Homeschool and the Struggling Reader

 

Between Bee and Bug, I thought I had a seen a lot, and I thought I was a pretty experienced homeschool mom.  I also thought that reading was fairly straightforward.  The kids learn the basic sounds, and then they start to read simple books, and you just tell them about additional phonograms, silent e, and words with unusual spellings, right?  Well that's how it went for Bee and Bug.  Bee could read pretty well at 6 and Bug at 5.  They became obsessed with Garfield comics at around the age of 8.  We did some spelling instruction but almost no reading instruction.  (They both learned most of their basic sounds at Montessori school).  They always tested very high at reading.  

Dot, on the other hand, was completely different.  She did not go to Montessori school.  When she was 4, I got All About Reading pre-reading.  We did all of the lessons.  While going through them, I noticed that she struggled with the sound games and became extremely frustrated at times.  We went very slowly, and I did not force her to play games that she found upsetting. 

After that, I thought we would go right into Explode the Code Book 1.  That proved to be far too difficult. So, we did Explode the Code's pre-reading program, which was immensely helpful.  It also took a while, and I think we finished when she was 6. At the same time, she tried a handwriting class, which she found extremely frustrating.  She also worked on phonics and sounds as part of a weekly kindergarten homeschool class. 

At the time we moved house, she had turned 7, and the concept of using sounds to make 3-letter words was just starting to click.  She had difficulties that her brothers never had: adding sounds that weren't there, lack of sound awareness, doing lots of guessing, struggling with very simple word blends.  Letters D and B constantly mixed up.  When writing, letter reversals were constant.  (Her focus and concentration, however, are excellent.)

Still, her reading skills improved.  We continued with Explode the Code, and it gradually got easier.  We bought every BOB book in existence, and she read them repeatedly.  She seemed to need a lot of reinforcement on the basics.  

I didn't push her, and we didn't spend an inordinate amount of time on reading and phonics, just a little bit a day.   Explode the Code, BOB books, The Good and the Beautiful handwriting.  

I have tried very hard not to let my stress and my ideas about timelines for reading interfere with her process of developing the skills of reading, writing, and spelling.  Her brain is ready when it's ready!  

Gradually, we finished Explode the Code Book 1 and tried Book 2, but it was too hard, so I got book 1.5.  One day Book 2 was very easy, and we skipped a lot of it and moved into Book 3 and worked through it pretty quickly.  

Gradually, she started reading words in the wild more frequently.  She graduated the BOB books and reads things like George and Martha.  We are currently working in Explode the Code books 4 and 3.5 and continuing with handwriting.  Her dad reads to her at night, and she reads to him, and she listens to hours a day of audiobooks.  

She loves to write and illustrate stories for fun and loves calendars and her planner that she got for Christmas.  Her spelling is unusual but shows consistent improvement. 

Meanwhile, I found out that at least two of her cousins have a dyslexia diagnosis.  I also talked to many homeshool moms with children who had that diagnosis, and it seemed like Dot and I were already doing what was recommended for reading difficulties (phonics, individual attention).  I suspect she could qualify for a dyslexia diagnosis, and we might want to have testing at some point, especially if it can be done in a convenient and inexpensive way.   

I also have homeschooling friends whose children have far greater struggles than Dot.  Some have chosen to use a professional reading tutor, and that is something I would absolutely want to utilize if I felt we were stuck.  But as I am seeing steady progress, I have not explored that route.  

I have NO ISSUE at all with her having a "label."  But it isn't worth the time and effort of acquiring the label will not change how we are educating her.  There have been times when I have been worried that people might judge us and think that we are not educating her properly.  But her Sunday school teachers and other teachers have all been kind, understanding, and supportive.  When I told one of them about her being behind in reading she just said, "Oh, I hope you're giving her lots of phonics, since they don't do that in the schools." 

At the age of 8, Dot keeps making steady progress, and I think she is doing great.  She has a very solid foundation in phonics and continues building on it. 

Most importantly, she loves reading and says that it is her favorite subject! 

Reading, Writing, and Math with a Planner

 

As a very last-minute gift, I ordered Dot a planner for Christmas.  I found a kid's planner from Erin Condren, and I bought it because I like planners (especially bullet journals), and I hoped that Dot would find it fun as well.  She has been really excited about it, and it's one of the gifts that she has shown the most interest in. 

