Afterschooling Accelerated Learner While Abroad

[SeaConquest]

Hi, long-time lurker, first-time poster. I always learn so much from this board, so I hope you don't mind me posting an afterschooling question here.

 

Our family is moving to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in June. My son (age 4) currently attends a French immersion preschool 3 days per week, Spanish immersion 2 days per week, and Hebrew School (in English) one day per week. I have always supplemented his education, and I think that he is currently at about a K-1 level.

 

Some background on where he is at: He knows all letter sounds and is learning to read with Reading Eggs and simple readers like the Bob books -- he can currently read short CVC sentences (the cat sat on the mat, etc). He knows 1-20 pretty well (definitely 1-10 in Spanish and French, but not down cold above that). He has a good general awareness of 1-100 (90 is bigger than 40, etc.). He can do some basic addition and subtraction, like in playing Sum Swamp.

 

He will be attending a private Mexican preschool in the fall at the PK4 level. It is almost entirely Spanish immersion (they will have one English class and will add French in the 1st grade). I would like to continue to supplement him, but now that he is going to be a bit older, I'd like to do it a bit more rigorously than in years past.

 

With that background, my husband and I are hoping to afterschool him with the following programs, and we were looking for feedback on age-appropriateness, quality and fun-factor of these curricula, and whether you all think this is doable given that he will be in school for half the day. I understand that we may not be able to cover all of this in a traditional homeschool year; my goal is just to keep him challenged and to avoid gaps because he is enrolled in schools where his foreign language proficiency might impede his ability to learn the fundamentals. Also, although we are Jewish, we still believe in evolution/the Big Bang, etc. So, I am not looking for anything that is overtly Christian/New Testament or teaches from a New Earth perspective.

 

Math:

Miquon Orange and Red

Math Mammoth

Dreambox

Thinking of adding Life of Fred

 

Reading:

All About Reading

OPGTR -- Hope to start with OPGTR and will switch to AAR if my son is bored/finds it too dry

Now I'm Reading Books, Bob Books, Scholastic Readers, Reading for the Gifted Student

 

Writing:

HWT K and 1st Grade

StartWrite

 

Spelling:

All About Spelling Level One (after he gets a good handle on reading and writing)

 

Logic:

Lollipop Logic Books 1-3 and other advanced logic books after LL is completed

 

Art:

Meet The Masters

 

Judaism:

Hebrew: Aleph Champ (White and Red)

Aish and Akhlah for Torah study

 

Geography: Evan Moor and Sheppard Software

 

History:

History Odyssey Ancients

Adventures in America

 

Science:

Nancy Lawson Science 1

Bill Nye, Discovery Streaming, Brain Pop

 

If you have made it this far, thank you! Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

• 
   
  

[kiwik]

How much time do you have? I thought Dreamboc was only available in the US at least when I looked though I suppose that wouldn't be a problem if you were there when you took out the subscription.

 

Afterschooling id hard though. Is his school full day or half day? Are you employed outside the home or doing home based work?

[SeaConquest]

How much time do you have? I thought Dreamboc was only available in the US at least when I looked though I suppose that wouldn't be a problem if you were there when you took out the subscription.

 

Afterschooling id hard though. Is his school full day or half day? Are you employed outside the home or doing home based work?

 

We can get any website outside the States with a VPN, which gives you a U.S. IP address. I don't know the hours of his school yet, but I would imagine it would be something like 8-2:30, as he will be in a private school.

 

I do not work outside the home, and my husband will also be able to assist me quite often (he owns his own business and has flexible hours).

