What is wrong with me? Am I doing the right thing?

[JulieH]

I can't believe I'm going to say this..but: I don't know what I'm doing!

 

Well, I thought I had it all figured out. I mean, I homeschooled another child for 7 years. These two younger ones are so resistant and they are really ticking me off. I cannot afford private school right now, and I am opposed to public. Whether or not this is a big Christian "calling" for me, I am unsure. All I know, is the kids whine and complain at every turn.

 

What am I doing wrong? We are doing Sonlight Core D. *I* am loving the readings. My son seems to be enjoying our first read aloud, even though he listens laying underneath the couch cushions. My daughter blocks her ears in protest and cries, whining "I am not a child that likes to be read to!" Well, anything she reads on her own is not comprehended, so what's a mom to do?

 

My son is curious about our Bible readings. My daughter again cries and blocks her ears.

 

My daughter did PERFECT job on her copywork. My son did the copywork with resistance and it was messy, but he's doing his best. He has some issues with handwriting.

 

Narration. My daughter answers "I don't know" or "I forget" to every question. My son, KNOWS the answers..sometimes in detail, but clams up and feels nervous or something and just cries and won't participate in it.

 

I have barely begun and *I* hate All About Spelling. I'm not sure I get it.

 

I had to order a new math program for my daughter. My son is being tutored with Rightstart..thank you Jesus!

 

They sure love Brain Pop.

 

Sonlight readers. My son is doing ok so far and seems to comprehend what he's reading. Though I did the placement test for dd and her perfect placement is at the Core E reading level, I have her reading the D readers and I don't think she's reading ...or if she is, she isn't retaining. Or if she is, she's giving me a REALLY hard time about verbally answering the comprehension questions.

 

When the heck am I supposed to do fun stuff with them like crafts and lapbooks? HOW to I prepare that stuff so I have time for it?

 

Yes, I'm having a meltdown!

[lorrainejmc]

:grouphug:

 

Have you just started homeschooling these two? If so, it's just like that at first for a lot of us and maybe it would be best to get into the way of it doing just the 3r's for a few weeks. This is my 2nd week of my 3rd year and we haven't added in all our subjects yet.

[missmoe]

I would work on attitudes right now and any school work that gets accomplished is a bonus.

 

Perhaps work on a reward system for your dd to reward her good behavior. Or if you feel it will work better for you, let her know talking to you in that manner is not allowed.

 

Your kids are young enough that school work can be put on the back burner for a bit while you work on behaviors.

[MerryAtHope]

(((Hugs))) I'm sorry you're having such a tough time right now.

 

First let me ask...what made you decide to do core D for your children this year? If their ages in your signature are accurate, your youngest isn't even in the age range that Sonlight recommends for this program. And even though she has the ability to decode as high as Level E readers, doesn't mean she has the maturity or the background to be able to understand, comprehend, and synthesize everything at that level. My first thought as I read your post was that your dd was too young for this core--and even if the ages are off & she's 8 now, she still doesn't sound ready for it.

 

Did you buy it new from Sonlight? If so, I'd consider taking advantage of their return policy and trying a lower core. Or, if you want to continue this one with your son, try something easier for your daughter. Are there any books that she enjoys having read to her? (Easier books with pictures and so on, not the Core D books, I mean.)

 

She also may not be ready for a lot of questioning about what she reads on her own--she may be struggling to put thoughts into words, and it may be overwhelming to her. One thing you can try is to simply have her tell you about what she read, and see what she says. She may be able to tell you a bit that way. Or she may still not be ready and able to form her thoughts in that way. It may be that the content just isn't the right level for her. Sonlight cores do tend to require a lot of maturity & sometimes younger kids with higher academic abilities still aren't ready for that. You could continue your son and just choose easier books to read aloud to her & for her to read, and gradually work her up to more difficult fare, or you could put both kids in a lower core. My kids at 7 & 9 did Core C (2 back then) and that was a good fit here, although a couple of books my dd still wasn't interested in yet. Most she enjoyed though.

