Tidbits of Learning
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Posts posted by Tidbits of Learning
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Just wondering. Most are so schoolish, I was wondering if people do w/out them, and if there's much missing if you don't use them? Especially BJU (or Abeka)-I could see myself going this route eventually but NOT if I have to use the unwieldy TMs! (And no, HomeSat, etc. isn't an option-dh doesn't like it at all!)
I like answer keys more than teacher's manuals especially for math. Abeka and BJU offer the answer keys and often CLP has their answer keys for a lot cheaper on some subjects.
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It depends a lot on the student. My first dd would have had no problem with those standards. My 2nd dd was completely different.
I don't have so much a problem with what the standards are although these writing skills are ones that don't HAVE to be learned that early. I have an issue with trying to fit all children into the same mold. Then just because a child don't fit the mold he is labeled as having a problem. I am so thankful homeschooling is an option.
I agree. My son transferred in to public school in the middle of the year for kindergarten last year and he had been doing wonderful journaling in Montessori school. At public school, instead of encouraging him with what he wrote and drew they actually circled it in red and wrote incomplete sentence. I don't think he could read incomplete sentence. I was shocked. This happened several times and his papers came home bleeding until he refused to write anymore.
They wanted me to hold him back b/c of immaturity when they were the ones that had caused him not to want to do the work for fear that all he would get back was a bleeding paper and no encouragement.
He came home telling me he couldn't read and he could only write "ugly". His self esteem was shot at the end of last year. He thought he couldn't do anything right and started not doing any work because of it.
Six weeks home and he is reading and writing better than 6 months of public school.
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For K I loved K12 but its a pricey program like Calvert and we ended up using a cyberschool so we could use it.
If I used a Christian program I like Abeka or BJU.
For reading I LOVE Headsprout.Its absolutely worth every penny and then some. They are also coming out here in a few months or so a program for children who have completed the first level of Headsprout that will take them to a 4th grade reading level. This program guides you along so you don't have to wonder what to start with.
When it comes to reading though there really is no magic formula. I've used several reading programs and some start with short vowel sounds of a,e,i,o,and u and some start with long vowel. It just depends on the program. If your child doesn't know his letter sounds though the Leap Pad videos are EXCELLENT. I know with my three younger girls , they watched the videos for two weeks and that was it. They knew their letters and their sounds. It was effortless. Not that I advocate t.v. but this is one instance where it is very helpful.
Headsprout is good. You can get 3 lessons free. Another good one is Reading Eggs. You get 3 weeks free and there is a test that starts them off in the right spot. They are very similar. Starfall is good too and you have lots of readers to print out and worksheets for handwriting and phonics all free.
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I would look at several and read the reviews before buying anything. Read lots of reviews and print the samples out to look over. Some off the top of my head are
Abeka
Christian Liberty Press
Horizons
Little Hearts for his Glory
Hewitt's Tell me a Story
Landmark Freedom Baptist
Sonlight
My Father's World
It all depends on what style you are wanting to use and what you want them to be able to do at the end of kindergarten.
I've used Abeka and Christian Liberty Press for kindergarten. Both are good but both are workbook style. Abeka's phonics approach is excellent for reading. I didn't find that Christian Liberty gave a lot of instruction on teaching their texts and subsequently we didn't do as well with their phonics instruction.
Both Abeka and CLP seem advanced to me and they cover a lot in kindergarten.
Abeka often has material displays in August where you can see their actual books. I'm not sure if CLP has any samples.
I am using Little Hearts for his Glory for 1st and it is a k/1st guide. It is very different from the workbook approach and is very CM. Short lessons but they are meaty. They have a week's sample on the Heart of Dakota site.
I like the unit study approach after all the workbooks and Hewitt's Tell me a story looks good and is reasonably priced. There is also a good sample on Hewitt's site.
These are all ones I am considering this next go round with my youngest.
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None of us are given an instruction booklet for the next 18 years when we take our precious babies home from the hospital. None of us have all the answers. I could probably write out all the stuff that I have done over the past 9 years with my dc and it wouldn't sound good and I would probably in hindsight laugh at some of the things I tried and cringe at some of it as well.
I think your intentions are good. Follow your instincts and the advise that you feel is helpful. Follow your feelings about the kids first and most of it will fall into place over time.
