What a beautiful balmy morning! All the kids are quietly tucked into corners doing their Reading right now so I too have a quiet morning. The sun is spilling into the school room windows bathing everything in a soft glow. I love mornings.
Homeschool continues to flow at a hurried pace. Peter has about 4 books that need to be read in the next two weeks. He can't read that fast so I will be doing lots of reading to him. He is listening to Marley a Dog Like No Other on an audio book and I am orally reading Bud Not Buddy to him. In this manner we can start striking out the books on his list.
I've put Peter in Reading Detective along with his Bob Jones. Reading detective is a book of short stories and work sheets. The big plus for this book is the practice it gives the kids on pulling out inferences and information that is not written in the story. Bob Jones does that too but this makes so that every day Peter is being exposed to critical thinking at a concentrated level.
Juggling the schedule is continuing to be a challenge. Some things are ending while others are beginning. Book Club will be over in March. Volley ball will be over Monday but Basketball will just be beginning! Basketball practices are usually Tuesday and Thursday nights with games on Saturday. Fortunately the only thing I have scheduled Thursday nights is Peters viola lesson and I think we can fit both the lesson and the practice in.
This week I only have 3 full time students so I'm using the time to drill the parts of speech and multiplication to my third graders. The extra time was badly needed for the boys.
Tutoring on Fridays will end this Friday too since the state testing begins this coming week. It will be nice to have my Fridays free again. Between tutoring and volleyball games my Fridays have been eaten up without any housework or laundry or catch up stuff getting done.
Well after many interruptions I finally finish this. Reading period is over and its time to move on to phonics.
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Gregor The Overlander
I have written before of Peters involvement in a book club called, Oregon Battle of the Books or OBOB for short. One of the books he has to read is Gregor the Overlander written by Suzanne Collins. This book is fantasy and Peter isn't much into this sort of thing. I thought he would never get to a point where he would approach this book with anything close to enthusiasm. I was wrong. About 12 chapters into it he got so involved he would listen to the audio without being told.This books reading level is 4.9 which is above Peters ability. I read to him the first 10 chapters then realized we were going too slow. I would never be finished by the deadline if we didn't figure something out. This is where the audio book came in. What a lovely way for him to read on his own without my help. Children who also follow along with the reading in their own books build fluency at an astonishing rate!
Students in OBOB must write questions and answers on the book they are reading and quiz their team mates in preparation for going before judges at the final competition. The judges have 80 questions written on every book no matter how long the book is! The questions include things that are very obscure such as the weather on any given day in the book or the clothes that the character was wearing. There is no way to predict what they will pull out.
The way the children are taught to read the books is very helpful in all subjects. As Peter reads he uses sticky notes to mark the side of the page that he thinks might hold important facts. When the book is read the kids take index cards and go back through their books forming questions out of the facts.
Gregor the Overlander is not a book I would have picked for my child to read but Im glad Peter is reading it. It is a whole new genre for him and it makes him think and reason in ways he hasn't had to before.
I, of course will keep you updated on how OBOB turns out! Hopefully Peters team will be selected to go to state!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Mitten
The Mitten was written by Jan Brett and has always been one of my children's favorite books. Now that winter is here it's a fun book to read and study. I have never met a child who isn't fascinated by the story of all the woodland animals that found a home in a little boys lost mitten.
I was therefore, very pleased to discover that Enchanted Learning had worksheets and a printable story for the kids on the book, The Mitten. I have a little class I teach on Thursday mornings and this was the perfect book and craft for them. This Thursday morning class has evolved and changed since fall due to the kids that come and go out of it. Right now the children that are in this class are the perfect age to discover the story of The Mitten and delight over all the little animals.
To do this craft I first printed out the mitten pattern. Then I traced it over on felt and cut those mittens out. You then put the two mittens together and either sew or staple around them leaving the top open.
Then you print out this animal template and have the children color and cut out the animals. They then put the animals in the mitten to take home.
I printed the story from the same website. It prints out in full page so the kids can color the pictures. They also have worksheets that go along with the story. The mittens turned out just adorable and the kids loved this little lesson. The one drawback is that you do need to pay for the Enchanted Learning site. I get so many things off of it though that the cost is well worth it!
Jan Brett also has her own website with tons of crafts to go along with her books. You can find it here. There is just a ton of stuff to do on her website. I haven't even begun to explore all the resources that she has there! You just have to go take a peek.
Monday, October 19, 2009
More on Independent Study and Homeschool Structure
To school younger children who are less independent than the high school you will need to know your child and what they are capable of. Again remember that independence is the goal.
I discussed in the last post how I leave Tink on her own much of the time. But I still have three others to teach who are not independent learners yet. So how much independence should you give a child? A child at the first grade level will not be able to do a lot on their own. I start my first grader on handwriting first thing in the morning. The others start on their reading.
The first grader is doing handwriting because she can do that without help. The others are all doing reading. I start with the one reading at the second grade level. He reads to me the words from his word wall. Then we read in Pathway Phonics which is a wonderful book that teaches blends of sounds and then flows them into words. This takes about 15 minutes. I then release him to go read his story while I get the third grader. The third grade boy has been reading in his reader while I'm working with the second grader.
As the switch between the boys is being made I use this minute to switch the first grader into her phonics book. She will now be circling all the pictures that start with the letter w. Then she will circle all pictures that start with wa then we then wi and so on through the vowels. It doesn't matter at this point whether she gets them right or wrong. This just gives her something to wrap her brain around and try on her own until I have time to work with her.
Now the with the second grader reading his story and the first grader doing her phonics I turn my attention to the third grader. He reads the words on his word wall then he reads a page of his story with me. He doesn't need a separate phonics course, being very proficient at it. He gets a lot of phonics stuff in his reading workbook and language arts anyway. So he reads a page to me.
There is no need for him to read the entire story to me. One page can tell you if the child is comprehending or if there are words that he doesn't know in the story. So he reads the page to me. Then I have him read the next page after me. I read a about two sentences and then he reads those same two sentences. This is fluency practice. I do this with every reading class including Tinks.
If reading two sentences is two hard and the child is still hesitating I read just one sentence at a time. Sometimes I have them read right with me. We both read a passage aloud. This gives the child the idea of how reading flows without stopping. This sort of reading is a huge part of teaching fluency.
By the time we are done the second grader is done reading his story. I take him and do the exact same thing with him for fluency that I just did with the third grader. Then both boys finish reading whatever they haven't finished and then move on to the comprehension exercises in their workbooks.
At this point I turn my attention to the first grader and for the next 20 minutes before break we do our reading. The phonics she was working on will be corrected and done together by the two of us after lunch. But for now it is just 10am and time for a 15 minute break. After break we do Math. Of course, that is a post for another time. Hopefully though, this has given you some idea how to teach reading to multiple grades and how to foster independent learning at each level.
Note that by the time reading period is over each child, other than Tink, has worked independently for about an hour and with me for half an hour. The reading period lasts an hour and a half.
I discussed in the last post how I leave Tink on her own much of the time. But I still have three others to teach who are not independent learners yet. So how much independence should you give a child? A child at the first grade level will not be able to do a lot on their own. I start my first grader on handwriting first thing in the morning. The others start on their reading.
The first grader is doing handwriting because she can do that without help. The others are all doing reading. I start with the one reading at the second grade level. He reads to me the words from his word wall. Then we read in Pathway Phonics which is a wonderful book that teaches blends of sounds and then flows them into words. This takes about 15 minutes. I then release him to go read his story while I get the third grader. The third grade boy has been reading in his reader while I'm working with the second grader.
As the switch between the boys is being made I use this minute to switch the first grader into her phonics book. She will now be circling all the pictures that start with the letter w. Then she will circle all pictures that start with wa then we then wi and so on through the vowels. It doesn't matter at this point whether she gets them right or wrong. This just gives her something to wrap her brain around and try on her own until I have time to work with her.
Now the with the second grader reading his story and the first grader doing her phonics I turn my attention to the third grader. He reads the words on his word wall then he reads a page of his story with me. He doesn't need a separate phonics course, being very proficient at it. He gets a lot of phonics stuff in his reading workbook and language arts anyway. So he reads a page to me.
There is no need for him to read the entire story to me. One page can tell you if the child is comprehending or if there are words that he doesn't know in the story. So he reads the page to me. Then I have him read the next page after me. I read a about two sentences and then he reads those same two sentences. This is fluency practice. I do this with every reading class including Tinks.
