morosophe
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Posts posted by morosophe
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Snap Circuit sets
:iagree:
My husband got the (complete) basic set for $15.00 at a yard sale, which is about half the price of new. Last fall, he and my oldest son (who was six) went through the projects in the book in the evenings after younger brother (who turned three last November) had gone to sleep. My oldest son loooved it. In fact, we just got the upgrade for the next set, and my son paid half from birthday money! (We decided to "match" his "contribution," since it was a purchase for the purposes of education.)
Plus, when the little pieces get lost, you can replace them fairly cheaply.
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I think that children usually have to feel comfortable with a particular word, and feel that they know what it means, before they'll use it in conversation. (Then again, there are the show-offs!) Having Mommy use whatever word is certainly the fastest, easiest way to get there. Even more, Mommy using an expanded vocabulary will remove any stigma from speaking "big" or "strange" words aloud. But as your children keep reading quality literature, they'll run into the same word again and again in different places, and their comfort level with it will rise enough they'll probably use it in conversation without even thinking about it. It really has become part of their vocabulary.
It just takes a long time that way, and a lot of reading. So, the method works for avid readers, but you probably won't start seeing results until junior high. And it really takes off when the kids are allowed to read for themselves and not treat books as an exercise in vocabulary. Of course, they have to get enough base vocabulary down first that they can keep plugging along when they hit a new and unfamiliar word, so it's a balancing act.
Of course, sometimes a child who's taught himself or herself vocabulary in this way will have taken hold of the wrong definition and/or pronunciation. You'll know when they've used a "book-learning" word when it makes you want to laugh at how it comes out. If you do laugh, you'll probably scare them off using big words somewhat--a better approach is to say, "Is that how it's pronounced? I always thought it was ______________." or "I don't think I've ever heard that word used like that. What are you using it to mean?" Then go look it up. This indicates that Mom could be mistaken and isn't ashamed to admit it, and also models dictionary use.
I do think Critterfixer's suggestion of audio books for younger children is a good one, because it doesn't take your time, the story keeps plugging right along even when big words that are new to you are used, and yet the reader's inflections provide clues as to its meaning (as well as its pronunciation). Plus, the kids can come to you asking "What does x mean?" when their ignorance is really impeding their understanding of the plot. Then you can either just tell them or look it up in the dictionary with them, depending on your available time and energy level, along with the difficulty of the word.
A little rant here:
It is very, very easy to make "vocabulary" lessons something your children dread. I have horrible memories of my seventh-grade literature class, where the teacher was very much paint-by-the-numbers and into "make work." She required us to do five vocabulary words per chapter of a book we'd read--we had to find them and write them and their definitions out three times. I never, ever found a word with which I was unfamiliar, and acquiring a dictionary that would have made me more familiar with nuance, which may have actually been helpful, would have required writing out a much larger definition. Three times. Don't ever, ever do this exercise with your children, except possibly as punishment, okay? Sure, it takes up the children's time and doesn't require much energy or time from you, but, if they're anything like me, your children will recognize that and resent you for it.
Similarly, if and when you do Shakespeare, try to find an edition that *doesn't* use superscript numbers in the text to denote footnotes that merely contain definitions of a word that may be unfamiliar. This is very disruptive to the reader, or at least it was to me--I kept having to restart passages when all that had distracted me was a word that I already knew! Argh! (I did warn you that this was a rant.) There are editions that use the superscript number in the text for passages whose exact wording is in dispute, or for cross-references to other works, or to talk about staging, etc. (For instance, such a footnote might point out that the Earl of Gloucester would be attempting to "commit suicide" by jumping off a chair or other short prop, and that the scene would have elements of the humorous, or that The Globe theater was indeed near a bear-baiting pit in London, so "Exit, pursued by a bear" may have involved the special effects extravaganza of an actual bear.) These may still use footnotes with line numbers for the definition of words they think may be new to the reader, in case lack of knowledge is what is disrupting their reading, rather than little footnote superscripts.
Of course, I can't deny that the best way to "get through" Shakespeare is to go see it.
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Well, this doesn't compare pros and cons of the handwriting styles, but it does show the alphabets in quite a few.
