  I haven't posted an "all in a day's unschooling" post lately because I've been crazy busy with graduate school. But learning hasn't stopped! Here are a few things we've been up to in the last week. Biology: Took a 6 hour round-trip road-trip to the Wild Center in the Adirondack Mountains; read all about the roles of fungi, bacteria, amoebas, and protistas in the lifecycles of the forest. This was a super cool explanation of the invisible things we'd been reading about in the biology book Helena requested. We also learned all about glaciers, alpine flora preservation, saw otters and trout, hiked, and climbed all over the Wild Walk - a walkway through the treetops with art, swings, lookout points to the high peaks, suspension bridges, a massive "spider's nest" of netting suspended high over the forest floor, and a life-size eagle's nest (MASSIVE) that you can hang out in.  Tonight we found Amoeba Sisters on youtube and watched their "procaryotes and eucaryotes" video. Earlier today we were up at the lake and she was hanging out near a beaver's lodge wading and crawling all over downed logs; examining salamanders - we found two mating; playing with snails; discovered a massively huge snake (for NY); found a just dead woodpecker for whom rigor-mortis had not yet set in; found a spot where a bluejay had met his demise with only some feathers left; found a partial animal skeleton and decomposing animal fur in another spot. On the way home, we stopped to watch papa and mama goose with six perfectly fluffy and adorable goslings.  In our yard she found a robin's nest and today it contained just newly hatched robins! After peeking at them, she decided to sit some distance away quietly, watching the nest area, so that mama and papa robin would get used to her peeking without freaking out. The other day she came out with me to do some field botany work and learned the difference between monocots and dicots and how to tell them apart in the woods. She looked at red trillium and noted all the series of 3's that characterize monocots. Then we talked about the role of each part: the pistil, stamens, anthers, style, petals, sepals and so on... She's also learning some new plants with me because now that I know them I point them out, "Oh there's more of that large toothwort plant in bloom!"  English Language Arts: We finished the entire C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series and are nearly done with the first Anne of Green Gables book. Helena's slowly working her way through spelling lists she asked me to print off to improve her spelling. She reads daily. Hasn't worked on any of her stories lately. She says it's more fun to play them than write them. That's fine. I know she has above-average skills to write them if she chooses. I wish she would because they're amazing. But that's the power of play for you - the best thing for cognitive development in young children according to multiple studies. Tonight she did the spelling and vocabulary sections of the CAT test. Her vocab comes out well above 8th grade level. We've never done a single vocabulary worksheet, lesson, etc in her life. We read. We talk. :) Math: She occasionally recites some times tables for me. We've watched more Math Antics. We've talked a lot about converting decimals to fractions or comparing size of fractions with uncommon denominators and how to estimate this with a number timeline. We've played mental arithmatic games with this in the car. Tonight she did the first section of math on her CAT test. (NYS requires biannual testing for grades 4-8 homeschoolers.) She's sorted her My Little Pony (MLP) collector cards categorizing them in more ways than I can keep track of. She's played Minecraft with all of its amazing spatial awareness and block counting and other skills it develops. She's also done a lot of spatial reasoning work with some interior design app that she downloaded. Social Studies: We've learned more about life in early 20th century Prince Edward Island through fiction. We read a biography about Blackbeard the pirate. We've talked about various social justice issues and about the Presidential campaign. She's learning about her own culture, childhood in this era, watching cartoons and hanging out with friends and generally being obsessed with MLP. When kids unschool they often learn in cycles. Earlier in the year we explored so very many social studies topics, historical eras and so on. Now we're barely touching on it but she's delving very deeply into various science topics. Arts: She's currently doing a several hour film making class each week. She helps film the videos for my Online Herbal Summer Camp. She's also gotten very interested in architecture and interior design from watching Flip or Flop on Netflix. She found an interior design app to download and spends a good amount of time developing floor plans and furnishing them. Next time we're at the library we'll get out some books on interior design and maybe the history of design.  Health & PE:
She does taikwondo 2x per week and a two hour swim and gym homeschool class 2x per week. She plays outside. We hike as often as possible. We are always talking about healthy food choices, nutrients and such. She does a daily guided meditation. And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head in a couple of minutes. It's in no way reflective of EVERYthing she's done. :)
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 Here's what we've been up to the last few days!