I was looking for a planner that was monthly because weekly seems like a little too much for an 8-year-old.  This one has all sorts of fun pages for kids to fill out about themselves, so it's a little bit like a diary as well, and it will make a very cute keepsake. 

I also liked that it came with sticker pages for each month.  This means that the planner is not specific to any month or year.  Dot has to put the month sticker in and then all of the numbers, which is good for her.  Simply by using the planner, she has been practicing her reading, writing, and math (calendar/time) without knowing that she is doing any sort of school. 

She has had a wall calendar for a long time.  I got that for her because she kept asking me "how many days until..."  Having a wall calendar allowed her to write important dates on it and seemed to alleviate some of her anxiety.  I'm hoping that planner will help her to feel a little more in control of her life as well.  

Mostly, though, I'm just happy that we have a shared hobby and can sit on the couch together and do planners. 

10th Grade Homeschool Plan

Well,  my wonderful Bug, my 10th grader, is nearly a foot taller than me.  I never put his 9th grade plan on here.  He is my middle child, and he is the child who looks the most like me (except much taller and far more masculine).  Bug struggles to do "homework," and so I attempted to find him online classes that have optional homework and emphasize class discussion and activities.  We do not "teach" him anything, as he thinks his parents are dumb.  Even though he thinks we are dumb, he prefers that we choose all of his classes for him, and he refuses to request to learn anything.   My husband is supposed to badger him about getting his co-op classes done.   Again, I am in seminary/grad school full time, and my time is very limited.  Here is his plan, which may change: 

English:  2 co-op classes.  One focuses on reading The Lord of the Rings, and the other is a Creative Writing Class.  He also reads audiobooks voraciously, often for many hours a day.   

Social Studies:  He will be taking Western Civ at co-op and attempting to pass the CLEP.  

Math:  I signed him up for Algebra II on Outschool.  The class meets twice a week and homework completion is up to the parent (my husband).  Math comes easily to Bug, so I think this will be a good fit.  He does not do well with self-paced classes, so we really needed to find something interactive. 

Science:  I am hoping for him to take core science at community college next year.  I signed him up for 2 science electives, Astronomy and Earth Science, on Outschool, where the course objectives are met during class.  Bug learns well from lecture and discussion.  

Foreign Language:  Bug got burnt out on private lessons, so he is signed up for a group Spanish Class on outschool that meets 4x a week.  I'm sure the teacher is good, but she is not a native speaker.  But I do need to compromise with Bug, who felt anxious during private lessons.  I think the 4x a week will be very good for him, and maybe he will start doing Duolingo Spanish as well. 

The Arts:  So far, I have signed Bug up for an Anime drawing class and an Anime discussion class.  I may add more classes/piano lessons, but I want to get settled into our schedule first. 

2nd Grade Homeschool Plan

 

Well, Dot is 8 and entering the 2nd grade.   Because she was my 3rd child, because she was my last child, because I was 35 years old when I had her, because I had been homeschooling for a very long time, because I am a little bit OLD, it seemed only to make sense to delay starting kindergarten with her.  As it turned out, she also took a while to show readiness for reading, and I am so grateful that I listened to my "old mom" instincts and didn't rush her.  Because at the age of 8, she is suddenly taking off with reading.  Over the summer, while I was too busy with my internship to work with her, she started to understand the need for vowels, stopped reversing most of her letters, and became able to read signs and all sorts of things that she sees in her daily life.  I am so excited to witness this!  The miracle of reading!  In the meantime, she has been listening to audio books (often for several hours each day).  

She will be attending co-op classes one day a week this coming year.  Because I am in school full-time I was not able to drive them anywhere last year.  My husband decided he could not either, but after a year of having them home all day while he worked, he changed his mind.  They will each have 3 co-op classes this year and lunch.  We are also using some online classes, carefully selecting them for her hands-on and artistic learning style.  And we are involved in a social group that we will try and meet up with once a week or so.  When the weather turns bad, it will sadly be less.  Thankfully, there are neighbors to play and interact with. 

As always, this plan is a rough draft.  We will adjust and change as we see fit.  As the weather gets worse, we may add some fun online classes. 

Here is her plan.  Of course, so much more is learned through play with friends, family, and by herself, through interactions with people and animals, through her own explorations and times of introspection.  Most of what she learns can never be recorded or quantified. 

