Momto4inSoCal
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Posts posted by Momto4inSoCal
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I don't know if my son is necessarily accelerated but things seem to click quick in math with him. He's been doing the 1st grade math in focus book this year. Technically he's TK this year but he really likes math and kept asking to work on math problems and since I had the 1st grade book I let him do it. He's done really good and enjoys it but I feel like it's so many problems and if he understands the topic and I keep having him do problem after problem he gets bored. We are going to finish off the book but I don't know what math to put him in next year. Should I just continue math in focus and if he gets it let him skip problems? We also have math mammoth already. The other curriculum I've been looking at are MEP or Miquon. I want him to continue to love math and I don't want to force him to finish off every problem just because it's in the book but I don't want to miss anything either. Any suggestions?
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We did Jr Analytical Grammar at the end of 3rd and 4th grade since they had finished their Rod and Staff books early. I liked it a lot so I then moved them into Analytical Grammar for 4th and 5th. Those aren't the recommended ages but my girls did fine with it. Maybe it just depends on the child? They are now 5th and 6th and finishing up the mechanics portion of it. I've really enjoyed it and I've recommended it to a lot of people.
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The time issue can be solved by using any extra time in the summer to plan. This can be 10pm in bed with books and a piece of paper. I've pulled together curriculum and made it open and go. Having a few used text just create lesson plans for them with checklist for your student. Workbooks tend to need the least amount of teacher prep. For younger students the hanging file system where you fill 36 files with packets of work for the week help create a grab and go system. You still need time to prep but prep work time is much more flexible that school time. 15 min here amd there can add up.
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Are you talking specifically about the educational movement during your homeschooling days which I would assume was a version of the neo classical movement or are you trying to tie back to the Jesuit/Middle Ages/Renessance (pick any) movement? As far as defining the current movement which does seem to solely include Latin (and reading these forums many even drop latin) I think it is evolving and since it is homeschooling there is not going to be one definition. I think it's part of why many flow in and out of the different philosophies. They have no definition just lofty ideas that, once they really begin digging, lead to nothing. I have a few friends with kids in schools that are classical and when you look past the thrown in Shakespeare and Latin it is essentially just another modern day school following the same state standards every other school follows. It leads me to wonder if that's what the current trend really is. Modern standards with a bit of Latin and Shakespeare. Even if we could pin down exactly what school was like in the Jesuit/Renessance/Middle Ages (pick one) we would be unable to replicate without the education the teachers had (actual fluency in the languages for one). If it is a good model for current days I think it is at least as good as any. Watching so many friends with so many different ways of schooling end up with successful children (as far as finishing degrees, getting married and seeming to be in general happy with their life) I am not sure their is a best way.
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I was thinking the other day about the the methods of education that I read about somewhere (can't remember which book) that almost completely focused on Cicero's orations. Children learning Rhetoric from a master, grammar by decoding latin, and a foreign language along with western history. It just seems like we are making thing so complicated by having all of our different subjects. My problem of course is not knowing latin but if I did I think I would take the Cicero approach.
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We started Sept using Latin Alive and I hated it so we switched to Latin Book One. I really love this curriculum, we are only 6 lessons into it and I feel they have learned more in 6 lessons that we learned in 2 months of Latin Alive. I'm wondering if anyone has taken it through book one and two and where they went from there. I believe that is all that is available on the yahoo group and there is no answer key for book three. Anyone currently using it have a plan as to what they will move onto?
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So I'm joining this thread again after a skipping reading the last 2 months. I spent new years eve reading one of the free amazon prime books and then read Girl on the Train. It was everything I was really hoping for which was a fun easy read with a twist at the end. I wanted to give myself some book candy before diving back into more heavy reading. Last year my goal was 52 books and I reached 44 so hopefully this year I can actually hit my goal. Now to go back and read the thread to see what everyone else here has been reading.
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That's good that your ped referred you for OT! Yes there's stuff they can do, partly accommodations and partly improving it. No you don't need a fresh neuropsych eval for it. The neuropsych would be helpful if you thought the ADHD + SPD was pushing over into ASD. If she's there on the DSM criteria, then yes get a fresh psych eval and get that diagnosed.
