JoLuRu
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Posts posted by JoLuRu
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Jo, Lu, and Ru are the first two initials of each of my kids.
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Google "Individual Development Account" for their state. It's a fund matching program that helps with education, starting a business, or buying a home. They would save a certain amount and have that matched by the program.
Also, check with the financial aid office at the school they want to attend. If they're over 25 (I think that's the age) they might be able to get the Osher scholarship.
Definitely fill out the FAFSA for a Pell Grant, too.
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I think "red-shirting" is popular in CA because the cutoff date is/was so late. I couldn't send MY four year old in to K. He wasn't ready and is doing great now as one of the older kids. I am glad they are changing the cutoff to 9/1.
I think you're right - parents that can afford it often redshirt and have their kids in a "young 5's" program. My son turned 5 a month into kindergarten, when some classmates were turning 7 that same year! (He repeated kindergarten, and will turn 7 a month into first grade.) I agree that the change in cut-off date will help. My son, by the new cut-off date, wouldn't have been allowed to go to kindergarten that first year.
Steph - Cantor Arts is free and a great place for kids. There are lots of great field trips for kids in this area! Have you gone up to Hidden Villa in Los Altos? The NASA Exploration Center? The Tech Museum in San Jose? It's a great place to raise thinking kids!
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Mine is best when run, run, run, then has his head stuffed.
Bill
This seems to be the case here, too! We'll keep experimenting, but right now he's a happy kid. I'll take it!
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The Singapore books arrived yesterday and we got started with them right away. DS was jumping up and down asking, "Can we play math now?" this morning! LOVE that! We did the first chapter and a half in the past two days, mostly review, using poker chips as manipulatives and playing War with cards. He's enjoying it and engaged, writing in his summer journal, "I like math." I'm hopeful that between this, games, and the abacus, we'll have a smooth summer of 1st grade math and get him ahead of Everyday Math when he gets back to school!
I also told him that as long as he's reading to me, he can stay up late. Last night he read for nearly an hour - a record for him - and I anticipate another late night of BOB books.
With a two hour park visit every day this week to exercise, lots of games and books, only a small amount of TV (including a NatGeo program on undersea volcanoes), and listening to a vocabulary building story in the car, it's been a really great week for him. He's had the least tantrums in recent memory and has been more cooperative in general. Maybe I have been underestimating him and he's been lacking challenge all along?
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I live here but have no real Stanford (or Berkeley) allegiance. I do like the arts center at Stanford, though, and enjoy free community lectures and various activities on campus; plus, my baby was born at their hospital, so perhaps I ought to have a bit more attachment than I do!
Back to the subject, I found SOTW available on audio at our local library, so that's going in the car for summer listening. We have lots of playdates and field trips lined up this summer, as well as a vacation 4 hours away, so there will be plenty of time to listen!
I ordered Singapore Math 1A/B text and workbook, which we'll start when they arrive, and the aforementioned abacus set. I think adding 15-20 minutes of math a day this summer will be a good way to get ahead of the 1st grade math at school.
I can't be the only one excited waiting for curriculum to come in the mail, right? Hurry up, math books!
I also hit up the local Savers thrift store and cleared out their children's section. :lol: Kids books are $.69/each and if you buy 4, you get 1 free. I think a homeschooler made a donation recently because there were history and science books this time, plus a few teaching manuals. I bought everything of any literary value (left behind the licensed character stories and junk readers) and have a serious stack of new reading material for under $40. I was excited to find some classics - Where the Wild Things Are, Charlotte's Web, The Secret Garden, Make Way for Duckling, Blueberries for Sal, lots of Dr. Suess and Berenstein Bears. They should make for more interesting reading than the BOB books we're plowing through, and great read aloud options, too.
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Bill, I did get the Al Abacus from Right Start. And I'm adding Cuisinaire rods to my amazon list! Hopefully we can do enough fun academics by way of games and activities that it gives the kids the academic edge they need without it being a painful chore.
My son is happily writing his summer journal every evening and reading 3 books without complaint. He's also been happy to do new projects (we froze plastic dinosaurs in ice and excavated them yesterday, talking about archaeology and paleontology.) So far, it's been fun and not too "schooly."
Jen and Jennifer - The cost of living is ridiculous, but there are so many great places for kids. We love the junior museum and zoo, and Cantor Arts, among other free and low cost field trips. We've scheduled one field trip a week for the summer. This week we went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito - so fun!
Winter - We have used Starfall, as well as Cookie and RazKids (login from his school.) They are definitely fun ways to practice!
