bbrandonsmom
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Posts posted by bbrandonsmom
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I'm trying to avoid conversations about h/s with a family member. Well, she's taken an interest, and it seemed like a general one, so I send some updates her way occasionally. Recently, I sent her a photo of all the review words up to week 11 in Phonics Road. I'm very proud of my ds for learning these and knowing them. She's been happy, at least I thought, so far with what he's been learning.
Today though, as she was asking me about some books I was looking for, and I was explaining how I thought "easy readers" were just odd, because they have both short words a kindy might be learning, as well as longer, more 1-2nd grade words. Which led to a conversation about the word, "the".
Anyhow, I guess, "the" derives from "thy, or thi", for meaning usage, according to Websters. And I wondered when "thy" became "the". This was for me, not for ds. I think it's nice to know why some words or word pairs make certain sounds. That led to why kids need to be taught this anyhow-phonics vs whole word. Because they will lean it eventually. And why does the meaning help learn to spell the word, or help in graduation?
Then on to history and things that can/should be taught in school. Of course I believe world history should be taught, how else can we learn from our mistakes and progress as a nation? You don't have to detail each country though. You can't even cover all of US history in school years. People make history their life passion, and know way more than the general person. But I guess it's not supposed to be taught in school, because how does that help in graduation? How does learning various economics help?
I feel like I was really getting picked on by how we are teaching. And here, the whole time, I thought she was truly trying to understand what we were doing and why. And because the 3yr old up the street, can ask to shake hands, that makes my kids socially unacceptable? I guess he goes to prek? I think I am slightly put off as well, because PR can be a hard program, and my ds is only 5.5, and has learned so much. But she basically said I was wasting my time teaching him to read this way.
Why are we supposed to limit what a child-up to high school-learns, based on what they need to graduate? It makes no sense to me. Kids are capable, given the exposure and tools. Well, you guys know that :)
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So we are using SM, and just got to math 10-20, by making 10's. But, from what I can tell, there are only 2 pages of it, before they dive right into subtraction in the same. I looked on MM to see if there was a supplement for extra practice for the sum of 10-20, and found MM 2A, had addition 10-18, but I don't know is she uses the same method?
I can't find anything else to print up to practice this. I'd like ds to be proficient in sums 10-20 before we jump to subtraction, or by going right into subtraction, does it force them to think about the math/subtraction of 1-10? Did that even make sense?
Ds grasped it pretty quick, what I was trying to explain about making a 10 first, because he knows all the 10 + # ='s, and as he was making his own circles to make 10 first, he seemed to understand better. But there is only 1 worksheet of doing that.
MM used to have this free worksheet link where you made your own problems, and I guess I didn't bookmark it, and now can't find it on MM. I know there was practice of making 10's for sums from 10-20. I have a ton of worksheets of 7+8, 6+5 etc, but none of it presents making a 10 first. I suppose I can make dots next to them and have him draw circles around the clusters to make tens? Hmm, we can play around with blocks and number cards too, or the dry erase board I guess.
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While I agree with keeping reading Good books that capture a child's interest, there is one thing to ask yourself-do you read just for fun books? As adults, I'm sure not everything we read is mind engaging. I think if you can find a balance between the two, it would be fine.
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So ds was showing dh some of his math-the past few days of subtraction he'd done. Dh was looking at it, and specifically the problem of 6 balloons and 2 flying away, where ds wrote 6-2. He said, "Shouldn't it be a hand with 6 balloons, 2 balloons flying, and then a hand with 4 balloons?". I said, well, it's to make them think-look at the rest of the problems. After looking at them, and then the ones where he had to write the 2 addition problems with 2 subtraction problems under, in the same family, he seemed impressed. Said it seems hard, but understood it and said that if ds was getting it, then good. I'm just thrilled ds made the addition/subtraction connection right off-and I didn't even tell it to him!
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There's a cd? Off to see :)
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Thanks-I requested the Nat Geo one. They also make an animal atlas I'm going to check out too. I find one we like-I'm buying it!
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This thread has been so informative-thank you soooo much Heather and Tina-I think you guys are so helpful.
Tina-thanks for the offer (you are so sweat) :) and the info on the books. Two history curric I've looked at had some books I would not let a K'er read, at least not mine (& prob not a 1st gd). He's a very empathetic child-even if it's a story. And the one curric that did note the books, I'd have ended up removing almost half of them-due to the violence in them.