If reading two sentences is two hard and the child is still hesitating I read just one sentence at a time. Sometimes I have them read right with me. We both read a passage aloud. This gives the child the idea of how reading flows without stopping. This sort of reading is a huge part of teaching fluency.
By the time we are done the second grader is done reading his story. I take him and do the exact same thing with him for fluency that I just did with the third grader. Then both boys finish reading whatever they haven't finished and then move on to the comprehension exercises in their workbooks.
At this point I turn my attention to the first grader and for the next 20 minutes before break we do our reading. The phonics she was working on will be corrected and done together by the two of us after lunch. But for now it is just 10am and time for a 15 minute break. After break we do Math. Of course, that is a post for another time. Hopefully though, this has given you some idea how to teach reading to multiple grades and how to foster independent learning at each level.
Note that by the time reading period is over each child, other than Tink, has worked independently for about an hour and with me for half an hour. The reading period lasts an hour and a half.
Monday, January 19, 2009
There is no end to the studying of books
Today is a holiday here in the states so there is no school. It's a cold winter day with temps at 25 degrees F. Now to some of you in the East and midwest right now that would seem almost like summer! But 25 is as low as I care to see it. I truly could live in 75 degree weather forever, with a dip in temps for Christmas. Is there anywhere like that? I doubt.
I'm going to take today to figure out exactly where we are in our books. It takes continual pacing to get finished by summer. I school until the middle of July every year than take 6 weeks off and start up again in September so that gives me a little longer to get through things.
I'm still not totally happy with Tinks reading curriculum or lack thereof. I wish I could find a good strong reading program. I love BJU but Tink freaks when she sees the book because of earlier struggles with it last year. I have her in Houghton Mifflins Golden Threads now but when that is done I'm not sure where we'll go. I ordered the Houghton Mifflin reading book for third grade and I'm thinking of going into that next. The one shes doing now for reading is actually a Literature book.
We're still doing Word Walls only now Im not printing and cutting the words out by hand. I payed for Ed Helper and now I use it to make my word wall. Tink is also working through Letters and Sounds by Abeka for more phonics exercises. She's half way through that book and should finish it by April. I'm going to move her up in that same curriculum to the next book when she's finished with it. She's also doing Explode the Code for Phonics and is almost done with Book 7 that she started in the fall.
Phonics and Reading are an important part of our day. Tink reads aloud to me every day so I can monitor and catch any problems. If you are interested in looking at any of these books you can find the link to them in my sidebar under Tinks Winter Curriculum. Having a 10 week old baby on my left arm and pecking with the right doesn't lend itself to putting in all the links, if you know what I mean.
We're only about a third of the way through our Science book. I want to be finished with the unit on Plants by the end of January. We're sticking closely to the Science Schedule I layed out here. We're still lapbooking this unit too.
In History we just finished studying about Benjamin Franklin. Tink is taking a surprising interest in this man. She now studies intently any picture she sees in books of men of that time to see if she can pick him out. I guess I never realized before what a sort of ugly man he was. Oh well, I'll take brains over beauty any day and he certainly had the brains! We're still notebooking our Abeka History book besides answering all the questions in the book.
I want to stop here a moment and tell you about the great characters in Abekas 3rd grade History book. Of course, I was also impressed with their 2nd grade History book. That's way more than I can say for their unimpressive Reading program. But for those who are interested here are the people that the kids will study this year in the order they are given in the book. It also gives the span of time we are studying beginning in the 1400's and ending in 1957! That's incredible span with many interesting characters.Here they are:
Fall Term as divided by the book,
Christopher Columbus 1451-1506
John Smith 1580-1631
Pocahontas 1595-1617
Miles Standish 1584-1656
Squanto 1585-1622
William Penn 1644-1718
Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790 (we are to this point. Winter term in our district starts Feb 4 so we are perfectly in place in History. That feels good!)
Winter Term
George Washington 1732-1799
Daniel Boone 1734-1820
Noah Webster 1758-1843
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807-1892
Robert E. Lee 1807-1870
Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865
Spring Term
Clara Barton 1821-1912
Ulysses S Grant 1822-1885
Louisa May Alcott 1832-1888
Booker T Washington 1856-1915
George Washington Carver 1859-1943
Laura Ingalls Wilder 1867-1957
Billy Sunday 1862-1935
Isn't that an exciting lineup? I cant wait for Spring Term. Maybe I can finally interest Tink in the Little House books or in Little Women. I can dream, cant I? You mothers of kids who love to read have no idea how blessed you are!
In Math we are moving slowly. I have to supplement with so much extra work so Tink can grasp it that the actual book progress is tedious. We are doing Horizons and are still in Book 3A. I keep thinking we're almost done with it and then another page appears from nowhere! Okay, I'm sure it was there all along but goodness, its taking forever! I am happy to say that Tink is finally getting a firm grip on the multiplication tables. She uses little books from her Multiplication Lapbook but I've been seeing her work more and more on her own. She is fast with the flash cards up through the 6's. She's knows beyond that but she has to think harder.
In Language Arts we are only a fourth of the way through the book. There will be no finishing in this book this year. Tink and one of my other students are learning about the writing process in unit 4 of Abekas Language Arts. They are learning how to glean information and document their sources. Then they move on to rough drafts and finals. While they are doing their research and such I am having them work in Unit 5 which is on the proper use of quotations. So we're moving slowly but Tink is learning and that's what counts.
In Literature we are studying WWII. I know that sounds like History and it is but we are using it for Literature. I'm reading the kids the book, Scout, And The Secret of The Swamp, while they color the pictures that go with WWII. For a complete over view of exactly how we are doing this study you can go to World War II under labels on my sidebar or you can click here.
Our Read Alouds right now are Snow Treasure, Scout, and a Magic Treehouse book about Dragons. I cant rightly remember the title now. This one Mr. Darling and I are both reading to Peter. Tink has no interest in it having "outgrown Magic Treehouse", as she puts it.
So this brings us to the end of this somewhat boring update. I love reading homeschool updates but I realize a lot of my readers are not homeschoolers, therefore a lot of this stuff is not particularly interesting.
Well Tiger Lily is needing care so I have to go.
I'm going to take today to figure out exactly where we are in our books. It takes continual pacing to get finished by summer. I school until the middle of July every year than take 6 weeks off and start up again in September so that gives me a little longer to get through things.
I'm still not totally happy with Tinks reading curriculum or lack thereof. I wish I could find a good strong reading program. I love BJU but Tink freaks when she sees the book because of earlier struggles with it last year. I have her in Houghton Mifflins Golden Threads now but when that is done I'm not sure where we'll go. I ordered the Houghton Mifflin reading book for third grade and I'm thinking of going into that next. The one shes doing now for reading is actually a Literature book.
We're still doing Word Walls only now Im not printing and cutting the words out by hand. I payed for Ed Helper and now I use it to make my word wall. Tink is also working through Letters and Sounds by Abeka for more phonics exercises. She's half way through that book and should finish it by April. I'm going to move her up in that same curriculum to the next book when she's finished with it. She's also doing Explode the Code for Phonics and is almost done with Book 7 that she started in the fall.
Phonics and Reading are an important part of our day. Tink reads aloud to me every day so I can monitor and catch any problems. If you are interested in looking at any of these books you can find the link to them in my sidebar under Tinks Winter Curriculum. Having a 10 week old baby on my left arm and pecking with the right doesn't lend itself to putting in all the links, if you know what I mean.
We're only about a third of the way through our Science book. I want to be finished with the unit on Plants by the end of January. We're sticking closely to the Science Schedule I layed out here. We're still lapbooking this unit too.
In History we just finished studying about Benjamin Franklin. Tink is taking a surprising interest in this man. She now studies intently any picture she sees in books of men of that time to see if she can pick him out. I guess I never realized before what a sort of ugly man he was. Oh well, I'll take brains over beauty any day and he certainly had the brains! We're still notebooking our Abeka History book besides answering all the questions in the book.
I want to stop here a moment and tell you about the great characters in Abekas 3rd grade History book. Of course, I was also impressed with their 2nd grade History book. That's way more than I can say for their unimpressive Reading program. But for those who are interested here are the people that the kids will study this year in the order they are given in the book. It also gives the span of time we are studying beginning in the 1400's and ending in 1957! That's incredible span with many interesting characters.Here they are:
Fall Term as divided by the book,
Christopher Columbus 1451-1506
John Smith 1580-1631
Pocahontas 1595-1617
Miles Standish 1584-1656
Squanto 1585-1622
William Penn 1644-1718
Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790 (we are to this point. Winter term in our district starts Feb 4 so we are perfectly in place in History. That feels good!)
