Back in the saddle again

[PeterPan]

Well I'm attempting to get us up and running, even if my hand is still a mess. Can't scribe, but ds shocked me and voluntarily tried to write some single word answers on his pages! I'm hoping that bodes well for using handwriting for spelling at least. His print, for the small amounts, actually looked pretty good too. I'm still tempted to try cursive with him just to see what happens.  I got a number of small whiteboards to use for writing spelling too.

He's been off all teletherapies for a number of weeks, so we'll ease back into those ths week too. I'm starting him on worksheet packets today just because they're so good for compliance (and covering material). I have some fun options for this year, but the behavior has to be there. We'll see. And I'm fiddling with google classroom for his independent wrk, so we'll see how that goes. I may try that today, jut to get him on the groove.

Are y'all starting back? Been going? Anything wildly different this year?

[PeterPan]

36 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

think Animal Crossing might have helped,

Definitely!

[Runningmom80]

Things are in fact wildly different this year as my twins are back to homeschooling!

We haven't started yet. I had planned to start this Monday but then decided I wasn't ready. Then I dropped one of my classes to see if that helped me feel more ready. My classes start Monday so the kids will probably start the week after. I'm thinking September 1st because it seems like a good first day of school date. (This is what decision fatigue looks like)

I'm starting to feel good about our plans instead of just ok bordering on uneasy.

For my dysgraphic/mildly dyslexic DD (10) we are going to finish Wilson books 5&6. (Her tutor took her mostly all the way through book 5 but I don't think any of it stuck so I'm redoing it and I'll use different words. Repetition for a dyslexic isn't a horrible idea right?)  I ordered Cursive Logic to see if that helps. She doesn't have horrible printing but she has a difficult time staying on the lines and I'm hoping the cursive helps things "flow" better. I also want to use the TTRS that I bought so that will be in the mix. She will do BYL level 5 with her twin, but instead of the readers, her and I will choose books to buddy read out loud. My gut says to not assign her silent reading at all this year, and to let her keep reading graphic novels and Garfield & Calvin & Hobbes comics that she reads willingly. Math we are trying Redbird with daily fact practice that I've yet to plan or buy. I have alllll the Math Mammoth books but she hates it with a passion to I'll probably just get her a Kuman or Brainquest or something. She loves science and got really excited about the BYL science books video so I'm hoping that's the bright spot in her year. I've typed a lot out but I am hoping to keep her school days short, mostly read alouds, phonics review and following interests. 

Oh! I bought the Rooted in Language Vowel Chart class recording and did that over the weekend. I really really liked it. I'm signed up for their Phonics & Spelling class that starts next week and I will do their Word study class in October. It is more SWI which I'd like to add in as DD also needs help with orthography. 

My oldest DS, is gifted and I suspect ASD. (He also has multiple food allergies and EoE)  He's got a weirdly lopsided school year planned. He's taking AP US History through CTY, and since we are expecting it to be a lot of work, we kept the rest of the year very light. (He loves history so that's what he wants to focus on for high school.)  His EF skills are less than stellar. He has a very slow processing speed so helping him understand how long things will take him is my number one goal. He's also in puberty sooooo 😑 He had some attention issues last year so we are working on setting up his desk in his room to be very learning friendly. We will see how the first couple of months go and if he's still rolling on the floor claiming his computer across the room is distracting him, I will see about meds. He's already underweight due to the EoE, food allergies and just genetics so I'm going to have to make sure we get the right med. 

I have another child, my poor, easy to parent so therefore neglected DS 10.  I feel bad for him because he's been kind of an afterthought as I've been planning this year. I guess that is how it goes sometimes. He picked out a couple of fun Outschool classes so hopefully that fills his bucket a bit. 

(It appears I've written a novel. I guess I had a lot to process and validate for myself!)

