domestic_engineer
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Posts posted by domestic_engineer
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9 hours ago, Ottakee said:
We are heading to Mackinaw in June as we do every year.
Are mosquitos and flies an issue in June? What are the worst months for bugs?
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Yes - but then I’d consider it a very expensive supplement.
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5 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:
Look at target online for store pickup. You will have a good sense of what is actually in stock.
You can do this too for Kohls.
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2 hours ago, Clemsondana said:
We do the practice sentence orally, so there are no consumables
This made me chuckle because another reason I treat it as consumable is because I need to assign independent work so I can teach the other kids. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, yet I love to see how each family customizes these programs.
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Also - I usually photocopy (in color) the back cover of Practice Island for the kiddo to use as a reference sheet as we go through the course. It’s been especially helpful with the dyslexic to see the visual of each stage of the analysis. I think that those 4 graphics are not given enough credit or attention in other people’s reviews of the program.
also to note - they currently sell iBooks until the end of June. These were designed to be be “interactive” especially for the 4 level analyses. However they can be buggy since the support for these books has long ceased. As an alternative they are going to be releasing the books as Kindle ebooks in the future - but they won’t have the interactive features. So if you want the interactive features - say for someone with dysgraphia - buy them now knowing that future support of the books will be non-existent (and hopefully they stay in the cloud and be downloadable). But if you don’t want to hassle with the unknown, then don’t buy electronic books now but wait for the Kindle version.
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We use MCT here. It’s worked for both NT and dyslexic kids. Although many people like to follow/create a schedule, we just work by timer here. So - IMO - yes it’s easy to go “fast” .... or go “slow”
I have no idea about Poodle as those are recent additions. We just start with Island as that is what is on our shelves. I think your DD could start on Paragraph Town without missing anything. There is ALOT of repetition between levels.
There is a little bit of written work in the student book - but not enough to call it a consumable. We do those orally or I make a copy or do it on the whiteboard. Yes, the TM is super similar. In the early levels you could squeak by with just the TM and use post it notes to cover up some things. But as they get older I find it easier to each have their own book - mostly so no one is craning their neck to read the text. Also the text gets more dense with information so it gets to be a lot more work to cover text with stickies.
the practice book is ESSENTIAL. This is where the rubber meets the road and where a lot of the learning occurs. (Think of it as college lectures vs recitations, where the lecture provides the overview and the recitation is the practical application and out working of that information.). I treat the practice book as a consumable because (1) I want the tactile-ness of paper and pencil (2) it gives them a bit of ownership (3) they can see their progress through the book. Some families just buy the TM of the practice book and then do it all together on a whiteboard during Morning Time. So it depends on why you want with the Practice books.
note that I appreciate the Grammar portion most of the MCT program. I don’t use the Writing portion other than reading it to know what makes good writing. (It’s not explicit enough for my kids.). The poetry is good - but often gets neglected/dropped as other things compete for time and attention. The Vocabulary portion is also a strength of the program that I definitely make time for.
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1 hour ago, Lecka said:
I think there is a lot of place for review that does not seem very efficient but that is fun.
I probably need to plaster this all over my house.
Thanks for the reminder and for all the suggestions!
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2 hours ago, kirstenhill said:
I feel like when we slack on the review or drills, the mistakes happen more often
errrrrr, why yes, we have slacked on our review because it's the end of the school year and getting bored with the same-old-same-old.
Would you mind sharing more details on the drills/reviews that you use? We just do flashcards, and I know it's not exciting. It sounds like you have a variety of drills.
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I just pulled out my AAS tiles this week! And we are working through those exact word chains (albeit that's on break right this moment). I'll try the writing them out individually though.
Great minds think alike!!! This is helpful, though, as confirmation that we are on the right path --- just moving very slowly along the right path. Thank you.
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@Lecka thanks. Would you please tell me more about your DC reading backwards and how you worked on it?
I have observed my DS doing something similar at times (usually more middle-to-left-to-right) and the thought did cross my mind about the irony of asking him to spell from right to left.
Thanks too for the encouragement to pause spelling. It’s been another thing I’ve pondered doing, but we are sooooo close to the end of the book. I know it’s influencing my decision making process.
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Yes, I believe Craft is saying to visualize it. I *think* DS is visualizing it, but I’m not sure exactly how I’d know/check.
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I'm noticing that my dyslexic DS9 is reversing the order of letters in vowel teams and blends with increasing regularity in his spelling.