OTs really vary, so talk with them and don't be afraid to change. I've gone through a bunch with my kids. They're kinda like used car salesman. They have this basic knowledge (brief program) and then they get additional training in novel therapies. So one person will be trained in something and the next OT totally not. They just vary. It's almost like you need to know what you're looking for so you can know you've got a good fit OT, sigh. Or just start in, exhaust that person's list, see where you're at.
There is SIPT certification that can be a good sign. You can find that list online. It's buried on the WP website. Or look for someone who works a lot with autism.
OTs who work a lot with sensory can help lower her load, improve her ability to eat textures of food, increase her awareness, check for retained reflexes, improve tone and proprioception, talk about calming techniques, do Zones of Regulation to work on check-ins and staying more stable, etc. Just depends on what she needs. My dd's sensory issues affect her significantly, and she was that age (11-ish) when she started. For her, that education, understanding what your body is doing and what you can do about it, was HUGE. We couldn't see the patterns, and she was just a kid so she couldn't sort it out for herself. Once she had that info, she could self-advocate and make changes. She can explain WHY she wants her room a certain way or needs certain things.
Overall load affects sensory, so the severity can sort of go up and down. It was something I didn't realize, and it can get very aggravating. We're trying to get things done with them and they're saying they can't work today because of their sleeves, kwim? It's crazy.
My dd is very particular about her clothes, has an office with particular colors and lots lights. She keeps it very warm, even in the summer, and has insulating curtains. She strung christmas lights around it. The OT helped her identify types of music that were calming. We'll do joint compression when she's out of whack, etc. It all fits together.
Really, lifestyle is considered the best long-term way to keep the SPD in check. Weight-bearing exercise can help. I lift weights, LOTS of weight, and it makes a HUGE difference for me. But for teens they'll recommend yoga, pilates, that kind of thing. Actually, teens can go to the Y and get taught to use the machines through the teen program.
We did some brushing, but I wasn't very good at it.
I was only talking my dd here. Her SPD is a very over-reactive type. She over-reacts to sound too, and she's borderline for CAPD. If sound is an issue, you might go ahead and get that screening as well. You can do that with an audiologist. They did the threshold limits with her too, and it's not that. It's more how her system processes it. My ds is the opposite, hypo-sensitive to pain, etc., and constantly seeking input. I keep him in an astonishing amount of things trying to keep it chilled. We did neurofeedback, which improved his overall reactivity to things like hand driers, etc. Now we're doing OT focusing on self-regulation. I have beads to make him a weighted blanket and haven't gotten it done. He'll wear compression shirts. That kind of thing. Totally the opposite of my dd.
Well hopefully you'll find a helpful OT and get some good info! :)
Thanks for all the tips. I'm glad to hear we won't need a fresh eval. I don't know if the sound per se is her issue. She said it's more the vibrations when sound is loud or if there are strobe or disco lights. Bummer to hear about the brushing, I had great hopes for that but we will see how all of this goes. I was thinking of trying a weighted blanket for her. They are pretty pricey.
I haven't had the greatest success with OT for sensory, but that's the ones we've had. As Elizabeth said, they vary a lot.
I've had four with SPD, the life-impacting variety. I know what it's like not to be able to get clothes on them so you can go out and live life. And I know what it's like to feel humiliated by the crazy mismatched outfits, boots in summer, sandals in winter. I believe we have finally reached the point of being confident of an affirmative response to the question, "Are you wearing underwear?" I never want to go back to the days of constant issues with shoes and clothes. Never.
I will say surely puberty, even the very early stages, has made a huge difference with the clothing issues. Suddenly, looking nice becomes more important than discomfort, at least to a degree. I'm finally reaching that point with my youngest. Woo hoo!
There also comes the ability to articulate discomfort before a major meltdown hits. OT could probably get you there sooner.
As someone here has talked about, SPD often morphs into anxiety later because of those signals being out of whack. Be aware, it's a physical thing, not psychological. So if you need to seek help for that someday, make sure you have a specialist/therapist/psych who gets sensory or else you might waste time and create other problems.
