Choosing a Handwriting Curriculum

Since I have "been there, done that," I thought I might offer a bit of advice when it comes to choosing handwriting material for pre-schoolers or kindergartners. Whether your child will attend public school or stay home with you, choosing the best handwriting curriculum is important.

If your pre-schooler will be attending a local public or private school, go to that school and find out what style of handwriting they use in their curriculum. I did not think about this, and my daughter, who started writing very early (she's very artistic) used whatever pre-school books we had around the house. I had used the same things for my son, and then when I actually selected a handwriting curriculum for them to work out of everyday, the letters were formed differently. The curriculum I chose came from BJU Press, and I liked it because the letters provided a good transition to future cursive writing.

If you will be teaching your child at home, your job may be a bit more stressful, because you actually have to go through the task of selecting the handwriting curriculum that your child will be using. Many parents select their entire curriculum from one source, and they use whatever handwriting materials are included with that curriculum. Other parents pick and choose subjects from different companies and put together their own curriculum. I highly suggest finding a local homeschool conference where vendors will let you go through their books. You might find everything you want in one place, or you may pick one subject from one company, another subject from another company, and so on.

Regarding handwriting, it's also important to note that some curricula, like Abeka, teach only cursive writing, and do so from kindergarten and up. If you are going to choose a curriculum like this, make sure you plan on sticking with it. Many Christian schools also use Abeka, and if you don't plan on keeping your child enrolled in a school that uses it, it's going to be a pain for the child if he or she is transferred to another school where students are printing letters and have no clue what cursive is.

While you may have a child like one of mine, who doesn't write letters unless he has to, you may have a child like my other, who started writing letters for fun. No matter what your child's age, if she is writing letters, it's time to figure out how best to help her, and the best way is always to use the same method or style from beginning to end. So be prepared and see what's out there!

Teaching Time and Money

Two things that are barely touched on in so many curricula are teaching time and money. I found a WONDERFUL book for teaching both. Before I tell you about this book, I will admit I came across it on accident. I don't even remember where I got it. But when I started looking for another book for my daughter to use this year, I realized how lucky I got and how many horrible (and expensive) workbooks there are out there. So I ended up getting her the same book my son had used.

The book that I am using to teach my son and daughter about time and money is The Complete Book of Time & Money. The book is geared for grades K-3, and you can use it to teach the concepts, enrich school learning, improve concepts often misunderstood, and to "catch up" an older student who may have missed it the first time. I began using this book when my son was 5 for Kindergarten. He is still going through it, and my daughter has started her book at age 4 (almost 5). In addition to other math work, I usually give them one page about time and one page about money. The book starts out very basic, and gets harder gradually. My son has been able to grasp the concepts well, but I can tell that if we don't use the books for a few days or a week, he will start to have trouble with some concepts. For that reason, this book is a great book to do over the summer. It amazes me that parents think nothing about children taking off an entire summer. That is why so many math books start out with review for the first 3 chapters or so- because they know that most students have forgotten the concepts. Teaching time and money reinforces other math concepts, such as adding and subtracting, counting by fives, and fractions.

Another tool we use that has tremendous helpful qualities is the Talking Clever Clock by Learning Resources. My mom got this clock when my son was around 3 at a clearance sale. We don't really use all the doo-dads on it for school (though my son likes to fiddle with it after school) but we do use the hands and the digital timer on it. Here is the most helpful aspect of this clock: when the minute hand moves, the hour hand moves at the appropriate intervals. It works just like a clock, except that it can be manipulated by little hands. So when it says "10:45" the student can see that the hour hand is almost on the 11. This helps with the book mentioned above, because many of the activities require the child to draw the correct time on the clock. Most children will be inclined to draw the hour hand directly over the hour, even if it is half-past or even a quarter til the hour. This clock helps reinforce the correct position of the hour hand. It also helps solve problems such as, "Pick a time between a quarter past 3 and 4:30." Like most learning tools, a child can grow dependent on this clock, so it's important to make sure that doesn't happen.

