Reading.......

Reading has been a slow process for Sam. I have had early readers and late readers so I know the timing of independent reading is not as important as loving to read. In fact, older sis did not start reading charpter books until she was an older 8. This late reading start has not had any lasting effect on her academics. I know this......

So what exactly is my problem with Sam's reading?

When I put my thoughts on paper there really isn't a problem. If I had sent him to ps I would have held him back a year and he would be entering 2nd grade. Summer birthday, preterm, severe speech motor issues, male......holding him back a year would have been the only workable solution for him. So if he attended a PS he would be in 2nd grade. He is reading at a 2nd grade level.

So what exactly is my problem with Sam's reading?

Pride. Plain and simple pride. Who wants to talk about how their child reads as "grade level"? Doesn't it always feel just a little good to state how "advanced" your child is? How many homeschooling mamas proudly flaunt the word "advance" when describing their children? Even when their dc look/act like perfectly normal and average kids? Why do we do this to ourselves?Most importantly....... how exactly did I fall into this pattern of guilt that my child------ whose speech therapist once stated would probably need intervention with a reading specialist due to the severity of his speech issue----- is reading at......*gasp*......grade level?

No more.

MY SON READS AT GRADE LEVEL!

It is a cause for celebration not despair. In the process he has learned to work hard and that perserverance pays off. Both are great lessons for a young boy to learn. I am proud of him!

He still has work to do and we will continue having reading lesson until he reaches the fluency level that he will pick up and read a chapter book without assistance.

This year our reading program is multifaceted.

Each day
--- a short reading drill for review. 1-2 pages of Phonics Pathways.
---20-30 minutes of free reading. He currently prefers to read books that he has already read.
---15-20 minutes of reading from Pathway Readers with me.
---choral reading of bible selections that are scheduled in MFW Adv.
--- All About Spelling lessons are also phonics review lessons.
---High interest read alouds to motivate him to take the next step in reading.

The most important aspect of Sam's ongoing reading program is that his mama will stop listening to the critics, braggards and toxic personalities. Instead I will relish each of his victories as he progresses to a competent and fluent reader!

Houston, we have a problem.....

Five words or less has become Sam's motto for writing. He will put up his hand and try to summarize George Washington or any subject that he thinks that he will have to write about into five words or less. His summary for the first President of the United States....

He was a tall man.

He eliminated George, Washington, general, president and a great number of other words because he did not want to attempt the spelling. He certainly didn't want to mention surveyer, plantation, French and Indian War , Declaration of Independence or any other particular event. So he sifted through all the information that he knows about President Washington and managed to find 5 words that he can spell without thinking and that became his summary.

Obviously I need to rethink writing.

If I remove the written narrations he will speak volumes about our first President complete with actions and sound effects. However even his oral narrations are becoming a bit stilted since there is always that looming thought......"will I be expected to write this down?"

So that is the first step----completely eliminate any original writing from his weekly routine. I know this but have continue to blindly follow our curriculum into doing written narrations before their time. No more written narrations for the rest of the year!

So we will follow Charlotte Mason suggestions to the letter. Copywork, Oral Narrations and Dictation. Copywork, Oral Narrations and Dictation. Copywork. Oral Narrations. Dictation.

While pondering this dilemma of the 5 finger summary, I happened to come across a series of lectures by Susan Wise Bauer on writing. Her perspective on oral narrations, dictation is a bit different than Charlotte Mason's.

SWB's oral narrations are to help the child to summarize and find the main point of a passage. CM's oral narrations are an opportunity for the child to tell what he knows from a passage. SWB's approaches dictations with the expectation that the instructor will help the child as much as possible including spelling words if needed. CM's dictation is a prepared dictation that the child is instructed to "see" each word and the instructor covers mistakes as they happen and allows the child to correct after the exercise is completed.

That is my very basic understanding about the differences between SWB's writing plan and CM's writing plan! I'm sure there can be much debate about the similarities and differences between the two but I really have no desire to decide which way is best and why. I have only one desire at this point....



How to get my writing-phobic son to write!

I re-read SWB's Strong Foundations with the goal to make sure I have my basis covered with our readings from MFW Adventures. Ultimately, I decided to make it easier on myself and use Writing with Ease 2.

Oral Narrations-Let's start with the easiest for Sam. If I eliminate the threat...I mean possibility .....of a written narration he has the ability to become quite eloquent with his oral narrations. I will continue to follow CM's goal in oral narrations for all our reading with MFW's Adventures. I will allow him the opportunity to tell what he knows of a subject while encouraging to speak in complete sentences and using all the wonderful vocabulary that he has acquired.

I will use Writing with Ease to help him learn the ability to summarize and find the main idea. There are two exercises each week.

