mommy4ever
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Posts posted by mommy4ever
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oops meant as a new post
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:iagree: Just out of curiosity, why is 5.5 considered 1st grade? Is that according to your province or just what you've chosen for him? I think you will find much success in doing K level work! Keep it fun!
I would caution against letting him choose whether to do school or not though. This could set a bad habit for the years to come. If you sense he's not "on" for school today, YOU make the decision to lighten things up. Maybe tell him all that school will be today is a story and some time at a park! Then you can honor him without giving up control of "when" you do school to him. Just my thoughts, take it for what it's worth.... (I have strongwilled children who would jump at the chance to control when they do school!)
In AB if you are 6 before Mar 1 you are considered grade 1.
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Hello All
I've started the homeschooling journey not to long ago. My son is 5.5 year old, and we are currently in week 7 of Sonlight Core K. He is doing really well, but sometimes, actually, a lot of the time, I wonder if he will not get so much more out of it if he was just a little older - say, 6.5.
I started "schooling" him because he seemed ready. He is reading the Readers 2 books fairly easily, and is halfway through Math-U-See Alpha, which is not challenging him all that much. He's handwriting is pretty good (I think, anyway) and he enjoys our Noeo Science books for the most part. (Wish I bought Science K, but to late now...)
Recently he started complaining a lot, saying that he does not want to learn anything, ever. Urgh! I'm wondering if he is just not ready for the kind/amount of work which I, and our school board, will expect of him as a young grade 1 student. As he is not 6 yet (January birthday), I have another year before I have to enrol him anywhere and I was thinking that maybe I should wait?
He can go to kindergarten, every day, for 2.5 hours. The problem with his is that he is VERY outgoing, and I know from previous experiences in preschool, that he will transform into the class clown and has been described as "disruptive to the whole class" and a "trouble maker". I know he will definitely be bored in kindergarten and I'm not sure if this will be the right decision/option for him?
I also think that he will get so much more out of Core K is he was just a little older. Especially from the read alouds and history. Some of the books he does get/like, but I think another year will make a big difference.
Anyway, I was hoping someone here has an opinion on my various options. It will be greatly appreciated!
Option 1: Keep going and hope that he will start enjoying school again. I have to add that the complaining has been in the first week of being back to school, and I'm sure it will get better with time and with our routine being set and firm again. (However, I was wondering about this last year allready..)
Option 2: Send him to Kindergarten for the 2.5 hours and do nothing in conjunction.
Option 3: Send him to Kindergarten, but in the afternoon, after he's had some time to play, continue with LA and Math (This will not take more than 45 minutes.)
Option 4: Keep homeschooling him on a Grade 1 level, but cut back on "extras" in order to keep the amount of time we work less. Say 2 hours at most? I'm not sure if we will be able to meet our aligned curriculum (Alberta, Canada) requirements. If we go "traditional" I'll get $750 per year less. I know that I'm upholding him to high standards, but it seems like they get so much done in school, fun things, like drama and technology class - how do they fit it all in? I don't want him to miss out.
I know all of this is a mouthful, but I have been AGONIZING with this for weeks now, and nobody seems to have an opinion or idea.
Again, your help or input will be greatly appreciated.
Yvette
Your choice of education shouldn't be based on funding received. Everyone I've talked to has found the AB aligned program to burn out early elementary. There are ways to make it work with way less work that what you are doing, but that comes with experience. I started(in AB) last year, an emergency start with my dd6 and dd11. I had no funding. We chose to go traditional. We had a TON of fun. Depending on the school board(THEE, non-resident in Sherwood Park) has a lending library, so we were able to borrow curricula and explore it. We use the library and taught reading with OPGTR. Once we'd explored we chose what we are using. For DD6, now grade 2, we have spent about $380 so far and that includes registration in art classes and swimming lessons. My older girls are doing aligned through School of hope. And I am having a hard time trying to designate the funding. 1. I rent the materials, that is $280 for BOTH girls. Other than that I don't need any thing other than school supplies and lessons. If it were up to me, I'd do traditional with all of them, but dd13 wants to remain aligned and start her highschool credits next year. DD11 is just indecisive and decided on this.
