FO4UR
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Posts posted by FO4UR
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We should start a club. "NeoOldSchoolers"
Modern Homeschoolers who homeschool on a shoestring budget with a Bible, a library card, a printer, and a prayer.
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I would explore options for moving him up to 4th with accommodations and extra tutoring.
Go in for a meeting, "How would 4th grade look if he were to move up?" and then for each problem that is brought up, "How can we accommodate for that without disrupting the flow or over-taxing the teacher?"
The sad truth is that many private schools are not equipped to deal with kids outside of their scope and sequence. That is how they are able to boast of wildly successful test scores and graduates. They weed out any outliers before middle school. And, really, a private school almost has to do that to stay afloat financially.
:grouphug:
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Bias goes further than HOW you teach and often even affects WHAT you teach and what the PRIORITIES are.
:iagree: I DO agree that NO program out there is 100% neutral (hey, just look at our "neutral" public education system...); your words above in red are spot on. We as parents are responsible to teach our faith to our children, regardless of what materials we do (or don't) use. How we live our lives, our daily priorities, is what really does a lot of the teaching of our faith.
Quoting these two posts b/c they make a vital point.
My opinion, fwiw, is do not spend too much energy searching for a curriculum to teach everything from your theological pov. Passing on theology requires discussion between parent and child, nothing will replace that. No curriculum can provide that. And, tbh, sometimes a curric can be a big distraction, and give a false sense of security about having ticked Bible off of our chart today.
For Bible, I like to read the Bible. For littles, The Big Picture Bible Timeline is a nice way to structure the readings. Read the passage, color the page, discuss, review all of our previously colored pages. For bigger kids, I like the Greenleaf Guide to the OT. The Greenleaf Guide simply takes you through a chronological reading of the OT so that it flows in story form, and provides the parent with ample discussion questions. Both of these things provide a framework, but leave the real work of teaching up to the parent.
I've not tried the MP Bible materials, but it sounds like they would be a good backbone upon which to build.
I prefer school materials that do not come from a specific religous ideal. But, Hunter makes an important point, in that all authors come at history, science, literature from their own worldview. Still, I prefer a history curric written by a history fanatic, a science curric written by a scientist...SOTW and BFSU are good examples. A history fanatic will focus more on the principles that govern the study of history rather than a religous/political agenda. A scientist will focus more on the principles that guide good science rather than a religous/political agenda.
There is a GLUT of materials that do more to promote a religous/political agenda rather than actually teach history or science. I avoid those whether or not they happen to line up with my theology or not. I won't name names here, I have tried to use a few things...and it's evident that they are teaching a THEOLOGY with some sciency language as dressing...or they are teaching THEOLOGY with some historical stories creatively juxtaposed to prove a point. And, when you try to teach theology this way it's not only deceptive, but very bad practice in the actual theology.
The age old, "Teach them how to think, not what to think."
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I am considering doing the same with spelling and grammar. Good idea or bad idea? The only pitfall I can see is that my weak speller might forget some of what he has learned. Anything else I'm missing?
Could you do daily copywork, using the copywork as the backbone for spelling/grammar lessons, and then alternate the focus.
Week 1 - Pick 3-5 words out of the copywork per day to analyze by phonogram/morpheme.
Week 2 - Make a basic subject/verb diagram of all of the sentences.
Week 3 - Study words.
Week 4 - Focus on a different part of speech. (Find the adjectives.) Use a Thesarus to find synonyms and antonyms.
...and so on...
You would have consistency with the daily copywork, and your brain could have a narrow focus on one skill at a time. They aren't going to backslide in either spelling or grammar this way b/c they are continuing the exposure even if not the focus.
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I've never used CLE.
The MP guides are great for discussion starters, preparing for the reading, and teaching how to write coherent answers to questions.
If you use MP for a 4th grader, I'd recommend going over the guide orally and then choose a question or two for him to write out his response. We use quotes and poetry given in the Lit guide as copywork.
MP meshes well with a Charlotte Mason sort of Classical philosophy, which seeks to get to the meat of a high quality book, seeing the student interact with the author's ideas.
