mathmarm
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Posts posted by mathmarm
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We use a few vintage school books and it makes me wonder, what were they writing on before lined paper was commercially available.
I know slate work was popular/common, but several students also wrote on paper.
1 hour ago, Little Green Leaves said:I remember my grandmother used to make pencil lines for me when I was supposed to be writing neatly (like, for the final copy of a letter to a distant relative). She'd have me write in pen so that she could then erase the lines.
I feel like I would never have the patience for that myself. But it did work nicely!
I remember adults writing guide lines for me too! I know I've heard mention of students writing guidelines on their paper "back in the day".
But I wonder if the end goal was that they learned to write in a line without first drawing the line?
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54 minutes ago, square_25 said:
Well, you know your kid better than I do, but I don't find that I write neater without any guidance :-).
True, but how much have you practiced writing neatly without lines marking the way?
Think about how well TEACHERS can write on a wall-mounted board and how students write on the same board. It comes down to learning and practicing, I think. -
We do a lot of visualizations, drawing, detailed-tasks in cutting, marking, crafting type stuff so Jr. writes fairly consistently in both lined and unlined paper.
I guess I kinda have this thing for handwriting and penmanship, we were very inspired by the French handwriting philosophy (if Graphisme can be called that). Maybe we'll continue to use lined paper for specific writing assignments (ie, our writing curriculum) but encourage unlined paper for everything else?
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The appeal of unlined paper is we're hoping that it will encourage general neatness, and it will definitely allow for easier "layout control" of a page as you are writing and we can always use graph-lined pages or stickies for a piece of math that needs precise alignment, but Jr. is pretty good about maintaining neatness.
Also, he does most of his math with an ink-pen, so there is that.
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Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I was taking an account of how much paper we have left and we'll need to restock soon.
Typically we've used lined paper for writing and unlined paper for drawing, but I'm wondering now about switching to unlined paper for everything in order to encourage neatness and allow more flexibility in organizing the lay out of papers.
Currently, Jr has semi-good handwriting and he's learning to make notes from reading. He will be in 2nd grade this fall.
I figured if anyone has an opinion about this, it'd be the ladies of The Hive.What Says The Hive?
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We are conciously trying to! We try to very intentionally include picture books that relate to emotional awareness, processing emotions and expressing emotions.
We discuss and role play different scenarios sometimes too.
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We plan to continue through the summer, but I have a few small brags.
- Jr. is really blossoming in his drawing. He's including greater details in his pictures much more regularly.
- Jr. is making really good progress on Ukulele
- We started a writing program a little while ago and it's a big success so far.
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This is a time when the 10 Commandments of Homeschooling are helpful to read and mediate on.
I know that for me, it is VERY discouraging to ask for advice and be *tsked, tsked* by the more experienced homeschoolers who assure me that I don't need a program for X or Y.
I usually wind up feeling overwhelmed or inadequate after being advised by some of the really experienced homeschoolers and all that they've accomplished with their kids, even the ones with various learning disabilities.
But I try and be very gentle with myself. I'm still learning. I'm still growing. I recognize that for certain things, I need resources even if other HSers didn't or dont. Or if in the 1990s resources for that thing weren't available to homeschoolers. Rather than focus on how much better someone else is/was at this stage in the HS game than me, I remember that I don't have to have everything figured out now and I don't need it all figured out before I tackle today, or this week or even this semester.One step at a time.
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On 5/30/2020 at 3:47 AM, ca06c said:
and... I'm back. We skipped ahead but PP is still not working out for us. We seem to have much more success with ETC and beginning readers, but I worry it's not comprehensive enough? Can anyone speak to this? but she seems to do much better with purposeful or contextual reading.
She can blend. She can and does decode words reliably, but she hates reading phonics drills? If that's correct then I would move over to contextual reading. Most beginning phonics programs include stories/readers, but some series do a better job than others.