We also love making up problems with money and selling things back and forth. During the summer, we spent a lot of time at the ball park watching baseball tournaments and softball games. Although I usually don't let my kids have much junk food, I did allow them to frequent the concession stand because it reinforced the concept of money. They had to make sure they had enough, they learned how much things cost, and they counted their change. Not bad lessons for 4 and 6 year-olds! They also grew the confidence required to step up and ask for the item they wanted. This is HUGE if you have experienced an older child (like my stepdaughter) who still is not able to do this. She is 15. While we can get her up to the counter, she mumbles and always has to repeat herself.

We do have a little store for our wooden kitchen that I've thought about using as a pretend store with prices and everything. But I never get around to working up the energy. Maybe when they get a little older they will think of this themselves!

Teaching Your Child to Read

The other day I was reminded about the fear I felt when challenged with the daunting task of teaching my son to read. While I have a teaching degree, it was for grades 4-8, so early education was not really covered. I was terrified. When I was speaking with a new homeschooler who said, "I was so scared of teaching her to read, but I got Hooked on Phonics and it is no big deal," I laughed, because I remember being right there just a year before.

Since then, a lot has changed. At the end of his kindergarten year, my son was reading on at least a first grade level, probably closer to second. Having just turned 6, this was right on track. This year, my four year-old is using the same program as my son- Hooked on Phonics- and is doing beautifully. Since she is already a year ahead, we are taking it slowly and she is so excited to learn reading! And I am excited about teaching her.

I can't speak of other reading programs, but I can tell you that it's very important to select one that works for you and your child. When I look at other phonics programs, they don't seem very appealing to me, but I know that's only because I have used one method that makes a lot of sense, and anything else seems foreign. Yes, it seems like phonics would be phonics and they all would work the same. But they don't. Phonics programs teach letter sounds in different orders, which makes it hard to leave one program for another once you are into it. But the most important thing is to USE phonics, regardless of the program you select. In the 80's and 90's, many schools ditched their phonics programs in favor of "whole language." This concept didn't last long, as reading abilities in first graders quickly diminished. I believe some schools still use whole language but I'm not sure how many are using phonics in conjunction with it.

Many homeschooling parents have said, "my child will learn to read when she's ready; we're not pushing her." Some parents are perfectly happy when their child learns to read at age 9. I have a problem with that. My son learned to read at age 5. Between ages 5 and 6, he has learned a vast amount of information because of the simple fact that he can read. The ability to read also offers a sense of independence. He can now learn what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants because he has a tool that doesn't require anyone else's help. I am teaching a girl who is seven years old. She entered school a year late, didn't learn to read in the public school kindergarten program, and her ability to learn right now is severely limited. I can't imagine a child not knowing how to read after age seven! Of course this is due to the fact that I refuse to sit and spoon feed information to a child all day. The school system was set up this way; my school is not. Of course, we do activities that don't require reading. But as it stands, I have to read every single piece of instruction to this seven year-old, while my six year-old does it all on his own. Outside of the frustration I feel about this, imagine how she feels!

Another program that has garnered numerous accolades from many parents and educators is Rocket Phonics. If you follow that link, you can see everything you want to know about this phonics program, including sample pages, reviews, and a complete description. Rocket Phonics is a research-based, scientifically proven method of teaching reading. As a visual learner, I find the pictures and activities to be very appealing, and I bet they would be for children as well.

While I certainly don't think all kids are ready to read at age four or even five, if your child is ready, you need to take this seriously. Missing the window could affect future learning, as the brain needs stimulation when it is ready for it and not when it is convenient for us. Children with September, October, and November birthdays who are put on the school's schedule for learning are being let down when parents don't take the initiative at home to teach what their child is ready for. And even if your child doesn't have to wait an extra year before starting school, do you really think he or she is learning to read effectively in a school setting? I can tell you this. My son ended kindergarten at home with the ability to read as well as most first graders. Our little seven year old friend came out of public school kindergarten and still couldn't read. These are just two kids, but a pretty clear picture of what happens more often than not. (And without going into this little girl's history, it makes a huge difference what parents do with their children when they're home, whether they are home all day or just after school).

