persephone43 Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 He has been in ps (really cant wait until I can stop saying that :)) but he will be coming home after winter break. He is 10 and in the 3rd (supposed to be in 4th). This is what I have so far: Language Arts: AAS 1 -I want to start at the beginning, he is a very poor speller. FLL 3 WWE -still need to place but I will get the Complete Writer and do the sample lessons, as someone here recommended, until we find a place that fits. Math: Math Mammoth -still need to place for this (but im thinking 2B-we seem so far behind in everything!) but first we will spend a couple of weeks memorizing basic math facts History: SOTW 1 with stuff from the AG (since we are starting in January, we will only work up to the end of Greece. I want to take our time and my goal right now is to build a love of history and not so much drill facts into his head.) Evan-Moor geography -for basic map skills History Pockets (Egypt and Greece) tons of reading and projects Science: Magic School Bus Science… (ds’s idea) He loves these books and is a science kid, so we will read these and study the topic presented at our own leisure. Next year we will do something more scheduled and focused, but for now we are doing science for fun’s sake only. We will also be doing some nature study and we will plan and plant a garden in the spring. We will have a daily read-aloud in the morning and he will be doing a lot more independent reading than he is used to. We will also try to incorporate some kind of art program because he loves to draw, paint, cut up things etc. but I really just want to focus on the core subjects for the rest of this year and we will definitely flesh out more next fall. Did I forget anything? I feel like I am... Thank you all so much :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkermamaof4 Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 This is almost exactly what we did last year. Sounds great. You are smart to start in MM2. I wish we had. We started in 3A this summer. Now my younger son is doing 2 and I am seeing things my older dd should have done over with MM. I think I will be adding some MM2 into her days as review! You may want to go to Guesthollow and find some fun books to add into SOTW to make it super fun. Then have a 30 min book basket time where he can pick from a stack of books each day and read for enjoyment but to go along with SOTW - like bonus reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted November 17, 2010 Author Share Posted November 17, 2010 This is almost exactly what we did last year. Sounds great. You are smart to start in MM2. I wish we had. We started in 3A this summer. Now my younger son is doing 2 and I am seeing things my older dd should have done over with MM. I think I will be adding some MM2 into her days as review! You may want to go to Guesthollow and find some fun books to add into SOTW to make it super fun. Then have a 30 min book basket time where he can pick from a stack of books each day and read for enjoyment but to go along with SOTW - like bonus reading. Guesthollow? Is that a website? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mo2 Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Guesthollow? Is that a website? http://www.guesthollow.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkermamaof4 Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 btw, we easily finished AAS1 and 2 and part of 3 last year. But I don't remember when we began it; it may have been at the beginning of the year but maybe later. We really like it. We use the magnetic white board and all of my kids do it together, even the 5 yr old who copies letters off their boards onto his with his marker. he loves it too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted November 17, 2010 Author Share Posted November 17, 2010 btw,we easily finished AAS1 and 2 and part of 3 last year. But I don't remember when we began it; it may have been at the beginning of the year but maybe later. We really like it. We use the magnetic white board and all of my kids do it together, even the 5 yr old who copies letters off their boards onto his with his marker. he loves it too! How long do you spend per day on AAS if you finished it that quickly? Do you double up on lessons? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkermamaof4 Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 we did a lesson a day for book 1 and most of book 2, but slowly had to move to taking 3 days per lesson by book 3 for my dd's 10 and 14. ds7 did all but dictation with us. it is very fast but we just did it until the lesson was done, not timed. I'm not sure how long that takes. Be sure to review the cards! it is easy to slacken off on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkermamaof4 Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Also, Atelier Art sounds so wonderful! Search the forum to read about it here. We get art in our co-op or I would have already ordered it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in the UP of MI Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 The first half of AAS 1 will most likely be very easy for your ds. You'll go through those lessons very quickly. The second half will probably be fairly quick, too, but are more likely to contain new material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WistfulRidge Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 Science: Magic School Bus Science… (ds’s idea) He loves these books and is a science kid, so we will read these and study the topic presented at our own leisure. Next year we will do something more scheduled and focused, but for now we are doing science for fun’s sake only. I just have to say that even though this just seems like "fun" he'll likely learn a lot. Science is not my strength, but *everything* I really remember about pretty much every science topic I learned from either Magic School Bus or Bill Nye the Science Guy. