Showing posts with label spanish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spanish. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The HARDEST CLASSES to TEACH in HOMESCHOOL

You heard it!

There are some classes that I failed at teaching.


My MOST difficult one to Teach
Teaching languages has been an utter failure for me in my homeschool teaching career. My kids have tried EVERYTHING from Mango Languages, to Currclick Live, to Landry Academy, to Abeka Academy and lastly Middlebury Interactive.

None of them - not a one have given them the same level of expertise I found while learning both French and Spanish in the classroom.

Why? Well because No-One-Is-Speaking it to them.

As a last resort, my daughter, Tiger Lilly really wanted to prolong her Japanese lessons so I hired a Japanese tutor to work with her weekly. She won't listen to the Immersion CDs because she'd rather have someone speaking to her. As for my son, he has a 'basic' understanding of the Spanish language but doesn't feel confident speaking or writing in it.

This is the one class I am throwing in the towel on. I had to find outside and IN-PERSON classes to meet this need. 


Teaching Writing was another challenge. Now I love writing. I'm pretty good at it also. However, teaching it, reviewing work, and making the curriculum just wasn't as effective as I thought it would be.

My kids needed someone to help them learn grammar and editing rules while checking their work. I've had to order this curriculum out because they preferred to learn from an 'interactive' tool or teacher.

We've used Time4Writing, Fortuigence, San Diego Scribblers and lastly a private tutor. The combination of all of them worked well.

Teaching Advanced Math, Oh my goodness! Teaching up til Algebra 2 wasn't too difficult. Watching videos, teachers and having a few tutors here and there worked well. Most all of their classes were successful with Abeka Academy, Saxon, CTCMath and Teaching Textbooks (for Geometry).

But when we hit Pre-Calculus and Calculus there was a roadblock, limited teaching materials and difficult problems.

I hired a tutor to work with my daughter through her CTCMath and Saxon Calculus materials.


Physics and Chemistry were very difficult to teach. Especially, since the labs were not easily done at home. Also, I wasn't comfortable with these courses when I was in college 25 yrs ago and still am not.

These subjects we did a 'light' learning of by using Abeka Academy and Study.com videos. In each scenario the kids learned a lot, but didn't get the full experience of doing 'labs.'

I used Landry Academy 'Intensives' camps to expose them to labs.


WHEN TO HIRE OUT A SUBJECT

If I was doing this all over again, I would've hired out the subjects I knew my kids needed a 'great' takeaway or in depth understanding for as far as college was concerned.

Come to find out, my daughter didn't have to take Chemistry or Physics in college. So, I should have done my research earlier and wouldn't have needed to stress out about it so much.

We hired a tutor to work with the kids 2 times a week on the Curriculum we chose for them.

SUBJECTS YOU CAN'T SKIMP ON

Writing, Grammar, Reading! And Math. 

Make sure your student can Read and ComprehendWRITE (grammar and reading) well and understands MATH up to Geometry and Algebra 1 at least. All colleges at least want that. Even a job wants that. All entry test have those basic skills on it.

So if you're not confident in assisting your student in learning the above, don't feel guilty about 'hiring' to teacher or tutor.



Friday, September 26, 2014

Tiny Town - Our Homeschool Space & Get Fun In





 You don't need a huge schoolroom for Learning

After perusing the internet searching on homeschool curriculum (yes, I am a curriculum junkie - I admit it and my kids don't mind). I noticed all the elaborate homeschool rooms. Well we don't have that much space.

Each of my kids have their own desk in opposite corners of our basement.

Bookshelves are a must.

Workboxes that are (1) Numbered (2) Labeled with the subject and topped with (3) Weekly Lesson Schedule with box #, Subject, Test/Quiz and homework is in a notebook on the top.



Walls that teach have,
Calender
Personal Cork Boards and Dry Erase Board allow me to note homework, projects, special notes
Spanish Speaking Posters
Logic and Fallacy Map
History TimeLine

Weekly Wrapup

We had mostly good days.

This week nothing went as planned. That really bugs me because I am an obsessive organizer and planner. After a few deep breaths I figured it out.

Hubba had knee surgery and was home from work for the week. Hubba actually enjoyed Speed Racer sitting in bed with him to do school work. Otherwise, he said he'd been bored. My older son took him to the hospital for the surgery and my oldest daughter Rose came over to look after him so Mommy (me) was able to go to work since I'm saving my vacation leave for a few vacations we are going on later this year.

Ended up moving Thursday's homeschooling day to Friday and doing school on Saturday.

Fun Diversions:

Hanging out in bed with dad while his leg was elevated to watch magic shows on Youtube, selected and picked by Speed Racer (showing off part of his Science Project below).


Changes! Yep, I'm always searching for a better way to teach my kiddos so...

New Courses added to block schedule

IXL.com - 10 minutes a day is added for Language Arts Drills
Spelling You See - 10 minutes a day to help Speed Racer with Spelling replaces Abeka Spelling
ArtTango.com - Art Class instruction for Speed Racer - he wants to learn how to draw
Mark Kistler's Virtual Classroom - Tiger Lilly loves Virtual Classes and Art. So picked this up for her. Yes, that lady wanted to start it this 'semester' (we break her schedule up like a college semester system).
3D Animation - YouthDigital.com (Tiger Lilly loves their products) and wants to do Animation
DigiPen 3D Animation Virtual Workshop - Tiger Lilly won't start this until January and it's on Saturday's from 1-3pm


Why adding more courses?

Goal: Cutting Time Sucking Computer Game Time
Some of our other classes are winding down. Also, I'm finding time to keep the kids active in fun ways to keep them from wanting to play video games all the time.

Socialization...
2-3 hours of their sports
2 hours of gaming time or playing outside with friends daily.

Recreation Cheerleading

I help coordinate Tween and Teen nights a few area Co-Ops so my kiddos meet kids that are homeschooled AND kids who aren't homeschooled in order to give them a well-rounded group of friends.


Big Plans for 2015:
I start planning our trips and schooling for the next year over a year early.

Good thing I do because I found this wonderful opportunity from Landry Academy.

Mission's Trip to France! Yippee! I can start paying on it now for next summer.

*Both Tiger Lilly and her older sister Rose will be going on a France Mission Trip, sponsored by Landry Academy*


Working Parents Reflection:

Meal Planning: I slipped up with the prep this week. So it was a 'fast food' stop and go eat week. Bad for my Hubba and me. The kids enjoyed it though.

House Cleaning: The house is a wreck. Didn't get to do Saturday cleanup because Hubba was in bed and we had a cheer-game, martial arts class, church, and hair appointments.

Lesson Planning: I was hoping to get done 2 weeks of lesson planning out of the way - wrong! It didn't happen. So I will try again this weekend.

Yard work: The kids cleaned the yard on Sunday, just in time for the trash to go out.

Rest: I did it! I got 6.5 hours sleep 4 days this week.Now my husband is a self-proclaimed night-owl so I make him hang out with me for the weekends by going to a movie or out to dinner in order to make up for our hang out town we get during the summer when we aren't homeschooling.