Hi, i have a 9 year old son that i have been homeschooling for a year now. He was way behind in school and now seems to be ahead in some areas. I'm anxious to get some great advice here.
Hi! Welcome to the board. I am sure you will like it. I have found the ladies here to be very helpful. Jump right in and join the discussions!
Welcome, Lilbean! Isn't it amazing what just one year will do? My girls will soon be 11 and 8, plus my son is 5. We started homeschooling from Day One!
Your at the right area to get help. The ladies here are wonderful and will help in every way they can. Have a question don't be afraid to ask. See something that might be intersted to you join in. Welcome to the board. :lol:
Hi, thanks for the welcome everyone I love homeschooling my son but i always fear that i am not doing a good job. Maybe that comes with the territory :wink: I hope he is learning enough. Do you ever feel that way?
lilbean.... I certainly feel that way and I was a certified teacher and taught for years. I think we all get those feelings. Atleast, I think we all do. If any of you don't, will you please let me know your secret??? Welcome to our message board. This is a nice place to ask lots of questions and learn tons of stuff about homeschooling. I have been homeschooling for almost two years now. I love it. I love being home with my kids all day and being in charge of their learning. I think we have grown even closer as a family. My dd once had such anxiety about going to school....tummy aches every single day. Now, she is a normal child who seems happy all the time! Homeschooling is really working out nice for us. I hope to hs for a very long time. I am a little worried about middle and high school but we'll cross that road when we come to it. We may try virtual school or something of that nature. Things may change and improve too in four years or more. By the way, my kids are 8 (dd) and 4 (ds). Missy
Hi and welcome, We all have doubts from one time or another as if we are doing enough, or well enough, or if they are learning enough (or anything) sometimes , but you are already finding out that you are doing a great job! He is already doing better than he was before you started. Just keep at it and it will work out. You can always come here and ask questions, vent on frustrating days, tell about achievements, talk, whatever you need because there is always someone to listen to you or help out when you need it. Welcome!! Kim R
Ok, i have a question My son HATES to read and write. I have tried everything i can think of to help. Even let him pick the books. He does it ok when i ask but he cannot comprehend the vowel sounds. When he writes, he skips all the vowels and when he reads, he forgets all the sounds they make. We have tried different vowel activities but he still doesn't understand. Any one know of some tricks for vowel sounds? Thanks
Have you considered backing off on reading for a year? Instead, read TO him constantly. He's probably got a bad taste in his mouth from school and feels he CAN'T. Some kids simply are not ready to read until they're nine. So you might just take a year off, read to him constantly, and he might come around when he's ready.
That's so hard. He's 9 now so I'm sure you feel a lot of pressure in teaching him to read/write. It really sounds like you need to back up and do some basic phonics teaching (with the vowels especially). There are so many ways to do this. You can spend money and buy a phonics program (like Hooked on Phonics or just a phonics curriculum from say BJU or Calvert or something). You could just start with some simple things like worksheets printed offline. Reading to him and pointing out vowel sounds is important. Explain that ALL words need vowels. There are some neat eduacational toys and games at school supply stores that teach vowel sounds as well. Since he's 9 he's probably not into many of the Leapfrog toys but the videos are really good. If he enjoys watching videos then I would start there. My son loves them and has learned lots from them. The letter factory teaches letter recognition and letter SOUNDS. The vowels may "stick" in his better with a song and a picture to go with it. Do you know what kind of a learner he is? I know my son is musical, auditory and visual so videos are a fun way of teaching some concepts. You may want to do a simple test to see how he learns best before making any decisions on how to teach him. http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html This site is neat. It's more for adults but it is fun to do for yourself. Here's a basic list of some of the learning styles.... 1. VERBAL/LINGUISTIC: Kids like to read, write, edit, speak, and listen. 2. LOGICAL/MATHEMATICAL: Kids like to experiment, test, and look for patterns and sequences. They enjoy puzzles and engaging in sequential activities. They think handling information with accuracy and testing theories are fun. 3. BODILY/KINESTHETIC: These children enjoy games, sports, crafts, and other physical activities. They may enjoy role-playing, hands-on activities, and fixing things. They are your typical "wiggle worms." Software for this type of learning needs to be creative and fast-paced. 4. VISUAL/SPATIAL: These children need to see things to learn. They enjoy visuals of all kinds including films, videos, photos, graphic arts, maps, charts, and models. Painting, drawing, and building things interest this type of learner. 5. MUSICAL: These children learn best in a musical environment. They are sensitive to rhythm and melody, and may enjoy playing an instrument or singing. 6. INTERPERSONAL: This type of learning style likes to learn with other people. These children are very social and group learning appeals to them. 7. INTRAPERSONAL: These children will want to learn alone. They enjoy self-directed activities, are independent, like to work at their own pace, and are self-starters. 8. NATURALIST: These children have a love for and great interest in nature. They love to classify and recognize relationships, interact with living things, and to discern patterns in life. Here's another site that may help... http://family.msn.com/tool/article.aspx?dept=raising&sdept=rks&name=sc_111103_childsmarts I'm sure some of the other ladies here can give some better websites on learning styles. Hope this helped a little.
