Academic success during crisis

[Tracy]

Hi, all.  I have been away from the boards for a while.  But I wanted to share some things that have gotten us through my recent extended illness.  Just after we started school, I began to struggle with constant nausea, pain, insomnia, and fatigue.  After many doctor and hospital visits, we are just now starting to get some answers, and I am starting to feel a bit better.  

 

You can see in my siggy what we had planned to do.  But as it turned out, I was not able to do very much teaching at all.  I had to cut everything down to the bare minimum, which for us was Math, Writing, and Piano.  I really worried about my 9yo, because she has some executive function issues.  I have always used teacher-intensive materials with her, because she needs and enjoys the interaction.  I felt really bad about handing her a math workbook and telling her to spend 30 minutes each day on it.  And some days, she didn't get a lot done.  But I was surprised at how hard she worked on it some days.  

 

For writing, I usually had her choose assignments from her Unjournaling book.  She didn't always do the greatest work, though she would often spend hours working on it (those pesky executive function issues).  I really feel that she needs dictation at this point.  But she spent time writing letters, writing in her journal, and writing a book (which she won't let me see).  She wrote to an estranged aunt whom the family hasn't heard from in years, and she actually got a very nice response.  

 

My 6yo did 2 pages of math each day, and he is almost ready to move to the Miquon green book.  For writing, he chose to do copywork from the scriptures.  

 

I did no formal history.  But they have both become interested in the Percy Jackson series, and both kids have done independent research on Ancient Greece and its Mythology as a result.  My 9yo read the whole series, and my 6yo read an entire volume by himself.  They also spent time almost every day listening to History for Music Lovers, which led to all sorts of pretend play.  One day, my 6yo asked me about the Battle of Hastings, and we found a YouTube video about it.  

At the same time, I decided to reduce the amount of screen time they were allowed.  I am so glad I had the wherewithal to do this. They have, sang, danced, pretended. created, played board games, played piano, etc.  They have been so productive.  

And at times, they have taken care of both themselves and me.  They have gotten themselves up in the morning and gotten ready on their own.  My 9yo started to set her alarm and take a shower every morning.  They have tiptoed around the house for hours so that I could sleep in each morning.  They have gotten breakfast.  Sometimes lunch.  My 6yo could always tell when I was feeling poorly, and he would rub my shoulders and give me a hug.  

 

Originally, I considered our straying from my plan a temporary setback.  But now I am not sure I want to return to the plan.  I know I want to add spelling back in.  But aside from that, we may just continue what we are doing for while.  

[Critterfixer]

:grouphug:  and  :hurray: . Glad you are doing better, because you have not been on the boards in a while. It's so neat when kids just pick up the ball and run with it, isn't it?

[Penguin]

:grouphug:

 

What a heartwarming story.  When I was sick with breast cancer in 2006, my kids really rose to the occasion.  We were not homeschoolers, but I was a SAHM who was not able to do what I had always done.

 

I am glad that you are getting some answers about your health and are feeling better.  And that you have been granted great insight into your homeschooling journey.

[TracyP]

:grouphug:  I'm glad you are getting some answers to your health issues.

 

2010 was my bad year. I think about it when I am planning for each year. We were forced to do bare minimums that year, and I realized that my kids learn an amazing amount when left to their own devices. (NOT electronic devices, lol. We cut screen time during that time because our situation left us with no access to TV or internet for several months.) Several times since that year I have considered becoming an almost unschooler - almost because I could never unschool math and reading. However, I'm too Type A to be an unschooler. Instead, I try to make the basic subjects as efficient as possible. It means that our days are shorter than many, but I know it is best for my kids. They do amazing things in their free time, so I want to give them as much as possible. I'm always looking for that balance...

 

Kudos to your kids for stepping up to the plate in a difficult time. I'm glad you had this silver lining in an otherwise tough year.

[alisoncooks]

Great to hear about your success! My DH is hospitalized for his first round of chemo, and our schoolwork consistency has really slipped. I need to reduce screen time...and start aiming to get the basics done.

[IfIOnly]

Thank you, Tracy, for sharing! I hope you feel better even better soon.  :grouphug:  

[Gentlemommy]

Tracymirko, that was such a beautiful post and so encouraging! I too have 9 year old with similar issues and it's comforting to hear that freedom to create and write on her own is so productive!💙

[FloridaLisa]

Glad you are beginning to get some answers and I hope you are feeling better soon. 

 

So much can be accomplished with great (or really good books), no electronics and the imagination and curiosity of a child.  Your kids sound like they are doing great!

