Top curriculum picks for a HSing mom with learning difficulties

[SweetandSimple]

I have an acquaintance who is going to begin homeschooling her four children this fall. The kids will be in 7th grade, 4th grade, 2nd grade, and kindergarten.

 

This mom was in special education classes throughout high school, and feels that her own education was very lacking.

 

You would never know from talking to her that she had any educational difficulties, and she seems like a wonderful, very caring mother.

 

She is looking for some curriculum advice, and I could use some more input and suggestions for her.

 

Starting to homeschool four kids all at the same time will be very challenging, and I am trying to come up with a list of curriculum options that will be a good fit for her family.  I am guessing that trying to wade through large Teacher's Manuals would be difficult for her, and I would also think that any program (like Spalding) with lots of rules to remember would also be a poor fit.

 

I believe that both of the older kids have struggled with math in their public school. Luckily, they will be homeschooling through a charter that offers unlimited free tutoring. I think that will be a tremendous help.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for curriculum that will be easy to implement for this family?

 

Things that I am thinking of mentioning to her as possibilities include:

 

Teaching Textbooks Math, CLE Math, Easy Grammar, Winning with Writing, Essentials in Writing, Sequential Spelling, and SOTW Audio CDs. I am not sure about Science. 

 

For teaching the kindergartner how to read... I don't know. I like ETC, but I am not sure if it is explicit enough. Maybe MCP Plaid Phonics? I've also heard a lot of good things about Time4Learning's beginning reading levels, so that might be a good option. 

 

[sweetpea3829]

Hmmm...

 

Can I make a suggestion?  It might be VERY helpful for this mom, if she goes and learns the nature of her own learning disabilities.  This will help her understand her weaknesses and address them.  

 

It will also help her identify possible LDs in her children.  

 

Otherwise, I would suggest perhaps online type curriculum such as K-12.  Honestly, I'm not aware of too many others, but I know there are some out there.  At least until she gets comfortable with things.  Schooling four kids is difficult to jump right into, lol.  

[MerryAtHope]

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for curriculum that will be easy to implement for this family?

 

Things that I am thinking of mentioning to her as possibilities include:

 

Teaching Textbooks Math, CLE Math, Easy Grammar, Winning with Writing, Essentials in Writing, Sequential Spelling, and SOTW Audio CDs. I am not sure about Science. 

 

For teaching the kindergartner how to read... I don't know. I like ETC, but I am not sure if it is explicit enough. Maybe MCP Plaid Phonics? I've also heard a lot of good things about Time4Learning's beginning reading levels, so that might be a good option. 

 

I like this list. Math-U-See would be easy to implement as well, if she wants to look at another math option. 

 

For another spelling option, All About Spelling really helped my struggling spellers, and it's lightly scripted and open and go. It might help fill in some gaps for her as well. Here's a review I did. All About Reading would be one to consider for reading,--Explode the Code doesn't offer much in the way of practice for kids who need more.

 

 

Hmmm...

 

Can I make a suggestion?  It might be VERY helpful for this mom, if she goes and learns the nature of her own learning disabilities.  This will help her understand her weaknesses and address them.  

 

It will also help her identify possible LDs in her children.  

 

Otherwise, I would suggest perhaps online type curriculum such as K-12.  Honestly, I'm not aware of too many others, but I know there are some out there.  At least until she gets comfortable with things.  Schooling four kids is difficult to jump right into, lol.  

 

I agree that if she could understand her own disabilities, that might be very helpful to her in understanding her kids. With regard to K-12, I've heard enough negative stories, especially from families with kids who have some struggles, that I don't think that would be a great match & might be stressful. I haven't used it myself though. 

[sweetpea3829]

I like this list. Math-U-See would be easy to implement as well, if she wants to look at another math option. 

 

For another spelling option, All About Spelling really helped my struggling spellers, and it's lightly scripted and open and go. It might help fill in some gaps for her as well. Here's a review I did. All About Reading would be one to consider for reading,--Explode the Code doesn't offer much in the way of practice for kids who need more.