[SKL]

When my dd was 4, she attended pre-K and afterschool care and then I "homeschooled" her in the evenings, because I wanted her to enter 1st the next year. To get a lot covered in a little time, I chose nonfiction regarding science, math, geography, biographies, etc., mostly at her reading level. So she'd get her reading practice by reading these books and we'd discuss the other aspects. Usually she'd read one or two books to me and then I'd read one to her. We'd also go on the internet to study specific topics of interest, and usually made a weekly trip to a museum or zoo or both. For math, in addition to some math storybooks, we did mental math in the car or practiced practical math such as telling time or counting money. We played around with languages informally (in addition to her more formal lessons at school / with her Saturday nanny). She also practiced piano most days. I also insisted on at least an hour of physical play every evening. We were able to get stuff done every day, but we needed to be pretty flexible, and I had to use weekends as well as weekdays.

 

Without knowing how rigorous the school is going to be, it's hard to say how much you can do in the evenings. I think it's good if you are prepared for a lot, but prioritize in case you aren't able to do even half of it. You may even decide you don't want to do some stuff if the school is doing a good enough job on it. And with the increased stress of having to know more Spanish, your son might come home tired and uninterested in more schooling. So I'd play it by ear for the most part.

[Ohdanigirl]

Hello there. I have lived in Mexico for about 8 years. One of my sons attended a private k here, so I am familiar with the system and the amount of work given. I am actually heading to bed, but will pop in tomorrow with some info. Short answer: very doable during the K years.

 

Is your ds already enrolled? If you have the book list, I may be able to give you some feedback on those, and how they will mesh.

 

HTH

[SeaConquest]

Hello there. I have lived in Mexico for about 8 years. One of my sons attended a private k here, so I am familiar with the system and the amount of work given. I am actually heading to bed, but will pop in tomorrow with some info. Short answer: very doable during the K years.

 

Is your ds already enrolled? If you have the book list, I may be able to give you some feedback on those, and how they will mesh.

 

HTH

 

 

Hi Danielle,

 

Thanks so much for this. He is enrolled at Colegio Salzmann in Bucerias, about 20 mins. north of PV. We are still in San Diego at the moment, so I don't know all the details in terms of school hours and book lists. The school came highly recommended and I had a local American friend, who was a teacher in the States and considering enrolling her own daughter, do a site visit and she liked the school quite a bit. Since my son has already been in immersion environments for the last two years, I am not super worried about the transition.

 

I am thinking of a schedule something like this, with 20 minute lessons (approximately an hour total), separated by breaks, in the evenings. He normally goes to Hebrew School from 930-12 on Sundays, so I added a bit more to the Sunday schedule. Friday night to Saturday evening are the Jewish sabbath, so I have not scheduled any school work. He will likely do some afterschool sports or hang at the pool/beach (we will be living two blocks away) to get downtime in the afternoons. The school is walking distance, so he will have that fresh air as well. My husband will be able to help me quite a bit as well.

 

M Math Art Logic

T Reading Writing Spelling

W Math Science Logic

TH Reading Writing Spelling

F Free

ST Free

SN Hebrew Torah History Geography

Thanks so much for any input!

[Laura Corin]

That looks like a lot. I would start by picking the one subject that it is most important to you that you afterschool and spend a couple of months doing that. If this goes well, and you think your child still has the concentration levels to do more, then add in another.

 

My boys were brought up abroad. They did most of their language/cultural learning by playing with neighbourhood friends after school. It would be a shame to get in the way of that process. Both my boys learn very fast, but the playtime learning was more important than extra book learning - we even altered our whole family schedule in order to facilitate it.

 

Have fun with your move!

 

Laura (afterschooling Chinese)

[jennynd]

That is a lot for a 4 yrs old.

DD just turn 5 about a month ago, She goes to a preschool and we afterschool. With a kid this young, focus on what is "essential". We focused on reading and math for DD. She did miquon orange/red and we swicthed to SM after that (3 days a week)

With reading, we did Hooked on Phonics (we did 4 night a week, 10 mins a night), She found OPGTR a bit boring . After finishing HOP, we simply just read.

