Did you ever have a year that was a complete flop???? urgh....... My kids and I just did a unit in Science. They did great with the unit. The quizes they got great grades on... My son just took the test and bombed it!!!!!! I just found myself yelling and told him he better start writing a report on the subject. I hate when i loose my cool and I really don't understand how this can be..... Then to make matters worse my daughter is constantly eating and listening to her chew all morning is making me crazy...... I was in a fantastic mood and now I feel like I am ready to jump....... Is it just me????
The reason I said the year was a flop, we tested the kids the other night and they bombed that as well. I then recieved a huge lecture from my husband on how this is probably not working because I have limited time and I am not a teacher by trade. Oh, it's been a week. Please tell me I am not ruining my kids forever....
Okay now that I have settled down a bit...... I told my daughter to go to her room and make lap books for her science for example vascualar plants and non-vascular plants. Then I told her I want a presentation after dinner. That seemed to make her happy, I just hope she retains something from it...... She struggles with ADD and doesn't want to take medication for it. I do respect her in that. She also struggles with tracting. I did get her the speciality glasses that have prisms in them. Maybe she needs therapy as well. I told her if she can't concentrate for school she may have to use medication. She bombed her spelling too....... Oh, I have to laugh and come up with different ways of learning. Why don't I have kids that just read and retain all the information??? Wouldn't that be wonderful
Try Spelling Power - it's awesome - 5 minutes tops a day and works wonders! I love it! Also - something to help her concentrate - Bach's Flowers Remedy - seriously - my 18 yr old SWEARS by them for her stress levels and test taking! Ok - other points (sorry - was called away to diagram sentences before and we got distracted drawing on the windows and adding in descriptive words).... Test taking might be a problem - so what about pacing it out differently or even wording it differently. Taking it in smaller steps? Depending on what you are using - this can help! I think for a ADD person - doing a presentation for science is a lot more effective than taking a test. My 12 year old struggled BIG time with reading - honestly I don't want to know what would have happened if she was in PS. It effected every other subject because she could not read and retain any information. SO - we switched her over to audio books. 2+ years later - she STILL loves those books and can tell you about them. We did everything orally. She's in PS now - on the A/B honor roll every quarter so far in 6th grade. Nope - I didn't ruin her (though sometimes it feels like it because she is in some controlled classrooms - but it works for her!)..... Her reading has greatly improved - especially since she got in kindle - and she is reading on her level and sometimes a little higher. If she gets overwhelmed, she goes back to a lower level book so she "knows" she can read it and fast - that gives her back her confidence. Hope this helps a little!!
What did you do for testing? Are they traditional test questions, maybe it would be better if the test was done orally and have them explain the concepts, not focus on the detail. Sometimes it is the test structure that kids with learning disabilities have issues with. If that is the case, ps would be even worse for them. Maybe you need to do a unit on time management and study skills with them? They do not teach that in the ps but you can do that as a subject at home. BJU has a video I think on study skills for teens. What are you using for spelling? Are you doing a traditionaly learn a list of words and be tested on them? If so maybe you need to look at something like Sequential Spelling which teaches in a different manner. It is hard if dh is not 100% on board. If kids have learning disabilities it takes time for them to learn how to learn and how to test. It is also extremely important to find the curriculum that fits them, alot of time textbook/workbook approaches do not work for these kids. It really does take research on the part of the parent to find the right match for their kids. The other thing is do not be afraid to throw in the towel on a curriculum mid year. I know one Mom that did that with her high school son's Math course. She had been using one curriculum for a few years but it just was not working. She finally gave up mid year and tried a different curriculum with a different approach and it worked. She also had him work at a slower pace because doing it at a traditional pace did not give him enough time to process the material. The boy will not graduate with courses like pre-calc on his transcript but then again he will not be going into a Math field because that is not where his strenghts/loves are, and you know that is ok.
Well we have been using BJU, I tried Switch on schoolhouse, oak meadow, didn't work...... What else is there? Spelling power was a bomb for her. Sometime I wonder if she is applying herself
Christine there are soooo many choices out there for curriculum. It can really be overwhelming. Check out Sequential Spelling. It was developed by someone who worked with dyslexsic adult in teaching them to read. http://avko.org/sequentialspelling.html You can usually find this at used curriculum sales or even on the used curriculum websites. They also sell a dvd so you do not have to do the teaching. Math I already told you about videotext math. History you might want to try a lit approach like Beautiful Feet. That worked great for my one nephew who never really liked history. He learned a ton and because it was done through interesting books he retained it. For science you might want to check out Rainbow Science. http://beginningspublishing.com/version2/rainbow.htm Alot of folks like this better than Apologia. Do you have a Rainbow Resources catalog yet? There are tons of things in there. You can also check out Cathy Duffy to see what recomendations she has on her site.
