Joker Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I have two dd's, 9 & 7, and have just started my 2nd year hs'ing. My 7 yr dd seems to learn very differently from my older dd. My 9 yr old went to ps through 2nd grade and loves workbooks / textbooks. She has been doing wonderfully. My 7 yr old seems to be totally burdened by doing school everyday. My dh and I talked and sometimes can't believe she is technically in 2nd grade (she has a June bday and seems sooo young), but she is soooo bright. She can understand things that my 4th grader cannot, especially math and critical thinking concepts. Her writing and spelling are terrible though and I don't know what to do. I don't want to push her too hard but I also don't want to do too little. Does that make sense??? She is a very creative kid and loves to draw, build and play legos. She often blows us away with what she comes up with and I want to encourage her in that respect, but I also want her to grow academically. We use Abeka for math, spelling, history (grade 4) and science (grade 4), Rod & Staff for english and reading, and Prima Latina. I am wondering if there is a better way for me to teach my younger dd. Any suggestions / advice is welcome. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avila Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Do you have my 7 yo? ;) Mine actually will be 8 next week, but like yours has a LATE birthday, which makes a difference in some kids, IMO. Mine does well in math, so we go full force in that, but we are behind in language arts, hoping to catch up since she is finally making progress in those areas now. My advice is (if this doesn't make you queasy) to ditch the textbooks in whatever you can for her. Keep English and math, but look at alternatives for everything else. All About Spelling is a great approach for a struggling speller. And I would go as hands on as possible in science and history. We are going with Heart of Dakota this year, for that reason. HOD takes the kinesthetic learner into account very well, and she offers a lot of variety while still covering the basics, all in a time-conscious, well-planned package. My goal is to keep plugging along at her level, trying not compare her to her older or younger sister, who love workbooks and school in general. I am hoping to make the parts of school fun that I can make fun and get her through the rest. Best wishes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patchfire Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Yes, I would get rid of textbooks as much as possible. When you say her writing is terrible, do you mean her physical handwriting, or her skill in writing? If it's her physical handwriting, I would let her do dictation for most subjects. I spent a lot of time typing for dd when she was in 1st and 2nd grade, and we slowly transitioned out of it at the beginning of 3rd. She also has difficulty with spelling and we started using AAS. The proof is in the pudding - we got her ITBS results today and spelling was not even the lowest percentile in terms of subscores! Other thoughts - Prima Latina can be done orally. History can absolutely be done orally or via other means than writing. Grammar - isn't Rod & Staff fairly writing intensive? I would investigate less writing-intensive options, to be honest. This is what I did for dd and now we are able to transition to a more writing-intensive program as she gets older and her skills mature. One final note - we did a second year of "second grade printing" with dd, and she'll start cursive in fourth grade. The extra year of working through the book made a big difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bookwormmama Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I second Shelly's recommendations... your 7 year old sounds like my 7 year old ds. He is a kinesthetic and visual learner and needs a LOT of hands on activities. Something that works great for us with him is audio books to listen to at bedtime or quiet time after lunch, lots of breaks in between lessons, running outside and jumping, and hands on lessons. We use a math program that is very hands on. We do a lot of science experiments with Noeo Science. There is writing involved as well but the extra hands on stuff makes it easier for him to grasp the concepts. For writing, I would recommend Handwriting Without Tears. It's great for kids with kinesthetic learners and you could even start at the beginning K level just to use the wood pieces and slate board and chalk to help form letters correctly. She may need more practice writing in the air or in cornmeal to help her with her letter formation. Something that helps my son is writing on a big white board first before he does his writing lesson. Something about the big strokes on the board helps! As for spelling, spelling is a skill of being able to "see" a word in your memory. I do spelling very simply and my son is a great speller. I write the list of spelling words for the week on one side of the white board and then he copies each and every word one at a time on the white board with big dry erase markers. I have him look at one word at a time and stare at and memorize it. THen, he closes