Just a short blurb about days 1 - 4.
Since I really don't know exactly where M is in most of the subjects taught at school, I decided to start at the beginning with Social Studies. Apparently, in public school they do either Science or Social Studies for a number of weeks at a time, but not both.
The beginning of this year's Social Studies is Early Peoples (basically from how North America was peopled to pre-Columbian natives). M and I did the majority of it last week and were supposed to finish it up today. Well, we did finish it up today, but much to my annoyance it did not go as I had planned in my head. I sat for an hour or so last night writing down bits of information about the Maya, Aztec and Inca thinking we would talk about that to close the lesson because I thought M was really into these civilizations and wanted to learn more about them. And I honestly think he did want to know more, but it turns out that the traditional year kids were out of school today because it was a teacher workday. One of them knocked on the door to see if M could play and that was the beginning of the end of our lessons for today. He'd already been having trouble focusing and was "bored" at times (I fell into the trap of reading from the workbook for a bit of the lesson today)...he seemed a bit off today. He had 2 unit-end tests I wanted him to do, plus some writing worksheets and a bit of math before we would be done for the day.
Argh...the tests were somewhat of a disaster. The first one was fill in the blank. He started out trying to do that test and the other (matching) test at the same time. I took the fill in the blank test from him and scribed for him to help him along. Some of the questions he absolutely couldn't answer, which kind of irked me, since I'm the one teaching him and I felt like he should be able to answer these things. I ended up letting him use the book for a couple of the answers. The other test was ridiculous, and no fault of his that it was so. I have no idea how the publishers thought a 5th grader could do this test...I had problems seeing the relationships between some of the things and I have a degree in history! :O So instead of marking all his answers wrong, I made my own test based on their test. He ended up with 90% correct on it; and would have gotten 100 had he not confused 2 of the answers. But hey - 90 is great!
So I learned a couple of things this first unit:
-he needs LOTS of hands on learning opportunities
-he needs time to review the unit before taking a test
-I need to chill out a little and not take things personally; there are ways to handle things with M and there are ways not to handle things. I think I didn't handle things correctly today, but tomorrow is a new day. I will put what I learned from this week into effect tomorrow and hopefully things will go more smoothly.
As for writing this past week, we've done some very short writing prompts and a few fill in the blank type worksheets. Nothing heavy or part of a unit as I wasn't sure exactly where to start. I think tomorrow we will start on the Daily 6 Trait Writing for Grade 3 (yes, 3) and see how quickly we can get through that book. I want to start on the easy side with him as writing tends to be a big issue, and I need to figure out how to handle it.
For Math on days 1-3, he did lots of Khan Academy, which he LOVES. Both the kids enjoy it, actually. I highly recommend it.
We haven't started any Science lessons. I think I will hold off on those for a while. I want to introduce the writing and see how he does with that, then we'll begin work on some other skills I'd like him to learn (stuff like organizing, time management, social skills, etc). Baby steps...that's my motto for now. Until both he and I are used to each other and homeschooling, I really don't see a reason to rush things.
I'm looking forward to the next unit - Native Americans in the US: Desert Southwest, Pacific Coast, Plains, and Eastern Woodlands. I've already got 2 parts ready; the Iroquois (Eastern Woodlands) and the Desert Southwest (Pueblo) Indians. Each has about 4 hands on assignments to do, plus our discussions. Oh! And we're doing a tiny lesson on the Day of the Dead since it's tomorrow!
Monday, October 31, 2011
What I wanted to do vs what I'm actually doing
I'm a firm believer that learning should be fun. So when I first seriously considered removing M from public school in favor of homeschooling him, that was my number 1 goal. With fun and interesting in mind, I delved into the decision making process of educating at home.
I knew that I didn't want a pre-packaged curriculum. And I knew that I wanted to use real books to teach from. According to my research I was well-suited for either unschooling, unit study or using a Charlotte Mason approach.
I decided that unit study was a good fit because it would allow me to use the subjects in which M is interested to teach him. So I looked around on the internet and found a HUGE amount of information pertaining to those subjects. It was too much, so I narrowed my search to looking for unit studies of those subjects that other people had done. Still a lot out there, but not nearly as much as simply searching on a subject.
I took the time to look through a bunch of different unit studies I'd found just to see how other people approached them. Some people did 5 or 6 week unit studies, and some did 5 or 6 day unit studies. That's the beauty, in my opinion, of using this method. You can make them as short or as lengthy as you want.
So I got one unit study fully together, this one on Sharks, to show my husband. His thing was that if I was going to HS that he be involved with the subject matter being taught. He had a very clear idea in his head of how the education of a child should progress. I found out quickly that his ideas were much different than mine. Where I thought using one subject to hit on all the key areas (social studies/history, language arts, math, science) was a great way to teach, he felt that using the NC Standard Course of Study was the way to go. So one Saturday while the kids were outside playing, he and I sat and talked for three hours.
We both explained why we thought our way was better...though I'll be honest, I had a bit of trouble verbalizing my thoughts on this subject, though I knew that the way I wanted to teach would be fine...and after much discussion, I walked away for a few minutes and really thought about not what I wanted to do, but rather what would be best for my child.
When I came back, I expressed that I was willing to compromise. I would use the NCSCOS as a guide, as I think the fairly sequential building of knowledge benefits the type of child I have, but I would not follow it exactly, as I think having a whole understanding of a topic is better than just hitting on the high points so you can pass a test at the end of the year.