English:   

• Explode the Code phonics (She is in book 3 right now and going through it very quickly).  
• The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting (continuing the first grade level). 
• Various readers
• Phonics with crafts class online
• Daily self-directing listening to audiobooks 

Math: 

• Life of Fred

• Addition and Subtraction worksheets & activities

Science:  

• Kiwi Crate
• nature study
• gardening
• composting 
• field trips 

Social Studies: 

• Wonders of the World craft class online 
• field trips
• historical books 
• Sunday school
• Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (if offered) 

Foreign Language

• Sign Language class at co-op

The Arts

• Craft Class at co-op

• Piano at co-op 

I homeschooled while attending seminary full time

 Yes, I homeschooled for a full year while attending seminary full time, while my husband worked from home.  I nearly lost my mind, my husband nearly lost his mind, and the children learned!  We survived!  We took the summer off, and we are ready for another year.  I can't believe I haven't updated this blog in so long.  Bee (age 19) took a year off to work, and now he has gone away to college. 

I just finished writing up my yearly progress reports for Bug (age 15) and Dot (age 8), and I also wrote out plans for the coming school year (which are the rough drafts for next year's progress reports.)  

I'm so glad we are still homeschooling.  I never expected to have kids with special needs, but Bee has ADHD, Bug has characteristics of autism, and Dot has a reading delay/possible dyslexia (something I never anticipated).  I think that all three of them are intellectually gifted, which is both wonderful and complicated.  For spiritual, academic, and emotional reasons, I do think that homeschooling has been a good decision for all three of them.  It has not always been perfect or ideal or easy.  I hope that this blog (however poorly updated) shows something of our struggle.  

We have been homeschooling for 12 years, and it has been a joy and and a struggle, and so many times I have questioned myself, but right now I am just thankful to God and to all of the wonderful parents and teachers who have helped us on our journey

8th Grade Homeschool Plan

 I see that I never wrote out Bug's homeschool plan for the year.  Poor Bug, my middle child.  

For his 8th grade, we are doing:  

• English:  Bug reads constantly, mostly fantasy books.  It is not unusual for him to spend several hours a day reading.  He prefers audiobooks.  He has taken an Outschool course on Shakespeare, and is currently in an essay writing and a creative writing course on that platform.  
• Math:  Teaching Textbooks Algebra I.  If he has questions, he can ask his very own dad with a PhD in math.  Bug has done pretty well with this program.  Once we figured out how to access the textbook, he stopped watching the videos and is much happier and scoring higher.  I like this program because it is easy to keep track of Bug's progress.  
• Social Studies:  For the fall semester, we took a road trip out west and visited several national parks.  Bug also read Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac.  So I am giving him half a credit for "Geography of the Western United States."  For spring, he is taking a couple of classes in economics on Outschool, one more traditional and another that is kind of an RPG.  
• Science:  Bug took a Life Science course on Outschool his first semester, and is now taking a speculative evolution course this semester.  In addition, he chooses to watch science videos on Youtube for fun.  He has also been teaching himself Javascript.  
• Foreign Language:  Bug takes private Spanish lessons with native Spanish speakers online from Homeschool Spanish Academy.  
• PE:  Taekwondo, scout activities, family hikes.  

Next year, I am going to insist that Bug add some kind of artistic endeavor (other than writing) to his life.  

The Futility and Appeal of Record Keeping

I am starting to think about our next homeschooling year.  We will be moving to a different state, and I will be a residential graduate student/seminarian, instead of a hybrid-distance student.  This means that I will be on a schedule more than I have been in the past.  I will need to be a little more structured with our time, I suppose.  I will be homeschooling my two younger children, both of whom are not too challenging to homeschool.  

My wonderful oldest, Bee, really is kind of like an insect, hopping about from flower to flower.  Keeping records on his learning has been nearly impossible.  He is one of the smartest, most knowledgeable 17-year-olds that I know, with an excellent SAT score to show for it.  He is incredibly articulate, has a strong writing voice, and possesses a storehouse of knowledge on history and computers, among other things.  He also speaks Spanish with a beautiful pronunciation.  He plays guitar and sings.   And he cooks, cleans, and can make home repairs.  But planning and tracking his learning has been like, How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?  

