Learning to read was definitely Cesca's idea. And she loves her Bob Books... most of the time. I've read many a blog post from people who spend a week on a Bob Book, delving into the reading rules and making whole lessons around them. That wouldn't work here. Cesca has no patience for repetition of something she has to work for. And she memorizes books after 2-3 readings, so it wouldn't take long before she was reciting the book instead of reading it.
We started Bob Books about 8 months ago. Through fits and starts, Cesca has now read Sets 1 and 2, the Kindergarten Sight Words Set, and the new Rhyming Words Set. She does really well with them, but gets frustrated easily. Set 3 reportedly takes a big leap in difficulty, so we decided not to move on quite yet.
Then the idea came to me - she surely wouldn't remember the stories she'd read once eight months ago, right? So we're starting over with Set 1. She is gaining some confidence and fluency in her reading. We will work our way back through the sets we have and then do either the First Grade Sight Words or Set 3. After that box, we will consider looping back through again. I expect that each loop will go faster than the first time through since she is certainly a stronger reader now than when she started!
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Trying Again
I've come back to this blog a couple of times trying to focus on posting. I usually post a few times and then disappear as I'm uninspired. I am now trying to be more organized in educating Cesca, so I'm going to try again.
Over the last year, I've struggled to find an already-out-there preschool curriculum that is a good fit for Cesca. This quest started just before her second birthday, when she asked me to teach her to read. At that time, she knew almost all her letters but few of the letter sounds. I did try out the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler around Cesca's second birthday. I only did bits and pieces of the curriculum to keep things fresh, and used it to solidify Cesca's grasp on letters and letter sounds - and we flew through it in about three or four months. She had it down.
We then moved on to Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which is somewhat of a homeschool classic. She was very excited to get started and the incredibly dull layout of the book didn't deter her a bit. She had a lot of fun with the first few lessons. Then we slowed way down. We were only working in the book when she asked to, and around lesson 9 she just stopped asking. Curious, one day I asked her to humor me and we skipped all the repetition and review and concentrated only on the parts asking her to sound out words - and we flew through several lessons in one sitting. I figured out that book was not the right fit for her.
I then discovered Bob Books and we seem to have found the right fit. At least for now. She has completed Sets 1 and 2, the Rhyming Words set, and the Kindergarten Sight Words set. We are now cycling back to Set 1 and working our way back through these before moving on to let her gain some confidence and fluency.
I forget exactly when we ordered RightStart Math Level A, but it was a while ago. I had been planning on buying a big pile of math manipulatives and this curriculum came with much of what I'd been planning on buying and didn't cost much more than the manipulatives themselves added up to. I love how this program teaches, using manipulatives and games to teach. Almost everything is hands-on; there are incredibly few worksheets and since Cesca isn't writing yet we haven't had any issue ignoring the worksheets. The first several lessons start teaching children to think of the number 6-10 as "5+___" (6 is 5+1, 7 is 5+2, etc). Cesca had a hard time with this concept so we put the book aside and focused on this concept on and off for quite a while. We've gotten the book back out and are now on Lesson 21.
We found the Kumon fine motor skill books and she loves these. I bought every one of the First Steps series and we rotate through them, just a few pages a day. We've also added My First Book of Tracing into the mix. Since she is drawn to workbooks, we also added in a few workbooks from the Critical Thinking Company.
I started staying home with Cesca more several months ago and I've been trying to figure out what to do with all that time! I kept looking at curriculum and wanting something to help organize me. But everything that was aimed at her age was teaching letters, shapes, and colors. Everything aimed at her level expected that she be able to write. I tried a few things, but nothing stuck. I have finally decided to keep what is working for us and make up the rest. I'm not good at making things up on the fly, but I am great at planning!
The current plan is to continue with Bob Books, RightStart Math, and the Kumon and Critical Thinking Company workbooks. We're adding a tiny bit of Five in a Row (just a few ideas per book depending on what looks interesting), science ideas from Science in Seconds for Kids, and more planned art activities using Preschool Art by MaryAnn Kohl for inspiration. I work three days a week, so we are "schooling" on the other four.
Over the last year, I've struggled to find an already-out-there preschool curriculum that is a good fit for Cesca. This quest started just before her second birthday, when she asked me to teach her to read. At that time, she knew almost all her letters but few of the letter sounds. I did try out the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler around Cesca's second birthday. I only did bits and pieces of the curriculum to keep things fresh, and used it to solidify Cesca's grasp on letters and letter sounds - and we flew through it in about three or four months. She had it down.
We then moved on to Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which is somewhat of a homeschool classic. She was very excited to get started and the incredibly dull layout of the book didn't deter her a bit. She had a lot of fun with the first few lessons. Then we slowed way down. We were only working in the book when she asked to, and around lesson 9 she just stopped asking. Curious, one day I asked her to humor me and we skipped all the repetition and review and concentrated only on the parts asking her to sound out words - and we flew through several lessons in one sitting. I figured out that book was not the right fit for her.
I then discovered Bob Books and we seem to have found the right fit. At least for now. She has completed Sets 1 and 2, the Rhyming Words set, and the Kindergarten Sight Words set. We are now cycling back to Set 1 and working our way back through these before moving on to let her gain some confidence and fluency.
I forget exactly when we ordered RightStart Math Level A, but it was a while ago. I had been planning on buying a big pile of math manipulatives and this curriculum came with much of what I'd been planning on buying and didn't cost much more than the manipulatives themselves added up to. I love how this program teaches, using manipulatives and games to teach. Almost everything is hands-on; there are incredibly few worksheets and since Cesca isn't writing yet we haven't had any issue ignoring the worksheets. The first several lessons start teaching children to think of the number 6-10 as "5+___" (6 is 5+1, 7 is 5+2, etc). Cesca had a hard time with this concept so we put the book aside and focused on this concept on and off for quite a while. We've gotten the book back out and are now on Lesson 21.
We found the Kumon fine motor skill books and she loves these. I bought every one of the First Steps series and we rotate through them, just a few pages a day. We've also added My First Book of Tracing into the mix. Since she is drawn to workbooks, we also added in a few workbooks from the Critical Thinking Company.
I started staying home with Cesca more several months ago and I've been trying to figure out what to do with all that time! I kept looking at curriculum and wanting something to help organize me. But everything that was aimed at her age was teaching letters, shapes, and colors. Everything aimed at her level expected that she be able to write. I tried a few things, but nothing stuck. I have finally decided to keep what is working for us and make up the rest. I'm not good at making things up on the fly, but I am great at planning!
The current plan is to continue with Bob Books, RightStart Math, and the Kumon and Critical Thinking Company workbooks. We're adding a tiny bit of Five in a Row (just a few ideas per book depending on what looks interesting), science ideas from Science in Seconds for Kids, and more planned art activities using Preschool Art by MaryAnn Kohl for inspiration. I work three days a week, so we are "schooling" on the other four.
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