There are just some things I home school child has an opportunity to do that just couldn't happen if they were in a more traditional school environment. There are just some things gifted children do that makes much more sense in your own home, than much of the world would understand. Such is the case with my eldest and his pet ferret.
Ferrets make pretty interesting pets - they are full of energy, love to play, love to explore, and the love to socialize. While cute, they are a handful as a pet - which is why we realize our home isn't ready for one. My son, however, decided he was ready for one - in walks his Webkinz Ferret; yes, that plush stuffed animal with an online presence. Now, many kids have Webkinz, and many kids go online everyday to feed, water, walk, and play with their stuffed animal in a virtual world. My eldest will sometimes do just that. However, he doesn't want a virtual pet - he wants a real one. And here we come to the place where only a parents of gifted kids will understand, and where all parents who home school breathe a sigh of relief - the pet.
We visited the local pet store that carries ferrets - every day for a
week for an hour! We now continue to go on a regular basis - so that he
can watch the ferrets ad monitor their behavior.Wanting to be a good pet owner, my son had me purchase every pet ferret book available. We brought a couple of cute children's books about ferrets - but those were fictional stories to be read with amusement. While fun to read, they didn't prepare him for his pet. So, we moved on to the real deal - books geared toward adult pet owners. He has had me read to him books on how to train your pet ferret, understanding ferrets, even "the Dummies Guide to Ferrets". He could now teach a college level course on ferrets! We even found a video with ferret owners showing off their ferrets (and talking about the dying process as ferrets have a life expectancy of around 8 years). Understanding the entire aspect of ferret ownership, he felt himself ready.
So his Webkinz went from being simply a plush toy - to for all intents and purposes a real ferret. Since we weren't willing to pay $200 for a ferret cage for a toy ferret - he build his own ferret habitat. It has everything a ferret needs including a hammock, a litter box, feeding bowl, water bowl, and even toys. It is multilevel because ferrets like to climb. Knowing ferrets like to go outside - he make a custom leash and harness to fit his "pet" perfectly and even created the perfect pet carrier. He takes his "pet" with him on most of our outings.
How serious is he in this endeavor? I am writing this at 6:30 in the morning and he just got out of bed to get breakfast for his ferret! He can't keep a hungry pet waiting.
While for about 30 minutes of this experience I was concerned, I have been overjoyed the rest of the time. Yes, the neighbors may think they entire family has gone bonkers (we call the "pet" by name and often ask my eldest how the little guy is doing and if he wants to play), but this is healthy. He hasn't moved him any closer to securing a real ferret and he understands that (ferrets are a LOT of work), but he has moved a lot closer to figuring out how to solve his own problems and be the master of his own destiny.
His creativity and problem solving have been impeccable in with this experience. Other than my husband using the hole puncher for the hammock, my son had created the entire habitat on his own. He is also continuing to incorporate new information that he finds. For instance, he learned that ferrets do well with another ferret - so he has started to make the habitat livable for two ferrets. He has increased the number of litter boxes, added a few more toys, and enlarged the sleeping space. He is all set for his new ferret. He has no idea my husband ordered one for him - we are encouraging this journey.
An amazing thing is that he is getting many of the benefits of owning a pet - his ferret has a calming effect on him, he will hold it close in uncomfortable situations (trips to the doctor, intensive vision therapy, and even trips to the dentist), he is learning responsibility, increasing his empathy, and learning responsible pet ownership. I am not sure he would gain more from actually having a real ferret (okay, maybe learning that an animal will actually bite you if you don't handle it properly). All the lessons he could learn from a real pet are probably best learned when he is older - he is only six after all. But "I" am very happy about what he has gained and continues to learn. He has taken on this challenge the way I have come to expect from profoundly gifted children - a desire for intensive and deep knowledge (he recently asked to build a scale model of the skeleton of a ferret), and immense amount of creativity, and the laser focus of a scud missile. I am not sure how long this phase will last, but we are all enjoying the "pet" ferret, but I am mostly enjoying watching my son embrace something he loves and a passion he has so thoroughly.
Showing posts with label home school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home school. Show all posts
Friday, May 25, 2012
Monday, November 7, 2011
Spicing up math and reading
One thing we do a little differently in our homeschool is to mix and match curriculum. I mix and match in two very key areas - reading and math. Normally, these are the two areas families decide to choose one curriculum and stick to it.
There are a couple of reasons why I like to pull sources from various curriculum. The first is that it allows the children to have some repetition, that doesn't really "look" like repetition. While most gifted children learn material in as little as two repetitions - I personally like to see my children show a skill more than that. However, my children can easily detect a pattern (and most curriculum goes into a pattern) and they don't even need to look at the page to tell me the right answer. This is particularly important in math.
For reading, since my eldest is dyslexic he needs a lot of opportunity to read aloud. However, reading from just one type of reading program can lead to boredom - for him and for me! Being able to spice up reading selections, but still stay within his current reading abilities is wonderful. It also keeps him from detecting the patterns of books too quickly.
I also want my children to not get too dependent on any one style of information. For instance, most math programs will stick to one font. This might not seem important on the surface - but numbers written in different fonts can look quite unique. Also - some books will give math programs horizontally while others will give them vertical. Some books use word problems, some use visuals, some use numerals only. I want my kids to get practice solving problems in a large variety of ways. We can't easily detect the future, so preparing broadly is a big factor in our home school.
With that said, we do tend to have a "spine" for our major subjects. This is a primary curriculum that I use to determine the sequence in which we will introduce new information. However, I use as many as five different reading curriculum programs and five different math curriculum programs. It takes a bit more effort in staying organized - but it really allows us to have variety and challenge from a number of different levels.
For reading, "Understanding the Logic of English" is our spine. We also utilize Reading Horizons (both the teacher led and the computer based program), Bob Books, StarFall (both the computer based program and the books). We use some Scholastic sources as well as four different handwriting workbook programs. I also throw in some Montessori materials and other hands on sources to give us even more variety.
For math, "Singapore Math" is our spine. We also utilize "Life of Fred Elementary Series", Kumon Math workbooks, Montessori Materials, occasional activities from Family Math, and lots of different hands on learning materials.
I will admit, this approach isn't for everyone. Some people like order and some children need a much more narrow focus - especially if they struggle with ADD/ADHD or some learning disabilities. If you are a family that likes order and wants to know exactly how long a program will take and when you will move on - this may not be something you want to tackle. Finally, if you are required to turn in lesson plans - writing one for this type of study is horrible I will admit.
However, if your family likes variety, don't be afraid to mix and match core materials. Also, if your child attends a traditional school - definitely give them extra practice in materials that are presented vastly different from their school curriculum. Often times, parents make the mistake of wanting to present home learning materials consistent with the school materials. While this sounds good in theory, it boxes children in. If the school district changes materials, or if you move to a new school using a completely different program - children that have been taught just one way can struggle - even if they know the material.
So, if variety really is the "spice of life" - make sure to put some into your learning as well!
There are a couple of reasons why I like to pull sources from various curriculum. The first is that it allows the children to have some repetition, that doesn't really "look" like repetition. While most gifted children learn material in as little as two repetitions - I personally like to see my children show a skill more than that. However, my children can easily detect a pattern (and most curriculum goes into a pattern) and they don't even need to look at the page to tell me the right answer. This is particularly important in math.