his eyes while I erase it. When he opens his eyes, I have him write the word down correctly. If he gets it wrong, he erases it right away and I write it quickly correctly and he looks at it again and then closes his eyes again until he can write it from memory correctly. He does not use paper for his spelling. We only use the white board and sometimes I use letter cards to give him something different to do. He loves it and its simple and easy. I use words from his readers as his spelling words. Simple and easy and it's helping a lot. I know that WTM advocates all kinds of certain curriculum, but unfortunately what WTM does not take into account enough {IMHO} is the different learning styles that children have. So work with your child's learning style and use different curriculum if you need to, something that works with how your child learns. I hope that helps and good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joker Posted July 22, 2009 Author Share Posted July 22, 2009 Wow! Thanks for the quick replies. I guess I should qualify that my 7 yr old dd knows how to write her letters (still occ. reverses) but doesn't seem to be able to put together sentences. She loves to write stories but they are in comic book format - pictures with captions and she tells us what is going on. I think I definately compare too much between my girls and it's hard for me to tell if she's behind or just not where her sister was. I need to work on that. I will definately try your spelling on the whiteboard suggestions - bookwormmama- thanks. I think I will look more into what kinesthetic and visual learners are - I've learned something already.:001_smile: I know when I write math facts on the board she seems to know them quickly and when she was learning to read, she only needed to be told one time what a new word was and then she knew it. Thanks for all the advice - it definately helps to have a place to ask these questions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gevs4him Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 You could try the Draw-Write-Now books - they are a drawing and handwriting course. Our 6 yr. old ds loves them started using them because he dislikes writing, but loves to draw. Also stock up on games for spelling and other subjects (I love how R&S math is taught, but don't care much for the repetitiveness of problems so we do some of the work sheet then I put a big X on the page and write played math game - he loves it!) - that is why you home school so you can fit your dds needs in a way that complements her learning style. :) Lisa DD 18 my stresser :cool: DS 6 my silly boy:smilielol5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Sounds like my 7 year old! She usually does only one hour a day. Writing With Ease has taught her how to write sentences, but she is not a natural speller. She is doing great with All About Spelling so far. For history, I go through the schedule and order all of the picture books and she loves them! That is all she does and she has learned a lot. For science we are very hands-on with experiments and crafty projects. There is no writing in either of these. For math, I write it for her about half of the time. Today she gave me the answers while swinging in the back yard. I cut the lessons down however I can, to keep it down to 20 minutes. Abeka is all about busy work and review. Sometimes we will only do the curriculum guide and the speed drill and skip the worksheet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Sounds like my 7 year old! She usually does only one hour a day. Writing With Ease has taught her how to write sentences, but she is not a natural speller. She is doing great with All About Spelling so far. For history, I go through the schedule and order all of the picture books and she loves them! That is all she does and she has learned a lot. For science we are very hands-on with experiments and crafty projects. There is no writing in either of these. For math, I write it for her about half of the time. Today she gave me the answers while swinging in the back yard. I cut the lessons down however I can, to keep it down to 20 minutes. Abeka is all about busy work and review. Sometimes we will only do the curriculum guide and the speed drill and skip the worksheet. :hurray:...good for you! Geo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 :hurray:...good for you! Geo :blush5: Thanks for the boost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabrett Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 That is a lot of workbooks!! I second All About Spelling because it is very hands on. RightStart Math has very little writing and is very hands on. Story of the World with Activity guide for history would meet the little writing and hands on aspect. I would ditch the workbooks for your dd. Have you looked at "My Fathers World". If you used MFW, you could combine your two children for Bible, History, Science and the Arts. It would prevent you from having to do individual lessons for each child in each subject. It is also very hands on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Yeah, that's the hardest part of homeschooling, is realizing how DIFFERENT