So, let me make sure I understand - a 7th grader with dyslexia is scoring high enough to exempt English in college? What challenges does his dyslexia present at this point?
Our child too had a very high ACT scores prior to starting high school, but I really didn't consider that particularly relevant for planning high school. It suggested to me that he'd mastered grammar basics, but I already knew that. I considered it more important that we focus on writing including essays, exams, and research papers. And, that we focus on critical reading skills in areas including novels, poetry, and nonfiction. We did not use a formal curriculum in high school (or before that for that matter). The fact that you can customize the education is the best part of homeschooling.
Especially if your child is looking at selective colleges I would suggest you carefully document that he's had strong study in literature from different time periods and regions. As much experience with writing, first drafts, revisions, research, etc. are all really important.
Thanks for your thoughts. I should have been more specific, not totally exempt from English--just exempt from English 101 and 102. Many less competitive colleges will do that for a 26 or above. I don't necessarily agree with that policy, I was just using it as a benchmark to determine whether we'd gone far enough with English mechanics to drop it from our schedule.
For the english on the ACT, you can actually get by without reading too much. He is especially good at grammar and english mechanics, so when presented with questions that only require you to focus on a small section of the text at a time he can pull it off. I'm not sure if this is true across the board for gifted dyslexics, but my son is very determined and has developed enough compensation strategies to do these types of questions. He was, however, competely exhausted from the effort because he has to work so hard to do it. I'm sure the dyslexia cost him a few points on the mechanics questions, and he guessed on some of the style and structure questions--especially those that required you to arrange the order of sentences. Overall though, the time he invested studying grammar really paid off for him. We've done old-school, no-fun grammar, pretty seriously for 5 years.
The dyslexia is still a huge problem when he has to really 'read' something. He substitutes incorrect words so frequently that his comprehension suffers tremendously. It is also so taxing on him that he will actually get a migraine if he tries to read too much. He can handle a paragraph or two at a time, but anything beyond that starts getting really jumbled as he tires. Fortunately he has a membership with the Recording for Blind and Dyslexic and can get all his textbooks on audio. He has a lifetime membership and I hope it will get him through college! He used the audio version of the Reading on the ACT and got a 30--but if he'd had to read it I think he'd be lucky to get in the low 20's. The biggest issue is the fatigue from having to work so hard to read.
I like your suggestions and agree wholeheartedly. He is doing Omnibus from Veritas Press for literature and I think it is pretty strong--it covers all the classics of western civ and equally challenging modern works but I am really open to any suggestions on writing curriculum. That is our weak area. Hope you'll be willing to share if there was a particular method you used.
Thanks so much for the input!
Indy