 

Some kids don't do as well with auditory input--my dd struggled in this area, but Sonlight helped a lot to teach her listening skills. They just didn't come naturally to her. I had to learn to really slow down my pace in reading, and to vary my tone etc...

 

It's fine that your son listens from under couch cushions. Your daughter might enjoy a coloring page or something to do with her hands while you read. Some kids listen better this way.

 

You might consider asking them questions or listening to narrations separately. Some kids get intimidated in front of their siblings. Also you can try narrations with something easier--just a paragraph at first, or something on the easy side for them. You may have to work up to narrations on history reading or Sonlight readers, and instead do easier things at first. I started narrations by using pictures in my kids' science books--I'd read about the picture and then have them tell me everything they knew about the picture. Gradually we worked up to narrations based on paragraphs and longer readings.

 

Copywork--this is a more difficult skill than it might appear for some kids. We tend to think, "all of the words are right there, just copy them!" and that kids shouldn't make mistakes. But in reality, it requires sequencing skills, a knowledge of phonics and how to segment words into sounds and syllables (because if they try to just copy the letters as if they have no meaning like numbers in a phone number, they will start reversing some, they will lose their place--very difficult for a child with ADHD). If either child's spelling level is not at the same level as their copywork for MOST of the words, then I would drop this and focus on spelling more first. Also if the issue is mainly handwriting, make the assignment shorter (a phrase or sentence) instead of the whole passage assigned by Sonlight. Adapt it to make it fit their needs.

 

AAS--This is a program that has worked tremendously well here, so I do think it's worth it to figure it out. But, what is it that you hate about it? Maybe we can help with ways to make it work better. The first few steps are not the same as most of the rest of the series, so if you aren't beyond those yet, it may just be an initial struggle that will get better once you are past those. But if you can't make it work, they have a great return policy as well.

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[5LittleMonkeys]

I'm not extremely experienced but am teaching 4 dc that all learn in different ways. I'm wondering if you are going to need to customize your dc's education to better suite their personalities and learning styles. One of my dc is very resistant and whiny about school work too if I don't make sure that it is presented in a way that she can make sense of. She is VSL with Kinesthetic tendencies so she needs to be able to see things (videos, pictures, charts, graphs, demonstrations, etc.) If I lecture I have to have visual representations of what I'm talking about. Just straight talking goes right over her head but add some pictures or diagrams or even write an outline of what I'm teaching on the whiteboard and bingo, I've caught her attention.

 

Anyway that's just an example. You can still use the same programs with both of your dc but you may need to teach it in several ways to catch the learning styles of both of them.

 

Others can better make suggestions for programs to work on comprehension but I will tell you two things that have helped here have been narration and Socratic discussion.

 

Hope that helps a little.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

:grouphug:

 

I can't believe I'm going to say this..but: I don't know what I'm doing!

 

Well, I thought I had it all figured out. I mean, I homeschooled another child for 7 years. These two younger ones are so resistant and they are really ticking me off. I cannot afford private school right now, and I am opposed to public. Whether or not this is a big Christian "calling" for me, I am unsure. All I know, is the kids whine and complain at every turn.

 

First, I just wanted to say everybody has days like this. I'm sorry you're off to a rough start.

 

What am I doing wrong? We are doing Sonlight Core D. *I* am loving the readings. My son seems to be enjoying our first read aloud, even though he listens laying underneath the couch cushions. My daughter blocks her ears in protest and cries, whining "I am not a child that likes to be read to!" Well, anything she reads on her own is not comprehended, so what's a mom to do?

 

My son is curious about our Bible readings. My daughter again cries and blocks her ears.

