eternallytired
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Posts posted by eternallytired
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His instructor is doing some of what wintermom described above--pointing out chords on which a song is based, showing DS how you can play the chords along with the song or how you can improvise a song using the notes of a chord. The problem is that lessons are only 30 minutes, and the instructor is already taking us back 5 minutes early (we're the first lesson of the day--perk of being homeschoolers!) and giving us 5 extra minutes at the end. DS wants/needs to learn a new song every week (thrives on challenge and has almost never had trouble becoming proficient--not masterful, but decent--at a song in a week's time), so every week the teacher needs to have him play the previous week's song to check fingerings, dynamics, etc. and also introduce all the intricacies of a new song (only 2 pages, but still). I always feel bad emailing him about anything because I hate to be a bother, but perhaps that is the best course of action.
We're in that awkward place where DS been pulled from his group class (about 3 mos after starting, so more than a year ago) but can't be put in with another group because his pace is apparently unusually fast. He loved the group lessons because he delighted in playing pieces in parts as an ensemble--but he chafed at the pace of the group class. All the ensembles offered by the studio (as well as the actual composition part of guitar camp) are for middle and high school students, so we have quite a ways to wait, and I'm not sure how to help him fill those missing pieces of his music passion--the composition and the ensemble aspect--in the mean time. At the same time, individual lessons are 150% of the cost of group lessons and funding that is a bit of a stretch, so it's not like we can add another large, ongoing expense.
Off to email his instructor and check the link above. We're not in the Bay area, sadly (well, maybe not--I couldn't afford to live there!), but I'm always open to trying to find connections. Thanks, all!
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DS8 has been passionate about the guitar since well before we finally got him lessons. Ever since he started lessons (age 6.5), he's tried to write his own music. He realizes, though, that he's missing information about what makes a good song.
Last summer we enrolled DS in a week-long guitar camp (run by the teachers from the studio where he takes lessons) which promised ensemble work, recording sessions, improvisation, and composition. Unfortunately, we were told that he was put in a group with age peers because they were afraid he would be out of place with ability peers. (He has progressed very quickly.) His group spent most of their time working on a very simple ensemble song, and each kid was given the chance to record a song of their choice. The group above his did a little more: they were given several possible parts and were told to work together to arrange a song using those different parts. He might have enjoyed that, but I'm still not sure that would be what he's looking for.
He was lamenting again today that he wishes he could learn about composing music, so I promised that I'd try to find either a) resources/camps that would help him or b) information on how old he'd be before he could access appropriate resources. So far the only local option for his age is something like $400 for a one-week, half-day camp--and that's beyond our means. Otherwise he has to wait until college.
Does anyone know of any resources on composition that would be accessible to a bright 8yo? I'm not a music person and neither is DH, so we're clueless.
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If it helps, my youngest will be 5 in February. Right now, he does about 5ish minutes of handwriting each day. That's the only thing I require of him--and I only require that because he wanted some official "work" to be like the big kids. (For the others, I started handwriting at 5 and added a few minutes more of something every couple months.)
Other than that, he listens to me read aloud, joins in occasional other projects/subjects as they interest him (mostly if I have a video or project!), helps to bake, builds things from Legos, rides his bike, plays computer and board games (all educational in some way), imagines with or without his siblings, does dot-to-dots, runs around the yard...
And yet, he has managed to learn to read and has a solid foundation in math simply from playing and asking questions. Kids' brains are wired to learn. If you follow his lead and offer activities he will enjoy that might also help build skills (letter bingo, math games, playing with science materials like magnets and ramps)--even letting him choose which activities he'd like to do that day, perhaps you could ease his stress while still accomplishing educational goals?
I'm not sure which schools you are comparing yourself to, since schools around where I live do very little sit-down work for 4-year-olds. (Half-day pre-k is 2.5 hours, which includes a story, some singing, a snack, and free play. Full day pre-k includes lunch and a nap and lots of crafts and movement and very little seatwork.) If you add up the amount of time B&M schools spend passing out paper, waiting for everyone to get out the correct book, giving everyone plenty of time to finish work, lining up, letting everyone take a bathroom break, getting to and from the lunchroom or playground, and what-have-you, you'd probably find that most schoolchildren spend a lot less time actually working than what you'd think.
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The recent post on VT reminded me that I was intending to write a post, myself.
