K help please

[Bellamoon]

I am having the hardest time teaching my dd. She will be 6 in Dec. She knows all the letters and what they say, she can put simple words together (reading and writing them) but when we sit down to do any phonics she freezes and cannot remember anything. I dont understand how to teach the Saxon math that we have and I cannot have her do the K-1 science that we have because it expects her to be able to write properly. I feel like I am failing her.

 

ODS is so advanced I never thought teaching dd would be this difficult.

[MommaOfalotta]

Do you think she is freezing up because of the curriculum you are using? I know dd would do the same thing last year when the primer was brought out, but she wanted to read all other times of the day.

 

Also what level of the Saxon math are you using?

[Bellamoon]

I am pretty sure the saxon is K...its 1A and 1B. She understands the concepts, I'm just not sure how to teach it.

[Bellamoon]

hahaha ya its singapore...sorry

[FairProspects]

Well, you could just write for her in math and science or use number stamps while you teach her the math concepts. That is what I would do while you work on reading and writing at another time of day. :)

[Ellie]

I am having the hardest time teaching my dd. She will be 6 in Dec. She knows all the letters and what they say, she can put simple words together (reading and writing them) but when we sit down to do any phonics she freezes and cannot remember anything.

It would be helpful if we knew what you're using to teach her to read. :)

 

I dont understand how to teach the Saxon math that we have and I cannot have her do the K-1 science that we have because it expects her to be able to write properly.

A *kindergarten-level* science that expects children to be able to wriite properly? :001_huh: I'd be looking for a different science. Really.

 

I feel like I am failing her.

She's too young for you to have already failed her. :)

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Definitely drop a K-1 science that expects kids to write! Or you could be her secretary and write her answers for her.

 

Math at that age should also be very hands on, IMO. I don't know how Singapore works, does it use *fun* manipulatives?

 

And for reading I would suggest moving to a white board for a while, use letter tiles, and don't let her see the book for a while. You can still teach from it without having her read it. This worked very well for ds5.5.

[hsingscrapper]

I agree with Ellie. Ditch the science. Abeka is very gentle at that level. Another option is to just take a delight-directed approach and help her to pick books she can read or at least understand.

 

I'm a big advocate of keeping K very, very simple. Teach her to read. OPGTR is my favorite. Get a good basic handwriting program like HWT for printing. Teach her about her numbers.

 

Then let delight drive science and history. If she's into it, run with it. If not, then hakuna matata!!

 

Hope this helps. Relax and breathe. Rinse and repeat.

[NicAnn]

I'll just echo what the others have said. You can keep it simple, without failing her. Let her progress at her own pace, taking it slow if needed. Some kids need a rigorous schedule and some kids don't.

 

Good luck!

[Jpoy85]

I would switch math then- There are other programs like Saxon that teach in a similar way. I would drop Science at this point all together.

 

Focus on Reading/Writing/math.

[boscopup]

You aren't failing her. You're just getting your sea legs. ;)

 

For Singapore, do you have the HIG (Home Instructor's Guide)? It explains the lessons in there.

 

What are you using for reading? I agree with using letter tiles, white board, etc.

 

For handwriting, start with a salt box or something similar, and just gradually work on each letter. My son is a month older, and he's still working on individual letters. We'll get there. :)

 

For science, either scribe or find something else. At this age, you can just do library books and nature walks for science.

 

Relax. You can do this! I completely understand the difference between first and second child. My oldest taught himself to read at age 4. My second son is still sounding things out a lot and taking the long, slow route. My third child is teaching himself even earlier. In the end, all 3 of my kids will read. My dad was a lot like my middle son (thinks in pictures), and he learned to read around age 8. He's an excellent reader now, and he was a successful engineer. :)

[MommaOfalotta]

Definitely drop a K-1 science that expects kids to write! Or you could be her secretary and write her answers for her.

 

Math at that age should also be very hands on, IMO. I don't know how Singapore works, does it use *fun* manipulatives?

 

And for reading I would suggest moving to a white board for a while, use letter tiles, and don't let her see the book for a while. You can still teach from it without having her read it. This worked very well for ds5.5.

:iagree:

 

I agree with Ellie. Ditch the science. Abeka is very gentle at that level. Another option is to just take a delight-directed approach and help her to pick books she can read or at least understand.

 

I'm a big advocate of keeping K very, very simple. Teach her to read. OPGTR is my favorite. Get a good basic handwriting program like HWT for printing. Teach her about her numbers.

 

Then let delight drive science and history. If she's into it, run with it. If not, then hakuna matata!!

 

Hope this helps. Relax and breathe. Rinse and repeat.

