I just checked out their 1st grade kit and it looks awesome!! Love Mathematical Reasoning and those Now I'm Reading books. Also love A Reason for Handwriting. I think it will be a great place to start for a 1st grade VSL.

ebay has several copies.

Is he a very visual learner? My understanding is that many ASD kids are highly visual learners. You might check out the graphic novels by Capstone Press. They have Max Axiom graphic novels that cover a lot of science. Throw in some Science Wiz kits. Capstone Press has WONDERFUL history graphic novels, too. I've never seen a kid that doesn't like graphic novels since they're basically high quality comic books. You might read Dianne Craft's articles on Tips for a Struggling Learner. She has a lot of good information that might be applicable. She says that "color, pictures, stories, and humor are the velcro" that makes things stick in these kids brains. That was really important information that made my homeschooling journey a lot easier. What about movies? Does he retain stuff from them? Netflix streaming has great stuff. What about posters on the wall? Those can cause almost effortless learning for visual learners. Best of luck!

Literature: Evan Moor Tall Tales Literature Pockets, BJU Reading Math: Mathematical Reasoning Spelling: Spectrum Spelling Handwriting: Reason for Handwriting Grammar: Abeka Latin: Cambridge Latin Composition: Winning with Writing History: BJU Heritage Studies Science: Misc. topics - magnets, cells, simple machines Health: Abeka Vocabulary: Scholastic Memory Work: Declaration of Independence Bible: Draw To Learn - The Life of Jesus Misc: Comprehension Plus, Maps Charts Graphs, Mark Kistler, Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, Salsa Spanish, Critical Thinking software, Mozart composer study

Maybe have a discussion on appropriate times to wear clothes? For instance, we don't wear our pajamas for anything other than sleeping in. We wear our nice dresses to church. We wear grungy clothes to work in around the farm. It is wasteful to wear nice things when you know they will be ruined. If she wants to look cute working on the farm, then perhaps cute scrunchies for her hair or cute socks (they really do make a lot of cute socks these days). Anything else is wasteful. For an extreme solution, make her pay you if she wears nice things at the wrong time and messes them up. I promise you it will stop.

Sadly, I'm not surprised. One of my neighbors, in fifth grade, ended up wetting her pants because of a similar testing situation. They couldn't go for hours during the test, and then when they could go, they were only allowed access to one bathroom which had a huge line (this is a large school). She had to change clothes and everything. If it had been my child, I would have been enraged.

Comprehension Plus by Modern Curriculum Press

It doesn't sound like it's an inequality issue. It sounds like it's not understanding the language for subtracting. Can you read him some books about subtraction? I'm sure there's a Mathstart book about it. Livingmath.net has a whole category on addition and subtraction books. Something I did with my dd that helped was that we looked up the "confusing" words like "fewer" in the dictionary. Make them understand that it's a language issue. They know how to do the math. They just need to figure out the story to know exactly what math to do. We also acted out the word problems literally for awhile, with teddy bear counters or polly pockets or what have you. He needs to understand the story of the word problem. Then he'll get the math.

My dd is not dyslexic, so I don't know if this will be helpful for you, but we did have problems with multisyllabic words also. We used Dianne Craft's technique, I believe it was mentioned in the Right Brain Phonics book. It involved covering up all but the last syllable, and making the child sound out the word from the last syllable up, sorting of backing into saying the whole word. Do you know what I mean? Like for "transportation," cover up everything except "tion," and then once they said that, uncover "tation" and have them say that, and then uncover "portation" and so on until you get to the beginning of the word. Sounds weird, but it helped my dd. A little practice every day.

Oh, learning style... Okay... why don't you research "Right Brain Learner" and "Visual Spatial Learner" and see if anything pops up that sounds like your daughter? It was life-changing for us when I realized my dd is a right brain learner. And I didn't even fully understand until we tried Dianne Craft's technique of having my dd make a movie in her mind while she was reading a passage, and then "rewinding" it at the end in order to answer questions. It was amazing. If she fits the description, I highly recommend Dianne Craft's stuff, especially "Teaching the Right Brain Child."

