Yes, thank you, you are right I was confusing narration with dictation. Thanka for taking the time to clarify that with references. I haven't read WWE in 10 years 😛 I was also sleep deprived! For an older child beginning official narration, am I on the right track from what I described, though? Is there anything you or anyone recommends that particulary worked with their student, sparked their interest?

Greetings all, I've homeschooled for others and tutored kids and now I'm helping a family member homeschool her 11 year old daughter. Her reading is a few grades behind, but that's not due to lack of intelligence. I've tested her, it's more due to her reluctance (mom says she's stubborn and I had one of those) bc reading takes time and effort when she'd rather be doing another activity, compounded by the fact of being in a large family where now, all the older ones that could help learn and teach together are out of the house. Her mom has also been working from home full time for years. I want to start dictation bc she has a bright younger brother who loves to compete with her and they enjoy learning, being asked questions and summarizing. I've spent time with them and the Socratic method works best to stimulate their analytic and recall skills. I've read the Kindle book, Know and Tell which I'm glad I bought, as it was instructional with many insights I agreed or indentified with. I can't think of a better way to end that sentence, lol grammar nazi here. The 11 year old student is fully capable of making logical conclusions despite the reading delay so I wanted to ask what was your experience using dictation maybe with a delayed reader? Middle grade kids? Or best advice? Is there anything you would avoid? I've also read WWE and have one of the workbooks. I was thinking of having her and her brother dictate first from their favorite books, then from their favorite subjects. For instance, there are lessons learned from historical figures, inventors or Prophets, and recounting (ok I realize summarizing is perhaps a subset skill of dictation) what they read or heard. Am I getting too far ahead of myself? I appreciate any suggestions and sorry for the long question. Thanks!

I think when it comes to this it's good to choose one way to multiply, teach that until the child has it down well, then later introduce another way just so he/she is 1) familiar with the other method and 2) won't freak out teachers or other adults who have only seen the one common way, lol Also, when learning new concepts some children just don't "get it" for weeks and a different approach is needed. Division with this method is covered on both the websites i posted. I would use what method is easiest for her to understand. and i misspelled similar in my first reply, sorry i just HAD to say it:tongue_smilie:ocd ~Sara Iman wa Ilm Seminary (Faith and knowledge seminary)

Oooo, im so glad you posted this. i discovered the partial products method a few years ago when i stumbled across this site: http://fivejs.com/a-better-way-to-multiply-the-partial-products-method/ i like having a video to look at :001_smile: Also, i found this recently http://www.khanacademy.org/ but here he goes into a new multiplication method I have never seen, called Lattice multiplication similiar to above: http://www.khanacademy.org/video/lattice-multiplication?playlist=Arithmetic I have to see this a couple more times to get it esp. the larger numbers ;) Which do you prefer? I know multiplication was HARD for dd and i was glad i found the partial products method but more in shock no one ever taught me this in school AND comments on youtube from professor's who had never even seen it! The fact that you do the multiplication first THEN all the adding makes it easier than switching back and forth. I guess also it depends on the person. I had to get used to the PPM but once I did, i prefered it and so did my daughter and it was easy to check if she made mistakes. You cannot do that easily with typical long multiplication. Sara

Well i was going to say it's a great idea but then i saw you posted in March! I was trying to do a search to see if there were any discussions on the website www.createbetterwriters.com but it just found everything about writing! While i appreciatte Writing with Ease, the free newsletters from this site give you a jump start in teaching your child writing. It includes info for the parent and worksheets that are really helpful. My favorite that even my daughter was thrilled about was the first newslettter with pdf "Better ways of saying 'said'" including a whole list of words to use instead of 'said'. Of course, they are trying to sell you their writing program but the monthly newsletters are one of the few easy to use resources for teaching writing i have found. Even better, they don't send you a lot of email, which i dislike. You get no more than two a month usually. If we had a particular place to go for links and resources like Capt Uhura suggested, we could have quick resources at our fingertips. There is so much info nowadays its overwhelming! It would be good to have a "top faves" list or maybe concise list that many voted on. Anyway, check out that website, the newsletters and worksheets are so good i signed up again with a new email address to start them over because i have been through like, 4 computers and hadn't saved the files. Now that my DD is writing i knew they would help me teach her and develop her skills. p.s. i'm new here and don't exactly know how "stickys" work! Do i change that y to ie? lol

I know this is an older post and I hope I am not stepping out of line by suggesting a site. I'm sorry if its been listed before on the forums. http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/ It is by far one the most comprehensive websites on phonics with teacher guides as well as many downloadable books ready for a child to read. It's an educational jackpot! It has so many resources for reading and phonics in fact, it can be overwhelming so i suggest Word Mastery for the first three grades by Florence Akin : http://www.donpotter.net/PDF/Word%20Mastery%20-%20Typed.pdf this is listed on the first link above but the blend phonics page is good and the Valuable reading programs from the past is priceless. My son loves reading these by himself online, as some get gradually harder. I personally have tried Phonics Pathways and i liked it but I wanted to get down to teaching reading right away so I preferred Alpha Phonics Primer for Beginning Readers. I happened to find one at a used book store for only $6 or so. Phonics Pathways is good because it teaches spelling and reading rules along the way, whereas Alpha Phonics is just words and no pictures at all, its all drill. It's excellent and takes them beyond third grade reading, even recommended for dyslexics but Dd got bored and wouldnt read lessons more than 15 minutes at a time! It is perfect for reviewing, though. After years of research, teaching my kids, tutoring others and working in schools as a teachers assistant i feel phonics and decoding is the best way to teach kids to read, with few exceptions. For instance, i covered the 100 most common words in the English language with my kids and many of those don't follow rules so they have to be "sight" words. Best Wishes, Sara