I have to go back and read over the info-all this talk of D, R and something else has me pretty lost.
abrightmom-I'm wondering that too. It actually sounds ideal. You can really take a week to focus on something, instead of breaking it up. I'm sure it depends on the child and what is being studied though.
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I don't think we've done a lot of memorization, except for adding numbers under 5, unless those are just easy? We just worked on adding to sums up to 10, and playing around with what numbers created the sums. First with objects, then with numbers. I did print up a few MM sheets where you needed to fill in the sum, so had ds read the sum sheets of 6-10 daily for a few days. He actually sang it to an adding song off of a We Might Be Giants number cd :)
I wouldn't combine though. I'd do adding first, then subtracting etc. We just started subtraction today, and I can see that if we didn't have a strong addition base, subtraction would be a mess.
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I have a 5.5 yr old as well. I picked up Sotw first, and started it, but some of the books seemed to be either too much, or there was just too much flipping around for us. I don't know if he just isn't ready for it, or we just haven't found our groove yet. That said, we are now going to do more of a geography thing-I was pointed to Galloping the Globe (it also introduces different cultures too?), and I'm also doing some US history-only because some is covered in public school K. I think if we do that, and read a lot-I think we'll follow Five in a Row book lists-that should give us a good foundation for when we actually start either Sotw or something else.
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What are the readers and biographies like in the early years? Do they seem to go by age level, as far as what topics they introduce, like war, famine, killing etc? Is there a constant reference to how GOD fits into the biographies regarding choices that people make, or can you omit that? (hope I can type that) I'm Christian, but I don't want every story we read have questions pertaining to religion and how would it be different if that person believed etc. Are there alternate questions to ask?
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Thanks. Since you guys are ahead of me, would you be able to answer this? When they get to measuring with a ruler, do they explain that you are measuring a part of a line, and not the whole line, or does that come in later? I know it's important later on to distinguish that, and it's easier if taught earlier than later. I see in 1b, they start with units as measurement.
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What's your favorite timeline figures? I found ones that use little house type ones or something-they were neat looking and the kids could color them. I've seen some that are pretty drab. I want to say it was Winter Promise?
I'm looking for some also that either on online that I can make small enough to print for a wall map, or buy them. We bought a huge wall map, that we put the animals we learn about on, but I thought it would be neat to add the people we learn about on it too. Maybe character stickers from some place?
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Has anyone used MM units to accompany SM successfully? I remember reading an example of how SM goes into fractions, and that MM did it a lot better in explanation. So it's possible to pull a blue book unit for what you are doing in SM for either a better explanation or for extra practice?
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I've been looking into TOG as well. I think if you can wrap your head around it, it could be great. Personally, what I would suggest is finding someone you know who uses it and borrowing a unit to look at. The only way I could really wrap my head around was to see it. t book lists and throw in a few extra books that would cover that.
Just some thoughts... hope it helps some...:confused:
That's a good idea. It's always nice to be able to help out local moms. I was able to bring some of my curric to another mom to show her, and it helped her decided to h/s her k'er-following the school curric. I was able to borrow some of my curric till I got mine as well, and for that I'm thankful :)
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Both my boys got stuck on "r". I taught ds1 to say it by rolling the r. Like a dog would growl, grrrrrrrrr. It's hard to show them the tongue placement. Ds2 is learning it, he drops the r a lot, but this is when ds1 learned it too (he's 3), so...
But you can roll the r in any word, just like teaching a cv blend, like raaaa. Do it rrrrrrag, or brrrrrrroke, etc. If you switch the position of the r in a word, they can't establish a vowel sound after it. Hope that helps.
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http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/A-History-of-Potty-Training.html
What I said before-cloth makes a Huge difference in when kids are potty trained.
Here is some info about IPT http://www.timl.com/ipt/ There are cultures today who practice potty the kids young and have always done so-they don't use disposable diapers. Either due to culture or due to expense, or they just don't have them. Now, I do know families who do use disposables and their kids are starting to potty around 15-18m old-mainly because we know it can be done and with no pressure. People just don't know what signs to look for I guess?
Yes-dairy is a contributer to bed wetting. Look here-
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Tina, you can get the Gerber pull up covers at kmart and target-not sure who is less exp. Feeling the wetness should make a difference to him, since he already knows to go. I would give you them if I had them. All I have are newborn covers which wouldn't fit, and fuzzibunz, that I'm using for ds2 at night. If he's not wetting a lot, you may not even need a cover, the gerber trainers are thick enough to hold a little pee, but not a big one.
