Homeschooling from scratch a 7 year old....where to begin?!

[Momma4]

Hi everyone,

 

We made a conscious decision to delay any formal education for our children until they reach close to 7 years old. My eldest son will be 7 next year so we're planning to start officially homeschooling him in August 2017. We live in the UK so there are no legal requirements.

 

He can read basic CVC words so we'll be starting from scratch with Ordinary Parents Guide To Teaching Reading. I've always read ALOT to my children so they love listening to books, any and all! As well as listening to audio CDs.

 

I purchased Right Start Maths A 2nd Ed. and we've done some lessons already which they seem to enjoy but we've not been consistent as I didn't want to push anything too soon. So, I think we'll start from the beginning with that too.

 

We already have Story Of The World and many, many other history books which my eldest loves!

 

I really need your thoughts on how to gently ease us into homeschooling and still manage a home.

 

I should also say I have two other sons who will be 5.5 and 3.5yrs. I'm fully expected that my 5.5yr old may want to join in with his elder brother and that's fine if he wants to, but I won't be expecting anything from him.

 

What subjects would you include for a new homeschooler of 7yrs old?

 

I was thinking to start by only doing OPGTR for the first month or two and then add in RIght Start Maths. I'll obviously need to add in handwriting/penmanship/spelling etc....

 

I already have 'Teaching Cursive: This Method Works' (how often should I have him do this?

 

I've been looking at the English Lessons Through Literature - anyone have any experience with this?

 

I really want open and go programmes that allow me to be able to combine kids if I have to.

 

I don't want to load too much for our first year. My eldest is a very auditory and kinesthetic learner - he needs to always have something moving (at least he does now at this age....perhaps this will change?!)

 

Sorry for the long post.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Xxxx

[Kiara.I]

I would definitely do reading and math.

 

Beyond that, it's more of a "whatever you want."

Do you want to include art?  (Appreciation or creation...)

Music?

Science in a more formal way?

 

I'd actually do both Righstart and OPG from the get-go.

And a handwriting/penmanship program.

After a week or two I'd add in SOTW.  And I'd probably do the comprehension and narration parts of it.

And another week later I'd add in science.

 

I'd delay spelling until age 8, probably, or at least fluent reading.

[SporkUK]

For the always moving part, I recommend tangle toys, swivel seats, and - an odd favourite in our house - those curly stretchy bands like one gets pool keys on along with having a clipboard to write on to make moving around the house with stuff easier. 

 

My six year old is a very kinesthetic type. What helped her most was having a list of things she has to do solo, do all of those first, and then she's off and she does any group stuff like music later. She doesn't like any waiting between things and is hard to draw her back once she's gone and moving so I only do it once and she likes going until she is done as long as she knows what she's doing or can choose to switch as long as she does everything. Other methods to avoid overload are setting a timer for each task [my 11 year old's old favourite method] or having a set number of things like a set number of pages in maths with everything on page [my 9 year old's favourite]. Finding what method helps them best work and being consistent with it has been vital here, subjects will depend a lot of the child and your view of education though we do reading, writing, maths daily and music, art, mindfulness, science, history, body knowledge, and such on a rotating basis with her older siblings at this age. 

 

I would recommend penmanship daily for short period of time - 10 or so minutes - to develop the muscle memory. With my six year old, she writes out the lowercase alphabet [at first we worked letter by letter until she could write them all on her whiteboard], she picks a letter or two she thinks she needs to work on and I pick a letter or two she needs to work on, she does a row of them lower and uppercase [like abcd for a row then ABCD for a row], we break for reading practice for 5-10 minutes, then I write a copywork sentence, she reads and copy it, and then she does a line of of a number big [to the top line] and small [to the middle line]. Everything else she does for solo with me work fits around her whiteboard time as it's become her favourite. She has reading practice in short bursts before, during, and after it as that is where she needs the most help and we usually do maths beforehand. That's pretty much all of her solo with me work for most days. 

 

The UK's laws on parental responsibility for an education that meets a child's age, ability, and aptitude and meeting any special educational needs is vague and the enforcement even more. Knowing what Year they would be in may be needed for some outside activities and but that will differ depending on where you are [England is pretty strict on birthday to school year which is why I list mine to remind me]. 

[Momma4]

Great ideas from you both. SportUK can expand a bit on mindfulness please.

 

Xx

[Momma4]

Sorry about the typo!

[Momma4]

Love the whiteboard with the lines. X

[SporkUK]

Mindfulness is part of wider mental/emotional knowledge and skills that we proactively work on - I've dubbed it Metacognition and Mindfulness in my signature as MindUp, which I use as a spine for this, is mainly on that - being aware of our thinking and being aware of our feelings. For my 6 year old, it's mainly the latter as she gets big sudden feelings that she wants to talk about but doesn't understand or have the words for so I use MindUP k-2 for her which has a lot of discussion and activities [one big one a week and selections of other things that can add to each areas - I found many of the smaller stories read aloud on youtube which my 6 year old likes] that centre around a very basic 3 minute meditation type of thing that is really helpful alongside  - important for my kids - roleplaying and acting out situations and feelings as well as other reading and videos [Teaching Kids Philosophy, linked in my sig, has a wiki full of books and discussion ideas as well that we bring into this]. My 11 year old, as part of this, is starting into typical logic and stuff now but we do most of the metacognition and particularly the mindfulness stuff together so they - and I - can talk and roleplay off of each other on this - even my 4 year old gets involved sometimes.

