s/o...Nan in Mass, come and elaborate!

[abreakfromlife]

but I had to reply with a big THANK YOU to Nan and Elizabeth. I have read TWTM twice and it still didn't "click" until your posts.

 

:iagree: I don't know why that is, either. WTM has it laid out fairly well. Between all of your posts, and a couple of SWB's audio lectures that I've listened to in the last few days, I feel really confident going forward. I feel like I've wasted a large part of the last couple of years :closedeyes: but maybe I can blame that on the toddlers :tongue_smilie: But for the first time I really know what I'm doing, what my specific goals are, and HOW to do it, on a daily basis. I already knew we were going to have to school into the summer to catch up on what we haven't done this year, but now I'm actually excited about it. Thank you so much :001_smile::001_smile::001_smile:

[MeganW]

Actually, Nan, I found the thought liberating. When you are focused on the teaching of skills rather than the stuffing of minds full of content, it reduces stress. Now I can let go of that nagging little anxiety that my first graders did not memorize the seven ancient wonders of the world.

 

 

I thought the same thing! It really simplifies things with little guys. I can truly just focus on the basics, and trust that everything else is gravy. Before reading all this, I had been so focused on how I was going to get in history, geography, science, etc. to go along with our CC stuff. Now, I plan to just focus on the basics, and IF WE STILL HAVE TIME, add the other stuff.

[Critterfixer]

I don't know how old your children are, but I highly recommend TWTM reading lists, both history and literature.

 

I have seven year old twin boys in first grade. I love those lists.:001_smile: I also love library surfing, and I've augmented those lists as we've tackled ancient history.

 

Wait - you have to teach them to draw or you don't get to see what they are thinking about GRIN. They won't show you their journals (if they keep one), but they most likely will show you the cool picture they just drew.

 

I hope so. Right now I have to find refrigerator room for all the brightly colored landscapes topped with multicolored rainbows, windmills and helicopters. I do think drawing is one of those skills that gets missed at times--just think about all the things that drawing teaches!

 

They are ever asking me who was alive then...they like knowing if grandma was alive then or if the pharoahs were...or if Laura Ingalls Wilder was...

As in, "Mom, do you remember dinosaurs?":tongue_smilie: "No, dear, just saber-tooth tigers and such..."

[FO4UR]

As in, "Mom, do you remember dinosaurs?":tongue_smilie: "No, dear, just saber-tooth tigers and such..."

 

Yep...like that...:lol:

[melissel]

What a wonderful thread that comes at a perfect time for me, when I'm rethinking the way our homeschool has operated and how it will operate in the future. Thanks to everyone who shared here!

[FO4UR]

It's a good time to bump this thread. :001_smile:

[mom31257]

:bigear:

[esjay]

I love this thread... :-)

[FO4UR]

In my yearly Spring Cleaning (cleaning out the muck and mire of the current end-of-the-year discouragement and can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees syndrome), I came upon this thread. I thought I'd give it a bump b/c it gives me focus & perspective before purchasing and planning next year.

 

 

Thanks, Nan, for sharing! It's funny looking back and reading what I wrote 2 years ago...still so true.

[Rosie_0801]

Question, for anyone: then, suppose you have one of these kids who struggles with skills like narration. Suppose there's an LD involved, say, a language processing issue that results in reading comprehension difficulties :D. While obviously there needs to be a good amount of focus on the skill, what sort of timetable is reasonable? Does anyone have any gentle resources for working on the skill without making it pure torture for the student who struggles with this?

 

Old thread, but I feel like writing this answer to the above quote anyway, so I am.

 

More of a :cheers2: post to anyone in the above situation than anything useful, but I have a Ker who struggles with narration because she has Echolalia and isn't even fluent in English yet. Her vocab is coming along but her syntax is most definitely not in alignment with English convention! Our time table is as long as it takes, which hopefully won't be forever and we work on it by talking about the pictures in her phonics readers, just like one does when reading to a toddler, except she couldn't back then and finally can now. So, she's about 3 or 4 years behind in this skill progression, which is quite a lot when she's only just turned 6. At least we *are* progressing though and thank heavens for these posts of Nan's. Reading them has allowed me to explain to the kids' father what these activities that don't look like anything really are and why they are really important. For some reason he hasn't much faith in me intuitively knowing something is important for some undefined reason! :confused1: :laugh: