smarson
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Posts posted by smarson
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5 hours ago, PeterPan said:
2nd grade is a good time to add chess on the computer. We did Fritz & Chesster around that age. Also Zoombinis, a logic game, is good. Maybe they have app versions now too, hmm. Amazon has a STEM kit club you can just for just $20 a box, and it will magically appear at the frequency you specify. Some things like that might help keep him occupied.
On the enough question, I think your plan to focus on basics and then keeping them happy (answering their questions, facilitating them pursuing their interests in their free time) is a good one. When you're burnt out especially, it's a really wise plan. Taking care of yourself is the best way to be able to do more later. Have some goals for each dc, all written out, so you'll know that whether you get a ton done or less at least you hit your most important GOALS for the year.
This is a good idea with chess! It will keep him busy and he craves that ‘video game’ time. I’ll have to look into those STEM club you mentioned. I was planning to ask for some kind of kit thing like that for his birthday gift or Christmas gift from grandparents so that could work. I have the snap circuits but I haven’t let him do them on his own because I dknow not want him to blow anything up. ?
I'm just concerned about there not being enough of me to go around to all of them, given the choices in curriculum we’ve made. Maybe it will be better than anticipated. I need to keep reminding myself they are all different and have different levels of needs. ?
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I have this coming year roughly planned out but I have this nagging feeling I’m not doing enough. But I’m also trying to be realistic. This is probably the least planned year I’ve homeschooled yet but most of what I’m doing is just “open to the next lesson and do that” so I haven’t done too much planning. And much of what I have planned is fairly mom-intensive due to my kids just not doing very well working independently on anything for varying reasons.
So, looking at my signature which is my plan for the year, are there any glaring gaps? We’ll do history, read aloud, some shakespeare, some science, some music study, etc in our morning time together and then I’ll rotate between kids for their individual lessons, probably starting with K’er since I can get his LOE and RS done fairly quickly and he can go play with the baby.
The 2nd grader is quite bright and I’m not certain how to keep him challenged. I’ve kept him reading all summer and he’s doing much better than I anticipated so the reading work I was planning to do with I’m not sure I need to do anymore. But then what do I do in place of it?
The 4th grader I feel pretty good about. I know she’ll do fine with the IEW stuff and she’s loving BA. she does pretty well with the arrows too. And we’ve been working together to build her a spelling dictionary and homegrown lists. I think this all will keep her pretty busy.
I've never taken such a laid back approach to planning as I’m taking this year but I’m tired. And really, can’t we just go on to the next lesson in everything? Am I seriously messing up by backing off on the planning? Of course I’ll look ahead as we go to make sure I have supplies and books we need from the library. Argh! Why do I always second guess myself?!
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I don’t mean to offend but this post made me chuckle because I have one like that and it takes everything in me every day not to tell him to just STOP TALKING! ?. And honestly it never dawned on me that he may have some kind of issue other than probable ADHD. He’s bright and we always have just attributed it to his brain NEVER stopping. But now you have made me think... ?. I know this doesn’t help but know that you’re not alone. ?
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I believe the Standardized testing was the CAT/Terra Nova test. No spelling.
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My mother has been an elementary teacher in our district for over 30 years and she always told me this child’s development is normal but I’ve always felt otherwise. What she recently told me was that they are discouraged from even suggesting there might be any learning issues with a child because if it comes from the teacher the school district has to pay for the testing. So the teachers aren’t even equipped to identify potential issues let alone allowed to help. The one person best able to help isn’t allowed. That’s infuriating.
Since we Homeschool that’s not really an issue for us but our state is severely behind in recognition of any learning disabilities and I’m fairly confident going through the district would be a complete waste of time. No, I haven’t looked or asked, mostly based on what I’ve been told by friends who are teachers within the district with their own kids who have LD.
As for her spelling, I do feel like it’s improving but still pretty horrible. She asks me how to spell most of her words because she knows she can’t spell for beans. ?
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Thank you SO much Peter Pan for your information and support!!! I truly appreciate it! We DO need referrals for our insurance to cover much of anything, so I am required to go through the ped, so I'll go back to her and see what I can do.
