Here's a piece I wrote about home school spelling. How do you do spelling? Enjoy.
Showing posts with label Homeschool Hints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homeschool Hints. Show all posts
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Homeschooling Without a Dedicated Classroom
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7833136/homeschooling_without_a_dedicated_classroom.html?cat=7
Homeschooling without a dedicated classroom. Click the link for tips.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Waxing Eloquent
Alright, more reasons to homeschool…Remember 8th. grade grammar? Parts of Speech, BAD sentences you had to label and correct. Then you did the same thing in 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th ? Frustrating, isn’t it?
Sooo, Ryan is in his college level business class and guess what’s in his textbook? Yep, those same old BAD sentences..he has to identify the problem, label the problem, and fix the problem…this, is just repeating 8th. grade (again) and has no benefit. It’s the premise..if you start with the BAD sentence…
Okay, so here’s my (slightly sarcastic) response.
Federal marshals have unique training. They do not look at counterfeit bills. They study the real thing. How do aspiring writers become great authors? How do artists improve their work? By studying the masters. Students even pick their favorites.
Why hasn’t this concept made it to the teaching of writing? Especially college writing. It seems we are all destined to repeat 8th grade. We look at really bad examples. These sentences appear randomly and are rarely, if ever, in context of any REAL piece of writing. (Yes, I am referring to numbered exercises). The student is asked to identify the bad part (modifier, clause, adverbial, etc.). Then the bad part must be labeled. Then it must be fixed to create a better sentence.
Apparently the purpose of this exercise is to identify and correct mistakes. However, this does not cross over into the students own work. At best, it’s busy work. At worst, it’s playing with garbage.
Why not find great business writing and emulate it? Even sentence combining exercises have more merit than identifying and fixing dangling participles.
As a teacher, I want my students to aspire to be their best. I am not going to feed them junk food. I want them to have the real thing.
There is great curriculum out there for home educators who follow my train of thought. LLATL comes to mind. Still, I was surprised by Ryan’s COLLEGE textbook. Perhaps a well-worded email to his instructor can help push things in the right direction. In the meantime, my poor husband is trapped changing around sentences for no apparent gain.
Sooo, Ryan is in his college level business class and guess what’s in his textbook? Yep, those same old BAD sentences..he has to identify the problem, label the problem, and fix the problem…this, is just repeating 8th. grade (again) and has no benefit. It’s the premise..if you start with the BAD sentence…
Okay, so here’s my (slightly sarcastic) response.
Federal marshals have unique training. They do not look at counterfeit bills. They study the real thing. How do aspiring writers become great authors? How do artists improve their work? By studying the masters. Students even pick their favorites.
Why hasn’t this concept made it to the teaching of writing? Especially college writing. It seems we are all destined to repeat 8th grade. We look at really bad examples. These sentences appear randomly and are rarely, if ever, in context of any REAL piece of writing. (Yes, I am referring to numbered exercises). The student is asked to identify the bad part (modifier, clause, adverbial, etc.). Then the bad part must be labeled. Then it must be fixed to create a better sentence.
Apparently the purpose of this exercise is to identify and correct mistakes. However, this does not cross over into the students own work. At best, it’s busy work. At worst, it’s playing with garbage.
Why not find great business writing and emulate it? Even sentence combining exercises have more merit than identifying and fixing dangling participles.
As a teacher, I want my students to aspire to be their best. I am not going to feed them junk food. I want them to have the real thing.
There is great curriculum out there for home educators who follow my train of thought. LLATL comes to mind. Still, I was surprised by Ryan’s COLLEGE textbook. Perhaps a well-worded email to his instructor can help push things in the right direction. In the meantime, my poor husband is trapped changing around sentences for no apparent gain.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Homeschool Hints
Wipe Away Boards
These things are great. We’ve used them for numbers and letters and pictures. You can even laminate what you want and use a wipe away marker for those. Sarah and Tim are currently working on their cursive letters. It also really cuts down on the paper waste. It reminds me of the “slate work” in the one room schoolhouses of times of old.
Timing
No, not “timing is everything” timing, but the actual stop-watch kind. My kids love it if I “time” them, on their math sheets, flash cards, even on their writing wipe-off boards. Neatness still counts, but they love to be timed. Sometimes they race to beat their time from last time and sometimes they race each other’s times. Timing also works great with clean-up and getting dressed.
Choices
Which subject do you want to do first today? Math? Okay, do you want to do your game, your flashcards, your counting or your math sheet? (Once one subject is picked, there’s no picking another until all parts of that subject are done.) They also get to choose their treat. One treat for each subject. (I love it when they pick Hershey’s kisses because only Mamas can read the secret language on the “tags”. This one says, “Be kind to everyone.” This one says, “Daddy is proud of your hard work.”) I also gave my seven year old a page where he can check off each subject once it’s completed.
