mrsfellman Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 (edited) It has been a long while since I've asked for some guidance with my middle son. He is currently supposed to be in "3rd grade". Aftering attending our local christian school for Kindergarten he was brought home along with his older brother and we started to homeschool. During his "1st grade" yr at home we had several struggles and after reaching out on this forum I took him to a Developmental Optomitrist in our area. He did have convergense and eye teaming issues. We set aside alot of his phonics/reading work during that time and focused on doing the therapy sessions with our eye dr. Last yr during his 2nd grade yr we finished up AAR 1 and Spelling w/o A along with SM Standards 1a/1b. This yr he has started and gone through 1/3 of AAR 2 which has seemed tedious to us. He has finished up SM 2a. However, slightly into Spelling w/o B I have noticed he is really struggling with spelling and having meltdowns over it. He also does VP SP Bible and History but does need help reading the questions. He is smart and can usually guess most words correctly if he knows context but if you pulled the words out and put them on a flash card he still struggles. I am trying to figure out what to do with him on phonics/reading/spelling. He also wants to be "caught up" enought to be in 4th grade in the fall. I have been looking at having him do the LoE Essentials courses online. What other "holes" do we need to fill in order for him to track into 4th grade? Edited January 9, 2021 by mrsfellman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Hello! Have you entertained the thought that he may be dyslexic? I am not an expert. But I believe a lot of moms who have kids that are dyslexic start with Barton or an O-G program for reading which I believe helps with spelling. I have a friend whose child is dyslexic and she started him on Barton when he was about 8. He's doing a lot better now (reading and spelling). I have another friend who has a child who was doing vision therapy (before the pandemic) and is using All About Spelling for spelling. Her child likes AAS. If he is having a meltdown doing spelling, I would definitely try something new. If you copy and paste your question over in the Learning Disabilities board, you may get more feedback over there. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 It sounds like he is dyslexic. I'd read the book Overcoming Dyslexia to see if anything resonates. I recommend running through phonics if he's not solid there and then doing fluency readings until he is able to read aloud at 150+ words per minute (it could take a few years). As for schoolwork, read everything aloud except for what he reads aloud to you when he does the fluency readings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 5 hours ago, mrsfellman said: He also wants to be "caught up" enough to be in 4th grade in the fall. I have been looking at having him do the LoE Essentials courses online. What other "holes" do we need to fill in order for him to track into 4th grade? He will be "in fourth grade" in the fall no matter what. It is his fourth year of formal school, yes? Fourth grade. As you can see from my signature, I am a Spalding geek. It's what I would recommend. It would be your whole English course: reading, spelling, penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, simple writing. All you need is the manual (Writing Road to Reading) and a set of phonogram cards--a one-time purchase of around $40--and you're good to go forever. Spalding is infinitely flexible so you can adjust it to his abilities. And if you do Spalding, my very best advice would be to do Spalding, not to add in anything else. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsfellman Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 14 hours ago, Ellie said: He will be "in fourth grade" in the fall no matter what. It is his fourth year of formal school, yes? Fourth grade. As you can see from my signature, I am a Spalding geek. It's what I would recommend. It would be your whole English course: reading, spelling, penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, simple writing. All you need is the manual (Writing Road to Reading) and a set of phonogram cards--a one-time purchase of around $40--and you're good to go forever. Spalding is infinitely flexible so you can adjust it to his abilities. And if you do Spalding, my very best advice would be to do Spalding, not to add in anything else. We have been talking and considering placing them back in a local private school in the Fall and he wants to still be able to integrate into their 4th grade class if we do that. However, after meeting with the school last week and talking with them I'm less inclinded to place my kids there and just to continue our home education. For what it's worth I'm a 2nd generation "homeschooler" and so is my husband. Adding that to say it seems more "normal" for us to continue to home educated that to find a school system for them to attend. However, I personally have health struggles and have wondered if it might be "better" for my health to no longer have the bulk of teaching 3 boys in 3 grades on my plate. So, for some reason I am unable to see your signature information but interestly I did just pick up the 4th ED of Spalding's "Writing Road to Reading" while I was at my local