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bwdiaz

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Everything posted by bwdiaz

  1. I have an auditory learner but I've adapted Reading Lessons Through Literature Levels 1 and 2 for our spelling program. Because it was set up for new readers (but my daughter could already read) it goes through phonetic sounds. I spent a bunch of weeks in early second grade just orally saying a sound and having her tell me the correct letter or letters to make the sound. So if I said (imaging a long A sound coming out of my mouth) "Ä" then she could say "Ä, two letter ai that isn't used at the end of English words, two letter ay..." etc. Then I had her work through the Level 1 lists, in this grade we could do a whole ten word list a day, each morning for several weeks. So I'd say the words emphasizing the sounds and she'd write it from the sounds she knew. We're finishing level 2 now (and second grade) and I don't think we'll need to continue in third because she hardly needs to be corrected anymore and can spell complicated words quite easily. In a few years I'll doing Latin and Greek roots and I doubt we'll need much more spelling between now and then. Using RLTL was simple, took only a few minutes each day, and played to her auditory strength. Edited to add: I also need to say, I really think it worked for us this way because she was a confident reader. The OP's 6 year old would be too young to go the speed we normally went. However, you could go at the speed outlined in the program which would be much slower. I'm personally of the mindset that children who aren't strong readers do not need to be doing spelling at all yet. So I'm not doing this with my current 6 year old, also an auditory learner, until she moves on from early readers.
  2. What ages? Edited to Add: Sorry, I'm on Tapatalk so I can't see your signature if you say there. I have elementary aged Astronomy nuts so I can make recommendations there but not for older.
  3. My favorite is Wayfarers. I really believe in differentiated learning and so family style programs that appeal to me have everyone in the same content areas but not necessarily in the same text. For example, Holling C Hollings is great for the late elementary crowd but not for your high schoolers (as a main text). I cannot see how you could get everyone in a big family or with wide age gaps on the same spine for any subject. With programs like Wayfarers, the spines for each level compliment each other, allowing ease of scheduling and field trip planning. I also like Wayfarers because it includes all the riches like art, nature, and composer study, as well as health and civics. It's also easy to switch to an optional text in that program if a child isn't connecting with it. Edited to add: I looked at your post again and want to mention that Wayfarers (in my opinion) does some of what you suggest for age ranges. For example, it may specify an option that might work better for upper or lower dialectic. Or it might suggest that if you are doing fifth grade you may still need to use the grammar option for x,y,z reasons. And then it gives you the schedule for both. Thus, choosing to place a child on the cusp of one level or another doesn't throw off schedule and it makes it easy to combine children into more manageable groups. I personally do not like it in any curriculum if every lit option is only relevant to the historical time period studies. A few are good, but some should be the idea you had for developing a base for good lit. Last, I really think it's okay to say everyone can be doing the same type of science, math level notwithstanding, if you are either a) going with a literary or Charlotte Mason style approach to science of b) suggesting texts and letting people follow the schedules for those like Build Your Library does in its later years.
  4. I'm interested in using the Math. I had a thread a few weeks ago where a lot of people offered helpful Math advice and several mentioned CLE. I was reluctant to pursue it though because I understood it to be extremely Christian. When I asked about Christian perspective in the program people actually said, "I'm Christian so I guess I don't see it." Well, some of the other suggestions given were so spot on I felt I should at least consider it. I downloaded the placement tests and I was really pleased with the format and that my daughter actually had higher scores than I expected. She even said, the Math seemed so clear to her as we worked through it together. However, there was religious content even in the placement test! So now I'm super conflicted about it. (In case anyone is wondering, it was things like, "God loves everyone true or false." Or how many books of the Bible are there. I guess someone could perceive it as generically religious except Jews don't call it the Old Testament and we don't have Bible schools, which was mentioned in another place.)
  5. I've read this a lot in older books, enough for it to sound correct, however in modern vernacular I have heard something like, "I like coffee fine."
  6. The Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone unit study from Build Your Library has a mini "herbology" class as part of it. The main texts for that is a DK book and this other book that looks very interesting. Kid's Herb Book, A: For Children of All Ages https://www.amazon.com/dp/1885003366/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_OKz1ybZ9BDMQM Herbs are a great way to do indoor and small scale gardening if you happen to do part of your studies in the colder weather.