 

It sounds like your son is doing fine. My 7yo ds was upside down for half of the chapter that I read him this morning. If I think he's not paying attention, I pause for a few seconds to see how long it takes him to notice I've stopped reading. For your daughter, first I would be very clear that the behavior is disrespectful and rude. Is she capable of reading part of the read alouds? Maybe she could read a page or a portion of every few pages aloud to you and DS. Then you could respectfully listen while she reads and she would be expected to respectfully listen in turn while you're reading.

 

My daughter did PERFECT job on her copywork. My son did the copywork with resistance and it was messy, but he's doing his best. He has some issues with handwriting.

For your DS, you might consider shortening the assignment. For copywork, I always preferred one sentence written to the best of one's abilty over multiple sentences slopped together.

 

Narration. My daughter answers "I don't know" or "I forget" to every question. My son, KNOWS the answers..sometimes in detail, but clams up and feels nervous or something and just cries and won't participate in it.

 

For your son, I'd do his narration separately one on one. Read through the questions beforehand, and then put them away. Ask him to tell you what happened in the story. Give him a sentence or two to get started if need be. Not having the pressure of getting the "right" answer to the question may be all he needs. If he's still having a hard time, then try breaking the reading into smaller chunks, pause to narrate, and then read a bit more.

 

The same tact may help with your daughter as well. If she still doesn't remember, I'd have her reread the lesson and try again.

 

I have barely begun and *I* hate All About Spelling. I'm not sure I get it.

 

I had to order a new math program for my daughter. My son is being tutored with Rightstart..thank you Jesus!

 

They sure love Brain Pop.

 

I don't use AAS, so I can't help there. Yeah for math and brain pop, pat yourself on the back for the parts that are working.

 

Sonlight readers. My son is doing ok so far and seems to comprehend what he's reading. Though I did the placement test for dd and her perfect placement is at the Core E reading level, I have her reading the D readers and I don't think she's reading ...or if she is, she isn't retaining. Or if she is, she's giving me a REALLY hard time about verbally answering the comprehension questions.

 

Yeah for DS. For DD, you could try having her narrate instead of the question. If that doesn't work, honestly I'd have her read it out loud to you. Then you know she's read it and the combination of seeing and hearing the words often helps with retention as well.

 

When the heck am I supposed to do fun stuff with them like crafts and lapbooks? HOW to I prepare that stuff so I have time for it?

 

Yes, I'm having a meltdown!

 

I'd start small. Pick one craft for the week. Decide which day you want to do it. Put all of the needed stuff in one place the weekend before. :grouphug: Hang in there. HTH

[chepyl]

Most boys, ADD or not, learn better if they are not sitting in a chair. My son lays on the floor woth hos grammar book, rolls around during SOTW, and prefers spelling on a white board or with magnets on the fridge. I know he knows the information, because I can ask him days later and he recalls details I forgot! Let your son lay under the cushions. For hos narration, would he do better of he could draw a picture for it? Have him draw a picture and describe it to you. He will start to get the narration. My son does better with guided questions, he recalls more. But if I let him go in his own, I get tiny details that I would not expect, but he misses the big picture. Maybe your son just needs a different way to share.his knowledge.

 

For your daughter, give her a worksheet or coloring sheet that goes with the reading, sit her at the table or on the floor with it and tell her to work while you read with your son. She will hear it, and may start to like read alouds.

 

Do something fun. Do your kids like to cut and glue things? Find an easy lapbook on a topic you are atudying amd do it. They need to see that school can be fun, then they will be motivated to do other things. Our history lapbook is the last thing we do all week. It motivates dS to complete his other work. He loves cutting and gluing!

 

I hope things get better. Just remember, what you like may not work for the kids....that is a hard thing to deal with sometimes ;)

[TracyR]

:grouphug:

I can totally sympathize with you on this one. We've been at it for a month now and I've gotten nothing but resistance from my oldest and youngest.

We've stopped to go through behavior issues and nothing my husband and I seem to be doing is helping. We've tried reward systems, bribery and am getting to the point where I threaten the wooden spoon (which I don't use but seems to be a very effective tool). Sad part is that my middle two are the ones I'd rather homeschool right now, and they are going to school. But I'm not sure for how much longer because I'm getting miserable.