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:lurk5: I was just looking at this on homeschoolbuyerscoop this morning. I just don't know about it though...
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Jumping in here to "hijack" and ask another question: Is the HOD curriculum really worth it then if you are omitting most of the activities? I ask only b/c I am looking into LHFHG or Beyond for my 6yo and 4yo. Mostly just my 6yo. I noticed, too, from the samples that the activities were a bit "toddlerish" and silly for a 6yo...even a 6yo boy! My 4yo dd would probably like them, but in the course of my busy day I just KNOW I would skip the silly stuff. So, is it worth it otherwise? I'm now wondering if I should just skip it altogether for this year and go with FIAR for both dd4 and ds6, MFWK for dd4 and just use another phonics/math for ds6 (he's beyond MFWK phonics). Any input would be great...sorry to hijack...you can just pm me if you would like as not to clutter the thread. Sorry OP!
I find it harder to do all of the HOD things if you have a lot of children. I have 4 kids that range from 2-9 yrs. old. A lot of the HOD activities seem geared to the youngest age on their age range and the academics seem geared to the mid to oldest age on their age range.
I don't think my ds6 would have been ready for the writing in BLHFHG and needed the fine motor skills in LHFHG. By the placement chart, he fit into LHFHG for the 3r's but I feel LHFHG is geared to kindergarten.
Nine weeks into LHFHG and we are zooming through parts of it. We will be done with math in 6 weeks both a and b books and through the R&S fine motor skills books and the handwriting book in the same amount of time as well. So I will have a lot of time to fill b/c we will only be 15 weeks into school when we finish a lot of the LHFHG texts. So it has not been worth it to me in the long run. I wish I would have looked at it for her text recommendations and researched them on my own and then purchased what I thought was a good fit and scheduled it for my child.
My honest advise would be to take a look at all the curriculums and programs that you are feeling drawn to and write why you are drawn to them and what components you like about them and what you dislike about them. Most of these are just guides to other curriculum scheduled out for you. Take what you like from each and then you will have a "guide" that will be perfect for you and your child.
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Thank you for such a candid answer! We seem to be gravitating towards doing the same--just using the reading schedule and SOME of the activites, but most of them we pass on. It makes me feel a bit foolish for spending so much money on the curriculum when we aren't really using it. But, this is also our first attempt at homeschooling, so it is good to help me get on my feet and get organized. I can't believe that push ups and jumping jacks are incorporated into the memorization activites! How funny! Your child would be huffing and puffing through the verse! :)
I found that I adapt more so with LHFHG than with BHFHG. I only skip the Bible in BHFHG. We tried the jumping jacks and I did them as well with her and it wasn't for us.
I'm sure this method works well with some children, but it wasn't for mine.
This was my first attempt at homeschooling as well and I don't regret buying LHFHG b/c it helped me to make my own schedule, but it also showed me that I can find curriculum that I like and put together a schedule just as easily as buying one already done that I may not like parts of and probably won't completely use the way it is meant to be used.
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We are supposed to start at 8:30, but the truth is that it doesn't happen. We have been getting later and later. It is my fault. I am not a morning person. It definitely makes a difference in our day when we are up, ready, and starting on our schedule on time.
New School Year Resolution-there is no such thing as the snooze button.
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Here is the link for the journal prompts.
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/printables/writing.htm
There is a lot of free printables on the site though and you may find other things also to help with writing. I find the journal low stress with lots of fun.
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CLP didn't schedule it or there weren't any kind of instructions when I got mine. They have the class lesson planner that tells you how to break up each subject over the amount of days that your school year will entail. I was working through Noah Webster's Handbook before we started on Meeting New Friends, but we were still working on the kindergarten readers from CLP. If your child has a good grasp of phonics and is ready for Meeting New Friends then I would just do them simultaneously. I am assuming you are using Adventures in Phonics as well. I would do the Noah Webster's Handbook that correlates with the phonics being done in Adventures in Phonics.
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There is a site that has journal prompts for everyday for the month. I would buy her a composition book and print out the monthly journal prompt and let her do it first thing in the morning. My girls are doing this and they have a trapper keeper comp. book that has a folder pocket and they know to take out the journal prompt calendar and write every morning.
I am on the laptop and don't have it bookmarked in here. The kiddos are on the desktop so I will edit later and put in the url to the journal prompts.