Winter Term
George Washington 1732-1799
Daniel Boone 1734-1820
Noah Webster 1758-1843
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807-1892
Robert E. Lee 1807-1870
Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865
Spring Term
Clara Barton 1821-1912
Ulysses S Grant 1822-1885
Louisa May Alcott 1832-1888
Booker T Washington 1856-1915
George Washington Carver 1859-1943
Laura Ingalls Wilder 1867-1957
Billy Sunday 1862-1935
Isn't that an exciting lineup? I cant wait for Spring Term. Maybe I can finally interest Tink in the Little House books or in Little Women. I can dream, cant I? You mothers of kids who love to read have no idea how blessed you are!
In Math we are moving slowly. I have to supplement with so much extra work so Tink can grasp it that the actual book progress is tedious. We are doing Horizons and are still in Book 3A. I keep thinking we're almost done with it and then another page appears from nowhere! Okay, I'm sure it was there all along but goodness, its taking forever! I am happy to say that Tink is finally getting a firm grip on the multiplication tables. She uses little books from her Multiplication Lapbook but I've been seeing her work more and more on her own. She is fast with the flash cards up through the 6's. She's knows beyond that but she has to think harder.
In Language Arts we are only a fourth of the way through the book. There will be no finishing in this book this year. Tink and one of my other students are learning about the writing process in unit 4 of Abekas Language Arts. They are learning how to glean information and document their sources. Then they move on to rough drafts and finals. While they are doing their research and such I am having them work in Unit 5 which is on the proper use of quotations. So we're moving slowly but Tink is learning and that's what counts.
In Literature we are studying WWII. I know that sounds like History and it is but we are using it for Literature. I'm reading the kids the book, Scout, And The Secret of The Swamp, while they color the pictures that go with WWII. For a complete over view of exactly how we are doing this study you can go to World War II under labels on my sidebar or you can click here.
Our Read Alouds right now are Snow Treasure, Scout, and a Magic Treehouse book about Dragons. I cant rightly remember the title now. This one Mr. Darling and I are both reading to Peter. Tink has no interest in it having "outgrown Magic Treehouse", as she puts it.
So this brings us to the end of this somewhat boring update. I love reading homeschool updates but I realize a lot of my readers are not homeschoolers, therefore a lot of this stuff is not particularly interesting.
Well Tiger Lily is needing care so I have to go.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The Path To Fluent Reading
...is strewn with many obstacles for the learning disabled child.
When I was a child reading was my favorite past time. I was on the hurting end of a spanking many times because I was reading instead of working. In my own home I am the only one that loves to read. Mr. Darling has never read a novel in his life. Even in high school he used jacket covers and cliff notes for his reports. Now our daughter Tink hates to read too although for very different reasons than her daddy.
Peter is still an unknown, only just now beginning second grade but I think...I hope... that in him I have found my reader! That boy loves having stories read to him. When he brings books home from school they are far more interesting than the books Tink would bring home on library day. Yesterday Peter brought home a book about sharks. He read as much as he could and I filled in the words he couldn't read.
Tink use to bring home books on Hannah Montanna or Scooby Doo or The Cheetah Girls. This was mostly due to the fact that during those first few years of school she had no love for learning and the only things she could relate to were the pictures on the covers of those books. She recognized them from TV. We have since banned the kids from watching Nickelodeon of Disney.
The banning has stopped Tink TV watching almost entirely. Peter though has discovered shows like, How'd They Do That, How Things Are Made and Animal Detective and would watch them by the hour. I am amazed at the stuff he has learned from those shows! There's hardly a conversation around here that he doesn't have some new fact or something to share that he has learned on those shows!
Tink rarely ever quotes a fact or shows interest in knowing how things work in the world around her. The only thing that truly interests Tink is her music. She loves her music Cd's and spends hours dancing to them. When shes not dancing with the music she is outside playing with her friends.
My goal this year is to get Tink to read! I am ordering her the Reading Pen in hopes of jump starting her reading. New readers will have no idea of the hours upon hours that I have spent in teaching Tink to read. If you would like to know the methods used you could click on the label Tink on my sidebar. Some would say that the things I did have worked; after all she did place in her grade level this spring on the state tests. But I know that her reading is halting and frustrating to her no matter what the tests show. Two years ago Tink was reading at a beginning first grade level so she has made huge strides but I want to see her reading smooth out and her comprehension improve. To that end I have ordered the pen.
Also with the coming of this school year we are adding in a library day. We did this last fall and it was very successful. I also started a Book Club in our co-op that I hope will inspire her to read more.
The co-op went off splendidly yesterday. The little girls who's home it was are both avid readers. Tink adores the oldest girl that is her age. The sisters are both reading Nancy Drew books and so the mother had made a desert from the Nancy Drew cookbook. Tink of course hated the desert. Her sensory issues will never allow her to like meringue but she did adore the idea! Tink has never read a Nancy Drew book so I'm hoping her new found friends excitement will wear off on her.
The co-op went off without a hitch. The day was gorgeous and warm. The first hour was spent in English Composition, the second hour was PE and the third hour was learning games. For PE. the kids played bad mitten and darts and then ran through obstacle courses. They loved it. There was a huge tree fort at the farm and Tink and her friend disappeared up in its leafy loftiness to share secrets. Tink told me later that it was so restful and peaceful up there and she didn't want to come down. I think she was overloaded sensory wise and the tree house was a nice reprieve.
When Tink got home she was a wild girl; running around the table with her plate at dinner, scooping ground meat out of the dish with her hands, hitting and punching Peter and just totally out of control. The day with all its new activities and new friends was just too much for her. She's doing so much better that I am not as vigilant as I used to be. Last year that would have never happened because I would have been prepared for it. This year I wasn't and it was disastrous. So next week I will be better prepared for this behavior. The classes are at our house so the reactions will not be as strong; hopefully.
So learning continues to happen with setbacks and triumphs to be sure but at least its happening. My goal is to have Tink a fluent reader by the end of this year. I will have to work hard to make this happen!
When I was a child reading was my favorite past time. I was on the hurting end of a spanking many times because I was reading instead of working. In my own home I am the only one that loves to read. Mr. Darling has never read a novel in his life. Even in high school he used jacket covers and cliff notes for his reports. Now our daughter Tink hates to read too although for very different reasons than her daddy.
Peter is still an unknown, only just now beginning second grade but I think...I hope... that in him I have found my reader! That boy loves having stories read to him. When he brings books home from school they are far more interesting than the books Tink would bring home on library day. Yesterday Peter brought home a book about sharks. He read as much as he could and I filled in the words he couldn't read.
Tink use to bring home books on Hannah Montanna or Scooby Doo or The Cheetah Girls. This was mostly due to the fact that during those first few years of school she had no love for learning and the only things she could relate to were the pictures on the covers of those books. She recognized them from TV. We have since banned the kids from watching Nickelodeon of Disney.
The banning has stopped Tink TV watching almost entirely. Peter though has discovered shows like, How'd They Do That, How Things Are Made and Animal Detective and would watch them by the hour. I am amazed at the stuff he has learned from those shows! There's hardly a conversation around here that he doesn't have some new fact or something to share that he has learned on those shows!
Tink rarely ever quotes a fact or shows interest in knowing how things work in the world around her. The only thing that truly interests Tink is her music. She loves her music Cd's and spends hours dancing to them. When shes not dancing with the music she is outside playing with her friends.
My goal this year is to get Tink to read! I am ordering her the Reading Pen in hopes of jump starting her reading. New readers will have no idea of the hours upon hours that I have spent in teaching Tink to read. If you would like to know the methods used you could click on the label Tink on my sidebar. Some would say that the things I did have worked; after all she did place in her grade level this spring on the state tests. But I know that her reading is halting and frustrating to her no matter what the tests show. Two years ago Tink was reading at a beginning first grade level so she has made huge strides but I want to see her reading smooth out and her comprehension improve. To that end I have ordered the pen.
Also with the coming of this school year we are adding in a library day. We did this last fall and it was very successful. I also started a Book Club in our co-op that I hope will inspire her to read more.
The co-op went off splendidly yesterday. The little girls who's home it was are both avid readers. Tink adores the oldest girl that is her age. The sisters are both reading Nancy Drew books and so the mother had made a desert from the Nancy Drew cookbook. Tink of course hated the desert. Her sensory issues will never allow her to like meringue but she did adore the idea! Tink has never read a Nancy Drew book so I'm hoping her new found friends excitement will wear off on her.