She tagged along with my DS science experiment and we just recently start her own science (1 day /week on Sunday).

she does have violin and gymnastic for 1 day each and we do not do anything for those 2 days

Be very very flexible. he will be tired after all day in preschool. Have a plan to change your plan a lot :). I can get her attention about 20-30 mins afterschool and that's about it. (She is a bit jumping around kid though)

[mom2bee]

I wouldn't worry about his language impeding him in school, he is in an immersion school and is going to be 4 when he goes to school.

 

I would go with a Laddering Method of Subjects, meaning I would start with just 3 subjects at first. Math, Reading and Subject 3.

 

I would do just those for about a month, then, when we have some fluency in those subjects, or as his reading gets better, I would halve the reading time and add in something else.

 

I would try and leave his schedule open so that he could have extra curricular time to do things like sports or afterschool games so that he assimilates into the community better. Once he is reading with fluency, I would exchange reading for spelling.

 

I would find the local library and try to attend story time or something there for the first several months so that he can be surrounded by books in Spanish and hear readers in Spanish reading from a large variety of books. He will probably begin to pick up reading in Spanish as he learns in English if he is exposed to it enough...

 

Just seems like an awful lot for a 4yo. Or even a 5yo...You know your boy best, of course, and your family dynamic, but have you ever been abroad? Do you know what language fatigue is? When I lived abroad as a child, I experienced it. It can be exhausting...

 

I would suggest you just sort of play it by ear...

[Barbara H]

I really like the suggestion to start with just one subject that is most important to you and see how that goes.

 

I would plan to supplement only his English and I would do that primarily through reading good books together. Sonlight has a great list of classics and better quality books. It might also be good to bring beginning readers like Frog and Toad, Henry and Mudge, Little Bear, etc. so he has options when he starts to learn to read. I think you may find his math needs no supplementation as math instruction in Mexico is probably superior to what he'd get in the US system. The younger ESL kids I've worked with tend to pick up language very quickly in school. It may be his afternoons are best spent on social time - neighborhood kids, sports. This would aid his language aquisition and help him get so much out of school that he won't need supplementing in core subjects other than English.

[SeaConquest]

You know your boy best, of course, and your family dynamic, but have you ever been abroad? Do you know what language fatigue is? When I lived abroad as a child, I experienced it. It can be exhausting...

 

I would suggest you just sort of play it by ear...

 

I have lived and worked abroad in many different countries for many years, and speak Russian, French, Spanish, and some Hebrew. I am certainly sensitive to language fatigue, as is my husband who is a non-native speaker of English and immigrant from Quebec.

 

I like your suggestion of laddering, and appreciate all the feedback. I certainly would not be taking away from his afternoon activities -- playing soccer, hanging at the beach, exploring, etc. I am really only thinking about an hour of actual instruction, broken up into smaller increments in the evenings. But, we would, of course, be flexible.

 

HIs attention span is very good. We currently read picture books for ages 4-8, and some chapter books, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and he can sit for a very long period of time listening to books. He can also do more than one lesson of Reading Eggs at a time, and it is not review for him. He told me the entire Passover story the other day in quite good detail, which he learned in Hebrew School, and we talked about solids, gases, and liquids this morning in the car and he got it all. So, while I don't want to overload him, I also really understand what it is like to be bored in school.

[Nart]

I would prioritize learning to read in English, so plan M-Th on doing a reading lesson. Compared to Spanish, reading is much harder to learn in English. Since he is going to pre-school he will probably do art, science, math, and writing / pre-writing at school (just make sure he has a good pencil grip and is forming the letters correctly). Then if you have time you can add other subjects.

[Ohdanigirl]

Double Post

[Ohdanigirl]

[/font][/size]

 

Hi Danielle,

 

Thanks so much for this. He is enrolled at Colegio Salzmann in Bucerias, about 20 mins. north of PV. We are still in San Diego at the moment, so I don't know all the details in terms of school hours and book lists. The school came highly recommended and I had a local American friend, who was a teacher in the States and considering enrolling her own daughter, do a site visit and she liked the school quite a bit. Since my son has already been in immersion environments for the last two years, I am not super worried about the transition.