So, I am starting to think about keeping more structured records this coming year, checking off the subjects that were studied each day.  And I question my motivations.  Because I know that whatever structured school I provide is often very good, but often the most quality learning that happens in my children happens internally, is self initiated, and I may not even be aware of it.  Homeschooling creates an ideal environment for spontaneous learning and creativity.  For instance, Dot makes up songs constantly.  Bug has become obsessed with java script as of late and works on that.  

And am I really concerned about someone accusing us, after all these years, of educational neglect?  Some social worker coming around to tell my husband (PhD) and me (MEd and MDiv-in-progress) that our precocious children are, in fact, ignorant?  Concerned enough to check a bunch of boxes and count "school days?"  But, on the other side of it, record keeping, even though I always sort of forget about it after a while, often has the result of making me feel affirmed because I see just how much learning that my children are doing.  

Bug and Dot are a little bit easier to track than their older brother.  And, now that I don't have anyone who is hyperactive or really little running around, it's easier for me to take a little time to keep records on a more daily/weekly basis.  I'm having fun making a planner (that's definitely the fun part), and I plan to share what I created on this blog at some point.  

A 12th Grade Homeschool Plan

 This is Bee's final year of homeschooling.  We are focusing on his strengths and unique gifts and emphasizing learning and personal development.  We are encouraging him to get more life experience next year and consider college at a later time.  

Math:  For the first time, we are trying out Teaching Textbooks.  Bee is in Precalculus, and his dad can help him with any questions.  

English:  Bee (and his brother) are taking a Shakespeare class through Outschool this semester, and we are watching a play as a family each week.  He is also taking a writing class and a general humanities class.  We are working through a Glencoe grammar workbook.  

Spanish:  Private lessons twice a week through Homeschool Spanish Academy, emphasizing listening and speaking skills, at our request.   

Science:  Bee will take a review course through Outschool on Chemistry, a subject he started in public school.  I'm looking into physics options for the spring.  

Social Studies:  Bee has a lot of history credits already.  We plan to do US History with an emphasis on the western US.  This will incorporate a family road trip that we plan to take.  He will also have a weekly art history course, which I'm not sure how to incorporate as a credit but it's a great thing to take.  

PE:  Taekwondo classes.  

The Arts:  Planning to sign him up for guitar lessons.  

Kiwi Crate Reviewed: Our First Month

 I decided to use Kiwi Crate as part of Dot's science program.   [Dot is a 6-year-old kindergartener.] The idea was that it would provide a good hands-on experience each month.  My goal with elementary science is to provide interesting books and experiences that support a love for learning about the world.  

The first month's kit went really well.  The materials were good quality, and Dot and I managed to follow the instructions and put together a claw toy grabber.  I often have very poor success with "science" kits, so this was great!  There was a lot of optional art and decorating included, which appealed to Dot.  I will say that it was fairly parent-intensive, at Dot's age and ability level.  But Dot was able to do most of it with my guidance (except for the optional box cutting).  

I am happy and looking forward to next month's kit.  

A Kindergarten Plan (by a Long-Time Homeschooler)

Dot is 6 with a late spring birthday and entering homeschool kindergarten.   She is probably going to be doing the level of work that my parents would have done in first grade.  She is my third child, and any reading, writing, or math we have done has been FUN, never pushed.  I feel very confident about our approach.  I have selected things that work and that we can actually get done and that are foundational for skills she will use all her life, such as a phonetic approach to reading and a conceptual approach to math.   Reading aloud is the best way to build vocabulary.  

Also, LESS IS MORE with little kids and academics.  A consistent approach of short, quality, developmentally appropriate lessons is ideal.  

• Reading:  
• We are finishing up All About Reading pre-reading and then plan to switch to Level 1.  As we went through the pre-reading program, I watched her develop the skills needed to read.  The program helped in this process, but a lot of it was just her brain developing readiness.  
• Lots of being read to--the foundation for every child under the age of 9-10 or so!  My husband or I read chapter books to her every night.  We will also have a reading time during the day with 10+ books picked out for month.  
• She is taking a weekly kindergarten class where they use Five in a Row and read a book every week.  
• She is taking a weekly storybook club class.  
• Writing:  She will be taking a weekly handwriting course at a local co-op!  Hurray!  Mommy doesn't like teaching handwriting.  
• Math:  Schiller Math modified by me to include activities learned in a Montessori classroom.  
• Science:  She will be getting some science 2 days a week at her co-ops (science in her kindergarten class plus a nature club at her other co-op).  We will also read science books (5 or so a month) and will try out a Kiwicrate subscription.  
• Social Studies:  Field trips to national parks coming up this fall!  She will be taking a geography club class once a week, and we will read books (5 or so each month) on social studies (geography or history).  
• Spanish:  weekly 25-minute classes through Homeschool Spanish Academy and at-home instruction.  It appears she will require Skittles as a reward for the class.
• PE:  outdoor play, homeschool soccer and running, and hopefully gymnastics
• Arts:  She is signed up for an art class at one co-op.  I would love to find something musical for her to do as well.   