The co-op went off without a hitch. The day was gorgeous and warm. The first hour was spent in English Composition, the second hour was PE and the third hour was learning games. For PE. the kids played bad mitten and darts and then ran through obstacle courses. They loved it. There was a huge tree fort at the farm and Tink and her friend disappeared up in its leafy loftiness to share secrets. Tink told me later that it was so restful and peaceful up there and she didn't want to come down. I think she was overloaded sensory wise and the tree house was a nice reprieve.
When Tink got home she was a wild girl; running around the table with her plate at dinner, scooping ground meat out of the dish with her hands, hitting and punching Peter and just totally out of control. The day with all its new activities and new friends was just too much for her. She's doing so much better that I am not as vigilant as I used to be. Last year that would have never happened because I would have been prepared for it. This year I wasn't and it was disastrous. So next week I will be better prepared for this behavior. The classes are at our house so the reactions will not be as strong; hopefully.
So learning continues to happen with setbacks and triumphs to be sure but at least its happening. My goal is to have Tink a fluent reader by the end of this year. I will have to work hard to make this happen!
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Defining Curriculum
In the comments below Carol has asked what I use for Copywork, Composition and Reading Comprehension. I decided to answer this is an entry as there are others who might be wondering the same thing.
Copywork is usually copying the same Bible verse every day for a week complete with all punctuation and capital letters in their place. Tink is part of a Bible Club called Awana. Awana is structured similar to the girl scouts where you earn badges and awards for things you do. Her copywork verse is the one that she needs to memorize for Awana lesson that week. I have also used poetry for copywork.
Composition is just another term for composing stories. I have Tink write at least one story a week. I do not correct the story. She would get too discouraged if I did. On the following story I complimented her on the sequencing she did. There will be lots of stories to write and as she learns more and more in grammar and spelling and story structure the stories themselves will begin to take shape better. We've been doing a lot of work on topic sentences and putting your story in order as it happened. I was proud to see evidence of that here. We work on that type of thing in other English classes. By the time she actually writes a story she's so proud of it and it really is her best work. If I would use that to work out storywriting on she would be devastated as would anyone who writes or draws something only to be met with negative reviews. This is her story from this past week.
A Pumpkin Story
Once upon a time I went to a pumpkin. I saw the biggest pumpkin. But it was to heavy. I Fond other one it was to small. I look for other pumpkins. I fond one that was perfect. I ast if I could get it. My mom said yes. I was happy. We went home. We cut it opened the pumkin. We tuc out the seeds. We made eyes and a nose and a mothe. Then we put the pumpkin out for Halloween.
She asked me how to spell; other, Halloween, biggest, and perfect. I guess she thought she knew how to spell the rest. When she finishes her stories we put them in a 3 ring binder. I'm hoping to see great improvement by the end of the year and by using a binder we will have all her stories to compare the early ones with the later ones.
For Reading Comprehension I use a Scholastic book that consists of paragraph size stories. They're usually about facts such as facts on frogs, insects, airplanes, pilgrims, the planets etc. In other words they're not just nonfiction little stories. They are paragraphs packed full of info at her reading level. At the end of every paragraph story scholastic has designed questions to see how much of the story the child has comprehended.
Here's a sample story from the 2nd grade book which she is now doing.
Tigers are the worlds biggest cats. Most tigers are bigger than lions. A tigers body can be as long as a car. A tiger can even weigh as much as two adult people! Tigers are good hunters. Why? They are good at jumping. They are fast. They can see well in the dark. When tigers hunt at night they surprise other animals. A tigers favorite foods are deer and wild pigs. They also eat other animals, like monkeys, buffalo and goats. Tigers live in Asia. They live in different types of homes. Some tigers live in rain forests. Others live in the woods swamps or grasslands.
Now the comprehension questions are these.
1. What is a good title for this story? A. animals B. Cats C. Tigers
2.What animals do tigers often eat. A. deer and wild pigs B. pigs and dogs C. birds and lions
3.Where do tigers live? A. Africa B. Mexico C. Asia
Write a sentence telling why tigers are good hunters.
And that's all there is to it. Just a paragraph with a few questions but it helps Tink tremendously since she is hampered by a reading comprehension at a kindergarten level. In true Charlotte Mason fashion I also use narration to help her with comprehension.
Copywork is usually copying the same Bible verse every day for a week complete with all punctuation and capital letters in their place. Tink is part of a Bible Club called Awana. Awana is structured similar to the girl scouts where you earn badges and awards for things you do. Her copywork verse is the one that she needs to memorize for Awana lesson that week. I have also used poetry for copywork.
Composition is just another term for composing stories. I have Tink write at least one story a week. I do not correct the story. She would get too discouraged if I did. On the following story I complimented her on the sequencing she did. There will be lots of stories to write and as she learns more and more in grammar and spelling and story structure the stories themselves will begin to take shape better. We've been doing a lot of work on topic sentences and putting your story in order as it happened. I was proud to see evidence of that here. We work on that type of thing in other English classes. By the time she actually writes a story she's so proud of it and it really is her best work. If I would use that to work out storywriting on she would be devastated as would anyone who writes or draws something only to be met with negative reviews. This is her story from this past week.
A Pumpkin Story
Once upon a time I went to a pumpkin. I saw the biggest pumpkin. But it was to heavy. I Fond other one it was to small. I look for other pumpkins. I fond one that was perfect. I ast if I could get it. My mom said yes. I was happy. We went home. We cut it opened the pumkin. We tuc out the seeds. We made eyes and a nose and a mothe. Then we put the pumpkin out for Halloween.
She asked me how to spell; other, Halloween, biggest, and perfect. I guess she thought she knew how to spell the rest. When she finishes her stories we put them in a 3 ring binder. I'm hoping to see great improvement by the end of the year and by using a binder we will have all her stories to compare the early ones with the later ones.
For Reading Comprehension I use a Scholastic book that consists of paragraph size stories. They're usually about facts such as facts on frogs, insects, airplanes, pilgrims, the planets etc. In other words they're not just nonfiction little stories. They are paragraphs packed full of info at her reading level. At the end of every paragraph story scholastic has designed questions to see how much of the story the child has comprehended.
Here's a sample story from the 2nd grade book which she is now doing.
Tigers are the worlds biggest cats. Most tigers are bigger than lions. A tigers body can be as long as a car. A tiger can even weigh as much as two adult people! Tigers are good hunters. Why? They are good at jumping. They are fast. They can see well in the dark. When tigers hunt at night they surprise other animals. A tigers favorite foods are deer and wild pigs. They also eat other animals, like monkeys, buffalo and goats. Tigers live in Asia. They live in different types of homes. Some tigers live in rain forests. Others live in the woods swamps or grasslands.
Now the comprehension questions are these.
1. What is a good title for this story? A. animals B. Cats C. Tigers
2.What animals do tigers often eat. A. deer and wild pigs B. pigs and dogs C. birds and lions
3.Where do tigers live? A. Africa B. Mexico C. Asia
Write a sentence telling why tigers are good hunters.
And that's all there is to it. Just a paragraph with a few questions but it helps Tink tremendously since she is hampered by a reading comprehension at a kindergarten level. In true Charlotte Mason fashion I also use narration to help her with comprehension.
Friday, February 24, 2006
A Child with sensory integration disorder reads
In an never ending quest to find new ways to teach Tink things I have ran into this website; Grammar Zone. You see, it was all over grammar that she had her huge meltdown Friday. Anything that has to do with words is anathema to her. This site has pages on making words plural- the very thing she was screaming about. It also has pages on past tense verbs-another thing we have been working on lately. I'm excited because Tink loves using the computer. There are over 300 grammar pages on that site. So after this she will be doing her grammar online. Hopefully it will save us from another meltdown.
When kids have a sensory disorder, especially when accompanied by ODD, the written rule is to avoid confrontation whenever possible. To this end I had begun letting Tink listen to her reading stories on tape. I would read the story twice and then she would do the workbook. In this manner she never had to come in contact with a direct command from me. But I was also afraid that I would not be able to keep abreast of her reading as well. What if I no longer was able to accurately predict what words she needed to work on? Soooo..I came up with another idea. Now she listens to the taped story then reads it back to me on another tape. She loves recording her reading.
