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Becky Parker
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Joined: May 23 2005
Location: Michigan
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Posts: 2582
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| Posted: Oct 16 2010 at 9:06am | IP Logged
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I'm just planning for my last month of pregnancy and the first week or two after baby is born. I'm thinking I will have to be in survival mode. While I like the idea of just taking a break from school (something I have done in the past) I have learned that my kids, especially my younger boys, don't do well when their routine is messed up. Of course everything will be pared down, but I think it will work best for them and for my husband who will be home with them, if we stick to our routine, which includes math and language arts in the morning.
So, I'm thinking I might need to find some independent work that my kids can do. Math is easy but I'm looking for some suggestions for language arts.
We currently use AAS for spelling, which works well for my kids but it's not something they can do on their own, and I know my dh wont feel comfortable doing it with them.
Regarding language arts, I just purchased a phonics workbook for my first grader and that should do for him. He can still do his reading with his dad, or later with me. I'm mostly thinking of my 4th grader at this point. We are on a roll with copywork a la the very old version of LLATL and some ILL. I don't want to give up the copywork, because I really think it is beneficial, but here again, I'm not sure my dh will know what he should do with the assignment after ds copies it. (We usually use it for quick grammar lessons, spelling words, writing etc.)
Any recommendations on a workbook, or on how to tweak the above programs so that my kids can continue to work on spelling and language arts, even if it's just minimal, for the 3-4 weeks that I might not have the energy to do it with them? I'm actually considering an English Workbook like Seton's or Easy Grammar, but I'm not sure ...
I'm not apposed to workbooks, I've actually felt drawn to use them more as life gets crazier around here. But I'm not sure which ones would be most beneficial.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 16 2010 at 10:16am | IP Logged
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Becky,
I really like the Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons revised and published by Hillside Education and often fill in with them. They're very complementary to a CM style, and if you just had a child work through one exercise a day it would be enough to keep them moving in a forward direction. These books cover picture study, copywork, dictation, grammar, composition. It hits it all so there's no need for anything extra. There are samples on Margot's site so take a look.
Beyond that, I hate to recommend that someone purchase something new, particularly if it is just going to be for a few weeks. Could you pull your resources and plans together now for the few weeks you'll need them? If I were trying to do this, I'd probably print everything and stash it in folders for individual children. I'd print copywork pages (there are so many that are free online!!), and even dictation pages. On the dictation pages, I'd print instructions so anyone could complete the dictation study with that child:
DAY ONE
** Read selection aloud
** Underline words that would be challenging to spell on the paper.
** Study the words and the selection for a few minutes.
** Write the challenging words
DAY TWO
** Review selection and challenging words
** Read dictation to student slowly
...that kind of thing. I'd get all my resources printed and in folders for the kids so that when it's time for that sweet baby, you can just pull out your resource folders and put them in place. You can review with dad how your system works beforehand, and also explain to the boys that this is where they'll find their work for the next few weeks. Add a reading list to the folder and I think that covers language arts nicely for a survival time.
Adding this just in case you hadn't seen it. Eva linked these great dictation books on this thread that are available free on google books. They might be a great way to grab dictation selections for your resource sheets:
pmeilaen wrote:
| We bought the first book for my then 4th grader, but finally I gave up on it. The more advanced text selections were too long for our taste. I found a free online dictation series that is much shorter. Here is the book for grades five and up and here for second grade. You can find them for most grades online if you keep looking. These books also have selections for poetry that are age appropriate for each grade. |
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If you're really just trying to work with your 4th grader at this point, I think this is totally do-able without spending anything extra...it's probably just a matter of gathering resources neatly so that all that legwork is done and it's just a matter of grab a language arts sheet from your folder and go!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Entering "Survival Mode"
