Tracy
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Posts posted by Tracy
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I agree with the others about spelling. I started my 4yo in both phonics and spelling at the same time, and it was too much for her. Since she was already reading fluently, I dropped the phonics and kept the spelling. But if she was still working on reading, I would have done the phonics and put off the spelling.
Tracy
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I felt this way, too, when I started planning my first curriculum. I had some suggestions from online forums, but it still left me feeling bewildered. I finally found some great resources for curriculum reviews that helped me a lot. Check it out on my blog: http://myfamilyiseternal.blogspot.com/2009/10/finding-my-first-curriculum-or-scary.html
Tracy
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I am a FIAR lover, but I haven't seen Before FIAR. But if you are already doing FIAR with a 5yo, I would try to combine them. Many of the books will be a little difficult for the 5yo and others will be a bit simple for the 8yo. But I think by and large, there would be enough interest in most of the books and lessons for an 8yo. I would not do the math lesson with the 8yo. (Sometimes I even skip it for my 4yo, as they are sometimes just too simple.) But the other lessons could easily be engaging to an 8yo. And they are easy to supplement if you need more. For example, we always use FIAR to do a vocabulary study. (And some of the vocab can be quite difficult, even for an 8yo.)
If you have already decided on using FIAR for the 5yo, I would go ahead and make the purchase so that you can see the lesson plans and decide if you could combine the children. When I first got my FIAR manual, I was really surprised at how meaty (and numerous) the lessons were. Yet at the same time, they were so easy and flexible and required so little preparation on my part. You could also use the next few months to check out the FIAR books at the library to see if they would be of interest to your 8yo.
Tracy
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yep, i think i am going to just get nebel's next book--i already have his first one, and like it a lot but wanted something easier to prep...i don't think it exists :)
:iagree: We were using BJU Science 1 before starting BJSU. BJU Science was mostly open and go but still required some prep. Sometimes there were experiments that needed to be set up, and sometimes they required some wait time to plan for. BJSU requires more prep time, but not that much more. And the prep time is more predictable. I know I am going to need to take about 30-60 minutes to prep every week. Whereas with BJU Science, we would not need much prep for a couple of weeks, and then suddenly there would be prep work needed, and then science didn't get done that week.
Science by its very nature is going to need some prep work. Even with a curriculum-in-a-box, where you have everything you need, you are going to have to set things up and figure out what is supposed to be learned from this exercise or experiment.
Tracy
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If it were on the list, I would vote BFSU.
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The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease talks briefly about these kinds of programs. He indicates that when children are taught too early to read, it requires so much work that they tend to burn out and plateau, such that they don't make much progress after a certain point. Then by the time they are school age, they are at the same level as their age peers. (On the other hand, there are gifted children that learn to read at 2 or 3 yrs old, completely or largely on their own, and this is not what he is talking about.)
Tracy
Tracy
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I would agree with the rest. In K, usually they are just learning how to write their letters. If yours already can write letters, then one short sentence per day is more than enough. But I would recommend that it be copywork so that she can still see what it is supposed to look like and gets used to seeing how words are capitalized at the beginning of a sentence, as well as the punctuation. My K'er has been asking about how to use apostrophes since she saw it in her copywork. I would never have considered teaching this to her if it weren't for her asking.
I would caution you, though, that if writing even one short sentence per day becomes too laborious for her, you may want to cut it down to just a word or two a day. Even when a child "can" write, she may still lack stamina (both physical and mental). Have her write only what she can do in a few minutes time.
Tracy
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:lurk5:
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I find that my dd4 is verbal and vocal enough that it only takes a person a few minutes with her before they figure out that she is gifted. She told me that she offered to help her older friend read a book when she sees her tomorrow. I am concerned how that is going to go over since her mother has been negative about my dd being in kindergarten while her older daughter was still in pre-school. But what can I do? I can't tell my dd not to help her friend read!
It is interesting that people who do not have young children are very curious and want to talk about her. But those with kids the same age as dd and a few years older completely avoid the topic and will not acknowledge her giftedness.
Tracy
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CSMP has story books online. I haven't read any of them so can't speak to their quality or contents. But here is the link: http://ceure.buffalostate.edu/~csmp/CSMPProgram/Storybooks/index.html
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DD is in kindergarten this year, and I knew it would be hard for her to get rid of anything unless we had a process and rules to follow. Each week, we pick out her best work for each subject and put it in a folder. Each month, we go through those 4 weeks and again pick out her best work. At the end of a quarter, we do the same thing again. So at the end of the quarter, we have one item from each subject that we are keeping. I have one folder for each quarter. At the end of the year, I will put all 4 quarters into one folder labeled 2009-2010 and reuse the quarter folders for next year.
