CKW's Cinquain Nature Poem describing our nature walk this morning.
Snowstorm
Windy blizzard
Snow blowing wildly!
I love making snowmen
Winter
Yes, nearly the end of April and it's snowing out today! Hurry up spring!!
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Finally, An Update!
Things have been going very well, and I can't tell you how relieved I am to be able to write that...
It took me over a year to decide exactly when would be the best time to remove CKW from public school and begin homeschooling. For reasons having to due with my health, I knew that I would not be able to homeschool until he was old enough to work at least somewhat independently, and up until late last month I honestly wasn't sure if this year was going to be 'The Year of Independent Work' or 'The Year of Homeschool Hell'!
Finally we had a day where CKW finished up all his work before lunch. I can remember the time as if it were yesterday; it was 11:47 and we called it a day. When I congratulated him and told him that he was free to do as he pleased for the afternoon, the look on his face was priceless. "Can I play lego?" he asked. "Can I go outside and fly my kite?"... "Can I ride my dirtbike?"... After five or six anwers in the affirmative, I guess he realised that I was serious and he broke out into a huge smile. Since then, we haven't had many days that extend beyond lunchtime and, thankfully, much less wasting time, fooling around, and general 'pain in the butt' behaviour. He is learning, and I am able to rest as needed. It's working for us! It's really working!!
With respect to teaching/learning styles, I have found that 'flipping the classroom' is the way to go at our house. At the end of each homeschool day, I have CKW watch BrainPop or Discovery Education (for example) videos that introduce and explain the topics we are going to be discussing the following day. This often gets him interested enough to independently locate supplemental reading on a topic that afternoon/evening, and consequently our teaching discussions have been at a much higher and more in depth level. His comprehension and retention have also improved.
Writing continues to be our bugaboo, but things are improving. CKW is doing all the writing required, including making use of the more advanced options when offered, in the 6-8 level of Moving Beyond the Page. We are also doing The Wand program from Bravewriter. This program started out quite slowly (it is suggested for K-2 students) but it has been encouraging for my struggling writer since the writing demands are light and the spelling and phonics review is helpful. I will wait until the program is finished to make a final decision, but I think this will be something that we continue with in future years.
All in all, it has been a successful first month (or so!) of homeschooling. Hopefully I will be back next week with an update, but no promises!
It took me over a year to decide exactly when would be the best time to remove CKW from public school and begin homeschooling. For reasons having to due with my health, I knew that I would not be able to homeschool until he was old enough to work at least somewhat independently, and up until late last month I honestly wasn't sure if this year was going to be 'The Year of Independent Work' or 'The Year of Homeschool Hell'!
Finally we had a day where CKW finished up all his work before lunch. I can remember the time as if it were yesterday; it was 11:47 and we called it a day. When I congratulated him and told him that he was free to do as he pleased for the afternoon, the look on his face was priceless. "Can I play lego?" he asked. "Can I go outside and fly my kite?"... "Can I ride my dirtbike?"... After five or six anwers in the affirmative, I guess he realised that I was serious and he broke out into a huge smile. Since then, we haven't had many days that extend beyond lunchtime and, thankfully, much less wasting time, fooling around, and general 'pain in the butt' behaviour. He is learning, and I am able to rest as needed. It's working for us! It's really working!!
With respect to teaching/learning styles, I have found that 'flipping the classroom' is the way to go at our house. At the end of each homeschool day, I have CKW watch BrainPop or Discovery Education (for example) videos that introduce and explain the topics we are going to be discussing the following day. This often gets him interested enough to independently locate supplemental reading on a topic that afternoon/evening, and consequently our teaching discussions have been at a much higher and more in depth level. His comprehension and retention have also improved.
Writing continues to be our bugaboo, but things are improving. CKW is doing all the writing required, including making use of the more advanced options when offered, in the 6-8 level of Moving Beyond the Page. We are also doing The Wand program from Bravewriter. This program started out quite slowly (it is suggested for K-2 students) but it has been encouraging for my struggling writer since the writing demands are light and the spelling and phonics review is helpful. I will wait until the program is finished to make a final decision, but I think this will be something that we continue with in future years.
All in all, it has been a successful first month (or so!) of homeschooling. Hopefully I will be back next week with an update, but no promises!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Do I Have To Write It ALL BY MYSELF?!