 

 

 

I agree that if she could understand her own disabilities, that might be very helpful to her in understanding her kids. With regard to K-12, I've heard enough negative stories, especially from families with kids who have some struggles, that I don't think that would be a great match & might be stressful. I haven't used it myself though. 

 

This is good to know...honestly, I've heard very little about K12, I was just thinking that it might helpful because it utilizes other instructors.  

 

But along that line...Khan Academy might be helpful.  And I agree, MUS would be helpful.  

[Reefgazer]

Homeschool in a box (like Abeka) or Calvert (where she has lots of teacher support) might work well for her.

[IfIOnly]

I have an acquaintance who is going to begin homeschooling her four children this fall. The kids will be in 7th grade, 4th grade, 2nd grade, and kindergarten.

 

This mom told me that she has the equivalent of a 3rd grade education--that she was in special education classes throughout high school, and that the school just graduated her at a 3rd grade level. She says that this hasn't really held her back-- she can read and understand a newspaper, etc. 

 

You would never know from talking to her that she had any educational difficulties, and she seems like a wonderful, very caring mother.

 

She is looking for some curriculum advice, and I could use some more input and suggestions for her.

 

Starting to homeschool four kids all at the same time will be very challenging, and I am trying to come up with a list of curriculum options that will be a good fit for her family.  I am guessing that trying to wade through large Teacher's Manuals would be difficult for her, and I would also think that any program (like Spalding) with lots of rules to remember would also be a poor fit.

 

I believe that both of the older kids have struggled with math in their public school. Luckily, they will be homeschooling through a charter that offers unlimited free tutoring. I think that will be a tremendous help.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for curriculum that will be easy to implement for this family?

 

Things that I am thinking of mentioning to her as possibilities include:

 

Teaching Textbooks Math, CLE Math, Easy Grammar, Winning with Writing, Essentials in Writing, Sequential Spelling, and SOTW Audio CDs. I am not sure about Science. 

 

For teaching the kindergartner how to read... I don't know. I like ETC, but I am not sure if it is explicit enough. Maybe MCP Plaid Phonics? I've also heard a lot of good things about Time4Learning's beginning reading levels, so that might be a good option. 

 

I can relate to having learning challenges to some degree, and over the last several year and especially this last year, my cognitive abilities have declined mysteriously.  There's some background. 

 

This is her first year homeschooling, and she may need to do some remediating depending on the quality of her dc's education thus far and possibly other factors, as well.  I would strongly recommend that she concentrate on the three R's and not go too much into content areas *this year*,unless it's super easy to incorporate, meaning they take nothing from her and even give her a break from homeschooling (minus discussion).  So, this is what I would do in her situation:

 

Reading: 

 

I am not sure why you think ETC isn't explicit enough and would love to hear your further thoughts. I have used OPGTTR, PP, and Happy Phonics with my oldest two, but ETC plus HP for my youngest two have been every bit as thorough and successful, so open and go and mom friendly, and fun for my children!  Plus, I don't need a separate handwriting curriculum. I am not using it my first time teaching though and do incoporate some good stuff I've picked up along the way from other reading programs.  I also don't use and have never read the TM, so perhaps there's additional things a parent can do to reinforce the lessons. Anway, we love it here! 

 

I would also have her older children (not sure about the middle schooler) read to her 5 to 10 minutes a day to get a feel for how well they are reading and to give them practice. Have a dictionary on hand so they can look up words they don't know.  Reading aloud after phonics lessons have been completed has been great for my kids vocabulary, reinforcing grammar by learning to pause after periods, commas, and semicolons, tackling rather than overlooking the harder words, learning to read with emphasis, and more.  One practical way I accomplish this is having them read their grammar lecture out loud to me.  It helps them grasp the content better, so that they don't make as many mistakes that add to our school day.  As they get older, they can grab a highlighter and begin basic notetaking skills making the information easier to refer back to, if necessary.