Several months ago I posted on here for advice regarding my youngest, who had begun sounding out words more than a year earlier but had not made any progress. A few of you recommended taking him for a vision check with a COVD-certified optometrist. The long and short of the story is that we found out that he needed therapy, but it would be too much for us to afford--and we were not willing to put it on credit, as the doc suggested. (You can read the long version of this story on my blog, if you're really curious.)
A friend of mine happened to have a binder full of vision therapy exercises given to her during her tenure as an OT. We've been doing the exercises at home 3-4 days a week for about 10 weeks, and YDS has gone from sounding out single words to reading Biscuit and Dr. Seuss books on his own. I know correlation does not necessarily equal causation, but for those parents who might be feeling stressed and panicky because their child needs vision therapy and they can't afford it, I thought I'd share what we did.
The materials I was given were all simple print-outs with occasional hand sketches for illustrations; nowhere in the binder is any copyright information, and some of the pages are clearly labeled as take-home papers. That said, I still don't want to infringe on potential copyright, so I summarized the instructions for a dozen activities (some with multiple variations--bonus!) on my blog. If you are looking for some vision therapy materials to try at home, feel free to use these as a resource. Hopefully they will ease someone else's stress as they eased mine!
**Side note: If it's of interest, the COVD doc also mentioned various primitive reflexes that weren't integrated, so in addition to the vision work (a couple exercises a day), we've been doing exercises to integrate primitive reflexes. So far we've done several weeks each of Starfish (moro) and Superman/Meatball (tonic labyrinthine), which we found instructions for on YouTube. I'm swinging for the fences by trying to cover everything I can!
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We did vision testing and discovered YDS needed therapy...but then the doc gave us a price tag more than $2000 above the original quote, which we then couldn't afford. BUT a friend of mine happened to have a whole binder of vision therapy exercises that were given to her when she was an OT at a special needs school in a poor part of South Africa.
I started doing the exercises with YDS in September. At the time, he was only able to sound out individual words--which he had been able to do for over a year--but was not able to recognize words he had seen before and was frustrated by trying to read more than one word (or trying to read anything at all that was in a book, rather than built with large magnets). About six weeks in, exactly as my OT friend predicted, he suddenly took off. He began asking to read parts of his bedtime stories; now he is reading Biscuit books independently. This morning I found him reading Green Eggs and Ham in his room when I came to get him up!
I just blogged about our activities (and the history) not long ago. Link in my sig, if you're curious.
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Completely different from what others have mentioned, but I'm loving IEW's Fix-It program. It requires a couple minute intro each week and then takes only a few minutes of your kid's time (10ish) for four days. Kids work on one sentence a day, gradually labeling more parts of speech as they progress through the program before looking up one word in the dictionary and then copying the sentence, editing as needed. Thus, it covers your "GUM" topics as well as vocabulary, all via copywork. When we did NaNoWriMo this year, I was surprised at how much the kids had internalized from that copywork; their sentences were pretty varied, their spelling quite improved, and their punctuation was pretty accurate. For what little effort and time it takes, this program is great--and no one objects to doing it!
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I've used and enjoyed both MCT's Grammar Island and IEW's Fix-It. MCT is a lot of snuggling on the couch and reading and discussing together; you could do the sentence labeling as an assignment or together. With this program, you have to be comfortable determining your own pace/schedule. Fix-It requires a brief introduction once a week and then has kids practice grammar and editing through a sentence of labeling/copywork each day (four days a week). The kids enjoy it because the sentences tell a story.
I actually like both programs a lot, though the feel and application is totally different. Right now I'm enjoying the independence of Fix-It, since I'm busy trying to get my little guy worked into our rotation, but I plan to do a round of MCT again when we're done. Fix-It is fast and easy and not too challenging, but if you're looking for completely do-together-orally, then MCT is probably more what you're looking for--though much of what I loved there came from all the components working together, and I'm not sure you'd need all of it if you're looking for light.
Well, that was clear as mud. Hope something in there was somehow helpful.
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I agree that the Septimus Heap series is in the same vein as HP. Magical kids on adventures and quests... (DH thinks it's actually better than HP; I can't go that far, though I do find it enjoyable.)
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In version 2, Right Start B includes a review of the A material at the start, so it shouldn't be a problem to start with B.
