lea1
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Posts posted by lea1
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Bill, you convinced me a long time ago too.:001_smile: Thanks for your explanations.
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Thanks for the explanation Bill, I appreciate it. I purchased RightStart A for my two sons but have not started it yet because it just seems a bit too much for their age (4.5 - ish).
So far, everything we have been doing is like you describe, something fun and playful while learning and it has worked out well. I know they are ready to learn more math so this may just be the way we need to go.
Thanks again.
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I have two 4 year olds and would like to hear more about this. Was this in reference to another thread? Are you referring to a specific curr.?
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Yep, me too.
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The Read Aloud Handbook notes that a common reason that kids give up or don't enjoy reading is that their parents, teachers, etc. quit reading to them right at the point they are learning to read on their own.
Their level of comprehension is much higher than their reading level so they lose interest quickly when nobody reads to them.
There are so many wonderful, engaging books out there, I would be great to start out just by finding a book that would really draw him in and read it to him. Maybe you could spend a certain amount of time having him read a book at his reading level and then make sure to spend a good amount of time reading to him also.
I still have vivid memories of being read to by my teacher in 3rd grade (Her name was Mrs. Love:). I remember we would beg her to read just one more chapter each day....sometimes she would and sometimes she wouldn't. I believe that was one of the things that drew me into reading so strongly.
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The one thing I would check into is how much it cost to heat/cool. Around here, all the newer homes are all Energy Star rated homes, which includes all appliances, heater/cooler, windows, doors, insulation, etc. It is a pretty certain bet that cost of energy is going to go up so this seems an important thing to consider.
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Thanks Susan and Jean and I appreciate the prayers. Jean, I hope your ankles are better. Goodness, I can't imagine having both of them sprained at the same time.
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How's that for a great vacation? Our family went to Arizona to visit family and friends. Fortunately we had a great time from Saturday through Wednesday morning in Tucson. Then we headed up to Phoenix to visit some friends.
We had only been at the friends house for about two hours. The husbands and children had gone to the park and I had a minute to rest and read a book. I went upstairs to put on a pair of socks to keep my feet warm. On the way back down, I fell down 3 or 4 steps.
It was not a far fall but it was a bad one. My left foot was in front and it slipped off the edge of the step. My right foot was in back and it hyper-extended behind me against the step and I landed on it. Very painful and I have big bruises on my arm and lower back.
Got home on Friday and finally to see a doc yesterday and they put a cast on it. A tendon was pulled so badly that it tore a small piece of bone away from a main piece of bone. We are very thankful that it doesn't require surgery.
I'm in a cast for 4 weeks and can not drive, as it is my right foot. I have two little 4.5 year olds to keep busy. Thankfully it is warming up here so they can play outside a lot more.
I have already paid for plane tickets and registration for the homeschool conference in Ohio. I will be very sad if I am unable to go.
So, that's it. Just wanted to vent. Hope that's OK.
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That's great! I'm going to give that a go at my house:lol:.
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:iagree: also. Great post. Did you know all of our money is put into circulation based on debt? And did you know the Federal Reserve is a cartel of private bankers?
This is a great web site for learning more about it:
http://economicedge.blogspot.com/
There is a quickly growing group of people trying to do something about changing our debt-based system before it all comes tumbling down. They have a plan called Freedom's Vision. You can find out more about it at the blog above.
Let's hope that someone does something about it before it's too late.
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Thanks for the feedback. My degree is in Computer Science also and I worked in that field for almost 20 years before retiring to be a stay at home wife and mommy.
My husband and I both have laptops. I use mine frequently to read news and a few blogs, this forum and email. My husband uses his to read up on work related materials (he is a doctor), email and some news. Neither of us are gamers so we don't have any type of gaming stuff in our home.
The boys were excited to get to do something on the computer though, since they have seen us using them and they want to be like us:). They don't use it daily, as they often get busy playing and forget to ask, which is fine with me. Same thing with movies. We let them watch one 30 minute movie a day, although we make exceptions and allow longer screen time if the weather outside is really bad or it is a special occasion or something.
Anyway, I was just curious. Thanks again for the feedback.
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My two sons are around the 4.5 y.o. mark and we just recently started letting them play on starfall for 15 minutes each a day, if they have done their chores to earn the computer time. They often forget to ask about it so they don't do it every day, which is fine by me. However, it seems to provide a source of motivation for them, as well as their 30 minute DVD time per day (if they have done their chores and earned it).
I'm just curious at what age most people on these boards typically allow their kids computer access, if at all.
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I'll be there. Can't wait!
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I would get them an inexpensive mp3 player and rip the CDs onto the computer. (that's how we do it around here!) You don't have to worry about them damaging the CDs or expensive equipment.
I had not even thought about doing that, although it sounds like a great idea. Does this create any issues with copyright laws?
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I want to start checking out or buying (used) books on tape/CD for my sons to listen to during their quiet time or at bedtime. First I need to buy them a child-proof tape or CD player.
