Can it be "inspired" in grammar school aged kids? Neither of my kids seem to have any real intrinsic motivation to learn much of anything, which makes me wonder if there are better methods or if I just have to accept my role as one of making assignments/setting requirements. It seems that to be motivated from within, there have to be goals that the individual wants to accomplish. I don't want to just perpetuate "rewards cycles" (we did a bit in the fall) but I do want the kids to feel like, "Hey, I would like to spend a little bit extra energy or free time doing ____ or getting ahead in ____." Is there any way to structure things that would make that more of a possibility. I would love to hear others' experiences. If you have kids who are just naturally motivated learners and have been from the beginning, I don't know if telling me that will be of much use. :001_smile: Do rewards type incentives have a place in your homeschooling? It seems to me that with that approach, the easiest metric is material covered and not mastery. And I hate to see my dd8 get so fixated on the reward that she starts to panic if she thinks she won't make it. She has OCD, so it's understandable.

Online exercises/games, board/card games, drills, songs, etc? We need some help getting these cemented in DD8's noggin. :001_smile:

My husband and I are working on coming up with our goals and strategies for our homeschooling efforts going forward. We really want to emphasize math, reading, and writing and view everything else as "extras," and perhaps wait to add them until the other things are solid, or maybe just put them on hold for a little while as we get our approach to the basics nailed down. So today I've been reading about Robinson Curriculum and Ambleside Online and wondering if either of those would be a good fit. We have used MUS up until now, but I just ordered Math Mammoth and am going to use both or perhaps transition more to MM (depends how things go). We have used FLL and WWE for writing/grammar, which I like. This year we started Primera Latina and we use SOTW for history. I feel like my kids need more great books in their lives, and now my daughter is reading well on her own so I think maybe some more emphasis on reading is appropriate. But I am not sure how to approach/require that. Hmm...I'm realizing I am not being particularly clear, as I have everything rushing through my mind. But, if anyone possibly understands what I am getting at and has any suggestions/ideas, I would really love to hear them! :001_smile: We are taking Spring Break this week and I am trying to figure things out. I want the kids to have more motivation to learn on their own, but am not sure how to get there from here. I want them to get over being afraid of hard work. It took me a while to figure out that having to work hard at something didn't mean that I wasn't "smart" or capable at that. Because I had done well in school, I tended to steer clear of things I wasn't good at (which was easy enough, but looking back, a pretty lazy thing to do). Anyways...just trying to figure things out, out loud, I guess! :D

ack! Mine was too! I have my mail forwarded to a different program, so I don't always see my spam mail. I just ASSUMED it would come through, since I get TONS of her emails! It came through FOUR days ago! :banghead: Well, I'm glad I asked. :D

I am DYING to get the email, but I haven't yet. Today should be the day. Has anyone gotten theirs? I am taking our spring break next week to come up with some new schedules and really want to have all of my MM stuff so I can figure out what I want the kids to do. We've been doing MUS but I want more variety. When will the email come?? :tongue_smilie:

As others have said, I am learning it along with my DD8. I was actually GIDDY when I saw the diagramming in WWE3. I never learned how to diagram--my 7th grade (maybe 8th) grade English teacher drew a diagram on the board and told us how people USED to do this, but it was pointless so noone does it anymore. We just started diagramming, and SWB makes it SO EASY and goes really slowly. And everything is scripted, so you don't have to feel dumb trying to figure out what to say. :001_smile:

Thanks for the input. I realized that I didn't mention that we are in Prima Latina now, though maybe that was obvious. I like the idea about doing sentence translations, too. We just aren't far enough to make any sentences yet. Oh well. I am probably more into it (the learning of Latin) than my dd8 right now, anyways, so the emphasis on vocabulary might be just right for her. Glad to hear that you have been pleased with LC.

thanks for sharing that program, and thanks for your input on GTG. I might try and do a variation of GTG using a similar approach as Expedition Earth. It looks like a good program, but I can't justify spending the money on that plus the several other books she recommends. But it gives me a great jumping off point and I think I can come up with something now that will work for us. Thank you!

Not harder, obviously it is, but I don't really like how we just learn isolated words and, except for the Practical Latin phrase & the prayers, we haven't learned how to put any phrases together. We are only at lesson 13 or so, so maybe I'm just impatient. Looking through the book, it doesn't seem like we get into much of that. Is Latin Christiana more complete in that way?

I have some materials (Galloping the Globe, Geography Songs, Children just like me, Leapfrog Explorer globe) but have never really come up with an approach. Should I start with N & S America? Start with continents & oceans? But then what order should I do the continents, if it matters at all. I would love to find out what you folks do for geography. I think it's fun to learn about, but I don't know how much to expect my kids to remember. I don't want it to be a big deal, I just want us all to know more and to have them get interested in the different places around the world and have fun with it.