For reading, since my eldest is dyslexic he needs a lot of opportunity to read aloud. However, reading from just one type of reading program can lead to boredom - for him and for me! Being able to spice up reading selections, but still stay within his current reading abilities is wonderful. It also keeps him from detecting the patterns of books too quickly.
I also want my children to not get too dependent on any one style of information. For instance, most math programs will stick to one font. This might not seem important on the surface - but numbers written in different fonts can look quite unique. Also - some books will give math programs horizontally while others will give them vertical. Some books use word problems, some use visuals, some use numerals only. I want my kids to get practice solving problems in a large variety of ways. We can't easily detect the future, so preparing broadly is a big factor in our home school.
With that said, we do tend to have a "spine" for our major subjects. This is a primary curriculum that I use to determine the sequence in which we will introduce new information. However, I use as many as five different reading curriculum programs and five different math curriculum programs. It takes a bit more effort in staying organized - but it really allows us to have variety and challenge from a number of different levels.
For reading, "Understanding the Logic of English" is our spine. We also utilize Reading Horizons (both the teacher led and the computer based program), Bob Books, StarFall (both the computer based program and the books). We use some Scholastic sources as well as four different handwriting workbook programs. I also throw in some Montessori materials and other hands on sources to give us even more variety.
For math, "Singapore Math" is our spine. We also utilize "Life of Fred Elementary Series", Kumon Math workbooks, Montessori Materials, occasional activities from Family Math, and lots of different hands on learning materials.
I will admit, this approach isn't for everyone. Some people like order and some children need a much more narrow focus - especially if they struggle with ADD/ADHD or some learning disabilities. If you are a family that likes order and wants to know exactly how long a program will take and when you will move on - this may not be something you want to tackle. Finally, if you are required to turn in lesson plans - writing one for this type of study is horrible I will admit.
However, if your family likes variety, don't be afraid to mix and match core materials. Also, if your child attends a traditional school - definitely give them extra practice in materials that are presented vastly different from their school curriculum. Often times, parents make the mistake of wanting to present home learning materials consistent with the school materials. While this sounds good in theory, it boxes children in. If the school district changes materials, or if you move to a new school using a completely different program - children that have been taught just one way can struggle - even if they know the material.
So, if variety really is the "spice of life" - make sure to put some into your learning as well!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
The "socialization" thing - again!
Call me naive, but I fully expected to "not" have to deal with the whole "what about socialization" question when it came to homeschooling my children. Especially from people that know our family and realize we don't live in a cave or underground bunker. Doesn't it seem a tiny bit ridiculous to ask us while we are actually out socializing what we are going to do for socialization?
I understand individuals that don't home school might be curious about the socialization practices of our family, but that is a very different question than "what are you going to do about socialization; you realize they need to be around other kids at some point". For the record, my children have had traditional "socialization" experiences in a traditional school setting. They did one year in a private school (twins in Preschool; eldest in K). While there were some good experiences, I wasn't real happy about my five year old being threatened with being stabbed by another student - is this really the "socialization" people fear my kids will miss out on?
Instead of continuing to lament about the all the ills of traditional school based "socialization" (though I may throw in an example here and there) I will discuss how we view socialization and why we believe this route is not only healthy, but the correct route for our family - you choose what is best for yours.
According to New World Encyclopedia: socialization is used by sociologists, social psychologists, and educationalists to refer to the process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it. For the individual, it provides the resources necessary for acting and participating within their society.
This definition is important. The first thing to point out is that socialization is about people learning to live in the culture in which they live. Our children do not live in an age segregated, geographically assigned culture. The cultural values of our family are about our children learning to live in the world at large, to be contributing members to society at large - not simply learning how to live amongst age mates and peers in a public institutional setting. I got my first job at the age of 14, so I have been in the workforce well over 20 years. I have NEVER worked in a setting in which everyone was my age; I have never worked in a setting in which everyone was within four years of my date of birth. My closets colleagues and friends have been as much as 30 years my senior. How would being in a age normed setting prepare me for this? In fact, having been educated my entire life in a traditional setting, this was one of my biggest and hardest adjustments - living around and working with people that were "just like me". My entire childhood was spent with people "like me" - same geographic area, same socio-economic status, most the same race, most the same religion, and from the age of three - most of my waking hours were spent with children all within 2 - 4 years of my age. College was my first experience with people somewhat different from me, but even that was limited as I went to a mid-sized state university. So, most people were from my geographic area. I didn't form a friendship with an international student until my PhD program. I was so lost in terms of understanding that not everyone grew up poor, or in the Midwest, or in a single parent home. I thought I knew what "Black" people were like, "White" people were like, "rich" people were like - I honestly never even thought about Asian people or knew of the existence of Haitians or Greeks.
My traditional schooling socialized me well - I was perfectly capable of living around other people that grew up in my neighborhood! I had to start all over in the "socialization" process when I packed my bags and headed off to college - just two hours away. When I took my first trip out of the country at the age of 21 - I was again blown away by how narrow my world view had been. I was very good at socialization - I just had very limited opportunity to socialize outside of very narrow circles.
I didn't want that for my children. I want my children to know this world is big and vast with lots of different people, beliefs, cultures, customs, ideas, traditions, and experiences. I want them to be socialized not just for our neighborhood - but for the larger world in which they live. In the real world, people are not broken arbitrarily into age normed groups with a defined leader tagged "teacher", and a clearly defined list of assignments and rules and expectations. I want my children to learn how to navigate in a world full of people that don't always look like them, talk like them, believe like them. Socialization in a traditional school setting is easy - the groups are clearly defined and you know fairly quickly what group you belong to. The language is agreed upon and the rules for success are all defined (sometimes formally, sometimes informally). Not so in the real world - we have to learn to communicate with people that don't speak our language, learn to get along in a world where the rules change constantly, learn to work side-by-side with people with whom we adamantly disagree - and there is no defined administrative arbitrator who will declare whom won or lost.
So, what about socialization? We also agree it is very important and one of the many reasons why homeschooling is the right choice for our family.
I understand individuals that don't home school might be curious about the socialization practices of our family, but that is a very different question than "what are you going to do about socialization; you realize they need to be around other kids at some point". For the record, my children have had traditional "socialization" experiences in a traditional school setting. They did one year in a private school (twins in Preschool; eldest in K). While there were some good experiences, I wasn't real happy about my five year old being threatened with being stabbed by another student - is this really the "socialization" people fear my kids will miss out on?
Instead of continuing to lament about the all the ills of traditional school based "socialization" (though I may throw in an example here and there) I will discuss how we view socialization and why we believe this route is not only healthy, but the correct route for our family - you choose what is best for yours.
According to New World Encyclopedia: socialization is used by sociologists, social psychologists, and educationalists to refer to the process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it. For the individual, it provides the resources necessary for acting and participating within their society.
