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CMH

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About CMH

  • Birthday 03/31/1967

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  • Website URL
    http://cottageinstincts.blogspot.com/
  • Biography
    Been at this for 14 years. Last 2 still home with me.
  • Location
    Swivel Chair, NE Indiana
  • Interests
    blogging, shopping, sleeping
  • Occupation
    wife, mama, grammama
  1. Thanks for all the info! I'm in Indiana, and homeschools are considered 'private schools' so it isn't an issue for me to teach him. We met tonight, and I asked him where he felt he needed the most help catching up. Grammar and writing. Thankfully I love teaching those things. :D I'm sure I'll be back here often for advice....I appreciate all the suggestions!
  2. I homeschooled my 6 kids for 12 years (spent many years on these forums!), and a friend has asked me in desparation to school her 14 yo son who is drowning in public school. I'm comfortable doing this, and relish the opportunity, but as he is not my son I'm wondering where I should start regarding finding his learning style and what curriculum might fit him best. I intend to let him decompress from the public schools (he has been dealing with migraines from stress for 3 years now and is extremely behind in his school work already this year). I intend to focus on math, reading and some writing...low stress but interesting for a few months. I want to take him to the library and just watch to see what he gravitates toward, spend lots of time talking with him about what he likes (besides my 15 yo daughter *grin*) and what stuff he liked about school in the past and what he hated. Any other things I should be considering? Are there any resources available for helping me with this endeavor? Again, I"m a veteran homeschooler, but this is a unique situation for me. I know he is behind academically, and his mama tells me he's never been a very motivated learner, but has basically kept up fairly easily until becoming so ill. As I'm mostly familiar with TWTM methodology, I would love to use it, but it might be just too much for him to start with. Thanks oodles!
  3. We're trying out CLE Sunrise Science for 2nd grade. It does a bird study that gets great reviews. We don't normally do a formal science study till 4th or 5th grade, but the CLE seemed to pique the boys interest, and is only a semester in length, so I could actually stretch it out over the whole year doing it once or twice a week. I will say, my kids have learned most of their science stuff (which they are continually schooling me on) from videos by National Geographic for Kids, Eyewitness, Magic Schoolbus, and Bill Nye. Science is so visual, and I believe it lends itself well to being taught via videos.
  4. Just wanted to add that my girls enjoyed copywork, but I'm not sure we did it consistently enough or directed enough to really say it 'helped' them with writing. It was more an art exercise, decorating the page with pretty handwriting and then perhaps a curle-que. My almost 9yo ds, on the other hand, HATES copywork. He has tremendous issues with hold a writing utensil. Unless I sat over him saying, "next word" he'd take 30 minutes to copy 1 sentence. I'm not exaggerating. He's a perfectionist, has very nice manuscript writing, and so writes extremely slow...which makes the lesson SO LONG.... I'm trying two things with him over the summer. 1) Teaching him cursive, which so far has been an amazingly positive experience for him. He says his hand doesn't hurt from writing anymore. 2) Letting him choose his copywork more often. Something we did last year that had some positive effect was homemade 'story starters' where I would begin some fantasy episode full of swords and knights and squishy things that boys like, then ask him to provide the next part. I recorded it, then copied out a couple of his sentences with proper grammar/spelling/handwriting. He didn't seem so bothered knowing he was copying his own words. It took more of my time, but I think it was our best copywork experience. He still balked if I tried to sneak in more than 3 sentences at a time, but he proudly showed Daddy when he got home from work. :001_smile:
  5. I'm doing the same thing....Rod and Staff terrorizes my kids:) I think it's a great program, and my older kids did well with R & S (girls), but my boys hate it. I decided to use both CLE LA and math (having never used either) and feel pretty confident that it will be enough for my kids. I will also be adding WWE and maybe Writing Tales later in the year...depending on how WWE works for us.
  6. Wow! So many generous folks willing to offer excellent advice and experience. :grouphug: Someone asked about phonics....I pulled him thru kicking and screaming. We used several things. Mainly ETC. He is a sight-reader, and I found that the more I pushed phonics, the more confused he got in reading. There are so many 'rule-breakers'. He does better with regular books as readers seem silly to him, and don't make sense. Chris in VA, funny you should mention reading aloud with him. I had already begun doing this, thinking (in desparation) that if he could see how quickly words can be read, he'd catch on......and I notice that after the first paragraph or so, he's keeping up with me for the most part. Fascinating! I'll keep with it. Again, thanks for sharing ladies!
  7. Thanks for all the responses. We do library trips, but he gets really overwhelmed standing in front of the easy reader section. I try to pull out a book or two, and he balks. Frustrating. I think I'll keep plugging the library trips, and perhaps add some rewards as suggested. He is very hard to motivate! :)
  8. My son needs work on fluency. He's bogged down with phonics rules, so much that it hinders his actual reading. I would like him to just have some terrific books to help him make that last jump into the world of reading. Any suggestions? I've looked at SL's intermediate selections, and some packaged reading curriculums. We've suffered thru Horizons 2nd grade readers. They served to kill his desire to read 'just one more page'. :) Thanks!
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