Tidbits of Learning
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Posts posted by Tidbits of Learning
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I know I get tired of reading some stories over and over and some I don't even need the book to "read" it verbatim. I think if you are just reading it as a story and not stressing anything about it then it is just a read aloud. You will do history again when dc are older as history. Maybe read some of it and find appropriate age books to go along with Story of the World. If you are reading about Egypt, read SOTW and then read a child's book about Egypt as well. I don't think just doing it as a read aloud at night time book is a bad idea. I would just make sure to keep it balanced with plenty of children's books on the topics at the same time.
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I don't know if DITHOR is the way to go with a child that doesn't like to read. It is very much literary analysis. If they don't want to read, then it can get very drawn out to complete the different charts and story maps. It is only on day 1-the kickoff and day 15-the project that it is different than reading and literary analysis. Really only day 15 of each genre is an artistic project. So there is 13 days that are very much reading and literary analysis.
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I like that a lot too. I like the book list and extras for it. Across America doesn't have the book list so hmmm. Maybe I can combine them.
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Oh...share your template, please!! :) Pm me and I will give you my e-mail if you don't want to post it here.
I cut the spine off my manual and put it in a 3-ring binder with the index tabs. It is sooo nice that way. I can't imagine flipping around in the book all the time. :)
How do I attach them? They are larger than 19.5 kb so I can't attach.
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We have several options, but the report card that shows progress is the way around testing and having to have a certified teacher evaluate you every year. I think I just wanted homeschool tracker to print me out this great looking report card, but if I don't have "number" grades for the assignments then it leaves that subject off of the report card. So it leaves off some language arts that we do with copywork and dictation and leaves off history that we do with narration and notebooking and science is narration and notebooking. I guess I am wondering whether it is ok to put in 100 points possible 100 points earned for these assignments since the kids are doing them and progressing or if this is really grading or whether I should have some sort of rubric to have a true grade to put into the homeschool tracker.
Does anyone use a participation rubric for their grades on these type of assignments and learning styles?
What do others do with homeschool tracker and grading copywork, dictation, and narration?
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bump...
has anyone used hewitt's unit studies??
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We are doing BHFHG, LHFHG, and LHTH right now and have been some over the summer to get a feel for home school and HOD. I too had trouble with the oceans. I am so glad it wasn't just me (geography was never my thing LOL).
Bigger is going well. I did make some notebooking forms for science so my dd (perfectionist) didn't have out a ruler and spend 20 minutes making a "perfect" T-form. Plus it helped with her writing the verses and questions and conclusions straight and not curving it upwards at the end. I just made them in Word and print them out when needed.
The best thing that I bought was those little index tabs that you can stick to the book and write on. I have my appendix tabbed and it is super easy to find dictation, poetry, spelling...in BHFHG and the alternate schedules in LHFHG. It made life so much easier when I have to use anything in the appendix.
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http://www.schoolspecialtypublishing.com/store/item.aspx?ItemId=5769
I got mine at overstock.com but they are out of stock right now. I only use it for the reading. It is excellent and follows a weekly lesson plan. In the introduction to the guide, there is a huge section on reading and lots of good advise. The reading journal is one of their reading suggestions and it says...
Reading Journal-have your child maintain a Reading Journal in which he/she writes the names of the books read along with personal reflections on characters or events. You may also assign questions for him/her to answer in the journal-some questions are provided in the lesson plans. The best questions will ask your child to express an opinion about an event, recommend that a character act in a certain way, criticize a decision by the author or debate an issue presented in the book.
Then it has a list of suggested books and authors besides the books in the lesson plans and ideas for book projects, teaching a thematic unit, and reading incentives...
Honestly, just the intro section on reading was worth the $20 I paid for the book. I found 4th and 6th grade for under $10 on ebay by searching learn at home.
So far we have read The Boxcar Children, Matthew Jackson Meets the Wall, Pippi Longstocking, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is next.
Here is an example of our journal assignments...
Read chapters 3 and 4 of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Motivate your child to write in the Reading Journal about his/her reaction to Fudge. Discuss some of the problems that Fudge causes. Ask how Fudge's behavior affects Peter. Have your child complete a copy of Order in the Story! (p. 73)
The order in the story page has bits of the story on rocks and you are supposed to make a rock pyramid like the example where they put the story in order and then draw in the details of Central Park that are described. My child has done a fair bit of drawing in her reading journal as well. She likes to draw a lot.