 

We also schooled through a crisis.  I was so grateful that we could even still school at home, that we had the time together and could adjust to meet our needs and situation.  We also scaled back to a core, chucked the things that had been on the plate but were extra (formal logic for one).  Mostly, my kids have done well. I do have a few gaps with my now 7-year-old but I've made some really good course corrections in the last month and I think if she keeps progressing, she'll be exactly where she needs to be with her math and reading fluency.  

 

:grouphug:  to you as you continue to mend and heal,

Lisa

[texasmama]

Lovely children!

 

(((Hugs))) Wishing you much health and healing.

[G5052]

Take heart, is sounds like you did really, really well under the circumstances.

 

Things have been better the last few years, but starting a decade ago we had almost continuous upheaval with health issues in our family and eldercare issues on an ongoing basis.  Thankfully my health has been good, but I had to be focused elsewhere so much that I had to edge mine to independence much faster than I planned.  I went away from mom-intensive materials and never returned.  I also put them on planners at a younger age than most.  When they were young I would do the planner for the week on Saturday or Sunday so that they could check off things as they went without me.  Over time I had them do the planner, and I checked it at the beginning and end of the week.  I even put in things like "see Mom" where they had to have 1-on-1.  When I had to fly across the country multiple times to handle eldercare issues, I left planners filled out for several weeks for DH to oversee, and it went very, very well.

 

Now with both in high school, they are largely independent, self-motivated learners.  Part of that I believe is because they had to be that way early on.  I still set up appointments with them to go over their work and of course answer questions.  This has freed me to work more (still needed for the medical bills).  My 12th grader has chosen a local college, but he could have easily been accepted at many of the selective colleges in our region with very high PSAT/SAT scores, multiple AP's, and dual enrollment.

 

So there can be an upside in the long run to what you have had to do.

[strange_girl]

Thanks for sharing. So glad you're feeling better! :party:

 

Sounds like your kiddos are doing a great job taking care of Mom!

[PeterPan]

I'm sorry you've been so sick!  You're right that when we shed away what *we* were doing, sometimes we find things our *kids* are driven to do.  And that's pretty magical and something you don't want to lose. It's good to question our assumptions on these things.  :)

 

So two stories.  We've talked enough in the past that you know my dc have labels.  My ds just got his.  Dd had a "lost year" about the same age as your dd.  It was the year ds was born.  Nothing went wrong and life goes on.  :) Like your dd, my dd found she had lots of interests and things she'd pursue if given freedom to do them.  It laid a foundation for our current success with a mix of some Mom-structured and some dc-structured.  We found we didn't have to be *all* one way or the other.  Ds has so many more needs, it has caused me to rethink EVERYTHING about education and realize just how far you can push things and do a good job, how out of the box you can be, how unnecessary it was to force our kids into boxes.  He's so happy the way we do school now and says he loves school.  I'm working mightily not to lose that.  It's really a feat, considering he has an hour a day of Barton remediation for his dyslexia.  I just tell him it's not school.   :lol:  School is the stuff we want to do and Barton is the stuff Dr. psych (or the law) said he has to do.  :D

 

I'm so glad you've found a balance you can be at peace with and that you're getting better.

 

[Tracy]

So two stories.  We've talked enough in the past that you know my dc have labels.  My ds just got his.  Dd had a "lost year" about the same age as your dd.  It was the year ds was born.  Nothing went wrong and life goes on.   :) Like your dd, my dd found she had lots of interests and things she'd pursue if given freedom to do them.  It laid a foundation for our current success with a mix of some Mom-structured and some dc-structured.  We found we didn't have to be *all* one way or the other.  Ds has so many more needs, it has caused me to rethink EVERYTHING about education and realize just how far you can push things and do a good job, how out of the box you can be, how unnecessary it was to force our kids into boxes.  He's so happy the way we do school now and says he loves school.  I'm working mightily not to lose that.  It's really a feat, considering he has an hour a day of Barton remediation for his dyslexia.  I just tell him it's not school.   :lol:  School is the stuff we want to do and Barton is the stuff Dr. psych (or the law) said he has to do.   :D

 

I am so glad you popped in here to share your stories.  Dd9 just asked me today when we were going to go back to our regular routine.  As it turns out, she likes the freedom she has had, but she longs for more structure.  So I am thinking that we will add SWR back in after Christmas, and maybe dictation a couple days a week.  She doesn't really like either, but she is spending way too much time on her writing right now, because it is too open-ended for her.  This plan will reduce it to 45-60 minutes 4x/week.  

[PeterPan]

Well what is working really well for us and might give you ideas is a *mix*.  So she has a clear checklist for each day of the week, but I drive *some* of the things on the checklist and let her drive others.  So I ELEVATE her work to worthy status.  I think sometimes we get this thing going in our minds where what our kids do is their hobby and what they do for us is their education.  I sort of bought into that thought process for a long time, but I now realize they only have so much to give for energy, processing speed.  There are uber gifted kids who do EVERYTHING and do it all well.  Great for them.  Some kids are working with a different mainframe and if you do too much you squeeze out everything they would have done.  