I've homeschooled for 8yrs and my biggest mistake was letting them go to school. It just really threw me off completely because I can't seem to get my groove back at all.

I don't have advice for you because I'm in the same pickle. Just wanted to let you know that you aren't alone.

[NancyNellen]

I would work on attitudes right now and any school work that gets accomplished is a bonus.

 

Perhaps work on a reward system for your dd to reward her good behavior. Or if you feel it will work better for you, let her know talking to you in that manner is not allowed.

 

Your kids are young enough that school work can be put on the back burner for a bit while you work on behaviors.

 

:iagree:

[JulieH]

:grouphug:

 

Have you just started homeschooling these two? If so, it's just like that at first for a lot of us and maybe it would be best to get into the way of it doing just the 3r's for a few weeks. This is my 2nd week of my 3rd year and we haven't added in all our subjects yet.

 

Yes, I have just started homeschooling these two. My oldest daughter (now in college) was homeschooled first through seventh.

 

I would work on attitudes right now and any school work that gets accomplished is a bonus.

 

Perhaps work on a reward system for your dd to reward her good behavior. Or if you feel it will work better for you, let her know talking to you in that manner is not allowed.

 

Your kids are young enough that school work can be put on the back burner for a bit while you work on behaviors.

 

I feel dumb, but I don't even seem to know HOW to work on the behaviors! For starters, I've been working on MY behavior...meaning that I am working hard to make sure that I don't yell, that I speaking firmly, and follow through with something. My dd, 7, is really a tough one! She cries all. the. time! It's more of an "I didn't get my way" and "poor me" thing. I do not at all think she has a mood issue or depression or anything. She whines.

 

I am definitely seeing this week that customization needs to happen with their school work. I have switched math curriculum for her and am waiting on it in the mail. I have added Winning With Writing for her (but not ds) and she likes doing pages in the book.

[JulieH]

(((Hugs))) I'm sorry you're having such a tough time right now.

 

First let me ask...what made you decide to do core D for your children this year? If their ages in your signature are accurate, your youngest isn't even in the age range that Sonlight recommends for this program. And even though she has the ability to decode as high as Level E readers, doesn't mean she has the maturity or the background to be able to understand, comprehend, and synthesize everything at that level. My first thought as I read your post was that your dd was too young for this core--and even if the ages are off & she's 8 now, she still doesn't sound ready for it.

I chose Sonlight Core D because I knew starting out that I wanted to cover American history this year with the kids and I love the literature approach. Sonlight seems to have a lot of great books. I'm thinking she is too young for this core and maybe I should supplement it down to her age level for her?

 

Did you buy it new from Sonlight? If so, I'd consider taking advantage of their return policy and trying a lower core. Or, if you want to continue this one with your son, try something easier for your daughter. Are there any books that she enjoys having read to her? (Easier books with pictures and so on, not the Core D books, I mean.)

 

I did buy it new from Sonlight but ds seems to be doing ok so far and enjoys it. He'll be 10 in December. Dd will be 8 in Nov.

 

She also may not be ready for a lot of questioning about what she reads on her own--she may be struggling to put thoughts into words, and it may be overwhelming to her. One thing you can try is to simply have her tell you about what she read, and see what she says. She may be able to tell you a bit that way. Or she may still not be ready and able to form her thoughts in that way.

So far, she hasn't been able to tell me anything but I *think* she could and she just WON'T. At this age, I think simple questions are best. I was trying to follow TWTM way of narration and ask for an answer in a complete sentence. She knows what a complete sentence is.

It may be that the content just isn't the right level for her. Sonlight cores do tend to require a lot of maturity & sometimes younger kids with higher academic abilities still aren't ready for that. You could continue your son and just choose easier books to read aloud to her & for her to read,

 

I think this is what I may have to do.

