Is about to be underway...I am currently in the research and organizational stages (what I do best:). We've dumped Saxon Math, and are finally used to and in LOVE with our new math program, which will take us through algebra: Math-U-See . This includes a short video for each lesson, followed by work book pages. The premise is that each child reach a level of mastery (i.e. they are able to teach it back to you), prior to moving on. The reason why we switched, is because Saxon Math jumped around, a LOT....it felt very choppy to me, and I found myself skipping lessings and spending extra time on other lessons....trying to organize their "disorganization." They try to give the young kiddos (we only did K and 1) a great overview...of everything....but I feel it didn't lead to a lot of comprehension/mastery. So, in April, we opted to dump Saxon, and move onto Math-U-See. The girls resisted, at first, as it was something new, and they were at least used to Saxon...but now they love it and can work fairly independently through the workbooks, which I love. The books are VERY focused....so, although we did some review, I opted to start them both back in the Alpha book, to master the concepts of addition and subtraction. This program really gives the kiddos a lot of building blocks to truly understand, and not just memorize. We're sort of "rushing" through Alpha in our summer school (since it is sort of review anyway...though my girls never liked subtraction...but now, because of this program, they are starting to really get it and feel comfortable with it!)
Next, reading...Little Angel is reading at probably the 5th or 6th grade level....about three weeks after she turned seven, something just clicked and she could suddenly read anything. She started out reading VERY phonetically, (though I intentionally did not teach her 'every' rule, so as not to make her 'rule' dependant.). She would sound out words, which led to some recognition, slowly gave way to recognizing and reading whole words...and then suddenly, she was reading anything and everything. It was incredible to see this. We probably only got about 3/4 of the way through the "Teach Your Child to Read" book...and with all the moving/relocations, etc....we did not do this everyday (and I wouldn't advise it anyway...they will get BORED).
Little Fairy girl is 6.5, also using the same reading program (after we tried MANY, with both, in the earlier days)...we had finally settled on "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons or Less"....a very inexpensive book, that really is a gem. I have a friend with nine children, who taught everyone of them to read, before they started school...she used this book. I've been very please with it. I may have majored in English, but that doesn't mean I inately knew how to teach children to read...I just knew it was kind of important:) Anyway, her learning style is different...I've never once heard her sound out a word, she just has more of a whole-language approach, even with the phonetic instruction. But she's also doing very well, and is well on her way!
We have a revised summer school schedule (math, reading)...but I am making plans for the fall now. I still love some of the Charlotte Mason concepts....Living Books (as opposed to boring text books:). I plan on finding books for the girls to read or for me to read to them; and start having them write/create book reports/ artwork, and special projects. I will put together unit studies to assist with this as well. They are now ready for this, and this will be a lot of fun for all of us!
We also like to play board games, such as Monopoly and Life and my home-made Math Store Fun...this makes math a lot of fun, and sort of brings the concepts to life for them. It's also improving their math skills quickly, in a fun way!
We will continue to periodically create and illustrate stories; someday I'd like our family to create children's books, together!
We do word games (like Hangman, and I'll soon get a junior edition of Scrabble), and dictate words for them to spell...they actually love doing this:) Little Angel is an incredible speller...happened right along with the reading (as a note, she stays up til 11 or 12, reading, almost everynight! I guess sleep schedules are different for homeschoolers;)
Music lessons will continue, mostly via their community children's choir...they did not care for piano lessons, so we stopped going for the time being. We can try again later. I'll do some more formal music training with them this year myself...teach them to play recorder and read music....things like that.
I will be searching for a keyboarding program, there must be many cute freebies for the kiddos on the net...so they can learn to type:)
No comments:
Post a Comment