I thought we had done great with vocabulary this year. Richie and Veronica did Vocabulary Cartoons and loved it. They learned a lot and use the words around the house. They also did Word Roots Beginning, which tested Latin parts of words.
We just did standardized testing and Veronica scored great, 95%, but Richie scored 65% having studied the same things. His test tested on words like ease and spoil. Not near the level he worked with all year.
So I'm redoing my vocabulary plan for the early years and making it mainly a reading comprehension plan. By having some reading comprehension skills in decoding word meaning through context, the biggest vocabulary gain is through reading. This year was Richie's 3rd grade year and that's when we start Reading Comprehension study. Now I'm rethinking that. It took half the year to just get through 1st-3rd simple comprehension before he could do the critical thinking-based 3rd/4th grade Reading Detective Beginning curriculum I had planned. It's decoding word meaning through context lesson was great, but he needed all the before stuff to understand it.
So my new plan is to get through the 1st-3rd basic stuff the summer before 3rd grade or even the last semester of 2nd. The problem with the latter is reading ability. It needs to be at a fluency level to even be able to tackle comprehension on those levels. We do all the sentence comprehension and following the story with the pictures of early readers, but I was surprised to find that those did nothing to prepare Richie for 3rd grade comprehension. That's what leads me to think a short intensive of simple reading for comprehension unit during summer would be the best plan.
So, where I'm going with this is here: we accomplished reading comprehension wonderfully this year and Richie scored 95% in that test; the only question missed being a vocabulary one. It was just too late to reap any vocabulary benefits with is new ability to understand the meaning of words through reading. We didn't follow up the reading comprehension with lots of grade level reading. For my kids who will naturally love to read by that age, this won't be an issue, but so far I haven't had one of those.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Testing the Boys for Reading Level
I tested Kit online for his reading level and with 2 different tests he scored on a 3.1 grade level! I'm not entirely buying it, but I guess he's doing better that I gave him credit for. His 2nd grade phonics workbook is the only 2nd grade thing he has not completed and it's because of slowing down with reading.
Richie did the same two tests and scored on a 4.8 grade level in both. I would have really never guessed that one! He is my delayed reader (well compared to the reading novels in Pre-school impression I have of modern public school demands). He didn't blend sounds into words until after 6 years old, whereas Kit was doing it before he turned 4.
He has also worked his butt off in Reading Comprehension this year. I started him with a critical thinking reading comp program for 3rd and 4th graders that brought him to tears every time, so we tossed it aside and I printed off worksheets online...starting on a 1st grade level. We did them together for months working our way up through 3rd grade. He finally took the leap back to the tear-inducing book around January and just tested 95% in RC on his standardized testing last week. The only question he missed was vocabulary related. I've learned my lesson and Kit will be starting off with the worksheets next year, not the book.
Richie did the same two tests and scored on a 4.8 grade level in both. I would have really never guessed that one! He is my delayed reader (well compared to the reading novels in Pre-school impression I have of modern public school demands). He didn't blend sounds into words until after 6 years old, whereas Kit was doing it before he turned 4.
He has also worked his butt off in Reading Comprehension this year. I started him with a critical thinking reading comp program for 3rd and 4th graders that brought him to tears every time, so we tossed it aside and I printed off worksheets online...starting on a 1st grade level. We did them together for months working our way up through 3rd grade. He finally took the leap back to the tear-inducing book around January and just tested 95% in RC on his standardized testing last week. The only question he missed was vocabulary related. I've learned my lesson and Kit will be starting off with the worksheets next year, not the book.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Pre-Algebra and the Over-Planner
Planning the Pre-Algebra Year has been daunting. I figure there's a ton to cram in there, but I have two entirely different students' needs to meet. With one our goal is to get her graduated before 18 and therefore she needs to complete 7th and 8th grade work this year and one who's years ahead of the game, but needs to be kept challenged. So to keep them on a mostly similar path so I can keep up, my plan is to start broad and narrow in.
We're starting with Life of Fred's Pre-Algebra set of Fractions then Decimals and Percents. People love them and say they are conceptual, but I'm leary. I picked it mainly for Veronica who prefers literature to math and they contain a cute story of Fred the 5 1/2yr old math genius who teaches at a University. I figure it'll do Richie some good since his reading comprehension isn't advanced the way his math skills are and if we present math in literary terms, he might be interested enough to keep reading and gain some reading comprehension skills. Veronica will also add in related worksheets on the concepts to help them stick. These two Life of Fred books will take a combined 20 weeks.