Thanks again and yes, I'm a bit tired of running around in circles and I feel like having more information will greatly help my ability to teach her better. ?
Hugs!!
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I've been asking for a psych referral for over a year and the psych at the pediatrician's office keeps seemingly dismissing me. Last fall I discussed the dyslexia with her and based on my and my husband's responses to the detailed questionnaire they provided us, she didn't think dyslexia was going on. But I just have this feeling. I've been the one teaching this child to read, write, phonograms, spelling rules, etc. using OG and while this child has all the tools he/she needs, none of them are being used. And reading has recently taken off, which in my opinion was delayed. But now that he/she is reading well, the psych at the pediatrician's office seems to think this child is okay. We did our state testing this year and this child did very well on the exams, performing above grade level across the board, so I'm not currently concerned about being able to 'keep up' with kids his/her age, however, I don't want to get a few more years down the road before we see significant deficiencies, etc. and then start the process of remediation so late. I'd rather get out ahead of it...
We saw a COVD in the fall for any vision issues and everything was okay on that side other than some slight tracking issues of which the COVD didn't feel any therapy was necessary for that issue. So I ruled that out first. Late spring we saw a doctor from Austin who treats children/adults with ADHD and Dyslexia and she did a free evaluation of all my children for various issues. I didn't tell her anything and we didn't speak before she started examining my children. The results were consistent with what I've suspected with the addition of her mentioning one of my kiddos has trouble with auditory processing in both ears. This is the same ADHD/Dyslexic child of which we're speaking. And I'm wondering if the ADHD part is actually more of an auditory processing issue but I can see the ADHD side as well.
At any rate, I think I need to talk more to the psych at the peditrician's office - trying to go over the results and options after the exam with all 4 kiddos destroying the room next door was a bit difficult and distracting, to say the least. ?
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One of my children recently took the TOVA test at our local pediatrician's office under the supervision of the pediatric psychiatrist and was diagnosed with ADHD Hyperactive type. The doc showed me four graphs that showed the test results but only explained the first two to me (where dc fell below the norm), had a brief discussion about medication (we don't plan to medicate) and sent us on our way. The doctor did mention that this dc works VERY hard, much harder than the rest of us need to work to get to the same result. But okay, so again, what do I do with that?
But now I'm just sort of sitting here scratching my head and thinking, "Well, what now?" I don't feel like this diagnosis changes our homeschooling at all, I actually was only pursuing it because I'm fairly certain this same child is stealth dyslexic. So I was hoping this diagnosis or test would get the ball rolling and provide more information... But I feel like it's just left me with questions.
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Oh, we do math consistently during the school year. Daily. Just not during the summer.
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So...
I'm thinking about the fall and preparing for those first few weeks of frustration that occur in my household where the children have forgotten everything they ever previously learned. Time to pull your hair out, right? Obviously nobody loves that scenario and I'm doing my best this summer to help prevent this from happening. However, one must be practical, right?
At any rate, I'm thinking about what to do with DS 7 in the fall with regard to math. Do I start back up with RS B where we left off? Do we start C? Do we jump ship to Beast 2A? Do we just join in with DD 9 and fill in gaps as we find them? (this was one suggestion I have received but this seems like a poor choice to me). Do we move to MM like he sometimes asks? There are so many options and I'm getting stuck with analysis paralysis, not wanting to leave him with gaps
To provide a bit more detail:
I feel like DS 7 has done well with RS B and he's learned quite a bit but I'm wondering if he's not challenged enough. He's incredibly smart and his brain is always going. He doesn't love math (or school for that matter) but maybe that's because of the lack of challenge?? I don't feel like he's breezing through RS B, it seems to challenge him appropriately but he's not enjoying it. It didn't help that sister has moved into Beast and I think maybe he sees her doing something shiny and new and he wants to do something shiny and new as well. We have dabbled a little with MM and he sometimes asks to do the MM workbooks. I'm guessing he only wants to do the MM workbook simply because it's NOT RS. I don't feel like we have any challenges with math other than attitude issues (for now). I have previously used Horizons with DD 9 and I didn't use it with him because I thought he'd prefer to do the hands-on and conceptual math that RS provides. Perhaps Horizons would have been an okay choice for him. Ugh. Now I'm all befuddled on where to go with him.