:iagree:

 

Dd is in K and we are trying to keep it fun! We focus on the 3R's and everything else is for exposure, getting her excited about learning, and exploring topics she shows interest in.

 

I was a nut case about planning her K year, and the Hive managed to talk me down:001_smile:

[MommaOfalotta]

Also another thing that helped me breathe easier about K... Its not even required in our state! To quote wise Hive members, "Focus on the 3Rs and everything else is just icing on the cake."

 

Go off of interest led topics in Science, etc. Go to the library, take walks outside. I promise you they remember more than you think when they are having fun!

[mommy5]

I just wanted to say I agree with the others ... just focus on 3Rs. Keep it light ... we do nature walks here and not much else for science (some bird watching and trips to the nature center...)

 

We used Singapore 1A & 1B last year and I had trouble teaching it ... DS had trouble retaining it (we used it for 1st grade) ... we switched in Feb. to CLE Math 100 level and I've seen a complete turn around in him with math-facts and not crying about doing math. Just wanted to throw that out there ... I like all the review with CLE because it is spiral with lots of review and drill.

 

My dd is in K and we use BJU math ... this has been a lot easier to teach (for me) than Singapore and she seems to be retaining it ... we will switch to CLE next year so both kids are using it.

[Bellamoon]

Thanks so much everyone! She does know how to write and if you tell her what to write she will write it but she doesn't know WHAT she wrote until someone reads it to her. DH isn't fond of the idea of buying even more curriculum. He feels I need to make work what we have. I will figure it out eventually though,lol

[trlt]

For Math I would hold off on 1A and 1B. I started using it for my dd and it was so much frustration. I thought she could do it when I looked at samples but I was wrong, she wasn't ready yet. I finally just put it away and bought Essentials Math for her and it was perfect for us. Now, 6 months later we are using 1A and she is flying through it. You just may need to set it aside and go back to it later when she is ready.

[Ellie]

Thanks so much everyone! She does know how to write and if you tell her what to write she will write it but she doesn't know WHAT she wrote until someone reads it to her. DH isn't fond of the idea of buying even more curriculum. He feels I need to make work what we have. I will figure it out eventually though,lol

But what *do* you have? We need to know. :-)

[kristin0713]

You don't need to buy any else for science or history for K--just use the library.

 

We use RightStart math which is games based and requires very little writing in level A.

 

Besides Spell to Write and Read, which was what I used last year for my DD in K to teach her to read and write, I did not require any writing from her.

[Bellamoon]

We have Hooked on phonics and spelling workout level A. She does pretty good with spelling workout so long as i read the directions. HOP i think she just hates

[Uff Da!]

nm

[Ellie]

We have Hooked on phonics and spelling workout level A. She does pretty good with spelling workout so long as i read the directions. HOP i think she just hates

Ok, see, I'd stop the SWO. If she cannot read the directions herself, she isn't ready to do the work.

 

And although many people seem to be happy with HOP, it's the last product I'd ever recommend for teaching children to read. It's a miserable combination of "phonics" and sight words. Not that I'm the least bit opinionated about it or anything. :D

 

And your dd clearly despises it.

 

There are other products/methods that are not expensive and are easy to use, ones which are true phonics--AlphaPhonics, PhonicsPathways, Victory Drill Book, to name a few. I'd drop HOP like a hot potato and do something else, immediately if not sooner.

[kristi26]

Definitely drop a K-1 science that expects kids to write! Or you could be her secretary and write her answers for her.

 

Math at that age should also be very hands on, IMO. I don't know how Singapore works, does it use *fun* manipulatives?

 

And for reading I would suggest moving to a white board for a while, use letter tiles, and don't let her see the book for a while. You can still teach from it without having her read it. This worked very well for ds5.5.

 

I agree with the above! We just finished kindergarten with DD here last school year. We stuck to low cost/free options. Here's what we did:

 

1. Phonics: I had a copy of Phonics Pathways that I'd look at and then we'd build words using letters from our puzzles, writing on a white board, and playing with chalk outside. We'd also play letter games like putting word families (at, am, et) in one bag with beginning sounds in another (b, d, m, p) and seeing if we made a word. She loved that one. ETA: We are using Explode the Code this year and she loves it!!! I recommend checking it out as it's very reasonably priced!

