We are becoming more aware as the days go on, that our daughter probably has ADHD. She shows all the classic signs. We have found a math curriculum that works well and she enjoys it. But we are struggling on reading/phonics/writing. We started with AAR/AAS and it seemed to work well style wise, but the content was too easy for her, although we could just go up a level, we may go back to that. We moved to Horizons as it was said to be good for advanced students, but it’s becoming almost too much seat work. She is advanced (working consistently a grade level ahead). We try to do hands on work with it, but it just doesn’t seem to be meshing well. For early elementary levels, what do you all like for reading/writing for ADHD kiddos, that at the same time challenges them for their advancement?
AAS worked well for my kids (one dx. with ADHD). AAR wasn’t out yet then. If you want to go back to those, with AAR, take the placement tests to decide where to start. For AAS, you do need to start at the beginning because it’s a building-block style program, but you can fast-track if the words are easy. Just teach her the rules and concepts (like from level 1, you would focus on things like the multiple sounds, segmenting, rules for C or K at the beginning of a word and so on). If word lists are easy, just have her teach the rule back to you with a couple of words and move on, instead of doing all the words and dictations. My kids went through AAS 1 in about a month but it filled in important foundational information. They slowed down in level 2, but some kids go faster through that too–just depends on where they hit the limit of the words they’ve memorized to that point.
For writing (as in composition), if she’s ready for that, take a look at Essentials in Writing. The incremental lessons make it very doable.
I’m curious what Math program you’re using?
Math has been a struggle for my ADHD daughter.
We really did enjoy AAR/S when we used level 1. We both enjoyed it. I am actually looking at it right now I think we may jump back into it, at least with Spelling, she is reading like a rock star. Plus just buying the TM, which is all you really need for AAS that’s really nice on the budget. We never used any of the tiles or cards. I will looking into the writing. With horizons we are already writing sentences and learning parts of speech, so she is already doing some…although Horizons is working, it’s just not meshing as well as we had hoped, if that makes sense. =)
Right now we are using Singapore 1a…but we MAY switch to CLE once we finish this up. Singapore is nice, clear, not so much going on to distract them from what’s to be done, which is what I like, but it’s not as complete in teaching time and money and such like other programs. Of course you can easily supplement those areas She is a pro at math, so I’m sure she will do good with which ever we go with.