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Thank you all for your responses!! I just needed some reassurance. ?
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I've done Horizons math with my daughter since K. We hit a huge road block this year and she just shut down regarding math. Mid year this year I switched her from Horizons 3 to Beast Academy 3A. It was a hit and she started enjoying math again! Yay!!!
Overall, I saw it as a huge win for us both. So I'm sold that Beast Academy is a great program but I'm new to this whole mastery concept. Horizons is spiral and I really like the fact that throughout the year she'd revisit old topics just to refresh them and to solidify them in her mind. We're now 'done' with 3rd grade but she didn't finish either of the level 3 books for either program. I'll for sure just keep going but I'm having a hard time completely letting go of Horizons. I feel like it's such a great, comprehensive program. During the summer we plan/hope to continue with Beast 3B-D or as far as we get before the fall comes around and or maybe gently do book 2 of Horizons 3? In the fall, I'll just continue wherever we are and move forward... but is it okay to move completely to Beast and ditch Horizons?! Gasp! ? I know it's a silly question. I'm just needing reassurance, I suppose, that she'll be okay and that she'll still learn the math she needs to learn.
For what it's worth, I DO feel like Beast goes deeper than Horizons did/does, but it presents it so differently that I'm just having a hard time letting go. ?
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These are great suggestions! I really liked Boy of the Pyramids for this time period too. ?
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I think that sounds like a great plan! I have and have used both Foundations and Essentials and for that age, I much prefer Foundations. If you want to go ahead and work during the summer through A, you might even be able to double up some lessons, as the lessons begin very gently and you could even skip a few here and there. There are only 40 lessons per book so working through the summer on A and then starting up the school year in B sounds perfect! I always spend more time reviewing the phonograms from memory ("please write /b/") than the book has because I found that while my kids could read them to me just fine, coming up with the formation of the letters themselves from memory was much more difficult. So I always spend a little extra time reviewing whatever phonograms we've learned or whatever phonograms in which that child is struggling. Have fun! I think she'll enjoy it!
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I have a few thoughts, one of which is that it's perfectly fine to do games/relaxed math until after the end-of-winter-blahs/tax season pass. The situation with her brother's RS seems like it needs to be addressed, and looking for enticing ways to get around it might be setting yourself up for failure if the thing she is really after is time with you. Is it the curriculum that appeals, the fact that you are more hands-on during his math time, the games?
One more thing. I think it's really important not to invalidate the negative feelings your daughter is having about math, even though you're obviously trying to boost her self-esteem. If she's saying this is not a focus issue but an issue of not getting it and feeling stupid, telling her she's smart and that she's just having trouble focusing probably isn't helping you figure out the whole picture. (Does she need to know, for instance, that it's okay to struggle with math, and that actually "smart" and "stupid" aren't really words that apply to trying to understand math?)
There can be a lot of invisible things going on that look like trouble focusing. Some kids complain and say the work is boring, or too easy, or too hard, but no matter what they say, we have to probe a little because those words sometimes don't mean what we think they mean. And that probing makes my own kids frustrated and angry before things get better, so it means I have to be patient and willing to listen to all their bad feelings without trying to fix things right away. ("Okay, I hear you saying you're stupid. Let's look at problem #1, practicing measurement. What were you thinking when you saw this problem? Okay, let's move on to problem number two..." All the way to, "And when you finished this page, what did you think? What did that feel like?") If your child can actually figure out how to express what is going on during her struggles, listening to that is what is going to help make sure your next curriculum purchase isn't a huge waste of money!
My third grader still needs almost as much attention during math as my first grader, for what it's worth. And yes, this morning my toddler did flush a toy down the toilet while we were working. It's hard. Can't imagine also trying to work as a CPA during my only free moments. Maybe it's time for a well-deserved early spring break?