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Why does your husband like traditional schooling?
My husband would probably score rather similarly on a test like that, while I might score with you. Along with what posters have pointed out above about a lack of research, part of that is his experience talking, because, after all, he went to public school and did perfectly well. Part of it is that he's worried I'll "miss stuff." And part of it is that he's very much a checklist ticker: he likes making specific plans and completing them. It turns out that our oldest son shares a love of checklists with his dad, and always wants to know exactly what's supposed to happen, although I've tried explaining to him that life doesn't work like that. Still, he loves his predictable worksheets.
While I'm coming from a different general philosophy of homeschooling, I do appreciate a completed checklist and worry about "missing stuff." I was privately schooled, however, and even then I was "ahead" of the class about 90% of the time. That doesn't mean that I was a particularly gifted student, by the way--it was more that the two or three students having trouble with a particular topic would slow the rest of the class down. I feel like I was just treading water academically at school until high school, when the tracking our school did paid off in more exciting classes for me.
Plus, I was an English major for a reason. I love good books. Textbooks don't qualify. My history major husband completely agrees with me on that, particularly in the area of history textbooks. He read Lies My Teacher Told Me ages ago, when our first was still a baby and we hadn't even seriously considered homeschooling. While he considers most of that book socialistic claptrap, its description of how history textbooks are created and for what audience both enlightened and appalled him. Besides, the entire idea of textbooks being the be-all, end-all for history is troubling to a true history scholar.
To build up your children's skills, however, the textbooky approach is actually a very valid one. You need a slow, incremental approach that covers one lesson at a time and applies them right away; you can't really afford to go skipping merrily around, or you (or your child) really could miss something foundational. Skills your child needs include phonics, writing, spelling, grammar, math, and perhaps thinking skills. As I pointed out in another thread recently, sometimes children figure phonics out on their own more quickly than a phonics program manages to teach it, and some people just are natural spellers. Still, both of those subjects are pretty valuable for a student, and one of the advantages of schooling at home is that you can tailor a program to your student or even drop it entirely when you feel the subject has become unnecessary.
Therefore, there are some very "schoolly" resources out there that you will find even homeschoolers on these boards enthusing about. For instance, I love my Rod & Staff grammar book, even though I won't start using it with my son until next year, because it seems like a thorough introduction to the topic that covers material slowly and gently enough to allow it to really sink in. For another example, Singapore math (which I don't use, by the way) is often highly praised around here.
A side note: Math-U-See, which I do use, has been used in the classroom, I believe. Even better, the Math-U-See program includes DVDs or videos of its creator teaching a classroom of students for each and every lesson. I just let my son watch those for his math--it's worked very well for us so far! (Yes, I might just as well be sending him to school for that one lesson, I know, I know. And I also know that Math-U-See has been accused of "missing stuff." But my son enjoys it and seems to be moving steadily along, so I think I'll stick with it for now.)
As for the rest, if your husband harbors the same concerns about "missing things" that mine did (and does), have you considered a "living books" approach that plans everything out for you, so he can feel confident in the fact that your approach is thorough and shared by hundreds or thousands of other home schooling mothers? That's what I did--it was also a great way to get my feet wet. (Well, actually I got my feet wet with unit studies for kindergarten, but I'm assuming that your stepdaughters are older.) We use Sonlight for now, which I love, but there are others available: Winter Promise, Heart of Dakota, Veritas Press, just to name the few that I can remember. (These are all Christian programs, by the way.) Most of these focus on history and literature, and/or science sometimes, but offer additional resources or suggestions for the other subjects. Meanwhile, the community of experienced users of the product will provide reassurance for your husband and support for you.
Or at least, it worked for us!
You can always branch out more as you go on. Your husband will hopefully learn to trust you, you will learn to trust yourself, and everyone will learn more about what does and doesn't work for your students. I think that's pretty much inevitable whenever you homeschool and whatever your flavor.
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Are you a Christian? (Wow, now I feel like I'm about to invite you to a revival meeting. Weird.) If you are, you might be interested in What Your Child Needs to Know When: According to the Bible, According to the State, by Robin Sampson. If you aren't, it might only irk you.