This definition is important. The first thing to point out is that socialization is about people learning to live in the culture in which they live. Our children do not live in an age segregated, geographically assigned culture. The cultural values of our family are about our children learning to live in the world at large, to be contributing members to society at large - not simply learning how to live amongst age mates and peers in a public institutional setting. I got my first job at the age of 14, so I have been in the workforce well over 20 years. I have NEVER worked in a setting in which everyone was my age; I have never worked in a setting in which everyone was within four years of my date of birth. My closets colleagues and friends have been as much as 30 years my senior. How would being in a age normed setting prepare me for this? In fact, having been educated my entire life in a traditional setting, this was one of my biggest and hardest adjustments - living around and working with people that were "just like me". My entire childhood was spent with people "like me" - same geographic area, same socio-economic status, most the same race, most the same religion, and from the age of three - most of my waking hours were spent with children all within 2 - 4 years of my age. College was my first experience with people somewhat different from me, but even that was limited as I went to a mid-sized state university. So, most people were from my geographic area. I didn't form a friendship with an international student until my PhD program. I was so lost in terms of understanding that not everyone grew up poor, or in the Midwest, or in a single parent home. I thought I knew what "Black" people were like, "White" people were like, "rich" people were like - I honestly never even thought about Asian people or knew of the existence of Haitians or Greeks.
My traditional schooling socialized me well - I was perfectly capable of living around other people that grew up in my neighborhood! I had to start all over in the "socialization" process when I packed my bags and headed off to college - just two hours away. When I took my first trip out of the country at the age of 21 - I was again blown away by how narrow my world view had been. I was very good at socialization - I just had very limited opportunity to socialize outside of very narrow circles.
I didn't want that for my children. I want my children to know this world is big and vast with lots of different people, beliefs, cultures, customs, ideas, traditions, and experiences. I want them to be socialized not just for our neighborhood - but for the larger world in which they live. In the real world, people are not broken arbitrarily into age normed groups with a defined leader tagged "teacher", and a clearly defined list of assignments and rules and expectations. I want my children to learn how to navigate in a world full of people that don't always look like them, talk like them, believe like them. Socialization in a traditional school setting is easy - the groups are clearly defined and you know fairly quickly what group you belong to. The language is agreed upon and the rules for success are all defined (sometimes formally, sometimes informally). Not so in the real world - we have to learn to communicate with people that don't speak our language, learn to get along in a world where the rules change constantly, learn to work side-by-side with people with whom we adamantly disagree - and there is no defined administrative arbitrator who will declare whom won or lost.
So, what about socialization? We also agree it is very important and one of the many reasons why homeschooling is the right choice for our family.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Life of Fred - Elementary Series review
Being and admitted curriculum junkie (meaning I buy way more books and other resources we will probably never get to use), I thought I would put my "bad habit" to good use! So, this is my first of many reviews to come. This review is on the new math series by Stanley Schmidt - creator of the Life of Fred Series. Life of Fred is a common staple amongst families homeschooling gifted children - especially children that love literature based mathematics or understanding the "why" as well as the "how" of math.
The Elementary Series is a welcome addition for parents like me - that purchased his books on Fractions through Calculus knowing it would be a long time before we were ready to crack those books open! So now, here is a math series that even the youngest of gifted children can enjoy!
Here are some of the really basic things to know about the series. First, the books are sequential; this isn't necessarily obvious on the surface as the books have the names: Apples, Butterflies, Cats, and Dogs. Of course, you see the pattern (A, B, C, D) - thus for a child just starting out in formal math education, you can start with Apples. For a child already firmly adding and subtracting, and even doing multiplication and division - it might be best to wait for some of the later books in the series (there should be one released in October 2011 - with ten total books planned for the Elementary Series).
There are a couple of reasons that I LOVE these books for gifted children. The first is that it understands the "less is more" concept that gifted children often times don't need excessive repetition to understand a concept. What takes an average person 7 - 8 repetitions to learn a gifted child can learn firmly with 3 - 4 repetitions. So, Fred (the main character in all the books) will introduce a math concept (by having a real life problem that needs the concept to solve), and the child will have 3 or 4 questions to solve to show they have also learned what Fred learned. Not to worry about your child not getting a firm foundation - the books use a gentle spiral method by re-looking at a concept in later books, using more advanced formulas.
Another great thing about the books is their use of language. They don't just show math concepts, they use the proper terms for various mathematical phenomena (consecutive numbers, commutative law of addition, functions). So, children are learning very early on the proper terms for the problems they are solving, why those terms are important, and when those concepts are used. I also love that it takes mathematics out of the theoretical world and places it firmly in the real world where is belongs. In the Life of Fred series children learn from the beginning that in mathematics, numbers represent units of things - real things. That 2 + 2 = 4 means that there is now four of "something" and that mathematics is used to solve real problems.
Probably the best thing that I love about these books and why they are great for gifted children is because they go beyond just math. They introduce and cover (even just lightly) all sorts of interesting things that gifted children normally don't get a chance to explore (but are capable of exploring) at a really early level - literature from Beowulf to Robinson Crusoe, Morse code and creating your own codes, geography, and even Archimedes. Children are also allowed to quickly move from small numbers (single digit addition) to addition using numbers in the millions.
How much do I love these books? The series is brand new (just got released a couple of weeks ago) and I am so impressed with them that I am scrapping my well crafted plans of using Singapore Math as our spine and switching to the Life of Fred Elementary Series as our spine. I still LOVE Singapore Math - but we will now use it to reinforce concepts from Life of Fred instead of the other way around!
And, for those families that are not home schooling - Life of Fred would be a GREAT after school supplement. It reads like a great book series with math concepts to explore. No longer needing to just hand your child a workbook, you can work together laughing at the hilarious adventures of Fred!
Hope this helps!
The Elementary Series is a welcome addition for parents like me - that purchased his books on Fractions through Calculus knowing it would be a long time before we were ready to crack those books open! So now, here is a math series that even the youngest of gifted children can enjoy!
Here are some of the really basic things to know about the series. First, the books are sequential; this isn't necessarily obvious on the surface as the books have the names: Apples, Butterflies, Cats, and Dogs. Of course, you see the pattern (A, B, C, D) - thus for a child just starting out in formal math education, you can start with Apples. For a child already firmly adding and subtracting, and even doing multiplication and division - it might be best to wait for some of the later books in the series (there should be one released in October 2011 - with ten total books planned for the Elementary Series).
There are a couple of reasons that I LOVE these books for gifted children. The first is that it understands the "less is more" concept that gifted children often times don't need excessive repetition to understand a concept. What takes an average person 7 - 8 repetitions to learn a gifted child can learn firmly with 3 - 4 repetitions. So, Fred (the main character in all the books) will introduce a math concept (by having a real life problem that needs the concept to solve), and the child will have 3 or 4 questions to solve to show they have also learned what Fred learned. Not to worry about your child not getting a firm foundation - the books use a gentle spiral method by re-looking at a concept in later books, using more advanced formulas.
Another great thing about the books is their use of language. They don't just show math concepts, they use the proper terms for various mathematical phenomena (consecutive numbers, commutative law of addition, functions). So, children are learning very early on the proper terms for the problems they are solving, why those terms are important, and when those concepts are used. I also love that it takes mathematics out of the theoretical world and places it firmly in the real world where is belongs. In the Life of Fred series children learn from the beginning that in mathematics, numbers represent units of things - real things. That 2 + 2 = 4 means that there is now four of "something" and that mathematics is used to solve real problems.
