Tracy
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Posts posted by Tracy
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You can download Tales of Peter Rabbit and other stories by Beatrix Potter today only at Penguin Random House Audio. This is no ordinary giveaway. This is 5 hours of audio read by Jim Weiss! What a score!
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Hmm, that indecision sounds sorta like some anxiety. That's really something to put your finger on and get some coping techniques for. That excessive perfectionism and anxiety can be really disabling. Stop being perfectionist about programs. Instead, be hack and change how you use them, giving her the pleasure of them without the requirement to do them perfectly, kwim? What a good, non-threatening way to explore how her mind really works, with something like Listography, kwim? If you both do them, you could contrast, playing up how whatever (linear, whatever) your thoughts are vs. hers. Then she's owning who she is, rather than seeing the difference as a problem, kwim? Maybe make the lists more complex to accommodate her categories. The simple fact of list-making is terrific for the brain and a worthwhile exercise. And organizing, wow can't get any more potent for the EF than that, lol. People write whole essays on the inconsequentials of favorite vs. preferred for mundane categories of things, lol. Don't knock the value of THINKING and categorizing like that, kwim? If she's thinking and organizing her thoughts (favorites, almost favorites, can't bear to excludes, would be favorites if it weren't for the unfortunateness of the name, favorites only for reason of spelling, etc.), she just did lots of organizing and EF work, just like if she had organized an essay for history. This is good stuff! :)
Hmm. Could be anxiety. She does have anxious tendencies. But my dh describes it as being able to see too many possibilities, and I have always thought it to be more of that. For example, if you ask him about his favorite color, he will respond, "For what?" You see, red is a nice color for socks, but not for houses. He rarely ever has a preference, unless it is more comfortable, more efficient, etc. Since she is so much like him, I have always just assumed it was like that for her. But I will watch for possible anxiety, as it does show up in other areas.
I do really love your idea of categorizing different kinds of favorites. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to apply that. I can see that this is really more my problem. I am so in-the-box, and she is so . . . not. And my box must be titanium-plated or something, because it is so hard to break out.
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My dd's writing jump was 7th/8th grade, not age 9/10. I remember being REALLY FREAKED OUT about her writing at that age. I remember very distinctly lamenting to someone that I just had NOT DONE ENOUGH with narrations. What a laugh, lol. Our kids process and have so many separate thoughts. You're lamenting that she doesn't get kicks out of boring simple outlines, but you have a child who is eventually going to make COMPLEX CONNECTIONS across disciplines and sophisticated concepts. What you actually have to do is teach them that they can see structure visually, that they can get their complex thoughts into those structures, and that they can use those structures to take the way they think and TRANSLATE it into the way other people think (more linear). That's where this is going. This whole idea that you need to build up structure slowly because she doesn't have any thoughts is just corrupt and doesn't fit how their brains work. Their brains are actually the total inverse, with lots of divergent ideas that they can't bring into an order that makes sense to other people. So we have to give them a MORE SOPHISTICATED structure (hence the Inspiration software), not less. The brighter they are, the more important this is. And I'll be polite here, but people didn't do that for my dh, and instead tried to force his brain into linear structure, and it's VERY hard to follow his writing. I think it's imperative to recognize where this is going, that we are actually trying to teach methodology that's capable of keeping up with our kids NOT teaching our kids to squish into inferior methodology.
:001_wub: I really love this. Especially the bolded part. (You really have a special wisdom when it comes to these kids.) It is so true. It started when she was a baby before she could even walk. She would show me pictures of similar things in different books. She has always been driven to make interesting connections. Part of my problem is that I am very linear. It is just so hard for me to understand how to approach this kind of child. Her piano playing is a good example. She will attempt pretty much anything, and I often think the piece she chooses is too hard for her. But in a month, she is playing it. And she has not by any means practiced it systematically. I think her writing is going to come about in the same way.
Why do you need to see her stories? They're her private work. The only thing you need to see/supervise is something she turns in to you.
Did you try doing the Listography *with* her? It might be that it's very hard for her. List-making is affected by praxis, and the OT was the one who picked up on that with dd. So, if I could suggest, you might go back at it but a fresh way, kwim? Like do it together and write your answers with crazy markers. Or do it and start a blog of crazy top 10 lists. Just do it once a week or every other week, taking turns, letting her guess what yours would be, alternating so it's only half the work. Just the thought process is worth something.