 

 

[Cymbol]

I had the same idea for google classroom.  I haven’t quite figured out how best to use it yet.  For one thing, I just figured out that I had to assign a topic before I can reorder it.  I guess it’s not a problem for others who assign due dates but I like to just make assignments and have DS pick the 3 oldest ones to do.  Also, I don’t like how I can’t see which assignments he’s completed and make modifications to the assignments on the same page.  They are in separate places so I can do one or the other but not both in the same place.  So right now, it’s a little work for me but DS can go to his account, find the assignments (which is mostly reading or watching a review video), and submit them so that’s a start.  

[WoolC]

We’re 2 weeks in here, with lots of tweaking already.  Our biggest wild change has really been in my perspective more than anything else.  I’m trying really hard to meet each of the boys where they’re at and to let go of all the pressure I put on myself.

DS11 is having some writing success with WriteOn prompts and he’s giving me some solid written narrations through coding animation projects.  We’ve had 6 years of oral narration refusal so I’m calling this a big win.  Math looks like math antics videos, mind benders, puzzles, games and practice problem worksheets with Minecraft graphics (why this magically makes math tolerable I don’t know, but I’ll take it!) We’re getting a good 2 hours a day of reading aloud on the couch from literature, history, science and geography books.  Still working on independent reading motivation.  His fluency is good after working hard at Barton, Dancing Bears, etc but he still hates to read.  He is getting some reading in through the coding and games too.

DS9 is normally my easy going kid academically,  but I guess he’s hitting the age of pushback.  I’m still in the process of figuring out what’s going to work for him this year.  Right now we’ve settled on just doing a couple of pages in a CTC Language Smarts book each day, and some math.  Today I had him start reading a Landmark biography and report back with a couple of sentences and clip art on google docs.  He also joins us for our read alouds.

[Runningmom80]

Well, we just finished our first week, and dare I call it a success? I've only abandoned 1 curriculum! 

Redbird online is just....no. We lasted 2 days. We did Math Mammoth (one page at a time) and Dream Box instead and this seems like it's going to be ok? I don't think MM is at all a great fit for dysgraphia in general but DD seems to be fine so far. The only reason I tried it is because I have it and also Singapore shipping times are nuts. 

Cursive Logic! I REALLY like this. The whole "say this" part is great. DD will first trace with her finger saying the cues and then write with a pencil saying the cues. I love that it's multi-sensory. We are having to work really hard lightening her grip and her pressure but today her progress was great. I'm really liking this. It's only been a week though so I'll have to update after we've used it for a meaningful amount of time. 

BYL 5 - she loves this. She narrated a whole Ted Talk worth of info about Tuberculosis. We are listening to children of the longhouse and she can answer the comprehension questions so that is encouraging. I did have her write a history summary, which she typed. It was about 10 sentences with zero punctuation, just one giant run on sentence. She said she forgot where to put the periods so that's something to work on. 😆 It was decent content and only a few misspellings that spell check didn't catch so again, calling it a win. 

I just finished the Rooted in Language Phonics & Spelling class. It was a ton of info, over 10 hours of webinars, so my mind is a little overloaded. I have a plan though and we are going to start on Tuesday with phonics. 

My high schooler ended up signing up for a cool camp thing so that threw a wrench in our schedule and also triggered his teen 'tude so that was fun. I had a ton of work for my grad classes too, it's been a week.

All in all it was good! @PeterPan I hope your wrist is getting better!

Hope everyone else had a good week!

[PeterPan]

6 minutes ago, Runningmom80 said:

BYL 5 -

Ok, I'm going to have to go look at that. I don't know that I ever have. 

6 minutes ago, Runningmom80 said:

All in all it was good! @PeterPan I hope your wrist is getting better!

Yes, it is! I am beginning to do household levels of weight, and I'm starting to *write* with it, woo woo. I did so much yesterday I made it swell, oops, but technically I'm released from OT already, having achieved their basic goals. It's more just a matter of time now and not going back into things too quickly. She said my *intrinsic muscles* were weak and I should use larger pencil grips and press less tightly, which sorta sounds familiar, lol. I had meant to order ds some pencil grips and never got it done. In their absence, I have a pen one of the OTs had wrapped in spongy medical tape, and actually that is working pretty well, You could try something hack like that.