Probably the best thing that I love about these books and why they are great for gifted children is because they go beyond just math. They introduce and cover (even just lightly) all sorts of interesting things that gifted children normally don't get a chance to explore (but are capable of exploring) at a really early level - literature from Beowulf to Robinson Crusoe, Morse code and creating your own codes, geography, and even Archimedes. Children are also allowed to quickly move from small numbers (single digit addition) to addition using numbers in the millions.
How much do I love these books? The series is brand new (just got released a couple of weeks ago) and I am so impressed with them that I am scrapping my well crafted plans of using Singapore Math as our spine and switching to the Life of Fred Elementary Series as our spine. I still LOVE Singapore Math - but we will now use it to reinforce concepts from Life of Fred instead of the other way around!
And, for those families that are not home schooling - Life of Fred would be a GREAT after school supplement. It reads like a great book series with math concepts to explore. No longer needing to just hand your child a workbook, you can work together laughing at the hilarious adventures of Fred!
Hope this helps!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
To one's full potential
One of the hardest concepts for a parent of a gifted child to contend with is "full potential". People love to talk about allowing children to work to "their full potential" until they encounter a gifted child - especially a profoundly gifted child. We found this out with my eldest. He had been grade skipped into Kindergarten, was reading a a First grade level, but something just wasn't "right". So, we took him to a psychologist who specializes in working with gifted children (and who is amazing by the way!!) and our suspicion was confirm - he was dyslexic. As we searched deeper into his issue with reading we also found he had severe vision issues.
Now, fixing the "reading problems" of a child reading two grade levels above where he should be age wise becomes a challenge. Not to us, but to the traditional world of education, which we found we just couldn't bear to navigate. "Problem, what problem? He is the best reader in the class!" Okay. That might be true, but that wasn't his full potential and that wasn't okay with us and it shouldn't be okay with anyone.
I found people are very comfortable encouraging a child to work to their potential when you are talking about a child below the norm. Of course we want every child to be all they can be! Really? I had hoped this would be the case. Unfortunately, I began to feel the push to isolate and conceal. Conceal the fact that our three year old twins would be doing First grade math in the fall. When a gifted child begins to work to their full potential, it can become very uncomfortable for those around the child. It seems unnatural - does this little kid really like math that much? Yes.
I believe one of the hardest things people must fight against is comparison. My children working at advanced levels in academic subjects in no slight against any other child on the planet. My husband and I don't think our children better than any other children, we don't look down on anyone and don't consider other children "behind". Honestly, we are so busy trying to hang on for dear life as our children learn and grow we don't have time to think, let alone think ourselves "lucky" or "above". How can I think of myself as above, I need to wear a life preserver to keep for sinking under the weight of the challenge and responsibility of educating these three children that refuse to fit into a box called "age appropriate".
That is really what this blog is about. Wanting to finally give a voice to all those parents like us, hanging on for the ride. To show the people there is no formula for a gifted child, if they learn to read at 3 or 5 or 7, it really isn't the work of brilliant parents - these kids are just made in a unique way. Having at least one "twice exceptional" child (a gifted child with a learning disability) is an even bigger challenge. Have you ever seen someone park in a handicapped parking space - only to get out of the car looking perfectly healthy? This is the plight of the twice exceptional child - no one can "see" the disability - so they believe you are a fake and a phony trying to get some unfair advantage. So, here we are - dealing with the jeers and the sneers as we struggle with challenges people can't see with the naked eye. Its okay though - my child is worth the the struggle of giving him the opportunity to work to his "full potential". I'll admit, its amazing to watch.
Now, fixing the "reading problems" of a child reading two grade levels above where he should be age wise becomes a challenge. Not to us, but to the traditional world of education, which we found we just couldn't bear to navigate. "Problem, what problem? He is the best reader in the class!" Okay. That might be true, but that wasn't his full potential and that wasn't okay with us and it shouldn't be okay with anyone.
I found people are very comfortable encouraging a child to work to their potential when you are talking about a child below the norm. Of course we want every child to be all they can be! Really? I had hoped this would be the case. Unfortunately, I began to feel the push to isolate and conceal. Conceal the fact that our three year old twins would be doing First grade math in the fall. When a gifted child begins to work to their full potential, it can become very uncomfortable for those around the child. It seems unnatural - does this little kid really like math that much? Yes.
I believe one of the hardest things people must fight against is comparison. My children working at advanced levels in academic subjects in no slight against any other child on the planet. My husband and I don't think our children better than any other children, we don't look down on anyone and don't consider other children "behind". Honestly, we are so busy trying to hang on for dear life as our children learn and grow we don't have time to think, let alone think ourselves "lucky" or "above". How can I think of myself as above, I need to wear a life preserver to keep for sinking under the weight of the challenge and responsibility of educating these three children that refuse to fit into a box called "age appropriate".
That is really what this blog is about. Wanting to finally give a voice to all those parents like us, hanging on for the ride. To show the people there is no formula for a gifted child, if they learn to read at 3 or 5 or 7, it really isn't the work of brilliant parents - these kids are just made in a unique way. Having at least one "twice exceptional" child (a gifted child with a learning disability) is an even bigger challenge. Have you ever seen someone park in a handicapped parking space - only to get out of the car looking perfectly healthy? This is the plight of the twice exceptional child - no one can "see" the disability - so they believe you are a fake and a phony trying to get some unfair advantage. So, here we are - dealing with the jeers and the sneers as we struggle with challenges people can't see with the naked eye. Its okay though - my child is worth the the struggle of giving him the opportunity to work to his "full potential". I'll admit, its amazing to watch.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Your kids are doing what?
Have you ever had "this" conversation? If you are the parent of a gifted child, the answer is probably yes. If you are the parent of a homeschooler, the answer is more often than not yes. If you are the parent of a gifted homeschooled child - the answer is definitely "YES"! It is often hard for many people to come to terms with what it is like to homeschool a gifted child. The is particularly true for young gifted children. Due to asynchronous development, it is not uncommon for gifted young children to have a curriculum plan that looks like Frankenstein went and got a PhD in Education. When I talk of our children doing both phonics and physics, people look at me like I have 2 heads, and only because the third just fell off and dropped onto the floor!
But, it is our life, so I thought I would write about. This isn't so much for others, but just to help me organize our lives. And yes, it is June and I am preparing for Fall. It will honestly take me that long to get everything organized. Mainly because with gifted young children - you are constantly balancing developmentally appropriate with age appropriate. Writing is limited by fine motor skills. Reading is limited by vision development and font size. Diving into an online "live" course is limited by nap time! And no matter how open minded another robot "geek" is, it just isn't cool to say your best buddy and collaboration partner when it comes to robot design is five years old - especially when you are 12! So, we are always walking a tightrope, finding resources that will work with our lives. Deciding just how "deep" we can go with certain issues. This is why we have chosen to stay clear of history for a bit. Not because I deem history unimportant, but because I know the types of questions my three year old daughter asks, and she isn't emotionally prepared to handle the "why" of slavery or war or human sacrifice or many of the other issues that would take place when we studied anything from American history to Egyptian history.