 

So for us that balance is working out really well.  Subjects that she can drive, she drives.  Subjects she wants me to schedule, I schedule.  But whether it's her thing or mine, it goes on the checklist so we have structure, know the plan, and know she's on-track.  So like literally right now her checklist for the day says "sew Hobbit" and she can spend as many hours as she wants on it and call it school.  She's been creating custom designs for something she's calling bracers.  I have no clue.  They're leather cuff things for the girls to wear with dresses, and why girls need them I have NO CLUE.   :lol:   But it's SCHOOL and it's on the list and she gets to do it for as many hours and she wants and get credit on her transcript.  And I beg her to make sure she does math and the other things on the list too.  :D

 

She likes to drive her lit, so I give her freedom to do that.  She's been making these odd reading challenges for herself.  I hear her muttering about plowing through Aristotle and this and that.  It's fascinating to see what they'll do to themselves.

 

Some things I've tried to channel her, to get into her mindset and figure out how SHE would approach the subject if SHE had the EF and ability to organize it.  I agree just saying do what you want can end up really screwy.  Turns out she really enjoys eclectic oddball studies.  I try to find some odd book and create a syllabus around it.  So it's a syllabus and structure, yes, but it's stuff she WANTS to do.  It's sort of facilitating what she'd like to get done where she doesn't have the ability to structure and make it happen for herself.  You might find there are cool things like that, things conducive to chunking, curious things she'd enjoy.  (Chunkings of an art history text or a cookbook or...)

 

We chunked some of the books from the D and R levels of TOG btw.  TOG spreads them over 4 years, so I just got the book, made my own guides, and chunked them over 1.  That can be really fun.  But they were books where I thought she was ready for them right then and would enjoy them.  Just another way to reimagine what you already have, if that makes sense.  That chunking approach has turned out to be really good for us.  

 

When she was younger, she really wanted rabbit trail studies, where she just had time to rabbit trail.  She still rabbit trails a lot.  You can give her scenarios that are conducive to it.  Current event study blocks each week, essay collections, Muse magazine articles, they're all curious and conducive to rabbit trails.  People think it's being distracted, but it's actually being a connected thinker.

 

Well this got too long, lol.  I wondered how that writing was going.  If she's being productive, as in something is actually coming out, either onto paper or screen, then I'd tend not to get too freaky about it and leave her alone.  Her own internal drive like that is going to make her better, as in improve her ability to get things out.  You can teach structure at any age.  It's getting that proficiency where they can hold their thoughts, express them, get them out, that's the challenge.  Maybe she'd like to enter some contests?  Or perhaps give her an audience or some worthwhile deadlines.  For isntance, she can write all she wants but then pick *1* by Saturday to go into your writing portfolio for the year.  Structure and freedom.

 

Yup, we did a lot of dictation.  We dictated sentences from the Wise Guide.  If you're bored with it, you know what I really love is the Dictation Resource book by Susan Anthony.  It spirals and the words are useful.

 

Sounds like you're doing great!  :)

[Tracy]

Some kids are working with a different mainframe and if you do too much you squeeze out everything they would have done.  

 

I think our dd's are a lot alike.  This is so true of her.  She liked a lot of what we were doing (like history and grammar), but it definitely was squeezing out other valuable activities.  

 

We chunked some of the books from the D and R levels of TOG btw.  TOG spreads them over 4 years, so I just got the book, made my own guides, and chunked them over 1.  That can be really fun.  But they were books where I thought she was ready for them right then and would enjoy them.  Just another way to reimagine what you already have, if that makes sense.  That chunking approach has turned out to be really good for us.  

 

This is a great idea.  I love TOG, but I am not liking the UG level so much.  There is too much independent reading with none of the fun Socratic discussions that I want to do with her.  And I just can't read it all with her.  She has a really good knowledge base for history for her age, so maybe I'll just do the literature with her.  

 

When she was younger, she really wanted rabbit trail studies, where she just had time to rabbit trail.  People think it's being distracted, but it's actually being a connected thinker.

 

This is so true, too.  I remember dd9 at about 8 months old getting really excited when she could find similar pictures in different books.  She has always been really invigorated by making connections.  

 

Well this got too long, lol.  I wondered how that writing was going.  If she's being productive, as in something is actually coming out, either onto paper or screen, then I'd tend not to get too freaky about it and leave her alone.  Her own internal drive like that is going to make her better, as in improve her ability to get things out.  You can teach structure at any age.  It's getting that proficiency where they can hold their thoughts, express them, get them out, that's the challenge.  Maybe she'd like to enter some contests?  Or perhaps give her an audience or some worthwhile deadlines.  For instance, she can write all she wants but then pick *1* by Saturday to go into your writing portfolio for the year.  Structure and freedom.

