We just started using Beyond the Code 2. DS has finished ETC 3 and is slowly working through 5 (put 4 aside) and BTC 2 is a good fit for him. It is excellent practice for reading, because it targets material he knows. He can read harder stuff but makes mistakes and guesses more. I like that it incorporates writing practice too, as this is a big weakness of his. It may not be for every kid, but it is working out well for us.

We haven't done testing yet. However, from looking at online versions of 3rd grade state tests (which I realize aren't standardized, but they are similar) there is a LOT of emphasis on story problems, which I think Horizons lacks. Horizons has its strengths but I recommend supplementing with some word problems (Singapore, Evan-Moor, whatever). I hate supplementing and switched to CLE, which is like Horizons only better explained with more story problems. I feel much better about testing now.

Carson-Dellosa G.A.M.E.S.! We use the Phonics G.A.M.E.S. (K-3) and loooove them. They also have Math and LA. Extremely well done, lots of variety, high quality, full-color! I use a little home laminator (Scotch 3M one from Target - $25) and laminate the full sheet pieces and then tape them into the file folder. If you laminate the whole thing, it can crinkle up when you close the folder. I bought several of the Evan-Moor LA centers, math centers, literacy centers etc. and I don't recommend them. They are basically a one-time use thing - great for a classroom where you have 30 kids to rotate through, but a waste of money for one child. The C-D G.A.M.E.S. are actually games that can be played over and over.

We are doing experiments from Snap Circuits and experiments from the book Science Wizardry for Kids. I love Snap Circuits because everything I need is in the box, and I love Science Wizardry because the experiements are awesome and I always have the stuff around the house. We read books and look things up online too.

I pieced everything together from various sources for almost a year, and then I found CLE :). We just use LA and Math. CLE gathers up everything I feel like we should be doing, integrates it in a nice tidy package, and we get it done. The LA is a bit of a stretch for my son because of his learning disabilities, but I *love* it. He is learning so much and it is really helping him put the pieces together. He is becoming more independent and is finally writing complete sentences to answer the questions. I like how there isn't an overwhelming amount of writing in the book, but kids who are good writers can do all the creative writing assignments from the TM. He is strong in math and doing well in the 300 series. I do *not* feel the need to supplement math and I am thrilled at all we are covering. The breadth of instruction is excellent. It is definitely on grade level. The explanations are great and I do not need to refer to a TM or make something up Each lesson briefly reviews several previously-learned topics, so my ds feels accomplished with how much he knows Because everything I need for a subject is in one booklet, our classtime is much more streamlined and efficient My MIL teaches math in an excellent elem. school and she is thrilled with the scope & sequence and presentation. It covers everything she sees her kids not knowing (like how to measure correctly, how to conceptualize fractions, etc.). Previously we used Singapore which had nowhere near enough review for ds. Then we used Horizons which I really like overall, but there aren't any explanations on the worksheets and the worksheets looked like "all work." Ds really likes CLE. We are on our 16th lesson after the switch, and he has started taking his LightUnit into his bedroom to finish on his own because he enjoys it.

My son has a pretty significant articulation disorder. Lots of private therapy (years of 2x week at Scottish Rite) didn't seem to make a difference. We used the Edmark Reading Program for learning by sight. My ds actually started it in PS and then I bought the home edition through Academic Superstore. It was very effective and he enjoyed it. The downside was that he wasn't able to see similarities in words so he was having to learn them one at a time, and it also encouraged him to look at the whole word and guess. This led to LOTS of errors when we tried to read anything outside the program. We ended up going back and doing phonics (starting at ETC 1 and AAS 1) and have tried to break the guessing habit. This has been hard and I sometimes wonder if we should have done sight words afterall. One HUGE benefit to doing phonics is that it doubles as speech therapy. He has auditory processing issues and doesn't hear the correct sounds, but by doing phonics he can see the sounds. As he sees the word "math" for example, he sees that it is m-a-th and not m-a-t. Just something to consider.

Thank you!

I'd read that thread, but it was mostly discussing which was easiest to administer at home, or gave the most information (which I don't care about). I don't want him to be stuck taking an extremely long test that gives me info I don't need, for example, if there's a shorter, simpler test that accomplishes my goal. I can't admin. at home and must go through a neutral qualified tester. I just need a basic LA/Math composite score. I have no idea which of the above tests is best suited for that.

