Oak Meadow Grade 6 with a boy and writing requirements...I need input from anyone

[Oakblossoms]

I thought this would be a good choice for my son. I like that we should be getting History and English all together in one lesson per week. But, nothing is getting done well. He is frustrated and so am I.

 

I chose it because we both looked over the samples and we thought he could do it with very little input from me. But, he isn't doing it. We spent the last three weeks on Lesson 3 and I am going to pull all of our hairs out.

 

I haven't posted for awhile, but we are still having other issues in our home. I pretty much solo-parent and it will probably be full time coming up soon. We are accountable to a VA. So, dropping school isn't going to fly.

 

I have been keeping him closer to me lately. But, he hates it because he says he cannot concentrate with the two little ones nearby.

 

I am planning on trying to give him an hour on Monday and Wednesday where we get no interruptions. I am going to buddy up my other two with a child each and sit with him. Do you think that will be enough? Should I try for Friday, too? How much writing would you think is enough? How much should he be writing by hand each week?

[NanceXToo]

I am doing OM6 with my daughter. What works for us is her doing stuff like vocab, spelling, grammar, etc independently, but us doing most of the social studies and science together. For the social studies, we'll do the reading together, and then if there's an assignment she can easily do on her own (like paint a picture of a sphinx, she'll do it on her own), but I do give her more direct guidance with her writing assignments and her projects.

 

Actually, as of this year she is getting a lot better with doing paragraphs and such more independently...but we talk about it first. I make sure we talk about the assignment, that she understands the premise of it, maybe we talk about how she will get started, and then she goes and does it. Then I will look over it and point out if she has to fix some minor things, and this only because she's pretty good with her grammar skills and such now and it's pretty much guaranteed that her first draft can also be her final draft. If she was at a stage where she'd just have to rewrite the whole thing, I wouldn't want her to have to do that much handwriting, or get that frustrated, and if she was still at that stage, instead, I'd sit with her and help her compose it and think it out so that I could give her feedback as she went.

 

I wouldn't expect her at her age to just "get that writing assignment done on your own sometime this week." I'm very hands on with her each day...this is what I want you to do now, okay good let me check it, okay here's my feedback, okay here's what we'll do next, kind of thing. So it sounds like he may need you to be somewhat more hands on and/or providing more immediate feedback and guidance on his writing assignments.

 

As for how much he should be writing...you know, you're the teacher. You're in charge. You know him best. You know what he's capable of, what his frustration level his and so on. Usually when OM says to write "1-2 pages" I just have my daughter keep it to no more than one side of a page. Sometimes we just do a few paragraphs. Sometimes I let her type something instead. Sometimes when there are multiple writing assignments a week and I feel it's getting to be overkill, we skip one here and there knowing that this one curriculum isn't the be all and end all to how we learn in our lives. Sometimes we spread it out over more than one day. My curriculum is an older version so not sure if it's the exact same as yours. But in lesson 3 my daughter chose to do the "Gods of ancient Egypt, including their attributes and importance in daily life" for her writing assignment that week. She ended up doing five paragraphs (five gods and goddesses) over I think a period of two days with illustrations and a bibliography, and I thought that was fine.

[dragons in the flower bed]

I haven't posted for awhile, but we are still having other issues in our home. I pretty much solo-parent and it will probably be full time coming up soon. We are accountable to a VA. So, dropping school isn't going to fly.

 

:grouphug:

 

But, he hates it because he says he cannot concentrate with the two little ones nearby.

 

How would he feel about wearing headphones playing gentle instrumental music?

 

I am going to buddy up my other two with a child each and sit with him. Do you think that will be enough?

 

I don't think you could know until you try it, but that's a great idea. See how it goes and let the children know this is an experiment.

 

I try to make my sixth grader write for an hour each day. My only goal in doing it that much is to develop fluency, to make him feel like writing is expected and not impossible.

 

 

(Hey, by the way, can I have your vegetarian gluten-free meatballs recipe?)

Edited December 11, 2011 by dragons in the flower bed

[Oakblossoms]

LOL...I have bee using a lentil one. Let me get the link.

[Oakblossoms]

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/special-dietary-needs/spaghetti-and-red-lentil-balls/

 

These are so good. Just use your favorite crumbs.

[Oakblossoms]

I really need to let go of what I think my boys can do. I hate reality sometimes. I am really praying if I make that time to really dig in and teach him how he should be doing it, that I can get him more independent.

 

I really am thinking about dropping the VA for him next year and going back to more of a unschoolish approach. Just requiring Math and some sort of Language arts workbook or something each day.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I know how crazy things can be with a bunch of littles in the house, but it sounds like your son needs more time with you, not to become more independent. My kids are much younger than yours, but I spend most of the day busy with one or all of them. We take advantage of nap times, quiet times (for the 3yo and 5yo), and the toddler playing with the older kids to get in the one-on-one time that we need.

[lovemykids]

How much writing has he had so far? It may be a tad bit difficult to jump into all of the writing in OM 6 if he has not had enough instruction before this point. Lesson 3 is long isn’t it?