I try to keep in mind the following:
1. Most importantly, if something happens to me, whoever takes over schooling will want to see a sample of what she has been doing but will not want to peruse boxes of stuff.
2. We sometimes keep extra things if they are somehow special--show a leap in development or an insight that dd had, etc.
3. I try to be mindful of what dd wants to keep (although she would like to keep everything). She likes to doodle on her papers, so an ordinary math worksheet becomes a masterpiece to her. But sometimes I will let her keep an extra one that is particularly elaborate.
4. What do I personally want to remember many years from now? What will dd truly enjoy having when she is grown?
Now, I wish I could say we really do this every week. Sometimes it gets left until the end of the month. But it does feel good not to be storing all that stuff.
Tracy
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I love BFSU. we are doing some other science stuff too (Young Scientist Club experiment kits with another family, and an earth science/astronomy focused reading list), but if I had to choose just one thing, it would definitely be BFSU. I love the way it actually gets the kids (4 and 6 yo) thinking scientifically, and how everything is interconnected and builds on past lessons. Supplies for experiments and demonstrations are everyday household objects (and yes, they are almost all things that you will really and truly have at your house).
It is NOT open and go, however. I don't find there is a lot of prep time, but there is definitely some. You need to read through the lesson, decide how you're going to present the material (ideas are fully explained in the book, with questions to ask the kids, and even preemptive answers to questions the kids may have for you), and gather supplies (again, very simple supplies). And then maybe get books while you are at the library to reinforce the lesson. But most of these things you would probably be doing regardless of the curriculum you chose, at least for science.
Oh, and your 4 yo can definitely tag along during the lessons. I think it would be even better to do the program with both of them, because they can benefit from the other's experience and ideas.
:iagree: Ditto on everything here, especially doing the lessons together with the 4yo. The activities are definitely fine for a 4yo, although he may struggle with some of the concepts. But that is okay if he enjoys tagging along. If your 1st grader can read, he could read the books to the 4yo, and if you are reading the books, then you can read to both of them. If you can spare 30-60 minutes of prep time each week, this would be fine. But if you want an open-and-go program, then don't do it.
Tracy
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I just bought TOG, so I can't tell you anything based on experience. But I was just reading in the TOG materials about the different levels, and it said that children are in D level for the shortest amount of time, approximately 6th-8th grades. I would say that unless you have an advanced student, start with UG. If it is not challenging enough, then add in some D assignments. You could go the other way around, but going back a level can be very discouraging for the child. Anyway, that is what is nice about TOG. You do not have to limit your child to just one level at a time.
Tracy
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I'm trying to figure out if the first part of each lesson, where he explains all the background info about the topic, is addressed to the parent or to be read to the student? Or do you jump into it with the student with the suggested books and experiments? (I'm trying to figure this out looking at Amazon "Surprise Me" samples, mind you! ;))
Each lesson has a "Methods and Procedures" portion that gives the background information that a teacher would need to teach the lesson and then gives directions on how to lead a discussion and/or an activity related to the topic. This includes not only the nuts and bolts of what you are teaching, but also information about what common misconceptions children may have, and how to go about dispelling those incorrect notions. Sometimes, it contains information about how he has simplified the information for this age group. (For example, in the lessons on energy, he uses the term, "movement energy," instead of the proper term, "mechanical energy.") When appropriate, there are also safety notes. This section is addressed to the parent but does contain enough information from which one could glean a script to prepare for the lesson. (Or you could simply highlight the things that you are going to say to your child.)
Additionally, each lesson has a section "To Parents and Others Providing Support." This section contains suggestions on how the lessons can continued at home. But in a homeschool situation, you would simply roll these into your regular lessons.
As the parent, are you mainly presenting the material via the experiments and suggested books, and the rest that is written is for background to help the parent address questions from the child?
I would say that the bulk of the material is for the parent. I was using a program that was entirely scripted before, so I didn't always understand why we were having the specific discussion that we were having. With BFSU, I can have the same discussions but really understand that material myself. This is where some people have a hard time with it, because most of us do not have a strong science background, and BFSU does expect the teacher to wrap her brain around this material a bit (but gives you everything you need to do that, except for the time to do so, of course :lol:). For me, it is completely worth it.
