For Claire and anyone else who has BTDT

[Stirsmommy]

I am sitting here tonight looking at DD's curriculum plans for next year. Already done, she excited and for the most part I am too. Then I look at DS's and it says SOTW3 with CD's. I feel so stuck because I don't know what to plan for with him. We are doing RR and I am trying to decide on math for him. But if we finish RR and he is beginning to read ( and yes I know I am banking on a lot) then what do I do. Will I need a special spelling and grammar lesson too? His Dad keeps asking if I have any sort of tallies as to costs for him but I don't know what to do. I feel like right now I am operating in free fall clinging to RR because that is what there is. He also listening and coloring to SOTW2 cd's. We do fun experiments for science. I just feel really disjointed. Can you share what to expect and what you moved on to after RR? I don't want to overwhelm but I don't want him without a challenge either or he will look for something challenging and I will end up with a dismantled toaster!

Thanks in advance for any help or just plain reassurance you can send my way!

Melissa

[Claire]

My advice is to cross each bridge as you come to it. There is no need to plan out an entire year, especially for the lower elementary grades. Math and reading are the major subjects to spend time on. There are lots of great science and history DVDs available that make good supplements. I would also advise doing some listening to audiobooks every day -- books that are way above your son's reading level -- to develop oral vocabulary and language skills. Include discussion of those books. A lot of learning can take place orally at this stage.

 

RR takes a child up to about a solid 4th grade level of reading. Once you are getting near the end of RR (or if you run into trouble before then), post here. There are some very good reading materials to move on to afterwards.

 

Different children run into different problems with reading, and make progress at different speeds. You really need to focus on RR for now and see where it takes your son before making a decision about the next step.

[Stirsmommy]

Thank you Claire. That is exactly what I needed to hear. I am a planner/list maker by nature. Although I am flexible I like to have my preliminary list. I needed what you said so that I can say to myself, this is my list. I did actually throw out the goals I had had for each year for him so I can't quit feeling like I am getting farther and farther behind. Do I need to have any yearly goals at this point or just let it be what it becomes? How will I know what good progress is? I know right now for me his handwriting improvements and what we are doing in RR are big improvements to me but perhaps aren't all that great of progress as to what is to be expected.

thank you so much for your Patience through all of my questions.

[Claire]

If you can see the progress, chances are he's doing fine. When the progress is significant enough to see, it's good. It's when you work on something for two or three weeks and don't see any progress at all that you need to become concerned. Math and reading are the primary subjects for grades 1 through 3, and probably through 4th. All of the other subjects can be caught up quickly in upper elementary. Math and reading are the most critical and the ones that typically take the most time to get caught up in.

[Stirsmommy]

Then I will just go by progress. We do history and science as fun add on and so that school doesn't have to be something we dread. He does love audio books but we haven't had any lately as our library isn't that good for audio books. But with convention coming I am hoping to pick some up for him.