My son liked Vocabulary Virtuoso (we used it this year, for 5th). If you're not opposed to buying from Teachers Pay Teachers, try searching for "word work upper elementary" or "vocabulary activities upper elementary". There should be a bunch of generic activities you can use with any vocabulary list. Writing and illustrating a short story with some or all of the vocabulary list can produce some pretty hilarious results.

Have you looked at Writing & Rhetoric and Well-Ordered Language, both from Classical Academic Press? My third grader is enjoying both, both are pretty much open and go, and I would consider them to be on the gentle side (but thorough and building up good base skills). My son finds the songs/chants in Well-Ordered Language to be a bit eye-rolly, so we skip those, but I don't think we're missing a lot by doing that. Just Write is another gentle writing curriculum to look at which is also very open and go.

We loved Right Start and did A-C before switching to Beast Academy. Between the manipulatives, the games, and the wide variety of topics it teaches, I really feel like it's a holistic introduction to math like nothing else on the market, and it gave my son (2e) an amazing math foundation.

We did Reflex Math (online game) for multiplication and division practice.

Oh, absolutely, his coping mechanisms are totally normal. We just have to train any adult supervisors to leave him alone so he can wind himself down on his own, or his emotional state will continue to ramp up. Everyone wants to cuddle an upset kid, and that is the opposite of helpful in his case. We'll need to do some checking on insurance, but it sounds like one on one therapy would definitely be worth seeking out to help him learn more regulation skills, before going back to group therapy.

He does ok, mostly, at drop-off classes. The biggest issue we've seen is frustration meltdowns, and he does not react well to being comforted in those situations, which is the default response from most adults (he just wants to be alone until he calms down). These are all really good points. I haven't been informed specifically of those behaviors at other drop-off activities, but it may not have been seen as something that was worth letting me know about (ie, not an issue that needed correction by the parent or hurt another kid). You make an excellent point about whether the therapists have the group at a point where everyone is well-regulated enough to make the class productive. This group is not specifically for ASD kids, and I'm not actually sure what diagnoses the other group members have, so the therapists may not be well-versed in techniques for working with all the different behaviors the kids exhibit. Which is kind of ridiculous, yes, given what everyone is paying. Central NC is seeing a huge influx of people and is getting to be pretty expensive overall, from housing to everything else. And if the market will bear it, I guess they'll charge it. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts!

TLDNR: if your child with an ASD diagnosis attended social skills classes, were they useful? My son (8) was diagnosed with high functioning autism and ADHD (inattentive type) about a year and a half ago. Since then, we've enrolled him in various social skills classes to help him improve his sometimes awkward interactions with peers. These classes are really expensive, and not paid for by insurance. He's currently in a 1-hour weekday class that costs $100/session. ? The cost is a big financial burden, but we're willing to find the money if they are helpful for him. But we're not sure that they are. All the classes he's attended have been based on the Social Thinking curriculum. During the classes, the kids play cooperative games, write up trading cards about each other (after finding out what their peers like to eat, favorite colors, etc), practice how to have conversations, and do other activities. But it all seems so artificial, and having the classes for only an hour a week doesn't seem like enough time to build a rapport with the the other kids or really get to know them, particularly given how adult-directed the sessions are. He attends homeschool park days and 2+ hour drop-off classes that give him a lot more time to be social with other kids, for much longer stretches. We've also noticed that he will imitate behaviors shown by others in his classes that he does not otherwise display (ie, hiding under tables or jumping around during sessions if others are doing so). My husband and I want to be sure he has all the help he needs to help him build social skills going forward, but how do you tell if the classes are working? Our son tells us he doesn't feel they're that useful and that he doesn't find himself using the skills he's learned in the classes. For the $400/month we pay for the classes, we could enroll him in a couple great drop-off nature programs (he loves being outside), do interesting day camps, or pay for any number of other activities where he could interact with peers in supervised social settings. Does anyone have advice or thoughts? Thank you so much!

I've been collecting the Prentice Hall Science middle school Science Explorer series used from eBay, Amazon, local used bookstores, etc. I think they're fantastic (and secular). We started RSO Bio 2 with my very science-y kid who turned down RSO Life as too simple, and while I think Blair Lee is an amazing and cool person who has done great things for the secular homeschool community, I just don't like Bio 2. ? Heresy, I know. I don't like the labs, the order the topics are presented in, the dryness of the presentation, the fact that some things seem to be over-explained while others are given very little text, etc. I love protozoans (I could spend hours looking at pond water in our microscope), and my kid wants a stuffed amoeba and paramecium for Christmas, but there's basically no study of these critters in Bio 2, which is baffling to me. I mean, bust out the Proto-Slo and pond scum and find some cool stuff! The Science Explorer Books are well-written, have great photos/illustrations and interesting labs, and they're written to specific topics like Ecology, Animals, Cells and Heredity, Sound and Light, Astronomy, etc, so you can pick and choose as you go.

My son likes to re-re-reread the Guides because they're well-written and funny, so I feel buying physical copies of those would be worth it. They can often be found used, since they're not consumable.

Thanks, everyone! Sounds like we're all set with W&R and MCT, and maybe a little light free writing in between.

After trying a few (cough) writing programs over the past few years, we've started Writing & Rhetoric: Fable with my son this year. The first week has gone swimmingly, and so far it seems like a great fit. Since there are only 14 lessons in each book, even 2 levels will not cover a year's worth of school. What do others use along with W&R? We're currently using MCT's Island level for grammar (finished Grammar Island and working through Practice Island, MotH, etc). We had previously been using Just Write, which my son didn't hate; it's fun, but a little on the light side. I could intersperse the Grade 3 (Book 2) Just Write between W&R chapters, maybe, although that level seems to focus a lot on grammar, which we've already got covered. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

We did AAR longer than "needed" with my son because he just really enjoyed the activities and stories. He was a natural whole-word reader, but then was getting tripped up with longer words in more complex texts, because he didn't have any phonics rules for breaking them down. We sped through AAR1 very quickly just to get familiar with the program, skipped AAR2 based on the placement test, and did all of 3 and part of 4 before he got tired of it. By then, he was very fluent with a combo of whole-word and phonics-based reading. AAR4 does have some good vocabulary, word origin, suffixes, etc lessons that might be worth picking and choosing through. I'm really glad we used it as long as we did.

My dad had a fainting spell with a recent back injury. It was diagnosed as a vagal response from the pain rather than a neurological issue. As a side note, his injury was misdiagnosed as a muscle strain by the incompetents at the ER (who never even examined him), but after he insisted on testing, it turned out to be a bone chip pressing into his spine which required urgent surgery. He was in agony for a week, but woke up after the surgery almost pain free. Have you had any kind of scan to confirm that it’s just a strain? I’m so sorry, back injuries are so extremely painful and crippling. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Leaf chromatography? http://www.playdoughtoplato.com/leaf-chromatography/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I try to join Facebook groups specific to various curricula I use (Right Start, Brave Writer, etc) and there seem to be Facebook groups for pretty much every product out there. The Big Juicy Conversations About Math Facebook group has some great living math ideas, particularly games and puzzles. SEA Homeschoolers on Facebook is a good general resource, but I'm often puzzled by the hostility towards Academics by some of the members, given the name. :confused1: