fourth grader

[dm379]

I think I'm doing something wrong when it comes to my 4th grader. Nothing is hard for her. Almost everything we're doing now is all new material so she's learning but I don't think she's being challenged. She finishes almost everything in about very quickly and almost always without my help. This morning she was done by the time I woke up. Here's what she does:

 

Daily - Sequential Spelling DVD, Horizons math 4, Growing with Grammar, 2 vocabulary pages

 

Latin she does when she wants. I had to put a maximum of 3 lessons/day because I was afraid she wouldn't retain anything.

 

History/Science I make my own and she does it with her brother. Plus a minimum of 1 hr. reading before bed. Art/music/P.E. are all private lessons.

 

How do I make things harder for her? Do I want to to be hard? Am I missing something here?

[....]

That's that the question of the year in our household, too!

 

It's nice to have a good problem for a change, isn't it? :D

 

:lurk5:

[NanceXToo]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't really see the problem. Learning doesn't have to be "hard!" Especially in elementary school! Maybe she'll be more challenged when she starts doing middle school work or high school work, but if for now she's a good student who grasps things quickly and easily, good for her! That will go a long way as far as building confidence before you get to those harder grades, and there's a lot to be said for that (IMHO)!

[DarlaS]

It's also still early in the year, so much of what she's covering right now may be review.

[Teachin'Mine]

I'd ask her if she's happy with the work - is it too easy, is it challenging enough, would you like to learn harder stuff - things like that. I'd tend to let her do as much extra of each subject as she likes. In other words, she has to do the minimum, but can progress as much as she likes. It may be that she'll end up doing two grades worth in a year to reach a more challenging and interesting level for her.

[simka2]

I'd ask her if she's happy with the work - is it too easy' date=' is it challenging enough, would you like to learn harder stuff - things like that. I'd tend to let her do as much extra of each subject as she likes. In other words, she has to do the minimum, but can progress as much as she likes. It may be that she'll end up doing two grades worth in a year to reach a more challenging and interesting level for her.[/quote']

 

:iagree: I might look into the grammar curriculum or add some lit study. I am unfamiliar with what you are useing so take what I say with a grain of salt :D

 

Also, how is she at cooking and cleaning? Learning to cook well, might be fun :)

[eternalknot]

My son is the same way, also a fourth grader.

 

While I share the sentiment that school needn't be hard, I do think that lack of challenge can breed certain behavioral and academic traits that I'd rather not bother with. Complacency, for example. Also just silent acceptance that one needn't work hard for anything. I think character is built from challenge; I also think challenge is not synonymous with hard/difficult.

 

My son was whizzing through Latin also, and - like you - I finally started to limit it. After a few months of this, I relented and let him go whole hog into it. I decided that even if he didn't retain it, he'd be developing a lifelong skill. And since I made him do it as part of schoolwork anyway, we both were happy LOL. I bought him a separate program to use independently and required he do my program with me, as school. Our school Latin ended up being more review than anything, but (!) I felt it would help with retention.

 

Now he's segued into a modern language. It's been amazing to see him challenge himself to learn it, and the indirect benefit has been an improvement in his overall attitude. He was never a problem student, just kind of showed up and did the work. Now he's seeing more and doing more in the same things we've always done, as though his thirst for knowledge has been somehow re-ignited after years of dormancy LOL.

 

Can she find challenge in a sport? language? music? a hobby, such as knitting or the aforementioned cooking or art? My son also benefits from friendly competition. So an individual music or art class wouldn't be nearly as challenging as a class with peers or even mom (!) to sort of challenge one to aim higher.

[abbeyej]

A few things I would do differently...

 

Math: I would add in Singapore Math. You'll want to do a placement test, since her level may not line up exactly with Horizons. I think Singapore and Horizons complement each other extremely well, since Horizons does a great job with breadth of topics and constant review, while Singapore does fewer topics with greater depth and has *much* more challenging word problems. Also, don't be afraid to let her move through more than one lesson a day in Horizons (and if she's getting everything right, I'd consider cutting out half of the problems in individual sections on a lesson). If she finishes 4 and 5 this year, that's just not a problem. There's always more math to do. If you don't want to do all of Singapore, but you do want some of the advantage of using it, I'd suggest buying the textbook and the Intensive Practice, but skipping the workbook.

 

For Growing With Grammar, I'd either have her do a lot more each day, or I'd skip straight to level 4.

 

For Latin, I don't have anything positive to say about Latin's Not So Tough. I just think it's awful. I'd drop it and perhaps go to Lively Latin, which will be more challenging for her, but she'll also *LEARN* an awful lot more. Or Latin for Children or Latina Christiana or... I applaud your doing Latin with her -- but really, I think time spent on LNST is ... well... I should stop now. ;)

 

Writing: You don't mention writing at all. Is she writing narrations daily for science and/or history? For fourth grade, I'd expect 1-2 narrations a day (roughly 3-6 sentences each). Base these on history, science, her literature readings, or even on short selections (Aesop's fables, retold Bible stories, short fairy tales, etc).

 

How much reading are you assigning her each day? I would go for 1 hour of assigned reading (you pick the book -- something just a tiny bit hard for her that's either just really good children's literature or that supports your history topic, etc) and 1 hour of free reading (her choice within your family's standards for quality and content) each day.

 

If you still need more, consider adding in some fun logic puzzles type books, like those from Prufrock Press or Mindware Online.

 

You could also add in geography (I love, love, love Ellen J. McHenry's Mapping the World with Art, and the dvds make it so very simple to use)...

 

Memory work is also so important. I think Drew Campbell's Living Memory is useful, but if you need a first place to start, try Andrew Pudewa's "Linguisting Development Through Poetry Memorization"...