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I took a test for one of my university science classes and sat there going over Magic School Bus episodes etc in my head! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgehog Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 Looks good to me, the only thing I can think of is foreign languages and arts - music (practical and theory), and art in all its forms! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted November 18, 2010 Author Share Posted November 18, 2010 I just have to say that even though this just seems like "fun" he'll likely learn a lot. Science is not my strength, but *everything* I really remember about pretty much every science topic I learned from either Magic School Bus or Bill Nye the Science Guy. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I took a test for one of my university science classes and sat there going over Magic School Bus episodes etc in my head! Very glad to hear this!! Last night I actually found some lesson plans on the internet to go along with the Magic School Bus. I probably won’t use them much, as I am letting him lead, but it did point me to a lot of resources I didn’t know existed that will fit along nicely with the topics in this series. I’m really excited about this part of our curriculum!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted November 18, 2010 Author Share Posted November 18, 2010 Looks good to me, the only thing I can think of is foreign languages and arts - music (practical and theory), and art in all its forms! I'm not sure about foreign languages at this point. I think I will wait until he has a better understanding of English. Maybe next fall. I will be learning French so I was thinking about having him learn with me (because that would be easier and help us both) but then again my dd started with Latin, then moved to French later on and I always thought I would do it the same way with ds but in reality...I'm having a hard time seeing him being excited (or even willing) to learn any foreign language. At this point, he hates school, hates reading and has a bad attitude. We will have to work on this first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 I'm not sure about foreign languages at this point. I think I will wait until he has a better understanding of English. Maybe next fall. I will be learning French so I was thinking about having him learn with me (because that would be easier and help us both) but then again my dd started with Latin, then moved to French later on and I always thought I would do it the same way with ds but in reality...I'm having a hard time seeing him being excited (or even willing) to learn any foreign language. At this point, he hates school, hates reading and has a bad attitude. We will have to work on this first. :grouphug: Did he get a lot of sight words in school? My article "Why Johnny Doesn't like to Read" explains why and how sight words and other whole language practices commonly taught in schools can cause students to dislike reading. You can take the MWIA to determine if there is a problem caused by sight words, and you also need a lot of nonsense words to break the guessing habit. You can find the MWIA and a program with that I use along with my concentration game, which makes nonsense words, on my how to tutor page. I use the things linked at the end to remediate groups of children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted November 18, 2010 Author Share Posted November 18, 2010 Yes lots of sight words! I think the way he was taught combined with the fact that he had to do the 1st grade twice (at a school he hated) is the main cause of his attitude and dislike of reading. I definitely have a lot of backtracking to do. Your article looks great! Thanks for passing it along! Cant wait to read it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 Yes lots of sight words! I think the way he was taught combined with the fact that he had to do the 1st grade twice (at a school he hated) is the main cause of his attitude and dislike of reading. I definitely have a lot of backtracking to do.Your article looks great! Thanks for passing it along! Cant wait to read it :) You're welcome! The good news is knowing the root cause of the problem can make fixing it a lot faster. Before I added in nonsense words, my students took a lot longer to remediate. Nonsense words and spelling have been very helpful for my students. Also, about 3 years ago I discovered Webster's Speller. While it does not make the remediation process go faster than what I was already using, it does allow students to progress to a much higher grade level than a conventional phonics program. Before I used the Speller, I got a few students 1 grade above grade level and the rest to grade level. After using the speller, I have had scores of students above grade level, and several reading 2 or more grades above grade level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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