Kathie in VA
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Posts posted by Kathie in VA
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Well another week or two done.... Too much stress here but we are still getting some stuff done. Dh is still looking for a job. We will probably be moving. The 3 yr old got sick last week. Thought the fever was due to a virus... After a couple of days of fever we realized it might be something else. Seems she also doesn't present normally as it turned out to be Strep Throat. Poor little one. Scary watching her have a fever get to 104F. No fun not having health insurance. Wish I could have that like I buy car insurance.
Kids at community College seem to be doing ok. Wish they were getting better grades though. Cs are not what I planned for when I started homeschooling.
Ds is doing well with his TOG coop. Lots of work. Wish he had more friends outside of coop day
Dd (4th) is still working on her math facts. I finally printed some Calculadder pages n put them in page protectors for another way to work on her facts. She is doing fine with Singapore 3b now. Seems a bit easy but I don't want to skip anything. Still didn't start CWP but baby got sick. We are still reading Magicians Nephew together. It's fun.
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List 6 and it's reconciliation with list 2 is what's giving me trouble. :)
Yep. Looks like Megawords doesn't clarify why and when to double the consonant. I also have How to Teach Spelling here. They teach the Doubling Rule as stated earlier (1 1 1 rule). By hey also say to never double w,x, or y. (Although I think v should be included here)
But later for grades 6 and up they add to that with Doubling Rule part 2. Here they have 3 conditions to double the final consonant of the base word for words of two or more syllables:
-accent is on the last syllable
-last syllable ends w C & 1 V before it
-suffix to add starts with a vowel.
This targets words like admit admittance, gallop galloping (no doubling of the p because the accent is on the first syllable 'gal'. )
Seems to also work for sliver since the accent is on the first syllable. Same with lemon. ??
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I am following you, but how do you explain mitten? Why can't it be mit-en. This is the sort of questions my kids are hauling at me.
Because the 'e' would make the 'I' sound long.
As said earlier we don't double a 'v' so clever has one v. Also take note that we don't say /clev ver/ but /clev er/. Typically something to work on as we tend to say words differently in different locations.
Other words like 'metal' are similar. Watch how to pronounce them. /met al/ not /met tal/. Have you dc check the dictionary for the pronunciation.
Megawords will work more on these as you go thru the program. List 6 has words like "clever, credit, lemon..."
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Agggggg. Now we are looking at chapter on VC/V syllables and the entire rule on doubling consonants is out of the window.
My kids are so confused. I am starting to see more mistakes in spelling because of the rules. :( don't know what to do.
maybe you don't really have a VC/V with words like 'forest' and 'correct'
usually you are doubling the C to prevent the short vowel sound from going long ... <to change from hop to hopping you double the 'p' so the 'i' doesn't make the 'o' sound become a long sound> with 'forest' the 'e' can't make the 'o' long because it is teamed with the 'r' ... Also it is pronounced /for est/, not /for rest/.
Now with 'correct' the 'o' is still teamed with the 'r' but it is pronounced /cor rect/ so you need two 'r's to spell what you hear/say.
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Ooh. He might enjoy the poem Casey at the Bat.
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I started homeschooling before common core. I don't like it. We might move and dh was considering public school once there but that location is following common core, so we both consider that no longer an option for us.
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I think homeschooling is less stressful but our story is different. Long story short we changed private schools (following many others because the teacher was .... Warped and the principal just as bad) but then realized that their phonics instruction was flipped and dd was behind. (Yep only 1st grade!) There was so much stress trying to figure out what was wrong and how to help her. Then we moved during the 2nd year and decided to homeschool her the last few months. (ETA that was about 12 years ago)
Homeschooling brought different stress loads. However I wasn't in the dark anymore.
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We have done the CAT which I got thru Seton services. Easy to do at home.
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I'd like to know who is going to grade ALL the tests since it asks for an explanation. This part sound great for a class test but on a standardized test?
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I've done informal logic with:
Mindbenders on the computer
Fallacy Detective
Thinking Toolbox
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I've used parts of Real Science for Kids, Lyrical Life Science, and NOEO Science Chem II.
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Ok another week done. Although ds (gr 9) still has work to do for Mondays classes (when will he remember how to control his urge to play games when I'm not looking? N when will he regain his ability to focus ...at least as well as he did last year? Ug. )
Dd (gr4) did okay. I was distracted a bit this week n her math facts are slipping. We are still progressing thru her math text. We did finally start Classical Writing Aesop B and we are working thru the review. Spelling w HTTS is moving along. She thinks it is busy work but I think it is helping. We will see once we get to all the dictation.
Dd (age 3) is slowly progressing with Alpha Phonics. She likes when I write words on the whit board and then draw the pictures so she can connect the word to the right picture. Still hard to keep her happy n busy n quiet while working with the others.
Dh is till home looking for work. Why is it that most possibilities will call for us to move to another state!! Ug. Not happy about the thought of cleaning, decluttering, packing, and moving ....again. (Not to mention the loss to school...again) we did this when my older kids were young. Ug.
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Hmm no I don't think so. Will have to try that if need be after dh gets another job and we have insurance again.
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Hey, I tried using the index card Above The line today and it worked well here too!
I had already taken her in for extensive eye exam and they didn't find anything (then again we were trying to find an answer for her headaches). Appearently it's not her eyes.
So her reading aloud went a but better today. And she is still silent reading without complaint. I hope to look into these resources ... Maybe the library will have the books but I can't buy anything now.