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If retention wasn't an issue in 3A, I'd argue that either a) it's just this particular concept/set of concepts or b) he's growing (unless the problem persists, and it turns out that 3A was the anomaly). My oldest is very mathy, but when he's hit a growth spurt, all bets are off--he comes off as the biggest airhead ever. (Not to say your kid is an airhead, just to say that sometimes there's something going on in their body's background that affects retention/comprehension/processing.)
My kids play Prodigy for 20 minutes or so every day; I like that it provides some review of things we're not currently working on in Beast, and they're eager to play.
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The Stack the Countries app is a treasure trove of information. You can start with just one continent and control what it asks, but my oldest learned country shapes, flags, official languages, capital cities, major landmarks, and locations by playing the game. He just did it for fun about a year ago, but I could easily see using it as part of a formal study. To beef it up, I'd probably just pick a continent at a time, alternate playing the game and reading books about and from countries on that continent; when I wanted to wrap up, we'd spend a week or two baking, doing crafts, finding related outings, etc. for a grand finale before moving to a new continent. (It was super exciting for him at the end to turn on the "whole world" portion and see how well he could do when he was being asked facts about the whole kit and kaboodle!)
FWIW, we get tired of doing the same thing for too long, which is why I switch up our subjects every six weeks. (Six weeks seems to be the magic number for us; five always seems too short, and seven is just a hair too long.) So if you spend four weeks doing the standard read-and-game-about-one-continent routine and then take two weeks to do puzzles, flashcards, art projects, baking, etc, I think it would be a good balance: just enough variety to keep it fun without being overwhelming from the planning side.
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If you're looking for a very easy "something more," I think the thing that motivated my kids most of all was reading things I had written. On most days, I would write them each a little note and leave it somewhere around the house--by their seat at the table, on their desk, on the bathroom mirror. It could be a joke, or something I wanted to compliment them for, or a reminder, or a surprise. I also have a calendar posted at kid-level, which I keep updated with their activities. Everyone gets excited to see new field trips or playdates appear. Another fun thing we occasionally do is pretend we're running a restaurant; I write out menu options and the kids place their orders either orally or in writing. Probably the highlight of my kids' learning-to-read lives, though, was the treasure hunts I made. I'd only do one a week or so. I'd start by hiding their snack somewhere in the house, and then I'd write a note with a clue ("Look by the pots and pans."); that note would be hidden, and a note would be written to reveal its location ("There's something under your pillow!"). Once you have several notes leading to each other and--at last--to the snack, you give them the first note and off they go finding each note in turn until they discover their treasure. (This is an ideal activity for yucky weather, especially if you make sure to make your kid run from one end of the house to the other repeatedly as they follow the trail of notes.)
Writing a lot of things for your kids to read tends to have the effect of inspiring them to write--at least in our house. I still find notes on my pillow, pictures with elaborate captions posted on the fridge, half-finished stories on the table, to-do lists on bedroom floors, etc. And of course these are all brilliant for development of language skills, as well as being fun.
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Singapore has the fun aspect, with cartoony pictures and puzzles to solve.
I love RightStart B. If you're getting RightStart anyway for your son, I'd consider either a) using it for your daughter but sticking mostly with the game-based learning--not that there are all that many worksheets or b) using the RightStart materials to introduce Singapore's concepts and the games to reinforce. IMHO, the idea behind both of them is the same (very hands-on, incremental), but Singapore went the cute/colorful route while RightStart went the stark/clutter-free route.
You could also look at MEP. It's very hands-on, and it's free. It's not colorful, but it is full of pictures and fairly visually appealing.
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I keep seeing these video ads for JAM.com in my Facebook feed (Alas! they have sucked me in!), and the engineering class looks super fun...but I can't find any user reviews of it, and I hesitate to spend $100 on something no one seems to have tried before. I hate to end up with a bunch of tutorials of things that never work remotely like they're supposed to or can't actually be done by kids. Have any of you tried anything they offer?
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I've found that most apps are made for iPad first, and Android (maybe) later. It's frustrating that so many things I hear about that would be really fun and useful aren't accessible to us because we have all Android devices. Apple also has an approval procedure in place, so all Apple apps have to meet certain quality standards. Anyone and everyone can (and does) produce Android apps, so there's a lot of junk to wade through when looking for something good.
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We're going next July! I don't have any specific resources, but we kept having Yellowstone mentioned in our study of plate tectonics/volcanoes, which was pretty cool for my kids.