I have a feeling that CLE is more didactic, intending to teach a set of skills.
I suppose it's a question of what you want out of a reading program.
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Sandpaper letters. You can make them with a 3x5 index card, glue and sand. Go over formation with sandpaper letters before doing the real handwriting work each day. Pick 1-3 letters to work on daily.
Draw. Teach him to draw, completely unrelated to handwriting lessons. Drawing is a good skill for many reasons that transfer into good handwriting.
Focus on one issue at a time. Pick letter formation, sitting on the baseline, spacing, neatness...pick ONE thing to perfect at a time. If you have a child forming letters correctly at 5yo, that is great! He cannot think about sitting on the baseline if he's trying to remember which direction the pencil goes next.
So, slow down. He's doing fine. Just plain paper and a pencil is enough.
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You do not have to do 3 4 year cycles. That is only a suggestion.
If you go too quickly, the kids won't retain anything anyway.
Go slow. SOTW is awesome. Enjoy each chapter. Don't feel you need to do all of the activities, but do the maps and let the littles color, and check out library books.
I prefer doing a chapter per week. That is a good steady pace.
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You moms amaze me. With a newborn in the house all I can do is find the remote and turn on PBS (and there's nothing wrong with that, thank you very much!) :laugh:
My 4th child was an emergency c/s, traumatic, and a long hard recovery.
The big 3 kids did Time4Learning for several months until I could get up and down out of a chair without velcroeing my tummy together.
There is no shame in utilizing whatever helps are at your disposal when you have a tiny baby at home. Stressing out over school lessons post partum is a recipe for a major disaster.
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No, don't try to do it all.
Prioritize.
Go child by child, thinking through what the child can do well independently and what subjects they need the most help with. Plan their materials accordingly. A wiser and older HS mom says, "A curriculum that gets done is better than the one that doesn't."
With a houseful of children, you will have to divide out your time to where it's most needed. A pile of mom-intensive currics for every child will equal nothing getting done.
Be creative. Assigning an older child to play math games with a younger child or read aloud to a younger child kills two birds with one stone.
How you organize is entirely up to your needs. Your older kids can likely do a large % of their work independently if you have a solid system for assigning & collecting work. (Just make sure that the system isn't too big of a chore in and of itself.) I've been trying to focus on tweaking the routine of one child per month, this way I'm continually and gradually nudging them along and it's not an overwhelming overnight change for me.
If you can get your hands on the old 1st edition of TWTM, it's worth reading. Sometimes utilizing the library and being *less* organized works so much better. I am often tempted to toss everything and just make my kids check out books from Jessie Wise's categories and notebook notebook notebook. It's not that I don't enjoy working with the kids, but that something falls off the schedule daily and it's dizzying.
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2nd, K, 3yo, and a nb?
Scale back academic expectations for this coming year. Take advantage of technology. And play outside often.
2nd grader needs 1-2 hours of academics. K can get by with 30-45min. This time doesn't have to be mid-morning, and it doesn't need to be all in one chunk.
Do you have a fenced in backyard? If so, I'd live back there in the mornings and have the older two take turns doing school lessons and playing with the 3yo.
A nice sling will keep the nb happy.
talkingfingers.com has a program that teaches phonics, reading, spelling, and typing in one game. It's called Read, Write, Type. It would be a fit for both the 2nd grader and the Ker. It's something they can do alone while you are alternately nursing a nb and chasing a 3yo, and it's quite solid instruction.
There are a multitude of math game websites. It would be worth it to subscribe to one of them for the coming year.
Starfall.com is a great website that would probably fit all 3 of you bigger kids. My 3yo loves it. And, it goes up through some advanced phonics and math.
With 4 young children, something will have to give. Don't ever let that be your mothering relationship with any of the kids. Please don't try to do too much this year. Cut outside activities ruthlessly. Cut academics mercilessly. If you have time for more, great. If not, you have made the best choice for the well-being of you and your children.
Keep naptime about naptime. YOU will need the rest. Take it. Mom can't function on fumes. Put audiobooks on for any children who are too big to nap. They can listen quietly and color on their beds.