Copywork. He doesn't like it but we need more of it.WWE2 has a weekly selection. MFW Adv has a weekly selection from scripture that is being memorized.

Dictation. Day 3 of WWE2 is a dictation exercise that he would have done as copywork the previous day. Day 4 is a dictation exercise of his summary. That may be too similar to a written narrations so we may have to skip it for now. There are also sentences for dictation in All About Spelling.

The other dilemma is Primary Language Lessons. PLL is a great resource for teaching LA with a gentle intro of grammar. The problem is that it is in a non consumable book form and Sam is finding it cumbersome to use. We have tried a variety of solutions to help him with using a book and a separate piece of paper. He prefers that I re-write the information so he can do the exercises. I really have no desire to re-write the exercises. I'm just that lazy! I also saw no real need to take a subject that is not natural for him and make it more difficult by using a resource that he finds cumbersome.

So I have searched for alternatives. My options were to buy something new or use what I have. I have Learning Language Arts Through Literature so that is what we are going to trial.

LLATL has a weekly copywork exercise.....which can be done as dictation as the year progresses. There are exercises in grammar that are similar to PLL's that are in a format that are easier for him to use. There are also weekly spelling that I feel we can probably skip since we are using AAS.

So that brings our revamped LA program for Sam----

Writing With Ease2-copywork, dictation, oral narrations.

Learning Language Arts Through Literature-copywork, grammar.

+ MFW Adventures -copywork selection and oral narrations.

All About Spelling-dictation

This will give us 2-3 selections per week of copywork, 2-3 selections for dictations, ample opportunities to practice CM's oral narrations in addition to 2 opportunities to practice SWB's summary narrations.

Let's see where this takes us!

File Folders

I had a mountain of paper growing on my desk. I attempted to reclaim my desk with binders but then I had a binder problem. I had a binder for every child, every subject and another binder for completed work. I also had another crate full of TMs, CDs, and other resources that I use throughout the year. I was starting to lose items that I needed to load our workboxes and the clutter was disrupting our day.

Then I read this blog post from Springs of Joy Homeschooling and found our solution!

Each quarter is color coded and has 10 File folders. 9 for each school week and 1 for the extras that I will use for the whole quarter. Each weekly file has a folder for each child that contains all the loose items they will use during that week. Currently each child's folder has their MFW sheets, LA sheet and math sheets. The orange folders in the back contains the resources that we will use during the entire year such as our phonics game, TMs, CDs, etc.

I was able to eliminate all our extra binders! Now I only need to look in 2 places....instead of 7...... when looking for items for our workboxes. So Simple!

Now I need to decide what to do with the papers once the child has completed the assignments. We are already on week 8 of MFW Adventures so the MFW sheets will continue to go into Sam's history notebook. I believe for now all the completed work will be returned into the weekly folder so I will have a clear visual of the progress the kids have made for the year.

Hopefully this tames the paper monster!

The beginning of Charlotte's Kindergarten Year.....

Where oh where has the time gone? Little Charlotte --whose big claim to fame at the start of the little blog was that she had just moved from her crib---- is almost 5 and it is time for the schooling to begin.

She has been enjoying a long and wonderful Charlotte Mason Preschool but it is time to add in a little bit of schoolwork each day. We have added a little bit this past year as she desired but in no way have we've been consistent or required that she participate.......and most days she did not. However, she would often stand beside Sam as we worked through a concept and she has been able to pick up quite a bit in this manner.

Our Kindergarten philosophy is still the basic plan for this next year. We will still spend a great quantity of time outside exploring our world but we need to add something to start developing the habit of schooltime. The difference between Sam's Kindergarten year and Charlotte's Kindergarten year is that Charlotte will have a slightly older brother's studies to tag-a-long. She already participates in some of the science projects, craft projects and read alouds that are scheduled in MFW Adventures. There is little need to plan on scheduling extra stories----unless she requests a re-read of her particular favorites of the past few years. So the big additions will be handwriting, math and phonics.

We will use Handwriting without Tears and Math-U-See Primer just as we did with Sam.

The big questions is phonics. She has already picked up quite a bit of the phonics by listening to Sam's lessons. 100 Easy lessons is going to be a step back. Honestly, I just don't think I'm willing to work through 100 Easy lessons for a 4th time! Since I plan on using All About Spelling with her next year for spelling that is the first option. I hear rumors of people who are using this spelling program to teach their children to read. Phonics Pathways is the second option. For the next month we are going to experiment with these two resources and see which "clicks" with her and is easy enough for me to pull together with minimal effort.

So the plan for Charlotte's Kindergarten year.

---Daily use

MUS Primer,

HWOT,

and our phonics program to help develop the habit of schooltime.

---Encourage her to participate in Sam's studies with MFW Adventures.

---Continue to spending lots of time in play both indoors and out.

Let the Adventure begin!