A few years ago, I was at a booth at a small educational convention thingy. A teen came up and started playing with one of the computers. Somehow, it came up that she was homeschooled. I asked her about it, and she said it was boring. Her mom just spent all her time on the internet looking up ways to homeschool her.
I imagine I'm not the only one to whom that sounds uncomfortably familiar.
And that's about how I'm feeling right now, except that I am getting actual homeschooling done too, and not just meta-homeschooling.
I'm relatively happy with the curriculum we're using now, but I feel I need to find more to add on to it. I realize that, realistically, LemurBoy at least is not going to tolerate a few pages of Math Mammoth + MEP + NCERT textbooks from India, even if they each take somewhat different approaches and build different pathways and so forth. Maybe if we were getting through MM faster, and could reasonably take one day a week for a MEP day.
I think perhaps the heart of the matter is that I REALLY need to order more Math Mammoth. LemurBoy needs to move on, and now so does LemurGirl, who has recently developed great affection for math worksheets. She's 4, and I'm printing her out first grade math worksheets. The K ones are too easy. Anyways, she's pretty set on the K recommendations from Math Mammoth, so we'll be starting with that soon - once the tax return comes in and/or a big discount comes along. Because I really want to start her with the MM way of teaching from the beginning, so I feel like I'm spinning my wheels with her right now, since I don't want to progress her any further than she already is until I can teach it the "right" way.
In the meantime, I'm printing her out random first grade math worksheets, and she's happy with that. She loves math worksheets - as long as they're printed. We have workbooks full of similar worksheets, but she refuses to use them. I think she gets a special joy of having the printer extrude something just for her.
LemurBoy is still not reading fluently, but starting to find it enjoyable. We finished the second Boxcar Children book (read jointly) today. I have a feeling I may regret that we have quite so many of them before long, if I can't get him to accept some variety. But hey, he's reading! Kinda.
LemurGirl seems to have hit a wall with Hooked on Phonics (latter half of the K box) - she can do all the sounding out without problem, but the sight words are starting to get a bit beyond her. So we've switched back to Progressive Phonics for a little while. We've been doing that with LB's OLPC in tablet mode, and both of them get a kick out of that, though LB himself would prefer to just do the HOP and reading real books (specifically, Boxcar Children. Though I hope to try Magic Treehouse soon, too) together.
We're catching up to where we're "supposed" to be in history (have to keep on track, or my library holds are all thrown off). And now the baby is screaming, so I'll cut it short.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Thoughts of the week
LemurBoy caught on to reading in a bigger way the other night. I'm pretty sure he jumped a grade level in the course of an hour. He started figuring words out from the context and then seeing how the letters fit together to make the word. Then he started trying different possible pronunciations if the first one he tried didn't make sense.
All things I've been trying to teach him for the past two years. Something suddenly just clicked.
He still has a ways to go before he's really an independent reader, but now I feel that there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
This happened two days after I checked out Phonics Pathways from the library, but before I actually did a lesson with him. Magic book!
I need to figure out what I'm doing about handwriting. LemurGirl is 4, and very motivated to write, but holds the pencil in her fist and forms the letters all wrong. Intervention is obviously needed before bad habits are set. The italics curriculum doesn't really seem appropriate for her (It encourages waiting until 7 or so to start, and really seems designed for older kids), and it isn't particularly working well for LemurBoy as-is, either. I like the italics, so I may try editing it into something that works better for us.
The latter two thoughts remind me of my third one. LB's sudden cognitive leaps with reading, the feeling that we're spinning our wheels and not making much progress with Math Mammoth, and the handwriting thing make me think that we need to start making our curriculums work for us, rather than the other way around.
So... LB is days away from finishing the first half of HOP level 1. However, realistically, he already knows most of the second half. He needs more exposure to the associated sight words and some of the phonemes, but there's really no reason to keep plodding through on the parts he already knows well. So I'm running him through the workbook review at the end, and checking to see where he's actually having trouble. We'll do those sections, and all the sight words and stories. Then we'll probably do the same with grade 2.
With Math Mammoth, I'm going to say that we're done with the in-depth addition/subtraction stuff, and move on to another topic, but try incorporating 5 minute speed drills to get the facts down a bit more. I like that it teaches different sorts of mathematical thinking, but I have a feeling it's confusing and boring him, which is causing us to get hung up.