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I will just echo others.
All screens hibernate until school and chores are completed for the day.
Pick math and LA currics that are worktexts, written to the student.
Then for history and science, you can give the oldest topics to research. Use the internet, the library, etc.. I like the looks of Creek Edge Press Task Cards.
Find audiobooks, documentaries, games, and other non-traditional educational resources.
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I see the same thing. The child who spends hours freely drawing, gluing, painting, and structuring with some modeling by the parent is more of an Orff based approach. The child owns what they're doing, and yeah, sometimes it's a train wreck.
The child who cuts on lines and carefully applies glue to build parts of a butterfly is more of a Suzuki approach, where, over time, they get better and better at the techniques and are able to apply them well.
There is room for both. There is need for both.
YES!!!
I agree, and I relate to the music comparisons.
I'm 90% Orff and 10% Suzuki with age 3. Those percentages morph over time to a balanced 50/50. Unless you have a student destined for a music or art career, 50/50 is happy.
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Preschool children are little people.
They need art that is their own, and they also need to learn crafting that is led by another person.
These two things have different purposes. The end product is important to them, so it should be important to us. That said, our idea of what the end product should be is not that important. It's their work. They are little people, not our own personal craft to mold.
My own 3yo spent 3 months snipping paper. She wanted me to hold a strip of colored paper while she snip snip snipped away. She enjoyed the sounds, and the sights, and the feel of her hand in the scissors. Next, she would take a new sheet of construction paper and dot dot dot with glue. Then she would put her snips of paper on the glue dots. I showed her how to cut, how to glue, and how to draw a picture first and dot the glue on the lines. Then I let her go with it.
That sort of crafting is the beginning of learning to follow directions and learning how to gain a skill and then use it for your own purpose. It's a big deal.
She loves to paint. The only thing I am teaching right now is how to keep the area neat, and how to clean up when she's finished. The rest is free painting. That sort of freestyle art gives kids the confidence to try new things, to imagine, and to attempt to make concrete the idea in their head. It's a big deal.
Arts & crafts should not be something that takes more from the adult than it does from the child. If it does, you are doing it wrong. These are things I have mine do at the table to keep them busy while I work close by.
That said, preschoolers love to sit next to an adult and do art together. They will mimic the adult's work. That is best instruction. Quiet imitation.
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Why do you do Circle Time? Can you meet those goals in another way?
The general purpose is to foster a family culture built around wonderful books, art, music, and ideas.
You do not have to do that at 9am.
You can spread "Circle Time" out over the course of the day, and be minimal about what you cover.
There are many great ideas out there. You need to sift through to fit in the ideas that fit your particular family.
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What I've written (linked in siggie) was written for my own kids, with various quirks....visual processing included.
I highly recommend Dancing Bears Reading and Apples & Pears Spelling. These programs are pretty amazing, especially for kids who know their phonics, are a bit older, but not reading up to the level that their IQ would suggest.
Vision therapy was minimally helpful. This may not be a popular pov, but I think taking a few key components and intertwining them with the reading work helps tremendously. DB and A&P do that pretty well.
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Happy Phonics.
Check the lulu link in my siggie. I'm still in process writing the 1st grade level, but my Treadwell Companions are designed to be efficient and thorough.
Dancing Bears Reading is another good option.
With your age spread, you will need to keep each lesson short and sweet and/or combine. You can combine kids with the games in Happy Phonics. I highly recommend that you try that.
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It's going to be OK. Come to a calm about this before teaching so you don't project that fear. You have a 4yo who knows all of his letters and sounds. That is awesome!!! You already ARE teaching him to read. You got this!
I am in process of writing a reading/writing program. My oldest is dyslexic, and the rest of my kids have benefitted from what I've learned teaching him to read. I decided to self-publish what I do before my youngest needs to use the materials. You can check them out at my luu.com spotlight linked in my siggie below. The Pre-Primer is the kindergarten level, taking a child through decoding and fluent blending.
The rest is downhill from there.
Happy Phonics is pretty awesome too.
