We're going through a handwriting workbook for 4.5yo dd to practice her handwriting. Since this is my first time teaching handwriting, I'm not quite sure how to go about it, so any advice would be appreciated. 1. Do I go through one letter per day? 2. How much practice is needed if dd reverses letters, or uses the wrong strokes? i.e her "x" looks more like a "t". 3. When do we start copy work? Is it after dd has mastered her handwriting?

Tonight we officially started doing BFIAR together for the first time as a bed time routine. We started with the book Ask Mr Bear. However 4.5 yo dd insisted that she read through the whole book herself rather than let me read it to her. Actually, this is the second night of our reading the book (the first night she read it out loud with some of her older friends who came to stay the night). Amazingly I found that she read the whole book with 99% accuracy. She loves to read, and she had learnt her phonics skills from doing Phonics Pathway. The only reading she was exposed to where the PP exercises. In the past, she was content with me reading to her. But after having her friends stay over night, and seeing them read together with her, she now wants to read everything and anything she can get her hands on. Part of me feels proud of what she has accomplished. But the other part thinks that it might not be a good idea to let her read it by herself because of her inability to clearly communicate, her not been old enough and because of my concerns over long vowels - see this post - here. With regards to long vowels, I thought about trying to slow her down - perhaps until shes ready to do the long vowel lessons in PP. I thought if she read too far, and too much, that doing further lessons with long vowels in PP in the future might confuse her. What do you think? PS We're not home schooling

I could be wrong, but choosing a location in DownThemAll is selecting a folder where you want the program downloaded. If this is not what you're referring to, pm me and I'll try and help you.

:lurk5:

:lurk5:

:) thanks. Yep we're reading through the Bob books, mixed with Starfall.com and whatever else we can find. Thanks I'll try ETC 3, I've got some of those lying around (i mistook them to be handwriting workbooks :001_huh:). DD loves them ETC and I was hoping to use them as supplements with PP, so now I guess is the chance. But if you have a good technique for teaching two different things, please share:001_smile:

I started doing simple long-vowel sounds with 4.5yo dd this morning. We've already covered short vowels several months ago and we've been practicing them ever since using PP. She has no problems with them and she's doing great so far. This morning, I explained to dd that long-vowels are simpler, and that the diacritical mark are also a little different. We practiced a few of the words, switching between short & long vowel sounds. However, I noticed that during her reading, dd tended to blend everything as short-vowel sounds. And there's not enough teaching info in pp to for me to use to help her to understand the differences. I kinda gave up explaining it after a while. Do you have any suggestions for how I can teach the different sounds and help her to differentiate between the two?

For those who have downloading issues, try using Mozilla Firefox. It's the 2nd most popular web browser after Internet Explorer. Once you install Firefox, there is an add-on called DownThemAll which you can install within Firefox through the Tools > Add-ons menu. DownThemAll will allow you to save the funnix downloads in the directory of your choice. And once downloaded, you can just double-click it to run.

bump

Thanks for clarifying that. I looked at the HWT website and there were so many products, I was confused about where to start and what to buy :confused:

What is AAS?

bump

Hi, I've had DD practice her handwriting using ETC, not realizing it was for phonics/reading practice :banghead:. O.k I didn't read into it, I just flicked through ETC, read how much people liked it and decided 'yep that's what she needs'. DD would do about 4 pages of ETC at a time, and she really, really likes it. For phonics/reading practice we've been using PP (without doing the handwriting bit). However, dd and I find PP quite dry and boring at times. So I thought about using ETC as a supplement, mixing it with PP to make things a bit more fun. In the meantime, I'm on the lookout for a handwriting program that dd would enjoy - similar to ETC if possible. I've heard about HWT, but I'm worried about the cost and the amount of preparation time (though I've not looked into it in detail :glare:). I just want something you can pick up and start using. Any suggestions?

Thanks for clearing that up about ETC is meant to be used for phonics, and not for writing practice :blush: I guess I just got carried away with people saying how wonderful it was (and which it is). I picked up the book, saw all the handwriting stuff and thought, yep that's what dd needs. So at this point (we've only just started ETC book 1), should I switch over to another program? HWT seems to be mentioned a few times. Or I could continue with ETC, because dd really loves it, and its a good break for her after doing Phonics Pathway. Again thanks for point out my error:001_smile:

I thought it was the other way round, or am I wrong on this one?