After those, we'll include Kit in the beginning unit of Hands-On Equations, which I'm really excited about. I'm goofy and get excited over balancing equations...hopefully it's catchy. It uses chess pawns in two colors for X and -X and two colors of dice for positive and negative numbers that you "balance" on a printed scale representing both sides of the equal sign. Kit will work with us through X and positive numbers, then the older two will continue into the unit on -X, then the final one on negative numbers. It's about an 8wk course.
After that, if we're all still sane enough to go on, we'll be starting Chalk Dust Pre-Algebra, which is DVD lessons of a man at a chalk board teaching each concept. There is a huge worktext that goes with it. I splerged on two of those at the insane price of $0.50 each used on Amazon...new, $156 each. I even got the $200 DVD set for only $50 there. See, it pays to be an obsessive curricula researcher!
Now, I live in reality and know we won't barely scratch the Chalk Dust surface, but I figure by this point we'll work with concepts not previously touched on and gleen from the worktext's work problems. I never did word problems with anything equation based in high school so I'm not going to skip any of the application stuff of doing Algebraic word problems with my kids...boy they're going to love in for Algebra I and II!
I figure by this point Veronica will be prepared to attempt Algebra the following year as a Freshman. *Crossing Fingers* Math is not her strong suit, but at worst we could continue on with Chalk Dust Pre-Algebra the 1st semester of the following year before switching to Algebra. With Richie there's no time line, at least not for a few years, so he can leisurely do everything in Chalk Dust's full-year course over the end of next year and however long of the following year. I am also planning on him doing Math Logic and Word Problems with Kit, but it might be way below him. It's a 3rd/4th grade level but I think he'd get a kick out of teaching Kit to do it anyway.
Both will also be mixing in Math Detective by the Critical Thinking Company. It's a great CDRom program that has full-page story problems with difficult multi-step questions to figure out pertaining to each. It's on a 5th/6th grade level, but add in the logic and length and it'll be a good challenge. Plus it will again incorporate reading.
We're starting with Life of Fred's Pre-Algebra set of Fractions then Decimals and Percents. People love them and say they are conceptual, but I'm leary. I picked it mainly for Veronica who prefers literature to math and they contain a cute story of Fred the 5 1/2yr old math genius who teaches at a University. I figure it'll do Richie some good since his reading comprehension isn't advanced the way his math skills are and if we present math in literary terms, he might be interested enough to keep reading and gain some reading comprehension skills. Veronica will also add in related worksheets on the concepts to help them stick. These two Life of Fred books will take a combined 20 weeks.
After those, we'll include Kit in the beginning unit of Hands-On Equations, which I'm really excited about. I'm goofy and get excited over balancing equations...hopefully it's catchy. It uses chess pawns in two colors for X and -X and two colors of dice for positive and negative numbers that you "balance" on a printed scale representing both sides of the equal sign. Kit will work with us through X and positive numbers, then the older two will continue into the unit on -X, then the final one on negative numbers. It's about an 8wk course.
After that, if we're all still sane enough to go on, we'll be starting Chalk Dust Pre-Algebra, which is DVD lessons of a man at a chalk board teaching each concept. There is a huge worktext that goes with it. I splerged on two of those at the insane price of $0.50 each used on Amazon...new, $156 each. I even got the $200 DVD set for only $50 there. See, it pays to be an obsessive curricula researcher!
Now, I live in reality and know we won't barely scratch the Chalk Dust surface, but I figure by this point we'll work with concepts not previously touched on and gleen from the worktext's work problems. I never did word problems with anything equation based in high school so I'm not going to skip any of the application stuff of doing Algebraic word problems with my kids...boy they're going to love in for Algebra I and II!
I figure by this point Veronica will be prepared to attempt Algebra the following year as a Freshman. *Crossing Fingers* Math is not her strong suit, but at worst we could continue on with Chalk Dust Pre-Algebra the 1st semester of the following year before switching to Algebra. With Richie there's no time line, at least not for a few years, so he can leisurely do everything in Chalk Dust's full-year course over the end of next year and however long of the following year. I am also planning on him doing Math Logic and Word Problems with Kit, but it might be way below him. It's a 3rd/4th grade level but I think he'd get a kick out of teaching Kit to do it anyway.
Both will also be mixing in Math Detective by the Critical Thinking Company. It's a great CDRom program that has full-page story problems with difficult multi-step questions to figure out pertaining to each. It's on a 5th/6th grade level, but add in the logic and length and it'll be a good challenge. Plus it will again incorporate reading.
Getting At This Again
I figure blogging is a good outlet for my obsessive need to babble about homeschooling and family without directing it at anyone forced to hear it! All the boring curriculum planning and scheduling details will be outlined here to my heart's content, ad nauseum. Lucky you, my reader!
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