So, what are we doing?
This fall we will be doing the following subjects:
Intensive Phonics
Nature Science
Physics
Mandarin
Music Appreciation
Each child will also continue in their musical instruments (one on drums, one on violin, one on piano)
We will be doing one weekly coop (we think) and one occasional coop for field trips and special events.
We will also be doing some "specials"
Bible/Ethics/Moral Development
Logic
The kids also get to do some clubs at a private school that are available to us through their afterschool program:
Mandarin Club
Dance Club
Art Club
Science Club
My eldest will also be trying out a Science Club through a local organization.
Here's to preparing for a great Fall!
But, it is our life, so I thought I would write about. This isn't so much for others, but just to help me organize our lives. And yes, it is June and I am preparing for Fall. It will honestly take me that long to get everything organized. Mainly because with gifted young children - you are constantly balancing developmentally appropriate with age appropriate. Writing is limited by fine motor skills. Reading is limited by vision development and font size. Diving into an online "live" course is limited by nap time! And no matter how open minded another robot "geek" is, it just isn't cool to say your best buddy and collaboration partner when it comes to robot design is five years old - especially when you are 12! So, we are always walking a tightrope, finding resources that will work with our lives. Deciding just how "deep" we can go with certain issues. This is why we have chosen to stay clear of history for a bit. Not because I deem history unimportant, but because I know the types of questions my three year old daughter asks, and she isn't emotionally prepared to handle the "why" of slavery or war or human sacrifice or many of the other issues that would take place when we studied anything from American history to Egyptian history.
So, what are we doing?
This fall we will be doing the following subjects:
Intensive Phonics
Nature Science
Physics
Mandarin
Music Appreciation
Each child will also continue in their musical instruments (one on drums, one on violin, one on piano)
We will be doing one weekly coop (we think) and one occasional coop for field trips and special events.
We will also be doing some "specials"
Bible/Ethics/Moral Development
Logic
The kids also get to do some clubs at a private school that are available to us through their afterschool program:
Mandarin Club
Dance Club
Art Club
Science Club
My eldest will also be trying out a Science Club through a local organization.
Here's to preparing for a great Fall!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Young, Black, Gifted, and Homeschooled?
I believe there is within every human a desire to belong. Unique is wonderful, within reason, but we all long to find our tribe. One of the reasons I was so happy to have three children was I felt they had a better chance of having their "built in" tribe at hand. Thankfully, it worked out that way. If each were an only child, I am not sure how easy it would be to find their piece of "home".
First let me say, we are not isolationist. We are very happy and very comfortable with our large diversity of friends. Our friendly gatherings generally have every color, culture, and custom represented in our neck of the woods - it brings a smile to my face and a dance to my heart! However, I also realize family reunions have a much different fell than neighborhood cook-outs and picnics among friends. There is a familiarity there that is unspoken, an acceptance of faults as well as gifts. There is an amazing freedom in being able to be your complete, imperfect self.
Blacks (or African Americans depending on your liking) represent just under 13% of the United States population. Gifted people represent less than 10% of the population, with profoundly gifted people representing less than 2% of the population. Home schooled children represent less than 2% of the school age population in the United States. With those numbers, my children have very few people in this country, let alone this world - that live a life similar to their own. Now, we know other Blacks, we know other gifted children, we know other Black gifted children, we know other profoundly gifted children. However, I am not sure we have had an opportunity to for my children to step into a room and find another family of children "like them". There is always something different about them, something not in common, some gap of experience. Kind of like walking into a classroom and being the only Jewish kid that celebrates the Sabbath in a school full of Protestants and Catholics. You realize that no matter how much you have in common, most birthday parties will be on a Saturday and you won't be able to participate. It takes nothing away from your classmates and friends, you just always have that tug of being, at least on this point, a bit alone.
One of the reasons I started this blog was so often coming up with a void when looking at things on the internet from other Black, Gifted, and Homeschooling families (wait, did I forget to mention Twice Exceptional children as well - add that one too). Its not so much that we only associate with others "like us" or we want to only associate with others "like us", its just sometimes wanting to have that conversation with someone who "gets it".
It really does get hard sometimes when you are at an event and no one looks like you, then you go to another event where everyone looks like you, but no one educate their child like you do, then you go to another event where some people look like you, they even home school like you, but they don't have a first grader that took a course on the "Anatomy of the Human Brain" like yours did, 2 years ago - when they were four.
Race generally isn't an issue for me, but I had the recent experience of looking at an article online about a researcher who "proved" Black women were categorically unattractive. As I looked through the comments I saw Blacks referred to as ugly monkeys, big fat welfare queens, and other things I would rather not mention. It wouldn't have been so bad if those comments didn't have 300 likes and only 4 dislikes! However, even my White friends couldn't help me from feeling a bit alone and overwhelmed. I don't just have to prepare my kids to for academic life, work life, religious life, I have to prepare them for a world where my daughter may see someone posts about Black women looking like monkeys and 300 fellow humans "liking" the comment. Those are the times when it feels overwhelming. If they were just young, I could ignore such nonsense. If they were just Black we could probably go to school and sit with friends. If they were just gifted I could post to other parents of gifted kids and ask what resources they pulled out for their inquisitive, yet sensitive little ones. If they were just home schooled I could shield them from even knowing about such people. But we don't get to ignore it - they are intelligent enough to pick up on the subtle things that separate them from the rest of their fellow Americans. And while they are proud to be Black, they understand we live in a diverse country with many wonderful races and faces and they must learn to live with and love them all. And I can't just pick up a book or show them a video and help them understand the intellectual faults and limitations of racism and prejudice, for they will be living in a world filled with good as well as bad people. And I can't just shield them, because at some point they will live this nest, and being profoundly gifted they may leave for college or other intellectual pursuits much sooner than their age mates. At those times, my heart is heavy. At those time, I tremble a bit with fear. At those times, I want a tribe. I want someone who not only understands intellectually, but feels my hurt, my pain. I need someone who also read those comments and cried. Cried not just for herself, who looked in the mirror at her natural twists and mocha complexion and wondered just what the world saw. Cried not just from the anger of it being 2011 and there still being this type of hate in the world. Cried not just because it hurt that even though she has a PhD she is assumed to be an uneducated "welfare queen" by some in this world. But cried for her beautiful daughter; cried for her beautiful young, black, gifted, and homeschooled little baby girl. I cried because her brothers have each other, but sometimes a woman needs a girlfriend to talk things over with. As I held my baby girl in my arms as she fell asleep that night, I cried at the weight of my task. I know the numbers, I know how hard it is going to be for her to find another person "like her". She is a social butterfly, she will have plenty of friends her entire life. However; I cried, because I realized that I must prepare her that somethings she will be facing in this world completely alone.
First let me say, we are not isolationist. We are very happy and very comfortable with our large diversity of friends. Our friendly gatherings generally have every color, culture, and custom represented in our neck of the woods - it brings a smile to my face and a dance to my heart! However, I also realize family reunions have a much different fell than neighborhood cook-outs and picnics among friends. There is a familiarity there that is unspoken, an acceptance of faults as well as gifts. There is an amazing freedom in being able to be your complete, imperfect self.
