Spelling/Dict. and more questions for a struggling learner

[3sweeties]

Hi everyone!

I am hoping for some insight here. My second son is 10 yo and getting ready to start the 5th grade. He has used HOD from the beginning, starting with Little Hearts. He is halfway through Preparing now. He is a great reader and oral narrator and does a pretty good job at staying on task and getting his work done. However, this past year I started seeing some disturbing patterns in the areas of spelling, handwriting, and math. I am wondering if he could have some processing issues? He has been doing Dictation for about a year now and does a fairly good job at it while he is doing it, BUT when he has to write a written narration or other assignment i have noticed that he misspells words that I thought he had already mastered. It is like they aren't staying in his long-term memory or something. He has always struggled with spelling "sight words" too, for example he will spell "would", "woud", etc.

I also have noticed that his handwriting has gotten progressively worse instead of better the older he has gotten...even his cursive is difficult to read. Sometimes it is due to rushing, but I don't think this is true all the time.

He has always had a hard time with math facts, especially multiplication and division, even with extra practice. He got to the end of 3B this year and missed MOST of the problems in the end of the book review, was in tears, and had no clue what he did wrong or where to start when we went back over what he missed. It's like the majority of what he learned he did not retain. I am just wondering if all of these things are connected? I am kind of at a loss also...his older brother has done HOD since Bigger and Singapore since 1B and has had no issues. It all comes easily to him. One of our main goals in homeschooling is that our children become lifelong learners and I don't want these struggles to snuff that flame out in my amazing boy!

Thank you ahead of time for any help, insight, tips, etc.!

[mrsrandolph]

This sounds a great deal like my son that suffers from dysgraphia. You might research dysgraphia on the internet and see if it fits your son. The internet and even youtube has lots of tips on helping kiddos with dysgraphia.

[Nealewill]

I think you have a lot to think about. I do hope that someone else chimes in with some suggestions.

My oldest struggled with a lot of things. I know many people talk about their kids being dyslexic or having dyslexic symptoms. I read a recent article and it shared that there may be different types of dyslexia. Each type is a form of visual processing disorder. It was very enlightening. And it also made a lot of sense. There was one type where my dd fit almost none of the listed symptoms. Then there was another form where she lined up almost identically! For my oldest, she had absolutely no spatial awareness and couldn't understand that 2+4=6. She just didn't get it. She also struggled immensely with reading and spelling. For her, I sought specialty programs (I also did not know anything about HOD when I started homeschooling). I am not saying that you need to do this specifically but sharing how I handled it. I know that Julie and Carrie will have some great suggestions. I personally am not a natural teacher so I seek out the curriculum I need that will script to me what I need to say or teach me more skills to teach my kids when needed. For my oldest she used RightStart math and it taught her a lot of strategies. It is/was a wonderful program. It is the only reason I truly believe that my oldest can do math and do math well today. She has now switched into Singapore and is scheduled to start 5A in the fall. Singapore is a great program. But for me, I really benefited from the hand holding in the RightStart manual. Both teach things similarly. The one thing I did feel like RightStart was lacking was teaching kids a formula to figure things out with a specific formula. Both Singapore and RightStart have a major benefits. I have never used the Home Instructors Guide with Singapore. But that might be helpful for you and your son. If it were me, I would maybe google some strategies for solving multiplication and see if that helps. These are the strategies that I have used with my kids that seem to have helped immensely with getting their facts down quickly. Also - the strategies help kids who are fast at addition. Addition and subtraction strategies are a whole different thing but my kids are really fast with that making multiplication come quickly too. And once my kids practiced the multiplication enough, they can answer facts in 2-3 seconds and basically now have them memorized. Even my 7 year old is very speedy with this.

2s = 6x2 is the same as 6+6. So to multiply anything by 2, just double the other number.
3s = 6x3 is the same as 6+6+6. No quick strategy for this. My kids are fast at addition and can skip count the first 3 very quickly.
4s = 6x4 is the same as 6x2 then times 2. If you look at 6x4, you can see that there are 2 sets of 6x2 in there. 6x2 is 12 and 12+12=24.
5s = 6x5 is the same as 3x10. Basically, you look to see if the number that 5 is multiplied by is even or odd. Every 2 sets of 5 makes 10. My kids would look at this and think half of 6 is 3. So there are 3 sets of 10. If the number was odd - for example 7 x 5, then they would know that you can't break 7 in half evenly but you can break 6 in half. Half of 6 is 3 making 3 sets of 10 with 5 left over. So the answer is 35.
6s = 6x6 is the same as 6x3 then times 2. If you look at 6x6, you can see that there are 2 sets of 6x3 in there. 6+6+6 is 18 and 18+18=36.
7s = 6x7 is the most tricky. Inside every set of 7 is a set of 5 and a set of 2. My kids stink at this strategy. The person it probably comes easiest to is my son because he lives and breathes numbers. My girls "understand" why the strategy works but they don't use it. They skip count. But the strategy would say that you have 6x5 + 6x2. This would make 7 sets of 6. And we can easily solve for 6x5 and 6x2 making it easy to solve for 30+12=42.
8s = 6x8 is the same as 6x4 then times 2. Kids can solve 6x4 quickly because they know that 6x2=12 and you now have 4 sets of 12. 12+12=24. You now have 2 sets of 24 making 24+24=48.
9s = 6x9 is one set of 6 less than 6x10. 6x10 is super easy because that is 60. So 6x9 = 60-6=54.

