Hi! I am glad that what I posted earlier was a help. It's hard sometimes to tell if what I'm writing on a message board is coming across the way I mean for it to be received, since I can't "see" you to talk with you!
Evaluations, assessments, etc. - My son has actually had to go to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist since he was 3.5 yrs old. He had one eye that was legally blind (40/500+ vision) - an amblyopia - and now his vision is 20/40! Praise God! Our Ophth. Dr. has been great! When these reading struggles were showing up I talked to him about it and he said it was definitely not his vision, because it was corrected at that point. So, then my dh (who is a pediatrician) contacted our psychologist at our state children's hospital and we made an appointment to do the testing with her because we knew it was not a vision problem. This psychologist works at the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, in the Developmental Pediatrics Dept. I don't know where you are or if there is something similar to this near you. Our small town also has a psychologist that does testing here for public school students, but my dh did not feel like she would be very positive or helpful because of previous experiences with her. There might be a good psychologist in your area, you don't necessarily have to go to a children's hospital. I would ask around. You can also ask your own pediatrician or family doctor who they might refer you to.
Tammie - For this year (3rd gr.) we currently use PLL for English and can do a lot of it orally, which is great for my son since writing is still difficult, at times. We can also do PLL on a white board or he can look at the book with me. I looked at Queen's at the homeschool convention, but since it's a workbook, it wouldn't be the best thing for him. We also use Handwriting Without Tears for handwriting instruction and it's really helpful. We use the HWT lines on our paper for copywork of the Bible verses in ECC. For next year, we are supposed to begin Writing Strands 3 as recommended by MFW. I actually found Writing Strands 2 at the convention and picked it up because it looks more like the level that my son would be more comfortable with. It looks like it is a better starting point for him, so we will see how it goes and then he can do WS 3 later. With our former program, we practice sight words, read stories, and we spell words,phrases, and then sentences. So it is lots of LA, too.
Like Julie said, we don't require him to read anything independently right now for information. I read aloud all of our science, ECC, library books, Bible, directions in his math workbook, anything that he needs so that he can understand it. My ds is also a "wiggly willy" and needs to move around, vary activities, and sometimes works for 15 min. and then has to take a break and do 15 min. again later. So I try to use "hands-on" activities when I can. The tiles in Barton help with this, but I also let him sit on a cushion on the chair which allows some movement and sometimes he actually does better if he gets up and moves to another spot in the room for a minute or has something in his hands to fidget with, as long as it's not distracting him. Have you ever heard of Melinda Boring? She was at our homeschool convention and she is great! Check out her website
http://www.headsupnow.com and she has lots of little things to try to help these kinds of learners.
I feel like I have already written a lot! If you have more questions, please let me know here or send me a private message. I LOVE My Father's World! We have just needed to go a little different route for my ds's reading and spelling. I think there are other children out there like my ds who love books, but just can't read them when they want to because of undiagnosed learning disabilities. I know how frustrating it's been for my own son and I don't want other children to have to struggle and lose confidence for years because they need a different type of instruction. This is partly because my own cousin that I grew up with was finally diagnosed with dyslexia in 5th or 6th grade, but he already thought he was dumb at that point. He is now a college graduate with a Master's Degree and he is a High School teacher and football coach, husband, and dad, but he still makes jokes about himself and his dyslexia.
Rachel
and dd(14) 