We used a lot of "Decodables". You can search on Amazon for Decodables. If you go with a school publisher, such as Open Court, Scott Foresman, Houghton Mifflin, you can get a book of "booklets" that you can make for her.If you want something more durable, then you can purchase something like The SRA Beginning Reading Series which is from the 60s and built around progressively sophisticated phonetically controlled readers at every level. There are 7 books, in 6-levels
A - A Pig Can Jig pt 1 and 2 (level A has 2 books, every other level has a 1 book.)
B - A Hen in a Fox's Den
C - Six Ducks in a Pond
D - A King on a Swing
E - Kittens and Children
F - The Purple TurtleThe links are to eBay, but you can also find them on Amazon, Abebooks, etc...Since you know how to teach reading, you don't need the workbooks or teachers guides (their expensive and hard to find anyway)
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But is there a feasible solution to propose @Gil2.0? How do elementary teachers (who usually don't know any advanced mathematics themselves) avoid "the multiplication lie" when teaching multiplication?
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We'll be changing things up a bit for 2nd grade as we are adding Writing and Science (probably on alternate days) to the schedule.
Music: Singing (home made), Ukelele (with teacher) Recorder (with teacher)
Physical Education: Body weight exercises, running, practicing tennis or soccer
Thinking Time: Taking a bit of time each day to focus on reasoned thinking, problem solving, creative solutions, etc
Drawing: New Augsburg Years 2 and 3,
The Drawing Textbook and an intro to Traditional Animation
Handicrafts: Sloyd for the Primary Grades, cardboard construction projects and such.
Geography: Using a read-draw-write study pattern for learning about the worlds physical geography from a variety of living books.
New Writing: Reasoning and Writing C and D
New Science: Home made to focus on hands-on demonstrations and explorations.-
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I made up HW drills that my kids use(d) to achieve a level of fluency in. penmanship. Some of the handwriting drills that we do are:
--using ink pens (because ink-pens are more consistent)
--deliberately practicing the correct formation of sets of alphabet in groupings each day, (for example, doing all the letters that start with a line, or from a curve. We typically did in reps of 5. So writing each letter or grouping 5, 10,15, or 20 times.)
--doing copywork as a way to practice writing.
--doing timed handwriting sprints (some days we only do 1 sprint. Others we might do 2 or 3 sprints.)
--looking over a previous days work and having them critique it for a specific feature (spacing, alignment, sizing, etc)
--completing select handwriting drills/exercises by the timer
--drilling and automating letter combinations
--drilling the X most common words to the point of automaticity -
12 hours ago, EmilyGF said:
I think sometimes it is actually easier to do so than we believe. The vast majority of people who see my kids out on their own think it is great.
We have the opposite problem in our area. We personally know 2 different families who have gotten DCF sicced on them for essentially Free Range Practices within the last couple of years. I won't even go into what I think of that but our area isn't particularly Kid-Friendly.
Some of the shops in our area don't allow children in without adults. Hubby once sent Jr and his cousin down a couple of aisles to get a couple of things and had someone come over and tell him that his kids were going around unsupervised in the store and to please watch them.
We really do hope to move sooner rather than later, but in the meantime, we want to make an effort to do what we can where we are at with what we have.
I think that I do need to be more conscious of "troubleshooting" Jrs. problems throughout the day. He's gotten comfortable asking for help when he doesn't really need it and I have not been mindful of passing the responsibility back to him.
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2 minutes ago, lewelma said:
We had lots of colors of construction paper to chose from, and each time he wanted to add a link, he had to pick the color, cut it out, and stand on a chair to staple it on. So the effort to add the link (way more than just a sticker), reinforced the effort it took for him to earned it. And strangely, standing on the chair to reach the chain was quite symbolic because he was reaching up. Also, the planning of *how* to make the chain go around the room, from bookshelf, to art, to curtain, etc, was also symbolic of planning how to achieve his goals. And while he was planning the chain location and color, he would simultaneously plan how to earn more links. There was a reason why he kept at the chain for so many months. And even after he quit adding to it, it stayed up for at least a year longer.