With italics, I'm going to cut and paste (perhaps literally, with scissors and glue) a letter formation guide, print out a copy of the alphabet, and have them go over that for a few days, then move on to the copywork, rather than keep going with the individual lessons. LB tends to get hung up on details and forget what he's doing when I try to do CM-style "quality over quantity" lessons, so I think I'm going to drop that idea.
LG says, while I was preparing dinner:
oolikoojjjjjj6aaaaasdgl;
]00=7ou'u,kklk aa
Things I want to buy:
* Pencil grips
* 3-hole punch
* Math Mammoth 1-6
* SOTW 3
* Laser printer
Printer probably isn't happening any time soon, unless we happen to find one used. The rest will. But I REALLY want a printer I can print stuff on with less concern about cost per page, especially with the Math Mammoth stuff.
One of my friends back in our old town is thinking about homeschooling her boy, who is right around LG's age. Darn the timing. I referred her to my old homeschooling group, as she was afraid that all the local homeschoolers were Christians who taught Creationism. Far from it, thankfully.
Book reviews ain't happening this week. I have three books started. One I like, but it isn't the type to rush through. One is part of a series that I've read the rest of, so I feel kind of obligated to give it a shot, but I'm not really in the mood for it. The third sounded like an interesting premise, but so far isn't particularly compelling.
That's ok. Some week when I read multiple books will undoubtedly come along. These things tend to ebb and flow for me.
And I've placed a few objects of utter fluff on hold to help ensure this.
All things I've been trying to teach him for the past two years. Something suddenly just clicked.
He still has a ways to go before he's really an independent reader, but now I feel that there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
This happened two days after I checked out Phonics Pathways from the library, but before I actually did a lesson with him. Magic book!
I need to figure out what I'm doing about handwriting. LemurGirl is 4, and very motivated to write, but holds the pencil in her fist and forms the letters all wrong. Intervention is obviously needed before bad habits are set. The italics curriculum doesn't really seem appropriate for her (It encourages waiting until 7 or so to start, and really seems designed for older kids), and it isn't particularly working well for LemurBoy as-is, either. I like the italics, so I may try editing it into something that works better for us.
The latter two thoughts remind me of my third one. LB's sudden cognitive leaps with reading, the feeling that we're spinning our wheels and not making much progress with Math Mammoth, and the handwriting thing make me think that we need to start making our curriculums work for us, rather than the other way around.
So... LB is days away from finishing the first half of HOP level 1. However, realistically, he already knows most of the second half. He needs more exposure to the associated sight words and some of the phonemes, but there's really no reason to keep plodding through on the parts he already knows well. So I'm running him through the workbook review at the end, and checking to see where he's actually having trouble. We'll do those sections, and all the sight words and stories. Then we'll probably do the same with grade 2.
With Math Mammoth, I'm going to say that we're done with the in-depth addition/subtraction stuff, and move on to another topic, but try incorporating 5 minute speed drills to get the facts down a bit more. I like that it teaches different sorts of mathematical thinking, but I have a feeling it's confusing and boring him, which is causing us to get hung up.
With italics, I'm going to cut and paste (perhaps literally, with scissors and glue) a letter formation guide, print out a copy of the alphabet, and have them go over that for a few days, then move on to the copywork, rather than keep going with the individual lessons. LB tends to get hung up on details and forget what he's doing when I try to do CM-style "quality over quantity" lessons, so I think I'm going to drop that idea.
LG says, while I was preparing dinner:
oolikoojjjjjj6aaaaasdgl;
]00=7ou'u,kklk aa
Things I want to buy:
* Pencil grips
* 3-hole punch
* Math Mammoth 1-6
* SOTW 3
* Laser printer
Printer probably isn't happening any time soon, unless we happen to find one used. The rest will. But I REALLY want a printer I can print stuff on with less concern about cost per page, especially with the Math Mammoth stuff.
One of my friends back in our old town is thinking about homeschooling her boy, who is right around LG's age. Darn the timing. I referred her to my old homeschooling group, as she was afraid that all the local homeschoolers were Christians who taught Creationism. Far from it, thankfully.
Book reviews ain't happening this week. I have three books started. One I like, but it isn't the type to rush through. One is part of a series that I've read the rest of, so I feel kind of obligated to give it a shot, but I'm not really in the mood for it. The third sounded like an interesting premise, but so far isn't particularly compelling.
That's ok. Some week when I read multiple books will undoubtedly come along. These things tend to ebb and flow for me.
And I've placed a few objects of utter fluff on hold to help ensure this.
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