 

and gradually work her up to more difficult fare, or you could put both kids in a lower core. My kids at 7 & 9 did Core C (2 back then) and that was a good fit here, although a couple of books my dd still wasn't interested in yet. Most she enjoyed though.

 

Some kids don't do as well with auditory input--my dd struggled in this area, but Sonlight helped a lot to teach her listening skills. They just didn't come naturally to her. I had to learn to really slow down my pace in reading, and to vary my tone etc...

 

It's fine that your son listens from under couch cushions. Your daughter might enjoy a coloring page or something to do with her hands while you read. Some kids listen better this way.

Good idea!

 

You might consider asking them questions or listening to narrations separately.

 

I do have them do them separately. I'm using Writing with Ease and did the end of year 1 evaluation to see if they'd be ready to start in the year 2 book. While dd did absolutely perfect copywork, she completely had no clue on the narration. While ds only made one error on the copywork (missed capital letter), it was messy (but then so is his handwriting), but he clammed up at the narrations....yet that was an easy one. He recalled all kinds of details from "Walk the World's Rim"!

Some kids get intimidated in front of their siblings. Also you can try narrations with something easier--just a paragraph at first, or something on the easy side for them. You may have to work up to narrations on history reading or Sonlight readers, and instead do easier things at first. I started narrations by using pictures in my kids' science books--I'd read about the picture and then have them tell me everything they knew about the picture. Gradually we worked up to narrations based on paragraphs and longer readings.

 

Copywork--this is a more difficult skill than it might appear for some kids. We tend to think, "all of the words are right there, just copy them!" and that kids shouldn't make mistakes. But in reality, it requires sequencing skills, a knowledge of phonics and how to segment words into sounds and syllables (because if they try to just copy the letters as if they have no meaning like numbers in a phone number, they will start reversing some, they will lose their place--very difficult for a child with ADHD). If either child's spelling level is not at the same level as their copywork for MOST of the words, then I would drop this and focus on spelling more first. Also if the issue is mainly handwriting, make the assignment shorter (a phrase or sentence) instead of the whole passage assigned by Sonlight. Adapt it to make it fit their needs.

I am going to alter this I think.

 

AAS--This is a program that has worked tremendously well here, so I do think it's worth it to figure it out. But, what is it that you hate about it? Maybe we can help with ways to make it work better. The first few steps are not the same as most of the rest of the series, so if you aren't beyond those yet, it may just be an initial struggle that will get better once you are past those. But if you can't make it work, they have a great return policy as well.

 

We're at the VERY beginning of level one and it seems SO boring. I'm just at step 1 with them and teaching the phonograms. I'm shocked at the lack of retention of the sounds and that no matter how many times I re-iterate that there is no "uh" at the end of a sound, they do it anyway. I just keep plugging through them again and again. We have only done this a few times. It just seems as though it's going to be very time consuming for me. I want to give it a fair shot. I've heard wonderful things about it..AND I've bought 3 levels with 2 student packs each, AND set up TWO spelling boxes AND separated TWO sets of tiles AND put all those magnets on. LOL

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

 

I responded to questions in red. Thanks!

[JulieH]

:grouphug:

 

 

 

First, I just wanted to say everybody has days like this. I'm sorry you're off to a rough start.

 

 

 

It sounds like your son is doing fine. My 7yo ds was upside down for half of the chapter that I read him this morning. If I think he's not paying attention, I pause for a few seconds to see how long it takes him to notice I've stopped reading. For your daughter, first I would be very clear that the behavior is disrespectful and rude. Is she capable of reading part of the read alouds? Maybe she could read a page or a portion of every few pages aloud to you and DS. Then you could respectfully listen while she reads and she would be expected to respectfully listen in turn while you're reading. Good idea!!

I was thinking of doing the SL core readers with her. While ds can read them alone and pretty much get all the comprehension questions, dd is not. I may have to do them as read alouds and have her read a little to me.