If she types, she's going to use spell check, right? I told you my dd earned an ipad with her typing rewards. I got her an ipad and bluetooth keyboard, and that's how she writes in her room. If you do that, she'll have spell check too.
Another thing we did in those years was going back to Writing Tales, looking at stories afresh and pursuing them more ways. Like we'd take the same story and compare versions, discuss what made them work, and do drafts using the things we learned. There's a book 180 Days of Writing that is good for tag team writing. I got it a little late for my dd, but yours might enjoy it pretty soon. But it's something you would do together, both of you doing the exercises, not just something you assign and walk away, kwim?
You are right. I have always taken the position that her outside writing should stay hers. I was just tempted by it, because of time constraints.
I will look at listography again. I don't remember why it didn't work. Probably a part of it was that she had trouble choosing what to include in the lists. Anything that makes her choose favorites is hard for her. If you ask her favorite color, then she will name several, because she wouldn't want any color to be made to feel excluded. :001_huh: I'll look at your other suggestions, too. I know I looked at Writing Tales previously, and I thought it would be too much for her. I suspect that in our current circumstances, we (the two of us) are not quite ready for it. But I like the idea of tag teaming assignments. My husband might be willing to do this with her, too.
I love the idea of typing rewards. I was looking online, and I see that you can get a small tablet for only $100 now. I had no idea they came that cheap. Add a wireless keyboard, and she has her own computer. I'll be talking to dh about this, too.
Thank you so much! :seeya:
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Your dd is doing the same things my dd at those very same ages, and she's now a VERY good writer. I would like to RELEASE you from this fear. Seriously! Saying that people are behind if they aren't doing WWS in 5th or 6th or whatever is just fear-mongering. My dd did WWS1 in 8th, WWS2 in 9th. It's GREAT then. It's great that someone else does it earlier, but the way my dd did it was more advanced, more mature, and a much faster pace. Doing it the way it's written, at the time it's suggested, is NOT the only profitable way. :) I took her to the ps for a fresh psych eval, and the psych was BLOWN AWAY by her writing, wished she was at his school taking AP classes, hehe. :) She had a big spurt in 8th, right as her typing kicked in.
I would say you're exactly right doing typing. I get why you're worried about her narrations, but what you're seeing there are the EF issues, not that you're doing something wrong. I would encourage you to think of writing *beyond* narrations. You can google site search for my old posts (because my memory is bad), but in those nebulous years we did a variety of things like...
It will come together. Continue to be patient and let it happen. You have to believe that it's *inside* and that what you're doing is removing the roadblocks, one by one, so it can come out. :)
OhElizabeth, I was hoping you would respond. Your experience with your dd has inspired me for a long time. We did try Listography, but it didn't work out so well. She does occasionally write in her journal. And she writes her own stories, though that goes in spurts. She doesn't let me see anything she writes. She doesn't want anything she writes to be turned into school. (In other words, she doesn't want to worry about spelling and mechanics, though her skills in this area are good.) But maybe if I paid her for her stories . . . hmmm.
I know you have suggested the inspiration software before, and I thought she wasn't old enough to make use of it yet. I will take a look again, and check out some of those other suggestions.
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No, I have not. It was my intention to get an evaluation for her last year. But I have just been too ill to make it a priority. I have done a lot of reading and research, and based on that and the issues that my husband has, I strongly believe that there is an issue with processing speed. Perhaps there are other issues, too. But that is the one thing that I am pretty sure about.
:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:
Have you had any evaluations for your child? If you knew the exact nature of her struggles it might help you pinpoint where to remediate, where to accommodate, etc.
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I thought I knew what we were going to do for language arts for my 10yo, but I keep doubting myself. What I have planned just doesn't seem sufficient.
A little background. We did WWE1-3 in 1st through 3rd grade. Dd struggled with them. If I had it to do over again, I would start the sequence in 2nd grade. Nevertheless, I feel that her writing is really good for her age. When she writes on her own (rather than as assigned), her grammar and mechanics are good, and she puts together complex and interesting sentences. It just takes her a lot of time to actually do it. Actually, everything takes her a long time. It has gotten a bit better as she has gotten older, but since her father has the same problem, so I have no illusions that the problem will go away. We have to make sure to make assignments short and simple, emphasizing quality over quantity.
Last year, we were going to do WWE4. The dictations were too much for her, so I was going to do only the narrations. However, I became quite ill in September and did not get better. So I had to scale everything down. We ended up doing only dictations from another source. She did well with these. She spent about 10 minutes daily on dictations.