Hi! I'm new to the board too. I think Momtoampm's post is right on track. You have to know your child's learning style in order to appeal to them. My DD is BODILY/KINESTHETIC 100%! She is advancing at such a fast pace because I do activities that match her particular style of learning. It's amazing to me how much this impacts the child's eagerness and willingness to learn! :wink:
atlantamomof2.... What kinds of things did you do when teaching your dd the alphabet? I think my son does well with activities that are kinesthetic too. If you don't mind sharing, do you have any fun ways to reinforce letter recognition and sounds?
I guess i don't mind backing off reading for a year but he is actually almost 10 so i hate for him to be so far behind. mom2ampm- I looked at your list of learning styles and he fits a few......lol like: LOGICAL/MATHEMATICAL VISUAL/SPATIAL MUSICAL INTRAPERSONAL - But he does have to have me by him every second He's really a bit of all of those above. Other than reading, writing and spelling, he blows me away with some of his amazing answers and even teaches us some. I will look into the Leapfrog videos. I don't have a lot of cash so expensive learning programs are not possible right now but i did subscribe to EDhelper.com and download work from there. We have been doing vowel sound activities and work sheets for almost the whole year and my husband and i have always read to him from the day he was born. He reads OK but the spelling is terrible when he reads and writes. He is great in every other subject and is a little ahead. I will try all your suggestions. Thanks a bunch. Oh and how do i figure out what to teach him for his learning styles?
I used the Hooked on Phonics audio tape to teach letter sounds but we did the American Sign Language sign when saying the word that went with the letter. Like instead of saying just "A, aaa, apple" we also did the sign for apple so she's used her body. This is also what we're doing now with digraphs. Maggie knows between 60-70 signs! I know it's because of her physical ability. She loves it!! A great sign language website is: http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm Games are a great way to teach literacy too! We played ABC Bingo when she was learning her letters and their sounds. Every turn she would say the letter name and the sound of the card drawn. I made a matching game of lower case and upper case letters. She loves matching games! I used one when teaching simple short vowel 3-letter words too! I had her read the word each turn. It was a great way to reinforce what she was learning. Maggie was also on the computer quite a bit so she was learning from her PC games during that time (I was lucky enough to have an aunt who homeschooled her daughter and she passed everything my way! ) She still gets on for about an hour (30 minutes in the morning and 30 in the afternoon) average each day. I can't think of any others for letter sounds but I have several more for once he's reading! We don't hardly even use the Hooked On Phonics because she's learning through games, activities, ect. Hope this helps! :wink:
One more thing, my daughter loves music and learns a lot from songs. If your son does too you might find this site helpful: http://www.mrsjones.org/letter/all.html
Thanks for the ideas! We have been trying to learn the alphabet (upper and lower case and sounds) for almost two years. Last year, he just didn't seem too interested. This year he's doing great. But, there are still some lower case letters he just hasn't learned. We do a lot of activities....I own almost every educational abc game out there. I think that has helped a lot. I also bought Hooked on Phonics that I plan to use next year when he'll be considered PreK-4. I think he really needs to know the letters well before I start that one though. Thanks for the ideas! I tend to forget things lately so it's nice to have lots of ideas from friends!