I have the rainbow catalog, but I find it overwhelming at times. I guess I should pull it back out. Its funny you recommended Beautiful Feet, I just recommended that for someone. I will have to check out their web site again. She did her presentation tonight and she really did a fantastic job. I will try reading the the test to her and have her answer the questions. Just when i think I have everything figured out they send me a curve ball. I have to print out all the information you gave me and have it on hand. Boy I sure do wish you were my neighbor
Don't judge your kids' knowledge or retention by a test. Some people are just NOT test takers. I had a student who could tell me everything and did fine on the worksheets. However, he tanked every single test. And I hated telling him because he'd always think he'd nailed it. But I could tell by the other things he'd done that he obviously did at least know a substantive amount of the information. He just locked up on the tests. Really, tests are used by schools because, with that many students, it can be hard to gauge if someone has 'gotten' it or not. When you have so few students, you should be able to tell just by talking to them if they seem to have grasped the ideas or not. So, don't worry too much about the test grades. If it seems they've gotten it from everything else, then I'd be satisfied with.
Shelley, That helps a lot. I generally go by that rule but my dh wanted me to start testing them to see where they are. urgh.... One point he did bring up is when they are in college they will need to learn to test. Which is a valid point but just made for a bad week.
That's true. But I prefer to see people spend time working with kids on learning how to take a test. I don't think schools [or homeschools] often think much that just throwing tests at kids and expecting them to do well is a lot like throwing paper at them and expecting them to write well. We teach kids the fundamentals of everything we expect them to do well at, so I'm often amazed that we don't bother teaching them the fundamentals of test taking. ---- not saying that to slam you...it's just a general observation. Personally, I wish I'd taken that time in the classroom. We have kids practice standardized testing, but we don't do it for regular testing. I'm really not sure why. I have to wonder how much better my students who seemed to struggle with test-taking might have performed if I'd helped them learn how to deal with a test [e.g. not spending a lot of time on a question they don't know; marking out things they know for sure aren't correct; etc.]. Ultimately, all we can do is our best! Tests really aren't the best way to determine if knowledge has been retained, but it's the most typical thing we use. It's kind of sad for students everywhere.
I so agree with you. When dd gets up to middle school I plan on offering a course at our co-op on study skills, note taking and test taking. These are all skills the kids need to learn and develop. Some kids pick them up naturally others need to be taught this and time management. Here is the link for that DVD I mentioned : http://www.bjupress.com/webapp/wcs/...2&productId=1716955&langId=-1&catalogId=10151 Or HSLDA lists :http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1050 Either of those might really help your kids learn the skills they will need.
My dd13 has tracking and focusing trouble (along with several other perception issues). She doesn't wear glasses. Our eye doc told me they wouldn't help. She did go through 2 years of vision therapy, and it did help but did not "cure" her. She has LOTS of trouble writing and spelling, though she can read (late reader). She just cannot visualize the words to get them back on paper. Spelling Power was a huge flop with her, too. We didn't get anywhere with it. Right now, we are doing copywork, then dictation, the correction. Sometimes, even copywork has errors because of the tracking problem, but I have noticed an improvement this year. We have a long way to go, but improvement is improvement! Glad we don't have to test, but testing isn't the best measure of knowledge anyway.
Well I have to say what a difference a day can make. I had my dd make lap books for the different things we learned in science this past week. Last night she gave a presentations and today she finished up and presented the information to me and my ds. Then I gave her a copy of the test and I read the test to her. I wrote down the answers as she went. She only got 2 wrong, they were true and false questions. They sorta trip her up a bit. But, all and all she knew the information forward and backwards. I told her from now on we will make a lap book for our learning. My son doesn't want to do the lap books but instead a power point. Works for me..... I also had her do a lap book for her spelling words and told her to teach them to someone like a first grader. She only spelled (Vermont) wrong. Whew, makes me feel better. I guess I am on to something here and helping her learn. Making the lap books made a huge difference. I think at this point we will stay with that. You guys are the best with all your help and suggestions. I don't know what I would do without all the input I get here. Any other suggestions for their learning style. I guess textbooks and work book aren't the way I should go for next year.
If you choose to do Apologia they sell lapbooks that go along with the courses: http://liveandlearnpress.com/viewItems.php?category=18
That looks fantastic....... I think I need you to map out my year. :wink: That is what I will definately do if they don't get into the science class at the co-op. I would much prefer they do the disections in a class room setting. Yes I can do and have done it but my time is limited. I think in all the classes I will try to get them into that one Lord willing, if they get block out. I will definately keep this information.
the Sequential Spelling, how do I determine where to start with them? I am now just going through the science information and I love this one too. You are sooo good for me. My dh wasn't into the beautiful feet for the kids, I guess back to the drawing board with that. Maybe I shouldn't have asked for help:roll
Sequential Spelling has a website, and on the website is a placement test with instructions how to do it.
They say most students start with level 1 but here is a link to the pretest: http://avko.org/free/Rough Placement Test for SS.pdf As for disections for science you could always do what we did. We would either do them at night or have a science Sat. or Sunday and just do a bunch of the disections/experiments at one time. It made it alot of fun. Ok so not in the direction of Beautiful Feet for History.. ok I will do a little poking and see what I have in my files. We have a curriculum share night every year in our LEAH group and there are sometimes some gems on those lists that I have never heard of.
