Comments on: Don’t fill up on Dessert

By: Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:13:47 +0000

I feel so encouraged by your post. I began h'sing our oldest (a reluctant reader/writer) at age 5. I went heavy on the "dessert" b/c I wanted to fuel a love or learning and not concentrate on the topics he loathed (reading/writing). He is finally an independent reader and enjoys it now, but this year I am concentrating more heavily on the 3R's (especially handwriting) and not doing as much dessert. I feel somewhat guilty b/c he remembers all the fun stuff we did and wonders why we don't do as much now, but hopefully this is just a season. We also use Writing With Ease and All About Spelling and both have made these subjects less painful for us. :)

Blessings,
Shannon

By: Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:35:44 +0000

Your post in many ways reminds me of some of the things I am dealing with in our homeschool. One child took to reading like a duck to water; for another it was the slowly but surely approach. One child spells well and phonetically; another has no clue about the rhyme and reason of spelling.

This is our first year of actually doing spelling as a subject, and next year I hope to use something different for that child. Something hopefully that will be more helpful for her and for me.

Writing with ease is a resource unfamiliar to me. Thank you for sharing what you are using and how helpful it is. I am going to prayerfully look at this. We have been doing copywork this year and dictation. WWE may be a good way to combine the two and get added benefits in return.

By: Kristenph

Kristenph — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:15:06 +0000

Thank you Molly 🙂 I will try FLL again later when I think he might be more ready.

By: Molly

Molly — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:40:19 +0000

First Language Lessons is designed to be spread out over two years (first and second grade). I also tried this when my dyslexic son was younger and he just wasn't ready for grammar. So we are doing it this year, but speeding up the pace to complete the entire book in one school year. My dyslexic son is in 4th grade and his younger brother is in 2nd grade.

It has been fairly easy this time to get through this book, doing a few lessons daily. I skip most of the copywork and all of the narration, since we are also doing Writing with Ease.

Next year I plan to do Bauer's 3rd grade grammar book with the boys. To me, it makes sense to add in grammar as a child is ready and not before. If they don't have a good grasp of reading, writing and spelling, grammar is of little use anyway and will just be confusing. Waiting awhile has helped and now he is picking up concepts easily.

We do a lot of the book orally, too. My dyslexic is an audio learner, so Bauer's grammar chants and focus on discussion has been a great fit for him.

By: Phyllis

Phyllis — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:35:17 +0000

Thank you for your curriculum suggestions. I have 3 dyslexics, but my youngest one, who is 9 is my most severely dyslexic child. He is still struggling with 1st grade books in 3rd grade!
-Phyllis

By: Debbie S.

Debbie S. — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:15:29 +0000

I can relate to several things in this post, but one comment that grabbed my attention was when you said that you feel guilty that you can't do all the extras that you did with your first child.
I have felt that exact same way. When I was schooling just one and the other was a baby, it seemed my creativity and time was abundant. Slowly, over the years, we've had to go to more of the basics and cut out alot of the "dessert".

In fact, I just told my younger one yesterday, that we were going to be concentrating on the three "R's" from now until the end of the year, and that his other subjects would have to be put aside for a while.

Sometimes it's better and more effective to just do the basics.

By: Kristenph

Kristenph — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:50:52 +0000

With your 4th grade son when did you start First Language Lessons? (I’m assuming you used it because you said Writing with Ease went well with your grammar program.) My 2nd grade son is reading still very slowly. We’re using All About Spelling and it is wonderful! I had tried to start FLL at the beginning of the year and I just fizzled out. He probably could have done it though. Did you use it with your dyslexic son when he was older? I was wondering if I should try it with my son next year or if I should try to find something else.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/kristenph