English Language Arts (ELA): independent reading; finished audio book of C.S. Lewis' classic book, The Magician's Nephew; worked on spelling words in real life scenarios; reading maps and atlases for info; poetry reading; read the classic nonsense poem Jabberwocky together; public speaking to present before judges in taekwondo; helped younger students at Playful Performing Arts make up stories for skits; under public speaking/verbal directions skills... she saw a family trying to figure out Minecraft at the library and spent about 15 minutes volunteering to teach them how to play; librarians and parent of children all very impressed; she offered to librarians to come do some volunteer time teaching basic Minecraft skills; librarians took down her info to get back to her Math: read several chapters of Life of Fred math together and played with the "Your turn to play" portions; recited a few times tables; watched Math's Mansions, a British fake reality tv show; cooking; baking; building in Minecraft Social Studies: Decided to study exploration, maps, and navigation; got out library books on those topics; read a map reading book together; watched Once Upon a Time: The Explorers, the First Navigators on Youtube; watched Horrible Histories exploration show and exclaimed over how stupid and racist it was; returned to library and asked adult for guidance to adult reference section to look through atlases of old maps; looked briefly at maps of how people though the world looked throughout 20 centuries; poured over a book of American explorers and maps; used her new map reading skills to exclaim excitedly over where the explorers camped, or kidnapped people or spent winters; traced routes with her fingers; "Oh wow! Look mom! There was a mutiny right here!!" Our book on maps led her to look on google maps zooming in and out to see the difference in detail as scale changed; this led to being a virtual world explorer and amidst uncountable squeals of excitement she found France (unlabeled!) on the satellite map; zoomed in; found Paris; zoomed in; found the Eiffel Tower; zoomed in to street view; took a walking tour of nearby streets including INTO a Parisian cafe! Then she visited Ireland, Stonehenge England, Hawaii, Norway, India; discovered a temple site in India that looks exactly like an iPod from satellite view! She called up her Aunt to ask where her Puerto Rican side of the family is from; explored that area of Puerto Rico; and finally travelled to the city in Spain named after that side of her family; explored sites in that city; went to Minecraft to try to build some of the sites. Also watched a Crash Course on Diseases through History. Also watched The Golden Age of Islam, a brief FB video. Science: watched a documentary on sugar; we've been low on science in the last few days with more attention given to the current passion of geography/maps/explorers. That's ok - it all evens out within a week or month! Health: made healthy meals, played outside with neighbors and alone; gave dog a bath; worked extra hard with extra classes and private help readying for taekwondo championship this weekend; stretched 20-30 minutes most days; daily meditation; hiking Other: Minecraft, Legos, playing outside, playing with the dog, helped around the house, video games....  All in a day's unschooling...
Read Fashion Kitty Meditated Stretched 20 minutes while watching cartoons Practiced taikwondo forms at home Taikwondo private lesson: championship prep Taikwondo class Studied her spelling list (bc she wants to learn to spell better) Played math multiplication games online Played with Lego's Did dishes and took care of the dog Played with Little Bits electronics kit and made a sound activated light Listened to an American Girl audio-book story all about Chinese New Year and another all about America's bicentennial Discussed her business ideas Figured out how much she'd make if she did babysitting, if she paid for snacks for the kids, if she paid for her own taikwondo lessons, if she put money in savings - all in her head Found dates for Red Cross babysitting certification  All in a day's unschooling! We spontaneously drove up to the lake and discovered that the amphibians - frogs and newts - were newly awakened. Helena built a warmer pond for the newts and carefully noted what they looked like. We were trying to figure out if the bulge on the bottom of them was part of the male anatomy or an egg sac or what it was... Laying on the dock she found a frog still in torpor. We couldn't remember the correct term and came home to look it up! He hopped away when she took him out of the water, but he was very slow and sluggish and in the water she could touch him and he didn't move. He was just floating with his little head up, soaking in the sunshine, thawing and awakening from his long winter's rest. Back at home, we looked up the lifecycle of the Eastern newt and were surprised to realize they live for 10-20 years. The sac, we discovered, is a cloaca and is part of both male and female anatomy. It is Latin for "sewer" and contains the outlets of the digestive and urinary systems and the reproductive organs. We also watched a few brief videos on amphibians.