9 minutes ago, Runningmom80 said:

Cursive Logic! I REALLY like this. The whole "say this" part is great.

I'm SO excited to hear this! I started the video and never finished, just got sidetracked. Not tonight, but maybe tomorrow? Maybe I should wait until we finish introducing all the letters for typing. I'll have to think about it. My little homemade typing instruction is going SO WELL, but he was EXHAUSTED by the end of this week. Seriously exhausted. And we did typing, poetry, finger spelling (ASL to match the letters we were learning to type), the poetry program where we read short poems with the CD, etc. Well that and 3-6 pages a day out of a SLP workbook on compound and complex sentences, lol. That's probably the real reason he's tired, lol.

So I guess I sorta assumed I would add something FUN next week to our ramp up. I was assuming geography. Maybe a list of audiobooks to work through. I don't know. Cursive fell off the docket, oops. I'm just not sure he's up for anything else HARD right now. He's already working super hard on the typing, sigh. And I'd rather do the typing faster and THEN work on handwriting. The typing is working his VMI to the MAX, oh my. And he's so great about it! I have 6 rows, (single letters spaced, two letters spaced, and so on) and by the end he's typing the next target letter quite proficiently, from a page, totally touch typing!!! That to me seems like a big accomplishment. I'm excited. 

We're joining dmmetler's Prodigies music beta, so we'll begin that hopefully next week using our new BELLS set. Way cool! That should be fun. 

Well good, I'm glad things are going well! I found myself really excited this week too. I guess it takes so little, lol. But seriously, it's fun to see him actually get back into working. He even bought into my idea with motivating posters on the door. My poster for these two weeks has been a boy figure with a "thinking cat" on. Ds thought that was HILARIOUS, lol. So maybe it's about time to bring out a new one. I was trying to challenge him with motivating thoughts. Thinking cat was just the first, like we're here to think and grow so let's do this, lol. Of course he so likes it, now I hate to change it out, lol.

[Runningmom80]

20 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Well good, I'm glad things are going well! I found myself really excited this week too. I guess it takes so little, lol. But seriously, it's fun to see him actually get back into working. He even bought into my idea with motivating posters on the door. My poster for these two weeks has been a boy figure with a "thinking cat" on. Ds thought that was HILARIOUS, lol. So maybe it's about time to bring out a new one. I was trying to challenge him with motivating thoughts. Thinking cat was just the first, like we're here to think and grow so let's do this, lol. Of course he so likes it, now I hate to change it out, lol.

 

My kids would have loved the "thinking cat" too! Are you just printing these out?

Yes it takes very little at this point to excite any of us 😂

I'm glad your wrist is getting better! It's got to be frustrating. 

[PeterPan]

15 minutes ago, Runningmom80 said:

My kids would have loved the "thinking cat" too! Are you just printing these out?

https://www.creativeteaching.com/products/ive-got-my-thinking-cat-on-so-much-pun-inspire-u-poster  You're in luck! They're easy to find at your local education store. 

 

16 minutes ago, Runningmom80 said:

I'm glad your wrist is getting better! It's got to be frustrating.

Thanks, yes it was. I'm trying to tell myself it was good for me and as it was meant to be. 

[Hilltopmom]

My senior is fingers crossed finishing out ps & VoTech this year.

I’m back to homeschooling my little ones around my ps teacher job.

We started in July and things have been going pretty well. The littlest K’er is picking right up on reading/ blending, and math which is SO exciting to me because all my other kids have had learning disabilities and were so slow to pick up on academics.

