New to Homeschooling...

[jejily]

And feeling completely overwhelmed!

 

We just started in March. DS10 is in 4th grade. We will continue this through middle school, possibly beyond, but taking it one year at a time, for now.

 

I read through many posts, and wow. I thought I was figuring this out, but... clearly, I have a lot to learn.

 

 

Here's a situation I struggle with: transitioning from one subject to another.

Sometimes I feel like our day is so stilted. It's math. OK, put that away, now it's time for grammar. Now it's time for spelling. Now it's time for science.

 

Some days it feels so disjointed. How do you handle it?

 

Another issue: How do you incorporate notebooking? OK, that is a really broad question, so let me be more specific.

 

Right now, for science, we are wanting to read about dinosaurs. DS has never gotten to do a dinosaur unit in school, so I thought I'd finish our year by reading real books and notebooking. But, oh my, how do I do this? How do I know he is really learning anything of significance? How do you read through real books? Do you just sit together and look through it? Do you plan ahead what he is going to learn and, therefore, look through the books first, without him, to determine the week's reading schedule?

 

Ack! Help!

[battlemaiden]

And feeling completely overwhelmed!

 

We just started in March. DS10 is in 4th grade. We will continue this through middle school, possibly beyond, but taking it one year at a time, for now.

 

I read through many posts, and wow. I thought I was figuring this out, but... clearly, I have a lot to learn.

 

 

Here's a situation I struggle with: transitioning from one subject to another.

 

Sometimes I feel like our day is so stilted. It's math. OK, put that away, now it's time for grammar. Now it's time for spelling. Now it's time for science.

 

Some days it feels so disjointed. How do you handle it?

 

Another issue: How do you incorporate notebooking? OK, that is a really broad question, so let me be more specific.

 

Right now, for science, we are wanting to read about dinosaurs. DS has never gotten to do a dinosaur unit in school, so I thought I'd finish our year by reading real books and notebooking. But, oh my, how do I do this? How do I know he is really learning anything of significance? How do you read through real books? Do you just sit together and look through it? Do you plan ahead what he is going to learn and, therefore, look through the books first, without him, to determine the week's reading schedule?

 

Ack! Help!

 

Personally, I'm okay with disjointed. On all subjects that dc can do on their own they simply do the assignment, check it off, put it away, and I check it later- often resulting in further disjointed behavior by my interrupting them from their current topic to come and correct what I just graded. They are used to it. :D

 

As for the notebooking. I can't say I'm an expert. But in the early days, I would ask your son to answer a very specific question from the reading. Start small and build with writing.

 

I'm in a hurry, so I can't answer more, sorry.

 

Welcome to homeschooling and the WTM board!

 

Jo

[Colleen in NS]

Welcome! And like the rest of us, you WILL figure things out as you go along! :)

 

The way I handle the subjects you mentioned is to tutor my ds10 through his grammar, math, memory work, and Latin lessons for the day, plus get him to do a dictation or narration. I take 1 to 1 1/2 hours to tutor him first thing in the morning. Then I send him off to another table to complete the math problems, sentence diagrams, or Latin exercises on his own. While he works alone, I tutor my dd7 through her subjects. We three meet together later in the morning to do science or history.

 

We use notebooking, too, for science and history. For science, I have the kids read a real book (translation: interesting). If we are doing animals that year, they choose an animal that week to read about, and read one or many books about that animal. Depending on reading abilities, they either read it by themselves, read to me, or I read it to them. About once a week, I have them (I'm talking about grades 1-4) write a few sentences of facts they learned about the animal. Depending on writing abilities, they either narrate it to me while I write, or they write the sentences themselves.

 

I've done this for four years now, and I've seen my kids read tons of books on their own this way. They may only write a few sentences a week about facts that particularly interested them, but they retain a LOT of knowledge from their reading. How do I know? They constantly talk about what they are reading. Or I ask them questions about their reading. I've nurtured their love for reading carefully over the years, by providing lots of interesting books from the library.

 

As for planning, I decide the branch of science we will study for the YEAR, not the week. I use a spine book for the year (like an animal encyclopedia geared for their age), and tell them to pick out a topic from it to study each week. Sometimes they spend a couple of weeks wanting to read more about that topic. I reserve age appropriate library books on their chosen weekly topic, skim through them just to make sure they are appropriate, and hand them over to the kids for their reading time each day.

 

Hope this helps some!

[jejily]

I really love the idea of notebooking. It appeals to the artist and the writer in me.

 

DS10, on the other hand, is convinced he is a "terrible" artist and it's always a battle to have him draw a picture for me, any kind of picture. We really have to work on this. I hate that he is so self-critical already!!

