Happy moment of the day...

[PeterPan]

AAS seems to be working for us for spelling! He was just having no developmental click with spelling for so long, and now all of a sudden he's like oh yeah, words have a spelling and it might be useful to know them! So we're piddling along, slowly, in book 2 and it seems to be clicking. Hurray!

We got the LAMP app and are installing it to begin playing. We'll see how that goes. We're looking into some non-traditional uses for it, like using it to improve his understanding of grammar and to retrieve words for narratives. With the multi-tasking on the new, lower-priced ipads, we can build sentences in the one and then copy and paste into another app to make a nice product. He can use the spiffy pencil (once I buy it) to illustrate. Should be cool stuff!

We've been playing aThinkFun Math Dice game https://www.amazon.com/Think-Fun-1510-Math-Dice/dp/B0007LYKX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523062301&sr=8-1&keywords=thinkfun+math+dice&dpID=41eq%2B1Pm4pL&preST=_SY300_SL1500_QL50_&dpSrc=srch that has turned out to be really fun. 

Any good things happening in your homeschool right now? Or bad, you can share disasters too, lol. We've had a lot of them. It's just fun to have something going well.

[Pegs]

 That's great! I'm a big fan of AAS. 

Things are going well here too. We have a pretty hefty daily schedule going on, and it's all getting done. I've been slowly working on building up DS' stamina for seatwork over the last year or so, and it's really paid off.

We had a great conversation yesterday about how he'd like more freedom during his free time (this mostly related to use of electronics), and I'd like less stalling and moaning and groaning when I require him to engage with me and get his schoolwork done. We came to an agreement. :)

[Lecka]

My 9-year-old’s attention span and engagement with books are way up.  Most days I can spend an hour with him reading a stack of library books.  We can talk about inferences.  There’s some improvement with inferences, definitely he sees things when we read the same book again.  

He’s also into AAR 3, but just doing word cards and practice sheets.  He likes the sentences on the practice sheets, but the comprehension level of the readers is too high for now.  He reads here and there while I read to him.  

The math dice game looks great!  I will do something with math in the summer.  I’m also looking at AAS 1 when he is through AAR 3.  I am not planning to go on to AAR 4 at this point, I think he’s close to just working on fluency with the younger/easier books he likes.  

He’s made improvement with verbal self-advocacy with siblings, which is huge and so helpful.  He can say things before it gets to the point he is upset or angry, and he is getting to where he can negotiate too.  

His recall of events is also improving.  He still tends to need a visual or environmental cue, but he is doing quite well when he has those cues, and is able to do a little when he doesn’t.  He does recall questions in therapy and I just had something come up where she was very surprised he couldn’t answer the same kinds of questions (about events at school) when she saw him at the office that he had been answering with no problem when she saw him at school.  

[PeterPan]

12 hours ago, Pegs said:

 That's great! I'm a big fan of AAS. 

Things are going well here too. We have a pretty hefty daily schedule going on, and it's all getting done. I've been slowly working on building up DS' stamina for seatwork over the last year or so, and it's really paid off.

We had a great conversation yesterday about how he'd like more freedom during his free time (this mostly related to use of electronics), and I'd like less stalling and moaning and groaning when I require him to engage with me and get his schoolwork done. We came to an agreement. :)

Can you tell me more about what you're doing for building up stamina for seatwork? And do you have a preferred work setup? We have an office, but I am getting ready to rearrange/flex/update to fit his new growth spurt. Always interesting to hear how other people work. So even though we have an office, we try to make sure he can work in other spaces too (on the couch, at the kitchen table, etc.). I'm trying to introduce working with a paper checklist, but that's crunchy.

[PeterPan]

I'm off to research 4th grade classrooms!

