Newbie here with WONDERFUL daughter.

[MyKidsRGR8T]

Hey there, everyone! My name is Olivia and I'm new to the world of homeschooling. I have a beautiful 7-year old girl name Ashley and she means the absolute world to me. Unfortunately, Ashley has really bad dyslexia and it doesn't appear as if the public school system is really catering to her needs. Despite there being specialists on hand, no improvement has been seen. I would put her in a private school; but once again, there are no specialized programs for kids with severe dyslexia.

With that said, I want to attempt to hire a private tutor and homeschool my child. Luckily, I have the right amount of funds to hire a teacher and to avoid "social awkwardness" I have Ashley enrolled in Girl Scouts (she absolutely loves it!). The only issue is that I don't know where to start. Where can I find the right teacher? How do I go about paying her and taking out taxes? How can I ensure that my daughter is getting the best education possible?

Either way, I'm super glad to be here amongst like-minded parents and teachers. I hope to meet you all soon!

[Meghan]

Hello!

Although I can't answer your questions about hiring a teacher, I can tell you that I removed my dd for similar reasons. My dd doesn't have dyslexia as far as I can tell, but school was unable to teach her more than a handful of sight words, and dd wasn't progressing at all.

With phonics instruction, and giving her time to overcome her pretty horrible self-confidence problem, dd is reading nearly every word she can find that isn't in an actual book. She'll spontaneously spell words she hears, just because she can. It's an enormous improvement in only a few weeks.

Anyway- welcome to the forum!

[Theodore]

To be honest, anyone with a reasonable level of intelligence and the willingness to try hard can probably be a good tutor. It's just a matter of staying a bit ahead in the curriculum so you know what to teach. You could try your local homeschool groups and see if anyone happens to be certified and selling their services, or if that doesn't work, just search online for "[city name] elementary tutors". Or post an ad on a place like Craigslist - just be sure to not include your home address in the ad.

Practically speaking, you could probably just do a little online research on dyslexia therapy and teach your daughter yourself. Not all children - even without dyslexia - learn to read at an early age. At least one of my sisters didn't really start reading until she was older than your daughter is now, she now reads years beyond the average.

How's your daughter with audio learning?