Need help for 'doing school' with my dd5

[A home for their hearts]

She no longer enjoys her workbooks. We have Singapore Essentials A, a couple of Spectrum Letter workbooks,and and the first book in the R&S abc series. She said today she hates them and wants to do something else. I started Logic of English Foundations with her yesterday. She doing the worksheets in the lessons but the lessons get very repetitive for her, and me. I was also adding in K12 phonics which starts with phonemic awareness. She did great yesterday with both of those but got bored really easy with them today. She enjoys copying letters and words. One day we spend about 10 minutes of her telling me a word them me writing it and her copying it. She asked to do this, I didn't initiate this. She did very well copying the letters without any previous instruction of how to form the letters. I was very impressed with her handwriting!

 

I have done a few RS Math A lessons with her. She losses interest in this quickly as well, hence the Essentials Workbook. We also did C-Rods but she didn't like them either.

 

She is really wanting to do school. She see's her older siblings doing school. She told me yesterday, "You do school to learn things, right? I want to learn things. I want you to do school with me too.

 

I think I need ideas for things that are hands on, activity and game based. Any suggestions?

 

eta: I forgot to ask. I would love a curriculum that was totally hands on and all planned out for me. In a perfect world I would be able to pull things together myself but I just don't have the time.

[....]

OK, so hands-on math wasn't a hit. I'm not even bothering to teach math until next year (I also have a 5 yro). Does she like science experiments? Would she like More Mudpies to Magnets?

 

http://www.amazon.co...pies to magnets

 

The science experiments are really simple to do. We made an earthworm habitat in a jar...we watched food coloring pass through a layer of oil and create "fireworks" in water...we looked at different kinds of shells/rocks.

[Rosie_0801]

What does she want to learn?

 

I'm finding a combination of ElizabethB's phonics lessons, tweaked a little to suit us, and the 'I See Sam' readers perfect for my 5yo. Neither would work properly for my kid alone, but together she's doing really well. The 'I See Sam' readers are so incremental it makes it easy for the kids to progress. The story lines include falling in holes and having paint fights, so perfectly suited to the small person sense of humour. :p

 

Does she like jigsaw puzzles? They can be done independently and with schoolish themes like the Geopuzzles are.

 

My girl really likes when I download instrumental music clips off Youtube. I tend to put them on for ten minutes so I can go wash dishes. Last week was flute, the week before was zither and this week will be clarinet. She was humming 'The Final Countdown' yesterday morning because she's seen a vid of it played both on flute and on cello.

 

I don't know about games. Dd isn't really a games kid. How about show and tell? Could you send her outside to find pretty leaves, newly blossoming flowers or something the older kids might not have noticed and teach her to present a half minute lecture to the older kids about what it is, where she found it? Give her a camera so she can print out photos and make a nature journal?

[A home for their hearts]

OK, so hands-on math wasn't a hit. I'm not even bothering to teach math until next year (I also have a 5 yro). Does she like science experiments? Would she like More Mudpies to Magnets?

 

http://www.amazon.co...pies to magnets

 

The science experiments are really simple to do. We made an earthworm habitat in a jar...we watched food coloring pass through a layer of oil and create "fireworks" in water...we looked at different kinds of shells/rocks.

I used Mudpies to Magnets in the fall with my preschool class at co-op. I don't know why I didn't think to use it at home. ;)

 

 

What does she want to learn?

 

I'm finding a combination of ElizabethB's phonics lessons, tweaked a little to suit us, and the 'I See Sam' readers perfect for my 5yo. Neither would work properly for my kid alone, but together she's doing really well. The 'I See Sam' readers are so incremental it makes it easy for the kids to progress. The story lines include falling in holes and having paint fights, so perfectly suited to the small person sense of humour. :p

 

Does she like jigsaw puzzles? They can be done independently and with schoolish themes like the Geopuzzles are.

 

My girl really likes when I download instrumental music clips off Youtube. I tend to put them on for ten minutes so I can go wash dishes. Last week was flute, the week before was zither and this week will be clarinet. She was humming 'The Final Countdown' yesterday morning because she's seen a vid of it played both on flute and on cello.