CKW is a very reluctant writer - his brain (and mouth!) goes far too fast for his handwriting. He produces a tonne of ideas, but has trouble getting them onto the page in paragraph form, and sometimes even into sentences.
We had planned to do the full Moving Beyond The Page (MBtP) 7-9 level this year, but the writing was quickly proving to be more then he could handle. He was really starting to resist even attempting the process of writing, so I backed off and decided to save the 7-9 level until next year and, instead, we are doing the two language arts heavy concepts of 6-8 level this year: Community and Culture. However, I have informed him that am not scribing anything for him in MBtP! We do plenty of outside science and social science studies, and if I find that the amount of writing expected in MBtP for a particular day is quite heavy, then I will scribe for him in other subjects, but I really want him to learn to write on his own. We are also doing (see links at the side) MCP Phonics C, Spelling Workout B, Easy Grammar 2, BraveWriter - The Wand, and WriteStart Primary C this year, so we are going to keep plugging along, with the goal of having his writing abilities equal to the level required at the 7-9 level of MBtP in time for the 2012-2013 academic year.
So far, he's doing great! Yes, he sometimes does find the MBtP readings to be 'babyish' at this level, but we most often discuss the topics presented in great detail, I always have him choose the second option for activities when they are available, and I try, as often as possible, to add in 'extras' as I find them listed on the MBtP IdeaShare forum. So far, so good...
Happily, his writing is already improving by leaps and bounds and he continues to read more difficult books on his own and in the more challenging literature unit studies I choose that we discuss verbally. For these, I went through MBtP, as well as Michael Clay Thompson's literature program and left out any books that they included so we wouldn't end up repeating things later on. (I hope to add bits and bobs of Michael Clay Thompson's language arts program to our curriculum in the not too distant future, but that put the kibosh to this fall's planned Wind In The Willows pond unit study!)
Last year, it was recommended to me at school that I should not worry about his handwriting, as he could move onto a keyboard anytime. Several teaching professionals felt that handwriting was no longer a necessary skill 'in this day and age'. But I strongly disagree! As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I have discussed this with rehabilitation ocupational therapists, psychologists and speech therapists, and they have all strongly supported the studies showing that the act of physically writing letters and words helps both children and adults to build and maintain cognitive function. Benefits include, but are not limited to, reading, writing, spelling, focus, memory, and executive function. With this in mind, I've made the choice to slow down for a year to allow him to learn to write more easily - one of the best things about homeschooling is we've got lots of time!
We had planned to do the full Moving Beyond The Page (MBtP) 7-9 level this year, but the writing was quickly proving to be more then he could handle. He was really starting to resist even attempting the process of writing, so I backed off and decided to save the 7-9 level until next year and, instead, we are doing the two language arts heavy concepts of 6-8 level this year: Community and Culture. However, I have informed him that am not scribing anything for him in MBtP! We do plenty of outside science and social science studies, and if I find that the amount of writing expected in MBtP for a particular day is quite heavy, then I will scribe for him in other subjects, but I really want him to learn to write on his own. We are also doing (see links at the side) MCP Phonics C, Spelling Workout B, Easy Grammar 2, BraveWriter - The Wand, and WriteStart Primary C this year, so we are going to keep plugging along, with the goal of having his writing abilities equal to the level required at the 7-9 level of MBtP in time for the 2012-2013 academic year.
So far, he's doing great! Yes, he sometimes does find the MBtP readings to be 'babyish' at this level, but we most often discuss the topics presented in great detail, I always have him choose the second option for activities when they are available, and I try, as often as possible, to add in 'extras' as I find them listed on the MBtP IdeaShare forum. So far, so good...
Happily, his writing is already improving by leaps and bounds and he continues to read more difficult books on his own and in the more challenging literature unit studies I choose that we discuss verbally. For these, I went through MBtP, as well as Michael Clay Thompson's literature program and left out any books that they included so we wouldn't end up repeating things later on. (I hope to add bits and bobs of Michael Clay Thompson's language arts program to our curriculum in the not too distant future, but that put the kibosh to this fall's planned Wind In The Willows pond unit study!)