We play math games regularly. Actually, RightStart does sell a math card games package. I would probably stay with Singapore and you could play games to help with getting facts down. The games are designed to go a long way with the kids. All of my kids have been enjoying Singapore but we do really enjoy playing the games. I play different multiplication games right now with my youngest to help speed her up with her facts. She is getting really good. My oldest and middle children are speedy with the 4 functions, fractions, decimals and percentages. My youngest is coming along very nicely and she is rivaling well with them (minus the decimals and percentages). There are also some great games to help kids get speedy at converting with percentages to decimals and fractions. For me, this speed really helps their math lessons when they aren't doing tough word problems because they are wasting time and brain power on calculations. Rather their efforts are then spent on figuring out how to solve the problem and why it works that way. This is just my style though so please take it or leave it.

For spelling, I have used All About Spelling for my oldest. That program really helped with her being able to spell common words and she had no ability to sound out words at all. However, I found that she started spelling sight words according to the phonics rule making the sight words spelled incorrectly. It was a really tough choice but I switched over to dictation with HOD. Dictation was actually the best thing I could have done. My son has auditory processing disorder. He has been way behind in everything but that is for another story. I also tried AAS with him but it turned to be a total flop. I found that doing spelling in the HOD manual with Bigger and moving him into dictation was also best for him. If it were me, I would just be patient with it. If he is able to sound things out, then I wouldn't switch. With the dictation, it will come. One mom suggest to me that I keep a word book near me for sight words. I think I am going to implement this. I am not sure if I will keep a "book" but I am thinking of keeping a few sheets of paper with common sight words and set it on the table near him when he does his writing. I might also go over some of them regularly with my son. I was thinking of doing dictation 4 days a week and then 1 day go over some targeted sight words-maybe words he missed when he was writing that week. I know this probably isn't very CM but it might help to burn those into my sons brain just that much more.

[Nealewill]

One last thought - Singapore does sell an intensive practice book and extra practice books. Because there were some areas my dd was struggle with regarding fractions, I did purchase one of the extra practice book for her to complete over the summer. I needed to know if she understood some things or not and if she was really was ready for the next level. The book has shown me that she is totally ready for the next level With your son, if you wanted to work on some games with him to get facts down faster, you could have him work through the intensive practice book or the extra practice book and do some games just to give him some review and time before moving on.

Also - my dd missed quite a few things in that end of the year assessment. I believe HOD marked it optional in the back of TM. Honestly, by the end of the school her brain was shot - so was mine LOL. Some of the things she struggled with on the end of the year assessment have been no issue what-so-ever in this extra practice book. I wouldn't stress about that end of the year assessment. Maybe he was having a bad day or even week. If he usually gets stuff correct and does well on the lessons, then go with your gut about whether or not you think he is ready for the next level. My dd has amazed me that she has completed the majority of the problems correctly in this book without asking me for help.

[3sweeties]

Thank you mrsrandolph and nealewill! Great tips and things to think about and try. I am in the process of finding somewhere to have him evaluated so I can better understand any processing difficulties and issues. I just need some direction as to how to best teach him so he will retain and still enjoy school and learning. Praying that God will guide and show me the next steps my DS needs to take!

[my3sons]

For my oldest ds, it was not until he had done dictation for multiple, consecutive years that it really began to carry over to his spelling consistently in his own writing. I went to doing dictation every day for him, and that seemed to help. Also, his handwriting began to be messier around middle school, and we had to talk about the need to slow down and write more carefully so that it was legible. When our nanny that helps out a few afternoons a week couldn't read his writing, he realized it wasn't just me who thought his writing needed improvement. He still needs to be reminded (in high school) to close his vowels. Editing his work as soon as possible following the editing steps in the Appendix really helped improve his spelling over time. As for the emotional outburst, I saw that with Riley about 10 turning 11 yo, and though it has improved greatly, it still happens from time to time. I can see now it is hormones. Looking back, I didn't see it with my oldest that young, nor was it as pronounced when it did show itself. However, my middle ds is more high and low with emotions, so I guess it makes sense. I'm not saying that it is for sure these things, but I will say that I've seen everything you just mentioned in each of our kiddos, and that things did get better with each year of dictation, each year of editing/correcting, and each year of maturing. I will pray for you that you will know what approach to take in the year ahead.

In Christ,
Julie