I am pleasantly happy with how well this week has gone. As I have posted before we have been having a few behavior issues with getting work done in a timely matter. I switched things up this week, and looked into making a curriculum change.
As I had posted earlier I had to break out my old kitchen timer to encourage Kiddo to get his work done in a timely matter. Taking an hour to do one handwriting page or dawdling so much on math we did not have time to finish in a day. We were both frustrated and getting no where.
The timer helped, he saw it as a game, could he finish before the timer went off. This helped with handwriting. Math he was still getting frustrated saying he couldn’t do the worksheet when I knew he could. Instead of moving forward I pulled out the extra practice workbook for Singapore and went back to easy addition and subtraction to see if that would help, it didn’t.
It finally dawned on me maybe it was the curriculum not one of us. That lead to a search of math curriculums. I like Singapore but if it is not working for him we need a change. I found that teaching textbooks has a new 3rd grade program, I was excited to find this. I had read such good things about teaching textbooks but didn’t think it started until 4th grade. I printed off the placement test from their webpage and Kiddo got every answer correct. So, I printed off the placement test for 4th grade and he did really well on that one but I do not think he is ready for the 4th grade program yet. I then let him try the sample problems they have on their webpage and not only did he love it, he has asked everyday this week to do more math! I was wondering about spending so much money on a single class but if he is asking to do more math, I am happy. I ordered the cd set for 3rd grade. I chose not to order the workbooks because I have the Singapore 2A and 2B books we can use for extra practice. I think he will go through it quickly, it will be easier to tell once we get the program in but I feel he is between the 3rd and 4th grade program. The 3rd grade level may be a little too easy for him and the 4th grade level too difficult, I chose the 3rd level because having an excellent foundation in math is so important. Extra practice learning the basics is never a bad thing.
One of the other things I did this week was change up our schedule. We did a subject a day this week. We spent our entire school time on only one subject. Kiddo really enjoyed it and I will do this again when we need a switch up from our regular school schedule. This is what we did this week.
Monday – Science: We finished reading the Apologia Astronomy book, Built the international space station with Legos, watched Journey to the Stars DVD, spent time on NASA’s website looking at the mission to the moon Titan and as a bonus watched Apollo 13 movie.
Tuesday – Math: Took 2 placement tests for Teaching Textbooks and did sample lessons online. He spent over an hour doing sample lessons because he like them.
Wednesday- History: Read 2 chapters in Story of the World and did matching maps and activities from the Story of the World activity book. Looked at photos for some of the things we read about and researched the Black Plague in detail, he found it very interesting.
Thursday – Spelling/Vocabulary/Reading: Started on new spelling words with sentences and a story. Did 3 exercises in our Vocabulary workbook and started reading a new chapter book.
Friday- Experiment Day various experiment and activities to go with what we learned from the week.
It was a much improved week over the past few. I am glad switching things up did the trick and I am looking forward to getting the new math curriculum.
We recently switched from the exact Singapore you were using (2B) to Aleks math. My older daughter was using Aleks and my younger one wanted to do math on the computer but also learn things on different days rather than spending so much time on just one concept. The same thing happened! Math became a joy. I kept thinking that if she were still in public school she would have to sit through it day after day never having the opportunity to voice her opinion and seek change.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you mentioned using a timer. I've got one kid that takes forever to do things sometimes. The timer helped before, but I had forgotten about it. I also like how you did one subject a day for a change.
ReplyDeleteStopping by from the HOP.
I recently wrote a post on teaching math that you may find interesting. I recommend in addition to the Teaching Textbooks that you try Calculadder and Kumon workbooks for drill and practice on math facts. I heard through a home-school friend who has used Singapore that it is in fact a very poor program and FULL of errors.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, you might want to take a moment to read my post. I didn't come over here to plug my site (I came over from the Hip Homeschool Hop) but since I just wrote a post on this subject I thought I would recommend it.
Heather, I am glad you mentioned that you just finished up the Apologia Astronomy book. We are trying to cruise through it also. My Daughter wants to do the Botony book and I was thinking it would probably be good to start in the Spring. I tried to look at a few post about the Science Experiments that you did with the Astronomy so if you see footprints that is what I am doing!
ReplyDeleteI did see a snow picture in January! Your "area" and "backyard" looks extremely similar to ours! How fun if we were in the same area...
Enjoy your week! And, thanks for letting me take a peak.