 

For your DS, you might consider shortening the assignment. For copywork, I always preferred one sentence written to the best of one's abilty over multiple sentences slopped together. I am in agreement completely and only gave him a very short copywork assignment.

 

 

For your son, I'd do his narration separately one on one. Read through the questions beforehand, and then put them away. Ask him to tell you what happened in the story. Give him a sentence or two to get started if need be. Not having the pressure of getting the "right" answer to the question may be all he needs. If he's still having a hard time, then try breaking the reading into smaller chunks, pause to narrate, and then read a bit more. Again, good idea! We are using Writing with Ease. I did the end of year 1 eval..apparantly I need to start at the beginning with him even though he's "4th grade"

 

The same tact may help with your daughter as well. If she still doesn't remember, I'd have her reread the lesson and try again.

 

 

 

I don't use AAS, so I can't help there. Yeah for math and brain pop, pat yourself on the back for the parts that are working.

 

 

 

Yeah for DS. For DD, you could try having her narrate instead of the question. If that doesn't work, honestly I'd have her read it out loud to you. Then you know she's read it and the combination of seeing and hearing the words often helps with retention as well.

 

 

 

I'd start small. Pick one craft for the week. Decide which day you want to do it. Put all of the needed stuff in one place the weekend before. :grouphug: Hang in there. HTH

 

Thank you so much for all your feedback!

[missmoe]

 

 

 

I feel dumb, but I don't even seem to know HOW to work on the behaviors! For starters, I've been working on MY behavior...meaning that I am working hard to make sure that I don't yell, that I speaking firmly, and follow through with something. My dd, 7, is really a tough one! She cries all. the. time! It's more of an "I didn't get my way" and "poor me" thing. I do not at all think she has a mood issue or depression or anything. She whines.

.

 

Don't feel dumb! We've all been at a place where we just don't know how to fix a problem. Parenting is HARD!

 

If you are changing your behavior, my guess would be your dd is reacting to those changes. Even if the changes are for the better, she is probably feeling a bit unsettled with the change. She may be trying to see how far she can push you until those old behaviors pop back up.

 

After you make the changes with adjusting her school work, perhaps a rewards system might be in order. Think of a few priviliges she could earn. Computer and TV time seem to be motivators at our house, but it could time with you, a favorite treat, an extra 1/2 hour staying up in the evening, or what ever works for you could be the rewards she earns. So if she sits with you and doesn't cry or complain while you read aloud, she earns a star sticker. If she completes her handwriting in a neat fashion without complaining, she earns another sticker. When she earns 6 stars (or whatever you've decided on) she earns her reward. Work on one or two behaviors at a time and be very clear up front what the expectations are. No crying about sitting and listening during reading time. No crying when asked to work on your handwriting. And I've found it is always good to give a few freebies. Include a behavior that she is already pretty good at already to reward. That way she won't give up right away because it's all too hard.

 

Give yourself a big hug and lots of kudos. Admitting you need to change and asking for help is pretty brave.

[OK Family]

My 8 yr old son complains about doing schoolwork almost daily, but once we get started his attitude changes (well except during math). He typically answers "I don't know" on comprehension and narration. I used Sonlight for the past couple of years, loved the books, however I noticed big comprehension issues. I went with Veritas press book suggestions and their comprehension guides. We are going at a slower pace for Reading this year. He reads the a chapter in the book aloud and then I ask him the question from the guide orally and have him write it down. It has been like pulling teeth at first, but it is getting better. I don't expect to do the questions with him all year probably just until he gets the hang of it. His comprehension has gotten better. I also found some of the books on audio. He reads three chapters a week, then on Friday listens to the chapters he read got the week. When I used Sonlight I did find some comprehension quizzes on Book Adventure. He liked that. For our narration this year I am using our History, Story of the World. I read the section or he listens to the audio. I have him narrate and I write it down. To make narration more likeable I am having him make lapbooks with his narration. It is coming out nicely and we don't really consider it narration anymore.