Yes, it IS possible to spend $1400/year on the childrens education. And very easily. But is also very easy to do it for the $750 too. Aligned is very intensive for a child that age. He might do better doing traditional. I know for my 6yo, I wouldn't consider it. We are doing dd6 education the classical path and doing LOTS of things with it. She loves what we are doing. BUT What I am doing won't meet the AB criteria either. It will even out and we'll come out ahead in the long term, just not matching it year to year, she will have a well rounded education. I'm content with the $750 we have. It is more than enough with some conscious choices. We chose PDF to save on shipping, use the library extensively. Find used, or lending libraries, support groups in Edmonton and Calgary have libraries for their members.
As the kids get older, in talking to Harriette at THEE(Director), she said that you can do traditional in High school even and it is not that hard to cover everything required so the kids can successfully write the diploma exams, to facilitate University. It is a little planning and way less work for the kids to do it that way.
If Aligned is causing burnout, don't stay with it simply because of more funding. It's not worth it. I'm rethinking dd11 being in aligned, but we'll try the year and go from there, but I know the youngest will remain traditional. Traditional is free flow. You can stay 'aligned' your way, without a facilitator breathing down your neck to be on target all the time. Also choose your school board carefully. Some are not homeschool friendly, only do it because they must.
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Thanks, the stomach issues have passed, but still really congested and head-achy. Hopefully the rest of the kids are fine. We've really only had sniffles with them.
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We started school last Monday. Then dh got sick, then dd6 started getting sick, and then.... well, we put it on hold.
Thursday I start getting sick, sore throat, fever, cough. Friday is miserable. Saturday not too bad. Sunday.... well, got hit with a tummy bug too. Talk about miserable! Finally the system is purged and appears to be running normally. I've slept the day away, I can't sleep, i'm still stuffed up and coughing. I do not foresee school starting in the morning.
I need to give huge kudos to my 16yo son. He is usually a thorn to deal with. Today he looked at me and said...you really aren't feeling well. He tended the critters, entertained his youngest sister, made lunch, tidied up. Went to the store bought me gingerale and a treat for his little sister(without being asked). He let me rest. The other 2 girls were out camping so they were no issue.
At least we can't say we're behind, just changed the start date.
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So far so good with the imported lessons, they are general so only need tweaking if I want to be more specific.
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Thanks for the recommendation! I ended up purchasing HST+. AND LOVE It!
I still don't know what it all can do, but learned a ton by downloading a ready made lesson plan from another user. It saved me a lot of time to have it ready to go. So I am 3/4 of the way through my first lesson plan for a kiddo :) And it is going very well.
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So how does the reschedule feature work in HST? When marked incomplete, does it move automatically?
What is the learning curve of HST?
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As in on the computer. It needn't be online, in fact, if it didn't have to be that would be a bonus if it didn't need connectivity all the time.
I'm looking for something that would allow me to change things easily if the kids work ahead or fall back due to whatever reasons. Illness or ambitiousness however it works out.
What do you use?Why do you like it over something else, or why did you dislike something?
Help me make an informed decision.
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Here's what I do with downloadable products. The minute I purchase them, I upload them to my Google documents account, which is free. Then I can access them forever and wherever I am! I have them all in folders by subject now, it is kind of fun to go through and see all of them. I am able to look at them even while I'm on vacation this week.
That is a great idea~ I have back ups at home, external hard drive, and CD...need to figure out the RW thing, it would make more sense :lol:.
But I will look into THAT too! Great idea! I have alot that I would be sad about if the computer crashed. BTDT. And this is a temp, for now, until we can afford a new one computer, that was purchased when the last one crashed. And it's on it's last legs.:tongue_smilie:
We love MM. Had I *noticed* there was a deal on purchasing all of them at once, I would have done that! Saved some $. But now it doesn't matter, we have 1,2, 4 and 5..lol. But we weren't sure we'd use it.
