madteaparty Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 My child goes to a mediocre public school. We have been afterschooling in Math (Singapore Math) and also encourging him to read daily as well as read out loud to him nightly. That, along with his extracurriculars, is about all we can manage to do, because I still want the 8 year old to have some free play time, which he loves and craves. But I feel "behind". For example, when does memory work start? I was not educated in this country and had started by this age already. He does not do much writing, and cannot write cursive. If you were me, with very little kid time, what would you add? Memory work? HWOT? WWE? Any other suggestions? I think I can only add one thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msk Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I will probably get flamed for this, but here goes: I think 10 years from now he'll write mostly by typing, and no one will care what his handwriting looks like. With the limited time our family has, it's not on my own afterschooling radar at all.:leaving: Of the things you mentioned, writing (content, organization and mechanics) seems more important as a foundation skill for the future. Maybe it's because I teach college students who often can't write, but math and writing are my top priorities with our limited time. My kid is younger than yours, but lots of people here have experience with the writing programs you mention. (I'm feeling drawn to MCT next year for afterschooling purposes, but there are lots of choices!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 And now I'll get flamed too, but I think the problem is the mediocre public school, not the amount of time you have for after schooling. I do agree on the handwriting. My oldest went to 2 years of PS and spent WAY more than enough time filling in worksheets IMO. If you want to have time to do a full curriculum and extras, I'd pull from the school entirely. :001_smile::leaving: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cammie Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I think afterschooling after a school day is really, really hard! What worked best for us was using weekends and holidays to focus on something I really wanted to concentrate on. So we would do SOTW during Christmas break, for example. We would work on Life of Fred and writing stuff on the weekends. It just made for a happier and less stressful environment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 I will probably get flamed for this, but here goes: I think 10 years from now he'll write mostly by typing, and no one will care what his handwriting looks like. With the limited time our family has, it's not on my own afterschooling radar at all.:leaving: Of the things you mentioned, writing (content, organization and mechanics) seems more important as a foundation skill for the future. Maybe it's because I teach college students who often can't write, but math and writing are my top priorities with our limited time. My kid is younger than yours, but lots of people here have experience with the writing programs you mention. (I'm feeling drawn to MCT next year for afterschooling purposes, but there are lots of choices!) Thanks! I tend to agree on the typing, but wasn't brave enough to verbalise (well, type ;)) here. Will look into MCT, thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.