Blacks (or African Americans depending on your liking) represent just under 13% of the United States population. Gifted people represent less than 10% of the population, with profoundly gifted people representing less than 2% of the population. Home schooled children represent less than 2% of the school age population in the United States. With those numbers, my children have very few people in this country, let alone this world - that live a life similar to their own. Now, we know other Blacks, we know other gifted children, we know other Black gifted children, we know other profoundly gifted children. However, I am not sure we have had an opportunity to for my children to step into a room and find another family of children "like them". There is always something different about them, something not in common, some gap of experience. Kind of like walking into a classroom and being the only Jewish kid that celebrates the Sabbath in a school full of Protestants and Catholics. You realize that no matter how much you have in common, most birthday parties will be on a Saturday and you won't be able to participate. It takes nothing away from your classmates and friends, you just always have that tug of being, at least on this point, a bit alone.
One of the reasons I started this blog was so often coming up with a void when looking at things on the internet from other Black, Gifted, and Homeschooling families (wait, did I forget to mention Twice Exceptional children as well - add that one too). Its not so much that we only associate with others "like us" or we want to only associate with others "like us", its just sometimes wanting to have that conversation with someone who "gets it".
It really does get hard sometimes when you are at an event and no one looks like you, then you go to another event where everyone looks like you, but no one educate their child like you do, then you go to another event where some people look like you, they even home school like you, but they don't have a first grader that took a course on the "Anatomy of the Human Brain" like yours did, 2 years ago - when they were four.
Race generally isn't an issue for me, but I had the recent experience of looking at an article online about a researcher who "proved" Black women were categorically unattractive. As I looked through the comments I saw Blacks referred to as ugly monkeys, big fat welfare queens, and other things I would rather not mention. It wouldn't have been so bad if those comments didn't have 300 likes and only 4 dislikes! However, even my White friends couldn't help me from feeling a bit alone and overwhelmed. I don't just have to prepare my kids to for academic life, work life, religious life, I have to prepare them for a world where my daughter may see someone posts about Black women looking like monkeys and 300 fellow humans "liking" the comment. Those are the times when it feels overwhelming. If they were just young, I could ignore such nonsense. If they were just Black we could probably go to school and sit with friends. If they were just gifted I could post to other parents of gifted kids and ask what resources they pulled out for their inquisitive, yet sensitive little ones. If they were just home schooled I could shield them from even knowing about such people. But we don't get to ignore it - they are intelligent enough to pick up on the subtle things that separate them from the rest of their fellow Americans. And while they are proud to be Black, they understand we live in a diverse country with many wonderful races and faces and they must learn to live with and love them all. And I can't just pick up a book or show them a video and help them understand the intellectual faults and limitations of racism and prejudice, for they will be living in a world filled with good as well as bad people. And I can't just shield them, because at some point they will live this nest, and being profoundly gifted they may leave for college or other intellectual pursuits much sooner than their age mates. At those times, my heart is heavy. At those time, I tremble a bit with fear. At those times, I want a tribe. I want someone who not only understands intellectually, but feels my hurt, my pain. I need someone who also read those comments and cried. Cried not just for herself, who looked in the mirror at her natural twists and mocha complexion and wondered just what the world saw. Cried not just from the anger of it being 2011 and there still being this type of hate in the world. Cried not just because it hurt that even though she has a PhD she is assumed to be an uneducated "welfare queen" by some in this world. But cried for her beautiful daughter; cried for her beautiful young, black, gifted, and homeschooled little baby girl. I cried because her brothers have each other, but sometimes a woman needs a girlfriend to talk things over with. As I held my baby girl in my arms as she fell asleep that night, I cried at the weight of my task. I know the numbers, I know how hard it is going to be for her to find another person "like her". She is a social butterfly, she will have plenty of friends her entire life. However; I cried, because I realized that I must prepare her that somethings she will be facing in this world completely alone.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Intensive Phonics Part 2
I'll be adding some pictures a bit later, but wanted to get the plan up now (while I am organizing things). I always cover information in at least four ways with the kids. This covers there different learning styles, and allows me to reinforce information in fun and new ways.
Spines that influence the way I set up our curriculum
1. Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide
2. Find the vawol: Read the Rime Learn to Read by Miriam Cherkes-Julkowski
3. Reading Horizons Intensive Phonics at Home
These two books are written for the parent/teacher to help you have a more foundational understanding of the reading process. Reading these two books before designing our curriculum was key in helping me to set things up.
The main four ways the kids learn reading/spelling through intensive phonics is 1) parent-led instruction, 2) computer-based instruction, 3) reinforcing DVD's/videos, 4) arts and crafts/games. Since I separate reading and writing, our main source of interaction is through communicating - I can tell if the children understand by their responses and interactions with me during our lessons. I also use magnetic boards. I have several sizes of magnetic boards - from lap boards to wall boards. I have tons of magnetic letters and hundreds of words.
Parent-led instruction:
Using the principles from my two spine books, I set about with certain activities we will do on a weekly basis. We will cover a minimum of 2 phonic rules a week. Weekly activity include:
1. Parent-led intensive phonics at home - one or more sections each week
2. Webber Phonological Awareness Photo Cards - these are flash card that deal with a unique set of phonological awareness (such as syllable deletion). These are really important for my dyslexic child
3. AlphaTales books - these are 26 books that focus on the different letters of the alphabet. They are neat stories that utilize a number of interesting words that start with the various letters
4. Starfall books - these are books to coincide with the various stories on the Starfall website.
5. Bob Books - we have the entire set and I like these because the children can use their phonic skills quite quickly to read the books. Mind you, the books are a bit boring, but they work for us.
6. Dr. Seuss books - Dr. Seuss books are AMAZING at reinforcing phonics. Especially with the made up words that coincide with phonetic skills. Just a great tool to use. I LOVE Dr. Seuss books!
Computer-Based Instruction:
1. CD-ROM based intensive phonics at home (my eldest, age 5, enjoys this program a lot in this format)
2. Help Me 2 Learn Super Star Phonics CD-ROMS. We have the entire set, so they can do computer based activities based on what we are learning
3. Hear Builder Phonological Awareness CD-ROM - great for ear training, again necessary remediation for my dyslexic child
4. Starfall - a great free website that teaches phonics skills
Reinforcing DVDs
1. Rock-N-Learn Phonics DVD - we may do this depending on our mood and if we need some reinforcement
2. Tad Letter Factory and Tad Word Factory DVDs - these videos are fun ways to reinforce things we are learning
3. Classic Electric Company DVDs - fun way to reinforce some of our learning
4. Word World - a great program for letter substitution
Arts and Crafts/Games
1. Wood and Card board letter decoration. We are starting with the alphabet and phonics associated with the different letters, then moving on to blends. Each new letter we do gets decorated as we discuss it's phonic sound(s), the role it plays in words (consonant or verb), what is special about it (like Q always needs a U after it or Y is sometime a noun and a verb).
2. Games on the magnetic board - like Hangman, Scrabble, etc.
3. Felts - I have quite a few nursery rhyme felt scenes, so if we are doing sounds that are common in a nursery rhyme I have felts for, we will act those out. I also have felt letters so they can write a word or sentence that has to do with the felt scene showing.