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Working on the same here w dd (4th). I'm hoping the joint read alouds will help lots. I'm also spending more time with her spelling to shore up her phonics there. I started her in the BookIt program from Pizza Hut where she can earn a free pizza for reaching reading goals (working on adding practice w this). At this point she is reading 20 min a day very willingly ( plus our joint read alouds).
Good luck with yours! N I'm gonna watch for more ideas :)
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Yep. BCM. great choice
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Well got through last week. Having dh home n looking for work doesn't help the schooling schedule ....
On a positive note ds (9th) did get his outside class work done...he still needs pushing though. ..and he still learning to read the directions carefully. Dd (4th) did well reading Magicians Nephew with me....especially considering she is a struggling reader and this book is appearently at a 5th grade level ... Oops. And she finally finished last years math book! She also had her first lesson in Math Express and thought it was easy.
Oh oh told dd that I got her endows with the BookIt program (read and earn free pizza !). This actually excited her! (The one who 'hates' to read). So I started her with at least 20 minutes a day and she is very adamant about getting this done! She started with Rebbecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
Weekend was stressfull cause ds left the deck gate open and the dog got out! We looked but couldn't find him. Got him back but not till early afternoon the next day! Think I prayed more for both my ds as one was guilty and the other ...well he's closest to the dog. Ug. Love trials, really I do
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What about top medical breakthroughs?
Top technical advances.
Top crime scene technology advances.
Top advances in construction
Top advances in kitchen design
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I used the RightStart Al Abacus and this worked well. There are sites online to show how to use one but I used RS Activities for the Al Abacus wkbk.
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Good question: is hating reading a problem to be delt with or a preference that should be respected?
My dd is 9 and says she hates to read. I see this as a problem...just like I do when she says she hates a type of food. Basically I believe food tastes change as they get older (not to mention how the food is cooked and what it is served with). So she needs to always taste. Although typically, once you are an adult your taste buds stay pretty constant.
I think it is similar with reading. There are many reasons why reading is disliked (decipher skills may need improving, comprehension may be poor, genre might not be interesting enough to take the time n effort, plus the things they want to do takes up their time). But a steadynot diet of reading should remove at least most of these hurdles. Once my dd is an adt she can determine if she really enjoys reading because by then hopefully she will have fully tried it.
Ymmv
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Yes. Lol this makes sense. Every once in a while I run into great things I want to specifically teach my kids but then realize that they don't need it cause somehow that already got through. Reading skills as you highlighted are one...formal logic for this ds was another.
Now to get my next one reading more.
Thanks again for posting, helping, and basically just caring for all of us!!
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I don't actually give 'weekly assignments' until high school, and I teach advanced reading skills mostly in upper elementary and middle school, so for my homeschool there is not a conflict.
Given your situation, I would suggest that you teach reading skills in the classes you do at home, and then help your children understand how filling in charts or answering questions for outside classes actually helps them to understand the content rather than just being busy work. Answering high-level, well-constructed, short-answer questions is actually very difficult, and you could spend some time helping your students do this well. I find that modelling is very important, so I often 1) model answering the questions by talking out loud about my thought processes before writing down the answer, 2) work *with* my student to understand the question and then come up with an appropriate, complete, but brief answer, and 3) have my student answer the question independently but with a running commentary of his thought processes while I sit and listen.
Some kids just get it, others don't. In my experience with my own students and with my tutoree kids, I can tell who is who.
Not sure I have answered your questions. Happy to try again if I missed the mark.
Ruth in NZ
oops, realized that I posted after only reading the 2nd page! So now I finally read page 1 and 2....
This all makes sooo much sense. I really wonder why there are so many curricula out there that don't step the students through some process of note taking, that is to learn any of the content subjects (science, history, literature, ...) I know there are plenty of sites and books specifically on taking notes; but most of the options for these content subjects used here lean towards having the students read and answer questions or read and narrate or summarize. The only other place I've read a similar method is the WTM book. I tried those ideas with my older two dc but it just wasn't a good fit for dd (not much was though).
Anyway... I'm currently focusing on ds (9th grade) and dd (4th grade) with other dd getting up to preK level. This is timely for dd (4th grader) but right now I am still working on getting her to read more comfortably. So I'm reading aloud with her, taking turns, with Magicians Nephew and we are going to review phonics with our spelling... I switched her to How to Teach Spelling 2. If I can get our computers working she can also do Reading Detective, but for now this waits. I may try to incorporate your ideas when we start Noeo Science Chemistry... I'll have to recheck to see if this will work. My first focus will be to get her to like to read. ug. both girls dislike reading, both boys love it...
Its a bit late for my 9th grader to start these lessons but then again he is bright and is doing fine so far. However I still might go over the process with him to see what he says. He really doesn't have the time to do all this in addition to the workload he already has at this point. He is able to find the answers on his own, usually... sometimes needs some help with the 'inference' type questions or the deeper thinking ones. I wonder if a quick outline of the reading will help him to find the answers he needs faster?... I do see that he doesn't seem to know how to study after the work has been done. Need to work on that as well.
One question though, after taking your kids through these lessons on 'reading to learn' and they move into high school level work, do you still have them follow this process in addition to the typical high school level workload of read, answer questions, charts, maps, learn vocab, maybe write a paper, etc.? Or at this point do you have them move away from some of the steps?
Thanks again for all that you share!
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oop double post
Sight words!
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
How to Teach Spelling focuses on phonics and rules but does include some sight words