Hobbes
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Posts posted by Hobbes
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I definitely would not consider that person a veteran. A veteran has reached the end stages, in my opinion.
I'm quite indebted to many veterans for their homeschooling advice (I'm the daughter of a veteran). That said, the advice from "seasoned" homeschoolers sometimes is more helpful. Veterans tend to say, "Relax, enjoy, etc," but not always remember how they handled the nitty gritty, which doesn't ways help with decision making. Seasoned people who are still in the game sometimes have helpful specifics to offer. If I can then compare the two (Does this specific advice fit with the overall perspective I've gotten from he veterans?), that's often when I am helped the most.
Overall, I feel the homeschool network online is flooded with people who are newly-ish in the thick of things and proclaiming their expertise. This generally annoys me because I want more seasoned advice.
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Another person who doesn't pronounce it in regular speech... and then over-pronounces it during spelling lessons, to ask if the student can "hear the difference??" ?
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Just wanted to return to this to say thank you for all the advice - it helped. I first tried slowing MM and adjusting the pacing, but quickly became clear that things just weren't sticking. So I ordered CLE. The placement test put her back in 3rd, which made sense to me because even though she managed with MM3 last year, she wasn't retaining a lot of it. She started into CLE3 (we skipped 301) and LOVES it. Lots is familiar, so she's racing along, but there is some very helpful solidifying of concepts. She loves the straightforward explanations, the layout, and the variety of questions. It's becoming so clear that the daily spiral helps her immensely. I'm very pleased with where she is and I think it's a great foundation for moving forward.
Meanwhile, my oldest is rolling through MM5 (which she loves) and finding it must easier than MM4, so that input was helpful for that child. Thank you all for your responses!
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On 10/22/2018 at 3:09 PM, Bluegoat said:
I "identify" pretty strongly with CM. This doesn't mean, from my perspective, that I follow some set of rules. It's because I believe in her view of what it means to be a person, and what it means to be educated - in may ways this is about working in the same religious/spiritual tradition as she did. Practically speaking, it means that I do use many of her methods as they extend logical from her principles - but in many things, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and I work with the students and environment I happen to find myself with.
This is where I fall as well, with some input from WTM. And when CM stuff I see in various places gets too regimented and "purist" I always think, "didn't she say to mix it with brains?!"
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On 10/20/2018 at 5:10 AM, Ausmumof3 said:
Just a quick q for y’all with the schedules and checklists - do you populate them weekly with the actual work? I’ve tried various stuff like a diary or bullet journal or whatever but often end up not finding a time slot on the weekend to do it or finding even over a week we might get behind one day and stuff doesn’t line up.
I do make mine up weekly. Some things are specific (readings, etc), others are general (in math they work until the star I mark in the book, in French we work for a general amount of time). I like to think about the week ahead and lay out heavier and lighter days based on what we're up to. Sometimes I get it wrong and use white-out during the week (sometimes I do that the night before, if I see that the previous days missed some things). But having it specifically laid out each week helps me to get my head ready for the week and also makes the days run more smoothly, with fewer questions about what we should be doing.
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On 10/20/2018 at 4:50 AM, Monica_in_Switzerland said:
@Hobbes Your checklist is wonderful. I am going to adapt mine to include space for a comic. ? I think- although it will add 10 minutes to my weekly organizing session, it will very surely be one of those things kids look back on and say, "Remember how mom always put a comic on our checklists?" GREAT idea.
Thank you! I'm hoping it's a delightful memory. And it always starts the week off with fun, since they're excited to see their checklists and read the comics and jokes. Calvin and Hobbes are our favourites, Peanuts and Garfield are hits too. Once I got my system, it only take about two minutes. I do a Google image search and copy and paste. Very worth it!
17 hours ago, PeterPan said:You think if I put a comic on checklists for my ds he finally wouldn't throw them away?
Very nice!!! Love the jokes too. LOL
? It's worth a shot!
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3 minutes ago, texasmom33 said:
@Hobbes I LOVE your checklist!!!
Thanks! It used to have loving notes and Bible verses, but it turns out that kids love comics and jokes. ? It's taken a lot of tweaking, but now it serves us so well.
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I have a 10yo, an 8yo, and a preschooler and toddler. One thing I've found very useful is making weekly checklists. I'll try to attach one here. I make them each Friday afternoon from my homemade template. Taking the time to think about the coming week has really helped me to figure out what works. Over time, I've also become much better about knowing what each child can handle in a day (and then, of course, it changes).
We school four days a week and have a group class and our poetry tea on Wednesday. On schoolwork days, we typically begin morning time together at 8:30 and finish at 10, then do independent work and finish around lunch. I have a separate binder for myself for morning time, which includes Bible, memory, Shakespeare, read aloud, some grammar/science/history/art/whatever.
