daybreaking
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Posts posted by daybreaking
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I began reading the book aloud to my son when he had just turned 5 and he found it very engaging. I also know a seasoned homeschool mom who read it aloud to her children, who are younger than 5, so I think it would easily work as a read-aloud for a 6 or 7 year old.
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I have two hours of homeschooling scheduled for my 6 year old son in the morning and then another 1 hour or so while my daughter naps. The morning time is more independent work, with assistance from me when needed, whereas the naptime homeschooling is where I work with him 1:1. This time frame includes some buffer time, to allow for distractions, occasional dawdling, etc. In addition to the homeschooling time, we also strive to read-aloud for two hours a day, but that time is spread throughout the day, with some happening before bed, by Daddy. :)
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When you call Rod and Staff to order the catalog, you can also request some of their free curriculum sample books, which they have for each of the grades 1-6.
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I just found this on answers.yahoo.com:
1 = xⁿ/xⁿ = x^(n - n) = x^0
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I've also seen it explained:
10^5 = 1 with 5 zeros, thus 100,000
10^4 = 1 with 4 zeros, thus 10,000
10^3 = 1 with 3 zeros, thus 1,000
10^2 = 1 with 2 zeros, thus 100
10^1 = 1 with 1 zero, thus 10
10^0 = 1 with 0 zeros, thus 1
and also this way:
3^5 means 3 times itself 5 times
3^4 means 3 times itself 4 times
3^3 means 3 times itself 3 times
3^2 means 3 times itself 2 times
3^1 means 3 times itself 1 time
3^0 means 3 times itself 0 times, which "by default" or simply "by definition" is 1
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When buying from their site, be sure to mention that you are a homeschooler, as you won't have to pay the extra fee charged to "non-school" buyers. Also, even though their site says shipping is a minimum of $5, that hasn't applied to any of my orders. I've ordered from ZB several times and am only charged the actual shipping, which is usually a dollar or so. I've been very pleased with their service.
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I can't speak for the Grade 2 program, but I am currently using Rod and Staff Grade 1 Reading and Phonics. I have found them to complement each other very well. The phonics workbook focuses on intensive phonics, as well as applying the phonics to spelling. I have found the phonics program to be very thorough and my son has thrived with it. The reading incorporates some of the phonics, but focuses on vocabulary, comprehension and so forth, as well as reading of the Bible stories in the reader. It also introduces sight words that don't fit the phonics rules. I know some do the reading without the phonics, but for us, the two together have been a perfect fit.
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Last year I used OPGTR with my 5 year old. It was "okay," but things just didn't seem to click with him. He knew all of his consonant sounds, but not the short vowels, despite plenty of review. This year, I switched to Rod and Staff Phonics and it has been fantastic. They start out teaching the short vowels and then each consonant, thus the student gets 21 more occasions of practicing the short vowels, with each new consonant. The program is outstanding for teaching both types of blends: ba, be, bi, bo and bu with short vowels and then again with the long vowels. Students are simply taught that ba is the short one and ba with a macron is the long one. I was amazed at how quickly my son differentiated between the two. Soon after learning the long vowels (which are taught after the short vowels and consonants), students learn the rules for when a word is a long vowel word or a short one. For instance, we recently covered a section that taught three "long vowel rules": if a word has an e a the end (ex. Pete), has two vowels together (ex. beat) or ends with a vowel (ex. me), then the word has the long sound.
As a side note, we also use their reading program and it integrates word families, as well, so students get both methods. We've found it to be a great combination.
Hope this helps!
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This past fall, we started using the Rod and Staff Bible and Nurture Series for reading and phonics. We absolutely LOVE the curriculum and my son has thrived with it, so now I've been wondering if we should consider switching to Rod and Staff math. For a little background, my son completed Saxon 1 last year and is now in Saxon 2. He has enjoyed Saxon and has excelled with it, rarely scoring less than a 100% on any assessment, but I, myself, have been frustrated with the slowness of the curriculum. As a result of the incremental approach, it seems to take forever for the concepts to progress. For example, my son was already counting change which included half dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, when Saxon introduced problems involving just pennies. Even by the end of the year, the money problems still weren't all that hard. For another example, most every worksheet had him drawing pictures to depict "some, some more" or "some, some went away" stories, though he got the concept after the first few worksheets and was more than ready to move on to more challenging problems. I've been wondering if Rod and Staff's mastery approach might be a better option. (I also really like the way Rod and Staff teaches the math facts and think their approach might be a better fit for my son, but without actually trying their approach, I'm not 100% sure if it would make a significant difference.)
One of my concerns about changing (as much as I don't like it to be, but I have to face reality) is with standardized testing. I've heard that Saxon produces good scores and I can vouch for that, as my son scored several years above grade level on the SAT-10. When I've looked through the Rod and Staff 1st through 3rd grade curriculum, it doesn't seem to cover any graphs, statistics, probability, calendar skills, etc. and those were on the SAT-10 my son took. I've heard that around 4th grade, Rod and Staff really picks up, but in the meantime, for those using Rod and Staff, how have your children tested on standardized testing?
Any input/insight would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!! :001_smile:
how much time do you set aside for read alouds?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
We try to read aloud to each child for 2 hours a day. Some of that time is individual and some of it is joint. Basically, we've interweaved our read aloud time throughout the day, so part of our day is the traditional "reading, writing and arithmetic" textbook-type learning and part is our read aloud time. Here's our current schedule of read alouds (which tends to be revised often, in my attempt to find the "perfect" schedule! :tongue_smilie:)
My two year old gets up early, so my husband reads aloud to her for about 1/2 hour before he goes to work. After breakfast, I've scheduled an hour and a half "morning gathering" time, during which we do educational activities, part of which involve my reading aloud an assortment of books to both children. Later, while my son is doing independent homeschooling, I do activities with my daughter, a 1/2 hour of which is reading to her. After lunch, my son takes a quiet time for an hour and listens to books on tape. In the afternoon, when the children rise from their nap/quiet time, we have "teatime," where I read aloud for another 1/2 hour. Before dinner, we have an "afternoon chore time" (i.e., clean up time), where I also try to read aloud to both children. In the evening, we have two 1/2 hour blocks scheduled; the first block is family devotions, where my husband reads from the Bible and a devotional book and the second block is where I read "living books" to our son, while my husband reads to our daughter. Lastly, before bed, my husband reads a 1/2 hour to our son. It sounds like a lot, but the children love books so much, they just can't get enough! :)