It has worked for my child and it fits us well. They can't just fake journal entries. I will admit it is a little more work than a textbook/workbook style reading program, but it doesn't take long and most of the time I write the journal assignment on the board before she starts and she reads and completes her assignments. It has made her think and really use her comprehension skills. I have 4 kids-3 that are school aged and I am using the reading from Learn at home for my 1st, 3rd, and 4th grader. The 1st grade is pretty much read alouds to him, but the 3rd and 4th are active and both use the reading journal. I just schedule about 30 minutes for reading. They only read 1-2 chapters at the most 3 chapters from these short books. The 3rd grade books are read several times in a week b/c they are short books. It isn't stressful and is working great for us.
I have the 4th grade list in an excel file if you want me to send it to you so you can see if the 4th grade would be enough for your child. Most books are read in a week and my child hasn't balked at all and our library had all but 2 books on the list.
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My ds6 is the same way. He just can't do phonics and blending well. I think it is just how he processes words. He does better with sight words. He will see the first letter or the beginning of a word and just guess if he doesn't know it by sight.
We are doing The Reading Lesson and it has helped him with blending and sounding out words. We zoomed through the first 2 lessons (they are 20 or so pages each lesson) and then in the 3rd lesson slowed down and I see real progress with his blending/sounding out skills. I had tried every phonics program that was recommended...hooked on phonics, abeka phonics, clp websters phonics, phonics jr. game, he did saxon k phonics in public school (that was a disaster)...and The Reading Lesson is the only one where I have seen him really try to sound out/blend over time with the lessons instead of memorizing by sight. His reading is really improving.
I have only bought the book and have no experience with the cd's or the rest, but the book has worked wonders with him.
I'm afraid I don't know what SPD means so this may not help. The Reading Lesson has really helped my son and by the time we are through with it I believe he should be on 2nd grade reading level. He started out basically just knowing sight words and now is starting to read more fluently and without the guessing. In 6 weeks, we have made more progress than the last 2 years of phonics programs.
The Taylors
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I have this issue with one of my dc and I signed us up for Pizza Hut's book it program. It doesn't start until mid-September but I went ahead and they know they will get pizza for reading. I plan to make a Friday night out pizza night for cashing in the personal pan pizzas...we can't go until everyone reads enough for a pizza. I know it is bribery, but with this one child it is necessary.
Maybe try to find a book series which interests your dd that she can read on her own time if she finished her reading for school with a good attitude. My dd9 is into the Warriors cat book series right now. They also have them in Manga (sort of like comic book form with lots of drawings) as well as novel form. My daughter is working through the novels (slowly) and reads several of the manga ones at a time. The library carries them here and we have bought several. Maybe a book series that she really likes would get her more interested in reading.
We aren't doing a set program for reading right now but I have a grade level reading list for each kid and they keep a reading journal. I have found dc to be more receptive to this rather than reading stories and answering questions about the story. They have specific journal entries for the chapters they are reading that day. It is from Learn at Home Grade 4 and I really like the list and the reading journal concept. I don't know what grade your dd10 is in but I have a pretty good reading list for a 4th grader.
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Has anyone used Hewitt's elementary unit studies? I am looking at their Across America Unit Study for 1st-4th grades. http://hewitthomeschooling.com/book/bxaa.asp
I didn't know Hewitt had elementary unit studies and had went to their site to look at the PASS test. I really like this State Study and can't find any reviews anywhere and couldn't find it when I did a search of the forum...so if anyone has done it or seen it in person...what did you think?
I am trying to do a state study before starting our 4 yr history cycle and want to combine all the kids-1st/2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade.
Anyway, even if you just look at the sample and tell me what you think compared to other state studies it will be appreciated.
Thanks,
The Taylors
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I agree that history is going to probably be something you will just wind up going back through, but I do think a good preschool age curriculum or resources that balances play and learning would be good for your child. Maybe something short and sweet and that won't matter if you do it every day or just when your child wants to do "school".
I think it all depends on the child whether or not to start some "school" now or wait. I had one child teach herself to read at 3 and was just naturally "bookish". My ds6 on the other hand is just now blossoming with reading even though we tried starting at 4. He did great with the age appropriate letters and sounds at 4, but hit a brick wall with blending and sounding out until now.