 

And, as far as writing goes... well, let's just say he'd rather scrub all the toilets in the house than have to write a single paragraph about anything. However, I am going through the teacher portion of IEW's TWSS, and have tried some simple key word outlines with history. Again, I am using a couple of different spine books (Usborne, Kingfisher encyclopedias of history) plus MH (covering the ancient civilizations up to and coinciding with the Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Greeks, as we will be studying those people groups more in depth next year).

 

So, what I do is write a simple paragraph myself the day before to capture the highlights, then have him outline it and rewrite it (after he has already read through all the original sources and other books we have here on the topic). Does that make sense?

 

I think it has helped... he's learning great writing skills, and we 're knocking out history at the same time. But today, when he saw me bring out a paragraph I'd already typed up, he almost started crying. I guess doing this every day was a bit much!! So, I just had him rewrite this one (no outlining or anything), and called it copywork.

 

So, for those of you who use notebooking regularly, did you have any push back from your boys (or girls) over having to draw and/or write? How did you get them past that? I want notebooking to be enjoyable, not drudgery!!

[Colleen in NS]

So, for those of you who use notebooking regularly, did you have any push back from your boys (or girls) over having to draw and/or write? How did you get them past that? I want notebooking to be enjoyable, not drudgery!!

 

Yes! And I've heard over and over again here on the boards that boys generally develop writing skills slower than girls in the elementary years.

 

I've just slowly but consistently worked on his skills over the years. I use narration (of whatever he was interested in, in history or science book) to help him form his thoughts into grammatically correct sentences, and copywork-->dictation to help him learn how to put words onto paper. He is now merging the two skills together, to be able to write a single paragraph, of his own thoughts, on his own. Now that he is getting confident with this, I'll have him continue next year. And I'll start teaching him one-level outlining of several paragraphs, slowly developing into three level outlining, and then teaching him to rewrite from those outlines. I plan to spread this out over the next few years.

 

As for drawing for the notebooks.....I've just let ds draw whatever he wants on his narrations. We work on drawing skills at a separate time, every few weeks. Only recently have I started to encourage him to use his learned drawing skills on his narration drawings. But I don't push this....it's not as important to me as writing skills.

 

hth

[Suzanne in ABQ]

To help the flow of your day: you could list all your subjects for the day, and let your ds choose the order in which you do them. He may want to group all the language arts together, or he may want to switch back and forth between subject areas. He may want to do all the "mom stuff" at the same time, then go off to do his seat work by himself. Or, he may prefer to have you come and go throughout school time. As you work together, you'll find the "groove" that works for you.

 

As for notebooking, I certainly wouldn't have my ds write about every single book we use. We frequently go through 30 books a week on various topics. We sit together (4th grade son, and 6th grade daughter) on the couch, and go through the history books and science books. For some books, we read every word; other times, we just look at the pictures, read captions, scan for interesting tidbits. I don't require them to remember every detail. We enjoy it when we come across the same material in more than one book. That sparks interesting conversations. Also, the more we read together, the more "stuff" we know about a subject, and we're able to make associations and find relationships between events, people, etc. These conversations are much richer than forcing my ds to choke out two sentences on each book. I know what he knows because we talk about things. He loves to act things out, especially in history, but sometimes even in science. He draws pictures, and creates comic strips about the things we're studying (on his own).

 

If we're doing a unit on a particular subject of interest, I don't plan ahead. We just go to the library and get as many books as we're allowed on the subject. Then, we take them home and read them. If we're doing a more extensive subject (like the human body), I break it down in to smaller chunks (respiratory system, skeletal system, etc) and just get books on the sub-topics for that week. I have sometimes used a "spine" for these subjects (SOTW for history, an Anatomy/Physiology book for Human Body, etc.) Even then, though, the only planning I do is making sure I have the books I'll need for that week. I don't read ahead and plan everything out. It's just impossible for me to know with that much certainty the direction our conversation will go.

 

If your son enjoys writing about the books he reads, then go or it. If he hates it, and fights you over every word, I'd skip it and find another way to evaluate what he's retaining. Also, I wouldn't worry to much if he IS retaining everything he's learning in the "content" subjects (history, science, music and art appreciation, etc). There is no possible way he is going to remember everything. Just keep enjoying the learning process. Teach him how to find stuff, how to look things up. Enjoy all the cool books together. There's so much to discover!

[Sue G in PA]

Welcome to the board and to homeschooling! This was my first year outside of a virtual academy/cyber school and I still feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants at times. You have come to the right place, though, b/c this board has been the single best source of encouragement and wisdom for me hands down. I don't have a lot of advice for you right now, but I just wanted to welcome you and say good luck!