RS looks fun to her. When we were all sitting at the table doing math together she would often get distracted watching and listening to us because RS is just so different than Horizons. My thoughts are that she would actually do very well switching to RS for next year. But the thought of sitting with her for math and writing, with her next brother for LOE and Math, then her 2nd brother for LOE and whatever math we do for K, and then whatever we add in for history, science, etc makes my head spin. I often have tried to include her when we play games because they can spur each other on and the idea of them playing games without me? Fantastic!
I think she knows she's struggling to focus and that's something we're looking into. She does get it. She just sits and stares at it and starts drifting off thinking about who knows what. Good point on getting her to express why she's struggling. I can work on that.
Looks like I'm probably expecting too much from her, asking her to try to work alone. I can change that.
Last year we basically took an extended 1 month Spring Break during tax season so I could get caught up on tax returns. Looks like this might be happening again this year. :) I guess that's a perk to homeschooling - we can choose when to break! :)
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Horizons is a tough program. I have one child who thrived with Horizons and my other child hit a wall somewhere around the same age.
I would just bite the bullet and schedule to work with her for 20 minutes on math every day, and sit and work through the page WITH her. At this point in the school year, it's probably not worth switching to a new curriculum, but I'd definitely consider switching it up for the next school year. But I would also not require her to do every single problem on the page - let her pick half of each section, or you pick a problem, then she picks a problem, etc. Try to make it fun, keep it short, and just get through the rest of the year.
Yes, I know it's a challenging program and I've read that often this is around the age - 3rd/4th - that kids hit a wall with it. I think it's one of these years where the authors changed and the program changed a bit too. I haven't seen 3rd as much different than 2nd but it IS quite a bit more work.
I do usually only make her do about 1/2 of the problems (unless there are only 4 to begin with) :) so it isn't so overwhelming.
Perhaps I've just been expecting too much.
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"I just need her to get it done and do it independently."
This is a very common homeschooling mistake. Many elementary aged children really do need one on one interaction for math. Some children can be given a few problems, or even a page, to work on independently for awhile, but it's normal if they can't. Even in my mid century modern style third grade classroom, my teacher paced up and down the aisles while everyone worked on math. She made sure we were working, and interacted as needed; we were in a class but we knew that we had her full attention. Homeschool moms need to give full attention at such times, too.
It's less time and frustration for you, overall, if you'll sit with her and go through it problem by problem. And she is less likely to develop anxiety or refusal about math. Once she starts building confidence and stamina, you might move to being at the table but not doing every problem together (but checking each answer as she goes), to working a few practice problems together and then leaving her with a small set to do independently while you "step downstairs to do the laundry," - giving a reason why you are going and reassuring that you'll be right back, makes her think she's still got your attention, even though you are training her to go longer without feedback - and after some time, she will do a lot more independently.
For now, you probably have to teach.
Thank you for the feedback. And you're completely right.
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Do you sit with her while she does her math work, or does she sit by herself?
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I'm trying to get her to work more independently and when I work with her I can see that she knows how to do everything. I even assign only 1/2 of the problems often just to move it along when I know she understands/knows the concepts. She would prefer me to sit with her to do the whole lesson.
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My DD9 is currently using Horizons Math 3 for her 3rd grade math program. She gets the material, the actual MATH work isn't a struggle but for the life of her she cannot focus and get an assignment done in a reasonable amount of time. As a result, she's convinced that she's terrible at math, a terrible student overall, etc. even though I try to reassure her that she DOES get it, she IS good at it, she's just simply struggling with focus issues. I also have a 1st grader I'm using fairly heavy mom-time programs with so I just need her to get the work done and get it done independently.
I'm using RS with the 1st grader and he loves it and she would really like to switch to it ( because anything would be better than Horizons for her right now) but I simply don't have enough of me to go around to sit with her for her work, then for his work, then for any family work or anything else we need to get done.
All this to say, I feel like we just need to change things up for a bit (the rest of this school year) to get her confidence back and get our homeschool back on track.