So whether you start early or not, you may have to take a break somewhere down the road and regroup depending on your child/children. I know I tended to start things earlier with my first child and I don't see the harm in starting a fun, age-appropriate "preschool" that just exposes your children to learning.
This is a preschool program that I am looking at doing when my ds 2.5 gets older. Most likely around 4 1/2 or even 5 because he has a December birthday.
http://hewitthomeschooling.com/book/bgroup.asp?i=8052
This is a link to it's sample...
http://hewitthomeschooling.com/pdfs/Preschool%20Plus%20Sample.pdf
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I have read and reread the state requirements over and over to be sure, but I need to keep a report card of some sort showing progress. I decided to use homeschool tracker and have been steadily transferring my assignment records for the weeks we have done already. It will make all the forms I need, but we are using HOD this term and it is giving me pains to try and get homeschool tracker to include history notebooking, timeline, science, activities into our "report card". I only have the free version so maybe the plus version doesn't have this issue, but I have to conjure up points possible and points earned for these things if I want them to show on our report cards and records.
I found some "grade" rubrics for handwriting and science notebooking...but the read alouds and all the reading of living books as well as narration is proving difficult to find a way to "grade". I was hunting for a class participation rubric that was for home school instead of a group class.
How do others that have to keep a report card for their records deal with "grades" for things that really can't be graded in number form.
Does the plus version not require having points and can assign letter grades or satisfactory/unsatisfactory? I would shell out for the plus if I know that it will solve my grading dilema.
Is there a better program to use for this style of learning that will give me the necessary forms that I need (report cards)?
Thanks for any advise or help.
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We started with the Little Hands to Heaven curriculum with my ds when he was 26 months. It will teach the alphabet sounds and letters and numbers. The only thing is it becomes very repetitive over time and you do the same activities each week just for a different letter and you have to photocopy all the pages that you need. Those are the down sides to it, but it is a good program especially if your child has had little instruction before using it.
We have kind of grown stagnant with it and started supplementing. He is enjoying the Abeka nursery pages. We do Letters and Sounds N and Learning numbers with Button Bear as well as these Wikki Stix alphabet cards. This is my blog and what I have done with my ds2.5 since about February or March when he was 26 months old.
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We start the pre-writing and pre-reading activities in Montessori Read and Write around 3.5yo, and move on to AAS when dc is building words confidently with a movable alphabet (so there is a fair bit of review in AAS). This worked very well for dd, and she became a reader at 4.5yo.
Did you get this in the States? I have been searching and can only find it on overseas sites or used. I would love to start it soon. We have been working on sandpaper letters and know our letter sounds. We are ready for the moveable alphabet but I need some guidance.
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I am enjoying Singapore Math, but it does take some getting used to at first. It is actually really easy to understand math with it and I can see where it will help with the higher maths down the road...algebra...
I would definitely get the home instructor's guide though no matter what grade. I didn't and only got textbooks/workbooks at first and I didn't know the Singapore method...It isn't just about getting the answers right but learning the method behind the madness so to speak.
I would just keep R&S as a backup plan. That is what I did and we haven't broke out the R&S books yet.
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I bought some of the black marble composition books at Office Depot that have primary lines at the bottom and space to draw/color at the top.
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I actually found the teacher's manual overwhelming and felt that it was too much for grades 2/3. I decided to get rid of the teacher's manual and just use the student workbook. I have a reading list I am using and we are actually doing more books this way and enjoying them more. The idea of breaking up a book over 15 days when the grade 2/3 reading level books aren't that long to begin with just didn't sit well and didn't work well for us. We are reading in a week books that DITHOR would have had us drawing out to 15 days.
I just felt that DITHOR with the teacher's guide was too much for us right now. My child loves to read and after going through the teacher's manual felt it would be too much analyzing of literature at this stage for us and that it would hurt her love for reading. I think it may be good for those doing 6/7/8 and getting ready for high school lit., but I don't think it is necessary in 2nd-5th grade. The student book works great and can be used gently.
There is actually emergency options in the back of the student book for if you are running short on time or what not and can't do the instructions in the teacher's guide. I am just doing these and love it. The emergency options are more what I was looking for for our reading.
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Do you get the teacher's books for ETC as well or are they really not needed at this age/level?
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My ds6 is going into first grade. We are doing The Reading Lesson right now and it is going well. We had been doing Adventures in Phonics by CLP and that was a little bit too much writing and workbook for us and we switched to The Reading Lesson which has no writing/workbook aspect to it.