Dh and I decided that it is time for her to learn to type. (He told me that typing helped him with some of his writing issues, so we are hoping it will similarly help her.) She is excited about it and is currently at about 10wpm. It was my intent to make typing her only language arts activity until she was proficient. But I was looking at WWS (for the future) and I realized that her narration skills are not the greatest. She was starting to really get it at the end of WWE3, but we haven't done much of it since. She has a really hard time picking out the salient details of a passage.
So now I am freaking out a bit wondering if I am failing her. I am feeling a little better than I was, but I am still quite ill, and there will no doubt be continuing doctors appointments interrupting the flow of things. And now dd10 has moved up a level in ballet and will be starting pointe in February. She has class 3 days per week, plus she assists in the 3 and 4yo classes one morning per week. She has piano lessons. So 2 mornings per week are completely shot. And we have a loose homeschooling group that is getting together one morning per week, and at some point, people will start planning field trips. My 7yo could handle all this and more. If I told him I need him to get XYZ done before we go, he just does. But my 10yo does not transition well from one activity to the next, nor does she handle changes to her daily routine well. (We don't have behavior issues. She just has trouble getting it all done, and she gets very distracted.) So I have to allow for all of this, and I just don't know how to make it all work.
It has been helpful to talk things over with dh, because he has these same issues. But at the same time, no one ever helped him, so his insight is limited. And it doesn't help that he takes the position that "she'll be okay" (or maybe it should help). Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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I am really curious how this ended up working out for the OP. My 10yo ballet dancer just got her first period, and we are trying to decide what to do for classes and performances.
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We contacted the company to get further clarification of what the upgrade included. Here was my message:
My kids love Prodigy, and they play it a lot, and they are lobbying for
membership. I see some information about all of the fun stuff that the
students get with membership. I am wondering if there is any educational
benefit to membership. I have noticed that they seem to be getting the same
questions over and over. And when I make an assignment, there are a limited
number of questions for each skill. If I pay for membership, will there be
a more diverse set of problems?And here was Prodigy's response:
Thanks for contacting Prodigy Customer Support!
There are many benefits to membership, some more tangible than others. We never restrict access to our educational content. All of our users, members or not, will always have unrestricted access to our 20,000+ questions.
We do find that members tend to play longer and more often. Members get access to exclusive items and zones. Membership will remove the limitations on number of pets that can be caught and on how many team members can be brought into battle. This means that you can battle with a more diverse team that will all receive experience when battles are won. This really opens up the strategic elements of the game, allowing the player to level their wizards and pets faster.
Assignments are a good way to mix up the kinds of problems they are receiving. What I might say is that if they are receiving the same types of questions over and over, it may be because they are close to mastering the content they are receiving but might need a little assistance getting over the top. If they are answering roughly 70% of the questions correctly then a little help might get them to the point of mastery so they can move on.
This will be borne out in your reports. If you log in to your account (parent), select the reports tab and then select "student progress", you'll get a view of what material they've been working on and how they're performing on that material.
I hope this clarifies things. Let me know if you have any other questions!
As you can see, they rather avoided my question about how I can avoid having my kids get the same questions over and over. So I assume that the question set doesn't change when you upgrade. Consequently, all you get is more rewards. I didn't think that it would be fair to my kids to just get the upgrade for a couple of months. I would want at least a year's subscription. But for the two kids, that would be $120. And given that there didn't seem to be enough questions to last them that long, I didn't think it would be worth it.
We have moved on to Khan Academy, which I am really happy with.
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CTC Math online. We are using it as a supplement, but it could certainly be used as a full program. I had no idea it would work so well for ds or I would have tried it forever ago. When he forgets a procedure or algorithm, he just goes onto the program and re-watches the videos like his own personal notes. Then he completes whatever problem set he is doing, whether Singapore or within the CTC Math questions. It is a great way to get the instruction to the child independently and it eliminates a lot of 2E barriers by having students type in the answers. I have not seen strong word problems on the program yet so that may be a weak spot, but we haven't been using it for very long yet and those may be in a part we haven't explored.
What is CTC? And how do you use it with Singapore?
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I have used CSMP for dd10 from the beginning. It worked well for us until I got sick at the beginning of this year. As a result, she has been doing just the worksheets from the 5th grade curriculum this year. But CSMP is not at all intended to be an independent curriculum. So doing the worksheets have given her some arithmetic practice and a little bit of critical thinking exercises, but we missed a lot by not doing the lessons.