Challenge Fridays
I set up a challenge course while they wait in another room. The challenge course has stations. One station may be a page in their handwriting book. The next station is five math problems. The next is read a Dr. Seuss book to Marc and Luc. My 7 year old boy loves this and it motivates him to get things done. I am always amazed at how quickly he can accomplish this.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
English
Alright, more reasons to homeschool…Remember 8th. grade grammar? Parts of Speech, BAD sentences you had to label and correct. Then you did the same thing in 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th ? Frustrating, isn’t it?
Sooo, Ryan is in his college level business class and guess what’s in his textbook? Yep, those same old BAD sentences..he has to identify the problem, label the problem, and fix the problem…this, is just repeating 8th. grade (again) and has no benefit. It’s the premise..if you start with the BAD sentence…
Okay, so here’s my (slightly sarcastic) response.
Federal marshals have unique training. They do not look at counterfeit bills. They study the real thing. How do aspiring writers become great authors? How do artists improve their work? By studying the masters. Students even pick their favorites.
Why hasn’t this concept made it to the teaching of writing? Especially college writing. It seems we are all destined to repeat 8th grade. We look at really bad examples. These sentences appear randomly and are rarely, if ever, in context of any REAL piece of writing. (Yes, I am referring to numbered exercises). The student is asked to identify the bad part (modifier, clause, adverbial, etc.). Then the bad part must be labeled. Then it must be fixed to create a better sentence.
Apparently the purpose of this exercise is to identify and correct mistakes. However, this does not cross over into the students own work. At best, it’s busy work. At worst, it’s playing with garbage.
Why not find great business writing and emulate it? Even sentence combining exercises have more merit than identifying and fixing dangling participles.
As a teacher, I want my students to aspire to be their best. I am not going to feed them junk food. I want them to have the real thing.
There is great curriculum out there for home educators who follow my train of thought. LLATL comes to mind, plus lots of other literature-based curriculum. Still, I was surprised by Ryan’s COLLEGE textbook. Perhaps a well-worded email to his instructor can help push things in the right direction. In the meantime, my poor husband is trapped changing around sentences for no apparent gain.
Sooo, Ryan is in his college level business class and guess what’s in his textbook? Yep, those same old BAD sentences..he has to identify the problem, label the problem, and fix the problem…this, is just repeating 8th. grade (again) and has no benefit. It’s the premise..if you start with the BAD sentence…
Okay, so here’s my (slightly sarcastic) response.
Federal marshals have unique training. They do not look at counterfeit bills. They study the real thing. How do aspiring writers become great authors? How do artists improve their work? By studying the masters. Students even pick their favorites.
Why hasn’t this concept made it to the teaching of writing? Especially college writing. It seems we are all destined to repeat 8th grade. We look at really bad examples. These sentences appear randomly and are rarely, if ever, in context of any REAL piece of writing. (Yes, I am referring to numbered exercises). The student is asked to identify the bad part (modifier, clause, adverbial, etc.). Then the bad part must be labeled. Then it must be fixed to create a better sentence.
Apparently the purpose of this exercise is to identify and correct mistakes. However, this does not cross over into the students own work. At best, it’s busy work. At worst, it’s playing with garbage.
Why not find great business writing and emulate it? Even sentence combining exercises have more merit than identifying and fixing dangling participles.
As a teacher, I want my students to aspire to be their best. I am not going to feed them junk food. I want them to have the real thing.
There is great curriculum out there for home educators who follow my train of thought. LLATL comes to mind, plus lots of other literature-based curriculum. Still, I was surprised by Ryan’s COLLEGE textbook. Perhaps a well-worded email to his instructor can help push things in the right direction. In the meantime, my poor husband is trapped changing around sentences for no apparent gain.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Yes. This says, “Mom, you are weird.” Those of you who know me and love me realize that this observation can’t possibly be true and…Wait a minute…why are you looking at me like that?
Homeschool Tip: Buy these magna-doodle things (or ask for them as gifts). My seven-year-old and five-year-old love to find notes from Mom. Then, they often write me back. (And they don’t always say I am weird….Sometimes they say "I love you") Sometimes I leave just the beginning of a verse Tim is working on or just the reference. Kids need to practice their letters, phonics, and spelling and this gives us a great way. I love it when they say, “Don’t look, Mom, I am writing you a secret message.” Then they ask, “How do you spell ‘weird’?” hee. Hee. We also use them in the car. Tim and Sarah write notes to each other or spell out notes to me.
Homeschool Tip: Buy these magna-doodle things (or ask for them as gifts). My seven-year-old and five-year-old love to find notes from Mom. Then, they often write me back. (And they don’t always say I am weird….Sometimes they say "I love you") Sometimes I leave just the beginning of a verse Tim is working on or just the reference. Kids need to practice their letters, phonics, and spelling and this gives us a great way. I love it when they say, “Don’t look, Mom, I am writing you a secret message.” Then they ask, “How do you spell ‘weird’?” hee. Hee. We also use them in the car. Tim and Sarah write notes to each other or spell out notes to me.
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