How far would you go with Phonics Pathway? Would you complete the whole book or do you wrap up when your dc reaches a certain level of reading proficiency? So far we've done 1/5 of the book - just reading practice, we're not too worried about writing at this stage. At times it feels like we're practicing a list of spelling/reading rules. DD is 4.5 years old, and at this age, I'm not so sure how practical it is for her to master all the phonemic awareness stuff (and most likely end up forgetting them later on). I sometimes think that it's better for her to take in as much as she can, and perhaps come back to pp at a later stage. We love doing Phonics Pathway, we mix it up with Reading Pathway, Bob Books and quiet recently we've been enjoying the reading practice in starfall.com. ...waiting to hear your thoughts:lurk5:

Whenever 4.5yr old dd does ETC, i always end up looking over her shoulder, correcting her and making sure that she writes her letters correctly. Should I be doing this? Or should I let her practice her handwriting unsupervised, after all I think that was the goal of ETC. She has been doing handwriting (probably not consistently) at her preschool for about 6-8 months. Still she sometimes end up writing letters back to front or writing in a different stroke etc.

After reading your message, I voted for "other". Firstly, I believe that a good instructor takes a philosophical approach to martial arts. After martial arts is an art form, and you're looking for a good artist. He/she has a humble opinion and sees his/her skills as changing and incomplete. He/she continues to learn, perfect and improve their skills. Self control, respect, outlook on life etc. is part of his/her belief system, and it is this belief that gets passed on and makes discipline and self-control meaningful and possible for the students. One way you can separate the wheat from the chaff is to ask a few basic questions, listen and see what makes them tick i.e. How do you block a punch? How do you kick? How should you breathe? Does he/she speak with passion, in detail and with humility? What about the class? Was the instructor able to pass on his/her own passion for the art? Having said that, I went into martial arts (Tung Su Do - a form of Korean martial arts) for 6 years at the age of 10. While kids my age enrolled for various reasons - cool, self defense, fitness etc. What kept me going was my instructors passion. He passed his philosophical ideas and skills. During the six years, we continued to refine our punches, kicks, blocks over and over. We learnt the use of weapons and competed in tournaments. The students were one in mind and heart, they were as passionate and believed wholeheartedly in their sport. The discipline also kept me out of trouble, fit and focused on what I was doing. Martial Arts isn't everything, but it played an important role in guiding me through my teen years.

If you get the chance, read Cathy Duffy's 100 top picks for Homeschool Curriculum. There's a few chapter that helps you identify the learning style of your dc, you then identify the best math curriculum that best meets their learning style. I've approached every subject this way. And when a program doesn't work out, I try to work on my approach to teaching rather then switching curriculum. I'm not saying that it's the perfect or best solution, but it helps you narrow down your choices of programs.

It's best to stick together as a family, but there are times when you have to think ahead and think about your family's future. Five months apart in your situation isn't too long, though it'll certainly feel like years when you're actually apart. Despite what others may say, a separation can be a healthy experience as it'll force you to communicate in a way that you would not otherwise do while you're together. It's important that you are close to friends and family who can provide emotional support and comfort when you're apart. I'm talking about the type of friends you and your kids can hang out with, and you can open your heart to when the going gets rough - and it will. This, more than anything else will make the greatest difference in your ability to cope while you're apart. We've actually had to separate for five months, so we're speaking from experience. DH had to move overseas (from a 3rd world to a 1st world country) to find a job to support a family and find a home to live in. We did it because we wanted a better future for our family. Looking back, we've never regretted the decision, in fact, the sacrifice brought us a lot closer together. There's a lot of things to do and set-up whenever you move to a new country, so the earlier you start working on it, the better of you're going to be. We managed to get by using Skype - though it's not the same thing - you're still able to see and talk to each other. The internet infrastructure in South Korea and the US is among the best in the world, so you won't have a problem communicating over the internet. I hope all works out for you in the new year:001_smile:

Thank you :001_smile: I'm putting together an activity plan for 2011, so these resources will come in handy.

The site http://www.onlinetutoringworld.com was a great resource for me when I was working as an ESL teacher. It's great for tutors teaching ESL over the internet and as a resource about online tutoring in general.

Thanks Aurelia. Interesting idea about learning and retention. I usually do PP with DD after breakfast, so we could discuss the FIAR book and do the activity.

I thought that reading x3 books was a lot, but it seems the more you can do the better it is for the kids. I do the three because we afterschool our kids. Mornings and nights is the only time we get to read to them.

I posted this message on the FIAR forum yesterday but got no replies:confused: so I was hoping someone might be able to provide an answer here