 

I don't know about games. Dd isn't really a games kid. How about show and tell? Could you send her outside to find pretty leaves, newly blossoming flowers or something the older kids might not have noticed and teach her to present a half minute lecture to the older kids about what it is, where she found it? Give her a camera so she can print out photos and make a nature journal?

 

I don't think she knows what she wants to learn, she just wants to learn. I have the first couple of sets of the 'I See Sam' readers. I want to teach her letters sounds before we start those. I'll have to look at ElizabethB's phonics lessons.

 

How do you search for your music clips on Youtube? That sounds like a great idea!

I also like your idea for show and tell.

 

She loves to play games, so I'm trying to find some that are educational. Right now we play a lot of Uno, and Sequence Jr. I would love to find some games that teach prereading, reading and math skills, maybe even some geography.

 

Thanks!

[FromA2Z]

If you just started LOE with her a couple of days ago with her, I wouldn't throw in the towel yet. It has all of the things you asked for in a curriculum.

 

Since you just started I'm assuming you've been working on the kinesthetic exercises with her. (Seeing/feeling how the mouth is formed when making sounds) and learning different strokes. As for the kinesthetic exercises, I thought the were really cool, my ds not so much. So we basically skipped them with me mentioning some facts. I did not follow the script or require my ds to "get" mouth shapes or tongue positions. Remember this curriculum was written with all learning types in mind. Those exercises are very helpful to non-auditory or non-visual learners. If it's not helpfully to your dd skip those.

 

As far as blending and segmenting exercises go. There ends up being different ways of doing these (circling the picture, acting out the action or animal or going on a treasure hunt for the item. If your dd is bored with learning the strokes and the blending - it may just be too easy for her at this point. If you skip to lesson 6, learning the sounds and how to write the phonograms starts. She could easily learn the strokes while you demonstrate how to write the phonogram. Use the short directions instead of the long step by step. If she already knows her phonograms and can blend and SEGMENT really well. Skip to lesson 21 where word building begins. Alternatively you can do the assessment exercises A,B and C or just teach the phonograms 3 or 4 at a time until you reach lesson 21.

 

Remember you don't have to do everything verbatim that is written down. There are lots of games played: acting out, races, shooting baskets, hopscotch, air writing sensory writing, etc. All that being said there is AAR 1. It just seems to me that she is chomping at the bit to get to meatier stuff. I think that also may be the case with RSA also. Again you do not have to follow it verbatim. The first handful of lessons in ANY curriculum start slow. If they get a concept move on. If they don't seem to "quite" get it- move on. It's K, they will get it again. Even with scripted programs you kind of have to go with your instincts on where you park it and where you breeze through.

 

I have never seen the R&S workbook but I've seen others on here using it for 3 & 4 year old - perhaps that's too easy also.

 

All that being said the heart of our day is reading good books, doing crafts, free art, science play experiments and nature walks. I spend about 10 minutes on LOE and 10 minutes on RS A a day. We get a whole lesson done in LOE in that time. B/c my son is 4, I really don't expect much from the handwriting just that he knows how to form the letters. We also don't do the handwriting sheets- just white or chalk boards, air or sensory writing. If your dd would like to spend more time than 10 minutes, I think you could combine a blending, segmenting exercise and a couple of letters a day.

 

After all that I have to say that I'm hardly an expert ...I just started January 2nd! But there was a little boredom in my ds in the early lessons that is largely gone. I even get a little groaning at the start of lessons now but he is always having fun by the end. I just hate to see you throw out a solid curriculum that seems to be what you want based on early lessons. If you haven't read through the lessons in LOE starting at 21 to see if your dd would enjoy those and the games played then. Also remember you can shorten up some step by step instructions.

[Rosie_0801]

 

I don't think she knows what she wants to learn, she just wants to learn.

 

Aw. That's so cute!