kids are. It's just how they're wired. Some kids are workbooky, and some are extra hands-on. (My dd eschews workbooks, hates coloring, but she's very good with sculpting and paint!) Some kids have seives for details like math and spelling and don't really care about those details called school, haha, while others are very into it. Kids are just all different. I suggest you just accept your dc exactly as they are. Make some notes and really STUDY them, seeing how each one learns best, what they enjoy, then play to that. As they get older you'll start to work on their weaknesses and use other modalities, but when they're young you're going to want to work on their academic needs using their most comfortable modality. It's just logical. And books like Cathy Duffy's curriculum guides or Cynthia Tobias' The Way They Learn can help you. When my dd was that age, we started doing spelling via sentence and literature dictation, which worked out well for us. Kills two birds with one stone too! You could also do spelling via a cd like the ones from Calvert. They're inexpensive, and my dd enjoys them. For math, we like the Flashmaster and the Abeka drill books. We did RightStart, and that's great, not a lot of writing. BJU though was REALLY FUN at that level, highly recommend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Your workbook learner sounds like an auditory-sequential learner (takes in information primarily by listening or reading; processes information in order, logically/abstractly, parts to whole big picture), while the younger student sounds like a visual-spatial learner (VSL) (takes in information primarily by looking/doing; processes information randomly, concretely, and sees the pattern or big picture "intuitively", and then sees the parts). I have one of each, too. :001_smile: Below is a "checklist" to help determine learning style; from there you can decide if a particular program will fit well or not. Cathy Duffy's "100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculum: Choosing The Right Curriculum And Approach For Your Child's Learning Style" can help, too. Enjoy your learning adventures -- it really has been far more interesting having 2 different types of learners! Warmest regards, Lori D. LEARNING STYLE = how a person most easily/naturally/usually TAKES IN information. kinesthetic = through touching/manipulating and hands-on auditory = through hearing it visual = through seeing it Brain Dominance = how a person PROCESSES that information in the brain. LEFT hemisphere dominance = abstract, sequential, understands the individual parts which leads to adding up to "the big picture" RIGHT hemisphere dominance = concrete, random, intuitively sees the big picture first and then begins to understand the parts that add up to it LEARNING STYLES KINESTHETIC (Do-ers/Touchers) Kinesthetic Traits: - favors sports and building - high energy - loves to touch - uses body when antsy - in constant motion - dislikes sitting long - uses fingers to count - usually has rumpled clothes - has difficulty following oral directions Kinesthetic Helps: - math manipulatives - manipulatives - allow touching - take many breaks - use hands-on activities - divide chores up - allow building/construction AUDITORY (Talkers/Listeners) Auditory Traits: - remembers commercials - uses rhyming to remember - talks aloud doing math - a better listener than reader - reads aloud - has difficulty reading maps - very verbal - likes to talk to people Auditory Helps: - make audiotapes (esp. for spelling) - set learning to music - talk them through writing a paper - read aloud - study groups - have a quiet place for study/learning - watch videos (for audio narration) VISUAL (Watchers) Visual Traits: - assemble by pictures - close eyes to memorize - observant - good with puzzles - vivid imagination - looks neat - better reader than listener - rarely volunteers answers - takes many notes - watches/learns from TV Visual Helps: - illustrate everything - make a mind-map (visual plan) for writing - use post-it notes to organize - highlight different topics in different colors - write down chores - use transparency sheets to reduce glare "Hook" your child's interest with their learning style strength, then present the material in all the learning styles to strengthen their weak areas and really embed the information in their brain in multiple ways, using a variety of learning styles. BRAIN DOMINANCE LEFT BRAIN Left Brain Uses or is Strong with: - analytical - dates - numbers - taxon memory - lists - names - math facts - short term memory stored here Left Brain Takes In Information By: - Words - the Familiar - Sequential - Listens - is a Joiner - Step-by-Step - Routine - Organized - Linear Thinking - Writing/Talking - Detailed - Focused RIGHT BRAIN Right Brain Uses or is Strong with: - spatial - color - music - creativity - design - feelings - storytelling - hands-on - long-term memory stored here Right Brain Takes In Information By: - pictures - the new - is random - particpates - is independant - demonstrations - is impulsive - creative - 3-D thinking - drawing - oblivious to detail - highly distractable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.