I was hoping some other ladies would come on and tell some sites where you can actually test your son. That way you will know which style he prefers the most. We all have several but usually prefer one learning style over all the rest. I am a very visual learner. So, I learn best with lots of pictures, reading, charts, posters and such. I also do well with writing something over and over because I can picture it in my head. When you know for sure which style he prefers you can do a search online say for "help for the visual learner" or "activities for auditory learners" and you should find some good ways to teach to that style.
teaching vowels Look for a card game that consists of three letter words - three cards will make up one word with a matching background that helps the child make the word. In this they see that, and you should repeatedly reinforce that, every word has to have a vowel. I started off by telling my daughter they are 'usually' in the middle of the word and then asking her to point out and name the vowel. The smaller words keep the child from becoming overwhelmed. I took it one step further and had her tell me if the word was a noun or adjective ( the back sides make a matching picture using the descriptive form and she could choose to make either. IE the complete front makes a picture of a dog. One card has a D the next an O, and so on... the back side might have W then E then T with a pic of the same dog as on the front but is dripping wet) If she was right she got to keep the card set and count up her sets at the end. She is extremely competitive so this was great for her. Another idea.. on any alphabet list you have around make the vowels all the same color as eachother, the rest all a single different color. Ask him to point out the vowels. This will help it to stick out in his mind and soon he will begin to peice it all together. Also when you read to him, like everyone else has suggested- use your finger to slowly point out each word as you read it and read slightly slower pronouncing words and their main vowel sound(s) as you go. This can be tedious and you might feel like you sound real silly. But it shouldn't take long of doing this before it begins to have a lasting benefit. You don't really have to say.. im teaching you vowels. I find that my daughter is more open if she doesnt think i'm 'teaching' but regardless she picks it up. When you point their eyes tend to follow and it sinks in better with out them even knowing it... As opposed to feeling inadequate and lost as you read at YOUR advanced level. Let him choose his reading material... even if you think it's too advanced for him...he will take more interest if its his choice. You will just need to remember to read and point slowly. Every now and then while reading to him, read most of the sentence stopping at a word you know he knows or can figure out. This lets him participate, encourages following along and builds his confidence as he 'helps' you read. Don't expect perfection and applaud every effort, remembering to not be critical. I hope some of this is helpful to you. Reading I can teach... now Math is a whole other animal species, lol.
Welcome to all the newbies. Homeschooling is different for all of us. Try not to worry too much about everything. Reading is important, imho the most important. Your library may have many of the ideas mentioned above. Mine has the Leapfrog videos and even Hooked on Phonics. In the end most children just need daily instruction not fancy programs. That said if they begin to cry the moment you pull out a particular curriculum each day, consider modifying or ditching it. Many of the learning style ideas can be incorporated into any curriculum choice. And don't forget to get them hooked on reading anything (almost anything) they love. A weekly trip to the library is a great place to start, and it is free! Enjoy the boards ladies. They are a wonderful place to hear from other homeschooling moms. Blessings~ Tammy
You all have great advice but i have tried them all......lol Except the sign language (good idea ) He can point out any vowel, he knows verbs, nouns, adverbs, ect. and I ask him to read everything and he does it ok but gets upset when he doesn't understand the word. I learned by sounding out all the letters but he doesn't get that. I started having him point out the sylables and that has helped. He just gets frustrated and so hates it. Funny thing is, he can read the big, long words but not the small ones! And he can barely spell. I told him that every word has a vowel and that helped too but now he puts in the vowels (mostly wrong ones but in the right place) but he now forgets the other letters......lol. I will try the sign language one. Thanks for all the advice