I don't actually own this resource, and the fact that it seems to be selling a particular teaching approach is a little worrying. Still, it's garnered all favorable reviews on Amazon so far, and it does sound like exactly what you're asking for. (Assuming you're willing to pay for a book. And that you're interested in a Christian approach, of course.)
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When my husband and I were first married, and even for a little while after our oldest son was born, we read to each other. I think we got "read out" when my son started getting old enough to get read to, though. Maybe we'll start again someday.
From what I understand, it wasn't terribly uncommon in the nineteenth century for people to gather round in the evenings to do their handiwork and listen to a family member read. See, for one example, Understood Betsy, in which Betsy is given this all-important task. The day when the latest serial in a Dickens story arrived was sure to be a particularly big day!
And yes, my husband and I were reading Dickens to each other as well. His work is a lot of fun to do that way, as the readers of A Tale of Two Cities who posted above may attest.
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For what it's worth, I never received a lick of phonics instruction in my life, and I've always been an excellent reader and a strong natural speller.
Phonics instruction has the best chance of success for the greatest number of children, but that doesn't mean every child needs it.
I completely agree. I received loads of phonics instruction, actually, so I'm probably not the best spokeswoman for this, but I firmly believe that most of the phonics instruction I received was worthless, in my case. I'd already figured it out for myself. As Isabel and Peter Myers point out in their explanation of their personality types, Gifts Differing, some kids are good at figuring out how sounds relate to the letters used to represent them "on their own." They get a little help from their parents (or others) on how particular words are pronounced and proceed apace willy-nilly. (If you follow MBTI theory, which is not necessary for this argument, the authors believe this to be very true of intuitives, and argues that INs are particularly likely to "catch on" to reading very, very quickly.) Others need the solid, step-by-step approach of a strong phonics program. (Once again, in MBTI these are supposed to be the sensers. ESs are claimed to often be the slowest.) Remember, there are people (such as Frederick Douglass) who successfully taught themselves to read with only a little basic knowledge about the relationship between words and sounds.
I personally found phonics very, very boring and insulting. And I have to admit, I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for my own son, who has since gone on splendidly. I have absolutely no problem talking about a new word he's having difficulty with, and how exactly the letters make the sounds for that word, so we're still covering phonics on a case-by-case basis. Just in case there's actually something to systematic phonics (although, of course, English is such an inveterate borrower of a language with such variances in spelling that a truly comprehensive phonics system would be insane to study), we're doing All About Spelling for our spelling, starting next year. (Well, that and All About Spelling is a really neat-looking product. Who wouldn't want to play with tiles and cards? Hey, it looks like half my husband's games, if you're squinting!) So don't worry about my poor son, limited by his mother's refusal to give him real phonics. (Just in case I gave you nightmares!)
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Here's a confession: I love my food processor. And one thing I do with it is chop up leftover meat, when nobody can stand to look at it anymore. Throw it in the pot with plenty of taco seasoning, and my kids will take it on their tacos just fine. (This doesn't work for corned beef, by the way. Or at least I've never tried it.)
Here's another confession: I do this on purpose, now. I finally have a reason to make pork roasts. All those bland slices in the middle? Fodder for my food processor!
Not that this really helps you at all, but it's another consideration for leftovers, along with those good old soups and stews.
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Does anyone like Sonlight LA? Or, is it pretty universal that it doesn't work well for most children? :bigear:
Well, we tried it this year, and I have to join the hatemongers. We switched to Writing with Ease halfway through the year.
However, it wasn't actually the whole program that was bad. They have a copywork/grammar component that actually worked really well for my son, and a composition component that really didn't. (We did Readers 2 Regular--I believe it's called second grade level now.) The copywork/grammar component was always the first and second day of the week. The first day would be copywork from a reading the child had done, and the second would handle grammar related to that passage. Here's an example from Week 34, almost the end of the year, since it's still in my binder:
Copywork: "I have found lost balloons, books, slippers, chickens. Even a lost goldfish. Now I, Nate the Great, will find a lost picture."Application: Rewrite the first two sentences of the quotation in the copywork passage as one sentence.Occasionally the "application" would be more composition than grammar, (for instance, Week 35 involves writing your own description of something that is described in the copywork,) but generally it would be grammar-related.