We love the downloads. I had 2 workbooks printed for me, but you lose the color, it's costly to do it as color. So I started printing at home. I print this way.
When new cartridges, I set the print quality to fastdraft. Use the least amount of ink possible to get a clear print off. Once that gets a little broken up, I "upgrade" to fastnormal print. It will clear up the printing for another 200-400 pages. When that starts to break up, I upgrade to normal print. When that goes, I use best.
By the time I'm done doing that, there is nearly nothing left in the cartridges at all. I was looking at upgrading to a laser printer, but doing it this way, uses minimal ink. I can get nearly 3000 sheets unless it's dense pictures, then it drains faster. So the cost per page is nearly the same as the laser jet, without the cost of the new printer.
And it is nice to have the pdf file, if the student spills and ruins a page, or really messes up, it's easy to print a new one, and they get a fresh start. I have perfectionists that if they have alot of errors when learning a concept, or mess up a diagram, and keeps seeing the errors, it really bothers them, they'd rather start over. I don't encourage this, one has to get over it, but when it's a bad day, it's just not worth it. A new page can change the tone of the day!
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Well, the day shaped up not so bad. In the afternoon, dd6 decided she was ready to work and we did everything but the planned lapbook project, which is fine. She did it with a smile and a ton of giggles. I'm not sure what the difference was, but it was.
We chatted with dd11, and we decided to speak with the instructors to find an acceptable substitute for the art projects that are causing distress, and not quit the whole thing, as many projects she is interested in.
And dd13 remained ms. Mellow all day :) She is going to be a joy to have home this year. This is her first year homeschooling. The other 2 started in the spring.
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I know we'll be modifying as we go, but it's a learning curve and if all else fails the lessons are still planned and ready to go when we are.
I am already seeing the girls getting ahead of what was planned, but that is ok.... why? Because I planned so it gets done, if it is done sooner, so be it. I know for next year to make it meatier...
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And with HS, it doesn't make much difference regardless. My dd 13 technically grade 8 but will be doing grade 8, 9 and 10 courses this year. DS16 is in Grade 11 doing grade 12 courses.
I totally didn't think of HS when I replied. Depending where you are, you register according to age, but they do whatever work they are doing now, grade being irrelevant.
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In Alberta, the cut off is March 1st. So if you have turned 5 by March 1st, you can start K. My dd was 4 starting in K. But her b'day was in November. My dd11 and 13 were already 5 as their b'day is in Mar/April.
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We started today. We were off to a rocky start. But this afternoon, in a little over an hour, dd6 and I completed her whole days work. Don't know how it worked out, but it did and it was done with lots of giggles.
DD11 got over the early meltdown, and tackled another month of her math project.
DD13 was ms. mellow over the whole day.
So a rocky start this morning, but it turned out okie dokie!
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We started school today
My older girls were so excited.
DD11 was gungho, trying hard to be patient for her workboxes to be ready. She worked well, and asked only a couple questions, the workboxes are doing fantastic.
She got to art and the tears started, in school she had minimal art. Last spring we were very free and exploratory with art. This year she chose to be with an academy, much like Seton or other ones like it. She found out she'd have to submit a sample and she lost it. She was so looking forward to this and now she's running scared, freaking out. She doesn't want to do the academy anymore. We can opt out of art with the school, not a big deal, but I don't want her to think we can just drop things because she doesn't care for them, without giving a real effort.
DD13 stuff is still a mess, we haven't received everything yet, the website not yet updated, as they don't technically start until the 1st. But she is doing a few things with the academy now.
DD6 was excited to start but just a few minutes in she's crying it's too hard. Well, of course it's too hard if you just grab and go and don't look at directions..lol. Of course, she has a friend here in the home daycare that was supposed to have brought her school work(because she was behind in school) and didn't, so she has nothing to do, so it interferes. I'm getting her to sit down to whiz through a few things here shortly.