  7. I really think our advice would be better with answers to these questions, I pretty much agree with everything kolamum said. I might consider grouping my 7th and 9th grader together and my 4th and 2nd grade together. You could consider doing Beautiful Feet Ancients, Medieval, or Modern, with the two older ones and even in the Modern there would be room for Canadian history. All of those have downloadable guides so you can avoid shipping, along with utilizing the library and your own personal books because I'm guessing you'll have a lot of them already. If you do that you can choose a corresponding Ancients, Medieval, or Modern program for your 2nd and 4th to do together from Build Your Library, History Odyssey, Beautiful Feet, or Wayfarers, so then all would be in same time period but using age appropriate materials. Just some ideas. Let us know more of your thoughts. If I were in your shoes, without knowing more about your family, I'd start by looking at Wayfarers or Beautiful Feet.
  8. This thread is a year old and I know the OP is super pregnant with a baby to be born any second, but if you are on here, could you let us know how it went doing your own thing like this. I have an older daughter going into third and a younger going into first. I've been doing things pretty seriously CM with my academically oriented older daughter but I really think a loosey-goosey year based on Mater Amabilis plus our own history would work better for her than the heavy AO (plus other stuff) influenced years I did for the older one.
  9. Silly putty. My reluctant listener like silly putty while reading. It doesn't distract me with sound and she listens more than if she were thinking about colors.
  10. I have a 6 year old who is a rising first grader. She's really not ready to "do" history so I'm thinking of doing the Kindergarten year from Build Your Library for a world geography emphasis. She's otherwise going to continue BFSU for Science and do first grade Math and Language Arts. However, I have an 8 year old rising third grader that I think needs a break from history. She did Build Your Library but only the literature and poetry for grades 1 and 2 paired with History Odyssey level 1 Ancients and Medieval. I think it has become too much work for her, so to give her a rest before doing Early Modern, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be fun to do the geography & lit with her younger sister from K. It seems like she'd enjoy just reading around the world. I just worry that it wouldn't be age appropriate plus we have read some of the books before. How would you age UP the kindergarten year for a third grader? She can read some of the books independently but the point would be for us to have a more laid back cuddle time approach to our humanities. Would you just require narrations and copywork? I could choose poetry from the Harp and Laurel Wreath which we own. My other thought was to maybe just beef up the geography with an Evan Moore daily geography workbook for her. Or I've also been eyeing the Intelligo world geography unit studies, which I could spread out over the year, and just do the Build Your Library literature, but I haven't tried those before so I don't know if they're too much work for what I'm contemplating. Other thoughts or suggestions?
  11. Agree x1000. Hate time change. I just posted my semiannual rant about it on FB. We should spring forward and just stay there.
  12. I was just ready that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is 20 years old this month. [emoji50] How can this be? I was just in college watching it.
  13. My 8 year old is a super fan of all things space. We know about the upcoming total eclipse in August and can't believe our luck that the zone of totality will be near my mother's house in South Carolina. I'm planning to drive us down from Philly to visit mom for the week but plan a special excursion to take my daughter to see the eclipse. http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/path_through_the_US.htm In the months before that though I'd like us to study related topics prior to our trip. Does anyone know of a Unit study or books that you'd use with a 3rd grader with good reading and writing skills, and who already has a pretty good understanding of basic Astronomy topics? She's already googling stuff about it but I'm sure there are books out there that are wonderful that we don't know about. Videos? Project ideas? Even if it isn't an organized "unit study" I'd be open to evaluating any resources you'd think were awesome. Thanks in advance!
  14. I can't speak to ES but I was very underwhelmed by RSO. I felt it was a ton of writing for not much content. My kid loves space with a fiery passion and slogged through weeks of weather to get to a few weeks of space with about as much info as one of the Usborne books. I'm putting the effort into BFSU (which is secular) and interest-based science now. It's a lot of work but way more satisfying.
  15. I just want to say I agree with everybody on this thread who says it doesn't matter. However, I do have an example where it helped me to know how to do it. I did research for my thesis in several libraries with rare manuscripts and even in another country, and in most of these rare book places you cannot take the book out, you cannot photocopy title/reference pages to be able to input later, and some of them I could not use my phone camera to photograph title or reference pages. I had to write down all the info I thought I needed for my citations and bibliography right there as I used the work. Not having a clear idea of all the important parts used in the type of citations I was using would have made my work extremely challenging. Once I got back to my computer I absolutely entered that stuff into my citation generator but what if I hadn't known which volume was edited by who when and in which edition, etc? Granted, this is a super specific example and a great many of these hard to access resources are getting scanned now. Also, I really learned all these details in my university classes and through years of writing in my discipline. So I'm not arguing at all that you need to do this with your kids. I was merely supplying an example of when a human had to know what to do.
