Great Day Homeschooling

The day started with a great call from our teacher with the school. I really don't know what I would do without her to support me. I don't always need help, but when I do it is beyond helpful to know that I have someone so wonderful to call on. Today we talked about all three boys, but since Eddie is really easy at this point, we just decided he was in a good spot.

Carson is really where I struggle. He has a mental roadblock (like I've mentioned before) with reading. He just thinks he can't do it. We talked about a couple of options for him with new programs the school will have this year. I also said it out loud and it really made total sense to me...Carson is a perfectionist! He wants to read it 100% correct so he takes a long time to sound things out to make sure that when he reads it out loud it will be correct. We thought it would be a good idea for him to continue tutoring Eddie with his reading and beginning sound recognition. Mrs Holmes also said that she thought it would be a good idea to give him a lot of positive feedback and reinforcement so that he will continue to make strides in the right direction. Since we know that Carson is a hands-on learner, she also recommended that I allow him to use the base-10 blocks whenever necessary to help him see the numbers (which he is doing and actually enjoying!).

One of the programs they will have this year is Reading Eggs which Mrs Holmes feels will be very helpful for Carson. After looking at the site some, I am very excited about it, too. Since the school isn't finished with enrollment yet, they aren't able to hand out usernames, but soon, very soon, Carson will be using this program....and maybe Eddie, too. The key to this program is repetition and review which are also the keys to reading. I know that it seems hard for Carson right now, but it will get easier!!

I put another of her pieces of advice into practice today. I used our old K12 phonics tiles to show him how to slide the words together instead of jumping letters. He read words like "cat" without sounding each word out...we just changed out the first letter/sound and worked on the new word. We did it for each short vowel sound ("at", "en", "ip", "og", and "ug"). She is going to look into her games to find some that maybe Eddie and Carson can play together...I think this will be a positive experience for both boys, though I don't want Ed to surpass Carson because I think that would make it even harder for Carson!

She also asked me a couple of things about Carson that I wasn't sure how to answer...Can he hear? Like beginning and ending sounds? What about medial sounds?  He was able to change the beginning sound and know the new word so that is positive...He also is pretty good at rhyming so maybe I am stressing too much about nothing. She also wanted to know if he would be able to read high frequency words in context which I don't know because most of the words in his book are highlighted so he knows they are high frequency words. I am going to work with Mark to write a couple of stories for him and see how he does. We'll see how we progress in the next few weeks.

Just for my own benefit, here's the simple goal for the next few weeks...
*Speed up decoding
*Work in short bursts with clear goals
*15-20 minutes, 2-3 times a day - and motivate him with a reward that he would really want (outside time, computer game, etc)

We want to make our goals with gradual growth and clear expectations!

As for Jaxson, we agreed that handwriting probably wouldn't be too necessary in his lifetime so to work on his speed/accuracy with keyboarding is a good use of time. He will likely work on this while I am working with the other two boys in the mornings. We can use Mavis Beacon or the technology stuff that Calvert has with the OLS. Jaxson needs to understand that as he gets more proficient at typing, his ability to get all of his ideas down will improve as he will be able to get things typed out faster than he can write it out.

Another new program they are going ot have this year is Reflex Math which will help with making learning their math facts fun. It even adjusts for their keyboarding speed and she believes that 10-15 minutes a day, 3 times a week will make dramatic improvement for the boys.

She also said that in October, they will have access to the clubs and groups with Maize. Jax is especially excited about the Chess Club and she is thankful that he brought it up in the fall so that she has it all put together and ready to go now. I am excited to see them enjoy some time with other students on the computer playing a game that all three boys enjoy!  They will also have Rosetta Stone in October for foreign languages. I am not sure which one Jax will choose, but I know that he will enjoy it!

Carson
letter tiles - slide the words together not jump the letters
did all the short vowels
at, en, ip, og, ug
Used an old K12 phonics reader (#3)
Math - place value again...not writing words, but understands concept

Edison
Math review 1 more, 1 less
Easy concept for him
some trouble writing the numbers - best to do a little review of that soon
Reread "I Went Walking" - knew the animals before the story started
drew his own version with 3 new animals...hesitant to draw, but did a good job anyway
Still work on the "s" sound....understanding beginning sounds

Jaxson
did 5-6 lessons of reading...vocab w/o review (just took assessments)
read 30+ pages in Robinson Crusoe
Writing - word web for fave food (FOUGHT ME to write it out)
Took spelling pretest, scored 9 out of 20