The ldonline site has all kinds of information. They have a section on learning issues/disabilities basics that they call 'abc's of'... Their 'ldindepth' section has links to all kinds of more specific information including assessments and how to interpret scores. The first thing to know is that _if_ there is a possibility or probability of a problem, the way for your child to get fast access to needed resources is to get them the assessments and/or diagnoses to which they are entitled so that they get those (they have rights to education, but that won't help them if they also require supports to get that). Early is better than later for this kind of thing because it's easier to start off stronger than to play catch-up later. Second, read up on all the relevant information. Your son has a right to an education, and to assessments and supports which may be needed by him in order to experience more successful learning. Third, one thing you can do initially pretty much is check out different learning styles and see which ways seem to work best for your son. That can help in the interim to find an effective method of studying for tests or quizes, or just to retain information he wants to retain. Experiment, and have fun with this. Everyone sort of eventually finds a method they can use well, especially people who've done well in school. Rote memorizing works for some, re-reading, saying out loud and repeating, writing and re-writing, flashcards, making up rhymes and things, studying while also dancing or moving or listening to music, and all other kinds of things. A tactile spelling trick can be to have a sand box to spell in. Using hearing, and helping with dyslexia can and should involve phonics. Visually of course the text appears. Try out different things as they come to you, and you work with your son. It's probably rough to work hard and to _try_ and to want to succeed and only get a couple words correct on a spelling test. You can ask the teacher what the class average was, and high scores and things like that; but it still is probably hard for your son to feel like he tried as hard as he could and could only get a couple words correct. (Look at the tests to see if you can assess his errors. Were they 'little' or minor spelling errors but the reader could tell he was close? Were there errors that seemed to defy all logic applied? How is the writing? (Is it consistent in style and letter formation, even if there are errors; or, do the letters seem to have different sizes and shapes and perspectives relative to each other?) These kinds of things can give you clues about what, if anything may be a contributing problem area for him. You can also ask the teacher outright, why, exactly do they feel your son may have a learning disability. And, given that they already shared that particular feeling, is there any particular disability they feel he may have (and if so, why). Take notes, so you can have a record. If taking notes is not going to work for you, you can also ask if the teacher would mind being recorded or if they could provide you written information so that you can have a record of this information. This page address is from the ldonline site and has their assessment-related links. (The link 'understanding tests and measurements for parents and advocates' is the one which goes into detail about how the different tests work and what the score numbers mean.) http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/assessment/assessment.html This page address has a lot of information about learning styles and differences. They have interactive ways to find out which strengths a person has and tips on how to work with those strengths. http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm get his hearing checked... people can have conventional hearing problems, they can also have auditory processing problems which affect how their brain processes what is technically heard by the hearing system (he can have 'normal' hearing, but still have problems as though he could not hear); also, with dyslexia people can have problems that look like hearing problems (they don't 'hear' or register phonemes, 'phonics' as a method of learning can sometimes help draw their attention to the smaller bits of words and sounds that make up words.... most people just have a brain-space that takes up that info as if on autopilot) P.S. It can be helpful when you look into getting assessments to make up a big notebook of his medical history (from your pregnancy experiences, his birth, and beyond... plus family history including any known or suspected learning disabilities); and of his schooling history, strengths and weaknesses and representative work. You are your son's personal 'expert' and 'advocate' so it can help to have a nice notebook and to look at appointments as 'meetings' or business conferences. P.P.S. The hello friend site is also very good. They have links on the left with good visual icons, and text. It's a very user-friendly site with good information. http://www.hellofriend.org/

I taught my granddaughter, at age 4, with a used book called 'Making Children Better'. What I did(and it worked well) is teach her the sounds of the letters preferably before (or with) the names of the letters like B is B and sounds 'Buh'. Of course start with the vowels and letters used frequently. Then I make a tic tac toe(3X3) on a large piece of cardboard(about 20"X20", even a 4x4 (squares)tic tac toe later, and placed words like cat, bat, hat,cap,as, I,etc (I added the word 'the' in one square and just told her it didn't fit the sounds and she would have to learn to recognize it. Then I put pennies on the ones she learned to sound correctly. I'd buy little candies or presents from the dollar store. When she would get 3 "bingos" or 3 tic tac toes, she would get a prize. Also, once she was learning them, I'd point to these words in books and newspapers and ask her what it said. I did this as frequently as she wanted to 'play'bingo(4-10X week) and she could sound very well and knew many words before kindergarden. By 1st grade, she sounded words as efficiently and quickly as an adult and could read a sentence with unknown words and hardly pause when she came to them and sounded them correctly or very near correct about 95% of the time.

The A beka curriculum has been around as the site said since 1974. I taught the A beka cirriculum in 3 yr. old Preschool(they call it 3 year old Kindergarten or at least they use to) and also help teach it in 5 yr. old Kindergarten. I tught some 3 and 4 yr. old and didn't quite use the curriculum altogether. The cirriculum , from my stand point has always been big on moral and Chrsitian teaching along with a large emphasis on teaching young children phonics and reading skill along with number recognition and how to add and subtract and also skills. I am also somewhat familiar with the first grade cirriculum and even the third grade cirriculum as I had a child in the first grade cirriculum and my sister-in-law taught one year the third grade cirriculum. I find it a plus especially for grammar school age children. ~Lynn~

:-) I would not have driven that far normally except that I really have been wanting a vintage desk for my DD's room and the neighborhood was in a nice area near the city that I am somewhat familiar with, so I felt comfortable making the drive. The seller not ponying up extra pictures should have been a tip, yes. But I felt rushed because she was moving out and it was a now or never kind of thing. Usually in those circumstances I go "safe" and just let the item go but in this case I went for it. I must say that I'm a little taken aback by the notion (I'm not saying they were directed toward me) that seemingly "well-off" people shouldn't use craigslist or the thrift store. I could probably come across as being at least a little well-off. I drive a new SUV (only the second new vehicle in my life) and carry an expensive handbag. I like to wear nice clothes. But my SUV is very "basic" inside, not many extras. I have only one handbag to my name, I take care of it, and it is several years old. At home we manually chop firewood and heat our house with an outdoor wood furnace. I wash out my plastic ziploc bags and reuse them rather than grab a new one, I brown-bag every single day, and so on. I do like to be frugal in some ways  not buying new furniture is one of those ways. I don't have the money to buy all the new furniture pieces I want for the house, so used is my option. I certainly don't "over-haggle" and most craigslist prices I've seen I thought were fair and paid them without question. I would not falsely denigrate an item if I really thought it was great. I agree that would be annoying. If I want to barter down, I would say  I really like this, but I am only willing to pay X for it  if you still have it and want sell it later for that price, feel free to re-contact me. I have to agree that it is not so much the price that the original seller paid, but rather the fact of what the buyers are willing to pay that drives things. If anyone is still reading, all my dealings with craigslist thus far have been very good  I make sure I have email and phone communications with the seller ahead of time, and they must come across as very "normal". And the neighborhood has to be safe / low-crime or I wouldn't go. I always let my DH know exactly where I am going, and take someone with me. The items I've sold, I've always met the buyer in a busy shopping center parking lot.