The girls really like the checklists - work expectations are clear, they often choose the order, we don't forget stuff, and I can always remove something if we struggled in a day.
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This is my husband's career and he's helped a few younger officers get hired, so I can share some of what he says.
Requirements vary from Dept to Dept, so if you can find out what your area wants, that's helpful for academic decisions. In our area, departments want a degree, but also prioritize life experience and demonstrated capability in a work capacity - not necessarily police foundations education. They have hired entrepreneurs, accountants, etc. The focus seems to be on general ability and demonstrated competence.
Fitness is key, being regularly committed to some sort of physical activity is positive. Something involving team play and the ability to connect with a group tends to reflect positively.
Volunteering is essential in our area. A range of volunteer experience (not just at a church, for example), is a priority for new hires.
A diverse and well-rounded life. Pursue interests and develop people skills (volunteering is good for this).
Obviously, it's important to stay out of major law-related trouble. We've seen a few guys not get hired due to unwise connections.
Our area pays well and is a desirable policing department, so they can be choosy, but those are some top elements.
ETA: courses such as first aid, CPR, conflict resolution, etc which are then used in a work or volunteer capacity are helpful - they demonstrate a comfort level with first-response skills and familiarity with working under pressure.
And in our area, bilingualism is increasingly emphasized.
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On 8/20/2018 at 3:36 PM, Sahamamama2 said:
A few more thoughts about CLE Math --
We always skip the #1 book (401, 501, 601, etc.), because it is all review. My kids do "slow math" over the summer, so they don't need the review. By "slow math" I mean that they must complete the #2 book (402, 502, 602, etc.) over the summer, at whatever pace they feel like doing (sort of ;)), just so long as we work through it before we start back up again in late August or early September. What this does is take off some pressure, eliminate the need for the #1 book, and remind them that they really do have it easy in the summer time, LOL. We end up working through Light Units 3 through 10 during the school year. So eight books, instead of ten.
Also, we skip these lessons: Lesson 5 (Quiz 1, no new content), Lesson 10 (Quiz 2), and Lesson 17 (Just for Fun or Discoveries or something like that?). I do make them do the drills for Lessons 5 and 10 at the levels that have drills, but otherwise they just go straight from Lesson 4 to Lesson 6, for example.
So.... this means we have reduced the workload from 170 lessons (17 lessons x 10 books) to 112 lessons (14 lessons x 8 books), plus a bit of summer work (14 lessons). We do not do this to accelerate math, actually. We are not trying to either "catch up" or "get ahead." We use CLE this way to make math a year-long, manageable, meaningful part of our lives, without sacrificing our ability to do other things that we also value. I don't want my students' days to be hours and hours of math (at this level, at least). If they were math-oriented students and it was a matter of their own choice, that would be fine by me. But since that isn't the case with any of my girls (so far), the best approach seems to be to simply and painlessly get math done. CLE has really fit the bill for us for a number of years, and hopefully the transition from CLE 800 into Saxon Algebra won't be too agonizing for my oldest this year.
I hope these logistics will help you as you plan, Hobbes. Have a great year!
Thank you for this! Those specifics do help me to think through the options. And actually, the way you adapt the lessons reminds me a lot of how my mom adapted our math books when I was a kid, so it feels familiar. Thanks again!
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On 8/19/2018 at 2:24 PM, Farrar said:
A lot of families seem to leave MM in 4th grade. I think the pacing is all wrong somehow. I remember it would ask ds to do things that he wasn't really ready for. So we'd spend time outside of MM teaching it. Then, a few weeks later, it would be teaching that in depth and I'd be like, what? I just had to take a long break from this to teach it because he wasn't getting it.. and now it's weeks of work later? So then he'd be bored... and we'd skip ahead... but he would have missed something and the whole process would start over. I felt like it wanted students to get things before it had fully taught them. It was just off.
This makes sense to me - I've felt the same way fairly often. Like I needed to do lots of explaining, then things would pop up later, explained in a slightly different way, and the student would be confused. Like it goes on tangents or something.
I remain torn because me oldest HAS done well with MM and loves math... and I own MM.
On 8/19/2018 at 10:03 AM, Sahamamama2 said:The levels for 4th grade and below have flash card practice AND speed drills/mastery drills (as separate components, but the reminders to do them are built into the lesson). So those components do take a little extra time. I think the lessons themselves are kept a bit shorter (than later levels), in order to accommodate the time it takes the student to practice the math facts. I'm thinking maybe 30 minutes from start to finish? LOL, that was the year before last, so it's a blur for me. KWIM?
