MerryAtHope
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Posts posted by MerryAtHope
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On 6/30/2021 at 2:22 PM, Kezia said:
I don’t know if he is still a poor speller. Maybe?
When I started homeschooling starting with 4th grade I noticed too many misspelled words and felt he needed a lot of work in that area. He did well on spelling tests, in 3rd grade public school and at home 4th grade, but he didn’t apply it to every day writing. He has shown some improvement. Spells the words just fine as we do spelling. He does dictation from AAS perfectly. He can answer the review cards from AAS. He does daily editing practice from a workbook and generally spots the spelling mistakes.
I still see quite a few simple mistakes in his first drafts. Maybe careless about spelling mistakes when his brain is trying to come up with original sentences?
My plans for this next twelve months include far more writing across curriculum. I was hoping that would just organically have him easily spelling most things correctly the first time, leaving only difficult or unknown words misspelled.
It's a good sign that he can spot mistakes with the daily editing practice he does. Honestly, it's pretty normal for kids to have more misspelled words in a first draft.
When students are writing outside of spelling time, they have many more things to focus on–content, creativity, organization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, capitalization, what kind of audience they are addressing–it’s a lot to think about at once. Many kids are in junior high (and for struggling spellers, even high school) before they are able to put these skills together more effectively. Many students definitely need ongoing training in this area. Here are two articles with tips to help you:
It sounds like you're doing a good job of having him analyze his spelling mistakes. I would just let him have a separate editing time (maybe on a separate day) before he shows you his rough drafts.
To help my kids start to use some beginning editing skills, I first worked on it through the dictation. When they made a mistake, I would say, “There’s one spelling error. Can you find it?” Praise if he can find it. Then see if he knows how to change it. If he’s not sure, give a question to prompt, such as, “Can you think of a rule that applies?” or “Sound out exactly what you wrote” (very useful if he has a wrong phonogram, too many sounds, or a sound left out of the word) or, “Can you think of a word that might have another option for one of the phonograms?” Try to lead to the answer by getting him to think it through. However, if he starts to get frustrated, you can give more help and just model the process of thinking of the rule, sounding it out, or trying different phonograms.
Make sure to put any missed words back in daily review until they are truly mastered.
When we started the Writing Station activity, I would put a light pencil x next to each line that had a mistake, and would again see if my child could find them. Again, praise for any he finds. This is hard work for them, and you really want to encourage them. Go through the same process I described above.
When he has the hang of editing in dictation and Writing Stations, then you can start to help him edit outside writing that needs to be polished (not all writing needs to be polished, and sometimes if the subject is science or history, I would choose to focus on content, knowing that spelling would eventually come along. Kids can get discouraged if you focus on everything at once–the goal of perfection seems unattainable.)
HTH some! Remember this one is going to be more of a marathon than a sprint–it takes practice over time for kids to improve in this. He'll get there!
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On 6/20/2021 at 11:08 AM, JazzyMom said:
My 11 yo (rising 6th grader) learned to read much more slowly than my other kids, but he did learn and loves reading for pleasure.
But even after learning to read fluently, he had some challenges with reading out loud (ex. skipping words), letter reversals, and the biggest challenge was spelling.
I responded by moving at a slower pace with language arts than I did with my other children. He did make progress, but it was very slow progress. So I finally had him tested for vision issues, and he had some VERY significant vision issues (teaming, tracking, etc.)
So he is midway through a 40 week vision therapy program and has made so much progress! What I am wondering is do I move at a steady pace from where he is, or do I try to catch him up to grade level.
He’s on grade level for math and reading. He’ll be in a 2nd grade spelling book, but a lot of his spelling issues are correcting themselves now that he’s made progress in therapy. In LA, he is working in a 4th grade book. Has no problems learning punctuation, parts of speech, etc. As for writing, he is writing science reports that are a longish paragraph of 7-9 sentences, but this is with help. Writing was previously a huge challenge for him because he could not spell basic words.
I am not sure how to proceed now that he’s doing better.