The second grader is slow going and she’s on the spectrum but is making progress and I’m using what she was using at school for math then doing Explode the Code, Dancing Bears, and sight word activities for reading. She happily reading Bob Books now too 🙂

it’s strange but nice to be homeschooling again 

 

[PeterPan]

47 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Dh has forbidden me to sell any of the Barton levels though for a significant amount of time since I had major donation remorse after I cleaned out all of my stuff I thought I was done with over the summer and then ended up reverting to some of it. LIke Horizons math, lol. Ds likes Horizons math so much he asked me about their LA, and I found their phonics program which I think might be a perfect spelling program for him. 

That's hilarious! And yeah, I find myself kinda going off the beaten track for spelling for ds. Actually we just dropped it for a number of years. Now he actually notices spelling and can randomly spell something. We need to do it, but sometimes it's easier to do it when they're actually ready, lol.

If her reading is taking off, why fiddle with Barton right now? What would you do if you *weren't* doing that right now? Maybe that thing is more important?

[PeterPan]

3 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

if you said how many syllables are in adventure

I think I'd at least want her to *hear* it when she is told the word. It's a lot harder to look at a word on the page, because then you're following rules, making inferences, etc. But for just hearing, you'd like her to get there *because* it's showing that she is starting to hear the morphology and chunking of word parts. For a bright dc to read "adventure" correctly, honestly it just means she has a strong vocabulary. My ds was that way, not needing to sound out most things because he could tell them from context, boom.

But yeah, if you say it and it's only 3 syllables, you'd like her to be able to hear that, if only for the language benefit. Says the woman who has been spending an hour a day working on relative clauses with ds, lol. I guess you could say I've become an obsessive fiend on language, lol. I didn't realize the degree to which having spelling and morphology make sense is *language*. You want all the chunks of language to have *meaning* and be processed and noticed. You don't want them to blur together. Nuts, if you want, try working on hearing the syllables with compound words (1syllable-1 syllable) or prefixes and suffixes attached. Maybe those have *meaning* for her and will be easier to notice. 

hotdog

carpool

preread

unzip

etc.

Then for three syllables

unzipping

Whatever. It's exciting that it's going well for you. 

[Lecka]

We are getting back in the saddle!

My kids are enrolled in public school and going to school two days a week.  But it's likely they will have to go all-virtual because our town's numbers are not great.  If the numbers get better they could go to school every day.  

I don't think anything virtual is going to work for my son with special needs.  The other two kids -- I think it is going to work out for them.

Here's the plan:  Saxon Math -- he is finishing 5/4 (down to the last two lessons!!!!!) and going to start 6/5.  

Saxon Grammar 3 -- haven't started it yet, but it looks good for him.  The reading level looks good.  There is a writing suggestion for every lesson and they look appropriate for him.  At school it looks like he is being asked to write 3 sentences about things (for example -- it looks like for science he watched a video about seahorses and then was asked to write 3 sentences about the video).  This seems like it would help him with what he is doing at school, and maybe I can get him to do it (wish me luck lol).  Anyway -- I hope to use the writing suggestion from the lesson and ask him to write sentences, and if needed, ask specific questions for him to write an answer about to stay on topic (or if he can't think of anything).  It is set up to have a discussion about the topic at the beginning of the lesson, so hopefully he can remember things from that to help him at the end.  

Wordly Wise 2 -- he has started this.  It is a pretty good reading level for him, and he likes the reading passages.  The vocabulary words are a good level also -- not too esoteric, and many of the words he is familiar with so it's not overwhelming.  He can do repeated reading of these to work on fluency.  

All About Spelling 2 -- he has started this but I do not have a good routine and I'm not sure what a good routine will be.  I want to do extra review from AAS 1 also, and have dictation from AAS 1 mixed in.  

He is listening to audiobooks almost every night at bedtime.  

He has gone to two days of school and likes it so far.  

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Lecka

[Lecka]

Well we go though everything except AAS!  He wrote 3 sentences with help.  That is a lot to build on! 
 

I was mentally and physically exhausted at 6:00 pm and took a nap, now I’m up early.  I think there’s nowhere to go but up, though.  

[PeterPan]

5 hours ago, Lecka said:

Well we go though everything except AAS!  He wrote 3 sentences with help.  That is a lot to build on! 
 