Hubby and I were literally just discussing this very thing!
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2 hours ago, EmilyGF said:
We've been very guided by our Dutch friends (see things like road dropping) and by the opportunities we were given in our own lives to pursue independent projects.
Basically, we've tried to give our children opportunities to fail when it really didn't matter, and time to pursue those opportunities.
Emily
Thank you for this. Sometimes I'll read or be reminded of something that seems like it should be a duh moment, but is actually really insightful.
Personally, I really click with many of the cultures that view struggle and independence as a vital part of childhood and support parents who engage in such practices.
I really love the old proverb: Send the beloved child on a journey. and a part of me aches that we don't live in an environment where this is easier to do.
We hope to take the kids abroad a couple of times during their childhood. But another part of me certainly doesn't want the first time that my children struggle to be in a foreign land.
If/When Covid-19 restrictions lighten up, we'll explore more opportunities for Free Range adventures in our community.
2 hours ago, EmilyGF said:I had a very defining moment right after I turned 7, so 1988, when I got lost in the mountains during a snow storm.
We were vacationing in the mountains at a grandparent-owned vacation cabin. My dad was teaching me to cross country ski in the backyard when a girl showed up. We played outside for a while, but it was starting to snow and wanted to go inside. My mom didn't want us inside, so we decided to go to her house to play and she gave my dad her address. We walked there (she and I - remember, we're both 7) and her mom was cleaning the house and didn't want us inside, either. We decided to take a short-cut back through the woods to the cabin I was staying at, but we got lost in the woods. We were lost for a few hours, during which it snowed a number of inches. I remember sitting with her on a log crying. My dad eventually went door-to-door, asking people if they had seen two little girls, and one of the men he had talked with later found us and took us to the cabin.
My dad's response was, "Next year, you need to memorize the address before you're allowed to go anywhere."
My dad's response was to trust me but prepare me better. It felt wonderful and shaped me as a confident, independent person as well as a parent focused on preparation.
What a cool story! Thank you for sharing it.
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41 minutes ago, lewelma said:
When my kids were younger, I focused on self-assessment. We created a paper chain that stretched around the family room ceiling, very publicly displayed. My son (age 6-8) could add a new link whenever he felt he had achieved a goal. It was a goal of his making (and obviously some influence by me as the parent, but he always considered it *his* goal). Each link was worth about 10 minutes of effort. Although we never made that rule, it just became the norm. When people would come into the family room, they would ask about the chain, and he could talk about how he had earned every link, and how he planned to make it grow longer. He was *very* proud of this chain, and he kept adding to it for over a year. Most days he judged himself worthy of 2 to 6 links. It was the best approach I ever found to deeply instill the desire to be the person he wanted to be, and to rely on his own judgement for a job well done rather than seek external reinforcement.
This is such a wonderful idea! It's wide-reaching and very applicable! It's such a simple--but brilliant idea! Thank you for this!
Did you get this idea from a book or article, and if so, which one?! (I only ask, because there might be other jewels in there that I wouldn't want to miss out on!)
We are definitely implementing this.
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This is from an article that 8FillTheHeart shared an in the other thread. Emphasis mine.
QuoteAlthough no one can be sure what skills will be needed, certain character traits will produce children capable of navigating an increasingly complex world as they grow older. These traits include confidence, competence or the ability to master the environment, and a deep-seated connectedness to and caring about others that create the love, safety, and security that children need to thrive. In addition, to be resilient—to remain optimistic and be able to rebound from adversity— young people need the essential character traits of honesty, generosity, decency, tenacity, and compassion. Children are most likely to gain all of these essential traits of resiliency within a home in which parents and children have time to be together and to look to each other for positive support and unconditional love.
Lately many families are certainly experiencing a whole lot more "together time".