Also, I was thinking about doing an Iowa or Stanford test at the end of the year to see if maybe I should hold him back a year. Is this a good idea or no?
Honestly, just keep going at his pace! He's about a year or two ahead of where my son was (we were not able to get him into vision therapy until midway through 7th grade, but we started spelling remediation with All About Spelling in 6th grade). Yes, writing will still be behind for a while, but he can catch up in that. Writing becomes easier as spelling becomes easier (after they master about 1000 common spelling words, they don't have to stop and think about how to represent every single word they want to write. Then they can start to retain their thoughts more and get more of them on paper.)
You might let him write orally (either you scribe as he talks, or let him dictate into a phone or computer app and then he can go in or you can help him to fix it up and print it out. One of my kids in college still likes to do rough drafts this way--and as they get better at it, they can dictate the punctuation and new paragraphs too so there's not as much "clean-up" to do. Just watch for homophone errors or the app "mis-hearing" words!) My kids did a lot more advanced writing at this age when they could write orally.
Writing started to catch up during high school for my oldest (Essentials in Writing is a program that really helped us too), though he really came into his own the first year in college. I know it's scary in the trenches when you are wondering how they will ever catch up, but they really do. I think continuing read-alouds throughout highschool really helped to give my kids a good sense of language, and when they were ready to put all of the skills needed for writing together, they were able to. We just kept pegging away and making progress each year. Hang in there!-
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On 6/12/2021 at 6:46 AM, regentrude said:
And it's completely non-enforceable on a college campus. As a professor, I am very unhappy with this kind of policy. If nobody knows who is supposed to mask, what's the point?
I just went on a trip, and every hotel, store, and restaurant that had this type of sign was miraculously patronized only by completely vaccinated people.
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Save the tick. Testing the tick is more accurate than the tests for people. If you are very worried, have it tested now, otherwise save it in the freezer with a date on the baggie in case you want to test it later.
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AAS is a complete phonics program, so if you decide to switch, you wouldn't need LOE for that. AAR and AAS are separate programs for kids just like this who need reading and spelling at different levels. You could see the reading placement tests if you want to try a higher level of AAR, or you could just use AAS. It will fill in any gaps with regard to phonics, and kids like your daughter tend to naturally apply what they learn to reading. Sounds like your daughter is doing great all around!
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I found it very helpful for my kids (who were also struggling spellers). What I did a lot of times was use AAS Monday through Thursday, and use a homophones worksheet on Friday unless we needed another day on spelling that week. When my kids were familiar with one of the words, I would introduce that the word is a homophone and show how the other word is spelled. Often the other word is less frequently used (for example, we use “be” much more often than “bee.”). If one of the words contains an unfamiliar phonogram, you may want to wait and cover it after that phonogram is introduced in AAS.
AAH has over 100 pages of worksheets, plus graphic organizers, card games (you would want to copy or print on cardstock), crossword puzzles etc... You can see inside through the free samples to see if it would be a fit for you and your kids.If you want to set up a homophones notebook, you might do one set of homophones each week starting with the graphic organizers and continuing through the activity sheet and crossword for reinforcement.
Have your kids write the two or three homophones that they are going to study on their organizer, and then they would look the words up in a dictionary, learn the meanings, write out the definition, and use the word in a sentence if there is a spot for writing out a sentence. You can do this together or have them do it as independent work, depending on their age and abilities. Some of the organizers give kids the option of drawing a picture that illustrates the word meaning rather than writing out a definition. There are various styles of organizers the kids can choose from. And the copyright lets you print or copy for your immediate family (I liked the e-book because I could easily print out pages for my kids.)
You can really do as much with it as you want, or keep it simple and just do the worksheets. The appendix in the back also lists has a master list of hundreds more homophones.
This article on How to Teach Homophones also has some free downloads, and there's also a fun Homophone Machine.
HTH some!-
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So, do people type as they walk? I march in place and do various stretches and lifts on a standing mat, but I can stop any time to type. I’m having trouble imagining walking as I type!