"Sensible Addition" Just Released

When I first started this blog, I mentioned that I developed a method of teaching addition facts that worked very well with my son. I have since put together a kit which all parents can buy for their children who are either struggling with memorizing the facts, or who simply want to learn them faster. When I started using this method with my son, he literally learned the facts twice as fast as he had before, even though the facts were getting higher in number.

Sensible Addition assumes that the child already has an understanding of addition and what it means to add two numbers together. It does provide suggestions for teaching the addition concept, only to let parents know what their child should have learned in school. While most homeschooling parents understand learning the concept vs. memorizing facts, many parents who depend on teachers to teach the concepts may not realize that their child is having trouble memorizing facts for concepts that don't make sense to them. This is where math starts to go "down hill" for many children, who continue to struggle as more math concepts are built on shaky ground.

With Sensible Addition, any parent can sit down with a few manipulatives, find out how much their child understands about adding numbers, and move forward with practice, and finally with memorizing addition facts. You can learn more about teaching addition facts and what Sensible Addition is (and isn't), and buy a kit for your child today!

Five in a Row

Becoming a homeschooling family requires many decisions, most importantly how your child will learn. Will you unschool and use natural teaching moments to learn fractions (baking), measurements (building), and science (raising tadpoles); or will you create your own classroom at home with desks, chalkboards, and textbooks? Secondly, you will need to choose a curriculum- or not. The decision can vary from one extreme to the next, and the best part is- the decision is YOURS.

Our first year of homeschooling was kindergarten, and we used books from here, books from there, and learned. We used Hooked on Phonics for reading and my son is reading amazingly well. Having been taught to teach, I find myself waivering between "schooling" and "unschooling." And I think this works perfectly for us. We use natural moments, and textbooks as well.

For first grade, I have chosen the Five in a Row (FIAR) curriculum. I selected this curriculum for one main reason: I had no idea where to start when it came to selecting books for my children to read. FIAR does this for you. The curriculum is described as, "a unit-study approach to early education based on outstanding children's literature. Together, the three volumes of Five in a Row provide 55 lesson plans covering Social Studies, Language, Art, Applied Math, and Science in a way that causes children to fall in love with learning."

Since we "learn" during summer as well, we have already done our first book, which was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Because it was available, we also purchased the lapbook to go along with with this book. We had a lot of fun cutting, pasting, and putting together a memorable "book" that can be flipped through at future times when we want to remember the story and everything we learned about steam shovels, flexibility, and good stewardship. My son is not a big artist, so he left almost everything uncolored. And one day if he changes his mind, he can color the pictures in his lapbook if he wants to.

Of course, we won't do a lapbook EVERY time we do a new book, but I think it's fun every once and a while and a great learning experience for children. I will never forget how my son's cub scout group created a scrapbook page because it's in their scout book. I thought it was a little strange for boys to do it, but whatever! The next day, my son wanted to do more pages for school. So I got out my papers, stamps, stickers, etc. and I think he created 2-3 pages. It is AMAZING what scrapbooking teaches little ones! I saw so many little light bulbs going off while we worked together. He got to use the paper cutter to trim the pictures, and the corner punch to make round corners. He had to select coordinating papers and then design the page before gluing the items down. I coached, and let him do the work. It was so much fun!

Anyway, back to Five in a Row! If you are unsure of what to use for your own child's learning, you might want to check it out. FIAR is appropriate for ages 4-8, and after that, there's "Beyond Five in a Row" for older students. We do use a separate math curriculum which you definitely have to have, especially if you have an advanced student who excels in the subject. We selected BJ Press math for Grade 1 and we mix that with another book called The Complete Book of Time and Money, which is one of the books we used for kindergarten. I like this book so much that I will be ordering it for my 4 1/2 year old daughter to start using soon. For other subjects, we have tons of books, maps, and computer games to learn. We vary it and change it up, and mix in natural learning moments as much as possible.

We know many parents would freak out if they tried our method. But it works for us, and it seems to be working for our children as they continue to flourish and excel in many areas!