plimsoll
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Posts posted by plimsoll
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My son's 9, we're on our second year of homeschooling. When I first pulled him out of public school, there was a period of time required for the test-based training to wear off (probably took close to a year!). At first his idea of learning was doing well on tests.
My son hated Saxon Math -- it almost killed his love of math. He found Singapore to be better, but really loves Life of Fred. Once arithmetic has been mastered, I would recommend looking at Life of Fred.
Educational videos my son likes include material by Schlessinger Media and by "The Standard Deviants". All topics are covered.
My son really likes learning other languages (Latin, Greek, some French), so you might try some of these.
If your son is interested in computer games, he might like to learn to make his own. YDACS (Youth Digital Arts Cyber School - ydacs.com) offers some online courses. My son was introduced to video game design at a cyber summer camp (ID Tech) and since he wanted to continue I found him the YDACS online courses. I'm sure there are other classes available as well that might be more geared towards younger kids.
My son takes chess classes and goes to tournaments. There are some web sites (and software) as well for chess training.
I mention these various computer/cyber activities because they are, to some degree, educational and partially satisfy my son's desire for online/video game-like activity.
We're not so strict as to have the weekend-only limitation on video games, however we do limit it to after school. All video gaming and computer activity (except writing) is done after school. And the time he's allowed to spend on video games after school is limited. I'm more flexible with educational computer activity, as long as it's also after school. If he wants to spend two or more hours one night developing a video game or studying chess strategies, that's ok.
Once he's spent X amount of time playing video games after school, I'll make him do something else. Some of our non-video-game evening activities include reading, reading aloud, piano practice, and poetry memorization/recital, not to mention numerous activities like karate, piano lessons, community sports, etc. Other times we'll play a board game of watch a movie. Our only functioning TV is in the basement and we mostly use it for videos. The TV is almost never on in our house.
Despite the fact that there are many fine educational web sites around, I find my son learns better without the computer. So a lot of our learning is book and pencil based. If I find good educational web sites, they go into the evening activities bin -- something to do on the computer that's not video games. There is a yahoo group called "aristotle_academy" that posts links to educational sites. Each day they have a different topic to study and post a bunch of links related to that topic. I have found some good links for my son to explore in there.
As someone else mentioned, you may need to go freeform for a while -- visit museums, zoos, libraries, bookstores, read a lot, play games, do crafts. See if there are any homeschool programs at the local zoo or museums that you can sign him up for. Various music schools offer group classes for kids tha he may enjoy.
Since our dining room is our classrooom, we keep his computer (and mine) in there. This way when he's on the computer or on the internet I can easily see what he's doing. Sometimes he has friends over and they're all gathered around the computer and because it's not buried in the basement or up in his room, I can see what they're up to.
I hope some of this gives you some ideas. I would recommend patience and persistence. It takes some time for the indoctrination to wear off and get replaced with a different perspective....
- David
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I'm sure it's mentioned in other threads, but for math my son loves Life of Fred. This year so far he finished the first two books and is starting Beginning Algebra. We supplement with Singapore's "Extra Practice" and "Challenging Word Problems" books, but Life of Fred is just the right pace for him and let's him move forward quickly.
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I have illegible handwriting and it's a problem for me as an adult. I sometimes have difficulty reading back my journal entries or notes on books.
At the very least, he needs to be able to take notes that are legible to him. You may want to have him handwrite his outlines and any index card work and then type his written work based upon the outlines or index cards. This is what I'm doing with my 9yo son. His handwriting is neat, but still a bit on the large side....
Hope this helps.
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My 9yo son really likes Mythmatical Battles, a card game using mythology and math. Here's a link:
http://www.mythmaticalbattles.com/
- David
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I am my avatar. It's a Zen thing.
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Cast off your sandal, follow the gourd!
No! Follow the Holy Sandal! He has given us a Sign!
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I would recommend lots of drilling. Try to make it fun if possible. Flash cards, math games that require arithmetic, play monopoly and let her be the banker.
For a while we counted by n each day (2s, 3s, 6s, 7s, 8s, etc.) before starting our regular math lesson.
For multiplication facts practice we used a video game called Timez Attack (http://www.bigbrainz.com/) - check out their web site - there's a free version with limited functionality, but it does cover 2s through 12s.
For additional practice, we have used books like Daily Math Practice (comes at different grade levels). If you have Saxon, there are zillions of repetitive practice problems in there. They have these sheets of math facts you're supposed to be able to do in a minute. You may want to have her do one a day (ignore the time limit) until she's got all her arithmetic facts memorized.
Hope this helps.
- David
What to do after Life of Fred Decimals/Percents...
in Accelerated Learner Board
Posted
My son (9yo) just finished LOF Decimals/Percents and started Beginning Algebra. We also use Singapore's "Extra Practice" and "Challenging Word Problems" for some additional practice. Our plan for the rest of the year is to just keep moving forward with LOF, since he really enjoys it.
If you decide to continue with LOF, you should also get the "Home Companion" book, since starting with Beginning Algebra, not all the answers are in the main text.