[Pegs]

13 hours ago, PeterPan said:

Can you tell me more about what you're doing for building up stamina for seatwork? And do you have a preferred work setup? We have an office, but I am getting ready to rearrange/flex/update to fit his new growth spurt. Always interesting to hear how other people work. So even though we have an office, we try to make sure he can work in other spaces too (on the couch, at the kitchen table, etc.). I'm trying to introduce working with a paper checklist, but that's crunchy.

Sure! I'll give it a go. It's been a very gradual process, and I'm a little fuzzy on some details (I'm not great at recalling timelines), but I'll try to outline it for you.

Early 2016: DS was at the beginning of first grade. Most of our schoolwork was made up of "stories and games time," with a little copywork thrown in. We occasionally did a little written math work as well, so that DS could see his own reasoning in symbolic form. We added Khan Academy at some point to see questions presented in different ways. Apart from his copywork (one sentence at a time), I scribed everything else. We read a lot, went on nature walks, and watched videos together, and I wrote down his narrations.

Later in 2016: Still in first grade, now doing copywork daily, seated at his desk. DS also finished Khan Academy's "early math mission" (K-2) and started Beast Academy 3A. Sometimes he'd write his own answers and sometimes I'd scribe for him. We started MCT's Island level and did it mostly orally, snuggled up on the couch. We continued learning through games and stories.

Early 2017: Beginning of second grade. DS spent a few hours with a paid carer a couple of days a week while I was studying. I made SOTW open and go for them and they did this together, as well as playing some Prodigy game. On the days when he was with me, we'd do four subjects together. I'd pick two, and DS would pick two. I'd almost always pick copywork and reading, and he'd almost always pick science and grammar. I had to get a bit creative about fitting maths in. Sometimes I'd veto science if we'd already done it a few days in a row. We did most of Beast Academy 3B, but he lost enthusiasm for it, so we returned to just playing lots of games together and he played Prodigy at home sometimes too.

Later in 2017: I laid claim to the pick of the four daily subjects, as I was sick of negotiating over them. I did some planning/scheduling on my own to make sure we were hitting particular subjects sufficiently each week, and just wrote up our four subjects in list form on the whiteboard every day. We'd tick them off as we completed them. We started AAS and dropped daily copywork. DS spent time with his paid carer just one day a week, and they continued to do history and maths together. I also added morning time - a picture (draw or observe), a poem (read or recite), a story (readaloud), a song (we'd sing together while I played guitar). Because I packaged it as one event - "morning time" - DS didn't notice that I'd effectively added four additional tasks to his school day. Win. Our time was structured thus: morning time, break, subjects 1 and 2, break, subjects 3 and 4.

Early 2018 (now!): We'd been doing morning time plus four subjects each day for some time, so I started slotting additional tasks into the existing structure, for an easy transition to a slightly heavier load. We now alternate writing weeks with grammar weeks, and we've also added daily violin practice, a writing program (CAP W&R), and Latin lessons. We do science on M/T/F and history on Tu/Th. For maths DS does 30 minutes of BA, and then 30 minutes of Prodigy. The timer is our friend. Here's our daily schedule:

Morning time block: morning time, vision therapy homework, violin practice, history or science.

Break

Academics block 1: free reading, Latin, writing or grammar.

Break

Academics block 2: maths, spelling.

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Our physical set-up is not at all fancy. DS works at his desk, which is in our lounge room; cuddled up on the couch; seated at the coffee table; by the AAS whiteboard which rests on the floor; or standing up at the disposable static whiteboards which can be found in various locations around the house (http://www.magicwhiteboard.com.au/). I'm happy to send you photos if you'd like to PM me your email address.

 

 

[PeterPan]

Pegs, thanks for sharing all that! I liked your Morning Time thing so much, I've been trying it this week. It works for us! The rest was pretty much where we were, and that just pulled it all together. Well that and having our office freshly arranged. And that's interesting to hear that you do drawing daily too. We've done it on and off, and the OT definitely wanted us doing it.

Thanks for sharing! :)

[Pegs]

 That's great! Enjoy your morning time and your new office. :)