Tracy
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Welcome to the party! It is a surreal experience.
Tracy
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If I have/use BFSU, do things like growing butterflies, etc still fit in -- meaning can I still get away with doing some easy little science experiments with the boys? While I love the concept of this book for teaching, I also like how the WTM lays out science for 1st graders (learning how the body works, animals, and plants)and was going to start some of that for K. Can I do both?
Thanks so much!
Mendy
Absolutely! BFSU is written so that you are spiraling through 4 different subjects. Some lessons do have prerequisites, but for the most part, there is no imposed schedule. It is easy to jump around to suit your needs. If I was planning on doing physics today, but I woke up in the morning and saw the snow melting and we all felt the urge to get outside, I would absolutely scrap the physics lesson and turn to a Life Science lesson to see what we could do there (perhaps even revisiting a previous lesson from a different angle or perspective). Furthermore, there is much about all of the lessons that you could apply to different venues and circumstances, so you wouldn't even necessarily have to scrap your original plans. BFSU is written with the intention that every teacher will be tweaking it to suit her needs. It therefore provides lots of guidance without telling you exactly what to do.
Tracy
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We're starting that once we finish NOEO :D.
I thought we would finish up what we have and start BFSU in Aug. After all, I spent $100 on our science curriculum, and it was pretty good (notwithstanding the randomness of the lessons). It didn't take long before I just jumped into BFSU and ditched the $100 curriculum.
Dr. Nebel suggested in his yahoo group that you not dump a curriculum but use them together. While a nice sentiment, I just felt that BFSU was so superior that it would be a waste of time to try to correlate the two programs.
Tracy
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Don't you love the 'Baloney Detection' part?:D
Got this in the mail last week, and I am loving it. Just loving it. It fits just about every criteria in my book for a good science curriculum. And it's definitely 'expandable' for my upcoming 3rd grader--although of course I am keenly awaiting Nebel's books for older grades coming out this summer.
Anyone else in love with this book?
:iagree:
:party:
Welcome to the BFSU party!!!!
We are loving it, too! Love baloney detection. Love integrating everything together. It seems like the perfect balance between the randomness of traditional texts and the classical approach. (With a physics teacher for a dh, there was just no way we were going to be able to wait until year 4 to do physics!) Love the flexibility. Love the teaching moments. Love the easy, easy, easy discussions, activities and games.
The only thing I would change is that I wish that the lesson number were on the header of each page. :tongue_smilie: If I don't book mark where we are, I have a hard time finding the lesson we are working on. But that is my greatest complaint, so you can see why I am loving it!
Tracy
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We used MCP with my K'er this year. DD liked it, but she is a very good reader. I think it could work with a struggling reader IF you do the additional activities that it suggests. But if you just use the workbook, I don't think it would be enough. I think I would look for something that addresses different learning styles. I was looking at Happy Phonics until I realized that dd didn't really need phonics at all. It uses Explode the Code and adds lots of fun activities to it.
Tracy
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For what it's worth, where we are the schools (public & also the private school where my husband works) count half days & early releases as a school day.
Sounds to me like you had a "half day" today. It counts. :)
:iagree: If you have to report your school days, then you had school today. But if you have no reporting requirements, then you just do what you can and move on when you can. I also have a K'er, and when we are sick, we forego the daily worksheets. If possible, we still do our cuddling-on-the-couch programs. Sometimes, we make things up later, and sometimes we just skip, depending on the nature of what was missed.
Tracy
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DD will be 1st grade in the fall. We do a lot of mapwork here, because dd loves it. But I don't think it always necessary to mark everything we do on a map. Sometimes, we just look something up in an atlas and we are done with it. Sometimes, we don't even go that far if dd is already familiar with the place. Every time we come across a story or other reference to a place in the world, there is some discussion of where that place is.
Tracy
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How do you actually teach BFSU?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I could definitely see BFSU as an unschooling resource. Although you can make it into a formal lesson, BFSU takes the perspective that learning happens best when it is relevant to the child. And what is relevant to the child is what he experiences, translating into (1) what he does, and (2) what happens to him. A lesson best occurs in the midst of the child's ordinary activities. Additionally, adults can use "teaching moments." For example, while we were looking out the back door during the winter, we noticed ice melting on the outside light and steam coming off. That turned into a discussion of solids, liquids and gases. And those "teaching moments" can be created, and BFSU gives many ideas for doing so, often in the form of games or even just intriguing questions followed by an experiment to answer the question.
Tracy