Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Report- and why year 'round school works for us

We school all year. It seemed like a good logical choice when we were talking about what education means to us, for us, and what we want it to look like for our family. I have a few teachers in the family and I'm used to the complaints (the very valid complaints) that kids forget a lot of material over the summer and the first weeks of school and spent in review and reteaching. I think that seems like a waste of time and effort- why teach things and let them fall away? Why get into a schedule and then let it drop?
Now, we do take it easy at different points. I think that we are pretty structured and that Sweet Pea has some pretty high expectations on her for a five year old. Over the summer we went very easy on most things- just kept up with math and really focused on phonics. This ended up being a really wonderful choice for us. Lessons were still short, but we covered a lot of ground and it brought Sweet Pea's reading abilities up to the point where she can confidently handle the daily assignments we are working on.
I don't follow a specific period of off and on times. Some of it is built around seasons, and some is built around family activity. I'm expecting a baby a little while after Christmas and I expect that school will slide for a little while. And that's OK- because we have all the time in the world to pick back up.

Latin: We did the first page of questions on the lesson today. Sweet Pea needed some help spelling things like, "consonants" but did really well!


Math: I have been annoying recently in my belief that Sweet Pea does not know her math facts (whatever that means for someone her age) and that it will hold her back. Today she did 4 worksheets of math- and knew them fine. Truly, math is going well!



Grammar- I am fast approaching the point that many people start to reach in First Language Lessons- the point of, yes, we do know nouns! Let's move on! And then skipping and consolidating lessons. We'll see.

Writing went well today- except an annoying issue with the connector off the letter o. I'm not sure what the issue was, but it's been resolved.

Phonics: I confess that I am astounded by how many ways there are to make the vowel sound, "oo". Sweet Pea is assimilating them well, and I added Hooked on Phonics back in just to break the monotony and cement ideas.

3 comments:

  1. With WWE do you have both the teachers ed. & work book? Someone mentioned that one wasn't necessary, but I can't remember which. It seems as though it's working well for you.

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  2. I have both the hardcover teacher's book and the workbook. You can do the program with only one- and which depends on how much work you want to do. The teacher's book outlines 3-4 years of the program, but you have to find most of the passages and examples yourself. Most people get the workbook- there is one per grade and it includes everything that you need. All the passages for capywork and narration, all the questions- it's open and go.
    Does that make sense? If I was to only buy one I'd buy the workbook. I like that it requires no prep work.

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  3. I am a no prepwork kind of teacher as well =) That would be my preference as well. Thanks for the info!

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