I want to add Explode the Code, but I don't know where to start him at in their series. I'm thinking he should start book 3. He is starting to learn the ee, ea type digraphs.
Does this sound about right?
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I'm not sure I want to get HOD's Drawn into the Heart of Reading. It's expensive, plus I've heard quite a few people say that it's overwhelming to implement.
This is so true. I bought DITHOR this year for my 3rd and 4th grader and just couldn't even get really started good. It is very overwhelming. We tried about 3 times to get started with it and it just wasn't a good fit for that young of an age.
What I did this year was use a reading list from Learn at Home Grade 3 and Grade 4 books. They have an excellent reading list and you keep a reading journal and do some crafty things here and there.
Next year I am going to do Learning Language Arts through Literature as well as a good reading list.
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The Reading Lesson is what I am using with my 6yr old son. He is doing great with it. There is no bells and whistles.
I would really recommend looking into it as it doesn't take long and you could easily add it to what you are already doing.
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Okay, I am finishing out the curriculum that I bought and we are already 9 units into, but we plan to venture out next year and try to mix and match to fit my kids as well as our goals of what they need to learn.
We are doing HOD's BHFHG this year with dd9 and science is what she loves. She loves the notebooking and the one small square books. The science does seem light or when it isn't it doesn't really explain what you are learning. She loves science though and loves doing the living books with notebooking and experiments.
I had thought about continuing with just HOD's science as well as using a secular science text b/c HOD's science is really light and it wouldn't take long to do it as well. However, as we have moved out of the one small square she isn't enjoying the texts chosen as much. She really like the one small square one though and can't wait to finish the one we are on to get to the next one small square book.
I am still trying to find a good secular science text or series that could be used with 3 kids ages 9, almost 8, and almost 7 as well. We are not young earth and I am finding it hard. I had looked at apologia and liked the notebooking and that I could use it with all the kids, but on searching threads of it found it too was very young earth. I searched threads on how to make it secular and it seems to be hard with certain books.
We are supplementing with Singapore Science (old version 3a) right now and the younger kids are doing the Start up Science for 7 and 8 yr olds. I might continue with it, but would love to find something similar to apologia that I could combine the kids in and not be doing different science with them.
I would like to find something similar to apologia that does notebooking as well but secular. Does anyone know of a good science that isn't young earth that implements notebooking? Even if it doesn't implement notebooking, does anyone know of a good science for varied ages? I am thinking I will try to supplement the notebooking if I can't find it in a science curriculum somehow.
She really loves the one small square books, notebooking, and experiments with them. I wish I could find some notebooking and experiment suggestions for one small square series to do as a supplement for her. Does anyone know if this is out there somewhere? Or even notebooking science with living books?
Any help would be appreciated.
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:lurk5:
If you only had four weeks to improve a 4th graders reading skills...
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted · Edited by OpenMinded
Wow! Four weeks is a short time to bring a 4th grader from 2nd grade level to 4th. Something that isn't babyish also but teaches phonics. Does she like to read at all? What level books does she choose?
My girls actually enjoyed the hooked on phonics blue and green. I can't remember what grades those are but I am thinking one is 2nd and one is 3rd. We did them in between public school grade years summer before last. They pretty much did it themselves after the first day. They listened to the tape, did the workbook and read the books and put stickers on the chart as they finish. I had one going into 3rd and one going into 2nd. It has short books then chapter books and a poster and stickers. You could do it in as little or as much time as you want. I normally just had them at the kitchen table working on it while I cooked or did dishes so that if they needed me I was there and so that I could hear them. You can get headphones for the cd player so that you don't have to hear the whole cd/tape. I got mine on ebay cheap and plan to use them again for review with ds's.
I got them super cheap because they were cassettes instead of cd's but brand new. Green is level 4 and blue is level 5. Green starts out with the long sounds and digraphs like ea and such so you may want to start with level 3 if she is having trouble with cvc words (level 2 and 3 are red and orange).
They have a mastery reader set after that which would probably be good as well. I have been looking at it for something fun for my girls to reinforce phonics and readings at an older age.
It doesn't take a lot of time so she could continue with it even if she isn't finished before the 4 weeks are up. The HOP with cd's have some cd-rom computer applications with them and they have sylvan kits on the HOP site now too.