Really, math is not tough for her, she catches on quickly and is very good at it. I think she just needs something different. She LOVES Prodigy but it doesn't seem challenging enough (maybe that's my problem, I want her to be learning something from it). I'm considering switching her to TT, though I'm not sure I'd love it given some of the things I've read about it here, or Beast. I also have MM (up to 3) that I could print for her...
I thought TT would be fun, at the computer for her (she enjoys doing Prodigy on the computer and Dance Mat Typing). Or Beast would be more interesting, in another format altogether, really, just to switch things up and make math fun(ish) again. Or do I go super crazy and just do Fred?! Gah!!!
I don't really know what I'm asking, I guess I'm just reaching out to those of you who have been there/done that. I'm extremely frustrated with our homeschool right now but maybe that's just February/March speaking? Or the fact that it's tax season and I'm a CPA? Or the fact that I have a 20 month toddler who interferes with everything school? Probably all of it. I'm frustrated and I just want to quit. But I feel like this math thing is low-hanging fruit that I CAN control/change relatively easily. Bleh.
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CC is coming out with a new guide for Foundations for the next school year. I would imagine you'll find LOTS of used guides widely available used after April because everyone will need to be buying the new guide. If I were just starting out homeschooling, I wouldn't know how to take the information in the CC guide to formulate it into a week. Now that I've experienced a CC community and tutoried, I know how to implement, if I chose to do that in my home. We've moved away from the CC model completely and still provide a rigorous, classical education for my children. CC is NOT the only way, nor is it the BEST way. It's A way. That's all. It works for some, not so much for others. Their model is BASED on using it in a community instead of doing it on your own at home. Now, it's completely possible to do at home, alone, but that's not what they intended it for. So the guide is really the structure for the once-a-week meeting that CC has... then, at home, you do your own thing during the rest of the week (at the Foundations level).
If you want jingles/songs, I'd search you-tube, buy the Claritas memory work or use Veritas (or any of the various other options out there). There's also a guide called Living Memory that provides a comprehensive list of memory work you can do with your kids. Perhaps this is a good place to start. :)
Good luck with your journey!!
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We're using IEW The Nose Tree in our co-op this year for Grammar and All Things Fun and Fascinating for writing for 3-6 graders. But you've brought up a good point - what to do next year when all of these kids have done book 1 of IEW's grammar and are ready for book 2 but we'll have new 3rd graders ready for The Nose Tree... Hmmm, something to consider.
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Every single day we did:
Language arts which includes spelling, vocabulary, reading, writing, grammar. We wouldn't hit all of those every day, but we hit most of them every day.
Bible
Math
Health
Then the schedule would fluctuate. We had 4 days of science and 4 days of history every cycle (120 lessons in each for the year) and we still had time for 1 lesson in civics, 2 lessons in logic, 1 lesson in art/music, and 1 lesson in etiquette.
A:
Science
Civics
B:
History
Logic
C:
Science
History
D:
Science
History
E:
Science
Logic
F:
History
Etiquette
Art/Music
I am really liking this schedule! I tweaked it a bit to fit our needs but I think it will work. It looks REALLY complicated on paper (how I mapped it all out) but I think once we get the hang of it, it will be a breeze and will be nice to have something to follow. I default to getting those must-have subjects done (math & LA) but then I just decide we're done for the day since I don't have an exact plan in place for what to do next. I've been feeling the pressure to do more with them, you know, things like history, science, etc., so hopefully this will provide me just the road map I'll need to keep my act together. :) Now to figure out how to start slow so that we don't burn out on day ONE!
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There's an app?!
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I have heard there's one starting up in Newberg, OR this fall. It's name has Ambleside in it but that's all I know about it. I googled it just now and found the name, Ambleside of the Wilamette Valley or it looks like you can find other schools on amblesideschools.com. I hope this helps~
Am I doing enough? 4th, 2nd and K
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
What programming have you started with? I have a scratch book/app but I feel like it’s something I need to sit down with him to do. Is there anything I can let him loose on his own?