What I didnt expect was the added benefit of listening to her read without promptings from me. This method has given me a much clearer picture of how she reads and where the problem lies. I was amazed at all the power sounds she produces when she reads. Power sounds are a common occurrence in these kids. Before Tinks diagnosis and before being told what it was I truly was beginning to think Tink had Tourettes syndrome.
Here is an example. This is the paragraph Tink is trying to read in her reading book:
Help! Jan called. No one heard. Jan did not dare leave. The hole would grow. The seawater would flood all the land for miles. He could never run quickly enough to get help. He leaned against the dike and waited. The sun set. Above him the stars came out and the moon lit up the fields. Hours passed. But no one came near. Jan nibbbled on Omas bread. He remembered the stories she had told about strong men. They had carried huge rocks to make the dikes strong. They had built them to protect the land. They had battled with the sea. Now Jan would fight too. His finger felt as cold as ice, but he would not let the sea win the battle.
Now here is Tink reading this. I am transcribing from the tape exactly how she reads.
Help! Jan cried. whats he gonna do? I dont know. Actually I do. I do. (smacking noises are heard) hahahahaha (said with short vowel a)
No one heard Jan did not dare leave the hole. Would grow the seawater. Would flood all the land. For miles he could never run quickly through instead to get help, instead to get help, sorry, I need to repeat thaaaat sssssssssssss if your'e thinking I'm reading too slow I'm going to read fast. Five four three two one.
He lend against the dick. And water the sun, w w w watched the sun set. Below him the stars came out and the moon lit. The fields hours passed but no one came near. Jan nibbled on Opas. I'm just going to call it, bread. He remembered the stories she had told about. Strong man they had carried huge rocks to make the dick strong.
They had cuddles bottles they put they, they, took, took, too tootootoo I dont want [sic] read. It's so hard mommy. Page 64 the last line the one two three four five six, 6th word the land. I dont know it so I just skipped it. They had, oh yeah mama, and if um if i skip a word, I'm gonna be skipping, skipped actually I'm going to go like skipping and then keep on reading oKay? So yeah. They had bottled with.
The sea now Jan would fit too hu hu hu hu (these are breathing, grunting, sounds) His finger felt as cold as ice but he would not let the sea win the battle. There's a battle going on? I had nooooo idea. At last the long night..sniff sniff sniff(loud prolonged sniffing noises) the night ended.
So thats the way my daughter reads and that is how she tries to process information coming into her distorted senses. You have just had a peek inside the mind of a child with a sensory disorder. I didnt even pick out the worst parts of the tape. I just started from where I had left off listening to her. Some parts she makes chugging noises like a train. Other parts she adds turkey sounds. It goes beyond anything imaginable. Ive been listening to her read for years now but theres something about hearing it on tape that is so enlightning. I'm going to let the therapist hear this story.
And to think this was a child that the public school system was just going to push on into 4th grade. It makes me angry when I think about it. And imagine the poor kids who have this disorder and are still there.
Yes, the days are long and trying but I have to find the stregth to keep going. My daughter needs me so badly!
When kids have a sensory disorder, especially when accompanied by ODD, the written rule is to avoid confrontation whenever possible. To this end I had begun letting Tink listen to her reading stories on tape. I would read the story twice and then she would do the workbook. In this manner she never had to come in contact with a direct command from me. But I was also afraid that I would not be able to keep abreast of her reading as well. What if I no longer was able to accurately predict what words she needed to work on? Soooo..I came up with another idea. Now she listens to the taped story then reads it back to me on another tape. She loves recording her reading.
What I didnt expect was the added benefit of listening to her read without promptings from me. This method has given me a much clearer picture of how she reads and where the problem lies. I was amazed at all the power sounds she produces when she reads. Power sounds are a common occurrence in these kids. Before Tinks diagnosis and before being told what it was I truly was beginning to think Tink had Tourettes syndrome.
Here is an example. This is the paragraph Tink is trying to read in her reading book:
Help! Jan called. No one heard. Jan did not dare leave. The hole would grow. The seawater would flood all the land for miles. He could never run quickly enough to get help. He leaned against the dike and waited. The sun set. Above him the stars came out and the moon lit up the fields. Hours passed. But no one came near. Jan nibbbled on Omas bread. He remembered the stories she had told about strong men. They had carried huge rocks to make the dikes strong. They had built them to protect the land. They had battled with the sea. Now Jan would fight too. His finger felt as cold as ice, but he would not let the sea win the battle.
Now here is Tink reading this. I am transcribing from the tape exactly how she reads.
Help! Jan cried. whats he gonna do? I dont know. Actually I do. I do. (smacking noises are heard) hahahahaha (said with short vowel a)
No one heard Jan did not dare leave the hole. Would grow the seawater. Would flood all the land. For miles he could never run quickly through instead to get help, instead to get help, sorry, I need to repeat thaaaat sssssssssssss if your'e thinking I'm reading too slow I'm going to read fast. Five four three two one.
He lend against the dick. And water the sun, w w w watched the sun set. Below him the stars came out and the moon lit. The fields hours passed but no one came near. Jan nibbled on Opas. I'm just going to call it, bread. He remembered the stories she had told about. Strong man they had carried huge rocks to make the dick strong.
They had cuddles bottles they put they, they, took, took, too tootootoo I dont want [sic] read. It's so hard mommy. Page 64 the last line the one two three four five six, 6th word the land. I dont know it so I just skipped it. They had, oh yeah mama, and if um if i skip a word, I'm gonna be skipping, skipped actually I'm going to go like skipping and then keep on reading oKay? So yeah. They had bottled with.
The sea now Jan would fit too hu hu hu hu (these are breathing, grunting, sounds) His finger felt as cold as ice but he would not let the sea win the battle. There's a battle going on? I had nooooo idea. At last the long night..sniff sniff sniff(loud prolonged sniffing noises) the night ended.
So thats the way my daughter reads and that is how she tries to process information coming into her distorted senses. You have just had a peek inside the mind of a child with a sensory disorder. I didnt even pick out the worst parts of the tape. I just started from where I had left off listening to her. Some parts she makes chugging noises like a train. Other parts she adds turkey sounds. It goes beyond anything imaginable. Ive been listening to her read for years now but theres something about hearing it on tape that is so enlightning. I'm going to let the therapist hear this story.
And to think this was a child that the public school system was just going to push on into 4th grade. It makes me angry when I think about it. And imagine the poor kids who have this disorder and are still there.
Yes, the days are long and trying but I have to find the stregth to keep going. My daughter needs me so badly!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Reading for the child with a processing disorder
Ive been lying awake trying to figure out how to cut down on Tinks tantrums during school. We waste so much time handling meltdowns instead of doing schoolwork. It finally hit me that most of her meltdowns could be isolated to one thing. Then this slow thinking mother had a light dawn in her thick skull. Seventy five percent of Tinks meltdowns come when she has to read aloud to me.
Okay, now common sense says that she will have to read out loud at some point so I can tell where she's at in reading. But...I can sneak those read alouds in through other subjects and she wont be quite as aware of whats happening.
I read every story into her tape recorder and have her follow along in the book word for word. I was having her stop and rewind the tape and read again. That proved to be the wrong thing. In the stopping and rewinding Tink could find every reason under the sun to never get back to the second reading; she fiddle with the cord, then mess around with the mic and whine that she'd accidently pushed fast forward and that she needed a drink.
This called for intervention. So instead of having her read and rewind I now just read the story twice giving her time to get back to the begininning page. Every time I turn a page in the story I give her the page number so she never loses the spot.
Yes, I spend a lot of time reading into a tape recorder. But it seems to be working. I then let her go directly to her workbook without reading the story to me. This has totally cut out the reading tantrums.
The poor girl. We go to the library and she brings me all these books she wants to read and I tell her that they're way too hard and she wont be able to read them. It's interesting to note that she's in fourth garde and those are the kinds of books she wants to read. When she brings me a book it's not a first or second grade book at her reading level. It's a fourth to sixth grade book, bless her heart. It shows that her brain is interested in that level of story but the ability to read it is that of a 7 year olds. It breaks my heart.
I finally decided that I cant keep telling her no on these books. She needs to be able to read books at her age level. So now I am letting her bring home the books and I read all of those into a tape too. You may be wondering why I dont just read them to her instead of into a recorder. The reason is twofold; our times dont match up and when she follows a cassette she actually feels like she's doing the reading. In this manner she has done more reading in the last three weeks than she has done in the last three months.