I was mentally and physically exhausted at 6:00 pm and took a nap, now I’m up early.  I think there’s nowhere to go but up, though.  

wow, that's a lot! He's doing that only on Saturdays or every day after school? 

Yes, my ds has been going to bed every night at 10:30 willingly, hahaha. I actually had to pull back because I was working his brain so hard. If I'm not careful, he'll be so tired after a few days he can't finish out the week. I try to find a sweet spot where he's working but not wiped, lol.

For you, chocolate, dinner out, whatever reward. If you're doing that work, you're worth $100 an hour. That's what I tell myself.

[Lecka]

For sure every Wed, Thurs, Fri while my husband is at work and the school is on “alternate schedule.”  Other days I would like to fit a bit in here and there.

I just bought Diary of a Wimpy Kid because he has liked the movie on streaming and — he says he doesn’t want to read it but I would like to use it for some reading practice.  
 

Spiderwick Chronicles for audiobook are going well right now.  It is very hit or miss to find something he likes!

[Lecka]

Honestly I am too tired, but hopefully it will get easier as we get into a routine.  Chocolate is a good idea!

[Lecka]

Well — I impulse-bought Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure.  Same author.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is not going to work, but I think Awesome Friendly Adventure is going to work, so hopefully it will!  
 

I’m thinking now it would be good to have him spend some time reading on the days he doesn’t do the other things.  

[Lecka]

We got a warning today we’re probably going to be 5 days a week at home next week, so I’m glad I’m ready to go with things.  

[Lecka]

What it turns out is reasonable..... a math lesson, independent reading, and Wordly Wise.  I’m also a book out loud, he’s also listening to an audiobook at bedtime.

Spelling and Grammar are not realistic for every day, I think I might alternate days or only do Grammar for a while, and be okay with not getting to it every day.  Especially if I do the little writing prompt included with the Grammar lesson.  
 

Will just need to be flexible and see how things go!  We just had it announced, there will be no in-person school here next week.  
 

 

[PeterPan]

3 hours ago, Lecka said:

What it turns out is reasonable..... a math lesson, independent reading, and Wordly Wise.  I’m also a book out loud, he’s also listening to an audiobook at bedtime.

Spelling and Grammar are not realistic for every day, I think I might alternate days or only do Grammar for a while, and be okay with not getting to it every day.  Especially if I do the little writing prompt included with the Grammar lesson.  
 

Will just need to be flexible and see how things go!  We just had it announced, there will be no in-person school here next week.  
 

 

That's still a lot of work! And it will be fun for him, because you're hitting his strength daily. 

I'm looking at getting a grammar curriculum for him for when we finish the HELP for Grammar (Linguisystems) workbook. I thought the idea was good, and I have had my eye on this Fundamentals of Language series from Evan Moor. I found an older edition as pdfs online, so I'm good to go. I think I'm going to use sections from it, not the whole thing. So we'll run gr 3-6 of the adverbs section or the punctuations section or whatever. There are lots of little things that get caught in a school grammar, so I think it will be good. And EM stuff is always a winner with him. Anything I can print and put on a clipboard he will plow through. Might involve some Psych episodes or logic games or foam sword fights, but we'll get it done, lol. 

And yeah, that's the total quandry here. I can have good mental health and some work, but I can't have good mental health and LOTS of work. I have to think that the structure of school would either get it there with stress or would not be getting done as much as I like to imagine. (in my perpetual am I doing enough mind) I also sometimes do a lick and a promise kind of thing. Like throw science in as read alouds, etc.

You also might find his tolerance improves. My ds started at 3 pages a day and is now up to 10. He just gets really in his groove and gets a lot done. Last year we were doing as much as 20 pages a day, but that's tolerance. A few weeks ago when I was buying stuff with the EM sale, I had no hope of that. Now I have more hope, so we're trying again. But honestly, I upped his anxiety meds and supplements a LOT. And we do a LOT of tv and breaks. I have a big digital clock by the tv so I literally tell him ½ worksheet, then we break 3 min, then another half, and so on. I just watch how he does and I tell him how long the break will be. So that's how we plow through stuff.