Since I cannot count on recovering before next school year, I need to reevaluate everything, starting with math. Dd10 is good at math for her age, but she is not what I would call "mathy." It is work for her, and she doesn't really like it. CSMP has worked well, because it is full of stories and introductions to higher math concepts.
Here are some of the things that I know she needs to work on:
- Division algorithm (though she has a firm grasp of what division is, conceptually)
- Decimals (she has had some introduction and understands what they mean, but needs to learn how to do arithmetic using decimals)
- Percentages
- Arithmetic with fractions (has a good understanding of what a fraction is)
- Area (has had some practice with) and Volume
- Word problems
I would love to find a program that covers the basics while teasing her with more advanced topics, such as probability (which she particularly likes). But the most important thing is that she needs to be able to do it mostly independently with only support from me. But it can't require that I actually teach a full lesson.
I would love to hear the Hive's suggestions.
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My dd10 has read through the Percy Jackson series a couple of times and has devoured everything I have in the house about Greek mythology, but they are all at an elementary level. She is looking for something at a higher level, perhaps middle school level, that includes information about minor gods and goddesses. Any recommendations?
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I am wondering if anyone here has tried the pay version of Prodigy? The site says a lot about all the extra fun stuff that the kids get. But I want to know, what will I get? Will I have the ability to give my kids a greater variety of problems? Will they get more instruction? My kids love it, and it is only $5/month, but I don't really want to shell out more money just so that my kids can dress their characters in different clothes. They are going through the questions very quickly, and if I am going to pay, I need to know that there is a way to make sure they are not getting the same questions over and over.
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I am using Modern Speller for my dictation sentences.
Here is the second book for more advanced students.
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Maybe Usborne Beginner Plus books?
They are written at an easy to read level but on advanced topics, such as special forces, spying, tanks, warships. The spying book has a few preview pages you can look at to see if it is a fit.
http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/subject/1~BEG~BBGP/beginners-plus.aspx
Ds has these two books on inventions and enjoys them:
See Inside Inventions:
http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/book/1~S~SSI~5883/see-inside-inventions.aspx
The Story of Inventions:
http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/book/1~ILB~ILH~2377/the-story-of-inventions.aspx
Does he like reading about people in history? 100 People Who Made History is fun and informative:
Ds recently received the book One Million Things: A Visual Encyclopedia and spends ages poring over it:
For Christmas ds is getting Solar System: A Visual Exploration. It is at an advanced reading level, but it is gorgeous:
These are all awesome. I want them all!
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I'm not familiar with the Magic Tree House books, so don't know if these would be at an appropriate level, but a couple of my little brothers really loved the Collins Eyewitness Guides around that age, and for the next few years. We used to gift them to each other as kids, because it was so special to be able to find a whole book about a single topic that someone was interested.
My other thought is that maybe your DS would like a history encyclopaedia?
It seems that Collins Eyewitness is now DK Eyewitness. We actually have a bunch of those. :D
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We actually have quite a few history encyclopedias around here, as I have an older child who loves history. I was looking through the Usborne books, but it is so hard to tell if they will be advanced enough. I'll be looking for the Dangerous Book for Boys and the Collins Eyewitness Guides. Thanks for the suggestion!.
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I am looking to buy some books for ds6 for Christmas. He has read Percy Jackson, but he is more comfortable at the Magic Tree House level. He is all stereotypical boy. He likes war, battles, weapons and military strategy. I don't suppose there is a book about military strategy for this age level? He likes both science and history. He especially likes trivia and numerical facts. He has read an entire series of books on all the planets in the solar system. He has also read the entire DK book on the human body. He has read a lot of stories about mythology. He would probably like something about inventions. Those are subjects he likes a lot, but I am not sure I could find a book with more information than he already knows that won't seem too overwhelming to him (small fonts, a lot of text per page). I am having a hard to figuring out if a book would be appropriate for him by perusing online.
Any ideas for history or science books for a bright and curious 6yo?
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Have you looked at Modern Speller?
Here's Book 1
http://books.google.com/books?id=b1IXAAAAIAAJ&num=19
And Book 2
Oh, I really like this. Lots of historical references. That is great for her. She is a history nut. I also like that there is a variety of sentences requiring different mechanics. And it is free, now you gotta like that. Thank you!
