[Right LA curriculum for 7yo boy?]

I would suggest you look into My Fathers World Kindergarden program. It is very hands on, plenty of time to move around and have fun while learning. I used it with 2 little boys who loved it. Also listen to Andrew Pudewa's cd about teaching boys who would rather be building forts. It really helps you understand the differences in the way boys and girls learn.

Hope that helps

 

Downloaded Andrew Pudewa's lecture about teaching boys who would rather be building forts. Listening now :001_smile:

[Right LA curriculum for 7yo boy?]

:iagree:

 

I used All About Spelling (which is a related program) because they didn't have All About Reading out yet in time for my dd. She is very wiggly and can often be found practicing handstands in the middle of our lessons.:tongue_smilie: I allow her to move around a lot, as long as she is still paying attention and answering my questions. The movement actually seems to help her focus somewhat.

 

AAS was great because of the magnetic letter tiles that she gets to move around a lot and manipulate. She liked it immediately, and it continues to be a hit.

 

The story behind AAS is interesting too--

 

http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/our-story

 

Disclaimer: I don't sell the AAS products; I am just a happy customer! :001_smile:

 

Thanks :001_smile: - reading this and looking at their materials.

[Right LA curriculum for 7yo boy?]

Could just be a normal amount of wiggles too. Both my boys are high-energy critters who would far rather be up the maple tree daring the "Nana"-dog to tell on them for going too far up than sitting and studying. They will sit and study, because they've had some training in that area, but I really try to make sure that we don't do things sitting that we could do standing.

How this looks:

Math-we do a lot of work on the white-board, with all three of us up, gathered around the problems and working them.

Language Arts-I'm a big fan of having them stand when I'm working with phonics cards, or doing some oral spelling. Although they prefer to sit to write, it's not uncommon for them to write in one place, then get up and move to another table in another room to finish. For read alouds, the only time I insist on sitting and not moving around much is at bed-time read-alouds. Otherwise I'm happy for them to run and get a stuffed animal, to get something to build (my hFA son is a little like me-he's just not happy doing one thing unless he's doing something else.)

Art-same thing-I encourage standing up to paint, and moving around from place to place to draw.

Music-we might dance or have the stuffed animals dance while we appreciate music.

And lots and lots of 15 minute go-check-the-chickens, climb-the-tree breaks.

 

I'm not all over the learning style end of things (mostly because I'm not particularly intuative about the ways my boys learn best because I've not really had them all that long-8 years!) But I think that little boys just plain need to move.

Another thing that I've had to get used to with the boys is that silliness, wiggles and frustrating lapses in attention are not always indicative of whether the information was taken in and retained. In fact, just the opposite happens at times. When they look completely focused and attentive, that's usually the time I need to stop and find out if they understood a word I said. Half the time, if they are happily being little goof-balls they "got it, Mr. Mom-head." (My hFA son's nickname for me when I'm being overbearing again.)

 

This is the thing. We DO feel that most of the schooling issues is from plain ol' being a high-energy little boy. He doesn't have ADHD - it's not like that. He can sit and do a hand-writing page from "handwriting w/out tears" - he would just rather be up a tree, running around, etc... and it's just been hard to find something he is interested in with LA because I think thus far it's just not been the right learning style or something (like he's just not ready or ??).

 

He has a bunch of foods that cause neurological reactions so if he eats something with, say, wheat in it (on accident or if he's plain old being a little sneaker) his brain has a reaction to it and he, at that point, is unable to focus on anything (behavior goes out the window, voice gets high-pitched, hands flap, he can even end up curled in a ball in the corner). We have to "re-set" him if this happens. Sometimes it means having him swing in a swing chair or just run outside for awhile. Other times it means making him take a long shower (sensory) or making him go to bed. It is weird and took us a long time to figure out what was going on with him (he was 4yo and unable to use the toilet even though he "knew how" - two days wheat-free he used it no problems and never had an accident again unless he got wheat somehow).

 

Anyways - some days it's not food that sets him off - could be just tired - basically anything that causes him to get over-stimulated puts him into a negative spiral towards hands in mouth, jumpy, jittery, flappy, tippie toes, high-pitched voice, weird "language"/speech, etc... All this was told to the Autism specialist but because it's not "all day" and just "occasional" "set off" they didn't want to dx him with "autism".

 

We put him in gymnastics last year and the first 5 classes it took him so long to not just sit there and be overwhelmed by the new, the people, social, (sat by himself, hands in mouth, etc....) but then he jumped in and LOVED it and got more social and did just fine.