Which would you get? A CD player? I'm not sure whether most of the older books will be on CD now days. I am hoping to get most of them from the library. I have checked out a few but it has been a while. I am thinking most of them were CD's and only maybe one was still on tapes.
Please tell me about the ones you have purchased and whether you liked them or not and why. My sons are both 4 years old, nearing 4.5.
Do you know of a listing of books on tape/CD by age? I know listening level is much higher than reading level but hoping I can find a list that takes that into account, to some degree at least.
Thanks!
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I'm thankful this topic came up tonight. After researching it further I found out our car seats, which I thought were safe up to 80 pounds, are only safe up to 40 pounds with the 5 point harness, or to the point where the shoulder straps are no longer high enough. After that point you have to start using the car's seat belt to hold the child in, rather than the 5 point harness and they can ride this way up to 80 pounds, which I had already heard was not safe.
My husband and I just purchased 2 new seats for our two 4 year old sons, who are just at 40 pounds and are already too tall for the shoulder harness of their current seats. The new seats have the 5 point harness for children up to 80 pounds.
Thanks for bringing this up tonight.:001_smile:
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My Father's Dragon is definitely a wonderful first chapter book for littles. My two loved it when they were 3 years old but they were not much into Mr. Popper's Penguins when I tried that one a few weeks back.
I've been slacking off on the reading. Really must get going on that again.
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Great info and advice. Thanks again ladies!
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We have a large house. The master is downstairs, towards the back of the house, and our two sons share a room upstairs towards the front of the house. Our bedrooms are as far apart as they could possibly be but that room was the only room that we could really put them in.
We have had this arrangement since they came home from Russia at 14 and 15.5 months old. We have a monitor in their room and I keep one of the speakers next to my bed and the other in the kitchen. The boys are now almost 4.5 years old and I still use the one next to my bed at night.
We have never had an issue. When they were younger, I always heard them if they woke up with a problem and I went to them. Now, if they wake up wet, they come to me.
I was starting to think I didn't need the monitor anymore but then one of my sons had a bad dream, not too long after going to sleep, and woke up all confused and crying. This happened twice within a month or two. So I have decided to keep using the monitor for a bit longer.
Good luck.
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Thank you for the responses. That was just the reassurance I needed to press forward. Much appreciated.
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Hmmm, anybody, please? I thought this would be a quick, easy one.
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I am using OPGTR and am wondering how well a child should be able to "read" the words/sentences in a lesson before moving on to the next lesson.
We are in the short vowels section. My son can sound out a word, letter by letter, and then say the word. Then he will do the next word the same way, and the next. He is very good at decoding the words but, if he read the same sentence again, he would have to decode each word again, as if reading it for the first time. There are a few words that he has seen often enough that he does not have to decode them but not many.
So, is this good enough to move on to the next lesson?
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Melissa & Doug's alphabet train floor puzzle is great for this. Also alphabet dot-to-dot.
Another thing you might try is just putting the alphabet on index cards, place them in order on the floor, have him jump from one to the next and say the letter, and he could help put them in order as he starts to remember them.
Though, I also agree that the Leapfrog DVD's are great.
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My two sons both knew their letters and letter sounds when they were three. All of it was from playing with letters on the fridge, playing with a letter-train floor puzzle and Melissa and Doug letter puzzles and from watching the Leapfrog Letter Factory. One is a very quick study and would be easily reading by now if I forced 15 minutes a day to make him learn it, but I have not wanted to do that.
Once in a great while we play games with beginning letter cards and ending word cards or with flash cards. I am amazed at how much they have picked up from this. Once in a while I will think of it and ask if they want to play a game. As long as I come up with a fun game, they are very excited about it and we will do it until they want to quit.
It is interesting how much they pick up while just playing games and puzzles and how much they have picked up in the very small amount of time we have spent doing this. This is the same way they have learned counting to 100 by 10's and counting backwards from 10. Just playing.
When they ask to "do school" we sit at the table and do mazes, tracing, dot to dot books, cutting and pasting and such. They like to pretend to write and one of them (the quick study) has already figured out how to write all of the capital letters on his own.
We have RS Math A, OPGTR, ETC, HWT and some other things like that but they have not been into it so I have been reading them and then I find fun game-like ways to learn.
The writing thing is tricky though. I have read that they can pick up bad habits so you should teach them and watch them carefully, that they are writing each letter correctly. My quick-study son is not really ready to sit down and very carefully write a letter over and over for practice but he loves to write his name, the alphabet and the names of his brother, mom and dad, with an exclamation mark after each, since his cousin showed him how to make one of those. I have been torn as to whether I should make him practice writing his letters, so he will be sure to learn it correctly, or just let him keep having fun with it, knowing I may have to work with him later on relearning some it.
Me: Do you remember that? Her: No, Mommy.
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
This is good to know, as I was kind of counting on this after reading that many think it ruins the classics for kids to read the condensed versions when they are younger. I figure they won't remember most of them by then:).