 

I think you can do this in two hours a week. You may have to modify assignments and give up a little of what you expect from him. But it can be done. Actually, like the previous poster said, it is not very time consuming to go over expectations and then check on the actual writing later. Just make sure he knows what to expect and that he has all of the resources he will need each week to complete assignments.

 

If he hasn’t had very much English instruction, he may need a little more of that as well. Independent workbooks can be a godsend when you are stretched for time because of multiple responsibilities. Megawords for spelling, or some other workbook type spelling, might be better for your ds as well. That way all you have to do is check and test; spelling could take you about a half an hour a week, or less. It would also help your ds to complete his work faster. Writing out sentences for vocabulary and spelling, and so forth, can be rough and time consuming for kids who don’t like to write.

 

It’s okay to let him know that he can skip assignments, with permission, and do things a little differently. As long as he is doing the bulk of it and making an effort he should be fine.

 

 

Good luck with everything!

:grouphug:

[FairyMom]

I have no advice to give since my kids are so young, but I wanted to tell you I've missed your blog posts. :grouphug: I'm sorry about your marriage. It's so very hard and I wanted you to know you are in my thoughts and prayers.

[Oakblossoms]

I have no advice to give since my kids are so young, but I wanted to tell you I've missed your blog posts. :grouphug: I'm sorry about your marriage. It's so very hard and I wanted you to know you are in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Thank you. I have not had the energy to blog. It is so at the bottom of my list. Everything is so hard and overwhelming to me right now. I covet your thoughts and prayers.

[Oakblossoms]

We did get a good amount done today. The other kids not so much.

 

I hate being dissatisfied with another curriculum. I like Oak Meadow for the child I was. It isn't working well for my children.

 

There is just no joy in our schooling. They get it done and nothing is sinking in. I did try to line us all up to be doing ancients. But, everything is seperate. we just seperate for school and go to other rooms. Maybe it is just a symptom of our home currently. It kind of sucks.

 

My kids used to read a lot and do fun projects and create art. Now we are struggling to get stuff done and we rush to fill out our weekly reports to the VA we use. Maybe it is just the ages they are now. Maybe I missed something along the way. Maybe I am too tired or overwhelmed with real life.

[FairyMom]

We did get a good amount done today. The other kids not so much.

 

I hate being dissatisfied with another curriculum. I like Oak Meadow for the child I was. It isn't working well for my children.

 

There is just no joy in our schooling. They get it done and nothing is sinking in. I did try to line us all up to be doing ancients. But, everything is seperate. we just seperate for school and go to other rooms. Maybe it is just a symptom of our home currently. It kind of sucks.

 

My kids used to read a lot and do fun projects and create art. Now we are struggling to get stuff done and we rush to fill out our weekly reports to the VA we use. Maybe it is just the ages they are now. Maybe I missed something along the way. Maybe I am too tired or overwhelmed with real life.

 

:grouphug: I'm so sorry. Wish I could say something to help.

[lovemykids]

We did get a good amount done today. The other kids not so much.

 

I hate being dissatisfied with another curriculum. I like Oak Meadow for the child I was. It isn't working well for my children.

 

There is just no joy in our schooling. They get it done and nothing is sinking in. I did try to line us all up to be doing ancients. But, everything is seperate. we just seperate for school and go to other rooms. Maybe it is just a symptom of our home currently. It kind of sucks.

 

My kids used to read a lot and do fun projects and create art. Now we are struggling to get stuff done and we rush to fill out our weekly reports to the VA we use. Maybe it is just the ages they are now. Maybe I missed something along the way. Maybe I am too tired or overwhelmed with real life.

 

I don’t have a lot of time to post, but I wanted to briefly say that I am sorry for what you are going through. Obviously, you know your son the best. If you need to drop the VA next year and unschool a bit to be able to get through this, then by all means please do. I know it can be hard to decide which curriculum to use in the midst of marital turmoil. Stress can cause a lot of uncertainty, when homeschooling difficult children can cause enough uncertainty....

 

It sounds like you have a lot of experience already. I am usually tired when I post here lately, due to working and schooling, so sorry to offend if I did. I didn’t even notice the ages of your children, just the fact that you had many of them.

OM didn’t work for my oldest, when I was sure it would. Live and learn, or more like process of elimination at times(lol). I hope you find a good fit!

 

 

Prayers and hugs for you. :grouphug:

[Oakblossoms]

Thank you ladies for the support and a place to process. I had a lot of struggles with my oldest and I thought that was due to him having Aspergers. But, my Grade 6 guy is a great guy. He is smart and kind and artistic. The last few years I was really doing TWTM with him and it seemed to be lacking for him. So, going to OM seemed liked it would give him some creativity without me having to plan everything. I feel like I am missing something. And, with all of this I just cannot think straight to see what is going wrong with him. I know he can read. I know he can write. I have seen it. I know he gets frustrated if he doesn't spell something write or his handwriting isn't perfect. But, isn't that normal for this age?

 

I have to say I am finally happy with the Math program we are using:lol:

 

I started a separate writing thread. He is no where near that at this point. I guess I need help encouraging my children to do more work and have more output. I want to find that love of learning again. That is what I mean by the ages. I thought at these ages they would have the abilities to write and navigate information and would be doing a lot of self learning. Instead we are all just surviving and dragging one foot in front of the other.