Our spelling we do spelling plus/dictation. Week 1 we do a spelling list, Week 2 we do the dictation sentences for that list. Has made spelling easier in our life.

Hope this helps.

[mystika1]

 

I feel dumb, but I don't even seem to know HOW to work on the behaviors! For starters, I've been working on MY behavior...meaning that I am working hard to make sure that I don't yell, that I speaking firmly, and follow through with something. My dd, 7, is really a tough one! She cries all. the. time! It's more of an "I didn't get my way" and "poor me" thing. I do not at all think she has a mood issue or depression or anything. She whines.

 

.

 

OMG...I totally feel your pain. We have the exact same problem. My dd(8) hates everything school related....except for Konos or Fiar. I have a :cursing: time getting math and language arts done. My dd is SASSY too! I had to stop teaching math today to give the "you are gonna get this done" speech and that she was wasting time....she politely told me that if I would not be talking math would be over!!!:eek: It gets really hard....she knows how to push buttons. I have taken everything away that she cares about to no avail. I am gonna have to keep her in her room until she learns that talking to me like that is unacceptable.

 

Wish you all of the best.

 

Penny

[mystika1]

Don't feel dumb! We've all been at a place where we just don't know how to fix a problem. Parenting is HARD!

 

If you are changing your behavior, my guess would be your dd is reacting to those changes. Even if the changes are for the better, she is probably feeling a bit unsettled with the change. She may be trying to see how far she can push you until those old behaviors pop back up.

 

After you make the changes with adjusting her school work, perhaps a rewards system might be in order. Think of a few priviliges she could earn. Computer and TV time seem to be motivators at our house, but it could time with you, a favorite treat, an extra 1/2 hour staying up in the evening, or what ever works for you could be the rewards she earns. So if she sits with you and doesn't cry or complain while you read aloud, she earns a star sticker. If she completes her handwriting in a neat fashion without complaining, she earns another sticker. When she earns 6 stars (or whatever you've decided on) she earns her reward. Work on one or two behaviors at a time and be very clear up front what the expectations are. No crying about sitting and listening during reading time. No crying when asked to work on your handwriting. And I've found it is always good to give a few freebies. Include a behavior that she is already pretty good at already to reward. That way she won't give up right away because it's all too hard.

 

Give yourself a big hug and lots of kudos. Admitting you need to change and asking for help is pretty brave.

 

Thank You for posting this. :001_smile: Gave me a bit of encouragement.

 

I think my oldest is jealous of her little sister. She looks at my 4 year olds school items and wishes that she could have "easy" school too. I let her participate in some of it but as soon as we return to her stuff she groans and moans...and moans and groans. :confused: (The it turns into a tug of war)

 

It doesn't happen every day but it feels like it...

 

Penny

[MerryAtHope]

We're at the VERY beginning of level one and it seems SO boring. I'm just at step 1 with them and teaching the phonograms. I'm shocked at the lack of retention of the sounds and that no matter how many times I re-iterate that there is no "uh" at the end of a sound, they do it anyway. I just keep plugging through them again and again. We have only done this a few times. It just seems as though it's going to be very time consuming for me. I want to give it a fair shot. I've heard wonderful things about it..AND I've bought 3 levels with 2 student packs each, AND set up TWO spelling boxes AND separated TWO sets of tiles AND put all those magnets on. LOL

 

 

It's really hard to say the sounds without an /uh/ sound at the end. I'd keep modeling (you might even say to them, "I'm going to say two sounds, and you tell me which one is correct." Then show them a letter like b and say, "should I say /buh/ or /b/? The first one or the second one?" If they can HEAR the difference with you modeling, they might eventually get it.