 

Another recommendation I thought of for you is Jolly Music - from the same people who do Jolly Phonics. Just the teaching book is needed for home use and it is very open and go and comes with CDs with everything if you need it [i do not use the CDs or the puppets or anything else, just the songs and music activities. Only thing I've wanted to use with it a chime and I just use the kids toy xylophone for it]. I do together will all four of mine, they love it and it's a good gentle starter to music and a good starter for memory as well. It's designed for a classroom obviously but it's really easy to adapt at home - though I warn that the 'louder voice' sections often gets everyone off track in giggles  :lol:

[Momma4]

Thank you so much for the MindUp recommendation, I think it's something we could really benefit from.

 

Thanks again for your detailed replies, it's really given me a lot to consider.

 

Peace and blessings

Xxx

[Momma4]

Kiara, what do you suggest for science? Science is such a big topic it's quite overwhelming! I love science but I'm much more comfortable with language arts

[PandaMom]

We just started Real Science 4 Kids Focus on Elementary series. My DD is begging for science now.

 

Susie

 

[ElizabethB]

An older student learning to read can handle 2+ syllable words, I would try some of ny multi syllable phonics resources. The charts and cards linked at the end would be fun for your younger kids as well and multi sensory to move around. With students who need a lot of activity, I like to do relay races, play games with magnetic letters, how many can you make in a minute, run back and forth to get words to sound out or letters to build words. Writing on a white board and allowing the student to pick the marker color also helps add interest and activity.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

[Momma4]

Elizabeth, I love the idea of the relay races. I think my boys would love that.

 

Thanks for the link, I'll have a look at it.

 

Xx

[ElizabethB]

For my group classes, I bought 8 or 10 sets of magnetic letters. I put them in 2 tupperware containers, they race back and forth to grab a handful of letters at a time and then start building words when they have all the letters. If they have run off enough energy, the last few games I just dump the boxes on thr table for them. I just put them on chairs across the room from the table where they build, each group builds on one side.

[Momma4]

Great idea Elizabeth. Xx

[BlsdMama]

 

.

 

What subjects would you include for a new homeschooler of 7yrs old?

 

I was thinking to start by only doing OPGTR for the first month or two and then add in RIght Start Maths. I'll obviously need to add in handwriting/penmanship/spelling etc....

 

 

Xxxx

 

 

It sounds like, in addition to your already literature rich life, that you have your bases covered. :)  I think this is a lovely plan just as it is.

[FO4UR]

I would do a short & simple tutorial on penmanship and letter formation (if needed), and then do copywork.  Pull sentences from some of his favorite stories to copy.  Start the year with sentences that are 4-6 words long, and grow through the year until he can easily copy a sentence or two of 16-18 words. 

 

Extend the discussion of the books you read together. Encourage puppets, pretend play, drawing, and other creative outlets for playing with the stories you read. (You need not do more than supervise so that the markers and glue stay at the table.  Let the kids do the creative work.) 

 

Ask them to retell a short story, describe a character or person in history or a plant or an animal, and repeat back directions for various things. (Can you tell me how you built your lego castle?  Can you explain how to fix your favorite sandwich?) This is Narration or oral composition.  You probably already do this.  Expand upon it, and know that this is the best way to build a good writer (for a 7yo and younger).

 

 

I like math games and Happy Phonics games for that age range of children. Teach them to play together. That has so many benefits, both academic and otherwise.

 

Otherwise, do NOT add in too much stuff!!!  Everything you add must subtract something else, and you have the most important things in your day already. (IOW, do not add a curriculum that takes the place of enjoying real books. The real books are more comprehensive, more interesting, more, more, more...)

[calihil]

We just finished 1st grade. We just worked on learning to read (went through OPGTR), I had her read to me for about 15 minutes from readers that were at or a little below her level. We did math every day, focusing on math facts, telling time, place value, and a little bit about money. We did copywork every day, I'd pick something we were reading and had her copy the sentence perfectly (we did Handwriting in K,so if he doesn't know how to write letters, I'd start there. Pentime was cheap and easy for us). And then we just read a lot of books, picture books, chapter books. I had her narrate a harder reading (we did Ambleside Online Year 1 for a bit, still use some of the books) a few times a week. Played outside a lot. We do Morning Time together which consists of reading a poem every day, memorizing Bible passages, hymns, catechism, and poems. It was a good year, she learned a lot. :)

Edited June 4, 2016 by calihil

[Guest]

Oak Meadow Grade K or 1. It was desgined for delayed academics. They also have very nice office staff if you ned help or just talk it out. Christopherus is another one as is A Little garden Flower. Any Waldorf-Inspired curriculum will be helpful to you.