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The way we tend to work through the lessons is as follows: the student independently (a) does the flash cards, if any, (b) completes the speed/mastery drill, if any, (c) reads through the lesson [new material], but does not complete the exercises, (d) does all the "We Remember" and other review sections, and then (e) turns in the work to me. At that point, we go over the drill (if any), the review/practice sections, the lesson, and work through the new problems. We go over it all to check for correctness and understanding, and that's math for that day! HTH.
That is helpful, thank you. That's still less time than MM takes us on a regular day, even when cutting a lot of the questions.
7 hours ago, SporkUK said:Along with mixing up the topics, maybe the new MM review books might be of use to help slow things down and work more on concepts. I'm considering it for my daughter as we're in the midst of MM4 now and I'm not sure how she'll do with the speed.
I hadn't seen those, thank you! I'm considering just stretching MM4 out over more than a year, so more review might be helpful.
Now what I need to decide is whether I'm willing to make a lot of adaptations to get through MM4 (and hopefully the following years would be smoother) and therefore be able to use what I have and keep continuity, or whether I should jump ship now, most likely to CLE. And time is running out. ?
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17 hours ago, wendyroo said:
I agree with this completely. In level 4, it seems like all the conceptually and computationally difficult topics are thrown at you one after another.
For us, level 5 went back to challenging, but very doable, and we actually skipped about half each of levels 6 and 7 because they were filled with so much easy review.
Wendy
That's really interesting... and encouraging. Thanks!
ETA: Have thought more about this - it's very encouraging in that I feel more confident to slow things right down, knowing that it can speed up later. I had been picturing this level of difficulty for the next several grades. I think I'll chat with her about how she's a year younger than her sister was when she did this level and that she's doing great, but we have lots of time and we're going to move slowly. I think it'll take the pressure off, especially if we move at her pace while mixing up chapters.
This all really helps, thanks everyone!
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8 hours ago, ByGrace3 said:
FWIW MM 4 is by far the most difficult year. MM5 was tough but not as bad, and then my dd breezed through 6 and 7.
This makes me wobble back to the side of the fence that says I should move slowly through this year, mix up the topics as suggested, and stick with what we have!
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6 hours ago, Tawlas said:
For my kids, I didn't find it took longer than completing two pages of MM a day, which had been our usual. My son is dyslexic and struggles a fair bit in math. My older daughter had a better math instinct and memory and she could finish a CLE lesson in less than an hour, even in sixth grade. The thing that made that work for us is that they didn't need me to sit with them for the whole lesson. the first 10-20 minutes are the lesson, the rest is reviewing and strengthening previous lessons. There's also a daily math drill
If I started to feel behind, with my daughter anyhow, and I felt like she had a good grasp of what she was doing, I let her skip lessons 5, 10 and 16 (which are quizzes and review days). One could also allow them to skip the unit test at the end, lesson 17. That brings each booklet down to 13 lessons, which gives a bit more breathing room. My son, however, I mostly had do every page, every day. We set the timer for 45 minutes. Since the last half of grade four, he's been doing about 2/3 of a lesson per day and I'm learning to be okay with that lol.
Thanks, this is helpful! I find it's hard to visualize what different people mean when they say "long" or "short" so the specifics are helpful!!
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2 hours ago, Tawlas said:
I also switched my kids from Math Mammoth to CLE Math. One in fourth grade, one in second grade. Another one, I switched half way through third grade to Beast Academy cause Math Mammoth moved too slow for him lol. I think it just depends on the kid. But for those kids that need more review, more time to mull things over, CLE has been amazing! I can't say enough good things about it. It's really not expensive either - 3.50 a booklet, 10 booklets in a year. Might be worth a try.
CLE is the front runner right now if I switch. How long does a day's work tend to take your kids? I hear of people switching away from it because it takes a long time? Or do I have that wrong?
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4 hours ago, wendyroo said:
I also feel that MM 4 moves fast...I actually think it moves faster than level 5.
What we do to slow it down, is to work concurrently through one of the heavier chapters and one of the lighter chapters. So, we start MM4 normally until we get about a third of the way through the multi-digit multiplication chapter. At that point, it feels prudent to slow down and give the new concepts time to solidify, so each day we continue to work through about half to one page of that chapter (together if necessary), and then the kiddo finishes up with a couple pages from the next chapter on time and measuring. About once a week we will hit new teaching in the multiplication chapter, and we will spend a day or two focusing on that intently, and then we will go back to working on both chapters each day.
If we finish the time and measuring chapter before we are done with multiplication, then we either start working through the geometry chapter for a while or I choose a different supplement like Hands on Equations. We then go through the same process for the division chapter: work through about the first third and then add in another lighter chapter. The timing might even work out that your girls could work through the MM5 Graphing and Statistics chapter together. That is a pretty light, fun chapter.