I think this is a simple, do-able program that has all that is needed for kindergarten.  If the co-op classes were not available, I would simply add more read-alouds and attempt a handwriting program.  Notice that there is basically NO lesson planning prep for me other than picking out books to read to her each month.  No grading because it's kind of silly for kindergarten anyway.  

More Schiller (ish) Math

 So we have abandoned the Schiller book a little bit for now.  We continued building large quantities.  It took a while for Dot to remember which category were the thousands and which were the hundreds.  Today she knew that confidently, so we went on to addition with large quantities.  We added two numbers, ensuring that they would not involve carrying.  Dot already knows how to add with small quantities.  

The way I learned to do it as a Montessori teacher is to build 2 quantities, put them together (using a scarf) and then count them up.  We then tell the story something like this:  Mom brought 1101, and Dot brought 2310.  We put our quantities together, and we had 3401.  Putting together is addition.  

This whole procedure with the quantities up to the 1000's place seems very appealing to the age group (usually 5-6).  And because it's done in such a concrete way, the larger quantities are not intimidating.  In fact, that is kind of the point, that we work with the large quantities so that the children aren't intimidated by them later.  I used to give my sons a few (or just one) addition problems in the millions or billions or trillions when they were in early elementary.  They thought this was much more interesting than a whole bunch of smaller problems.  

If children are clear on how place value works (which is why we use these manipulatives), then they see how easy it is to work with the larger numbers.  It's nice to see children excited by the large quantities rather than intimidated.  

Next time, we will do an addition with exchanges/carrying.  

All About Reading Continued

 We are still working through All About Reading, pre-reading with Dot, who will be 6 in May.  We finished lesson 32 today, lower case F.  I still really like it, and so does she.  My goal is to get through all the lower case letters before she turns 6, hopefully sooner.  She's just very gently absorbing letters and sounds.  I have noticed that some of the pre-reading games have been challenging for her, which makes me glad that we are not pushing any kind of formal reading at this time.  And then one day things click.  Today, she seemed to understand a lot better about the sounds of words being broken up.  So, waiting for her brain to be ready on its own seems a better strategy than trying to push it.  I'm really thankful that she is not in a kindergarten class, and that her brain is free to learn in a non-stressful way.  

We may play a little more often with letters, as she thinks it is fun to form them.  I want to make some Montessori phonetic object cards to encourage this.  

Schiller Math Continued

 Dot and I have now completed lesson 55 of Schiller Math.  I am very glad that I bought this kit.  She loves doing math and probably would have liked to have moved at a faster pace.  We are going to try to do math a few times a week now so that I can get her moved through material she is ready for.  

What I like:

• Lessons are short and easy.  
• No prep.  
• Covers concepts I might miss if I were planning on my own.  
• This program is really solid, and the workbook is attractive.  

Ways that I adapt it:  

• The cardboard thousand cubes were annoying.  They kept getting crushed.  I actually switched to my Montessori Outlet golden bead material, which Dot finds far more appealing.   (The hundreds and thousands are wooden, except for the demonstration set, which are beads).  That is the one thing that really put me off from Schiller to begin with, and why I didn't use it--I don't love the blue cubes.  But it's really, really easy just to use the bead set that I have with it.  
• I've been skipping some of the left-right and even-odd lessons.  I feel like left-right is learned more developmentally.  I think even-odd is easier to understand once someone has mastered division and gotten a little older.  
• I think that the four operations are best learned with large quantities, not with small ones.  So I will be adapting the Schiller lessons and using the ones I learned in my Montessori training.  

So, yes, I'm still very happy with my Schiller purchase.  Next year, I plan to supplement it with math story books.  Around the third grade, as we work through the material, I will transition to Life of Fred.  I imagine there will be a little workbook work too, to prepare Dot to take a standardized test.  