You will get through this and it will get better. Offer patience and understanding and grow a thick skin. Get whatever help you can through OT. SPD has not affected my kids as they got older in terms of what they are able to accomplish. I have one who goes to concerts wearing ear plugs and carrying a bag to throw up in in case she gets massively overstimulated. But she goes and each time her confidence grows about her ability to accommodate. The same kid might only be able to shop for 30 mins at a time but shopping isn't nearly as important as music to her. And another kid who wouldn't get dressed happily wears a uniform now, heavy, clunky shoes and all. And when she's not in uniform, she can dress rather glamorous. This is all to say, be hopeful. Things change. They grow out of some parts of it or they learn how to accommodate the SPD to accomplish what it's important to them.
The clothes thing is hard. This morning she came out in a sundress, uggs, wearing a beanie (because she doesn't like the feeling of brushing her hair) and carrying her soft bunny that she likes to feel. It doesn't bother me but I know other kids look at her funny because of it and I don't know how much longer she will be oblivious to it. I've heard other moms say puberty changes a lot of things so I'm hoping for a positive change once that hits. The more I read about SPD the more things seem to make sense. ADHD really didn't explain all of her other issues but I didn't really feel like it was ASD.
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My daughter was diagnosed years ago with ADHD. She's had a lot of sensory issue's that I've noticed more the last few years. Looking back they have always been their I just assumed it was due to age and she would out grow it. I mentioned the issues with her pediatrician and he said it sounds like SPD and referred me to an occupational therapist. He said they can't do much about the issues with vibrations or loud noises. They can do therapy for the clothing issues (she will only wear sweats or t-shirt material sun dresses). Is there any other way to help with this? She was diagnosed with ADHD by a neurophysiologist but he never mentioned SPD. Should I re-evaluate her for that or will the occupational therapist be able to confirm the diagnoses?
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Thank you for this thread! I've been researching teaching geometry with euclid although there seem to be more people opposed to the idea than for it I can't seem to give up the idea. We are a ways off from geometry so I have time to figure it out.
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Loving-
Mapping the world through art, we are becoming big Ellen Mchenry fans, Elemenents was awesome last year also.
Expedition Earth - I'm really tweaking this amd I'm using it as a cultural study but my kids love it.
Famous Men of the Middle Ages - All of this series has been a hit here
Right Start Kinder - I was overwhelmed with all of the pieces and while I still don't love needing so many items for one lesson it has been amazing for my son who is not interested in sitting and doing work.
Not loving
Latin Alive - we will continue but I have not liked the way CAP organizes their curriculum.
Grammar of Poetry - There's nothing really wrong with it just seems more like a suppliment. Very light IMO but my girls like it.
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In one article Leigh Bortons compaired her classical conversations program to walmart saying it was cheap easy and anyone could use it lol. I have to admit the idea of carrying on a 2000 year old tradition sounds so appealing. Seeing how litle the current ideas reflected the ancient traditions was/is very disheartening. If it's not an ancient tradition then it seems to me it belongs along side all of the other modern pedagogies out there.
We started latin last year and ended up dropping it, we are starting again this year but I really wish I knew the language already. I'm sure I will learn it along side my children I just don't know how well I will be able to teach it. We may move Lukeion eventually.
I think one of my major take aways from the reading I've done so far is the view of education as molding the whole human and to include virtue and physical activity along side intellect. I think being raised with such compartmentalized education I have a hard time seeing education in this way. I think of a list of subjects. I have to admit physical fitness has really been neglected in my plans so I'm making a contious effort to have a healthier active lifestyle for us.
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It's funny but I wrote almost the exact same post a year or so ago. I was following the well trained mind loosely at the time. After that post I sat down and plotted what our goals were and how I planned on accomplishing them. Then I started researching classical education and I've recently decided to dump our plans. I have no idea what we are going to do but I am much more informed lol. I know we are going to do latin, math and read a lot of books. Don't ask me about anything else. Next year (really this year but I'm in denial about summer being over) I still plan on doing a cultural study because it give me an excuse to make good food and visit new and exiting places (locally ie china town, korea town, little ethiopia there are some perks to living close to a big city).
