We've established a baseline of second grade for all three of the little monsters.

For the youngest this is right at the level where she should be for some things.  It is apparent that this is a challenge for her but not too much of one.

Next in line, the nine year old, is struggling even though this is two years behind where he should be.  It is apparent that he has not been challenged and has had way too much focus on perfectionism.  He struggles when he is unable to read a word and panics as a result.  Working with him to get beyond this and to realize that mistakes must be made in order to learn is his greatest challenge.

And for the ten year old this is proving to be quite simple.  Our hope is that she will blow through the work quickly and that this will be more of a refresher for her.  Thus far that seems to be the case.

We made the choice to start them all out at the same level for the purpose of helping to reinforce the things they know and to build upon that foundation.  So far we've seen success and improvement despite the overall struggle with convincing them that hard work is good work even with mistakes.