It does get better as they get older. She will never be where you are when it comes to doing things quickly, probably, but it does get better. I have an eleven year-old only child daughter who takes a long time to eat or get ready. We try and work with it. My dd reads a book for school during breakfast. That way, she is still getting something productive done, which makes me, a list-checker, happy. Some days, we skip the book, and set her up with her breakfast and her school work at the same time. No reason she can't eat and work (and think -- it's a life skill. How many times do employees work through lunch or have a snack while they're working? Let's look at the bright side :) ). For getting ready dawdling (we call it dilly-dallying at our house), my dd has a schedule, in color with clipart pictures, of all the things she needs to do to get ready for the day. That helps her stay on task. Plus, I can repeatedly ask, are you working your schedule? It really does get better, but, part of our thing as moms is to learn to be more patient. This is in fact part of dd's personality, and we can't (and shouldn't) fully remove it. Our children WILL stop and smell the roses. That's not a bad thing. ETA: Oh, and if you have to go somewhere soon, and you know your child won't be done eating, put her drink in a travel mug and her food in something that can be easily carried and eaten in the car. Ziploc bags work well for some things.

As a lefty, a daughter of a lefty, and a mom to a lefty, I kind of have to ask... what is the problem exactly? It sounds like she's doing fine in academic pursuits. Yes, those issues are not uncommon with lefties. You could have been describing my lefty dd exactly, except she likes to build lego things from scratch. With handwriting, she sounds like your dd. But her handwriting looks fine. I always think to myself, "Walk a mile in a lefty's shoes" before you start calling their ways wrong (not that you are -- it's just a general "vibe" lefties get in a righty world). You would not believe the number of things in life that are made for righties that you don't even think about. Even the way letters are formed is made for righties. If we (lefties) use the pencil grip we are "supposed to," then we are pushing, not pulling, when we form letters, and it's much harder. I have an unusual pencil grip. My dd has one even more unusual. But it works. I don't mean to sound defensive. I'm sure you wouldn't ask if there wasn't a problem. What is going on now in 6th grade that is problematic?

If she wants to learn Greek, I'd let her learn it. You can always do Latin in a couple of years if you still want to. I think there are as many reasons to learn Greek as there are Latin. And a motivated and interested student is priceless. :)

Found another one. I LOVE Mathematical Reasoning by Critical Thinking Company. They have a book for 3 year olds, Mathematical Reasoning Beginning Level 1: http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?code=c&id=06913 Oh, and they have another resource for that age: Building Thinking Skills Beginning. All their stuff is good.

We enjoyed Where is Thumbkin? by Pam Schiller at that age. I see they now have a music cd to accompany. I wish I had had that. Here's a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Where-Thumbkin-Activities-Songs-Already/dp/0876591640/ref=pd_bxgy_m_img_b Here's the Cd: http://www.amazon.com/Where-Is-Thumbkin-Kimbo/dp/B00000DARY

I'm putting some music CDs in with the candy. I know people who put DVDs in the Easter baskets. My mother usually gets my dd a book for Easter. What about nail polish, fun socks, makeup, video games? Art supplies? What are your teens' hobbies? I would think something hobby-related would be nice.

I would call the "real" doctor and ask to speak to a nurse. Explain the symptoms and your being an hour away. Ask them to advise you. OR if they're closed now... some insurances have 24 hour nurse hotlines you can call for advice. They're actually quite helpful. Look on the back of your insurance card for a phone number (if you have insurance).

Thanks, Ladies!

My dd often says the opposite word of what she means, usually the opposite preposition. She'll say "before" when she means "after." She'll say "out" when she means "in." Lots of times, the prepositions are said as part of common phrases like "going up" or "breaking up" or ... okay I can't think of any more. I think is a "word retrieval" issue, but I'm not sure how to work on it, other than verbally correcting her each time. Any tips? Also, she'll say weird phrases like "He was throwing threats at us" when she means "He was making threats at us." I verbally correct these also. Any tips? Any better words to google besides word retrieval? Any thoughts on Abeka's Oral Language Exercises? She's 11 and a highly visual learner, if that's helpful. Auditory memory is not super. Like I can't give her several verbal directions to follow and expect her to remember them all.