 

2. Reading: We read BOB books from the library over and over. The idea was that she could feel confident about her reading. The more we read it, the more she knew it, the more she felt like she was good at it. We're doing the same with Frog and Toad stories this year. :)

 

3. Math: DD hated writing...she still isn't in love with it and worksheets were a nightmare for her last year. So we got creative. I had unifix cubes, beans, small plastic animals, etc that we would use to do math. I'd also use the numbers from our number puzzles so she could pick up and create her answer without having to write. The other thing that I did, since I wasn't wanting to invest in anything else at the time, was to check out the table of contents for Math-U-See Primer and follow along in our own way. That way, she'd know what she needed for THIS year when I got her Alpha.

 

4. Science: We decided to make lapbooks of a different animal for each week for kindergarten. We started with zebras, as it's her favorite animal. This site has some great templates and ideas: http://www.homeschoolshare.com We used videos I found online (often at National Geographic Kids) and books from the library.

 

5. History: We were enrolled in a cyber school last year (which did NOT work for her at all) and so we covered only the history items they required for her. I did talk to her here and there about concepts from http://www.lessonpathways.com but it just wasn't a priority last year.

 

6. Spelling: We did sight words for this. There is a great list from Dolch that you can google and get for free. :)

 

Hope this helps!

Edited October 15, 2012 by kristi26

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Thanks so much everyone! She does know how to write and if you tell her what to write she will write it but she doesn't know WHAT she wrote until someone reads it to her. DH isn't fond of the idea of buying even more curriculum. He feels I need to make work what we have. I will figure it out eventually though,lol

 

Okay, not intending this to be mean or judgmental, but why are you having her write words she can't even read? :confused:

[BoyOBoy]

For Math I would hold off on 1A and 1B. I started using it for my dd and it was so much frustration. I thought she could do it when I looked at samples but I was wrong, she wasn't ready yet. I finally just put it away and bought Essentials Math for her and it was perfect for us. Now, 6 months later we are using 1A and she is flying through it. You just may need to set it aside and go back to it later when she is ready.

:iagree: My experience has been similar with my k'er and Singapore 1a. First of all, I find the HIG necessary. My sister in law never uses hers. Go figure. If you aren't sure how to teach it, definitely get the HIG. My son is moving more slowly than I anticipated and frequently hits roadblocks. When this happens, we take a break and move to Miquon. Those breaks have saved our sanity. I did K math with him this summer and thought he was ready for 1st grade math, but he's not quite there. So, take your time, and back off when necessary or start over with some really basic k math. At very least it will boost your dd's confidence!

[MommaOfalotta]

Since your DH is also concerned about $$, you may want to look into OPGTR. Its very, VERY affordable and dd was reading after the first couples lessons! :)

 

I ordered that and 3 sets of Bob books (which you can probably find in your library.) I do our own thing for Bible, Science, History.

 

All of that plus our math curric, and our K year has been crazy affordable:)

 

You can cover Science & History with a library card, and use the savings to take fun little day trips, go to the zoo or something like that.

[Bellamoon]

Okay, not intending this to be mean or judgmental, but why are you having her write words she can't even read? :confused:

 

 

because she enjoys it. She has a note book and goes around the house writing down every word she can possibly find.

[Soror]

because she enjoys it. She has a note book and goes around the house writing down every word she can possibly find.

 

My dd 5.5 does the same thing, she does it for fun and I consider it separate from schooling. I don't expect her to know all those words and don't care.

 

Personally, I'd focus on the phonics for right now and find something that works for that. I've not heard much good about HoP(in regards to the method used) and don't have advice in that area but perhaps others can be of guidance there. There is always The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, which is pretty cheap($16 used) and simple. I've not used it either but it seems a pretty fair amount of people have used it with success on this board. I think someone else mentioned Reading Bear for reading work as well, it is phonics based and free online.

 

I'd shelve the math for now and work on playing games with numbers and other manipulatives. Or look at MEP for math, it is free online. Use the library for history and science. The Let's Read and Find out Series is a great one for young ages and usually easy to find if you want something to find.

 

You can also look at the Baltimore Curriculum Project for free lessons for history and science(along with art, geography and music). Their lessons are based on The Core Knowledge Project- associated with the "What Your X- Grader Should Know" books.

 

Personally, I'm not big on much formality for K but there are some options if you want free things.

Edited October 15, 2012 by soror

[MommaOfalotta]

because she enjoys it. She has a note book and goes around the house writing down every word she can possibly find.

 

DD has done the same thing for like.. the last YEAR. Writing 24/7. All I hear is "How do you spell ______?"

 

This year her handwriting is SOO much better:001_smile: Its a good thing!

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

because she enjoys it. She has a note book and goes around the house writing down every word she can possibly find.

 

Okay. You said you were using a spelling program so I thought that was what you were talking about.

[Bellamoon]

I think I am going to lay off the HOP. She really enjoys the Spelling workout, so we will keep doing that for now.