Working with Tink takes continual evaluation of the process. How I would love to just hand her the assigned pages for the day and have her go at it. But no, I spend all day in the shcoolroom with her. Peter's work is done while Tink is listening to her tapes. When I begin school at 9:00 am I know that I wont have a minute to myself until 2:00 pm every day. It's something Ive reconciled myself to.
On top of all the taped readings I'm doing I'm also doing tons of read aloud stuff in the school day. We're still reading The Princess and The Goblin. Oh my, I could go into the disaster on that too but you're probably all bored. Suffice it to say that I learned that Tink needs to have her hands busy duing readings or fights with Peter and general rowdiness follow. So every time we read a book Tink works on something; beads, tanagrams, velvet art, anything that will make her sit still and listen.
I discovered a couple of days ago that Tink doesnt know the majority of the words that end in "le".Whats funny is that by careful listening I can isolate her reading problems. At first it all seems random. But its not! It's the most amazing thing. Last spring I figured out that she was stumbling over every word that had a short vowel followed by a double consonant: happy, bunny, fuzzy. You may recall how I wrote stories to include these words in abundance. Well, now she knows those words and rarely stumbles over that letter pattern.
But now I've found another pattern that she has not grasped. So now we're going over words that end in le. You'd be amazed at how many words that is; terrible, ladle, candle, cuddle, (which by the way has the short vowel double consonant pattern too and one of the few words that she cant read with that pattern, now I know why)struggle (again those two patterns) able, stable, table, kettle,simple, tangle, noodle, battle, beetle, whistle, trouble, ripple, scramble, tentacle, dazzle (again both patterns)...I mean can you see how this would make reading hard? And can you see how the public school could never catch these things?
If any of you are interested in seeing if your child has reading patterns that are tripping him up it's not hard to discover what they are. Just listen to him read a couple of times and write down every word he misses. The patterns become perfectly clear! It's amazing and also exciting.
Now I cant just tell Tink that those words make such and such a sound. I literally have to expose her to every word that ends in le and practice that word. It's a long and ardous process but it works and thats the main thing!
Today we're going on a Field trip with the church academy. We're going to Safarri Sams, a big jungle gym, and letting the kids play. The school asked me to go as a chaperon so that means my kids will get in free. They are so excited!!! So now I msut go make breakfast and get the kids dressed and combed. We have to be out of here in a little over an hour.
Okay, now common sense says that she will have to read out loud at some point so I can tell where she's at in reading. But...I can sneak those read alouds in through other subjects and she wont be quite as aware of whats happening.
I read every story into her tape recorder and have her follow along in the book word for word. I was having her stop and rewind the tape and read again. That proved to be the wrong thing. In the stopping and rewinding Tink could find every reason under the sun to never get back to the second reading; she fiddle with the cord, then mess around with the mic and whine that she'd accidently pushed fast forward and that she needed a drink.
This called for intervention. So instead of having her read and rewind I now just read the story twice giving her time to get back to the begininning page. Every time I turn a page in the story I give her the page number so she never loses the spot.
Yes, I spend a lot of time reading into a tape recorder. But it seems to be working. I then let her go directly to her workbook without reading the story to me. This has totally cut out the reading tantrums.
The poor girl. We go to the library and she brings me all these books she wants to read and I tell her that they're way too hard and she wont be able to read them. It's interesting to note that she's in fourth garde and those are the kinds of books she wants to read. When she brings me a book it's not a first or second grade book at her reading level. It's a fourth to sixth grade book, bless her heart. It shows that her brain is interested in that level of story but the ability to read it is that of a 7 year olds. It breaks my heart.
I finally decided that I cant keep telling her no on these books. She needs to be able to read books at her age level. So now I am letting her bring home the books and I read all of those into a tape too. You may be wondering why I dont just read them to her instead of into a recorder. The reason is twofold; our times dont match up and when she follows a cassette she actually feels like she's doing the reading. In this manner she has done more reading in the last three weeks than she has done in the last three months.
Working with Tink takes continual evaluation of the process. How I would love to just hand her the assigned pages for the day and have her go at it. But no, I spend all day in the shcoolroom with her. Peter's work is done while Tink is listening to her tapes. When I begin school at 9:00 am I know that I wont have a minute to myself until 2:00 pm every day. It's something Ive reconciled myself to.
On top of all the taped readings I'm doing I'm also doing tons of read aloud stuff in the school day. We're still reading The Princess and The Goblin. Oh my, I could go into the disaster on that too but you're probably all bored. Suffice it to say that I learned that Tink needs to have her hands busy duing readings or fights with Peter and general rowdiness follow. So every time we read a book Tink works on something; beads, tanagrams, velvet art, anything that will make her sit still and listen.
I discovered a couple of days ago that Tink doesnt know the majority of the words that end in "le".Whats funny is that by careful listening I can isolate her reading problems. At first it all seems random. But its not! It's the most amazing thing. Last spring I figured out that she was stumbling over every word that had a short vowel followed by a double consonant: happy, bunny, fuzzy. You may recall how I wrote stories to include these words in abundance. Well, now she knows those words and rarely stumbles over that letter pattern.
But now I've found another pattern that she has not grasped. So now we're going over words that end in le. You'd be amazed at how many words that is; terrible, ladle, candle, cuddle, (which by the way has the short vowel double consonant pattern too and one of the few words that she cant read with that pattern, now I know why)struggle (again those two patterns) able, stable, table, kettle,simple, tangle, noodle, battle, beetle, whistle, trouble, ripple, scramble, tentacle, dazzle (again both patterns)...I mean can you see how this would make reading hard? And can you see how the public school could never catch these things?
If any of you are interested in seeing if your child has reading patterns that are tripping him up it's not hard to discover what they are. Just listen to him read a couple of times and write down every word he misses. The patterns become perfectly clear! It's amazing and also exciting.
Now I cant just tell Tink that those words make such and such a sound. I literally have to expose her to every word that ends in le and practice that word. It's a long and ardous process but it works and thats the main thing!
Today we're going on a Field trip with the church academy. We're going to Safarri Sams, a big jungle gym, and letting the kids play. The school asked me to go as a chaperon so that means my kids will get in free. They are so excited!!! So now I msut go make breakfast and get the kids dressed and combed. We have to be out of here in a little over an hour.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Charlotte Mason for Children with Special Needs
I have had to quit using many of the recommended books for the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. I know Charlotte Mason diehards say that even children with special learning needs can read the recommended books or have them read to them but I am here to say that it's not so in every case.
My daughter is nine and would be in the 4th grade at the public school. She has a sensory integration disorder that prevents her from processing information like other children her age. I started her in Level 3 at Ambleside, an online resource for homeschoolers wanting suggestions for scheduling a CM year. After two weeks of Level 3 I now have to drop her to Level 1 on some things and on other things we are switching books altogether.
Here is why:
My daughter cannot comprehend stories with more than two or three characters. Imagine now the trouble she has when all the characters have funny names and the sentence structure is so different she cant recognize the story at all. This means she cannot narrate or understand a word that is being read. I knew I had to come up with something different when we began reading Heroes by Kingsly. You have to read this sentence outloud to hear how it might sound to a child with an auditory processing disorder. Here's a line from that book; "Their names were Acrisius and Proetus and they lived in the pleasant vale of Argos, far away in Hellas." Do you hear all the strange s's? And there's still another problem. By the time Tink gets to to the word Hellas she has no idea of its a person, place or a thing because in that one sentence there are too many proper nouns.
Now look at this line from Secrets of The Woods. "Several times, however, when casting from the shore at the inlet for small fish, I had seen swirls in a great eddy near the farthest shore, which told me plainly of big fish beneath; and one day when a huge trout rolled half his length out of water behind my fly, small fry lost all their interest and I promised myself the joy of feeling my rod bend and tingle beneath the rush of that big trout if it took all summer." Yes that's all one sentence and by the time I was done Tink had no idea what the sentence was all about.
And here's a sentence from The Discovery of New Worlds by M.B. Synge. "And the crews worked with fresh vigor when they saw such pluck and perseverance, until after some days they again made land, the seas grew calmer, the winds hushed ,and they all knew that the Cape had been doubled at last". This book is used in Level 2 with Charlotte Mason and Tink is in 4th grade but that sentence made no sense to her at all.
Intervention was in order and it had to be made quickly before Tink rebelled at any reading. She crys at the sight of books anyway. So in keeping with Charlotte Masons theme I supplemented her books for easier ones. Here is what I am now doing for Tink. Bear in mind we are still using CM we just switched to books written in modern day English and books that were all around easier to understand.
