I was just wondering if anyone else was focusing on a specific area this year? My oldest DS has always had a problem with reading. Last year was our first year homeschooling and I believe I managed to pull him up almost 1.5 grade levels. But he is still nearly a year behind if not more from where he 'should' be. So, we are super reading intensive this year. Everything we do, whether it is math, science, social studies, art, music, grammer, spelling, is reading first and the other areas second. So what problem areas are you working on this year and how are you going about it?
Reading Comprehension is a biggie with my oldest especially and an area I hope to improve multiple times over by this time next year. To go about it - first things first, I'm learning about my kid. The difficulties he deals with daily (a language disorder, and possibly high functioning autism or Asperger's), his learning style, his INTERESTS as far as reading, and what order of things will help him to understand and retain what he reads. I'm currently in this research area, and trying a little of this and a little of that to see what works. My theory is, start at the beginning and keep working through - SO not worried about fitting him to a standard. For my little ones, we're working largely on counting and phonics. They're 3 and 4, so to me there's not a whole lot of use in doing much beyond that. We're basing these studies on animals as much as possible, because that's where their interests lie. I'm researching also with them, for their preferences and learning styles and what difficulties they might be facing so that I can better discover the order in which to do things with them. (It's totally possible that they are both also high functioning autism spectrum, and so I'd want to start where they are and not push things that will most likely be more difficult. I just want an idea so that I don't push them too hard in an area that they just can't grasp yet.) A large emphasis for all of my kids (my 8yo as well as my two preschoolers) will be Bible this year. We're incorporating it into our history studies, and I have high hopes to see my oldest give his life to the Lord this year. This is more of a studies emphasis than a subject concentration, if that makes sense. Everything around us has meaning in God's world and God's time, and so we're relating all things to HIM and HIS WORD rather than... well, whtaever else. Self, I guess, is what the ps kids learn to relate the world to and measure it by. [shrug] Great thread!
For my 11 yo ds I am focusing on getting his multiplication facts memorized so we can move ahead with our math curriculum. He uses his fingers to do addition and subtraction so I want to break him of that. Also, we are working on his writing skills. For 16 yo ds I am focusing on Algebra so he can pass the COMPASS test and take college algebra. We are also working on doing research papers and putting things in his own words. For 3 yo ds my plan is to teach him to read. He is eager to do this, it is not something I am putting on him. He constantly asks me, "Mommy, what does this say?" He knows his letters and lots of the sounds so we are continuing with that.
Writing!!!!! UGH My 3rd grader struggles so much with writing. I can't decide if it's my fault--like I should've done something differently or if this is just her area of weakness. From a 'teacher's' perspective it's a little unusual to have a kid who reads so well and has such a hard time writing!
Our main focus is to have fun learning lol. We're not zoning in on one particular thing because dd does well in all areas so far.
With Emily it is multiplication and math in general. Her reading is fine if I could just get her to enjoy it more.
Ours is math, reading, and writing. We are still trying to catch up from when I took him out of public school last Feb.. He was so behind in so much. So, we are working hard on the basics and the rest will follow soon .
For my ds13 it's writing. Writing reports and biographies and other papers well. Also for him, it's writing neatly. So, even though he is in 9th grade, I have him do handwriting, because he got so messy/sloppy! He has beautiful writing when he does his handwriting assignments, and I told him I want him to use THAT kind of writing when he does his papers---neat and orderly! For dd, it would be to put things away when she's done. Her stuff gets spread out all over the place on the floor, on the couch, wherever she happened to be working at the time. Then she moves on to something else, but leaves her other stuff where it was! For me, I'd go with patience and being a Godly example!
My focus for the year is to keep all the juggling balls up in the air - school, daycare, family, church activities, and gymnastics. Dh is begging me to drop something, but even he doesn't know what it can be.
ok- count me in on a couple things mentioned already... working on neatness with ds10, making letters fit the form they are supposed to, he has a problem with putting them below the line! Not sure why but it has been consistant since kgarden days. So I am working on that, he has great cursive when he looks at the other letters, beautiful! So we may work a little on memorizing the letters in that style. Neatness would be my key word! with dd I am working on two things, getting her to keep things organized in school and out, and to write papers, research, and write the information she processes down in her own words. She writes neatly for the most part, cursive is awsome but she is short in answers and does not like to write long papers as she gets bored with what she is trying to say and just says it straight. She is a person of little words and always has been... unlike her mother! personally I am working on neatness myself in the house as well, organizing things that used to be that way but with all that went on in the past year and a half it has slipped and I am working to bring it back! With God helping me I know I can do all things! This too shall pass! :angel:
It's great to see we share some of the same issues! I too took my son out of public school because he was so behind in everything. I've only homeschooled for the last 18 months, but every six months or so I have a new focus. When we started it was memorizing math facts, then it was reading and phonics, then math word problems. He's started on a homeschool high school program and our focus is on writing. And I too, work to have a Scream Free day, everyday!
We are trying to find really good books that DS1 will enjoy reading. He reads WELL above "grade level" but his stint in PS ruined the enjoyment of reading. DS2 has just begun reading so I am trying to work on developing a reading habit. I am even getting DH involved in the reading habit. He has been reading non stop lately so it is great for the boys to see. AM
We are focusing on reading confidence building. Sight words are a sub focus of the reading focus as we need more work in that area to make reading and spelling go more smoothly. Otherwise we are writing pretty freely at this point however spelling is pretty bad. We edit and rewrite and use a dictionary to look up some words when editing. The whole re-write opportunity seems to free my student up to write without stress knowing she can fix it later.
I guess you would say our focus is anything physical. We aren't doing anything formal this year for K, and ds has been a little reserved about physical activity. But boy is he making headway!
Keeping focus is going to be our focus. We stray and it's also my fault. I need to stick to a game plan. Like we have stop and gone to something else because it was different. NExt week we will go back to our regular planned stuff. My preschoolers will still do what they are doing but my son needs work on oral work. DD2 talks better than him it seems. He's very laid back and does his own thing. DD7 needs extra work with money, and memory skills. She also needs work on geting what she wants to say onto paper. She can say stuff but writing is harder since she still doesn't spell very well. One reason why I bought a spelling book this year.
My focus is also to not yell, or get so agitated some days. The focus for the kids is to quit fiddle-farting around and FOCUS! As far as academics go, Tris has issues with his handwriting & Sebastion isn't quite grasping some of his LA. But we believe that their attitude is more important than academics. So we're focusing on their focus, attitude & self-worth skills the most"est".
My focus is to have fun! and work on her writing a bit more, its all over the sheet. and of course reading, to read is to have an imagination beyond our control..books can take you SO many places!