4. Rory's Story Cubes - these are nine dice with different pictures on each side of the dice. You pick how many dice you want the child to throw (the more dice you use, the harder the story to develop). We will start with one die and kids will have to try to come up with a story utilizing at least one word made up of the phonic rules we have learned.
5. Story development. Just to have some fun, we will sometimes take an object or even a painting and each child will make up a story around it. I love this as a way for them to utilize their language skills and expand their vocabulary.
6. Letter bead bracelets. There are times when they may want to learn to spell a particular word. Especially if it is a new word we learned during story telling or in science or from reading a new book. Instead of just telling them how to spell the word, we will spell it out with beads, then make a bracelet with the word spelled out. They can wear the bracelet around as they learn to spell and sound out the word. If we haven't gotten to the correct phonetic sounds yet, I will just tell them the rule and let them know we will learn about it more later. They will eventually have enough bracelets where they can wear messages on their arms. Also have necklace strings so they can create long words or even sentences to wear around their necks.
7. Painting and coloring based on different words we focused on while learning our phonic rules.
These are some of the things we do weekly. I want to keep things interesting and focus on the outcome of learning. Since my kids are at such different levels - intellectually working quite far above their ages, but also dealing with dyslexia and limits in fine motor skills based on age - we have to be creative. Hopefully things work, but if we need to try something different - we will do that too!
We will discuss Handwriting in my next posting
Spines that influence the way I set up our curriculum
1. Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide
2. Find the vawol: Read the Rime Learn to Read by Miriam Cherkes-Julkowski
3. Reading Horizons Intensive Phonics at Home
These two books are written for the parent/teacher to help you have a more foundational understanding of the reading process. Reading these two books before designing our curriculum was key in helping me to set things up.
The main four ways the kids learn reading/spelling through intensive phonics is 1) parent-led instruction, 2) computer-based instruction, 3) reinforcing DVD's/videos, 4) arts and crafts/games. Since I separate reading and writing, our main source of interaction is through communicating - I can tell if the children understand by their responses and interactions with me during our lessons. I also use magnetic boards. I have several sizes of magnetic boards - from lap boards to wall boards. I have tons of magnetic letters and hundreds of words.
Parent-led instruction:
Using the principles from my two spine books, I set about with certain activities we will do on a weekly basis. We will cover a minimum of 2 phonic rules a week. Weekly activity include:
1. Parent-led intensive phonics at home - one or more sections each week
2. Webber Phonological Awareness Photo Cards - these are flash card that deal with a unique set of phonological awareness (such as syllable deletion). These are really important for my dyslexic child
3. AlphaTales books - these are 26 books that focus on the different letters of the alphabet. They are neat stories that utilize a number of interesting words that start with the various letters
4. Starfall books - these are books to coincide with the various stories on the Starfall website.
5. Bob Books - we have the entire set and I like these because the children can use their phonic skills quite quickly to read the books. Mind you, the books are a bit boring, but they work for us.
6. Dr. Seuss books - Dr. Seuss books are AMAZING at reinforcing phonics. Especially with the made up words that coincide with phonetic skills. Just a great tool to use. I LOVE Dr. Seuss books!
Computer-Based Instruction:
1. CD-ROM based intensive phonics at home (my eldest, age 5, enjoys this program a lot in this format)
2. Help Me 2 Learn Super Star Phonics CD-ROMS. We have the entire set, so they can do computer based activities based on what we are learning
3. Hear Builder Phonological Awareness CD-ROM - great for ear training, again necessary remediation for my dyslexic child
4. Starfall - a great free website that teaches phonics skills
Reinforcing DVDs
1. Rock-N-Learn Phonics DVD - we may do this depending on our mood and if we need some reinforcement
2. Tad Letter Factory and Tad Word Factory DVDs - these videos are fun ways to reinforce things we are learning
3. Classic Electric Company DVDs - fun way to reinforce some of our learning
4. Word World - a great program for letter substitution
Arts and Crafts/Games
1. Wood and Card board letter decoration. We are starting with the alphabet and phonics associated with the different letters, then moving on to blends. Each new letter we do gets decorated as we discuss it's phonic sound(s), the role it plays in words (consonant or verb), what is special about it (like Q always needs a U after it or Y is sometime a noun and a verb).
2. Games on the magnetic board - like Hangman, Scrabble, etc.
3. Felts - I have quite a few nursery rhyme felt scenes, so if we are doing sounds that are common in a nursery rhyme I have felts for, we will act those out. I also have felt letters so they can write a word or sentence that has to do with the felt scene showing.
4. Rory's Story Cubes - these are nine dice with different pictures on each side of the dice. You pick how many dice you want the child to throw (the more dice you use, the harder the story to develop). We will start with one die and kids will have to try to come up with a story utilizing at least one word made up of the phonic rules we have learned.
5. Story development. Just to have some fun, we will sometimes take an object or even a painting and each child will make up a story around it. I love this as a way for them to utilize their language skills and expand their vocabulary.
6. Letter bead bracelets. There are times when they may want to learn to spell a particular word. Especially if it is a new word we learned during story telling or in science or from reading a new book. Instead of just telling them how to spell the word, we will spell it out with beads, then make a bracelet with the word spelled out. They can wear the bracelet around as they learn to spell and sound out the word. If we haven't gotten to the correct phonetic sounds yet, I will just tell them the rule and let them know we will learn about it more later. They will eventually have enough bracelets where they can wear messages on their arms. Also have necklace strings so they can create long words or even sentences to wear around their necks.
7. Painting and coloring based on different words we focused on while learning our phonic rules.
These are some of the things we do weekly. I want to keep things interesting and focus on the outcome of learning. Since my kids are at such different levels - intellectually working quite far above their ages, but also dealing with dyslexia and limits in fine motor skills based on age - we have to be creative. Hopefully things work, but if we need to try something different - we will do that too!
We will discuss Handwriting in my next posting
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Intensive Phonics Part 1
For some reason, complete phonics is often referred to as "intensive phonics". The reason is because most children never get to opportunity to have a complete phonics education when they begin to learn to read. I absolutely LOVE the book "Uncovering the Logic of English" by Denise Eide. I use this book at the "spine" for our trip through intensive phonics.
I teach solid phonics first for many reasons. The first is that my eldest is dyslexic, so it is immensely important that a dyslexic person have a solid foundation in phonics. The second reason is that English is a phonic language. I have no inkling why we teach English often times as if it were a pictorial language like Hieroglyphics! Sight words are pictorial, so the absolute worst way to teach English. By teaching intensive phonics you can teach 104 phonics rules that will explain 98% of all English words. It isn't at all too much to assume that even a young child can learn 104 rules - it would be similar to a child learning the 100 sight words they are expected to know when they complete First grade. So - do you spend your time teaching 100 words so that at the end of the day they know 100 English words, or do you teach 104 rules so that at the end of the day they can read 98% of the over 40,000 words in the English language?
Our lesson plan begins with us learning 2 rules a week - which means we should be finish learning all 104 rules in a calendar year. We will adjust faster or slower as needed. We are starting with the alphabet because they know it already, but it really needs to be re-taught from a phonic perspective. We will learn each of the sounds that the letters make - teaching all the sounds associated with each letter. For instance, when starting with "A", we go learn the three separate sounds that the letter "A" can make. We then will move on to blends.