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I'm creating a new thread, because I realize that my initial thread was defaulting to being academically focused and was getting further and further away from what I actually feel the need to discuss as we look back over the last couple of years and realize that this is a benchmark that we feel we are missing in our own home.
Which is more along the lines of:
- What are ways that you cultivate your child's environment or experiences to find a health ratio of "Effort : Easy" in their life?
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What are some experiences that required you (when you were a child) or your child, to stick with it, that you feel helped (or will help) with developing resiliency?
Now, you may use a single, well-defined domain to meet this need for your family, or you may use a mix of experiences/domains to meet this need. But of course, in Modern Day USA Free-range practices of a by-gone era can be very limited depending on where you live. But can we please brainstorm ideas that are not wholly dependent on a very specific setting such as rural farm living or having several kids?
For this thread, I'm much less concerned about any specific academics, and more interested in discussing how to cultivate certain character traits as a part of our educational goal/plan for kids in general. This is not about time-tables (ie by 8 this, by 12 that) or whether or not play is beneficial. This is about I'd like a chance to discuss something that is on my mind (and probably on the minds of others as well) about General Education that is not limited to academics.
Many of us know of a family that use Classical Music, Youth Sports or Competitive Academics to route discipline-instilling, character-building work into their kids lives, but I'd like to discuss other, broader options with The Hive, because The Hive always has a new angle to offer.
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Thanks for the suggestions--keep 'em coming. I removed the grade level, because I think it'll be more beneficial to have funny books regardless of their level/
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Hubby is hoping to introduce/expose Jr. to various streams of science this year. We're slowly beginning to compile list of topics that make good "Hands On" units in Science. Hubby wants to try and show him how live science can be so his main criteria is that it's something that we can do at the house without much fuss.
We're thinking topics like
Anatomy (Dissections!)
Plant science (a box garden)
Entomology (Trapping and observing then releasing insects)
Physics (via demonstrations)
Electricity/Circuits
We'll see how it goes.
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7 minutes ago, CuriousMomof3 said:
I''m curious why you'd go from Algebra in first to nothing in second. Or am I confused and this is a different kid?
My advanced math kid is miserable without math. I'm always curious about other people's kids.No, it's the same kid.
I'd never intended to start Algebra this year--certainly not at the end of the school year. But Jr got interested when he saw the book several weeks ago and wanted to start, so we started right around the beginning of April. In under 2 months, we've gone through 5 chapters of the text and and he's making smooth progress through 2 other chapters.
He's doing very well with the material in Foerster and still really enjoys "Cuddle Math". We we will continue to work through the text over the summer, but if anything this experience has helped me see even more clearly that the years we spent doing diverse strands of math have created a very robust foundation that he can spring off of very easily to other things.
Currently, my (not super-solid) plan is to quietly retire the texts and workbooks towards the end of the summer and just not offer math for a bit after and see what happens.
If Jr. asks for math, then we'll resume daily Math Meetings, and if he wants more than just the Math Meetings, then I'll do a couple of mom-made units with him. But I don't anticipate using any formal math resources with him for at least the first semester of second grade.
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We've been cooped up waaaaay too long. We need a list of funny books. they can be picture books, or chapter books just need funny books. Please, no gross humor.
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22 minutes ago, CuriousMomof3 said:
You aren't doing math?
No. We'll re-assess for the second semester, but we're not planning to do math.
I had planned to include some formalized math time in his 2nd grade day, but decided against it more recently.
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5 hours ago, goldenecho said:
OOh. I'll have to check those out!
Another one you might want to check out is Semicolons, Cupcakes, and Cucumbers. My son loved it so much he actually asked to read it for a bedtime story, which never happens with those types of educational books.Thanks for that recommendation!
The book that I couldn't remember is Punctuation Celebration.
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Writing on Lined vs Unlined Paper
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I think we'll continue to use ruled paper for our composition program at least, but try and encourage unlined paper for writing tasks such as copy-work and notes in science or other reading.