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Bill, thank you! You can bet that our younger two will be going in ahead of the curve after the experience with our oldest. To be honest, I thought that living in a fantastic school district and being involved parents (I volunteer weekly in the classroom, and do lots of enrichment activities with the kids outside of school) would be plenty and we didn't need to push any academics before he went to kinder. I mean, they go to kinder to learn to read, right? I now know the error in that thinking around here!
I talked to DH about starting Singapore this summer to jump ahead of EM and let school be a review of the skills he's learned at home and he thinks that's fine. In addition to games, cards, the abacus, wrap-ups, and other fun ways of drilling the basics, I think he'll go in with a strong start to the school year. Would you suggest the rods in addition to an abacus? I just bought an abacus, but can add the rods if that would be helpful. We do have TONS of LEGOS, and those could be used in the place of rods, right?
I appreciate the suggestion of colored pencils in Dover coloring books! Great way to creatively practice the fine motor skills! I added a few to my amazon cart, which is oh so full today.
We have watched the Leapfrog videos. I'll add Explode the Code to our list to check out!
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Thanks for all of your responses! I've added all of the resources recommended here to my list to research.
Jen - I've been DEVOURING your blog over the past few days. I just bought a Right Start Abacus set from someone here based on your reviews. :) My son isn't gifted and I think that many of the projects you do with your son would be over my kids' heads, but it's really great to see how much effort you put in and the positive effects of it! I'm definitely with you on adding hours to their school years so they can make the most of these formative years.
Also, I'm near Ravenswood but in one of the much more affluent neighborhoods (although I'm not so affluent myself!), and reading about that district from your perspective is fascinating. It's such a crazy disparity between the two districts, separated just by a freeway! I'll be interested to see how the district will evolve since Facebook just moved into that neighborhood. Housing values are already increasing.
Jennifer and nelle and fairytalemama - After reading through these boards and several blogs over the past few days, I worry about Everyday Math giving him the mental math that is so necessary. I think Singapore with added math games, abacus work, cards, etc. may be the way to go for DS.
fairytalemama - My son needed glasses and before getting them, expressed NO interest in coloring or drawing. Within the past year, he draws huge, elaborate inventions, makes his own books, etc. I don't know if it was age, maturity, or the glasses, but it's like a switch was flipped and off he went! Perhaps your son will be the same way?
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Hi! I'm new here and need a little help in picking the right direction for our family.
I have an early-fall-birthday 6 year old boy who will be in PS first grade this fall after repeating kindergarten this past year. We live in a very high-achieving area with an amazing elementary school. The kinder class is older from rampant red-shirting and I mistakenly sent him to kinder as a not-quite-five year old without knowing how to read, which I later learned just isn't done in our area - there were kids turning 7 in his kinder class and he was just barely 5! He was sent to a reading specialist several mornings a week for his two years of kinder and is now at grade level for reading. He still struggles with legible writing and math - knows his numbers but addition isn't there yet.
He's a sweet, bright boy, and while it's challenging for him, he LOVES school; home schooling full time wouldn't be in either of our best interest. However, it seems that he needs a bit more at home to solidify the lessons he's learning at school and keep up with his classmates. I also want to pre-present some of what he'll be learning this year so he goes into first grade with confidence in his knowledge and skills.
Currently, I'm having him read the first grade sight word list and 20 minutes of predecoded and BOB books with me daily and write a sentence in a daily journal to practice penmanship. We also read aloud a TON.
I bought "No Stress Chess", addition/subtraction wrap ups, and a book of science projects and we have been playing with those for fun. We watched Venus in transit last week and the eclipse last month and have spent a lot of time learning about planets at his direction in the past few weeks. I just bought an eBay lot of "Let's Read and Find Out..." books, which I think he'll really enjoy.
At his school, they're using Open Court for reading, Handwriting Without Tears for writing, and Everyday Mathematics for math. From what I've read, it sounds like Everyday Mathematics isn't the best option and we'll want to work on that outside of class to give him the mental math skills he'll need. I'd like suggestions on what we should use at home to present those skills in an easy to understand, hopefully fun way.
I also have a late-summer-birthday 3 year old who I now understand needs more prep before hitting kinder in a year (we're not red-shirting her), and she is picking a lot up just from participating along with her big brother. More specific suggestions are more than welcome!
*whew, that was long!*
Artice on Laura Ingalls, US Freedom... great read
in General Education Discussion Board
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Really? The tribes lived there for thousands of years before being driven away by force. Of course, there were obviously no deeds or bank loan documents proving that they "owned" the land.