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In the wake of some health issues, I am starting to think of what dd9 needs to be doing in terms of writing. She has done WWE1-3. I bought WWE4, but it is just too much for her. Though she is bright and can remember the passages well, she has huge issues with writing. Nevertheless, I think she really needs dictation, just not on steroids ;) .
I have considered gathering my own sentences using the WWE instructor text as a guide. But as I look at the sample for that book, I am not sure I understand how that would work. It appears to provide the passages for you, just as in the Student Text. I also am not sure I'll be able keep up with that level of teacher involvement. I am feeling a lot better, but I still have some bad days, and I still have numerous doctor's appointments.
Someone has already suggested to me using the dictation resource that goes with Spelling Plus. I was wondering if anyone has any other suggestions for dictation?
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You understand *why* the dictation in WWE is hard, right? It's a working memory issue. You can tackle that separately. I think it's important not to make them hate school work by merging therapy and school. You can bring some therapy goals strategically into school, yes, but if it's going to be ugghy and awful (which some stuff is), separate it out. No point hating xyz just because you have a disability. Have you seen the Fistful of Coins game? It's a little pricy, but it's terrific. Also you can go to LC and find Heathermomster's interactive metronome instructions. You can use a free app and her homework descriptions. Then when those tasks get easier, start adding in digit spans. So you're bringing together EF, working memory, motor planning, distractions, all sorts of things, all at once! THAT is what we were doing when my dd's writing took off.
There are other ways to work on working memory. (visual, kinesthetic, games, etc) It's just something to look into. You can sort of weave it in as sneaky goals in your day, like every day playing a game but YOU know the game is bringing in work on working memory...
Btw, does she typing? Typing was very, very important for my dd. I need to keep working on teaching my ds. Our psych said ANY time you have a discrepancy between IQ and processing speed it's going to create a dysgraphia-like hang-up. I tell this story a lot, but I paid my dd. I switched her to Dvorak, gave her email so she was motivated, put it all on a user account locked down to Dvorak, and told her I'd PAY her $1 per wpm any month she increased by at least 5. Worked for us. And she was using the Mavis Beacon lessons on a mac. With ds I have Talking Fingers and just switch it over. Only the MB for mac has the specific dvorak lessons. Otherwise you just toggle the language input on your keyboard and ignore the map the screen is showing you.
I am not sure that she has a working memory issue. She can recite those long paragraphs to me. But getting them down is the problem. I really think that it is just a processing speed issue. (At some point, we will get testing. I had meant to do it over the summer, but then my health got in the way of that.)
Thank you for bringing up typing. Yes, I really do need to get her working on that again. She did it a couple of summers when she was 6-7yo. But I got distracted and did not keep it up. I am not familiar with Dvorak. I will look into that.
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Some kids are working with a different mainframe and if you do too much you squeeze out everything they would have done.
I think our dd's are a lot alike. This is so true of her. She liked a lot of what we were doing (like history and grammar), but it definitely was squeezing out other valuable activities.
We chunked some of the books from the D and R levels of TOG btw. TOG spreads them over 4 years, so I just got the book, made my own guides, and chunked them over 1. That can be really fun. But they were books where I thought she was ready for them right then and would enjoy them. Just another way to reimagine what you already have, if that makes sense. That chunking approach has turned out to be really good for us.
This is a great idea. I love TOG, but I am not liking the UG level so much. There is too much independent reading with none of the fun Socratic discussions that I want to do with her. And I just can't read it all with her. She has a really good knowledge base for history for her age, so maybe I'll just do the literature with her.
When she was younger, she really wanted rabbit trail studies, where she just had time to rabbit trail. People think it's being distracted, but it's actually being a connected thinker.
This is so true, too. I remember dd9 at about 8 months old getting really excited when she could find similar pictures in different books. She has always been really invigorated by making connections.
Well this got too long, lol. I wondered how that writing was going. If she's being productive, as in something is actually coming out, either onto paper or screen, then I'd tend not to get too freaky about it and leave her alone. Her own internal drive like that is going to make her better, as in improve her ability to get things out. You can teach structure at any age. It's getting that proficiency where they can hold their thoughts, express them, get them out, that's the challenge. Maybe she'd like to enter some contests? Or perhaps give her an audience or some worthwhile deadlines. For instance, she can write all she wants but then pick *1* by Saturday to go into your writing portfolio for the year. Structure and freedom.
