We went ahead with Abeka Book because that's what he was learning with at school and we figured we were rocking her world enough without changing the curriculum. It should arrive tomorrow. :)
Over the weekend, we went to one of the local homeschool stores to pick up some supplies. I got a huge bin of cuisenaire math manipulatives, a new Bible for Auds, a new learning "Bible," a coloring book, and a bunch of rewards.
The bin is the Saxon math complete bin. Although we'll be using Abeka, I love the manipulatives and we've got a ton to use from k-3, which means they'll get a lot of use.
The Bible is a pink KJV with a butterfly. Pink was important to Auds, KJV is important to us. Next year we'll be starting a Bible Quizzing department at our church and the memorization is done in the KJV Bible. I was absolutely shocked to sped $30 on a kids' Bible, so we wanted to make sure it was one she'd get a lot o use out of.
The learning "Bible" is really neat. It provides a Bible story synopsis, how Jesus ties into the Old Testament (He is the Law fulfilled, after all), questions to ask, pictures, and some QR and AR codes. The QR codes bring up some really neat videos about the story, an the AR codes bring the pictures on the page to life. Both of these lagniappes are good for visual learners.
The coloring book is reproducible so I can run off copies before we start of sheets that tie into our lesson. There's NIV and KJV translations for each picture, which is nice. It gives Tony something to keep him busy while I teach and gives Auds a creative outlet.
The rewards are just little papers and stickers for when the work is completed well. She got really attached to receiving rewards from her teacher, so I wanted to keep that going.
So here's a few questions: how do you deal with the inevitable crankies that arise during the day? Generally, the perpetrator goes to their room to calm down, we have a chat about expected behaviors, and then have a snack if the individual is - anger caused by being hungry. But this seems difficult if you're in the middle of a lesson.
How do you keep interests engaged? If someone wants to move on but the assignment isn't complete do you scrap it or push through to get it done before you move on to something fun? How do you get cooperation?
How do you deal with siblings fighting? This is always a problem with multiple kids.
Dealing with the crankies - For us, if we're having a particularly bad day, which happened a lot at first, we would just take a break, address the behavioral problems, and then try again later when things were going better. I found that eventually, as we developed a consistent routine, the problems sort of went away. Once Gabe knew that it is what we do every day and there was no getting around it, he became very compliant and now he actually enjoys it. We do the same thing most days, so many times I will find him sitting at the table waiting for me and I didn't even have to ask him to go there. It took time, but eventually you'll get there with Auds. She just needs to develop a new normal.
ReplyDeleteI feel like at such a young age the key is to keep their interest. If they aren't interested and are losing focus, I would either try to approach the topic differently to make it fun or set it aside and come back to it later. That's the great thing about homeschooling - you can do what you want. No one says you have to follow the curriculum to a T, so if you're doing a math sheet one day and it seems boring to the kids, you can instead try to do the same math work by playing a game instead. The outcome will be the same, but at least the kids will have fun while you're doing it.
Also, I try to reason with the kids. If they say they don't want to do something but I know that they really want to do something else (let's say play a game), I will remind them that they will only get to play their game if they do their math work. That reminder is usually enough to get them to do their work. My boys are allowed a certain amount of video game time in the evenings and it is a huge motivator for us. "If you want to play your video games tonight you need to _______________ (listen to this story, do your copywork, clean your room ;)!"
As far as siblings go, my rule is that the only people required to be at the table for lessons are the people who are legally required to be in school. At this point that is only Gabe. If the rest are causing problems for him, I kick them out of the room. Most days they are happy to sit in during the first part of the lessons, but then they lose interest and drift off to playing. If we're having a day where they are being particularly distracting to Gabe or are fighting while I'm trying to do something, I may put in a video for them or try to set them up in separate areas of the house with different activities. Sometimes the bad behavior is just a result of feeling like Gabe is getting all the attention, so once I get Gabe going with his work, I can run from kid to kid and try to give them some love too. The baby is always on my back during lessons just so I know what she's doing and that the middle kids aren't harming her.
Hang in there! You'll get into a groove. It took me a long time and I'm still figuring it out. Just give yourself grace :)
I love the Bible and coloring pages!