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Just wanted to re-iterate the suggestions RE Quintillian; also Aristotle's Rhetoric is a nice read.* I find it oddly comforting that Quintillian was rather opposed to home education ... not sure _why_ I find it comforting, though.
I found Boyd's History of Western Education -- I think it's the eight edition I ended up with -- a worthy read.
* I must say that I like the Stoics as a foil to these, for a sense of Classical ethics that carries right through to the Apostle Paul and beyond; Epictetus, Aurelius, Musonius Rufus, Seneca. They tend to say a good deal about educating people but in a more incidental way.
I have Quintillian on google books right now but I keep getting side tracked and haven't read any of his book. I really enjoyed A History of Education in Antiquity and I felt like it shed a lot of light on Greek and Roman education. I just received The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual so maybe after that I'll move onto I'll look into the History of Western Education. I've started and stopped Hobbs book Leviathan about three times. I've read he influence a lot of modern idea's but I really can't get into the book. Has anyone here read it? Is it worth it to push through?
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Interesting, I had no idea he had opened a school or that it was the logos school http://logosschool.com/about/history/ (link for anyone else reading that's interested in this subject) . It seems that the great books program had a bigger impact on the current model of Neo Classical Education. I don't know if it was here this article was posted but I found it on my to read list and I thought it really highlighted my issue's with the great books method http://www.mmisi.org/ma/31_3-4/wilhelmsen.pdf .I've tried to look at the current classical idea's and separate the great books approach and the idea of subjects but I don't really know where that leaves me. I would love to teach Latin by reading and translating Cicero but I don't have the ability to do that. I think I've fallen down a hole of never ended pedagogy.
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So it's been 5 months and I've read quite a bit but I still don't feel like I have a complete grasp on everything. I'm going to keep reading but as far as Neo Classical education. I know that most of the movement was based on Dorothy Sayers idea's but was Doug Wilson the one to revive her essays? Was there anyone else in between? I guess I didn't realize the movement was so new. His book was published in 1991 but Dorothy Sayers essay was written in 1947. Anyone know if there was anyone in between or was Doug Wilson essential the founder of the new classical movement?
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I never post on this thread but I need serious motivation so maybe this will help me get things done.
*call library
*2 loads of laundry (washed,fold AND put away)
*pick up homeschool room
*clean bathrooms
*re-organize pantry
Can't seem to strike through on my phone but I ended up calling the library, reorganizing my pantry, cleaning the bathrooms and 1 load of laundry I'd call it a win :)
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The first year we had a long desk that both of my girls shared but they kept bickering so I bought seperate school desk the next year. This last year we were sort of all over the place. Partly back at the long desk, kitchen table, couch, computer desk. I am currently looking for a round table that will seat 4 right now since my twins will be starting school next year. I plan on getting some upholstered chairs to go with it. One thing we need is a completely flat writing surface. The long desk had slats and if the paper was over the crack the pencil would make a hole in the paper. So to summarize, in our experience, you need a flat surface, kids not too close to each other and room for mom to sit next to student.
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I study at night time. I do a devotion in the AM a bible study with the kids but anything else is done at night. I'm a night person. Plus I have a 4 yo that wakes up at 6:30 hungry. His twin will sleep till 9:30 or 10 and takes a bit to wake up before he can eat. Such opposites. Anyway I have tried setting the alarm to get up before everyone but my early riser always hears me and wakes up so I lose my early time and end up with a cranky kid later on.
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Not a specific curriculum but I've found it easier to decide on my goals or objectives for the year and pick out pieces of curriculum to meet those goals or objectives. You have to let go of doing every bit of a curriculum and decide which parts are relevant to what you are trying to teach. I've never really found something that seem to do everything I need it to do. Curriculum is written for a general audience not the child I am teaching so some of it my be stuff they've already learned or it might be lacking what I need.