  16. We like Bruce McIntyre's "Drawing Textbook". At Rainbow Resource also: http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/002584 Its easy, cheap, open and go, but better for your older kids though. I don't have an artsy bone in my body but I can do it. I like all the Ed Emberley books for the littles. They start understanding and looking for the shapes behind things. When I started my 6 year old on art study last month, she noticed right away the Impressionist we are studying didn't make clear shapes, only fuzzy ones. We have most of these (from RR and Amazon) but get a lot of use out of animals and the "make a world books." http://www.rainbowresource.com/searchspring.php?q=Emberley
  17. I have a young 6 year old who is sounding out early Bob book type stuff. This child is only learning to read because I won't sit there reading the Minecraft and ROBLOX chats to her. She doesn't really want to sit there and practice. I do have her working through Explode the Code and practicing in Level 1 and other early reading books during lesson time but she doesn't really want to and she never chooses books or stories outside of organized schoolwork. Tonight on Instagram I saw another homeschool mom I follow with a kid on about the same level had gotten out the Boggle Jr. and I was like, "hey good idea!" She likes the Math games we play so why not reading games. So, anyone know any other fun games besides Boggle Jr. that she might like? I have an 8 year old also who will play with us but I really want to target the 6 year old. Thanks for the help!
  18. I just went to look at the Opal level at RR. I'd not heard of Mosdos and was intrigued. However, RR has it listed as "unavailable from supplier". [emoji853]
  19. I just wanted to thank you all for your thoughtful comments and replies. I did a lot of poking around the Ronit Bird reccomendations and while it doesn't seem like (according to her) my daughter would categorically be considered dyscalculic she definitely has all the subitization problems you guys described. I bought the 10$ ebook and I'm working through it implementing her ideas. I may also get one of the expensive Amazon books if it seems like she's not improving by say Memorial Day or so. So, my plan at this point, is to do Ronit Bird directed Math games every morning for a few weeks. Just that. We'll take a break for Passover. After that I'm thinking I'll resume Fred since she loves it, one chapter a week (same pace as now), play Ronit Bird and some Education Unboxed directed games 3 times a week, and on the 5th day play an unrelated Math game from Kitchen Table Math or Peggy Kaye's Games for Math. Or just fun games like Yahtzee or Shut the Box or Uno or War or whatever. I'll follow that plan till Memorial Day. At that point I'll reevaluate how she's doing. We school during the summer. If it's going well, I may consider doing Fred once a week, a variety of Math games three times a week, and then start working through the Kate Snow book at an undetermined pace one day a week. I'll do that all summer and if it's going well I'll consider the issue of curriculum then. I did see some samples of CLE that I understand better and it doesn't seem to have any more Christian content than Fred (which is fine in my view) so I may try the placement test for it in the summer. I've also been reading around a lot and may consider Shiller. I have a younger daughter than the one we've been discussing that I think might do well with Shiller so I'd feel pretty good about spending the money. I don't know. All this depends on how things go with the Ronit Bird stuff. If we are heading into July and things are still looking bad despite diligent use of Ronit Bird then I may consider getting her tested and avail myself of school district resources next academic year. Thanks again and I'll check this thread often in case anyone thinks of anything else. I feel pretty good about the plan though, my daughter enjoyed the first few days of dice games last week, and I'm much less worried than when I first posted.
