Yesterday the bear surprised me. Today it was these alien children in our dining nook. Who are they? My children don't get up at 5 or 6 a.m.. Mine sleep until at least 9:30, sometimes well (well!) past noon. And when they eventually do get up, they laze around on the couch or in front of the computer or reading. At 7:30 a.m. these odd specimens had already been outside for some exercise, had come back in, cooked breakfast, and were cheerfully doing math.This is definitely one of those "who'd of thunk it?" homeschooling occurrences. It'll probably never happen again. All the more reason to take a picture. Sophie finished Singapore Primary Math 4B this morning and will move onto the Grade 5 books at her leisure. Erin is now about halfway through Teaching Textbooks Algebra I. She likes working her problems on the whiteboard, because she can do straightforward simplification with a simple swipe of the thumb, rather than laboriously rewriting. She has completely abandoned the computer CDs and is using the textbook as her choice of resources. Whatever works!
That is cute!
ReplyDeleteQuestion: when the kids are litttle, say about 7/8 years old, do you have them do just a worksheet a day in math? or did you allow them to do as much as they want? what happens when a book is finished--do you move to the next level or hold off? what if they finish two or three grade levels in a "school year?"
As you can tell, we are still working out the details and logistics of this whole homeschooling journey :-)
Hi Shawna. We consider ourselves unschoolers. The kids do math because, oddly enough, they want to. There have been long periods of time when they haven't wanted to. Erin's course is probably representative. She did Miquon (1st - 3rd grade) during the years she was 5 and 6. She did nothing much while she was 7 and 8. At age 9 she got keen on Singapore Math and finished their 3rd through 6th grade materials. At age 10 & 11 she did nothing. At 12 she did another year's worth of curriculum, over the course of about 3 months. Then nothing for a year. Now, again, she's devouring a year's worth over the space of 3 months. At times she's moved way past her grade level, then hung back, then burst ahead. I've never done the "expect one worksheet a day" thing. Noah has finished over three grade levels in the past 8 months. It's fun this way; the kids do lots when they enjoy it. This approach works for us, but I think it depends upon me being super comfortable with it, so that they don't feel any subtle pressure during quiescent times.
ReplyDeleteThanks Miranda!
ReplyDeleteMy son wants to just blow through a book and he can fairly easily. I am alright with that--I'd rather he learn when he has an interest rather than force it later.
But again, just working out the logistics of it all and seeing how other families have approached it. It's all so very interesting.