 

I have the first couple of sets of the 'I See Sam' readers. I want to teach her letters sounds before we start those. I'll have to look at ElizabethB's phonics lessons.

 

You could teach her letter sounds as they appear in the book. That way she can get going without having to have learned EVERYTHING first. Everything not being everything, but probably feels like it to a little kid. :p

 

How do you search for your music clips on Youtube?

 

Type in flute, flute duet, flute quartet, flute greensleeves and download a couple. I like having one song played on each instrument for comparison, and greensleeves is a good choice for that. It seems to be an early song in many music programs.

 

Is she bored of mazes? I'm going to be doing mini focuses on famous buildings with dd this year. Nothing strenuous, but I figure it is a bit of cultural literacy that's easy to take care of. A person should be able to recognise the Eiffel Tower and the Sphinx. Kumon has a mazes of the world book. I'm going to have dd do them and watch a dvd or look at a photo book, or whatever the library has and show her the location on a world map. If you have small pictures of each, a world map and some blue tac, you could have her stick the pics onto the right country on the map. That's almost a game, isn't it? (Maybe lame, but we are a bit lame when it comes to games here. They seem like more work than work to me. :p)

[A home for their hearts]

If you just started LOE with her a couple of days ago with her, I wouldn't throw in the towel yet. It has all of the things you asked for in a curriculum.

 

Since you just started I'm assuming you've been working on the kinesthetic exercises with her. (Seeing/feeling how the mouth is formed when making sounds) and learning different strokes. As for the kinesthetic exercises, I thought the were really cool, my ds not so much. So we basically skipped them with me mentioning some facts. I did not follow the script or require my ds to "get" mouth shapes or tongue positions. Remember this curriculum was written with all learning types in mind. Those exercises are very helpful to non-auditory or non-visual learners. If it's not helpfully to your dd skip those.

 

As far as blending and segmenting exercises go. There ends up being different ways of doing these (circling the picture, acting out the action or animal or going on a treasure hunt for the item. If your dd is bored with learning the strokes and the blending - it may just be too easy for her at this point. If you skip to lesson 6, learning the sounds and how to write the phonograms starts. She could easily learn the strokes while you demonstrate how to write the phonogram. Use the short directions instead of the long step by step. If she already knows her phonograms and can blend and SEGMENT really well. Skip to lesson 21 where word building begins. Alternatively you can do the assessment exercises A,B and C or just teach the phonograms 3 or 4 at a time until you reach lesson 21.

 

Remember you don't have to do everything verbatim that is written down. There are lots of games played: acting out, races, shooting baskets, hopscotch, air writing sensory writing, etc. All that being said there is AAR 1. It just seems to me that she is chomping at the bit to get to meatier stuff. I think that also may be the case with RSA also. Again you do not have to follow it verbatim. The first handful of lessons in ANY curriculum start slow. If they get a concept move on. If they don't seem to "quite" get it- move on. It's K, they will get it again. Even with scripted programs you kind of have to go with your instincts on where you park it and where you breeze through.

 

I have never seen the R&S workbook but I've seen others on here using it for 3 & 4 year old - perhaps that's too easy also.

 

All that being said the heart of our day is reading good books, doing crafts, free art, science play experiments and nature walks. I spend about 10 minutes on LOE and 10 minutes on RS A a day. We get a whole lesson done in LOE in that time. B/c my son is 4, I really don't expect much from the handwriting just that he knows how to form the letters. We also don't do the handwriting sheets- just white or chalk boards, air or sensory writing. If your dd would like to spend more time than 10 minutes, I think you could combine a blending, segmenting exercise and a couple of letters a day.

 

After all that I have to say that I'm hardly an expert ...I just started January 2nd! But there was a little boredom in my ds in the early lessons that is largely gone. I even get a little groaning at the start of lessons now but he is always having fun by the end. I just hate to see you throw out a solid curriculum that seems to be what you want based on early lessons. If you haven't read through the lessons in LOE starting at 21 to see if your dd would enjoy those and the games played then. Also remember you can shorten up some step by step instructions.

