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3ringcircus
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| Posted: Jan 23 2013 at 5:09pm | IP Logged
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Any words of wisdom for starting your second HS'd child? D wants to do K with me. This will be my first child to start K with, and my first year with more than 1 doing a curriculum. G may very well have ADHD. I have to staple myself to him in order to get anything accomplished, and he requires all the effort and tricks I ever knew as a classroom teacher just to get through to him. Lessons that realistically should take 15min. take 30min. or more due to his body movements and distractibility. Next year things will have to be different as I divide myself between two (3, if you count S, who will be 3yrs), and I pray that these next months will help him gain maturity and independence.
I already know that I'll do science with the two boys together. I may not expect much from D, but I'll ask him to listen and participate. He's really excited about how things work and how they are put together, so any physical science we do will be perfect for him. (He likes to do experiments by putting cups of water in the freezer, then studying how fast he gets ice). I want this to be a way to bring us together as we learn--not a burden to him.
I would like to continue w/ RS math. G should be somewhere in the middle of Level B. Might I do arithmetic games only w/ D & G for review time, or would it be better to have a formal start?
Any thoughts about LA? What about fine-motor & all that crafty stuff they tend to do in K? Handwriting? Would a formal curriculum, like CHC help me keep him from falling through the cracks, or would it be a drudgery for a 5.5yo boy? Does #2 become steeped in the environment created by schooling #1, or does he get shortchanged?
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Christine
Mom to my circus of boys: G-1/06, D-1/04, S-4/10
Started HS in Fall'12
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Jan 23 2013 at 5:19pm | IP Logged
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Well, my ds2 is a very different kid than ds1, so some things are necessarily different. In some ways he is immersed in the environment, but in others, I have to make more of an. Effort because he is not by nature as driven to doing schoolwork independently on his own. Ds 1 basically just worked through Explode the Code at his own pace. Ds 2 needs me to expect him to spend some time with it each day or he doesn't do it. Ther are also some things he picked up much faster on his own than his brother without any effort on my part. Just different!
I think it is pretty common for a boy who is only just 6 to need a ton of supervision to get stuff done whether it is schoolwork, chores, whatever.
Personally, I like having some workbooks on hand for PreK and K for when they want to do school, but I never make them do school. They always listen to read alouds and such voluntarily, ime.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Jan 23 2013 at 7:06pm | IP Logged
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yes I'm very relaxed for K and younger kids.. I print out letter pages with a picture to color at the top and letters to trace/write underneath (they think these are the bee's knees) and we read stories and they generally want to help everywhere and do everything the olders are doing.. so we may play games as teams so that they can participate but have an older kid helping to keep a game going.. or they get to help do something in the kitchen. And we watch some fun school-y tv shows. And we have stuff around that encourages fine motor skills without having to sit and make writing a painful process.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Elena
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| Posted: Jan 23 2013 at 7:54pm | IP Logged
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I had four boys in a row. At one time they were 9, 6, 3 and 1. I learned very quickly that I could not do "school at home" with little boys. I did reading individually and math with the oldest boy and then mostly counting games with the little ones. Then we did lots and lots of reading and lots of lots of hands on activities and even movies and educational games on the computer. Now they are 23, 20, 17 and 14 - the oldest two have graduated and are gainfully employed and the younger two do actual lessons from text books and such -but we still read together. So I guess it all worked out in the end. I guess I would say don't be too structured when they are little and focus on developing a love of learning.
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Elena
Wife to Peter, mom of many!
My Domestic Church
One Day at a Time
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: What did you do for your second?