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I've done quite a bit of googling this topic with nothing jumping out at me, so I'm hoping that the Hive can help. I've got two kids for whom I need ideas.
ODS is 7. The first books he liked well enough to re-read were Jessica Day George's Tuesdays at the Castle series, which he read this spring. Currently he's on the Septimus Heap series, which will at least keep him busy for a while (though I need to finish reading the series to make sure the last ones are doable). He could probably handle the content of Harry Potter--at least DH thinks so, but I'd rather wait both because I found parts of them frightening (and he's a lot like me) and because I loved those so well that I want to make sure he doesn't mentally check them off his list until he's old enough to really appreciate them. He also likes adventure/survival books to some extent (liked My Side of the Mountain but didn't want to read the sequel because the sister was in it; liked the first Boxcar Children but said the others were not as exciting). Mostly, though, he wants castles and wizards. I need something that he doesn't see as too short/easy but isn't quite the coming-of-age genre yet because he just can't relate to that, and also something that's going to be clean (language, themes). DH said maybe Sword of Shannara; if anyone has thoughts on that I'd be delighted not to have to re-read yet another book to judge appropriateness.
DD is 6. Currently she's absolutely obsessed with the Rainbow Magic fairy books, but she's read so many (around 90!) that she's got to be close to running out. She tends to be my series gal, since she read every Magic Tree House she could get her hands on, all the A to Z and Calendar Mysteries, a good several dozen Boxcar Children, all the Magic Tree House again, and now the Rainbow Magic. Animal-themed books are a no-go--not even the RM ones. She's also very particular about appearance. She won't touch the Disney fairy chapter books because she doesn't like the art style. She likes large font, quick reads (preferably easy to finish in a couple hours--she's done with RM in under an hour), magic and occasional pictures are a plus. So while she liked the Ramona books, she'd have me read her a chapter or two a night and then she'd plod through a chapter--but she preferred hearing those read aloud to doing the reading on her own. Other than Ramona, anything with small print or all text or anything longer than a two- or three-night read she gave up on. And if nothing appeals to her, she'll go for weeks without reading much of anything--and then suddenly she's carrying books everywhere with her again. I want to avoid sassy, obnoxious characters and relationship themes that are beyond her, but I'd like to come up with a next series to avoid the doldrums. I've got American Girl as a possibility, but I'm not sure that the art style will grab her. (How do you get a kid past judging books by their cover!? And the "start reading it and she'll want to finish" doesn't work here--if I start reading something, the kids automatically categorize the entire series as read-aloud and won't touch it.)
Sorry so long; brevity has never been my forte. TIA for any suggestions you might have!
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Oh, all right. I think you'll have me--times two. ODS was recently awarded 3 months free membership for answering 10,000 questions on Prodigy (!), and it's re-inspired his sister. If I can do it for only $12 apiece, I might bite the bullet and get them both a year's membership. (ETA--Applied to join you on FB.)
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I wasn't even trying to fit in all of CM's elements--I aspired to include them all, but I knew it wouldn't happen. Even the things that I tried to include daily or weekly, though, seemed to require a lot of planning and a lot of rushing from thing to thing. I ended up doing something similar to PP. Our daily work includes math and language arts (though some LA resources are daily and others I use for a week at a time, rotating through them). Then we choose two subjects on which to focus for roughly six weeks. (Though I'm becoming looser on the timing, realizing that some topics just take longer than others.) We are able to then spend more time on each subject per day, while still cycling through a wide variety of subjects each year.
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I've gotten both Island and Town used on the classifieds here, full sets (student and teacher versions of everything) for roughly $100ish. It's still pricey, but at least it's a little easier to swallow. And after the first level, the price was much easier to stomach--it was such a glorious experience!
ETA--I think Island was more like $80, but CE in Town is much bigger than Building Language, so I didn't mind paying more.
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Has anyone else ever seen the individual bathrooms that have two toilets? Imagine a one-room, single-seater, but then imagine a second toilet right next to the first with no wall between them. Other homeschoolers told us about one they saw in PA and then we saw one, too! We decided that they were perfect for mothers and daughters out with each other who just loved to talk. ðŸ˜
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Either OH or PA (can't remember which, but I think OH) had rest stops with parent/child stalls--a big potty and a little one in the same stall. My kids (preschool/toddlers at the time) thought they were AWESOME.