 

She enjoyed the first day of LOE, watching her mouth in a mirror and feeling her throat to see if her voice box was she liked. When we tried this on day two, she didn't want to do it and started asking for something else, which I didn't have anything else for her. She really stumps me, it's hard for me to find things for her to do. I can't tell if the things that I'm giving her to do are too easy or if she's just being complicated. She's a stubborn child so it can be a fine line. I'm going to skip ahead to lesson 6 and see how she does. We haven't tried segmenting and blending yet.

 

I think I am getting stuck on wanting her to master things before we move on. Thanks for telling me it's ok to move on if she hasn't mastered a skill yet.

 

She doesn't like the Abacus or the tally sticks. Everytime I get those out she asks for something else. I haven't figured out how to use RS without those. lol I've been debating on buying a different math for her but I'm trying to stop curriculum hoping.

 

Thanks!

[A home for their hearts]

Type in flute, flute duet, flute quartet, flute greensleeves and download a couple. I like having one song played on each instrument for comparison, and greensleeves is a good choice for that. It seems to be an early song in many music programs.

 

Is she bored of mazes? I'm going to be doing mini focuses on famous buildings with dd this year. Nothing strenuous, but I figure it is a bit of cultural literacy that's easy to take care of. A person should be able to recognise the Eiffel Tower and the Sphinx. Kumon has a mazes of the world book. I'm going to have dd do them and watch a dvd or look at a photo book, or whatever the library has and show her the location on a world map. If you have small pictures of each, a world map and some blue tac, you could have her stick the pics onto the right country on the map. That's almost a game, isn't it? (Maybe lame, but we are a bit lame when it comes to games here. They seem like more work than work to me. :p)

 

I love this idea! Thanks.

[boscopup]

Some kids don't need manipulatives for math, or at least not until it gets to something they don't understand. My oldest has only need manipulatives for ONE topic in his entire math career (he's halfway through Singapore 5B now), and that was the adding/subtracting mentally across 10's stuff that Singapore/Math Mammoth/Rightstart all teach. He needed me to demonstrate it with manipulatives, and he did a few problems with them, and then he got it and dropped the manipulatives. He hasn't needed them for anything else. He's just an abstract thinker. And that is fine with me, because I hate math manipulatives. :D I use C-rods with my current K'er, because he needed them, but even he isn't really using them much NOW. He used them in the beginning and then weaned off them fairly quickly.

 

Is she doing well with Singapore Essentials? Book A is super easy, but do ask WHY she has chosen a particular answer and get some discussion going. Sometimes there are multiple possible answers! Book B picks up the pace quite a bit, to the point that much of 1A was a repeat of EM K Book B. We didn't hit anything new until unit 6 of 1A - the adding/subtracting across 10's unit. Well, I guess reading number words was new also. Otherwise, most of it was review.

[FromA2Z]

 

 

She enjoyed the first day of LOE, watching her mouth in a mirror and feeling her throat to see if her voice box was she liked. When we tried this on day two, she didn't want to do it and started asking for something else, which I didn't have anything else for her. She really stumps me, it's hard for me to find things for her to do. I can't tell if the things that I'm giving her to do are too easy or if she's just being complicated. She's a stubborn child so it can be a fine line. I'm going to skip ahead to lesson 6 and see how she does. We haven't tried segmenting and blending yet.

 

I think I am getting stuck on wanting her to master things before we move on. Thanks for telling me it's ok to move on if she hasn't mastered a skill yet.

 

She doesn't like the Abacus or the tally sticks. Everytime I get those out she asks for something else. I haven't figured out how to use RS without those. lol I've been debating on buying a different math for her but I'm trying to stop curriculum hoping.

 

Thanks!

 

My ds hated the mirror on the second day and feeling his throat. We just moved on to the rest of the lesson. We did kind of breeze through the voiced/unvoiced/nasal parts. We are now on lesson 18 and doing really good and he always has fun in some way. I've thought about jumping to 21 but haven't - mostly because of handwriting. I skip the assessment lessons because at this point he really doesn't need the additional review.