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Post by benshelpmeet on Jun 17, 2005 11:23:44 GMT -5
Your family sounds so much like our family I'm so glad the Lord sent you our way. Your a Blessing!
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Post by monica on Jul 5, 2006 12:24:39 GMT -5
My main comment is to Sherri. I don't mean to sound harsh, but most 3yr. olds are not ready to read for lots of reasons. In His Service, Heather Not necessarily. I started with my son when he was 3 because he wanted to learn how to read and kept saying so. It's wasn't something too tiresome for his age or something forced. It was all as a game. Started with different letter flashcards I made and we spread them on the floor and tried to remember how to lay them out in order by gradually adding one each day or so. There are wonderful free sites with free resources - just about all that I used was free. See www.schoolexpress.com and www.learningpage.com I would print out a new 'hat' to put on his head each day, that had the new letter and a drawing. We learnt the alphabet song and so if he wasn't sure which letter followed we'd recite the alphabet and he'd remember. First we learnt the capitals, then the lowercase letters. We played games matching them. When we knew those, we went to www.starfall.com, a great site, and listened to the song that presents all the sounds in order. That was fun and he liked it. They also take them in order from 'a' to 'z' and he loved watching those little films. Then I made some cards with 'ba', 'ca', 'da' and so on. We played all kinds of games I had read about or invented myself. Another fun way to remember the letters in order is to hang them in order on a line the way you hang the wash! He loved that. Then, when he knew 'ba, 'ca', etc., we learned reading our first short vowel words - cat, bat, etc. Made a fishing game out of that and he loved it. I can give you more details if you're interested. Alternating between free resources from the net and Bob Books which we bought and he loves (they progress from simple words to whole sentences) he learned pretty well and I praise God for it. It's not overwhelming or stressing and he loves it. He's almost 4 and we've read through 24 little Bob Books already plus some of my making.
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Post by hollydawnr on Jul 20, 2006 18:36:10 GMT -5
We're homeschooling and this will be our first year. Our DD will be in 3rd grade (public school until this year), our DS will be in Kindergarten, and our other DS will just be doing coloring stuff.
We use American Heritage for our early American history unit--we'll also be learning the state capitols and the state maps. In science, we'll be learning about forensic science (DD saw a few episodes of CSI when she stayed with her aunt this summer and wants to learn about that, so we'll be doing fingerprinting and microscopy and learning about blood and stuff... Strange interest for an 8YO girl, but at least she's interested.). We'll also be doing a garden and several zoo trips for science as well. I think at this age that science is mostly about teaching them the scientific method and helping them get interested in science, so I have left a lot of the curriculum up to her. She already reads quite well, so for reading, she'll get to choose 6 books off a pre-approved reading list, read them, and then do a book report on each. Writing and grammar will be taught with writing prompts and hands-on work.
The only things we're using curriculum for are math and handwriting (although we will use a phonics curriculum for DS when they get older). We use Rod and Staff. I don't agree with everything in their readers, but their math programs are really good. I like the Bible references in their handwriting program, and their phonics and early readers are just fine. When they age out of R&S, we'll probably go with CLE.
As for doing housework, remember that teaching housework is a wonderful skill. Cooking and cleaning can be excellent exercises in sorting, math, reading, and a wide variety of other skills. Plus, remember that homeschooling doesn't require quite as much time as classroom instruction. With a K-2nd grader, you can do the schooling in the morning, put the kids down for quiet time in the early afternoon while you do some housework. Once they hit 3rd grade, they should be able to do some work independently. Plus, they CAN and SHOULD help out.
Hope that helps!
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