Down_the_Rabbit_Hole
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Posts posted by Down_the_Rabbit_Hole
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My oldest ds, at age of 4, went through a love of bar soap. He had a whole collection. When asked what to get him for his birthday his response was soap. I got the weirdest looks from moms with that response, however on his birthday, it was the soap gifts that got his best excited responses.
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Ah yes, the never ending nouns of FLL.
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For the boys I would buy a Shop Vac and a leaf blower. Crazy ideas but BIG hits around here. You will be surprised at what a boy can come up with to do with these things.
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The curriculum I use has Algebra introduced early on, basic Algebra but still Algebra. And it presents it as Algebra so the word Algebra does not sent chills when they encounter it as a whole class later on.
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Ds is using core 100 this year. This is my second son using it. Both agree the Hakim books plus the Sl notes gives a nice grasp of US history. Ds is in 11th grade and is doing another English so we have done a few things different with the core. He is not using the writing prompts and I have substituted a few books with more grade appropriate books.
I will be using this core again with dd when she gets to High School.
What specific questions did you have?
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Dd will go on picture book spurts. I figure I give her assigned reading so if she wants to relax with quick reads I let her. However I do make sure the picture books are not geared to beginner readers but are more harder to read. Magic School Bus level books are great for this age. There are Math Mysteries and other harder to read Step into Reading type books that are geared to 2nd-4th. Some things you might want to suggest are the Arthur, Berenstain Bears, Amelia Bedilia, and Fancy Nancy chapter books. DD loves reading the picture books versions of these and was excited to find they had chapter books versions too.
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BJU is an excellent curriculum. The literature curriculum at the high school level is not simply reading. If done according to the way it is written in the teachers manuals it will provide a very thorough literature course. I have not used the DVD classes but have heard they are good.
I would prefer BJU to Abeka. I find BJU has more interesting choices and the manuals are more informative for you to help.
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Just a thought, look to see if the pattern has had an errors reported. I tried to make a tea cozy once (I am not a beginner knitter) and I could not get the pattern right. 3 x I tried and frogged. Problem was a simple error in the pattern.
As for what to do with the skirt, frog it. The idea of cutting the yarn is not the best unless it is a tangled mess. If you plan on trying the skirt again you might need the yarn to complete the skirt. You can always ask you girls to help frog....for some reason my dd gets a great joy out of frogging my problem projects.
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A couple of thoughts:
You've used a bunch of different methods in a short amount of time. I would guess that you didn't use any of them for more than a year, and sometimes you have to stick with something on a more long-term basis to see consistent improvement.
And you probably started with her when she was pretty young, an age when most children aren't spelling well anyone, and then you tried something else, which may have been confusing, and then you tried something else again when *that* didn't seem to help, either, and so on.
Many children will improve their spelling skills even if you don't do anything special. :-)
Before jumping into something else, you might try just making her slow down, and to impress on her the fact that when she misspells something in, say, her history assignment, it counts as a spelling mistake.
Y'all might know that I generally recommend Spalding, and if you decide to do something Official for spelling, that would be my recommendation. But it might not be necessary. :-)
True on all accounts :early start and jumping. Sigh, this is something similar to what hubby said, "why not stick with one thing". The boys all used BJU and spell great, maybe i should just stick with that (I have most of the guides). Thanks Ellie, will relook at what we have tried and maybe stick with one she knows.
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Post on their FB page and ask them how it's going. When I did that last year, they told me it should be out this fall. It obviously didn't make it. They then updated it to say it should be out the 2013-2014 school year. So maybe they can tell you if it's still an option or if they're pushing it out further.
I will do just that, thanks.
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I love All About Spelling, and it really helped both of my kids. However, before you buy something new, I would first assess whether you have a spelling problem or an editing problem. But do it in such a way as to not put any damper on things she writes creatively or just for fun outside of school (or even that might make her school writing become a big chore--I think it's important to find ways to work on spelling without sucking the joy out of writing, if that makes sense!)
If she is polishing a piece for school (and not every piece has to be polished), is she able to find and correct many of her errors when given a separate day to edit her work?
Here is a blog article that has some ways to address spelling in the context of their writing, whether or not you use AAS--you may find it helpful.
AAS provides an incremental approach to learning spelling rules and other concepts and skills that help students become good spellers, and it has scaffolding techniques like dictation and a Writing Station exercise that help kids begin to develop automaticity with spelling in their writing. It helps them develop the tools to analyze any word and know how to learn and master it's spelling. So, if your child does need incremental and more indepth help with spelling, it's a great choice.
HTH some as you decide what to do! Merry :-)
Thanks Merry
Great article. Over the next month I am going to try and determine if it is just editing or the need for a different spelling program. I know with all her writing, fun and school, she can whip out a full page extremely fast. Spelling is not the only problem on those papers, grammar she knows quite well will be forgotten.
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Are there book selections for the Van Cleve books to go along with the experiments she has?
I don't think so but each experiment explains the results. These usually explain why the results happen and other important info to help the child learn the science concept being seen.
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I love their science. We use it to go alongside Elemental Science to make a very nice, experiment filled, science year. I am hoping the physics will be out by next year because I have no backup if they do not. And chances are if they don't I would not even bother with the logic stage Biology...why tease myself. I like companies that, even though are still developing curriculum, show scheduled progress so you can plan alongside them.
