Logic of English Essentials and Reading Horizon's workbook (for decoding strategies). I also switched him to cursive (he loves it) so all letters start at the baseline (we'll move to include capital letters next month), which is helping with b and d for him. He uses his hands as his prompt for b and d if he gets to a word and isn't sure (left is b, right is d.....or bat before the ball, doorknob before the door). Our day right now is: Review previous Logic of English lesson Harder spelling list from previous Logic of English lesson Break First part of next Logic of English lesson Reading Horizons workbook page Reading out loud together (he'll do five pages, I'll do five pages - currently we're reading Little House in the Big Woods) Review harder spelling list words together and where he had errors Break Second part of Logic of English lesson Penmanship using the spelling words form LOE Reading our loud together (he'll do five more pages, I'll do five more pages) Each day we're spending 2-3 hours on reading and spelling. He loves LOE and actually is happy when we're starting each day - he says it makes sense to him and that he feels like it is helping him read better because it makes sense in his head. Little House in the Big Woods is the first book he's read that, while he struggles with some words, he is really enjoying reading it and looks forward to it each day....we take turns so he can also hear automaticity and fluent reading and while I do the reading he follows along. Our summer is ONLY reading and language arts this year - he's way ahead in math and science, so I'm not even looking at them over the summer. For history, which he enjoys, he's watching one of the DVD programs from The Great Courses on his own for American History....no book work with it though, he's just watching the video lessons.

If you have a formal diagnosis, you can sign up for Learning Ally. The AGS science books are well done and available in audio format from Learning Ally.

My son is scout, so knives, camping, fire, etc. are all part of his repertoire, things we have him learn include juijitsu for self-defense, latin just because it is useful, money management (he's already saved enough to have his own portfolio, which he picks his own stocks for) and he's a little entrepreneur, so we've helped him start his own business - a space in a local used things store that he finds things to sell, prices them, keeps the space in order and keeps track of what sells and what hasn't and adjusts prices accordingly.

Summer camp is so important with scouts who can't swim - my son's patrol just got back from summer camp and one of his friends couldn't pass the swimming test, so was designated a non-swimmer. He worked ALL week during any free time he had and PASSED the basic swimming test to be designated a learning swimmer. He's now confident that he WILL actually be able to learn well enough to pass the BSA swimming test for his first class rank! All his buddies and all the parents were so proud of him when we were at parent's night!

I started with the squares, then rules for zero and one, followed by 2, 5 and 3's, followed those with 6, 9 and 10, then 7's and 11, 8's and finally 4's and 12's. Throughout, use of a fill in multiplication table so they can see what they know and the ones that remain, some drill, I don't do flashcards.......once they're almost all memorized, we do one more multiplication table chart orally and I note which ones are still not memorized and we work on those and review the ones they know much less frequently. Total time for my kiddo was about 2-weeks to have them all down cold, another 2-weeks to fully be able to do all as the reverse, division.

Audiobooks are so important - you can go to Audible.com and order the audiobook that matches his copy of King Arthur and let him read with the audio. I have my son use audiobooks frequently. There are online programs also - like Learning Ally - where you can get their textbooks in audio versions so they can read along with the audio - at older grades that significantly reduces the time I have to read to him and gives him a lot of independence to get his work done.

Maybe consider moving to Logic of English Essentials as it's designed for older kids? I started it with my 10 year old (dyslexic) a few months ago and we're already seeing progress. I pace slowly with him and the work is challenging, but he love it.....unlike everything else I've done with him, when I say it's time to do English, he's actually happy now! I've been extending the lessons with the more challenging spelling lists that are posted online, so rather than a few days, each lesson is taking a week. I also started Rhythm of Handwriting Cursive - and really like the approach as almost all letters start at the baseline, which for dyslexics is so helpful with their writing. We're doing Logic of English in parallel with Reading Horizons, which is great for decoding skills! With both of those and reading out loud daily his reading is improving each week, as is his confidence with reading.

Thank you! I have a 10 year old, but he has dyslexia, so reading is a challenge for him and my little one is the exact opposite apparently! I have the K5 since I wanted something on hand when he was ready - so many other options out there for when he's older! I appreciate your reply, thank you!

Help! My 4 year old recently started reading, everything in sight! Signs, packages, boxes - you name it, he's reading it. Example, we were at an ice cream shop and I was reading the list of daily flavors and he looked at me and said "you forgot green apple" - indeed I did, it was first on the list and there was no picture, just "green apple". Totally unexpected as I haven't spent much time doing anything formal with him - he's known his alphabet for over a year and we've done letter sounds orally, and I read to him a lot. I'm not quite sure what to do with him! I have A Beka K5 and am looking for some insights from anyone that may also have or have had an early, on their own, reader.....should I do it, or something else, or more than a K5 program?