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homeschoolkitty

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Posts posted by homeschoolkitty

    Handwriting for K student

    in PreK and K

    Posted

    It’s been my experience with my kids and students that you go at the pace they are setting, I remember very well slowing things down for my very young reader and letting her write with no instruction as she was young... oh the years it took to correct bad habits, go at your kids pace. If you want to slow down a little try cursive, like “Cursive First” 

    have fun. 

    Dysgraphia options: HWT, OT, typing

    in The Learning Challenges Board

    Posted · Edited by homeschoolkitty
    including a picture

    All these resources look great! Something that I have used is the clock to teach the letters, but I made a page with clocks so my kids could write on each clock for small words. Also, in my case my kids needed the color doted line in the middle differentiated from the red baseline vs the blue top guide. My kids had no spatial connection to all black lines. Look at the screen picture of the design for upper case.

    find a free sample download here.

    Mrs. Q

     

    watermark clock paper sample I made.jpg

    • Like 1

    Favorite Free Cursive?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    First, thanks slache for reposting this as a PDF!

     

     

    I clearly need to research cursive styles more ... this looks beautiful, and I love the method-based letter groupings! Out of curiosity, if you used this with your kids, do you think it would be too hard for a 2nd grader? My kiddo wants to do cursive this year and I might try it out even though it says it is for 3rd-5th graders.

    I use Spell to Write and Read and they recomend Cursive First which is so similar to the clock climbing letters program suggested above! The main difference is say the "a" in CF starts at the baseline then goes up to the 2 on the clock, then back around, etc, etc. the climbing clock letters program starts at 1 on the clock.

     

    My kids start Cursive in Kinder. I also transition the older kids to CF. I found my kids needed more practice so I used my clock paper for them to practice and to correct their writing on the page. They wrote all over the place even in lined paper.

     

    Here is the fonts of SWR and CF

     

    http://swrtraining.com/shop/penmanship/cursive-first/

    Handwriting, Printing 3rd Grader

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I've made a paper that helped my kids. They are visual but older. They needed the red baseline, blue middle dotted line and top guide for a while. They were embarrassed to use the Kibder paper with so wide spacing...My oldest had letters swiming all over the place on lined paper! After using my paper she can write straight on white paper after much practice on much smaller spacing.

     

    I'm not home, so I cannot today, tomorrow night I'll post it.

     

    K

    Orton-Gillingham based phonics program

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I am surprized that no one mentioned Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri. SWR is a full LA program, they have a cool app, they are not that expensive, and the thing is there is only need of one basic set per teacher, as the teacher can make copies for her/his students.

    There is a FaceBook Group called SWR Training and the lady there has made awsome videos explaining how to do things.

     

    I have Riggs Institute books, they are expensive, but you can find them used. They are too convoluted for something really simple to do. as SWR, they have their own notebooks, etc. but all of them use clock letters to print and do cursive. That is why I made my own clock letter paper to go with any of the Orton based curricula, as it helped my kids practice better.

    My avatar is a sample of that, here is the link for my TpT store.

     

    Mrs. Q

     

    For some reason I am only allowed to post 62 KB of data so here is the link to the picture I mean

    Get er done cursive

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I used Cursive First, loved it! Then The Memoria press product... but found the most effective way was using A clock so I could talk to my kids the directions.

    <----- look at my avatar... I made clock papers so they could practice not floating their letters and later on how to do connections. But that was in addition to teaching them Cursive First.

    AP exam in 8th grade

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I agree that I am a homeschooler, therefore I do not do a school at home. I don't plan to copy BasisEd at home, however, just like many others, I do look at different curricula, I spice up my teaching, and I look at what the Schools around me--and around the world--are doing. I know my kid's "learning style" I know what fits them, and I am willing to challange myself to help them learn.

     

    As I mentioned before there was ONE thing that really took me by surprized and that was that they take AP exams in 8th grade....I do know that they start schools in expensive neighborhoods, have no free lunches, and have no bussing, making that a little weed-out system for them, and they have been publicly critizied for their drop out rates in upper grades.

     

    I am not an apologist for this school, I am glad that so many have an opinion about my first question. I'd like to hear answers to my second question. If your child has taken AP exams, I see someone did that  in 7th grade here, how did you prepare, and how did you prepare your kids for it. I agree, exam taking should be part of of their lives so they are exposed to tests like this. Part of that would be to see how my kids do with tests... so far there is no problem, they are great readers, they need practice with writing.

     

    My thoughts with APs are mainly saving 10k-40k depending on what school my kids get into, I talk about US History because it's a love we have for it.

     

    Mrs. Q.

     

    AP exam in 8th grade

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Frankly, I think this sounds like a sure way to make kids hate history.  

     

    I don't think so, my kids already love History, we do our homeschool around History. We even use Science in the Beggining Series of books by J Wile and Berean Builders Publishers Who set Science in a History timeline.

    Perhaps is my use of the word "drill" that makes it sound boring, I should say then practice, or make sure to include and repeat the topics covered in the U.S. History AP.

    AP exam in 8th grade

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted · Edited by homeschoolkitty

    Have you heard of BasisEd? one of the top 5 schools system in the country. So when in the news some school like that comes to light I usually ask myself what are they doing right that I can use in my homeschool... There are many things, but one thing jumped out at me... they start their AP exams in 8th grade with the US History AP. By the time they take the May test they have covered US History for many years, and are prepared.

    By graduation they have taken 9 to 11 AP exams. They spend their Senior Year doing a Thesis, or a project that of course needs to be aproved.

     

    My kids are in elementary school. so why am I still thinking about AP tests? If I set my eyes on the US History AP, then I have a few years to drill the content into my kids and then let them try it.

     

    What are yourt thoughts with mimiking succesful "schools" or with AP tests early on? If you have taken AP courses, how have you prepared your student?

     

    Thanks

    Mrs Q

    American History like MOH or SOTW

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I'm looking for American History that is like Mistery of History and/or Story of the World.

    The main thing I am looking for is the CDs and activity workbook on CD as well.

    Thank you for your input!

     

    I have a 4yr old, 6 yr old, 8yr old, and almost 11 yr old. And we have not done American History! 🤦ðŸ»â€â™€ï¸

     

    Thanks,

     

    K

    Letter formation in Lefties

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted · Edited by homeschoolkitty

    Ellie, do you know the difference between Spalding and Riggs handwriting? Both seem to use the clock face method with starting positions at certain spots on the clock. I can't find Riggs materials cheap and don't want to buy the manual just for the handwriting component.

    I have Riggs, I'm no expert, but Riggs has an extra sound for some phonograms, the French Shwa so for "a" you have 4 sounds.... I cannot make that sound do I went with SWR. But they are the first that I learned about that used clock letters for teaching manuscript, so my kids learn with the clock.

     

    However, I needed them to practice, so I made them lined with middle dotted line clock paper, for uppercase, then just a clock for the bottom line for lower case formation. It worked great for Cursive too. I don't have lefties, so I'm not sure if they would help for your lefty but I think practice will help.

     

    ðŸ‘ðŸ¼

     

    Best luck!

    post-35180-0-61668900-1501691027_thumb.png

    post-35180-0-61668900-1501691027_thumb.png

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