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Oh my goodness, I didn't notice until the "8 years later" popped up how old this was, LOL! @ElizabethB What did you end up doing?
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On 4/28/2021 at 3:20 PM, JaiMama said:
Has anyone used this? I would love to hear your reviews. Thank you.
My experience with Sonlight LA was just like Lori D's. I remember one assignment suggested having the child write their address before they had learned how to spell basic CVC words. Writing one's address is important--but the skills were not in a logical order that worked for us. I also find that "all-in-one" Language Arts programs in general didn't work for us. My kids needed to work at their own pace for each skill (reading, handwriting, spelling, composition...) until they were much older.
We did enjoy many of the books they chose, and Bookshark also shares many of those choices (we used Sonlight packages or parts of packages most years throughout our homeschool.) Definitely worth checking that part out!
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On 4/29/2021 at 8:05 PM, FNellenback said:
My son will be 5 in October and has recently tested at a first grade level with reading. He's not very good at choosing between which words rhyme as opposed to which words don't independently but he can tell me if I ask him. He can recognize it but the recall is just not there. At least, not for testing purposes. Do we really need to focus on rhyming as a skill? Is that still beneficial after kids have started reading independently?
Rhyming is one of many phonological awareness skills (alliteration, segmenting words into sounds, and counting syllables are some other examples.) Kids who know how to rhyme generally do find reading a bit easier, but some kids learn to read before they can rhyme. I wouldn't be overly concerned about a 4 year-old who is not rhyming yet--some kids don't catch on until they are a bit older, and that's okay! Having a strong foundation of phonological awareness skills will help with both reading and spelling though, so it's worth working on informally--just have fun with it! Read books with rhyme, play rhyming games in the car (I spy with my little eye, something that rhymes with ____ ....etc...) This article has lots of ideas and some free downloads.
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Aw, that’s great news, congratulations!
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On 4/2/2021 at 9:15 PM, Eupatobe1 said:
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. I should've added that we read stacks and stacks of quality literature, history, non-fiction, biographies, art, music etc. So in those areas we're on top of it! 🙂
This eases my mind as far as trying to 'catch up' in math and reading. I'm not quite sure how to complete the 2nd grade level as well as the third grade level of the books by the end of next year, but maybe as I go along it will work itself out if she is able to move more quickly through some of the content.
AAR levels are not the same as grade levels, because the order of the words in AAR is not “grade-level” order. For example, a child completing AAR 2 can read most first and second-grade level words and many third - fifth-grade level words too. All About Reading groups words in a logical manner based on similar rules or patterns regardless of their supposed grade level, which allows students to progress quickly and confidently.
At the end of Level 4, students have the phonics and word attack skills necessary to sound out high school level words, though they may not know the meaning of all higher-level words. (Word attack skills include things like dividing words into syllables, making analogies to other words, sounding out the word with the accent on different word parts, recognizing affixes, etc…)
All that to say--don't feel you need to "rush" and finish 2 and 3 this year or 3 and 4 next year. Go at her pace and establish a solid foundation for reading. When she's done, she'll be able to read anything age appropriate. For now, keep reading enjoyable and keep encouraging her. She'll get there!
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Since you have a student going into (or already in?) 9th grade, I'll say that rather than focusing on state educational standards, I considered what colleges are looking for as I moved into the high school years (and in the junior high years, I was focused more on making sure my kids had the skills they needed to do well in high school--reading, writing, math, thinking critically etc...) If you are looking towards higher education in your student's future, start to learn now what kinds of things are required by possible schools your student might attend.
I collected lists from several possible schools so I could compare and target my kids' education to fitting most or all of them. For example--in my state, most schools were looking for 2-3 years of high school science with at least 2 having labs, but they only specified biology as a "must have." That gave us a lot of flexibility in how we approached science according to each one's interests. Similarly with history/social studies--government and US history were on the "must have" or "highly desired" list for most schools, but we had options beyond that. (One of mine chose to study Japanese for foreign language, so he did a semester of Japanese history, for example.) Anyway--you really have the flexibility to tailor classes to your students' interests in a lot of cases, but it's good to be thinking ahead about what colleges want to see. I also found it helpful to look at our local high school's requirements to see things that colleges might expect to see. It didn't necessarily change what I did, but sometimes it affected how I presented things on the transcript since my kids did stay in state for college.