I write this in hopes that anybody who has a child with a learning difference will find this helpful. Hopefully I will have saved you hours of research on your own.
Science: Instead of Story of Inventions, which I cant find a picture of, I have supplemented:
My daughter is nine and would be in the 4th grade at the public school. She has a sensory integration disorder that prevents her from processing information like other children her age. I started her in Level 3 at Ambleside, an online resource for homeschoolers wanting suggestions for scheduling a CM year. After two weeks of Level 3 I now have to drop her to Level 1 on some things and on other things we are switching books altogether.
Here is why:
My daughter cannot comprehend stories with more than two or three characters. Imagine now the trouble she has when all the characters have funny names and the sentence structure is so different she cant recognize the story at all. This means she cannot narrate or understand a word that is being read. I knew I had to come up with something different when we began reading Heroes by Kingsly. You have to read this sentence outloud to hear how it might sound to a child with an auditory processing disorder. Here's a line from that book; "Their names were Acrisius and Proetus and they lived in the pleasant vale of Argos, far away in Hellas." Do you hear all the strange s's? And there's still another problem. By the time Tink gets to to the word Hellas she has no idea of its a person, place or a thing because in that one sentence there are too many proper nouns.
Now look at this line from Secrets of The Woods. "Several times, however, when casting from the shore at the inlet for small fish, I had seen swirls in a great eddy near the farthest shore, which told me plainly of big fish beneath; and one day when a huge trout rolled half his length out of water behind my fly, small fry lost all their interest and I promised myself the joy of feeling my rod bend and tingle beneath the rush of that big trout if it took all summer." Yes that's all one sentence and by the time I was done Tink had no idea what the sentence was all about.
And here's a sentence from The Discovery of New Worlds by M.B. Synge. "And the crews worked with fresh vigor when they saw such pluck and perseverance, until after some days they again made land, the seas grew calmer, the winds hushed ,and they all knew that the Cape had been doubled at last". This book is used in Level 2 with Charlotte Mason and Tink is in 4th grade but that sentence made no sense to her at all.
Intervention was in order and it had to be made quickly before Tink rebelled at any reading. She crys at the sight of books anyway. So in keeping with Charlotte Masons theme I supplemented her books for easier ones. Here is what I am now doing for Tink. Bear in mind we are still using CM we just switched to books written in modern day English and books that were all around easier to understand.
I write this in hopes that anybody who has a child with a learning difference will find this helpful. Hopefully I will have saved you hours of research on your own.
Science: Instead of Story of Inventions, which I cant find a picture of, I have supplemented:
Natural History
Instead of the recommendations for Level 3, Secrets of the Woods, I use Level 1, The Burgess Animal Book:
World History:
Instead of:
I use these two books:
Instead of the History Tales and Legends in this book:
I use this:
Geography:
Instead of this recommended book:
I have now switched to this:
For Literature we are still reading The Princess and the Goblin and the kids love it. It's a Charlotte Mason recommendation that we're keeping. We're also still doing dictation and copywork.
For Math we use Making Math Meaningful.
For Grammar I use worksheets.
Phonics is this book:
For Reading I use Bob Jones University Level 2b.
For Supplemental Reading we are reading Hiedi.
Our artist we are studying is Mary Cassett. We study her paintings for 6 weeks and read an autobiography of her life.
We are not studying a composer this term.
Poetry is by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Pilgrims Progress is read in the morning 
along with Precious Moments Bedtime Stories.
And of course we are making our Science and Nature notebooks as well.
I know this looks like a lot of books but remember not every subject is done every day.
Disclaimer: These books have not been endorsed by Charlotte Mason. They are only my substitions.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Teaching Reading to a Child with a Processing Disorder
Sometimes I could just scream while trying to teach my daughter how to read. Do you see this pic of a bear? It's a bear. Right? Not a beaver; a bear. Anybody can see it's a bear. 
But Tink insists in reading the word beaver for bear. Even when she has the picture in front of her she says beaver instead of bear. It's so frustrating. Today after the umpteenth time of saying beaver she finally comes to the word and says, bea..no BEAR, so loudly I about jumped out of my chair. I gave a little smile and thought we would continue reading. But no. Tink dissolved into tears crying that I had laughed at her "just like all the public school kids had done"! She cried and she cried. It's amazing what one little misstep can do! It took us a half an hour to start reading again.
She consistently replaces the word when withthen. I mean every time she reads it! And every time I correct it and she reads it like that again. It never ends. Other words she reads entirely backwards. The following sentence took her five trys to get right; When bear woke up he felt something holding his tail. Heres how she read it. I kid you not because I purposely took note: Then beaver woke up and ..left..he left..then beaver woke..beaver woke up he left some thing..then beaver woke up he left something..under..
At this point it takes every bit of self control to not jump out of my chair and go screaming for my room. Quietly I say, "Tink lets start over."
"Then beaver.."
"Tink its WHEN BEAR..."
"Waaaaaa! you told me the word. Now Im not reading anymore because you told me the word. I knew that word...I cant do this..I'm so tired...then she growls like a bear and spits. I reprimand her for the spitting, pull her back up on her chair for by now she is sliding off almost to the floor, and we try again.
And to think that people think I should put her in 4th grade. I want to scream when people tell me that. Hey people, 4th graders are reading major books by now and writing book reports. They know the difference between a bear and a beaver. A two year old can tell you the story is about a bear if there's a big bear on the page. Oh Lord, give me patience and unlimited amounts of tongue-holding forbearance!
We took an extra long lunch break wherein Tink took a nap, did her therapeutic exercises, had her skin brushed by me and ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich. By then it had begun to rain so I put a fire in the stove and the kids made beds in front of it and there in the warmth of the fire we had literature and geography. Tink did her Math after that and we called it a day. These are the reasons I love to homeschool!
The kids took this picture of me reading to them. My chair is right at the bottom of their pink blanket to give you an idea of the room lay out. And hey, do you see my new floor in these pics? We finally got it in and we love it although it's much colder than the carpet was!
This article has been submitted to the Carnival of Homeschooling.
But Tink insists in reading the word beaver for bear. Even when she has the picture in front of her she says beaver instead of bear. It's so frustrating. Today after the umpteenth time of saying beaver she finally comes to the word and says, bea..no BEAR, so loudly I about jumped out of my chair. I gave a little smile and thought we would continue reading. But no. Tink dissolved into tears crying that I had laughed at her "just like all the public school kids had done"! She cried and she cried. It's amazing what one little misstep can do! It took us a half an hour to start reading again. She consistently replaces the word when withthen. I mean every time she reads it! And every time I correct it and she reads it like that again. It never ends. Other words she reads entirely backwards. The following sentence took her five trys to get right; When bear woke up he felt something holding his tail. Heres how she read it. I kid you not because I purposely took note: Then beaver woke up and ..left..he left..then beaver woke..beaver woke up he left some thing..then beaver woke up he left something..under..
At this point it takes every bit of self control to not jump out of my chair and go screaming for my room. Quietly I say, "Tink lets start over."
"Then beaver.."
"Tink its WHEN BEAR..."
"Waaaaaa! you told me the word. Now Im not reading anymore because you told me the word. I knew that word...I cant do this..I'm so tired...then she growls like a bear and spits. I reprimand her for the spitting, pull her back up on her chair for by now she is sliding off almost to the floor, and we try again.
And to think that people think I should put her in 4th grade. I want to scream when people tell me that. Hey people, 4th graders are reading major books by now and writing book reports. They know the difference between a bear and a beaver. A two year old can tell you the story is about a bear if there's a big bear on the page. Oh Lord, give me patience and unlimited amounts of tongue-holding forbearance!
We took an extra long lunch break wherein Tink took a nap, did her therapeutic exercises, had her skin brushed by me and ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich. By then it had begun to rain so I put a fire in the stove and the kids made beds in front of it and there in the warmth of the fire we had literature and geography. Tink did her Math after that and we called it a day. These are the reasons I love to homeschool!
The kids took this picture of me reading to them. My chair is right at the bottom of their pink blanket to give you an idea of the room lay out. And hey, do you see my new floor in these pics? We finally got it in and we love it although it's much colder than the carpet was!This article has been submitted to the Carnival of Homeschooling.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
The Purple Cow
Home educating Tink is a continual battle. Tink has been diagnosed with a sensory integration disorder. She is 9 years old and in the 4th grade. Life is not easy for these children. Tink is reading at a beginning 2nd grade level and is highly resistant to schooling in any form. I started homeschooling her this past March when nothing else seemed to be working. Some days I think she's coming along nicely then for no reason known to man she loses it. I'm learning a lot through the nuero therapeutics and the methods have helped tremendously. But the battle still goes on.
