Buterflysbeauty Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Hello all! I am new to the forum and am still reading "The Well-Trained Mind". I have 3 children DD 9yo in 4th grade, DS1 almost 6yo in K and DS2 6 months. We just started homeschooling in November and rushed into it. We started out with workbooks, they didn't work well with DD and DS rushed through his like it was nothing. We are currently using time4learning.com which the kids seem to like but I am not sure it is really doing anything. We are 3 months from "finishing" the school year and I am wondering if I should just wait till the year is over to start the well-trained schedule. Play catch up over the summer and start 1st and 5th grade in Sept.......or before if they are ready. DD is a poor speller, does not know her times tables and I sometimes have trouble getting her to do her work. DS1 has an excellent memory but gets easily frustrated with reading. He is more or less doing all first grade work except with reading. I am at a loss with what to do and whether or not DD will pass her test at the end of the year (I am testing her for my own records not for the school's). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. TIA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Welcome to the boards, and to homeschooling! I don't like to buy more stress...so my approach would be to wait till the Fall to start with TWTM style of homeschooling..this would give you the summer to organize, order any books you need, decide on how you will do things. Then, during the summer, I would just work on spelling and times tables and maybe read aloud alot. Don't stress it or your kids, have fun this summer and be ready to hit the books in the fall. I'm sure you will get other advice, this board is a great place to go to for ideas and help. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theYoungerMrsWarde Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 :grouphug: I'm bumping you up so someone with more experience than me can see this and hopefully answer :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 If you and your 4th grader have not done a Classical style of education before, you might want to take some of the WTM suggestions next year and go easy on the others. The reason is because 5th grade has a big jump toward starting to use more logic stage thinking. If your 5th grader has never done a narration, for example, it would be too much to expect them to start out doing the 5th grade recommendations to write an outline at first. You would need to spend a little bit of time getting her up to speed with some of the suggestions from the 3rd and 4th grade. It's ok if you are doing that at the beginning of next year or you could start doing a few things at the end of this year esp. with narrations. It is a very different approach than the "fill in the blank" approach because you need to be aware of the big picture and not just the details. Your goal would be to be doing all the recommendations for 5th grade by the end of the year, not necessarily be doing them all at the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 First, welcome! This board is awesome! Second, repost this on the K-8 board. Third, personally, I would not wait 3 months to start WTM. Too long a break and it will be bedlam. Get a good routine in place and start slow with the essentials of lang arts (handwriting, grammar, spelling), and math. Add the rest in a few months down the road one at a time. Consider doing a 'repeat' year with your dd before jumping into Logic Stage work. She will never know if you don't say. Phonics: Grab a copy of The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading and go through it with your ds starting from lesson 1 to make sure he knows those letter and short vowel sounds. A short way I do this review is to write a random letter on the board and ask what sound it makes and its name. We do all the lessons on the whiteboard and my younger 2 love it. Math: Give your dd a multiplication chart to use until she can write the facts from memory. Drill on table a week either written (worked better for mine) or oral. Where did she place in the math program you plan to use? Wherever they place, go with that level even if it seems low. Every program has a slightly different sequence. Jumping around is death. We LOVE Christian Light Education math. After 6 yrs and as many math programs (including ALL the WTM rec's), my older two now know the facts and say they feel smart in math. Most people would agree CLE math is about a grade ahead compared to most programs. ie. 4th is closer to 5th for other programs. Spelling: I would go with Level D of Spelling Workout for your dd using the 5 day plan. Give her the test then spell each word for her to write correctly next to her spelling of the word everyday. This has worked wonders with mine. The little guy should start with A or B. Grammar/Writing: Rod and Staff done orally and on a whiteboard with the worksheets is the best and least time-consuming. Your son is not old enough yet but your dd likely should start with the 4th grade book. The 5th does have a bit of review but not if a child has not had much grammar and writing. These are advanced texts. If you want secular, First Lang Lessons is great. The downside is having to use a separate writing program. Handwriting: Choose a style, go with it. I let my younger 2 choose. Surprisingly, they chose Getty-Dubay Italics over Handwriting Without Tears. Any style is fine. Just pick one. Anyway, I hope my rambling will help you. if not, these boards and the wonderful people on it can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buterflysbeauty Posted March 26, 2011 Author Share Posted March 26, 2011 Thank you so much for responding everyone. I have not yet picked out a math program, I was looking at Right start math (I love that they use an abacus) and math-u-see. I was also thinking of using times tables memory system. I think I will finish reading the WTM book and start slowly on converting DD and DS to WTM philosophy. The narration will be the biggest challenge I for see and I will work with both of them over the summer so that hopefully DD will be ready for 5th, if not no big deal. Although next year is a test year so I am not sure if she needs to be "kept back" will effect the testing. We live in NY BTW, so every other year we have to test. I did post my question with a little extra info on the k-8 board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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