  Math:
Math Antics, a series of funny and usually very short videos on basic arithmetic through lower algebra concepts Life of Fred, a series of simple math stories about a goofy 5 year old math professor at Kittens University and his doll Kinge. Dragon Box, a math game that teaches you all of the basic principles of solving algebraic equations Youtube - various short math videos Amazon and/or local library - for math stories and riddles Sir Cumference - all of the books in this series are great! Neuroscientists have found that our brains are wired to remember information in the form of stories, so we're big fans of learning through fiction! Maths Mansion - a British tv show for 9-11 year olds (or whatever age at which your kids like it); it's modeled off of a reality tv show in which kids are stuck in a creepy Maths Mansion until they learn their math lessons; super duper weird humor in my opinion; my daughter loves it though; very educational Real life - nothing beats real life! Budgeting, baking, cooking, Lego's, Minecraft, building, statistics, math games, board games, card games, dominos, price comparisons, measurements, weight, temperature, time, and so much more! Science: Flying Deer Nature Center - these guys are such lovely and amazing souls who run this program - homeschool Forest day, summer camps, and coming of age programs. You could also count them under "social studies" for the primitive skills and Native American lore the kids learn or PE for all of the exercise they get. They'll come home exhausted, muddy, tired, and INSPIRED. It's great! Herb Fairies - This is an amazing series of stories, coloring pages, recipes, word searches, journal activities and so much more for children. We mostly just listen to the stories and use the herbs in real life. So incredibly well done! Wildlife Bio and Careers Resources: Smithsonian National Zoo - brief info and some videos on various zoo careers Jobs in Wildlife - more detailed info on various areas and jobs Wildlife . org - list of jobs and functions Animal Wonders - YouTube channel of a wildlife rescuer and rehabilitation lady Girls Who Looked Under Rocks - a great book about pioneering women naturalists. Fun stories! Feminist. Women who overcame odds to study science. Science Clubs - our local homeschool center has a number of science clubs, everything from a middle school exploration of basic chemistry or physics to a weekly class by a college professor that combines math and science. Birding - we've done our homeschool birding club and mostly just fed our backyard birds and observed birds in the wild. We've done the Audubon national backyard bird count on several occasions. Wilderness School - Flying Deer Nature Center was a wonderful place to learn a lot of naturalist skills! Wilderness Awareness School in WA has an online naturalist program that would be great for teens as well as a children's program. Ranger Rick Magazine A huge stack of nature stories, seasonal stories, and field guides that we own.... We collect and identify nature objects, track animals, do bark rubbings on trees, identify autumn leaves, forage for wild herbs and edibles, pick wildflowers (never pick more than 1/3 of something at most, and don't eat food from near roads), identify animals and their homes and scat and signs and so on... Little Bits - super fun for learning about electronics. We've also picked up various basic electric kits here and there, some about circuits, some solar, and so on. Physics Girl on YouTube. Awesome explanations of weird phenomenon by a young woman scientist. Biology for Kids - brief info and brief videos on a variety of bio topics Wolf Conservation Center - especially fun to follow them on their FB page. Helena follows a number of animal rescue and conservation places. And we never tire of any sort of cute animal videos. Crash Course Kids on YouTube - multiple science topics SciShow Kids on Youtube - again many topics List of science shows for kids - mostly younger crowd but not all... AnimalWonders Montana on YouTube - we've watched a few; looks like mostly wildlife bio SmartLearning for All - also on YouTube. Note that this is the chemistry link; also includes maths; various topics Local farms, children's science museum, NYS museum.... Other Crash Course on Youtube - great brief reviews on hundreds of subjects. We love these! TheKidShouldSeeThis - brief videos on a million topics! Haven't watched any yet... but they look great! STEAM - a huge list of STEAM YouTube videos/channels that I'm looking forward to exploring more with Helena Brain Pop - these are great brief reviews on just about any subject imaginable; done by a boy and his robot friend; if you know a local teacher ask if they have a username and password from your school district so you can access them for free! Note that there's a Brain Pop Jr section for younger kids through early/mid elementary and a regular Brain Pop for older kids. Art/Music YouTube - great resource for music, art demonstrations, cartoon drawing, how to make Lego stop motion animations, how to tutorials on iMovie and so much more! Art Museums - As soon as your kid is old enough to focus for about half an hour start bringing them! I've brought Helena since she was a baby. We'd hurry through and I'd say "Ooh! Look the artist made a horsy in that one!" or "Wow! Look at that pretty sunset." It evolved to looking for animals and pretty dresses with some occasional comments "I wonder what the artist was feeling when s(he) painted that one?" And Helena would talk about what she thought. Or I'd say "Hmm... where do you think the sun is, where's the light coming from, in that picture?" and she'd note the direction. The key is to keep it short and sweet. Plan a picnic lunch outside or something else to do in the town as well. Go see *just* the Van Gogh exhibit and read about his history, but don't do the entire art museum - unless your kid really, really loves art. Get hot cocoa afterward. Buy a postcard in the gift shop for a friend. Make an adventure out of it! Free music events, folk festivals, and so on. Theater plays, ballets, etc. Look for school productions and you can get deeply discounted tickets. Homeschoolers can go to school productions. Health Paleo Girl book - some great stuff in here although I do think she emphasizes weight and some poor body image things too much Omnivore's Dilemma for Young People by Michael Pollan New Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice Gardening, foraging, menu