Looking to expand our collection a bit and think I'll pick some up for DS1's upcoming birthday. :)

thanks all! I will check out the local store and see what they have. I also made up one with an Elmo background in photoshop and if I can't find anything, I'll just have that one printed off at the printshop. (I might print it off anyways, because it is cute and DS1 loves Elmo.)

I want the focus on the letters rather than making it too creative looking. Anyone know where I can get one?

I just got the "I like Animals" from CurrClick and he got to the first page of actual letter tracing (instead of practicing in mazes and such) and he got so discouraged because he can't make his letters neat enough that I ended up having him stop before he finished. I tried to encourage him that it is not about getting it perfect, but about practicing and getting better over time, but he was so upset. I am wondering if HWOT is really the only option for us. I've balked at the expense, but if it is what is going to work, then maybe I need to save up and get it. He has a really tough time writing. And it doesn't help that his older sister is quite adept at it (she's also fantastic at drawing). He just turned six, and I'm not really concerned about his handwriting per se, but I would like him to at least know proper letter formation, as it seems it's easier to learn now than to relearn later. The only writing he needs to do at present is for ETC and his math pages, and I don't make a deal about that at all, whether he uses capitals or lowercase or whether the numbers are reversed. So, should I try something else (program wise) or drop it for now or what? He has liked doing small bits of practicing on the white board, so maybe I should just stick with that and exercises helping him continue to improve his fine motor skills? What do you think?

I got them from the library once before, but can't remember the names. Anyone know what I'm talking about? :tongue_smilie: Thanks!

I didn't want to start anything before dd8 was reading comfortably and well, but she has taken off the past two months and I would kind of like to introduce something with a bit of structure, even if that was having her read age/level appropriate classics and having discussions with me (though I might like a bit of structure for that, too). Her writing is still in the developing stage, so I don't know that I want it to be too writing intensive, though some writing would be beneficial. What do you do or have you done in the past? Thank you!

I hope it is just a one time thing! How scary! Keeping your doggy in my thoughts and prayers. Keep us posted.

This is likely not a new idea, but it was new to me. :D I got some of those three-cornered/triangle flash cards, and this week we are taking a break to practice dd8s add/subtraction facts. So we spread out the cards on the table, then put a poker chip over one of the numbers (we do all addition, or all subtraction, but you could mix it up, too) and then set the timer to see if she can do them all in whatever amount of time. She answers the problem, then pulls off the chip to see if she is right. She loves the challenge of seeing all the cards and getting through them, plus it is a way to do flash cards AND self-check her answers. (And she can stand up and move around a bit, so that helps, too.) We tried doing the triangle flash cards while holding on to them, but it was a bit much for our coordination. ;)

My kids are 8 and almost 6 (and the toddler, but he's not doing a lot of helpful stuff yet:tongue_smilie:). I'm realizing that I need to have a chore schedule/chart/assignments more organized than I do. THey are fairly willing to do their couple of "regular" chores, and even extra stuff I ask them to do, but I am tired of thinking every day what they could do to help around the house. Anyways, how do you have your kids' chores organized? Same chores every day? Rotate some through the kids? Do you have a chart or use job cards or what? If you have a file on your computer that you'd be willing to email me, I'd love that! PM me for my email address. Thank you!!

thanks! I think we'll do them. I don't know why I was ambivalent...just was, I guess. :D

That's a great idea! Thank you!

I can't decide.

I have gotten dd8 motivated (for an incentive) to work harder at improving her math study habits, but she gets really distracted doing the same types of problems over and over. I feel like she does need the mastery approach, though, as she doesn't always get the math concepts right away. I'm just wondering if there is a way to mix it up a bit for her to make it a little easier to digest. She is in Beta, and we are on Chapter 18 (3 digit column addition). Any good ways to review the material without just doing more pages? Supplemental materials? Anything? Thanks!

I'm so glad that this is helping you, too. Sometimes it just helps to know that we aren't the only one struggling. I never could have homeschooled (and stayed sane) before the internet! :grouphug:

My daughter really enjoyed the Rainbow Fairies books last year. The Pony Crazed Princess books are also fun. The Puppy Place books are good, too. Now that she has progressed a bit, she likes Encyclopedia Brown and the Ramona books. Don't stress. Just have her keep reading every day. My dd8 is just now getting to the point where she will do a bit of reading for pleasure (I just introduced her to Calvin & Hobbes:001_smile:), but I definitely saw steady progress this last year with just having her do 20-30 minutes of reading aloud to me every day. Sometimes it was tedious, but I know it made a big impact on her confidence and ability. BabyMouse and Fashion Kitty are comic book/graphic novels that are fun and picture heavy, so they can "read" a lot of pages without taking forever.