Congratulations on nearing the end of your first year! Have fun teaching your kids! It's a special time to get to share with them.
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On 4/2/2021 at 10:51 AM, lovelearnandlive said:
We've made a little progress on transfer credits.
The registrar told her to input her classes into the the online transfer system (the one that the website said in-state students should use). So we did that, and it gave equivalencies for three of her twelve CC classes. The other nine are not in the system and might count but will need to be reviewed. Sent screenshots of that info to the registrar and they basically said that the review process would not be happening right now, but that she could make an appointment to talk to a transfer advisor. We'll see if they will talk to her; the advising site says that appointments are only for students who have gone through orientation. Do students really commit to schools without knowing if any of their credits will transfer?
Has she reached out to advising at her current school to see if they can help at all? In our transfer process (not dance), the current school was sometimes able to give us info that was not as easily obtainable from the transfer school before admittance. They would know things like whether anyone else from their school has ever transferred to that state school you are considering. They would also know things like how commonly their credits are accepted by other schools. That’s no guarantee of course, but it might give you an indication of how easy or difficult the process is going to be of having her credit evaluated.
I don’t know that it would be any additional information, but you could check transferology.com to see if you can figure out anything that way, although I would think that their online transfer system would have the same information.
I feel for you! We were in a position where we really couldn’t afford to have credits not transfer, and planned our kids courses around credits that would automatically transfer. That was also easier here because we were going in-state. And even in that process, we were always told by advisers at the transfer schools that nothing is guaranteed, and that you just can’t know 100% until you have that final transcript evaluation done by the school after they have been accepted. I think even under the best of circumstances, the advisers have to be very cautious and measured in what they say, and not promise that things are going to transfer.
I hope things go well and your daughter enjoys the program at whichever school she ends up choosing!
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Summer is soon! I would be happy with his choice and help him prepare for moving forward. I hope it ends up being a good fit for him!
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On 3/30/2021 at 8:58 AM, cintinative said:
University of Cincinnati is a decent option all around, and my kids could commute or live off campus since we are local.
Room and board is hugely expensive. I wasn’t sure from your original post if you were considering your local option, but that alone can save you 10k a year, sometimes more.
My dh is disabled, and I can relate to having lots of medical bills. Our local CC was a good option. Inexpensive, lots of scholarships to apply for, good for kids with any kind of learning issues (better scaffolding than moving away). We made it through a variety of means—lower tuition through CC for associates and no added housing cost, Pell, state grant, scholarships at the cc, work study, summer jobs, transfer scholarships, loans, money we had saved, money they got when graduating high school, money they had saved...basically cobbled together! I tried to cover any expenses at the cc level and saved any excess scholarship or grant money from those years to apply when they transferred.-
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8 hours ago, EKS said:
We considered four year graduation rates. It was definitely a strike against the University of Washington (our state flagship).
One thing I know from having coached my older son through to an on time graduation is that if he had been left to his own devices, he probably would have taken an extra year or two. At least for his major, which was highly interdisciplinary and had a ton of required classes because of it, someone needed to have a solid big picture understanding of the requirements (for the major and general ed) as well as the details (like knowing which required courses are only offered during a single term in even numbered years). I was the one who maintained a master spreadsheet and ensured that he was on track (including making sure he didn't forget to sign up for classes at the very beginning of his registration timeslot). He picked the classes within that framework. Would it have been better if he had orchestrated it all himself? Absolutely. But there was no way I was going to pay private school tuition for additional years!
So my point here is that there is more to the on-time graduation thing than problems on the school's end. Student's who aren't paying enough attention surely contribute as well.