 

I just mention "school time" and he just sort of "shuts down" some days. His ES said that kids do best starting LA in the mornings but really the only way I can start him on school lately has been to start with Math U See because it's not INTIMIDATING to him - it's a breeze, he's not afraid of it, he knows he can do it and learn it. I can just see when we try to do LA it's like just so hard for him to LIKE it. It did help a little bit to do a small character series to teach him "diligence", "patience", "endurance", etc... trying to show him that it's okay that sometimes things are hard to do but that it's good to still do them.

 

I really like the idea of getting a little stand so he and paint standing up. I also think if the program we do can be really "routine" and move very slow (like how Math U See seems to do) I think he'd actually do it just fine.

[The Blue Book - for first grade???]

My son's ES has suggested trying an all in one LA program this next year called: "The Blue Book - First Grade Skills for beginning readers". I'm looking to find those who've tried or used or are familiar with this curriculum.

 

We tried FIAR (I thought my son would be into the cool books with airplanes and steam engines - nope) and I had a terrible time just spending so much time organizing and planning things and making them fun only to have my son hate it.

 

Then we tried Zoo phonics, which my son felt was too "baby-ish". He'd just roll his eyes while my younger children were so delighted in it. He DID like using the flash cards to play spelling games with but that's about all we used from the whole package!

 

I'm trying to find something that is short, low pressure, "gentle" on this little guy because his interest right now is just NOT in language arts. He can hardly sit still very long and just has a hard time focusing on school in general, really. He does have sensory issues sometimes so there may be a special education type thing going on here too but mostly I just feel like he is simply not ready for full-on "school" (sit for long period of time and write/read/etc.) yet.

 

We have the biscuit books but again - he's not much into them. He does like these scholastic Clifford books my aunt gave me and he likes Dick and Jane book we have. I had his ES pre-order the next book in the "handwriting w/out tears" series, which I think he did quite well with this past year. He's also doing Math U See - that one is working out well too.

 

I was asking about that specific curriculum because it is one the things available (paid for) through his charter school program (homeschool program) and because his ES thought it might work out well with me expecting a baby in Sept and not having much time for lesson planning.

 

I'd really like to focus mainly on the writing (handwriting w/out tears) and on reading with him and to him. I don't know what is in this curriculum or how difficult it is for little ones just starting out and if the lessons are in short enough spurts and will hold his interest. How can I find something "serious" enough for his personality (not "baby") but also still FUN? This has been a tough 1.5 years of K trying to figure out how this little guy learns and where/how to start with him.

[Right LA curriculum for 7yo boy?]

Thanks everyone! I will try posting in that other board for specific curriculum, I guess.

 

I'm just trying to figure out what might work weather it's actually using a curriculum or if I just need to get books out and read to him and find things that CAN hold his attention.

 

My son has been seen by a developmental specialist because we suspected him to be on the autism spectrum a couple years ago and I personally still think he may be on the high functioning end of things. We could probably get him a dx of some kind (if we really pushed it) but my husband really felt like we should wait til he gets just a bit older since it was really "borderline" (high functioning). He for sure has some sensory issues.

 

So I guess I can try to post in special needs too.

[Right LA curriculum for 7yo boy?]

Hi. This is my first post here. I hope I'm in the right place.

 

I have a little boy who is 6.5 yo and I had him start K 1/2 way through 2010 and then do another year of K this year - both through a local charter school homeschool program.

 

I tried FIAR and we also did Zoo phonics but neither seem to "fit" for me and my son.

 

He is a very energetic little guy, he is not able to sit still very long or sit and focus for very long at a time. He found zoo-phonics too "little kid" and I thought he'd totally get interested when we did the fun FIAR themes (like the steam engine, airplanes, etc...). Nope.

 

He is doing Math U See and seems to be really doing okay with that. I also had him writing 4 days a week a sentence (journal). We did "handwriting w/out tears" and I'm sticking with that as well for just hand-writing because he did well with that.

 

The ES from the school suggested "The Blue Book - First Grade Skills for beginning readers" because it's an all in one type kit (easy for me) and sort of "gentle" (because I honestly feel like this little guy isn't really ready for heavy-duty LA yet - I'd rather work on handwriting still and just read to him and with him as much as possible).

 

I'm hoping to find out what thoughts might be here on that curriculum with what has and has not worked out for my son thus far. PS - my husband is an avid reader but has told me that he, too, did not really "get" or have much interest in reading/writing himself 'til he was 8 or 9.