  20. I had a very weird growing up experience. My mother said nothing. She figured they'd tell me about it in school and figured out I had it when her supplies were missing. My mom is a super in her head meta-thinker. Puberty just wasn't on her radar. Anyway, she then told two aunties on my Dad's side, each of whom have completely different personalities from each other and from Mom and they handled it. One is (still) a total hippie and did the whole moon thing. She took me to meet with her consciousness raising friends (this was the 80's) and they painted my hands with henna and bestowed a womanly goddess name and informed me I should not trap my "life force" inside me with male shapes but instead I should let it flow free and soak my (cloth) pads in a jar so I could fertilize my (nonexistent) herb garden with it. They lit sparklers and took turns blessing me. Also I had my first glass of wine there. I kid you not. I was very embarrassed, not with my aunt who I was used to being weird, but there were a lot of strangers that said stuff I only came to understand later. I did not appreciate it at the time but as I matured I realized it had a huge impact on how I experienced menstruation and my body image especially compared to my friends. My other auntie with whom I share a natural affinity for research bought me a first edition copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Wechsler. She gave me a calendar to note symptoms in and explained that I needed to know and understand my body, both so I could protect my health and so I could take care of my feelings. All the women in my family are very emotional due to hormones and she worried I'd mistake that for the depression that we also have an affinity for. She was the first person to teach me about birth control and counseled me about what's normal and not normal in her experience of our family. She gave me a huge speech about self care, which she needn't have done since I was as self-absorbed as most teenagers. Unlike my other aunt she did teach me to use a tampon and said that aunt needed to live in the real world. Lol. I remember feeling very mature and she served me coffee. I'm not sure how this will impact what I do with my own two daughters. Both of these aunts stayed involved in my reproductive life even after I married, though book aunt passed away before she met my children. As a matter of fact, hippie aunt gave me a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves when I went off to college and encouraged me to experiment. Book aunt encouraged me to attend women's health lectures and to get to know my student services. I really feel like I owe them for a happy adult sex life. I do want that for my daughters. ETA: I was 13.
  21. More replies... Well I am thankful you shared your experience. I personally didn't really have issues using MEP and I liked that it made her puzzle through things (even though I did feel it was a lot of work). Life of Fred, the Frank Hall text, and the Brain Quest workbook are all easy for me to teach from as well. None of those seem to be helping her be more confident or increase her ability, nor are they very cohesive. But what you and coralloyod shared do help me feel like I should be patient. I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by subsidizing work? Could you tell me a little more about that please? Thanks for the suggestion. So, are you saying that she conceptually understand math or that she doesn't and her problem is Math concepts? I'm confused. Yes you understood me, I don't feel she has other problems besides the Math facts and some resistance. I have the idea that the Math resistance is because of the Math facts, though I'm not sure why I think that, nor would she be able to articulate that herself. You said you didn't see basic arithmetic in my list, yes, my list was stuff she does seem to understand and I guess I'm unclear as to whether she intrinsically understands addition and subtraction (as ideas) or if she seems that way because she can't recall the facts when needed. How might I figure that out? What's the difference between the Soroban abacus and the RightStart abacus Kiara recommends? And thanks for the anecdote. I definitely don't mind tool as long as she understands why or how she's using them. I wish I understood her learning style better. How did you figure it out with your daughter? I have to say, I'm not sure if the cute stories would sidetrack her or not as they did with your daughter. I wonder if that is why Life of Fred is not really having the impact I hoped. --- I really appreciate that you all took the time to help me with this. It has really been worrying me. Is the consensus to let her use her fingers or not? coralloyed is the only one who posted that it was a bad idea. Pros and cons? Also, do I just have her take a break from Math while I'm figuring out what approach to go with or not?
  22. Sorry for not replying sooner, the weekend has gotten in the way! I'm replying in two posts because when I try to do one, the Tapatalk app is giving me a weird error message. Thank you for your recommendation, I'd not heard of that program before, I'll look into it. You're right, math isn't ruined and she does like stories. She's counting from 1. I keep trying to explain that she could start at 4 and just go 5, 6, 7 but she really doesn't seem to get that and never does it. To be clear, I don't think I would be so freaked out about the reliance on her fingers if it seemed like they really helped but each addition or subtraction problem is like re-inventing the wheel. Can you tell me more about the difference between Math concepts vs. whatever this process is called that she is struggling with? Thanks for the recommendation, I'm going to check it out but it made me nervous that it said it was Biblical on the first link you posted. I don't have a problem with having a little religion in our Math, Life of Fred isn't secular. But we're Jewish, and I would be stressed out if the text really is extremely Christian. If it's a little reference here or there, that's fine - we do use other Christian curricula when that is the best thing for us, but it wouldn't work for all the pages and examples to be about that. In your opinion, should I continue looking at CLE? I'm planning to spend some time reading the relaxed Math thread tomorrow. Thanks for your input. I do have some cuisenaire rods. We bought this kit a while back https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008N1847O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_vkKSybHSWBQFK but it hasn't really been used much other than for play. She gets really hung up on the colors, but it has been a long time since I tried to use them during a lesson. Thank you for the video. You know, I think I remember her books coming out a while back but I'd forgotten about them. Did you have a child with this issue as well? Off to watch...