Yes, and honestly advisors too often are not knowledgeable enough to make it happen either. I found it was necessary both financially and for my kids’ best interests to step in and take a hands-on advisor approach. I investigate until I thoroughly understand how things will work and I know what questions we really need to ask. Sometimes the things I wanted to ask came up naturally in the advisor meetings and other times not.
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10 minutes ago, cintinative said:
Is this generally available on the website, or did you have to ask an advisor in that department or a student, etc.?
Thank you.
It was all on the websites of the schools my kids transferred to. Sometimes I had to dig a bit, but past catalogs and degree plans were all available. Some majors require more specific plans than others. My ds is in media studies and has tons of choices within specific requirements. My dd is in education, and the last 2 years have no choices or options...everything is laid out and required. I did consult with advisors at both the cc and the transfer school, but also found I needed to be an intermediate advisor to make sure all the dots connected.
When I say I consulted advisors, I really mean we... advisors don’t talk to parents alone, they generally talk to students. But I went with, prepped my kids with some things to ask, and then helped if there were gaps.
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I didn’t look at that. What I did look at was 4-year degree plans, the frequency of course offerings within a major, how easy or hard it was to get into classes of high interest (whether the classes repeat every semester, if they were fall or spring only or every other year...) and things like that. My kids started at the CC, got their associates, and transferred. I let them take their time and change majors etc... at the CC, but wanted to make sure the time at the university was as efficient and stream-lined as possible.
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In general I wouldn’t start with a summer class. The 8 week classes are double-time, and the 4-6 week classes are 3-4 times the pace of a regular college class. I’ve seen a lot of kids struggle with them the first time, especially if they don’t understand the time commitment of college classes (generally 2-3 hours of study per credit hour per week, and then 2-4times that depending on how many weeks the class meets. So, a 3 credit class that meets for 4 weeks could easily feel like a full-time class load.) It can be a shock to new students.
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5 hours ago, RootAnn said:
Arg! That is the opposite of what TurboTax
That’s disturbing! A person relies on these companies to help you correctly navigate various circumstances and their tax implications. I do try to look things up and understand, but...wow.
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4 hours ago, RootAnn said:
...And, if like here, the University decided not to issue your student a 1098-T because they didn't think your kid qualified for one, be ready to locate (online or printed) all the statements showing charges, payments, & scholarships from 2020.
Wow! Our cc doesn’t mail one if they aren’t required, but they always have one to access online.
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In my experience, no, air cleaners are not going to be enough. They may help some, but the problem is probably in the walls, flooring materials, furniture etc... A dehumidifier is also a good idea, but I suspect it will take a lot more to really remedy the problem. Maybe go up with a camper or tents the first time to clean and investigate further what it would take to make it habitable for her. I wouldn’t chance having to sleep there personally, especially if you really suspect mold.
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Does she like spaghetti sauce? My son would have meant literally just cheese, while my dd would have thought spaghetti means with marinara sauce of course!
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Winging it with spelling
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
If he’s making the mistake, it’s already wrong in his mind. (Marie discusses this a bit in her article on dictation.) I would let him finish and have the opportunity to self-correct. Otherwise he just learns to rely on you and doesn’t have to think or evaluate on his own. Your goal is to give him the tools to self-evaluate. AAS works on this, but level 4 is pretty early. At that stage, my kids really skimped on the analysis and needed to be walked through how to evaluate with the spelling strategies on an ongoing basis.
If he doesn’t find a mistake in a word he should know—one he’s studied in AAS—then tell him there’s a mistake and see if he can find it. Praise him if he can. Then ask him how he knew and have him teach the concept to you. If he can’t, then make it part of a lesson and work on the concept a little each day until it’s easy for him to remember and teach back to you with the tiles or app.
10 is still young; he has only been writing a few years. Kids who have only been speaking a few years make tons of speaking errors. Expect the same with writing and work with him where he’s at. If something isn’t automatic, it’s just a sign he needs more help and practice for it to become automatic. Hth some!