It can seem as if it takes longer for a child to learn to read when they are taught intensive phonics. However, the wait is worth it. While sight words give a child a fish, phonics teaches the child to fish for themselves.
I have found many people start with phonics, and quickly to sight words. This is like starting to carefully work a puzzle with a child, the quickly fill in the rest of the pieces and show the child the picture. While the child started to learn the puzzle for themselves, the learning process simply stops and they see in whole pictures instead of pieces. This becomes a problem when a child sees new words that have some of those same puzzle pieces. The child just doesn't know how to effectively use those clues to put the new picture together for themselves.
This is the reason there are "sight words" for every grade level as children are given more and more words to try and memorize. At some point, the capacity to memorize gets overloaded. Some children learn to decode for themselves, although it can be hard to learn when to use "f" and when to use "ph" without given explicit instruction. English starts to feel random when it isn't random it all; in fact - English is very logical!
Intensive Phonics Part 2 I will reveal our year long curriculum for Intensive Phonics
I teach solid phonics first for many reasons. The first is that my eldest is dyslexic, so it is immensely important that a dyslexic person have a solid foundation in phonics. The second reason is that English is a phonic language. I have no inkling why we teach English often times as if it were a pictorial language like Hieroglyphics! Sight words are pictorial, so the absolute worst way to teach English. By teaching intensive phonics you can teach 104 phonics rules that will explain 98% of all English words. It isn't at all too much to assume that even a young child can learn 104 rules - it would be similar to a child learning the 100 sight words they are expected to know when they complete First grade. So - do you spend your time teaching 100 words so that at the end of the day they know 100 English words, or do you teach 104 rules so that at the end of the day they can read 98% of the over 40,000 words in the English language?
Our lesson plan begins with us learning 2 rules a week - which means we should be finish learning all 104 rules in a calendar year. We will adjust faster or slower as needed. We are starting with the alphabet because they know it already, but it really needs to be re-taught from a phonic perspective. We will learn each of the sounds that the letters make - teaching all the sounds associated with each letter. For instance, when starting with "A", we go learn the three separate sounds that the letter "A" can make. We then will move on to blends.
It can seem as if it takes longer for a child to learn to read when they are taught intensive phonics. However, the wait is worth it. While sight words give a child a fish, phonics teaches the child to fish for themselves.
I have found many people start with phonics, and quickly to sight words. This is like starting to carefully work a puzzle with a child, the quickly fill in the rest of the pieces and show the child the picture. While the child started to learn the puzzle for themselves, the learning process simply stops and they see in whole pictures instead of pieces. This becomes a problem when a child sees new words that have some of those same puzzle pieces. The child just doesn't know how to effectively use those clues to put the new picture together for themselves.
This is the reason there are "sight words" for every grade level as children are given more and more words to try and memorize. At some point, the capacity to memorize gets overloaded. Some children learn to decode for themselves, although it can be hard to learn when to use "f" and when to use "ph" without given explicit instruction. English starts to feel random when it isn't random it all; in fact - English is very logical!
Intensive Phonics Part 2 I will reveal our year long curriculum for Intensive Phonics
Great "free" color matching game!
Okay, we spend a lot on curriculum and supplies. So much so that I hate to even consider posting the amount. However, there are times when I salivate over the word "free". So, while walking through a big name home improvement store getting supplies for a DIY project with my husband I walked past the paint isle. As I walked past the cardstock paint samples I thought, "Eureka"!
Color matching is something I really wanted to do with the kids. Of course, since they are a big old for matching simply primary colors, I thought this was an excellent opportunity. While color matching is often done with younger children, it really is important to do this with older children as well. I will get to that later, first to back to the "free" part!
Here we had all these wonderful card stocks in almost every shade available using the colors of the rainbow. And they were FREE! Okay, they didn't have a sign saying "take one for a homeschool project", but I really was thinking about painting a room and needed some samples. So, I thought - what a perfect opportunity! I got two of each for several different color shades. For extra challenge, I got two each of textured paint samples in slightly different shades. The wonderful thing is that the names of the colors are on the back of the paint samples. It is really as if they were screaming - "use me as an educational tool".
Now, if you do utilize this idea - please be reasonable. Don't grab more than two cards for any one color, don't take the last card in the slot, and please don't load up on every single sample there! At my store there was literally more than 100 different color samples to choose from and I took about 15 colors, 2 cards per color.
The reason why I think this is excellent for 3 - 6 year old set is that it goes beyond the normal primary color matching. It allows children to see the result of color blending. It can also alert you as the parent to vision issues with color processing. It is easy to distinguish red from yellow - it is a bit harder to see the subtle differences between off white and ivory. Adding in textured samples with slight shading differences can even up the challenge and allow for a 7 or 8 year old child to join into the fun.
An expansion activity can be to use crayons, paint, or colored pencils to try to color blend to match the shades on some of the cards. If you do a color science activity with water and color bath tablets - matching the shades can become a pretty good scientific study.
So, if you are ever in a large home improvement store and happen upon a wall of card stock paint color samples - consider grabbing a few for a great game of color matching. This could easily morph into an arts and crafts by cutting the cards into shapes and making a neat mosaic. There are really scores of things you can do with these neat little kid sized blocks of unique, funky, and new colors.
Color matching is something I really wanted to do with the kids. Of course, since they are a big old for matching simply primary colors, I thought this was an excellent opportunity. While color matching is often done with younger children, it really is important to do this with older children as well. I will get to that later, first to back to the "free" part!
Here we had all these wonderful card stocks in almost every shade available using the colors of the rainbow. And they were FREE! Okay, they didn't have a sign saying "take one for a homeschool project", but I really was thinking about painting a room and needed some samples. So, I thought - what a perfect opportunity! I got two of each for several different color shades. For extra challenge, I got two each of textured paint samples in slightly different shades. The wonderful thing is that the names of the colors are on the back of the paint samples. It is really as if they were screaming - "use me as an educational tool".
Now, if you do utilize this idea - please be reasonable. Don't grab more than two cards for any one color, don't take the last card in the slot, and please don't load up on every single sample there! At my store there was literally more than 100 different color samples to choose from and I took about 15 colors, 2 cards per color.
The reason why I think this is excellent for 3 - 6 year old set is that it goes beyond the normal primary color matching. It allows children to see the result of color blending. It can also alert you as the parent to vision issues with color processing. It is easy to distinguish red from yellow - it is a bit harder to see the subtle differences between off white and ivory. Adding in textured samples with slight shading differences can even up the challenge and allow for a 7 or 8 year old child to join into the fun.
An expansion activity can be to use crayons, paint, or colored pencils to try to color blend to match the shades on some of the cards. If you do a color science activity with water and color bath tablets - matching the shades can become a pretty good scientific study.
So, if you are ever in a large home improvement store and happen upon a wall of card stock paint color samples - consider grabbing a few for a great game of color matching. This could easily morph into an arts and crafts by cutting the cards into shapes and making a neat mosaic. There are really scores of things you can do with these neat little kid sized blocks of unique, funky, and new colors.
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