Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Voluntary
"What want to...? Of course! Sure!" I put my teeth back in my mouth, sat in my chair, and stared.
Andy asked if he could read the bedtime book tonight. He picked a chapter book. He read the entire first chapter, out loud. Himself. Alone. Voluntarily.
My son wants to read a book.
This may seem an odd thing to be jaw-dropping, when your child is ten years old, unless he is requesting to read War and Peace. Here, reading at home has been a never-ending struggle at pulling teeth, for both of my guys. Joey reads very well, and he will gladly read dictionaries all night long, but getting to voluntarily read anything else at home is Mission: Impossible. Andy loves books, but never likes reading them. It takes too much energy. He had a vision problem that stalled his reading with confidence. He is still shaky for ten, and I suspect there may be other issues. The book he picked is a Star Wars chapter book, geared to elementary readers, with large type.
But holy cow, people, he asked to read it. He read the whole first chapter. By himself.
A month ago, asking him to read a book might result in a sobbing, screaming child in a fetal position on the floor. Now he is asking to read a book!
I am so proud of my little squirrel.
Andy asked if he could read the bedtime book tonight. He picked a chapter book. He read the entire first chapter, out loud. Himself. Alone. Voluntarily.
My son wants to read a book.
This may seem an odd thing to be jaw-dropping, when your child is ten years old, unless he is requesting to read War and Peace. Here, reading at home has been a never-ending struggle at pulling teeth, for both of my guys. Joey reads very well, and he will gladly read dictionaries all night long, but getting to voluntarily read anything else at home is Mission: Impossible. Andy loves books, but never likes reading them. It takes too much energy. He had a vision problem that stalled his reading with confidence. He is still shaky for ten, and I suspect there may be other issues. The book he picked is a Star Wars chapter book, geared to elementary readers, with large type.
But holy cow, people, he asked to read it. He read the whole first chapter. By himself.
A month ago, asking him to read a book might result in a sobbing, screaming child in a fetal position on the floor. Now he is asking to read a book!
I am so proud of my little squirrel.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Moving On Up
One of the great things I have found about this homeschooling thing? We can go at our own pace. If that's a slower pace, that's fine. If that's a faster pace, that's fine. It doesn't need to be steady- we can speed through the things Andy knows, slow down and take time with things he doesn't. Not feeling the learning love today? We can scrap the whole thing and try something else. As long as he keeps up with math and reading, as Virginia requires we either test those skills at the end of the year or come up with a portfolio, it's all good. We want to spend a lot of time on Colonial America? Why not? We have a lot of resources here for it. He needs more practice in multiplication, but knows his geometry terms pat? Well, let's allocate the time to what we need.
It's amazing.
When we started, I tried him in a fifth grade math workbook, and we had tears, screams, and gnashing of teeth. We scaled back a bit, then noticed we needed some other support. I put him on a computer site and had him work on that for a while to gauge where he was. The answer? End of third grade. Well, OK, then. I went out, got ourselves a fourth grade program, and started there.
As he has calmed down all-around, his math has also picked up. Multiplication remains a sticking point, as he needs to practice it. But once we plowed through and got him doing it correctly, we picked up steam.
We finished the fourth grade book today. I am totally proud of my little guy.
The plan is to focus on the multiplication and on programs such as Prodigy through the holidays, then start on the fifth grade program in January. I'm not expecting him to finish that in three months, but I think we will be fine. I may even work on some mathemagic with him, and help him understand what these skills really do.
Meanwhile, he is working on the Revolution, and reading Johnny Tremain. Oh, and we started earth science with minerals and the Moh's Scale. All in all, I don't think we are doing too badly.
It's amazing.
When we started, I tried him in a fifth grade math workbook, and we had tears, screams, and gnashing of teeth. We scaled back a bit, then noticed we needed some other support. I put him on a computer site and had him work on that for a while to gauge where he was. The answer? End of third grade. Well, OK, then. I went out, got ourselves a fourth grade program, and started there.
As he has calmed down all-around, his math has also picked up. Multiplication remains a sticking point, as he needs to practice it. But once we plowed through and got him doing it correctly, we picked up steam.
We finished the fourth grade book today. I am totally proud of my little guy.
The plan is to focus on the multiplication and on programs such as Prodigy through the holidays, then start on the fifth grade program in January. I'm not expecting him to finish that in three months, but I think we will be fine. I may even work on some mathemagic with him, and help him understand what these skills really do.
Meanwhile, he is working on the Revolution, and reading Johnny Tremain. Oh, and we started earth science with minerals and the Moh's Scale. All in all, I don't think we are doing too badly.
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