 

That said...how many sounds do they have left to learn? The book says 2 things: 1, work on only 4 sounds at a time (which would only take a minute or two--you show the phonogram, say the sound, they repeat it, move on), and 2, that you can work on the first 3 steps at the same time. After that you do want to master a step before moving on, but these first 3 are different (because, as you noted, it IS boring to do nothing but phonogram sounds when you're anxious to dig into the spelling! It lays an important foundation though).

 

Then, after you have done the first 3 steps, if your kids know at least the first sounds for all of the letters, you can probably move on while continuing to learn the extra sounds (and at that point I'd probably work on one vowel and one consonant at a time, some of the vowels get confusing).

 

So...maybe if you move on a bit and really get a feel for how the program works, that might help?

 

BTW, the company has a free file-folder game that you can use for practicing the phonograms, if you want to change things up you could email them for that.

 

I chose Sonlight Core D because I knew starting out that I wanted to cover American history this year with the kids and I love the literature approach. Sonlight seems to have a lot of great books. I'm thinking she is too young for this core and maybe I should supplement it down to her age level for her?

 

Yes, I really think that's true. If you don't mind stretching cores D & E over 3 years instead of doing them over 2, you might be able to get her into the age range SL recommends and have future cores work out better...hard to say. (You could do this by adding in more fun projects & taking a day off of the "schedule" here & there, or letting some schedule days take 2 days to fit in projects, and so on). The good news is that there are a lot of books on US history so supplementing down for this core isn't as hard as it might be for some. If you're on the SL board, they used to have a sticky about books for supplementing down...I don't know if that made it over to the new board, if not, you might want to ask on the Core D & E board, I'm sure you'd get lots of ideas.

 

When I started Core D, my youngest was 8.5, and I buddy-read the readers with her--she'd read part and I read part. I did that more because her reading level wasn't there yet, but it also allowed us to discuss the books. So, your idea of reading the readers to your dd might work out. I don't know if you have any of the younger readers...I forget what SL is calling them now, they used to be Grade 3 readers--but there were several US history oriented books that would be a bit easier reading and also easier comprehension. I mixed those in for my then 3rd-grader until she was ready to read the Core D books on her own. You might look for those. The Long Way Home, The Long Way West, Clara and the Bookwagon, and other books were in that reader package.

 

Later in the Core D readers are the "Meet" books--Meet George Washington, Meet Thomas Jefferson--those are easier & have some pictures too. There was one about a girl who was a spy...forgetting the name--that one was loved here too. So you may find later on this year that some of the Core D readers will work.

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[Hope in God]

I would probably back off the school a bunch and do some field trips. Enjoy your kids and read fun stuff to them. They may be school traumatized and so they dig their heels in. They may feel like they don't have what it takes so why even try. Maybe they feel that school is over their heads and so they expect themselves to fail.

 

I tend to be a perfectionist and I found that my perfectionism was striking terror into my kid's hearts. They were afraid to fail and my expectations were just too high. Now maybe I am way off but I thought I was detecting a kindred spirit in your post.:) I could be wrong so please don't be offended if I am. Well, to finish my story, I had to discipline myself to not be a perfectionist and to really realize that my desire was to pour into the wholeness of my children and not just into their brains. I read The Teenage Liberation Handbook and found it really freeing. Much of the book is loopy but it brought me to the realization that it is not the end of the world if my children's education is not exactly what I want it to be and it is not the end of the world if my children's education is not even remotely what I want it to be because there is more to my child than just education.

[nikkid]

I think my oldest is jealous of her little sister. She looks at my 4 year olds school items and wishes that she could have "easy" school too. I let her participate in some of it but as soon as we return to her stuff she groans and moans...and moans and groans. :confused: (The it turns into a tug of war)

 

Penny

 

Don't have advice really, but this happens in our house too. Dd8 thinks life is totally unfair because ds3 does fun crafts for school and only has 1 hour of school a day (or every other day really). But she's learning (atbeit very slowly) that this is life and her job as an 8yr old is to do her best in all of school. His job as a 3yr old is to learn to share and notice letters. :)