 

I am not sure she is quite ready for a lot of freedom.  She is still really held back by her speed v. her mental capacity.  I am thinking that at least one more year of SWR plus some dictation will help her writing become more automatic.  

 

Yup, we did a lot of dictation.  We dictated sentences from the Wise Guide.  If you're bored with it, you know what I really love is the Dictation Resource book by Susan Anthony.  It spirals and the words are useful.

 

Thanks for this suggestion.  We did WWE1-3, and WWE4 is just way too much for her.  I was thinking of getting the WWE instructor book and choosing my own dictation sentences, but I am not sure that I have it in me to stay on top of it.  

 

I really appreciate all the times you have helped me brainstorm what to do with this child.  Thank you!

[PeterPan]

You understand *why* the dictation in WWE is hard, right?  It's a working memory issue.  You can tackle that separately.  I think it's important not to make them hate school work by merging therapy and school.  You can bring some therapy goals strategically into school, yes, but if it's going to be ugghy and awful (which some stuff is), separate it out. No point hating xyz just because you have a disability.  Have you seen the Fistful of Coins game?  It's a little pricy, but it's terrific.  Also you can go to LC and find Heathermomster's interactive metronome instructions.  You can use a free app and her homework descriptions.  Then when those tasks get easier, start adding in digit spans.  So you're bringing together EF, working memory, motor planning, distractions, all sorts of things, all at once!  THAT is what we were doing when my dd's writing took off.

 

There are other ways to work on working memory.  (visual, kinesthetic, games, etc)  It's just something to look into.  You can sort of weave it in as sneaky goals in your day, like every day playing a game but YOU know the game is bringing in work on working memory...

 

Btw, does she typing?  Typing was very, very important for my dd.  I need to keep working on teaching my ds.  Our psych said ANY time you have a discrepancy between IQ and processing speed it's going to create a dysgraphia-like hang-up.  I tell this story a lot, but I paid my dd.  I switched her to Dvorak, gave her email so she was motivated, put it all on a user account locked down to Dvorak, and told her I'd PAY her $1 per wpm any month she increased by at least 5.  Worked for us.  And she was using the Mavis Beacon lessons on a mac.  With ds I have Talking Fingers and just switch it over.  Only the MB for mac has the specific dvorak lessons.  Otherwise you just toggle the language input on your keyboard and ignore the map the screen is showing you.

[Tracy]

You understand *why* the dictation in WWE is hard, right?  It's a working memory issue.  You can tackle that separately.  I think it's important not to make them hate school work by merging therapy and school.  You can bring some therapy goals strategically into school, yes, but if it's going to be ugghy and awful (which some stuff is), separate it out. No point hating xyz just because you have a disability.  Have you seen the Fistful of Coins game?  It's a little pricy, but it's terrific.  Also you can go to LC and find Heathermomster's interactive metronome instructions.  You can use a free app and her homework descriptions.  Then when those tasks get easier, start adding in digit spans.  So you're bringing together EF, working memory, motor planning, distractions, all sorts of things, all at once!  THAT is what we were doing when my dd's writing took off.

 

There are other ways to work on working memory.  (visual, kinesthetic, games, etc)  It's just something to look into.  You can sort of weave it in as sneaky goals in your day, like every day playing a game but YOU know the game is bringing in work on working memory...

 

Btw, does she typing?  Typing was very, very important for my dd.  I need to keep working on teaching my ds.  Our psych said ANY time you have a discrepancy between IQ and processing speed it's going to create a dysgraphia-like hang-up.  I tell this story a lot, but I paid my dd.  I switched her to Dvorak, gave her email so she was motivated, put it all on a user account locked down to Dvorak, and told her I'd PAY her $1 per wpm any month she increased by at least 5.  Worked for us.  And she was using the Mavis Beacon lessons on a mac.  With ds I have Talking Fingers and just switch it over.  Only the MB for mac has the specific dvorak lessons.  Otherwise you just toggle the language input on your keyboard and ignore the map the screen is showing you.

 

I am not sure that she has a working memory issue.  She can recite those long paragraphs to me.  But getting them down is the problem.  I really think that it is just a processing speed issue.  (At some point, we will get testing.  I had meant to do it over the summer, but then my health got in the way of that.)  

 

Thank you for bringing up typing.  Yes, I really do need to get her working on that again.  She did it a couple of summers when she was 6-7yo.  But I got distracted and did not keep it up.  I am not familiar with Dvorak.  I will look into that.