Last year, it was recommended to me at school that I should not worry about his handwriting, as he could move onto a keyboard anytime. Several teaching professionals felt that handwriting was no longer a necessary skill 'in this day and age'. But I strongly disagree! As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I have discussed this with rehabilitation ocupational therapists, psychologists and speech therapists, and they have all strongly supported the studies showing that the act of physically writing letters and words helps both children and adults to build and maintain cognitive function. Benefits include, but are not limited to, reading, writing, spelling, focus, memory, and executive function. With this in mind, I've made the choice to slow down for a year to allow him to learn to write more easily - one of the best things about homeschooling is we've got lots of time!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Language Arts
I've placed an order for the Community and Culture concepts from the 6-8 level of Moving Beyond the Page (MBtP), and while we wait for it to arrive, we're going to get started on the other basics of our language arts curriculum. I've decided to push the entire 7-9 MBtP curriculum onto next year (third grade) and use the 6-8 concepts to concentrate on language arts for this year (second grade). This will give us one additional year to use the full MBtP curriculum - I noticed today that the 11-13 curriculum just came out on the website, so we're good until grade seven now!
When I was educated at public school in Ontario, high school included grades nine through thirteen and many of us were already eighteen years old before we left for university. Still, I remember several students, mostly boys, who left school that first year, primarily because they weren't mature enough to be on their own at that age. CKW is very able and responsible for his age, probably because of my chronic health issues, but I will encourage him to take a 'Victory Lap' (fifth year) in high school, whether he is at home or public school at the time. I'm in no hurry to have my son graduate from high school and leave home, nor do I want to pay tuition for a year of mispent youth - that's what high school is for!
Although CKW is a very good reader, I want to go over all the basics with him this year, as he is quite a reluctant writer. More scientific then fanciful, he writes much like I do - preferring lists, point form and 'get to the point' writing over paragraphs full of descriptive sentences. Hopefully Harry Potter and our other literature selections will help him to see the value in learning to write properly. With that in mind, spelling, phonics, grammar and the mechanics of writing are things we will be working on daily this year. I have purchased several workbook style programs for him to do, along with the two 6-8 concepts mentioned from MBtP. We'll get started tomorrow with: MCP Phonics Level C, Spelling Workout B, Easy Grammar Daily Guided Teaching & Review for Grade 2, and WriteShop Primary Book C.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Our Moving Beyond The Page Order Is Here!
We finally received our Moving Beyond the Page order - no thanks to Canada Post! I ordered just the first concept in the 7-9 level, Environment, as I was a bit worried about the amount of writing that would be required. Included in this concept are three science/social science units: Amazing Weather, The Land and Sound, as well as three literature units: Tornado, Sarah Plain and Tall, and Who Was Helen Keller?. This concept also includes a human anatomy ear model and a thermometer.
Everything looked great! I was chomping at the bit to get started right way, but... I'm still worried about the level of writing required. It is like pulling teeth to get CKW to write two sentences about almost anything, and I am very reluctant to start out at the level of writing in the 7-9 level and turn him off of the entire homeschool experience.
Sooo... I went ahead and read through both the Secular Homeschool forum and the MBtP forum archives and have, reluctantly, decided to put this concept on the shelf for now and place an order for both the Community and Culture concepts in the 6-8 level. We will start off with those concepts this year (not sure how well three Cinderella themed stories are going to go over!) and really concentrate on the writing aspects of the curriculum, as well as applying critical thinking skills to our discussions of the topics raised - needs vs wants, citizenship, cultures and customs, etc. I hope this will keep CKW interested and engaged while his fine motor skills continue to mature, and that we will then be ready for the 7-9 level in the not too distant future.
Everything looked great! I was chomping at the bit to get started right way, but... I'm still worried about the level of writing required. It is like pulling teeth to get CKW to write two sentences about almost anything, and I am very reluctant to start out at the level of writing in the 7-9 level and turn him off of the entire homeschool experience.
Sooo... I went ahead and read through both the Secular Homeschool forum and the MBtP forum archives and have, reluctantly, decided to put this concept on the shelf for now and place an order for both the Community and Culture concepts in the 6-8 level. We will start off with those concepts this year (not sure how well three Cinderella themed stories are going to go over!) and really concentrate on the writing aspects of the curriculum, as well as applying critical thinking skills to our discussions of the topics raised - needs vs wants, citizenship, cultures and customs, etc. I hope this will keep CKW interested and engaged while his fine motor skills continue to mature, and that we will then be ready for the 7-9 level in the not too distant future.
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