After further discussion, we came to the decision that instead of looking at 1 year of the NCSCOS, we would look at the next three years. Using this idea gives me more leeway on teaching M the things I want to teach, not necessarily in the order that it's presented in public school, and also lets me hit on the subjects that interest him.
I had also planned on homeschooling for pretty damn near free...and I suppose I still am, though I have bought about $100 worth of books to use throughout the next year or 2. The difficulty I face is that I have to keep the lessons on his level AND keep them interesting enough for him to get through. I could go on for days about the Maya, Aztec and Inca civilizations because from an historical point of view they are amazing (and sooo full of info!). But keeping a 10 year old interested in all the reasons that maize was important to these peoples is near impossible. So I am using the 5th grade social studies book as a guide (and because it's a differentiated lessons book, for tests as well) to keep me on track, but also doing a sort of unit study in order to get more in depth. We'll be doing crafts, posters, models...lots of hands on activities to keep him engaged.
I also have 5th grade workbooks (that all meet national standards) on Geography, English, Writing, Science. But I also have some great unit studies on things like elections, pioneer times, sharks and a few others that I will slip in when the time is right. I should also mention that M writes on about a beginning 4th grade level due to his disability and skill deficits, so I have quite a few books on writing and its component parts and pieces. That was something I was NOT willing to leave to "oh I know how to write, I'll just teach him my way." He has deficits in this area and needs specialized instruction. So I talked to his resource teacher to find out some good strategies and books to use with him, and I got them in the mail today (thank you ebay!).
Yes, I'm only on day 4 of homeschooling, but I've already learned that YOU HAVE TO BE FLEXIBLE when you have a kid with special needs. Otherwise you are setting both of you up for failure.
I'm really excited about being able to share this time with my child. I love to watch him learn...he's so amazing. I hope that by doing this, he will learn the skills he needs to succeed with friends, career, life and love.
I knew that I didn't want a pre-packaged curriculum. And I knew that I wanted to use real books to teach from. According to my research I was well-suited for either unschooling, unit study or using a Charlotte Mason approach.
I decided that unit study was a good fit because it would allow me to use the subjects in which M is interested to teach him. So I looked around on the internet and found a HUGE amount of information pertaining to those subjects. It was too much, so I narrowed my search to looking for unit studies of those subjects that other people had done. Still a lot out there, but not nearly as much as simply searching on a subject.
I took the time to look through a bunch of different unit studies I'd found just to see how other people approached them. Some people did 5 or 6 week unit studies, and some did 5 or 6 day unit studies. That's the beauty, in my opinion, of using this method. You can make them as short or as lengthy as you want.
So I got one unit study fully together, this one on Sharks, to show my husband. His thing was that if I was going to HS that he be involved with the subject matter being taught. He had a very clear idea in his head of how the education of a child should progress. I found out quickly that his ideas were much different than mine. Where I thought using one subject to hit on all the key areas (social studies/history, language arts, math, science) was a great way to teach, he felt that using the NC Standard Course of Study was the way to go. So one Saturday while the kids were outside playing, he and I sat and talked for three hours.
We both explained why we thought our way was better...though I'll be honest, I had a bit of trouble verbalizing my thoughts on this subject, though I knew that the way I wanted to teach would be fine...and after much discussion, I walked away for a few minutes and really thought about not what I wanted to do, but rather what would be best for my child.
When I came back, I expressed that I was willing to compromise. I would use the NCSCOS as a guide, as I think the fairly sequential building of knowledge benefits the type of child I have, but I would not follow it exactly, as I think having a whole understanding of a topic is better than just hitting on the high points so you can pass a test at the end of the year.
After further discussion, we came to the decision that instead of looking at 1 year of the NCSCOS, we would look at the next three years. Using this idea gives me more leeway on teaching M the things I want to teach, not necessarily in the order that it's presented in public school, and also lets me hit on the subjects that interest him.
I had also planned on homeschooling for pretty damn near free...and I suppose I still am, though I have bought about $100 worth of books to use throughout the next year or 2. The difficulty I face is that I have to keep the lessons on his level AND keep them interesting enough for him to get through. I could go on for days about the Maya, Aztec and Inca civilizations because from an historical point of view they are amazing (and sooo full of info!). But keeping a 10 year old interested in all the reasons that maize was important to these peoples is near impossible. So I am using the 5th grade social studies book as a guide (and because it's a differentiated lessons book, for tests as well) to keep me on track, but also doing a sort of unit study in order to get more in depth. We'll be doing crafts, posters, models...lots of hands on activities to keep him engaged.
I also have 5th grade workbooks (that all meet national standards) on Geography, English, Writing, Science. But I also have some great unit studies on things like elections, pioneer times, sharks and a few others that I will slip in when the time is right. I should also mention that M writes on about a beginning 4th grade level due to his disability and skill deficits, so I have quite a few books on writing and its component parts and pieces. That was something I was NOT willing to leave to "oh I know how to write, I'll just teach him my way." He has deficits in this area and needs specialized instruction. So I talked to his resource teacher to find out some good strategies and books to use with him, and I got them in the mail today (thank you ebay!).
Yes, I'm only on day 4 of homeschooling, but I've already learned that YOU HAVE TO BE FLEXIBLE when you have a kid with special needs. Otherwise you are setting both of you up for failure.
I'm really excited about being able to share this time with my child. I love to watch him learn...he's so amazing. I hope that by doing this, he will learn the skills he needs to succeed with friends, career, life and love.
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