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Thank you for mentioning this, long division is older ds' arch nemesis and we're doing it again now, I think I'll try doing something like this for him also.
One LD problem a day.
Week one: Mom works the problem on the board, talking through each step.
Week two: We are still working the problem on the board, and mom is writing but we are weaning the child onto the talking part.
Week three: We are still working on the board, but now the child holds the marker and mom only talks through as needed.
Week four: Child works the problem - still only 1 problem - and checks with mom.
Week five+: Maintain one problem per day for a long while, but vary it between word problems, straightforward problems, etc...
The key is to offer more help than you think is really needed for longer than is utterly needed. Then they are ready to move on. One problem per day? Anyone can survive that.
And working through several sections in the math book allows that sort of snail's pace in whatever concept or procedure is tricky. While working through long division, review in other sections.
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Why not scan your handmade worksheets?
I like handmade. Sometimes computerized is non-human and sterile. Especially when we are talking about children, I like handwritten and homemade.
My kids have always prefered Miquon math lab sheets to everything else, no matter how pretty. Miquon is handwritten, hand-drawn.
Scan and make into PDF.
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Yes, you are on the right track.
I will add my sticky note technique. Work in 3 different sections at one time. Put a sticky note wherever you are in each section. (For an 8yo, I recommend +-, x/, and then some geometry or measurements or something non-calculation based. Just start wherever he is in each section.) When you sense a slack in enthusiasm, switch sections. He might work in one section for the whole 30min, or he might work in two sections one day, or he may really need to move on through all three daily. Either way is fine, and it may change day to day, week to week.
No biggie. Move the sticky note and carry on.
(I have done this in Singapore and S-U. Works like a charm, though some think I'm crazy and inconsistent. It is how I survive teaching long division. :coolgleamA: )
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Five children, 14 yrs old, 11 yrs old, 6 yrs, 4 yrs, and the baby.
Clear expectations with deadlines.
No non-school screen time before 3pm. Period. Be bored. It's good for you.
Screens from 3-5 only if their school/chores are done. If you miss it, that is unfortunate.
To prep for the fall, I'd put some of the boundary forming rules in place this summer. What SMALL changes will have the BIGGEST impact.
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I actually really like looking at different ways people manage scheduals, because it helps me think about the flow of our day and what I could do with it. For myself I just do it intuitivly but that has limits, and they really start to come out when managing several other people at the same time.
Me too, and :iagree: .
I like to start with Ambleside, but sub out books that we already own or I think we'll like.
Trying to stick to a schedule causes me to lose track of what the child is actually doing with the books. It's much better for us, if I don't care about the schedule but am in tune with what the kids are thinking, how they are narrating, and such.
We all have so many plates to spin in the air and only two hands.
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Cursive is more ergonomic for the human hand.
I've tried cursive first, and then I had a child who taught herself print before I had a chance to teach her cursive, and then I decided to do D'Nealian Manuscript in K/1 for my 3rd child. He moved to cursive later, and it was seamless.
Sandpaper letters. Do all of the teaching of formation and such on sandpaper letters. After all of the letters are solid with sandpaper letters, pick a paper/pencil program.
A gel pen (or fountain pen) helps with fluid cursive.
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Literary Devices for $200, Alex.
Good instant coffee brand.
What is an oxymoron?
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WWYD? Son is being held back at local christian school.
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
He can't do enough work independently? Then can he do more homework? He needs someone to be a designated reader? Audiobooks? That is a solvable problem.
My 13yo is dyslexic, very late reader. The timeline you posted of your son is similar. At 13yo, he's volunteering to read aloud at church. Someone who doesn't know us very well commented on how enthusiastic and expressive he is at reading the Bible passages in front of the group. I was shocked. (I'm like, "Really?" Did you know he's dyslexic?...No Way!) He is very much a 13yo boy. It would be a shame for him to be stuck with 11yo's b/c 3 years ago he read at a 2nd grade level. kwim.
This is something I'd politely fight for.
And I hope your ps is an OK option. I know some places are better than others. And, HSing one kid in your situation would perhaps be a better option than being held back twice.