I love the single-seater IF it's a locked room containing toilet/sink together. It's so convenient for helping little kids who are too young or too fearful to go in a stall by themselves, and you don't have to worry about sending your opposite-gender kid to the bathroom alone. The only time it's not nice is in busy gas stations when you're on vacation and there are four people dancing in the hallway waiting for that one seat. Generally where I've seen them they have 2-3 unisex bathrooms, and it works pretty well.
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Knowing that you have four kids, I would consider the cost and decide whether you are able to afford that x4. Perhaps not everyone will be as passionate or have interests that are as expensive, but if they do, how would you choose? Would you be willing to tell DD later that she needs to cut back so someone else can get some funding?
ODS was obsessed with guitars from age 2, but we didn't sign him up for lessons until he was nearly 7. Let's just say that it didn't hold him back from succeeding incredibly, but having him in private lessons (usually it's group, which is cheaper, but he was progressing too quickly) has been more expensive than we anticipated needing to budget for. He's also doing gymnastics at the parks & rec. They only have classes for boys through second grade, so he's nearly aged out; I've told him outright that I can't afford gymnastics anywhere else (those private gyms are pricey!) unless he's willing to give up guitar. I feel bad, since he loves both, but I can't grow more money, and making hard choices and living within your budget are skills worth teaching.
While I'd agree that the discipline, poise, and friend aspects are nice, having read on here the potential cost of dance (several recitals and costumes and competitions--I think someone quoted $20K/year for their young teen), I'd keep it as inexpensive and informal as possible for as long as possible. I know I certainly couldn't afford that kind of price tag for even one child, and even if I could, I'd not be able to do it for all of them. It's hard to balance one kid's dreams and talents with the budget and needs of everyone else.
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Gary Schmidt was my writing prof in college, so I often recommend his books, but it may not have been me.
I read WW to my 8th graders when I taught 8th grade ELA. Another book that they absolutely loved was Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie. It may not be quite as poignant to a kid who's not anticipating going to a B&M high school, but it's still a hilarious portrayal of the inner life of a kid at that age--struggling with navigating lots of relationships, from teachers to fellow guys to girls. And since I taught at a Christian school, I can tell you it's definitely clean.
I didn't do this as a read-aloud, but Nancy Farmer's House of the Scorpion is one of my all-time-favorite YA books. It's about a future world post-US. The main character is a clone, grown specifically for organ harvest, and the book delves into what makes a person a unique individual. It would be a great guy read, since the main character is a male and it's full of action. Not that girls wouldn't likely love it, too.
If you haven't read anything by Mildred Taylor, you really need to do something by her, too. She writes about the experience of her African American ancestors in the post-Civil War South, which is a setting worth examining.
Have you read Roland Smith's Peak? It's both educational, in that you learn a lot about mountain climbing and specifically climbing Everest, and a great examination of relationships. Peak lives with his mom and step-dad and their twin girls, but he's sent to his absentee, Everest-guide father when he gets in trouble for climbing sky scrapers in NYC. His father aspires to have him be the youngest kid to summit Everest.
The Outsiders and Freak the Mighty are classics for that age.
I loved anything by Gary Paulsen, too, who does a lot of male coming-of-age.
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Whoa! I come back after a long day to lots of responses. Thanks for taking the time to offer input and suggestions, everyone.
He eats very slowly and never drinks anything carbonated, so I don't think he's been swallowing too much air. Our stir fry and pasta dishes do contain onion, but not very much; especially with pasta it's just enough for flavoring, so I'd be surprised if he's getting overmuch of that or garlic or leeks, either.
Perhaps I'll have to have him help keep a log of what he eats and how he's feeling. I've not noticed any correlation to bean intake (and he does love beans!), but now I'm going to pay attention to that, as well as checking out the suggested searches and links.
The thing that drives me nuts is that docs completely dismiss any concern I have regarding my kids' diet (his little brother had lots of intestinal distress as an infant/toddler and ended up self-limiting his intake to barely anything), saying, "Well, they're growing, and kids only grow if they're healthy. You can tell if something is wrong by looking at a child, and yours are alert and active and growing."
Resources for aspiring composers?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
Whoa! That program is pretty pricey, but it looks AMAZING! (And considering that I was looking at some summer camps this week that were $500 for five half-days, that price is really quite reasonable.) He would absolutely be in heaven in a program like that one! Somehow I doubt we have anything that cool around here, but it's worth a try.