Homeschool Spanish Academy

This morning at 9 AM, both of my sons logged into their Spanish lessons on Google Meet.  Each had a 50-minute private lesson with a native Spanish speaker and trained tutor, who teaches from Guatemala.  Neither son complained.  Both enjoy their lessons and are developing beautiful accents, a love for the language, and an interest in other cultures.  I highly recommend Homeschool Spanish Academy.  

https://www.spanish.academy/

Back to Cozi for planning

With the New Year, I realized that we needed to change our system for keeping the family calendar.  With me in graduate school, an active volunteering life, 2 kids homeschooling, and the other in a final year of free range preschool, the system I had been happily using (paper planner/bullet journal) was about to break down.  The main issue was that I needed to enter a lot of repeated events (karate practice, zoom classes, etc), and the time it would take to enter everyone's activity into a paper calendar was not feasible. Not to mention the fact that the data would not be portable or easily transferrable to anyone else.  

I first tried Homeschool Planet (yet again).  This is the third time I have tried it, and I do not like it.  I also do not understand why it looks the same as it did several years ago.  I find it complicated and clunky, and every time I access it, it is more dated.  

I then decided that everything I need to do (since I do not track grades), I could do in Cozi, which I had used years ago.  I put everyone's scheduled activities into it.  I also put in all chores and assignments as all day events.  All of us have the app on our phone.  Each boy's individual agenda is also printed, and I put them on the refrigerator with magnet clips.  

Here is what I like about this system:  

• My husband and I and each boy can be clear on our expectations, eliminating a lot of the fuzziness that was so bothersome to Bug. 
• I can punch holes in the agendas when the week is over, and I actually have a record of what they did!  I can also jot things down (documentaries they
  watched, etc) that were not assigned.  This is good protection for me in the extremely unlikely scenario that we would be accused of educational neglect.  Of course, in that scenario, I am also pretty sure that 5 minutes of a social worker chatting with my kids about any academic subject would do the trick as well.  
• We can all access the calendar from our phones.  
• I can use the reminder function.  
• It's easy to input events, to make them repeat, and to change them.  

What I don't like:  

• I feel like the to-do function could be improved.  I would like to input their chores and repeating assignments as to-do items rather than all-day events.  
• There is so much on the calendar that the monthly view isn't usable.  
• I liked my simple, low-tech paper system.  It was calming.  But 5 people with irregular schedules is too much for me to keep up with using a low tech system.  

Planning English class (7th and 11th grade combined)

With Bee home next semester, and Bug no longer taking English at his co-op. I am coming up with a plan to teach them both myself.  The truth is that I really don't like teaching writing.  It's the subject I am most qualified to teach and also the one I actually have professional experience teaching (college writing lab).  It comes very easily to me, however, and I find it frustrating and tedious to try and teach it.  When I write something, I often start at the beginning and end at the end, with minimal planning and revision.  I have a process for writing research papers which involves a bit of writing notes and quotes, but it is mostly internal and difficult to explain to an overwhelmed young writer.  

The most enjoyable curriculum I have used has been WriteShop.  It breaks the process of writing down in ways that I honestly can't.  So, I will continue with Bee where we left off in the program a couple of years ago and start Bug in WriteShop I.  

I will also be working with them both on some basic skills with writing research papers.  I ordered a book of citation exercises to use with Bug, and a book of help for writing a research paper for Bee, but I may just use both for both.  We will see.  I've learned that too much advance planning tends to backfire.  It's best to be loosely prepared and go with the flow.  

But the part of their English classes that I'm truly excited about is POETRY.  This is the perfect thing for us to study because poems are short.  I can choose a poem, we can read it together, discuss it, do some analysis, and be done.  Very little preparation is required.  And poetry is so important and so understudied in high school and college.  I hope to have them take turns choosing poems at some point.  I'm excited about this new adventure!  

And we come full circle

Some time ago, I posted about how Bee's homeschool journey had come to an end.  Well, 3 semesters later, we think we're going to pull him out again.  The school system's pandemic learning plan has been a disaster, especially for someone like him who is twice exceptional.  I will not violate my child's privacy by discussing all of the particulars, but there are other problems as well.  Traditional school is not a good way for him to learn.  I'm not sure it is good for anyone, including the teenage girls in his advanced classes who cry regularly over the workload and the pressure.  