My son will be doing standardized testing this spring/summer. I live in Oregon, and we are required to have our children tested with one of five tests, given by a neutral qualified person. The LA and Math scores are combined into a composite score, and if I am asked to submit scores then I just have to provide the composite score. All the school district cares about is whether the comp. score is over the 15th percentile. I will not be at all surprised if I am asked to submit results and I do have a bit of pride at stake here. When I pulled him out, he was floundering in special education and they didn't seem to think I could do better than they were doing. He generally does better when untimed. He is nearly grade level in reading, awful in writing & spelling, pretty darn good in math. So considering that I want him to score well to prove a point, and the fact I only need scores for LA and math, and I want to keep costs down, which do you recommend between these choices? CAT Comp. Test of Basic Skills ITBS Metropolitan Stanford Thanks in advance!

When my son was four he would have loved "Everybody Poops" and "The Gas We Pass" but that's probably not what you were thinking. :lol: The Flip Flap Body Book is really great. There are some other Usborne books (I think part of their First Science series) that address the body. Why Do People Get Sick? is one title, I think.

My son has really benefited from the 1/2 books. We don't do every page, but after we do a "whole number" book we do selected review from the corresponding 1/2 book which seems to help cement things, especially since some of those words he hasn't used in a few weeks. ETC is his primary reading instruction, so I'm pretty careful about using it well.

We do CLE math now and it has everything built in - fact practice, timed drills, lots of practice on the full range of skills. Before this we used Horizons. I have heard complaints that it isn't complete, but the instructions for the drill are in the first teacher's guide, and the supplementary worksheets are in the 2nd guide. I had the bindings cut off the teachers guides and workbooks and I shuffled everything into the correct spot in a binder - so everything I needed for each lesson (teaching instructions, workbook page and extra worksheets) were in one place. That made it "open and go" and super easy to remember to do everything. Before Horizons we used Singapore and the mastery approach just made me crazy because the program itself was nowhere close to complete w/o heavy supplementing (for my kiddo - your mileage may vary). I also disliked 3 books to juggle (HIG, text and workbook).

THAT is the one I was remembering. I like the checklist but I think I need something more. What I really want is daily reminders ;) Maybe I should work on the ETC words we are using each week. That seems like more of a logical place to start.

The Spelling Connections looks great! I found one for under $9 on Amazon. It's worth a try.

Thank you! That looks interesting. Wish I could see it inside.

Thanks Merry. I know you've really tried to help me make AAS work! I think my problem with AAS is that using it as directed is very heavily slanted towards spelling by sound. He has a lot of difficulty hearing sounds, which AAS has helped. and now he is pretty good at segmenting by sound. However, he also has an articulation disorder and he doesn't pronounce words correctly, so spelling by sound is not a reliable method. Yesterday, he spelled the phrase "words that mean the same thing" like this: werd dat men the sam siing. Aside from the obvious pronunciation problem, he forgot to make the vowels in the words "same" and "mean" say their second sound, which we have gone over only a million times and he will do if reminded. Even if he had remembered he would have just added an e to the end of each one, which would still have been incorrect for mean. AAS requires the student to go through a mental check-list as they work on a word, ie. is this a short vowel; which two letters can make this sound and which do I try first; what happens if I try this, etc. That is just so much to keep track of and it uses his weakest learning pathway, kwim? He's very strong in visual-spatial skills and I think we need to focus on learning spelling visually. I just don't see him ever becoming a good speller using this method as written. He will be nine this summer. I can't waste much more time.

Thank you - I did see SpellingCity, but from what I can see there's no particular method or schedule. I thought there was a workbook that you could use with any spelling list, but now I can't find it.

:iagree: We stopped using Singapore as our primary/only math program because there was nowhere near enough review and my ds was forgetting things as fast as he learned them. We have been much happier with spiral programs (Horizons and CLE) but I do supplement with Singapore to review. I totally agree that it's fun to zoom through and I love being able to just focus in on the bar graph stuff.

My son is a more-or-less classic dyslexic. He has only been reading a year and is just starting to be willing to write. We got through Level 1 and the first few steps of Level 2 in AAS but I stopped moving forward because he was not generalizing what he could do in AAS to his other writing and I thought he might just need more time/experience reading. We are using CLE LA (currently in 204) and we review their spelling but don't test on it. I was surprised when CLE went over the steps to memorize spelling words and it totally worked. Basically it was just 1) break down the word into its sounds, 2) read the word as you say the sounds, identifying any silent letters or vowel teams 3) practice spelling the word correctly 4) try writing the word and then checking to see if you got it right. With almost no trouble at all he learned to spell Friday, screen and tied using those steps. So now I am encouraged to get back to spelling. Rather than trying another program I would like to just use the words in AAS. Is there a template or schedule for doing spelling with your own list? If I just wing it I know I won't be consistent. TIA!