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Not sure what you have against baggers and cashiers. At that age (15) you will be starting out at the bottom. Nothing wrong with that. A friend's son started out doing grocery carts at Walmart then moved up the ladder, as of several years ago he was going around the country overseeing the opening up new Walmarts.
I know some churches hire young people to work with the children. Some libraries hire teens to do the shelving. Mowing lawns. Window washing. Car wash. If you live near a marina, washing boats.
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Do you own your own house? If so give her a section of the yard just for her. She can dig, draw on the fence, decorate, plant, do whatever. Just provide the materials.
Her own:
yard/garden tools
chalk
hammer and nails
scrap wood
rope
string
seeds
mud
pots
rocks
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Anyone know if this a possibility by next year?
Several years ago when I first started using their science I was under the impression that they were working on completing the grammar stage levels in a timely manner, then the logic and so on. Now when I read their FAQ section I get the feeling they will complete the science levels when they feel up to the challenge.
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For that age I make a chart of what is expected for work to be considered complete. I also have an example of past work that they did that shows a properly completed work in both content and neatness so there is no doubt the expectations are not realistic. If after that they continue to turn in papers that are un-readable or poorly done, I trash it and they need to start over. By this age they know what I want and if for some reason they were having trouble with the work they know they should have come to me for help. There is no excuse at this age (provided the expectations have been explained and the student has shown competency in meeting this level of expectations).
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Unless you left out certain words of what she said I don't see it as racism. Why does everything need to be racism if it offends? When I read your beginning OP I never thought racism and was confused why you all of a sudden had to bring your skin color into it.
However, the librarian was wrong saying that (not for racism issues).
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Jan Van Cleve books at the library. She has one for every major science field. Most of the experiments use real common household things, are very simple, but are not lame or dull. You will see results. I use her books with any science I do now.
Another option, see if your library has the Magic School Bus chapter books. There is a web site with curriculum for the books that is free. http://yeeshallknow.com/science/
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Thanks. I looked at Spelling Wisdom and like it for an addition to a spelling program, something that will teach why a word is spelled the way it is spelled.
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My dd, almost 9, is an advanced reader and writer. Spelling, she can ace every test. However when she writes her spelling is atrocious. We have tried many different spelling curriculums, both word family based and phonics based, plus word list generated by her misspellings. The misspellings, when sounded out, will sound like the word so she is trying to apply phonics.
Things we tried:
Abeka Spelling
BJU Spelling
Natural Speller (Kathryn Stout)
Ruth Beechick's way of doing spelling from You Can Teach Your Child Successfully
Spelling Skills by Harcourt Family learning
I am looking at All About Spelling but open to suggestions either for a curriculum or ideas on getting her to spell better. I do think some of the problem stems from writing fast, she wants to get the words down and is not thinking of spelling correctly.
Any thought would be helpful.
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My favorite for that age is Wordsmith Apprentice
http://www.commonsensepress.com/wordsmith/wsapp.htm
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I would look at some older issues and see what tools are commonly needed.
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What about the military overseas...how will this effect them?
Social Security checks...most of these recipients live check to check...and they should be getting paid today.
If the post office is effected...what happens to all the bills you paid and are still in transit?
Do you agree? Can you raise a writer without a writing program?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I have been thinking about this lately. There is such a big emphasis on writing that the homeschool community spends quite a deal of money trying to find the one writing curriculum that will teach their children to write or have their child spend hours a day doing multiple writing related work. The joy of just writing is lost. Don't misunderstand me, I think writing well is important. Some students are natural writers (I have 1) and others need to be shown how to write (I had 3). None of the curriculums I used for writing, and I have used an extensive list of curriculums both big named ones and unheard of ones, actually taught the non writers HOW to write. Boiled down they either described the type of paper to be written or gave a formulized style of writing to follow. Basically they were just lists of writing assignments. It wasn't till actual words were on paper that the real lessons in writing began. Discussing the order of thoughts and making sentences more grammatically correct. Discussions on vocabulary used and rewording or reorganizing their sentences to sound better. THIS is where the actual learning to write came in.
By High School 2 of my 3 non writers learned to write. Each one developed their own style of writing within the given writing assignments. Of the 2, one feels confident in writing and one still feels unsure (even though his finished pieces have made me question if he copied portions of them because they sounded so good...he did not). Both always complained that the curriculums given were not teaching them to write. My natural writer is only 8...we will use a few curriculums along the way, not for instructional purposes but for the "fun" factor they will add to her writing (Wordsmith Apprentice, Cover Story, are 2 definites).
Basic grammar and vocabulary are important. Reading good writing is very important (from this they get grammar and advanced vocabulary in context). Extensive grammar can be taught as they write, it comes in when you help them clean up their writing.
I will add that of all the writing curriculums I used, only one really felt like it walked them through the actual writing and that was BJU (2nd-6th) only because each writing chapter had you and the child write a piece together before they did one solo. However this can be done with any curriculum you pick, work on a piece together with the child...it takes the "fear" of writing out of the assignment because they did it already with you.
I rambled, sorry...answer to main question, yes, I agree with the article, writing does not need to be taught with a curriculum.