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I technically started out with Heart of Dakota's Little Hearts for His Glory for ds6. I love Abeka and it was great to teach my girls to read and write, but it wasn't for my son. I like Little Hearts for His Glory's textbook suggestions, but that is where it ends. I am not fond of the guide that goes with it (we used it as written for 9 weeks).
The texts that I really like and work well with my ds are...
A reason for handwriting K
R&S preschool workbooks (we only use 2 but if I had to do it again I would get the whole set)
Reading-The Reading Lesson
Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten 2a/2b...the 1a/1b are good too if they need it
Abeka is really a grade ahead with it's expectations. Have you already done Abeka k4 with him? I might would do Abeka k4 with him and add in the kindergarten science and social studies and then try him in Abeka 1st after that. I would go ahead and work through the Abeka k4 and after finishing it work through the Abeka k 12 readers I learn to read, I do read, and I can read as well as the handbook for reading during the summer before 1st grade.
For extra math, I would do the Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten math alongside Abeka's k4 math.
That is what I would do if I planned to stick with Abeka. I would tweak their k4 program to work as k5 for me and then go right into 1st grade after finishing the 12 k readers and Singapore Earlybird math.
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I don't feel that you are doing your child a disservice if they are learning the material and have a creative outlet. Personally doing LHFHG, I found that a lot of the activities were on the young side for kindergarten and really young for 1st grade. I have chosen not to do the math activities that come with the guide. We are using the instructions in the Earlybird kindergarten book and finished our Earlybird 2a book this week in 6 weeks. I think a lot of the math activities are to draw out the math book for the year and are completely unnecessary. The instruction boxes in the earlybird kindergarten book are great and interesting and do not seem to be too young for the kids.
I also have the Bigger Hearts program and have found that the math activities in it are young also and do not teach the Singapore method to you (the teacher) in order to help explain it to the kids. I plan to buy the home instructor's guides as soon as I can. I think the "activities" are more to draw out the math and keep it in short cm style learning. I haven't found it beneficial to us to use the activities at all with either LHFHG or BHFHG.
We dropped all the memorization activities for Bible as well in LHFHG. For the activities to be so young, the Bible memorization is a lot. I find just going over the Bible verse together each day to be sufficient. Just wait until you get to the Bigger Hearts and it expects your child to do jumping jacks and push ups while learning 3-4 Bible verses a week.
After 9 weeks of LHFHG, I have started pretty much writing out the schedule for the texts that she recommends and omitting the activities that are too young or too tedious for us. We got way ahead in our R&S books and handwriting books. The only part of the guide that we are moving on pace with is the storytime books.
So I would say adapt it to meet your needs and don't worry about it.
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We are trying a co-op this year but it is for music, art, drama, and p.e. Things that I would never get done or umm.. I am not particularly talented at (LOL-very musically challenged!). I am hoping that it will be a good fit for us.
My neighbor accross the street chose to only join the homeschool group for field trips and park days and that sort of thing. She decided against the classes this year.
I think you have to weigh the good with the bad and see whether the co-op fits your needs with classes offered and time scheduled and whether your kids are liking it and making friends.
What does MBTP stand for? I couldn't find it in the abbreviation sticky.
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We just finished 2a in 6 weeks and looking at 2b it looks like it will be about the same 6 weeks or so. I think when we hit Primary 1a we will slow down though.
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I really like Singapore math but I think my kiddos need more to learn the basic math facts. I am thinking of supplementing. For those of you than supplement, do you do your supplemental math at the same time or do you do one term singapore math one term supplemental math?
I am leaning towards doing 1/2 year singapore 1/2 year something else for math and keep rotating with the same program on up. I think that would be easier than trying to do 2 math programs at one time.
Has anyone btdt and have some advise?
I am thinking of doing either Abeka math, R&S math, or scott-foresman/addison wesley math opposite Singapore math.
Any advise or help or btdt experience would be great.
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I have FLL 1/2 and that sounds like a good idea. Which definitions do you want? We just started so we are still on noun. I can make something up in paint shop pro. I can go to the back and it has the definitions but there are a lot back there. I am going to make one for us so I don't mind sharing it. What do you think is a good list of definitions to use?