  23. I have an 8 year old DD who is theoretically finishing second grade soon (depending on how long we take). I'm worried about her Math. It is her least favorite subject, she dawdles, procrastinates, stresses to the point of tears (some manipulation, some real). I cannot figure out her Math style and I've bounced around trying a ton of things. She still counts in her fingers (a lot and even for fairly simple things like 3+4=7) and does not have almost any Math facts memorized. I would say she is a bright but average neurotypical child who enjoys and is compliant with most other subjects except handwriting (which she complies with but doesn't enjoy). [emoji16] She did all of MEP reception in K. We had to take breaks from it a few times which I attributed to her being young. She did more than half of MEP 1 in first. Things got harder and she started having problems. I decided to give her a break and we read Life of Fred Apples and Butterflies, both of which she liked and never had a hard time with (other than learning Math facts or counting on fingers). She willingly does the "your turn to play" problems. I tried to get back to MEP, but it flopped. This finished 1st grade. Over the summer someone gave her one of those BrainQuest grade 1 workbooks and I just gave her free reign to play with it and she did the entire Math section in a week (counting on her fingers) happy and sorry there wasn't more. I ordered Life of Fred Cats and Dogs. I bought the grade 2 BrainQuest book. Deciding she needed mental Math I found out about the Frank Hall books. I personally like vintage texts which we use for some other subjects, and my daughter seems to like old-fashioned stuff like me. So, I downloaded it to my iPad and planned a 2nd grade year where we'd do Frank Hall 3 days a week, Fred one chapter one day a week, and either BrainQuest or math games one day a week (for fact practice). This plan went well for a few weeks and as Frank Hall progressed she slowly rebelled. Tears and drama followed. Attempts to get her to do Khan, Xtra Math, or iPad app games have failed. I bought the C-rod kit and Making Math Meaningful and we had to have some discipline after she literally chucked those on the floor one day in a fit of frustration.[emoji31] So, I'm at a point where we have maybe twelve weeks left of school. The Math section of the BrainQuest book has been finished for ages. She can tell time, measure length, liquids, and cooking ingredients just from doing life stuff. She can count, estimate, put numbers in order, do halves/thirds/and quarters for fractions, understand Math terminology such as greater or less than, fewer or more, etc. She enjoys the Greg Tang and Sir Cumference books, plays Quirkle, tangrams, Shut the Box, Monopoly and lots of card games. She does a daily Sudoku. And we're almost done with Life of Fred Dogs and she still does the problems without hassle (still counting on her fingers, hardly any facts memorized). What the heck is going on? She can clearly do some Math, just not any of the programs I get for her. I'm not sure what to try. I would stick with Fred but it isn't enough practice in my opinion. She also has said she's bad at Math and will never get it and when I point out that Fred and the fun stuff is Math she says games don't count and Fred is reading. (Clearly we need some help with logic too if you know what I mean.[emoji39]) She wants to be an Astronomer when she grows up and seriously thinks if she can't do Math she won't be able to. I don't know if anyone said this to her (I can't think of who) but these "reasons" why Math sucks have been coming out of her for the whole last year. What do you all think? Is this an emotional problem? A maturity problem? A something mom is doing wrong problem? Do I need to try a different program or approach? I'm trying to be patient and loving but I've expended a lot of brainpower on this issue. I don't have a lot of money right now to buy an expensive Math but if I thought it would give her the skills and it would be something she'd stick with a few years then I could probably afford a more expensive program by May but definitely June. So for right now I'd like budget options but I'm willing to consider something pricier for later. She reads age appropriate stuff independently though I still read most school work to her. I'm not thrilled with programs with tons of moving parts (in terms of changing books or pre-planning materials from around the house) but things don't HAVE to be 100% open and go and I do sit with her through Math. She's never been expected to be independent there, and I've collected a bunch of typical math manipulatives over time. I also have a Kindergartener so I can re-use whatever. These are my only two kids. I'm going nuts.
  24. I know this is an old thread but I'm surprised to see no one posted Understood Betsy. (Maybe I missed seeing it here.) There's a girl who grows to trust in her own strength. OP, what did you eventually pick?
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