Then, on days four and five of the language arts, the other creator of the LA stepped in, and did what she did best: inspire children to greater heights of creativity, by imploring them to do such thing as write a journal entry from a time-traveler. Seriously, that was much earlier in the year (about when I gave up on the "composition days" of Sonlight's language arts), and it was insane. Sorry, my first-grade boy is just not there yet. He was fine with the copywork assignments and associated grammar, though, so the problem wasn't all that the work was intended for second-graders.
It was just bizarre. Monday he's limping through seven-word sentences, and by Friday he's to be prepared for a several-paragraph creative exercise? Not only do I not have time to be amanuensis for my six-year-old, he can't come up with enough thoughts to finish the assignment anyhow.
In other words, if you really do have a creative genius who's started telling you stories, maybe Sonlight's LA program is for you. If, like the rest of us, the only thing you ever hear from your child is enthusiastic descriptions of Plants vs. Zombies (I blame Dad), go with something else. Or, if you have the money to throw around, stick with the copywork-related half of the week, and find something else to help with composition.
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I must admit, we pretty much skipped grammar for first grade. We have Schoolhouse Rock, so my son is getting acquainted with parts of speech, but I'm really coming to feel that a formal grammar curriculum is just not necessary in first grade. There's so much new stuff that they're doing anyhow, why pile that on top?
Several publishers seem to agree with me, since Rod & Staff and Daily Guided Teaching & Review don't even start their grammar programs until second grade. (And those are just the couple I've looked at.)
Are you doing copywork? For first grade, that's a great place for grammar to start and, really, end. Include proper nouns and place names, and then talk about why they're capitalized. Point out the verb (or other part of speech) and have your child redo the sentence with a different one. Definitely give sentences with direct quotes included, and talk about attribution and point out the punctuation. That kind of approach will do a great job laying the groundwork.
Or, you could do the sample pages of First Language Lessons found online or check it out from the library (ours has it) and try it with your son. He may surprise you!
Note: I have not done First Language Lessons because it just wasn't that appealing to me. Plus, it turns out that my son seems to be strongly visual, so all that chatting about grammar would have been completely wasted. Also, I'm an English major and talking about grammar is second nature to me anyhow, particularly when I can correct someone else. Pity my poor family members!
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Speaking of fires...
I got my dad a cast-iron grill for his birthday last year. He'd asked for a grill, because he was sick of the buggy one he had, so I did some research before joining together with my siblings to get him a Lodge Logic hibachi grill. "Wow, that sounds heavy," you may be thinking, and it is, a little, but not much more than any other charcoal grill, really. What it is is *tiny.*
But my dad loves it. He's cooked the usual hot dogs, hamburgers, and kebabs, but also chicken and steaks. What he really likes about the cast iron part of it is that the entire grill surface is evenly hot, so you don't have to keep moving things around, and you can use all of the surface. He really doesn't mind the "tiny" thing at all.
The only downside to this grill is probably that it can't get wet. That doesn't bother my father at all, since it's easy to take inside and store once it's cooled down.
Just thought I'd add my two cents about how that even-heating thing works for more than just griddles!
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For the 3rd and 5th graders:
My son loves his FlashMaster. It's pricy but I justified the cost by making it a birthday present. But it doesn't really do anything different or better than flashcards--it just makes it so the teacher doesn't have to be part of the process! (It also keeps track of what your child is getting right and wrong.)
Math-U-See has some sort of funky fraction cards. (We haven't gotten to fractions yet, although we do use MUS. We're still on subtraction!) Lots of people don't like them, though.
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Sometimes the kids that are a little advanced academically might honestly have social problems not because they're "smart" but because one (or maybe more) of the kinds of personalities that loves academics has trouble with social situations. In other words, it's not a symptom, it's part of the disease. Hence Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory.
For another humorous take on this, check out the "Geek Social Fallacies."
On the other hand, some people just have very different interests. Sometimes these are shallow, sometimes they're just different.