OH, well, it'll get better, we'll get more organized for the kids once the academy is settled. The teachers are just getting back to me about various things.I'm really rethinking how we'll do things next year already.
Hopefully it all eases up as they relax into it. They want to do it all, now..lol. :lol: It's just not what they expected. Well, not what dd11 anticipated. DD13 was ok with it all. DD6 will be fine, she just wants to be more independent than she is capable of.
Tomorrow is a new day. And mom will recharge and reboot, and start the day with a smile again.
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Your schedule looks very complete and well planned.
A few things you might consider:
1) I found WWE 1 too difficult for my pre-reader. I really did not see a benefit to her copying words she couldn't come close to reading. Six months later it was a perfect fit. I assumed your dd is not reading independently b/c you are doing OPGTR, but if she's reading well, WWE should be fine.
She is reading somewhat independently now, but we are continuing with OPGTR as it will give a strong foundation.
2) Doing FLL every day will have you finished before the end of the year unless you are trying to do FLL 1 & 2 in one year. You can easily accomplish one grade in 3 days/week. You may want to finish early, but if you need more time on a certain day, then drop it without guilt.
We do a 4 day week, and we don't necessarily have time to do everything every day, as we have outside lessons, art, swimming, rockclimbing. So it will average to 3 lessons a week.
3) AAS tends to take us longer than 10 minutes, sometimes as much as 20.
We did it last year 10 minutes a day, and finished all but 4 lessons in AAS 1 in 3 months. If it takes longer with AAS 2, then it will. That is a guesstimate at this point. Thanks for pointing it out, I hadn't really considered it. I expect if we start AA3, it will be 20 minute sessions, but I'm keeping it light for the beginning, and slowly increase times as we go. She's had a carefree summer, I don't want to overload her.
Thanks!!
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We start school on Monday. The kids are excited. Here is dd6 week:
History - Listen to SOTW CD, track 1 do coloring page.(mom has sore throat, beginning of a cold, so giving her a break).
Math - 2 pages MM
AAS - 10 minutes
FLL 1 lesson
WWE - 1 line copywork
OPGTR - 10 minutes(we will work up to 15-20 minutes by mid September)
Lapbook - afternoon project with her bf(she's in the home daycare for the week so they are doing it together. Her bf is working on her math, reading and spelling, mom sending her work).
Next day:
Read alternate history book(library) do the project
2 math pages(MM)
FLL 1 lesson
AAS - 10 minutes
WWE - narration
OPGTR - 10 minutes
Pianimals. 15 minutes - first lesson
Science - read pg 8-9, color picture, narration.
Lapbook with bf.
Week 2 will be slightly different we are adding a few more things.
History - SOTW reading(out loud or cd, we'll see)
Math - 2 pages and card game with bf.
AAS - 10 minutes
WWE - narration
OPGTR - 10 minutes
FLL lesson1 lesson
Pianimals. 10 minutes guided practice
Art - Dvd and first draft of project - turtle
Lapbook with bf.
French - Beginning 1st lesson - listen to cd, coloring page. Chat with mom, review vocab already learned 15 minutes session.
Science - narration and reading.
Bible Story and coloring page.
We cover a lot of areas, but in short amounts of time. So we should be ok. It doesn't look like an overly long day. Longest it the lapbook projects, but it's fun stuff! We're making summer treats one week, and chocolate the next :lol:
Am I missing anything?
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I have been filing for over a week! It is insane..lol.
Now, I have completely finished dd6, with two exceptions:one workbook that I'm not sure how much we'll do it in a sitting, so it's a play-it-by-ear project and lapbooks, I am only printing a couple at a time, as they are bulky in the file box, and if after a couple she doesn't want to do some for a bit, we'll set them aside. And I won't have wasted the paper.