My son has a summer birthday, and although the school district considers him a third grader, 2nd grade is a better overall fit based on his skill level. I may try to get him reclassified as a 2nd grader. Anyway, in this weird 2nd/3rd grade year, he will have finished: Sonlight Core 2 CLE LA 200 series Core Skills Reading Comp. 2nd & 3rd grade ETC 5-7 Getty-Dubay Italics B & C CLE math 300 Singapore 2A/2B (we use as a supplement) Science is a hodge-podge of Snap Circuits, RSO Earth & Space, and documentaries.

I just have the answer key and tests. I *think* that's enough, but maybe the teacher's guide explains things better. I know dd studies hard and knows the roots on flashcards but never does very well on the tests because of the way the tests are written.

We use Life last year, and it lined up really well with the DK Nature Encyclopedia so we read the ency pages on each topic and that rounded things out very easily. I thought the experiments/activities were great and I eagerly bought Earth & Space for this year. I can't find a good reference book to line up with it, so I lined up all the Magic School Bus books recommended and we read those. Honestly though ... I don't think the experiments are as interesting as the ones in Life. Many I crossed off because it's stuff we've already done or is too much work to prove a simple point. The referenced websites aren't very good (which isn't their fault) so I felt like I was just reading Magic School Bus with a few relevant RSO experiments thrown in. I think RSO needs more actual teaching, or it needs to be lined up with a good Encyclopedia that can be used throughout instead of asking the parent to hunt down a bunch of books that may or may not be much use. That said, I'll probably do some more this year just to fill the void since the Singapore Science 3/4 I'd bought to replace RSO is probably a better fit next year. I'm definitely not doing all the planet stuff though. Zzzzzz....

I don't use curriculum for my 25 month old, but we do a lot of fun stuff. I think curriculum at this age just doesn't make sense, because schedules and interests change so much. I do love collecting educational stuff though, mostly at Goodwill. I keep it in boxes and pull things out as needed. We just make "educational playtime" a regular part of our lives so it's fun and low-pressure. Here are some of my good finds: Ravensburger games like Baby Bird Nest and Snail's Pace Race teach turn-taking and color recognition in a fun way. Wooden puzzles can be found for only a couple dollars at thrift stores and they are so durable. Melissa and Doug crayons are great quality and stronger than Crayola. Carson-Dellosa Preschool file folder games are colorful and fun. I laminated them and taped them into folders, stuck on velcro dots and he loooves to do the matching ones now. There are tracing and pattern ones for when he's older. Funtastic Frogs are great because they work as counters, sorters and stringing beads. "Memory" in different themes, like everyday objects, animals, faces, etc. Teddy Bear Mix & Match works the same. For now we lay them face-up and find matching pairs, or I set some out and ask him to find me the bear with green shoes or something like that. I've found many educational games that cover sequencing, position/location (where am I?), letter sounds, etc.

I agree that Singapore Math might be a good fit. Singapore teaches a topic at a time, and once in a while "summarizes" what you've covered so far to make sure they still know how to do it. I've often thought Singapore is well suited for a child who is very math intuitive and has a great long-term memory (once they learn it, they don't forget). My son easily learns math but does not retain it unless he practices it frequently. When I used Singapore, it was too much guesswork and hassle to build in supplementary review and I am much happier with a spiral program (first Horizons, then CLE). Now we work on measurement, for example, throughout the year instead of just a couple weeks like in Singapore.

My 8th grade DD is doing: - SL Core 100 - I like the history portion but some of the lit is ... eh. The writing assignments are disappointing. I need to pull out Lightning Lit again and sub some of that in for the SL lit. - HUS chapter tests from Hewitt Homeschooling - Easy Grammar Plus (1 page/day) - Vocabulary from Classical Roots A - The Elegant Essay (on hold, but we like it) - PH Science Explorer - selected life science textbooks - she really likes this and it excites her about science. It also seems to give her good practice for learning how to STUDY. - Chalkdust Algebra - we really, really like this. She does every-other-odd but she does additional problems if she feels she needs more practice. She also takes writing, office assistant, and band classes at the local middle school.