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If she likes to listen to age appropriate reading like the Chronicles of Narnia, I wouldn't worry so much since you know she is an audio learner. If the reading you have works and she is just going to be unhappy with reading, then I would probably stick with what she knows and can do and you can see her progress. Maybe she will like to read more as she gets older. Maybe you could try to get a book every library visit that is age appropriate that you can read aloud together. Maybe you reading a page aloud and her reading a page aloud to try and get her more into it, but I would keep a program where you can gauge her work as well.
I would really just work on the attitude. My dd9 also has very snide, snarky comments some times and at first I worried about it and our curriculum choices since this is the first year we have come home to school but after a few weeks I realized she is testing me. I would set up a definite behavior plan. Not necessarily in writing but a consequence for actions that she knows about. Someone on another board suggested having a tally and not saying anything when they act bad or out or snarky but to make a mark on a sheet of paper and they know that if their tally equals a certain amount that they have a set consequence-losing computer, cellphone, ds...whatever will get their attention. I am doing this with my dd9 and after the first restriction of the computer for 2 weeks she realizes when I don't say anything and just mark the tally that she needs to watch it and change her attitude.
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Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. Now I have at least some choices for each kid in their favorites section of explorer. Now I won't walk in and see webkinz and neopets and hear they can't find anything for their age educational. I am so excited. Computer time won't be useless this way. While I don't mind them going to webkinz and neopets I am trying to make it a rule during school hours that our video and computer time should be educational.
I am going to see if I can get some of the cd's as well.
Thanks so much for the suggestions.
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I schedule in computer time for my kids while I am doing one on one time with one of them for math and reading. So they are staggered and everyone gets 30 minutes of computer time.
Well, it is real easy to find stuff for ds6-reading eggs, pbs kids, lots of cd-roms for him too. It is the girls dd8 and dd9. They are going into 3rd and 4th grade and I can't seem to find any good educational or even semi-educational web sites or cd-roms for them. I am probably going to get spongebob typing or something but that won't be everyday.
It was so easy to find stuff for kindergarten to 2nd grade level but after that I am having difficulty.
What do you use for computer time?
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Well with my kids my 1st/2nd grader (behind in some things) does 2 hrs., my 3rd grader does 2.5 hours, and my 4th grader does 3 hours...my ds2.5 has 30 minutes of guided play/instruction before I get started with the other kids.
We actually have school from 8:30-2 with 30 min. recess, 30 min. lunch, each school age kid has 30 min. computer time and 30 min. video time during school hours as well. I use the computer and video breaks for one child to work one on one with another child on reading and math. I try to do those 2 subjects just me and one kid at the table. 8:30-9:00 I play/teach the toddler so he is happy by himself for a little while after some Mommy time in the morning so I can work with the older kids. So school for the "school" kids is from 9-2.
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Glad I could be of some help. HOP has the blue/green set on their site in overstock for a good price. You can also find the whole set yellow-blue on ebay for pretty cheap. I actually liked the tapes better b/c we could hit stop and play instead of pausing the cd and the kids seemed much better with the tapes than cd's at that time.
Co-op questions
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Well, we decided to join a co-op. There was minimal fees and parents were going to be volunteering to teach. It had music, art, drama, and p.e. We were very excited about it...until the post about a Professional art teacher volunteering for a minimal monthly fee to teach art to the elementary kids as well as the high school ones.
It will triple the cost for art for the year. The cost of books opposed to the cost of the art teacher triples our cost and of course it is monthly instead of up front for the book, but I don't see us swinging it financially.
We had chosen to do private music lessons for a fee for one of our children and were happy with the art book and parent teaching. We can't do the music lessons without the co-op and we can't afford the art teacher and the music lessons.
What are my options? Does it look bad at this point if they decide to do the art teacher with fees if I say I'm sorry we can't do it and opt out of the co-op. The homeschool group is together with the co-op somewhat so I will be seeing the co-op at all the parties and field trips. How can I gracefully and without seeming bitter that they changed the costs notify the co-op that we can't do it if indeed they choose to do the art teacher?
What is the protocol? I have already enrolled all the kids in the co-op and signed them up for classes prior to the art dilema. Am I obligated to do it and pay fees since I enrolled them? Does it look bad for me to say I am sorry but you changed the costs from when I filled out the application and that changes my situation.
My kids are going to be upset. They were looking forward to it and I thought it would ease the transition home from public school for them to have outside classes one day with the co-op.