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I've seen so many more people out walking around since this game came out. We are a few blocks from a university though and I think it's a lot of those kids. My 11 yo installed it but I won't let her go walk around on her own so she hasn't really done anything with it. DH took her and they walked for 2 hours. It was good exercise and they got to interact with people in our area. I really don't see a lot of younger kids playing it. It seems to be high school and up. I would even say 18 and up is the most prominent group.
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I was just reading something written in the 1880s about the decline of reading aloud within the family. The author said that it had decreased greatly in the past generation. Family members would now sit down with their own book or newspaper in the evening. They would even get impatient at having something read to them, because they could read it more quickly on their own.
Oral reading stayed at the core of the US public school curriculum until the 1920s, even though the above author said that it couldn't really be taught to a whole class -- it required the older method of individual lessons. He didn't think much of the elocution textbooks, full of rules and exercises, that had become popular in his day. Practice, with personal guidance from the teacher, was the key to progress.
Here's a link to the book, Every-day English by Richard Grant White.
So I agree that we have to make this a substantial part of our homeschooling and family lives, even if it takes some rearranging.
It's very common for homeschoolers to give up on asking their children to read aloud, because the children don't enjoy it and complain a lot. But most mothers accept that they themselves have to read aloud on a fairly regular basis, even if they don't enjoy it. Is it okay to give our children the sense that they can just be passive consumers of literature, while the adults magically do all the work? Not if we're aiming for a culture that's healthy and sustainable, it seems to me.
Reading a story aloud -- like re-telling, or translating, or illustrating -- is a way of creating a new piece of art that's derived from the original, even if it only exists for an instant. In French, they say that a singer who performs well-known songs is "interpreting" them. They're not just copying; they're bringing some insight of their own. I like that. :001_smile:
I was thinking about how much I try and put emphasis into my reading and I've tried to listen to other readers (Jim Weiss for example) to try and imitate some of their techniques but I have never tried to improve my children's reading. It really is a process. I remember listening to my daughter who was 6 at the time read and my 5 yo asked if I could just read the book because it was taking to long :laugh:. It takes a lot of patience and at the age of my children now (10 and 11) I'm often quick to just hand them something and tell them to read it on their own. Part of my problem is tending to my younger children but having them read the passages aloud could be done with all of us together. It also would be a good step towards more formal orations.
I notice Vittorino did not really teach much logic. What is your feeling about that? I haven't done any logic at all and I feel like we have our hands full with Latin (and I haven't even thought about Greek!). I had always thought logic was a major part of classical education but here is a person who was considered a big part of the revival of classical education and he didn't think it was a necessity. He mentions it being of use to the schoolmaster though.
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Thanks! I signed up, those of you with multiple children, can you get all of them their pizza in the same visit? Next year I will have 4 qualifying children and I'm wondering if pizza hut will balk at me bringing them all in for free pizzas.
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I was looking through my notes and it seems like he utilized games a lot with learning. It mentions letter games for the littles and math games to assist in arithmetic. Also that he alternated games and exercises to provide variation. Having children who dislike sitting still for long periods of time I can definitely appreciate methods that employ movement of any kinds.
The book mentions recitations and the littles being taught to enunciate, not speaking too loud and have grace while speaking. It mentions reading aloud was done in his presence and that it was an aid and test of understanding. This could easily be adapted to a homeschool setting and everyone in the family could be a part of it. The older children could read to the younger children while practicing eloquence and proper enunciation. I'm thinking the way it was a test of understanding was the way the child read. If they truly understand the text they will change their voice to match the tone of the text. I know I've noticed reading aloud often helps my children understand the text much better and listening to each other read aloud could help them critique what qualifies as a graceful and eloquent reading.
I've also noticed current methods of schooling are somewhat redundant whereas classical methods tend to reduce that redundancy. You can teach Latin by translating Cisero which teaches some of the history and proper oration while at the same time practicing grammar.
San Diego Zoo vs. Safari Park
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I like the safari park much better but I'm not a big fan of zoo's in general. It's sort of depressing to me to see such great animals pinned up in little cages. It was really nice to see animals with a little room to roam.