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Tina P.
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| Posted: Jan 05 2007 at 4:42pm | IP Logged
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Hey! Look what I found! It's time-telling lessons. They look kind of fun and hands-on.
Have you thought about buying him an analog watch? That can go MILES in teaching a child how to tell time because now he has OWNERSHIP of it, you know? You can find some children's ones that actually split the quarter hours into segments, label the second, minute, and hour hands, and count the 1, 2, ... up to 12 by fives, thus the child can easily say, "It's 10 minutes after 2." If you need something a little less sophisticated so he thinks on his own, we bought a cool lizard watch (the lizards move around the clock with the second and minute hands) that my then 7 yo (now 9) loves to look at to tell me what time it is.
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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Tina P.
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| Posted: Jan 05 2007 at 4:45pm | IP Logged
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This reminds me, sorry for the double post, of the calendar my dh brought home for my 7 yo. He tells us all the holidays as they come and said to me the other day, "Mom, I have something called Good Friday on my calendar. What's that mean?" He tells us what day it is and in what month. He's doing this on his own, with no prompting. Might eb a good idea to invest in a special calendar of his own, too. I've finally learned, after struggling with 3 kids through texts, just to use the text as extra practice rather than pages to fill out. We do a lot of addition and subtraction practice by playing store.
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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BrendaPeter
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| Posted: Jan 05 2007 at 5:44pm | IP Logged
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Hi Cheryl,
Personally I think learning how to tell time is VERY challenging. My 8-year-old twins just learned how a couple of months ago. These are dc #s 3 & 4 and it's been challenging with each one of them. If you don't push it, they do eventually figure it out.
Our 8-year-old ds is also learning to read VERY slowly. He will be 9 in February. I'm encouraged though because he's making progress.
Honestly Cheryl, it's the hardest with your 1st child because you don't have anything to base your expectations on. It's challenging for us moms to be patient and not force our expectations on our children -it's even more challenging for dad!
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Brenda (mom to 6)
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ALmom
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| Posted: Jan 05 2007 at 6:23pm | IP Logged
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Telling time is slower to develop but one thing I noticed is that most clocks now are digital so that don't get real - life connection to the clock face unless you consciously make sure you have a clock face hung in a common room. They'll pick up a lot just hearing you discuss the time - and seeing the clock face there - but no pressure. We always make sure our son's first watch is a clock face one and not a digital one, so it naturally reinforces a new skill.
Sorry I waxed so verbose on various vision problems. Hope it is encouraging in any case that you really don't need to worry about being behind. Sometimes children just need time for a concept to bang around in their head.
Janet
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Angel
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| Posted: Jan 05 2007 at 6:35pm | IP Logged
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A couple of thoughts...
Reading didn't click for my oldest ds until he was 8.5. Then he took off like a streak of lightning. I think sometimes the later readers are "all or nothing" readers; they stumble along until it all clicks in their brain, and then, that's it, it's basically *all* there. My 7 yo dd has done the same thing, just earlier. But she started requesting reading lessons at age 4, so relatively speaking, she stumbled along for a good long while, too.
This year my ds was diagnosed with visual processing problems. Even though he was a good reader before we took him to the developmental optometrist, since he got his new glasses (bifocals), he has started reading for much longer periods of time, and seems to be doing generally better. If Bob is concerned about it, you might think about taking him to a developmental optometrist.
We did very little math with my ds until spring of last year, and he was still ready to start Saxon 5/4 his 4th grade year. Part of the reason is because Saxon has so much review in it. Another reason is that he's just become more mature. Something you also might consider is whether or not the math program is a good match for your son. I finally had to just make up my own worksheets for a while. That way I could write more interesting problems for him, geared to his interests. For instance, he learned place value and regrouping by doing Egyptian math when he was interested in ancient history.
A little more about math... I tend to let my kids skip lessons they already know, once I'm sure they know it, and I often don't assign all the problems on a page. For something like telling time, I'm not sure a workbook is the best way of learning it anyway. What's worked for my kids is to have real analog clocks in the house, as well as a plastic learning clock. My daughter likes clock stamps.
Anyway, I agree about it being hard with your first. But as my son has gotten older, things I was worried about -- his reading, for instance -- have worked out. So I'm a little more relaxed with my dd.
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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Cheryl
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| Posted: Jan 05 2007 at 7:02pm | IP Logged
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Angel wrote:
A couple of thoughts...
Reading didn't click for my oldest ds until he was 8.5. Then he took off like a streak of lightning. I think sometimes the later readers are "all or nothing" readers; they stumble along until it all clicks in their brain, and then, that's it, it's basically *all* there. --Angela
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I'm hoping this is what will happen. This particular ds potty trained at 4 with no accidents. One day he was just ready. It was like that for him learning to ride a bike. He took off as soon as we got the training wheels off. We didn't even have to hold the bike. In those two situations he was later than average, but it was easier because we waited until he was ready.
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Cheryl
Wife to Bob ('97)
Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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Cheryl
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| Posted: Jan 05 2007 at 7:05pm | IP Logged
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One more thing. I think I will buy him a watch if he would like one. Thanks for all your input on time telling.
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Cheryl
Wife to Bob ('97)
Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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Willa
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| Posted: Jan 05 2007 at 9:59pm | IP Logged
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ALmom wrote:
| Sorry I waxed so verbose on various vision problems. Hope it is encouraging in any case that you really don't need to worry about being behind. Sometimes children just need time for a concept to bang around in their head. |
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I always think that what you have to say is useful to remind us to be relaxed yet vigilant (IS there such a balance?  ). I think it is good to be aware of what may be going on behind a "delay" though often the delays are just normal variations like the range in when babies learn to walk.
But sometimes there might be something going on and so I've learned to be watchful and try and see WHY the child might be having a difficulty with a skill. Then I do prep type work -- say, if the child is reluctant to put pen to paper, I find enjoyable ways to get his fine motor skills up to speed, like mazes or coloring or drawing on chalkboards or in sand, whatever.
To Cheryl and Bob I was going to add that my oldest son went to a good Catholic school through second grade. His first grade teacher told me that many kids don't really get going with the fluent reading until 3rd grade. By fourth you can't tell which were the early-birds (already reading in Kindergarten) vs the later ones. That is, IF the school is one which respects the differences in a child's timetable. Some don't and the children are already "tracked" by second grade, which is hard on their self-esteem.
My oldest learned to read but didn't really enjoy it until he'd been homeschooled for a year. Then he took off and was reading at a post high school level by fifth or sixth grade. Of my other children -- some learned to read at five and some weren't fluent until nine. What that teacher said is true -- they are indistinguishable now -- they read the same kinds of things at the same ages.
About Mondays -- I was thinking about this because Mondays are consistently more difficult for us too. We have Monday be the big house cleaning day (since we don't do housework on Sundays) and then have lighter more scattered academics on that day. For example, computer drills and mental arithmetic for math rather than written work, or a game. Usually by Tuesday we are all much more in the swing of things. I thought I would mention that in case it helps.
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: My dh has some questions