And sometimes a social situation, such as at a restaurant at the end of the long week, is a place for people to decompress by talking about something different and easy for a change, instead of doing more deep thinking. Those "deep thinking" conversations were, for me at least, more appropriate for two or three people studying late in the same hall (to let their roommates sleep) in a college dorm at two to three in the morning.
Just some thoughts!
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To be honest, it's more that my mother has loved the Healthy Indulgences recipes that I've made for her. She doesn't usually use that site herself! One of the recipes she swears by, though, to satisfy her bread cravings, is that for "Oopsie" rolls. Here's the recipe, but here's a more helpful introduction to them and all their variations. My mother will usually make up a batch of these once a week or so, I think.
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Well, I can't really answer your question about baking mixes. I don't know that GF/low-carb ones exist, although I'd certainly appreciate it if they did!
I do know that my mother (who is celiac and diabetic) has loved Healthy Indulgences, just in case you haven't found that site yet. And if you have, you may not have noticed that she has a pancake recipe! It looks like you could mix the dry ingredients up in a batch ahead of time, too. (It is still about 12 grams of carbs per 2-pancake serving, though, so it should probably only be an occasional treat if you have to be as strict about it as my mother does.)
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Okay, a couple issues I have here:
What kind of trellis are you using? If it's the nylon netting I use, you're supposed to be able to weave the top of the plant back and forth through the netting as it grows.
Secondly, what kind of tomato are you growing? Determinate or indeterminate? A determinate tomato, in my opinion, doesn't really need a trellis. It does need those tall tomato cages, but since you have to let all the suckers grow and it never gets all that tall, trellising doesn't really work well for it, and isn't necessary in the first place.
Thirdly, since you're supposed to bury as much of the tomato plant as you can to make a stronger root system, and Mr. Bartholomew recommends doing this by lying the plant down in the plot, the part of the plant that comes up always is at the side of its square when I do it. (Actually, it's usually in the corner.) But since my trellises are anchored by pegs that are pounded in beside the garden in line with approximately the middle of the square, it wouldn't really matter. (It's really hard to write that out so it makes sense, but it really does. :p)
Finally, in my considered experience, tomatoes are pretty forgiving. You could do it all wrong, forget to water half the time, even plant them in good ol' Virginia CLAY instead of a nice square-foot garden, and they'll still give you at least some fruit. Of course, I don't know how they do in other states, but hopefully the principle still applies.
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Does R & S English 2 (or 3? not sure which level we'll need by the next school year) have sufficient writing instruction/practice, or does it work best as a grammar program alongside another writing program? (Note: I have English 2 in my cart! I just haven't clicked on "Proceed to Checkout" yet. LOL.) :lol:
For a strong, verbal 2nd grader who writes easily, reads at a high level, and enjoys grammar (and will have completed FLL 1 & 2), would you start with R & S English 2 or 3?
Is R & S Reading 2 a good series? I like the look of that, too. Hmmmm....
I have Grammar 2, not 3 yet, and that's all the Rod & Staff I have, so I hope somebody else will chime in here with answers for you.
That being said, I'm doing more writing than this program involves, and my son hates writing. This is very strong at grammar, but, since your daughter is such an eager author/poetess, you'll probably still want to keep looking for composition help. Sorry!
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I'll try to find that thread, thanks!
Oh, sorry, it's right here. The thread starts by talking about Rod and Staff products in general, but most of the posts are in praise of the grammar curriculum, which seems by far to be their most popular offering. It's certainly the only product of theirs that I'm using!
Another thread on the forum talks about how it does diagramming, which reinforces what I learned from one of the reviews that tipped me toward the program when I was researching it.
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Well, as has been discussed in another thread today, a lot of people (myself included) really like Rod and Staff's grammar series. The third grade level should be fine to start in.
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Some are better read aloud--Gerard Manley Hopkins, for ex, cannot be done justice silently. The syllables in "To the Windhover" make the sound of a bird's wings rustling the air as it rises, but you miss that entirely if you don't read it aloud.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I admitted to forcing my husband to hear me read Gerard Manley Hopkins earlier in the thread, (although I occasionally break into Kipling, as well--he's so infectious!,) and then realized that everyone would think I was crazy. It's nice to know there's a fellow poetry-appreciator out there. I must admit that I like "Pied Beauty" and "God's Grandeur" slightly better than "To the Windhover," but that's up there among my favorites, too.