My 2 older girls not as much done. But I have their first couple weeks complete, but I'm waiting to hear back from the academy for timelines, if they have any, I don't want to plan something out to find out I am planning it too slow for them. I already found out what I had thought to do for spanish wouldn't work, as I only received 1/2 of it. Some subjects have specific items they want done and we needn't worry about a good portion of the spine.
DD6 was the biggest concern for me because her curriculum was all on me. I'm planning it all. AND I DID it!
I even made index cards for SOTW filing them 3 weeks prior. I decided what projects we'd do, and recorded what supplies we'd use. I spent time on our library website and found which of the recommended books are available in our system, and recorded that. It takes a minimum of 2 days to get the book in, and they'll hold it a week. So we'd hopefully have it in time, and if it came in right away, we would have it for the time we plan. I also planned the lapbooks that way too, in fact the library currently has all the books requested ready for me to pick up tomorrow for the first 2 weeks of school! I forgot to check science for and supplies needed. But I have my art supplies for those first lessons too. DD is looking forward to that.
Now I need to decided where to house my fileboxes as they are taking up premium shelf space. We only have one book shelf in our common school area. And it's FULL.
I have THREE file boxes. DD6 has COMPLETELY filled 1 on her own. DD11 has a semi full box, and dd13 and I are sharing a box, her files fairly empty. It is more likely she'll get more of a weekly to do check list.
So, I am doing workboxes with dd6. She loves it.It's nice for her to find surprises in her box, little games or treats to do through the day. While filing by the week is helpful, i do need to break hers down to the day for workboxes. That is the next step. But that will be a breeze now that it's all decided by week.
Here is what her day looks like(In no particular order).
Listen to SOTW cd, track 1
2 math pages - MM
AAS - 10 minutes
FLL 1 lesson
WWE - 1 line copywork
OPGTR - 10 minutes(we will work up to 15-20 minutes by mid September)
Lapbook - afternoon project with her bf(she's in the home daycare for the week so they are doing it together. Her bf is working on her math, reading and spelling, mom sending her work).
Next day:
Read alternate history book(library) do the project
2 math pages(MM)
FLL 1 lesson
WWE - narration
OPGTR - 10 minutes
Pianimals. 15 minutes
Science - read pg 8-9, color picture, narration.
Lapbook with bf.
LOL.. looking at this.. this isn't bad at all! I was concerned that I would be overloading her. But broken down... there isn't that much at all!
Next week there is a little more. We get started in French - 1 lesson, each day is about 15 - 20 minutes, it includes games, cd, songs, silly sayings, we have art that week, and our religion starts. Oh, and working on character building, but it's a short story twice a week and a discussion. The stories are cute and will just be quiet cuddly time for us. A subtle way to do it.
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I'm bringing in OPGTR tomorrow. We'll be using it for another 1.5 years at least, and it's so awkward!
I was thinking of doing the same with AAS. Not as bulky, but it would be nice to just be able to lay it down when dictating(and baking..lol) and not have it close on me.
My older girls each have a couple workbooks that they don't want me to file, but they are already fighting with them for righting close to the binding, so I'll just bite the bullet and do it.
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:bigear: I"d love to have a Unit study for this!
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I use only MM. Lots of built in practice, unless you count games as supplements, but those are recommended by MM..lol. So maybe not?
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I just checked mine, it plays fine. But I have the least sensitive dvd player out there, it plays anything.
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Great! Thanks for the input. I do let her just craft on her own outside the scope of school. She is gifted in art like her grandmother, so I'm trying to direct it a little to help grow it, but trying to keep it light and fun. After all she is only turning 7 in November..lol. Hopefully we'll be able to do a trip or 2 to museums through the year too, or participate in a workshop offered by the museum.
Setting up for preschool....quick and easy?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I have no preschoolers of my own, but I have a home daycare and have been asked to do preschool. I need some easy free or really cheap ideas to do for them. There is a little boy, age 3(as of June) and little girl, just turned 2.
Any free or close free activities out there?
What does everyone else do with their own preschoolers?