Wendy
This is a good idea, it might help to not have to barrel through 2+ pages of a tough topic every day. I've done it a bit before, but never for a longer period.
ETA: it's encouraging to know that gr 5 isn't quite so speedy! My oldest handled 4 fine, but I wasn't looking forward to keeping up that pace.
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10 hours ago, Sahamamama2 said:
If that's the case, you might want to take a closer look at CLE Math. We've been using it successfully for years, and it seems to move at the right pace for my three girls. Not too fast, not too slow, but just right. It's also easy to accelerate or slow down, if needed (but we haven't ever needed to adjust it much). HTH.
I was also wondering about CLE. I've heard lessons can take a long time... what kind of time do you spend on it in gr 4/5ish?
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10 hours ago, Ellie said:
Maybe a more traditional math would be better for her, such as R&S?
I'm wondering if that's the case.
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Just got started with math today (full school year starts after Labour Day here), and was reminded of my feelings about MM last year. We've used it since 2nd (girls are now in 5th and 4th). Daughter in 5th is happy with math and likes it - usually does 1/2 or 2/3 of the problems. Daughter in 4th is a December birthday and so a very young 4th. She's done well with MM so far, if I work with her, and I scribed about half the time. I'm just remembering going through 4th last year with the older and I'm not sure this one is ready for long division, etc. I don't really care about grade levels and don't mind slowing down, but I know she'll notice and mind.
All that to say, I was reminded today of the feeling that MM just jumps in and runs - fast. That there's a lot to suddenly understand. Does that make sense? I don't remember that feeling from the homeschool math I had as a kid (until I hit - and hated - Saxon algebra. I'm wondering if this child would be better served with a program that feels less speedy (or whatever the issue is). On the other hand, it's working - I think - and maybe all math programs feel that way? Or maybe it's just the sense I have for this kid. Thoughts?
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2 minutes ago, Tibbie Dunbar said:
Well, a lot of the country remains unblessed by the presence of an IKEA...I don't know the exact cost of contact paper; I'm still working with some rolls I bought at the dollar store 12 years ago...and obviously, the contact paper is not at all essential. You could cover them with any kind of paper, or leave them uncovered. The cereal boxes are cheaper than buying cardboard, if you already have them because you eat cereal. If you do not eat cereal, and do not have an IKEA, you can do better with cardboard magazine holders from Amazon, but only if you already pay for prime shipping.
Lol, yes, I prefer not to think about life without an Ikea! ? I have not seen contact paper at my dollar store and paid what I thought was an unreasonable amount for a small roll once at the grocery store. I've been biased against it since. This may be a varies-by-region issue! In Canada, Amazon's magazine holders are more $$ than Ikea, at least the ones I've seen.
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Only four years in, but so far:
Story of the World
Math Mammoth
Pentime handwriting
100 Favourite Poems anthology
Anything that's helped me develop my understanding about how to approach copywork/dictation (so WWE, The Writer's Jungle/Arrows, CM's Philosophy of Education, etc).
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14 minutes ago, Tibbie Dunbar said:
Just for anyone who might find this useful, the poverty version of a magazine holder is a cereal box cut to the right shape and covered with shelf (contact) paper.
Those cardboard ones from Ikea might just be cheaper than buying contact paper!
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On 7/27/2018 at 7:37 AM, HomeAgain said:
What about some of the old Rick Steves videos? We used to watch those, and the things that interested us more we dove deeper into.
Thanks! Hadn't seen much of those and so hadn't thought of them as good for kids, but we watched two this morning and they loved them!
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Our family is headed for a trip to southern Germany and some time in France in September. I have an 10yo and 8yo who love history and we were at about mid point of SOTW3 at the end of the past school year. They were fascinated by the French Revolution, Napoleon, etc, and they like history in general.
Any recommendations for things to watch or fun reads together before we go? We'll have a few days in Paris and Versailles, otherwise more in the Strasbourg/Basel direction. Good kid documentaries that aren't ridiculous? I found some on YouTube that were like fingernails on a chalkboard...
Very nice!!! Love the jokes too. LOL
"How to Homeschool" spam---or how do you define "veteran"??
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
Maybe she is just trying to be nice and that is nice. Or maybe she's starting a business. I personally dislike business spam of all kinds.
My own internal response to an email like that would probably just be born out of irritation with the seemingly-constant monetizing of homeschool advice by people who are just getting going themselves (and who use words like "veteran" to add weight to their product, whether it's really tried-and-true or not). I've felt like I've run into that a lot lately and so am maybe a bit sensitive to it...