Or, actually, you might appreciate it more than I do. I haven't read poetry in bed since college, that I can remember.
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I think why some love it so much is because of the books. The books are the meat of it all. They are very well chosen and many were chosen to evoke an emotional response to the historical material. SL advocates that evoking that emotion will help a person remember history better. I have found this true in our family. They also include books that are more picture rich from the History portion of the curriculum.
The other thing I find attractive about Sonlight is actually the scheduling. It's been very helpful to have everything laid out (when to read and do what) without having to do the work myself. Plus it helped motivate my son, since he is very much a box-ticker. I just did my first year homeschooling him for first grade, and having everything laid out for me has really helped me gain confidence in how homeschooling with living books is "meant" to work.
(I actually just told a complete fib. I homeschooled my son for his kindergarten, too. The difference is, I used Five in a Row, which is also a great program, but has a much more light approach to things. I didn't want to continue that through first grade because I thought my son was ready for the meat and potatoes of school.)
I have a church friend who does Sonlight, as well, and she has finally completed all of her chemo treatments for cancer. The fact that she uses Sonlight meant that it was very easy for others (her husband, her parents, etc.) to substitute teach her children, and made things a little less stressful for her through the whole ordeal.
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Ugh. I really need help with this. I really do. And a way to see these curricula in person. How? :confused:
You said you've seen Math-U-See in person, so their demonstration video probably won't help you. So why did I bother writing this? :p
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Are you comfortable with something that demands a lot from you or would you prefer something open-and-go?
My experience with MUS is that it's a good program but a lot for me to pull together. On my best game I could handle it but when I had a busy week or some stress it tended to fall apart. If you have no worries along that line then it's supposed to be an excellent program.
I find this hilarious, because I cracked the teacher manual for the first time this week to make checking my son's multi-digit addition a little easier. (Clearly, he's in Beta.) For everything else he's just watched the DVD lesson and done his homework.
I did work with him a lot in the Primer level, particularly with the manipulatives. But now I just have to remind him to do his math, and he'll open his workbook or get the DVD and put it in the player downstairs. That means that that's a little more time I can spend keeping my two younger children from tearing the house apart. And I think my son enjoys getting a break from me as a teacher, too!
It just goes to show what very different experiences people can have with the same curriculum.
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Ummm... You could try Complete Writing Lessons for the Primary Grades? The Cathy Duffy review claims that "If you like creative writing, this is the book to use for beginning writing!" Unfortunately, as Ms. Duffy states and as can be seen in the samples provided by the publisher (click "preview pages" to see samples), this was originally designed for use in public schools, so the content is secular and presupposes a classroom full of students, so you'd have to do some adapting. It also looks rather teacher-intensive, although honestly, everything in second grade looks teacher-intensive.
I wish I had your problem, by the way. My son, who is also entering second grade, has no desire to write creatively.
Printable daily planner/checklist for kids?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted · Edited by morosophe
Note: I've snipped this quote to the parts that helped me.
THANK YOU, JEN! I've tried Homeschool Tracker but, since I use Ubuntu, it required a whole lot of modifying Wine with packages that may or may not be secure, and then I couldn't even get the sucker to print properly. I had heard Homeschool SkedTrack referred to before, but I always assumed it was a paid site. I tried it out yesterday, thanks to your recommendation, and it is wonderful.
And yes, I can print out "to do" lists for my son, which is what I wanted the most, anyhow. Plus, "rescheduling" is really, really, really easy. It isn't even so much as "rescheduling" as it is: these are the assignments he is to do next, just keep giving the first one(s) to him until I say he's done them. Plus, it makes allowances for putting in whatever got completed in the twenty-minute block of time dedicated to, say, spelling, instead of requiring particular lesson plans ahead of time. Wow!
Of course, I do have a dedicated internet line--not quick, because we live so far out it has to be satellite, but there. That requirement is about the only real downside I could see to using this program, though. The tutorials were thorough and very helpful, too.
So, once again, THANKS, JEN!