 

I am thinking of a schedule something like this, with 20 minute lessons (approximately an hour total), separated by breaks, in the evenings. He normally goes to Hebrew School from 930-12 on Sundays, so I added a bit more to the Sunday schedule. Friday night to Saturday evening are the Jewish sabbath, so I have not scheduled any school work. He will likely do some afterschool sports or hang at the pool/beach (we will be living two blocks away) to get downtime in the afternoons. The school is walking distance, so he will have that fresh air as well. My husband will be able to help me quite a bit as well.

 

 

M Math Art Logic

T Reading Writing Spelling

W Math Science Logic

TH Reading Writing Spelling

F Free

ST Free

SN Hebrew Torah History Geography

 

Thanks so much for any input!

 

 

Sorry it took so long.

 

First off, let me start by saying that after-schooling a child that is attending a private K in Mexico is very doable. From my experience, they do not send home a bunch of busy work. Traditionally, K is only about 4 hours here. In Private school this includes dance, music, and movement, as well as breaks, and snack time. Some schools are changing that, though.

 

So your ds is 4. Right? That means he will be entering segundo (4 year old K) Does he write already? If not, I would hold off on the writing. Private schools in Mexico have a very specific way that they teach writing. Most use the Libro Magico for phonics, reading and writing. It begins with tracing out shapes and lines and progresses to writing letters. Usually, children are able to write in cursive once they graduate K-5. I would wait and see what your school of choice is doing, before proceeding. Homework will usually be copy work. The teacher will send home a cuaderno. Regular wide line rule (think US wide lined paper, but not the one with blue, red, and a dotted line in the middle) Kids are not taught to begin writing huge letters. My son actually had to use regular paper when we started WWE, because he had been taught to write on smaller lines.

 

http://www.lumen.com.mx/catalog/detalle.php?IDSUB=193&TITULO=CUADERNO%20COSIDO%20FORMA%20ITALIANA%20SHOT%20POINT&MARCA=Shot%20Point

 

Math: If you are planning on teaching addition, subtraction, etc... Go for it. It will alow your ds to learn the lingo in English and I can't imagine it doing anything other than complimenting what he will do in school. K4 will start with the numbers and shapes in Spanish. I think by the end of first year ds had to know and write the numbers through 100. He also did some addition, but it was basic. 5k year, if I recall, was when multiplication and division was introduced. It was a gentle approach, and much of it was similar to Singapore Math 1A+B.

 

Reading/Spelling: If you feel your ds is ready, proceed, but if you feel that it begins to cause confusion later on I would stop and hold off. I actually allowed ds to learn in Spanish first. Spanish is a phonetic language and very easy to learn to read. Learning to read in English was a breeze, afterwards.

 

Science: Go for it. I don't recall Science being very strong in any of the Private K schools I am familiar with. That will change as your ds gets older.

 

Every thing else sounds like a good idea. There will be art in school, but I can't imagine any child not wanting more at home. Geography.. We did it. Ds loved using maps and finding different countries. Hebrew Torah: What a fantastic idea. It will be something unique and special for your little guy.

 

These are probably the best years to after school while schooling in Mexico. I think Laura mentioned letting ds play with playmates for language learning. I think you will come to find in Mexico that children that age are not out and about much. Society is very family centered. Kids play with cousins, siblings, and spend most of their time with their own family until they are a bit older. If you meet other families and set up a play dates, great, but they won't likely be playing in the front yard. Even at parks in the gated communities, the kids that age are playing with mom and dad.

 

Most importantly, have fun. Enjoy the adventure. You know your child best and can judge what will work.

 

If you have any questions about any thing, feel free to IM me. It was a real culture shock for me, but my entire family has learned a lot along the way. Good luck!