The most amazing thing is how swiftly a class can deteriorate. So we're reading along and Tink comes to a word she doesn't know. I help her with the word and all seems well. She reads two more words and suddenly without warning her head is on the table and she's crying her eyes out. "I didn't want you to help me with that word. Waaaa!"
She slides out of her chair to her own surprise and quickly rights herself. She' s growing hysterical,"I hate reading. I never will like reading. You told me the word. I don't want help. She bangs her book on the table. Don't talk to me. I don't want to listen. My head hurts. Just let me read my own way."
I try to explain to her that her way makes it unable for her to understand the story.
You can only mix up the words of and for and when and then and that and what a few times and skip every other word in between before the story makes no sense whatsoever. Tink so consistently mixes the examples above that I know for a fact she has totally learned them this way at the public school and nobody has caught it.
So she screams and whimpers and screams and slides under the table and plugs her ears refusing to listen and hums to herself while she rocks until my patience about wears thin.
I dare not let her know I'm frustrated or she will feed off of it and we'll get nowhere. The best thing I can do is leave the room with the order for her to finish the page while I do a five minute chore. When I come back she's usually got it done. She calms down and we move to the next thing .
Some times I can go through five or six different things until she shows an interest. Today it was a paper on punctuation. She saw it and started squirrming in her chair and chewing on her chewy as fast as she could. I quickly replaced the paper with one on nouns. She leaned forward earnestly looking at it while chewing. Suddenly she jumps back as if she's been bitten and starts to scream.
I calmly tell her to set her chair upright while at the same time reaching for a book of poems. She wiggles and wiggles and slides around on her chair but never quits eyeing the book. The poems are actually old nursery rhymes and they're one of the ways that children are taught reading fluency.
I ignore the wiggling and read the poem aloud to myself. At the end the author of the book writes the origins to the poem. I read Humpty Dumpty. Tink chews and wiggles but doesn't scream. "Hmm, I say, now isn't this interesting. Humpty dumpty was actually a cannon place on a wall during the war. It fell off and the kings men tried to fix it but never could. Isn't that funny? I really thought all these years it was an egg."
"Who cares about the stupid cannon! I hate this poem. I hate all poems," she shouts. "Poems are stupid. Words are stupid." She plugs her ears and screams.
"Oh, here's a good one," I say ignoring the fact that she's again about to disappear under the table. "Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle, the cow...."
"Stop," she screams you read that one to me last week. "I never want to hear it again."
I had to think for a minute. Indeed I had read it to her last week but she was under the table screaming. I didn't think she had even heard it.
I went on as if I hadn't been interrupted."Oh, look Tink, I loved this one when I was a kid. I still do actually. This guy wrote about a purple cow and later he hated is so badly that..."
"Cows aren't purple. What a stupid, STUPID poem." She was sliding back up in her chair. She bent over and looked at the poem.
"Yeh," I said, "He knew it was a silly poem. Later he got so mad at hearing everyone quoting it that he said he'd kill them if he heard it again."
Tinks leans over the book like a little old lady with poor eyesight. She's vigorously chewing her chewy. I let her silently read the poem. She doesn't get far before she says, "What did he say? Why did he want to kill them?"
"Well lets see what it says," I say matter of factly. " Read it with me." She begins reading the poem with me. She stays with me all the way to the end then laughs."That is a stupid poem."
Score one for ole mom. I made it through that hurdle. Math is next but I'll spare you. It goes the exact same way as reading. It's really all a very intricate dance. By the way if you're wondering about her use of the word stupid it's just a battle I'm not going to face right now. Eventually we're going to deal with it in behavorial therapy.
Later that day I overheard Tink telling her dad in animated tones. "Daddy did you know humpty dumpty was actually a gun. It fell off a wall and broke. And you know what? I read a really silly poem about a purple cow." Mr. Darling discusses it all with her and they actually have an "intellectual" talk. Sure it only lasted five minutes. But it was initiated by Tink! What a huge milestone. AND...Tink truly did enjoy the poetry. I was walking on air!
Tink not only heard the poem she understood it! This had to be one of my best homeschooling moments.
This is my entry to win a camera in the "Capture the Educational Moment" Contest sponsored by Spunky and Academic Superstore.
The most amazing thing is how swiftly a class can deteriorate. So we're reading along and Tink comes to a word she doesn't know. I help her with the word and all seems well. She reads two more words and suddenly without warning her head is on the table and she's crying her eyes out. "I didn't want you to help me with that word. Waaaa!"
She slides out of her chair to her own surprise and quickly rights herself. She' s growing hysterical,"I hate reading. I never will like reading. You told me the word. I don't want help. She bangs her book on the table. Don't talk to me. I don't want to listen. My head hurts. Just let me read my own way."
I try to explain to her that her way makes it unable for her to understand the story.
You can only mix up the words of and for and when and then and that and what a few times and skip every other word in between before the story makes no sense whatsoever. Tink so consistently mixes the examples above that I know for a fact she has totally learned them this way at the public school and nobody has caught it.
So she screams and whimpers and screams and slides under the table and plugs her ears refusing to listen and hums to herself while she rocks until my patience about wears thin.
I dare not let her know I'm frustrated or she will feed off of it and we'll get nowhere. The best thing I can do is leave the room with the order for her to finish the page while I do a five minute chore. When I come back she's usually got it done. She calms down and we move to the next thing .
Some times I can go through five or six different things until she shows an interest. Today it was a paper on punctuation. She saw it and started squirrming in her chair and chewing on her chewy as fast as she could. I quickly replaced the paper with one on nouns. She leaned forward earnestly looking at it while chewing. Suddenly she jumps back as if she's been bitten and starts to scream.
I calmly tell her to set her chair upright while at the same time reaching for a book of poems. She wiggles and wiggles and slides around on her chair but never quits eyeing the book. The poems are actually old nursery rhymes and they're one of the ways that children are taught reading fluency.
I ignore the wiggling and read the poem aloud to myself. At the end the author of the book writes the origins to the poem. I read Humpty Dumpty. Tink chews and wiggles but doesn't scream. "Hmm, I say, now isn't this interesting. Humpty dumpty was actually a cannon place on a wall during the war. It fell off and the kings men tried to fix it but never could. Isn't that funny? I really thought all these years it was an egg."
"Who cares about the stupid cannon! I hate this poem. I hate all poems," she shouts. "Poems are stupid. Words are stupid." She plugs her ears and screams.
"Oh, here's a good one," I say ignoring the fact that she's again about to disappear under the table. "Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle, the cow...."
"Stop," she screams you read that one to me last week. "I never want to hear it again."
I had to think for a minute. Indeed I had read it to her last week but she was under the table screaming. I didn't think she had even heard it.
I went on as if I hadn't been interrupted."Oh, look Tink, I loved this one when I was a kid. I still do actually. This guy wrote about a purple cow and later he hated is so badly that..."
"Cows aren't purple. What a stupid, STUPID poem." She was sliding back up in her chair. She bent over and looked at the poem.
"Yeh," I said, "He knew it was a silly poem. Later he got so mad at hearing everyone quoting it that he said he'd kill them if he heard it again."
Tinks leans over the book like a little old lady with poor eyesight. She's vigorously chewing her chewy. I let her silently read the poem. She doesn't get far before she says, "What did he say? Why did he want to kill them?"
"Well lets see what it says," I say matter of factly. " Read it with me." She begins reading the poem with me. She stays with me all the way to the end then laughs."That is a stupid poem."
Score one for ole mom. I made it through that hurdle. Math is next but I'll spare you. It goes the exact same way as reading. It's really all a very intricate dance. By the way if you're wondering about her use of the word stupid it's just a battle I'm not going to face right now. Eventually we're going to deal with it in behavorial therapy.
Later that day I overheard Tink telling her dad in animated tones. "Daddy did you know humpty dumpty was actually a gun. It fell off a wall and broke. And you know what? I read a really silly poem about a purple cow." Mr. Darling discusses it all with her and they actually have an "intellectual" talk. Sure it only lasted five minutes. But it was initiated by Tink! What a huge milestone. AND...Tink truly did enjoy the poetry. I was walking on air!
Tink not only heard the poem she understood it! This had to be one of my best homeschooling moments.
This is my entry to win a camera in the "Capture the Educational Moment" Contest sponsored by Spunky and Academic Superstore.
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