We've completed ABeCeDarian levels A & B, but the fluency is still slow to come. We started Apples & Pears spelling this past year with surprising success. But now that he's 15 levels from the end, he's spelling "oats" as "aots", "out" as "uot", and "that" as "htat" to name just a few examples.
Has anybody experienced this before? Is there any thing to be done other than patient, repeated correction? We already do the Dianne Craft idea of spelling it front to back and back to front .... but even then, the swapping will happen sometimes.
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Games or videos? Free version or paid?
free videos on YouTube: alphablocks, between the lions
paid games: nessy.com
Free curriculum or tutoring resources: thephonicspage.org, https://www.marooneyfoundation.org
Free online readers: I see Sam books at http://marriottmd.com/sam/index.html
If you can be more specific, I could probably link more in those specific categories.
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There’s always 8’s Treasured Conversations that takes her ideas and breaks it up into daily chunks. 😉. (I’m having a hard time linking since I’m on my phone.) ETA: https://treasuredconversations.wpcomstaging.com/product/teaching-writing-through-guided-analysis/
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This isn’t a curriculum but a resource: Melissa Forney's Picture Speller for Young Writers https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0965242226/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_W7PR588T07W716GGV3KR
You could use it with some of 8’s ideas to create topical books. The illustrations may be too childish for your DD though.
ETA: Congrats on getting her reading to grade level. Well done, to you AND her! That’s a big accomplishment!!!
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37 minutes ago, EKS said:
Here's another thing I do that's similar. When sight reading music (violin), if there is a string of notes going up, I'll go down (and vice versa). My violin teacher would always very patiently explain to me the concept that when the notes go down, the pitch is getting lower. The problem is that knowing that (and I have no trouble with the concept) doesn't translate into actually being able to do the right thing in real time. Sigh.
Yes!!! My dyslexic kids do this, and I've been impressed that their piano teacher is soooo patient with them.
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Not opposites necessarily, but my dd around the same age with dyslexic tendencies will think she said one word but what actually came out was something different. It makes for some fun lessons, especially with math. 🙄
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36 minutes ago, MEmama said:
I don’t find the seal to be particularly great; our glasses still fog up and air seeps around the sides so we layer a blue medical mask underneath for additional protection. Be aware they do have those plastic adjusters behind the ears, which I would find uncomfortable to wear all day.
I would let her know she should wash her masks every day, yes. They do have to be handwashed.
This. I use a Velcro thing that converted the mask to a behind the head design. This keeps the adjusters off my ears and allows me to tighten my mask down substantially.
and yes they need to be hand washed but it’s a really easy procedure.
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Yes to the medium size.
I can’t help you on the rest as we don’t go out often and my memory is poor. (Although not remembering the shipping time probably means it wasn’t a long wait for them.)You might start off with just a few to see if the fit works. In my family, it worked for some and not others.
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same here. I noticed today there was a period off time when "the community was unavailable".
And also this evening the search function is even worse than usual. It can't find any threads when I search for "Apples Pears" which are the keywords in a spelling curriculum that has been discussed here many times. (A google site search will bring up results, but the WTM search returns just 1 thread.)
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We can’t say whether you need to be more/less authoritative because we don’t know your family dynamics. And you could try the “fake it til you make it”method or......
Be honest with your child. Agree that you don’t have years of experience teaching public school. And just basically rehash what’s been written here. Tell him the pros of homeschooling (personalized, tailored education, no busy work, freedom in schedule etc). Tell him the cons (mom may not be the greatest teacher). But in the end you’ve decided that the Pros outweigh the Cons. If he balks, put a “deadline” where you promise to re-evaluate whether it’s still the better option for his education.
EDITED TO ADD: you can also be honest and say “I’m learning right along side of you. Let’s just see how we do and make the best of it.” So in essence, you are modeling what it means to be a learner.-
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In the last decade? I think so. I say that because MCT republished his upper level writing books to be consistent with the changes, IIRC. I couldn’t tell you what specific changes, though, off the top of my head.
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I just bought level B directly from the publisher. Booo! I would have loved an already spiral bound TM.
congrats on getting through all the books!!!
p.s. maybe you'd get more interest in them individually rather than a lot? I know when starting out, I was afraid to commit to all the levels. And even now, as we get ready to do level B, I'm not sure what the future will hold for the third level - stay or switch.
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@PeterPan What bits made you think of "unremediated APD" and not "just" dyslexia?
Online phonics resources?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
@Hunter Don Potter also has a copy of Alpha-phonics available. Click on the link contained in item #1 on this page: http://www.donpotter.net/reading_clinic.html