I am not sure she is quite ready for a lot of freedom. She is still really held back by her speed v. her mental capacity. I am thinking that at least one more year of SWR plus some dictation will help her writing become more automatic.Yup, we did a lot of dictation. We dictated sentences from the Wise Guide. If you're bored with it, you know what I really love is the Dictation Resource book by Susan Anthony. It spirals and the words are useful.
Thanks for this suggestion. We did WWE1-3, and WWE4 is just way too much for her. I was thinking of getting the WWE instructor book and choosing my own dictation sentences, but I am not sure that I have it in me to stay on top of it.
I really appreciate all the times you have helped me brainstorm what to do with this child. Thank you!
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So two stories. We've talked enough in the past that you know my dc have labels. My ds just got his. Dd had a "lost year" about the same age as your dd. It was the year ds was born. Nothing went wrong and life goes on. :) Like your dd, my dd found she had lots of interests and things she'd pursue if given freedom to do them. It laid a foundation for our current success with a mix of some Mom-structured and some dc-structured. We found we didn't have to be *all* one way or the other. Ds has so many more needs, it has caused me to rethink EVERYTHING about education and realize just how far you can push things and do a good job, how out of the box you can be, how unnecessary it was to force our kids into boxes. He's so happy the way we do school now and says he loves school. I'm working mightily not to lose that. It's really a feat, considering he has an hour a day of Barton remediation for his dyslexia. I just tell him it's not school. :lol: School is the stuff we want to do and Barton is the stuff Dr. psych (or the law) said he has to do. :D
I am so glad you popped in here to share your stories. Dd9 just asked me today when we were going to go back to our regular routine. As it turns out, she likes the freedom she has had, but she longs for more structure. So I am thinking that we will add SWR back in after Christmas, and maybe dictation a couple days a week. She doesn't really like either, but she is spending way too much time on her writing right now, because it is too open-ended for her. This plan will reduce it to 45-60 minutes 4x/week.
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Hi, all. I have been away from the boards for a while. But I wanted to share some things that have gotten us through my recent extended illness. Just after we started school, I began to struggle with constant nausea, pain, insomnia, and fatigue. After many doctor and hospital visits, we are just now starting to get some answers, and I am starting to feel a bit better.
You can see in my siggy what we had planned to do. But as it turned out, I was not able to do very much teaching at all. I had to cut everything down to the bare minimum, which for us was Math, Writing, and Piano. I really worried about my 9yo, because she has some executive function issues. I have always used teacher-intensive materials with her, because she needs and enjoys the interaction. I felt really bad about handing her a math workbook and telling her to spend 30 minutes each day on it. And some days, she didn't get a lot done. But I was surprised at how hard she worked on it some days.
For writing, I usually had her choose assignments from her Unjournaling book. She didn't always do the greatest work, though she would often spend hours working on it (those pesky executive function issues). I really feel that she needs dictation at this point. But she spent time writing letters, writing in her journal, and writing a book (which she won't let me see). She wrote to an estranged aunt whom the family hasn't heard from in years, and she actually got a very nice response.
My 6yo did 2 pages of math each day, and he is almost ready to move to the Miquon green book. For writing, he chose to do copywork from the scriptures.
I did no formal history. But they have both become interested in the Percy Jackson series, and both kids have done independent research on Ancient Greece and its Mythology as a result. My 9yo read the whole series, and my 6yo read an entire volume by himself. They also spent time almost every day listening to History for Music Lovers, which led to all sorts of pretend play. One day, my 6yo asked me about the Battle of Hastings, and we found a YouTube video about it.
At the same time, I decided to reduce the amount of screen time they were allowed. I am so glad I had the wherewithal to do this. They have, sang, danced, pretended. created, played board games, played piano, etc. They have been so productive.
And at times, they have taken care of both themselves and me. They have gotten themselves up in the morning and gotten ready on their own. My 9yo started to set her alarm and take a shower every morning. They have tiptoed around the house for hours so that I could sleep in each morning. They have gotten breakfast. Sometimes lunch. My 6yo could always tell when I was feeling poorly, and he would rub my shoulders and give me a hug.Originally, I considered our straying from my plan a temporary setback. But now I am not sure I want to return to the plan. I know I want to add spelling back in. But aside from that, we may just continue what we are doing for while.
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Another vote for Wordsmith Apprentice. We also like the Unjournaling exercises.
Need safe e-mail for kids
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
It seems that my 10yo now needs her own e-mail account. Can anyone recommend a safe site for kids? Thanks!