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I'm going to guess that those of you who feel pushing a kid to potty train before 2, has never heard of infant potty train? Essentially you potty from birth, so you don't Train your child to soil his diaper. There are a few phases to catch this awareness. It can be done-my son is proof and I know others who have done this. There is No pressure. You watch for signs that they have to go, and instead of letting them soil a diaper, you sit them on a potty.
That said-Tina, you should not feel attacked. He is ready, if he's showing signs. It's just a set back. I know plenty of kids who are starting to go potty by 2. It's just like learning anything, and at that age, just think of all the stuff they are learning. This is all from parents who know kids can be ready at that age-they are not pushing them, at all. If his mom is okay with it, and she is, then just find out if she's not following through. She may not be. Putting him back in diapers would not be the answer, if he's already using the potty.
Ask your parents what age you were going potty? I know I was using the potty by 2-I have pictures. So were all my sisters. So were my parents. Using cloth makes a huge difference-the kids can feel wetness compared to diapers that hold wetness away. I may make some people mad by stating that, but it's just how it is. Some people want to be lazy about using diapers and potty, that's jmo. For some reason, the US went from kids using cloth and being able to use a potty by 2-3, to kids wearing a diaper until they were 4/5 instead of the potty, and it's just accepted. Why?
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You may want to figure out what you want in a history program, then see if TOG fits it. In grammar stage we've been using SOTW and that has worked marvelously for us. We get history in 4 days a week every week and my kids LOVE the stories. This year we are even getting to a project a week. The only thing it's missing for me is a Biblical worldview. I'm trying to figure out right now the best way to remedy that. I may just look at TOG/Sonlight book lists and throw in a few extra books that would cover that.
Just some thoughts... hope it helps some...:confused:
That is one thing I'm looking for-a program that really builds in the religions of the world, and not just one. I also don't want a program that is religious biased. I may have a faith, but I also am very scientific and factual, so I'd like a history spine that's not "This is how it is" type of thing. Not sure if that came across right. This way our kids can learn different views and form their own opinion based on faith and facts.
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Has this already been mentioned-in LM's book, she mentions that it's better to know more than one method. She has an example where in one class, the three groups came up with 3 different methods to solve an addition problem, and the teacher then they all talked about what way might be better (usually it's the standard way), but for some people another way is better. It's knowing the different ways to solve a problem.
That said, my aunt was a math professor-so in her generation learned math from 30-40 yrs ago. We were talking the other day about Singapore and various ways to solve a problem. She said straight out that wasn't the way she learned, but can see how useful it is. She learned some of the concepts in college I think.
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Well, Singapore has been used in US schools for 10?yrs now with success.
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Is he is diapers during the day or underwear? That makes a difference. With ds1 I used Poquito pants between 1-2 (they are like thicker underwear), but with ds2 I used gerber training underwear starting around 2. Both had been cloth diapered. Ds2 wanted to be like his brother, so that helped. I had a little potty for him in the bathroom and we took him after he drank or ate (I didn't do the reward system thing either-just a yay type thing w/ clapping). I don't know when he got it. It was before 2.5 though. He just started going himself. I do remember when he was first getting it, he would tell me pee, but he had already peed some-that took a few months-he had to learn I would take him to the potty, especially if we weren't at home. And I still remind him if we are visiting some one, only because it's new.
I'd talk to his mom to see if something changed? Maybe she's not being as efficient as you are with it, but telling you otherwise? Maybe he needs some big boy underwear he really wants to wear? Does he have a cold/underlying illness? Has his diet changed? Those are some things to consider. Kids will have setbacks, but from my knowledge, it's either health or home related, if they are already going potty. Unless they just forget-like they are excited to play with friends and don't want to stop playing :) Also, maybe keep the little potty out where he can see it?
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I don't like the animal book ES uses. Most of the animals that we are supposed to read about have one little paragraph, that doesn't answer the questions we need to answer. I end up having to take out individual books on the animals we are looking at for the week. It's a lot easier to retain the info from reading about the animals all week, instead of just one time.
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I'm no help. I keep looking at it too, because from when I talked with another mom, it seemed to go more in depth later on, than Sotw. I think someone mentioned to me that for a 1st g it's too involved and Sotw is better, then to pick up TOG around 3rd?
TOG does have some sample lessons on there you can download. And also a sample breakdown of a week in planning.
Etymology/word origin dictionary online
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
http://www.etymonline.com/
Thought this would be helpful for anyone looking for the word origins, but doesn't have a book. It's pretty neat. I put in a few words to try it out.