homeschool curriculum resale shop. I was there for a couple of hrs looking through several phononics/l.a. curriculum choices and that one caught my attention as something that I wanted to study further. I spent a good bit of last weekend reading the first part of it. Then I can across Logic of English and what has drawn me to it is the abiltiy to do the online lessons and basically "outsource" that subject for both my younger boys. 20 hours ago, desertflower said: Hello! Have you entertained the thought that he may be dyslexic? I am not an expert. But I believe a lot of moms who have kids that are dyslexic start with Barton or an O-G program for reading which I believe helps with spelling. I have a friend whose child is dyslexic and she started him on Barton when he was about 8. He's doing a lot better now (reading and spelling). I have another friend who has a child who was doing vision therapy (before the pandemic) and is using All About Spelling for spelling. Her child likes AAS. If he is having a meltdown doing spelling, I would definitely try something new. If you copy and paste your question over in the Learning Disabilities board, you may get more feedback over there. Hope this helps. 15 hours ago, EKS said: It sounds like he is dyslexic. I'd read the book Overcoming Dyslexia to see if anything resonates. I recommend running through phonics if he's not solid there and then doing fluency readings until he is able to read aloud at 150+ words per minute (it could take a few years). As for schoolwork, read everything aloud except for what he reads aloud to you when he does the fluency readings. He may be. Although I haven't noticed any glaring moments with me. He really struggles with changes to rules. So if he is learning to read or spelling a word that "breaks" the initial "rule" he learn he basically gets mad and says "that's stupid" or "it breaks the rule so it can't be right". Which is why I'm liking how WRW and LoE teach alll the possible "sounds" a phonogram can make from the beginning. I myself struggle with Dyslexia and learning to read when I was younger was hard. Even as an adult I can switch words around in my verbal sentences like telling my husband "we are going to Christmas for Aunt Sam's". After my last surgery that involved being "put under" I relapsed into spelling some basic words backwards and some of my letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 Yeah, my son was not a big fan of AAS either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 42 minutes ago, mrsfellman said: I myself struggle with Dyslexia and learning to read when I was younger was hard. All the more reason to suspect he is dyslexic. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domestic_engineer Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 If your son is dyslexic, then I’d look at outsourcing lessons for the other kids before “outsourcing” lessons for the dyslexic. The dyslexic is going to need the personalized attention that a computer cannot provide. You asked about holes to fill, but it’s difficult to identify holes without more information. Is he solid and fluent on what he’s learned in AAR? How’s his phonemic awareness (David Kilpatrick argues that we do not teach phonemic awareness to the level that we should, and this we have struggling readers.) I’d be tempted to ease up on spelling and use that time and brain power to work on reading instead. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 (edited) Free phonemic awareness test from Dr. Kilpatrick: https://www.thepasttest.com I would work through my syllables lessons, phonics to a 12th grade level, nonsense words to help stop guessing. Do the MWIA 3, if slowdown is more than 30% or miss more than 1 phonetic word, stop doing all outside reading for a month and do extra nonsense words daily. Syllables lessons: http://thephonicspage.org/On Reading/syllablesspellsu.html MWIA 3: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On Reading/Resources/The MWIA Version 3 new.pdf LOE essentials lite online is currently free, you could work through that for additional spelling, you just need to purchase the phonogram cards. I would also get the phonogram and spelling rule quick reference: https://store.logicofenglish.com/collections/product-type-loe-staple I would also buy her book "Uncovering the Logic of English" and read it through yourself for understanding and to help your son with his spelling. Edited January 10, 2021 by ElizabethB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 3 hours ago, mrsfellman said: So, for some reason I am unable to see your signature information but interestly I did just pick up the 4th ED of Spalding's "Writing Road to Reading" while I was at my local homeschool curriculum resale shop. I was there for a couple of hrs looking through several phononics/l.a. curriculum choices and that one caught my attention as something that I wanted to study further. I spent a good bit of last weekend reading the first part of it. Then I can across Logic of English and what has drawn me to it is the abiltiy to do the online lessons and basically "outsource" that subject for both my younger boys. The 4th edition of WRTR is my favorite. 🙂 I would be reluctant to outsource via online. IMHO, this needs direct response from a human. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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