Spelling is really hard. It's so disconnected from their reality in some ways, especially if you're scribing. I think a little bit, like 5 minutes, really done with engagement, is something. It would be nice to see it lead into some USE. Our spelling isn't really ready to do that. It's why I'm trying to bring the typing on board, because I figure the use might come. Might, lol.

Is he doing ps assigned work as well? Are they considering virtual optional? If he's doing other stuff as well, that's a LOT! If he's doing just your stuff, he might build tolerance and with time increase. With ds, I try to increase by 2 things a week. But each thing is maybe 5 minutes, no more than 10, so that's like increasing the load by 10-15 minutes a week. So with time that endurance inches up as he gets in his groove. 

My mother wants us to come visit, and I'm like NOPE. If we're in our groove, we're going to work till we need a BREAK. It's so much work to build up and it's so much work to regain it when you're off. The nice part is when you get that groove going. Having them alternate types of school would be really disruptive on that. It's also a nice break for you though, so that part could be nice. I have teletherapies most days for him, so that gets me a bit of a break where I don't have to feel guilty if I'm not ON.

[Lecka]

I am not doing the virtual school with him and they can deal with it if they don’t like it.  I am confident they will be aware that he is not a good fit for virtual.

It’s fine for my other two kids.  Not great — but fine, they can do it and everything.

I think he is placed too high in Language Arts for it to be virtual.  In person I am sure he is adapting for him etc (it’s a resource class of some kind) but I am not seeing it for what I am able to do at home.  
 

He has a packet right now for math that will be no problem to have him complete.  It’s on the lighter side. 
 

Social Studies and Science both seem like things that I am sure work for him in person, but would be extremely hard for him to engage with virtually.

This seems like a good opportunity to work on reading — looking on the bright side 🙂. 
 

I need to add some kind of small outing to our day.  Today we went to an “outdoor PE” at a local park, someone from the Y led kids in some exercise with social distancing.  That is on Fridays, though we could drive to do it another day at another park.  There is a paved nature trail we can go to.  Apparently there is a nature center open Thurs/Fri/Sat during coronavirus.  Two kids have church on Wed. night (they do masks and distancing) but I’m not sending this son right now.  
 

I could try to do a really short time on spelling.  I could probably fit that in (some days at least) if I planned for it to be short and then actually kept it short.  

[Lecka]

I really believe I am better off to let things happen and let the school see — hey, this doesn’t work — than somehow make it happen and later hear “well everything went well!”  
 

Maybe not the right attitude to have but that’s where I am right now!  
 

It’s also totally the kind of thing where I feel like I might basically just end up doing the work for him, and that is not a dynamic that would be very fruitful.  

Edited September 19, 2020 by Lecka

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, Lecka said:

I am not doing the virtual school with him and they can deal with it if they don’t like it.

I love this. LOL Yes, the big big city near here decided (for obvious political reasons) that NO one should go back to school. Nevermind that the private schools, etc. have been going just fine, but nope they will not. And the people with SN kids are climbing the walls and going cu-razy with frustration. Absolutely crazy. So yeah, drawing the line there and telling them to leap seems reasonable.

1 hour ago, Lecka said:

It’s also totally the kind of thing where I feel like I might basically just end up doing the work for him

Makes total sense. I frequently tell ds that *I* don't need to do this stuff, that I already know it, lol. But the level is correct. It's just that he'd rather do something else and check out or not give his full 100%. And it makes sense that if your ds is in a mainstream class for something, he's getting exposed to stuff that isn't really his precise instructional level. He was getting other benefits that made that not matter, but it's more glaring when it's just him. Same thing would happen to my ds. Not like they'd put him in a 6th grade science text if it were just him, lol. But per his IEP that's what would be coming home, which would be totally nuts.