There has been discouragement and disillusionment among all of us, especially my husband and Bee.  The system pretends to be something that it is not.  Mastery of material or profound engagement with subject matter aren't the focus--assignment completion and following instructions are.  Helps for kids with ADHD is abysmal, so we've found.  Advocating is pretty much a waste of time.  It's not the people (administrators and teacher); the system is deeply flawed.  

Bug has been taking outside classes.  They are good, but I'm coming to realize that I do just as good a job if not better with helping my children learn than any teacher.  And signing my kids up for classes often causes me more stress than just doing it myself.  (Except for science, where my interest and ability is very low).  So, Bug will be taking fewer classes too.  

I am in a hybrid-distance seminary program, receiving A+'s.  This has done a massive amount for my confidence level.  Homeschooling is so thankless, with no outside gratification.  It's nice to feel competent and knowledgeable at something.  

So, I will be back to homeschooling my boys.  Bee has three more semesters until graduation! I am truly thankful to have the option to homeschool my children.  It is so hard sometimes, but after much prayer, I believe we are making the right choice for our family.  

Shiller Math: After 27 Lessons

Dot and I have completed 27 lessons on Shiller Math, and we are loving it so far.  She begs to do it most days.  I'm thrilled because it is such a nice program.  It seems thorough, gentle, and, just like in a Montessori class, it's learning through exploration. 

As a trained Montessori teacher, I find the materials a little different, and sometimes things are scripted in a way that aren't quite the way I was trained.  That's okay, and I just make adjustments. 

The Shiller material, like Montessori material, is diagnostic.  Because it isolates concepts so effectively, it is easy to tell what a child has mastered and also to see what concepts she might need more work on.  I quickly learned that Dot needs to practice counting a little more and gain a little confidence in counting numbers over 5 (which she finds slightly overwhelming). 

I am love with the Montessori "bank" material.  Of course, I love the golden beads used in the Montessori classroom, and the blue plastic units are growing on me too.  It gives me a thrill that she can now identify which ones are the tens, hundreds, and thousands.  Such a fun thing for a 4-year-old to be exposed to.  I enjoyed watching the kids with these materials when I was a student teacher.  They love playing with the large quantities.  Dot likes to play with them outside of our lessons, which I think is great. 

All About Reading: Pre Reading: After 15 lessons

Dot and I have been working through All About Reading: Pre Reading, both due to her interest in letters and due to not having much else to do with so much shut down for Covid-19. 

We truly enjoy it, and she asks to do her letters most days.  Sometimes we get tired of decorating the letter pictures, and I tell her that we have to finish our picture before doing another lesson.  We tend to spread out the lessons over two days, one for the oral parts of the lesson and the other for the coloring page.  I really like all the word games that we play, as I can see how it helps her to think about the smaller sounds that words are made up of. 

She knows most of her capital letters, but several are still being solidified in her head.  She has started writing words a lot, asking how to spell them.  She often remembers how to write "hi" on her own. 

It is lovely to have this third child and to not be in a rush.  (Except sometimes I long for the day when she'll lose herself in a book). 

Simon Bloom Series: Living Books for Middle School Science

I am thrilled to have discovered the Simon Bloom series by Michael Reisman.  They are exciting stories for middle schoolers that weave in scientific concepts.  

I wrote in my last post that I am working to beef up Bug's science learning for the semester.  He is the biggest bookworm ever to talk the planet, making living books the best way for him to learn almost any topic.  He prefers audio books.  He loves fantasy and science fiction.  When he runs out of new books, he will re-read his favorite books (Artemis Fowl, Magnus Chase), but he becomes increasingly bored and restless and then has to be convinced to try new ones.  Bug lives on interesting and exciting books.  

In my googling, I came upon Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper.  I read the description to Bug, and he frowned and said it sounded too dramatic, but he did reluctantly agree to try it.  This was yesterday afternoon.  As of this morning, he has finished the 7-hour book and asked to download the next one in the series, Simon Bloom: The Octopus Effect.  The three books together take around 25 hours to listen to.  So three days for Bug.  Yes, he's quite the bookworm, and I'm very proud of him.  

There is one more book in the series (Simon Bloom: The Order of Chaos), and I'm hoping he'll retain his excitement and read that one as well.  I'm delighted at this addition to Bug's 6th grade science learning.