 

Have an hour of quiet time at bedtime and/or afternoon "quiet time" that the children can read during, and have the house stocked with library books.  I have to go every week to keep up with my kids and get a ton of books. I think it's great and don't mind it!  There are a ton of books and online lists that give ideas on age appropriate literature. They do pick their own books, as well, but the most of the books I bring home are ones that I've requested for the varying ages and reading abilities I've got here.  If I bring stuff home, it usually gets read. Also, if my kids like a particular author or series, they really like it if I print them out a checklist listing the works by the author or the books serie's titles in order.  Here is a fun one for the Nate the Great Series and other books by Marjorie Sharmat. Give the oldest an assigned book or two to go through perhaps with an accompanying lit. guide.  Verita Press has great recommendations by grade, but if their reading isn't strong, she could start with recommendation a grade or two behind.

 

Also, high quality literature on CD/tape can be found at the library and online.  It's really great to listen to stuff that stretches them!  I try to have my kids tell me about/narrate the story or part of the story afterwards.  Then, if there's a good movie made based on the book, it's fun to watch it afterwards.  It might be great to start with books with movies to hook them a bit. ;)  Here is a great list.

 

Okay, it's late, and I'm going to have to come back to this tomorrow!   

[IfIOnly]

Okay, back to reading.  If older kids need remedial phonics, I would get them up to speed with phonics games and memorizing phonogram flash cards.  This is is how my kids get their phonograms memorized.  I realize not everyone feels this is necessary, but I think they're important to memorize for reading fluency just like math facts are to algorithms.  It's so easy with games.  Basically, it goes like this.  We pick a HP games like the vowel/castle game.  They pick a game card, read the word (if they miss this they don't get to move, IIR), and the other player holds up an AAS phonogram card that correlates and the player then says the sounds of the vowel.  if they miss the sounds then they don't get to move on the board either.  The first several times of play the kids just read the cards themselves and then move, but as they memorize them and think they know them then we'll start quizzing each other.  First we'll start with just the short vowel sounds, add the long vowel sounds, and then all the sounds of the vowels.  I do have to add word cards to the games and tweak a few of the games to make Happy Phonics to include all the phongrams and their sounds, but it wasn't too much work on my part.  We don't use a game for the consonants though and just memorize those cards.  

 

When my children can remember all the phonogram sounds when quizzed then they're done with reading.  When we start reading aloud a few minutes a day then they have their phonogram cards out to help them figure out words by trying out it's sounds to see which one works (and remember any rules that would clue them in is a particular sound would work like the soft g and c sound after e, i, and y.  Usually they remember the sounds though and don't need the cards.  Personally, I think having a good phonics foundation is so important for reading and spelling fluency, so that's why I have my kids memorize the phonograms.  It's so painless through games though!

 

Here is a video that we made for my dh's mom when she needed some assurance that the kids were not just watching TV all day.   :huh:  :confused1:   :)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0fkhSNFrPk  -- Part 1

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJfm_3mkLBc  -- Part 2

 

I do have to get going again, but I hope all this info. isn't overkill?   :p

 

 

ETA.  By the way, my kids do not read their grammar lesson and instructions to me every year!  That would get boring.   It's just the first year they do formal grammar.  It's much more fun to read real books together. :)

[IfIOnly]

Good on you for humoring your mother in law, Lavendar Girl. I'd have tried very, very hard to not glare at her.

 

 

It's no fun, eh?  sigh

[SweetandSimple]

Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and suggestions!

 

Lavender Girl, thank you so much for taking the time to type all of that out. I think that your ideas will be very helpful for this mom.

 

I use Explode the Code myself, and I really like it. I have the teacher's manuals, though, and they aren't as helpful as I'd hope. We are using Book 4 right now, and the syllabification can be sort of tricky-- and there is no answer key (except to each book's post-test.) I wondered if the MCP Phonics might be a little easier to use for her, but I doubt it!

 

Thank you again for the wonderful ideas!