Forgive me if I sound cranky, I don't mean to... It sounds like the grandfather is caring for the grandmother, and so by and large your daughter would be left to her own devices at least 5 days a week, yes? Can we play the What If game? What if she gets a boyfriend or falls in with the wrong crowd? Granddad is busy with Grandmom and doesn't notice or doesn't know what do to about it. What if the boyfriend or wrong crowd causes something irrevocable in your daughter's life, that you couldn't see coming because you weren't there? Age 15 through end of high school? Lots of bad stuff can happen. They're still kids, as much as you want to believe they're not. What if she feels like she can't change her mind if it turns out that the experience of moving and playing and socializing at this school are not the rosy path of rainbows you both imagine? You are putting a lot of pressure on her about the next several years of her life based on this one decision. What if, outside of the influence of her Christian parents, her life takes a turn for the worse? It can and does happen, even with parents in the house, but certainly is more likely when no eyes are watching. Obviously, you will do what you think is best. I am just fearful for your daughter. I was a "really good kid" in high school, but I did some stuff that could have had disastrous consequences. There but for the grace of God... and maybe the ever-present support of my parents...

We use vertical blinds on most of our windows due to allergies. They don't seem to get dusty like their horizontal counterparts. You can get them cut to size at Lowes or Home Depot when you buy them.

Books we have used and love: Language Smarts, Mathematical Reasoning. Software: This year (for my 5th grader) we used Building Thinking Skills Level 2 and Editor in Chief A1. FWIW, my dd just took her CAT test and did fantastic (three grade levels ahead) in the Language Mechanics, Usage, and Structures, which I directly attribute to Editor in Chief (she did it once every two weeks the whole school year). For our 6th grade year, I have ordered (but not yet received or used) the following software: Math Detective A1, Word Roots A1, Spider Island Math, Punctuation Puzzler B1, and Word Benders B1. (I want to up her Vocabulary scores and her Math scores, and I want to maintain the Language scores.) I like the software because I don't need to be involved, and it accomplishes its purpose. I think test-taking is a skill, and this allows my dd to hone that skill. The books I love because they are colorful, short and sweet assignments, but effective and make her think.

Can't you just make the kids play outside? I don't know your situation, so I don't know if it's possible. I do know that, for us, the good of having friends to play with right next door outweighs the bad. However, the noise and the mess need to stay outside for the most part. At least where I live :) That said, if you really don't want your kid playing with the neighbor that day, just say "Not today. We're busy."

Well, we just finished 5th grade, so I will give you our 6th grade plans: Language Arts: EM Tall Tales Literature Pockets, followed by selections from BJU As Full As the World Spectrum Spelling 6 Language Smarts D by Critical Thinking Company Winning with Writing 2 Geography: Maps Charts Graphs C, D, E Science: Misc. Resources. I bought a couple of the My Pals Are Here 5/6 Singapore Science -- Systems and Interactions. I know I want to cover Cells, because we haven't, and my dd requested Magnets AGAIN, so I got some hands on stuff for those. Plus I want to cover Simple Machines so I got a mini bulletin board set, a book called Castle Under Siege, and the Simple Machines Set from Learning Resources. Hope this helps!

It's your homeschool. You get to decide. This board has some homeschoolers that have super-rigorous schedules for their kiddoes. That's their choice, and I suspect those are the ones who are telling you no. It wouldn't be enough for their kids. Fine. It's your kids. I am not as rigorous as some on this board. My dc's learning style does not permit it, even if I wanted to. You do what's right for your family. Personally, I would be fine with your choices for my own dd from a content standpoint. I need full color, generally, so I wouldn't choose them for that reason, but they look perfectly fine to me.