planning, cooking Continually reading short articles and giving information; being aware of health, toxins, exercise, diet, meditation and so much more Daily guided meditations Talking about emotional intelligence issues Documentaries such as Food Inc; The Secrets of Sugar; Plant Pure Nation; Cooked and many others emphasize to kids the importance of a healthy diet and reveal the awful details that food companies and marketers go to with food additives to make us crave more. TV shows like Master Chef Jr teach a lot about culinary traditions and cooking techniques - and are super fun! Social Studies Great list of books for kids, about slavery Photo essay of child labor in US history Story of the World audio books; I only recommend these with the caveat that they are history as usual: largely the story of white, male, patriarchal, domination. They do give a somewhat decent timeline of historical events, but I would only use them listening with my daughter and discussing the issues of social injustices, who gets to write history and so on. And we supplement them with a number of other story books and videos and such to learn more about the people's history, history of minorities, slaves, women, and so on. Howard Zinn's website is full of amazing resources examining history from the perspective of the common people rather than the few, elite, powerful. Be sure to check out the educational resources link above as he has another website that is about him and his work A Mighty Girl website and FB page have really great book suggestions and brief blips about "mighty girls" in history from all ages and times through the present. Google Maps! Helena just told me (in 3/2016) she wanted to learn more about maps/explorers/navigation/orienteering. So we got out a pile of books from the library; have poured over atlases of old maps and old explorers routes; and she's discovered that she can become what she calls a "virtual explorer" and go to any nation, any city, any street, any landmark location, and explore on the ground through Google Maps! She's been excitedly exclaiming over all of this, exploring the city her ancestor's are from in Spain and just having so much fun! NYS History River of Dreams, The Story of the Hudson, by Hudson Talbott is a beautiful picture book that explains the history of NYS along the Hudson River. All of the local libraries should have a copy, and I can't recommend it enough. It's both beautiful, informatiive, and fun! Hudson, The Story of a River by Baron & Locker is also beautiful and commonly found in local libraries. The library is generally a great resource for NYS history. Pick a short book of boring facts like the state bird and economic info... There's a great book out there about the history of NYC from the Native Americans until now... Just don't get bogged down in memorizing facts. Instead check out the field trips below and some GOOD books that excite you! Crailo is a Dutch home/museum in Rensselaer NY along the Hudson River.$5 for adults and children under 12 are free. A wonderful field trip to see what life in this region was once like! Cherry Hill Mansion - a museum of Albany family life from 1787-1963. Can you believe we haven't been here yet?! It's on the list for this year!! NYS Museum - Free; about $5 to park. Worth it to visit over and over and over and over again! There are just so many things to see here, and we prefer to take it a little at a time along with a few rides on the historic carasoul on the top floor (also free). Everything from Sesame Street to 9/11 to a super fun Iroquois longhouse where you can hear grandmother telling stories. (Photo at top of page!) Corning Tower - ride the elevator up to the 42nd floor for amazing views of Albany. Right across the street and up the stairs from the NYS Museum, off the outdoor plaza area. Olana, the home of Hudson River School Painter (you'll learn about them in the first book above) Frederic Church. The home itself is amazing and it's full of his art. Home, art, and landscape combine into a unique artistic expression. Amazing! Beautiful! My advice for kids and art: take it as quickly as they like... find a few fun things to note and comment on... bring a picnic lunch and bubbles and enjoy running around the landscape too. Kids enjoy art if they aren't forced to "endure" it for long periods of time. This place is perfect because after a short tour of the house there are plenty of places to run! Thomas Cole's house in Catskill is another great place to visit. The grounds here are not as expansive, not as much room to run. I recommend surprising the kid(s) with painting supplies and a picnic in the garden! Again, if you don't get to every last bit of art, no worries. Let kids enjoy art at their own level! Albany Institute of History and Art - another one we haven't been to yet, but have heard great things about. It's on our list for this year! Saratoga National Park contains several historical and Revolutionary era sites to visit. I highly recommend learning about the Revolution via Liberty Kids on YouTube and maybe a library book or two. We have a journal kept by an actual child (teen girl) during the Revolution. What was it like to live during the Revolution is a great book (title goes something like that...). The Who Was George Washington, book, while we generally (ha!) like that series, is actually quite boring. American Girl Felicity series is set in the Revolutionary era. General Herkimer Home - I remember this being super cool when I went as a kid. I haven't been back since then, however. I think it's only open weekends in summer. Oriskany Battlefield - not much to see here, but I grew up near it and it's a nice little ramble through the woods and meadows with a few historical markers - if you happen to be in the area. Fort Stanwix is another place near my hometown, and one I think is worth the 2 hour drive from Albany. There's an indoor museum with objects and movies as well as the ginormous rebuilt fort full of things to see and TOUCH. Unlike most museums, this one is hand's on. We climbed on bunks and canyons, tried on clothing and skins and so on. We went during the week and had a private tour - yay! The guide was quite impressed with Helena's knowledge of the Revolution based primarily on watching Liberty Kids. Erie Canal Village - we were hoping to visit this on our last trip up to Oneida County before my family all moved to NC, but it seems it was just bought out by another organization and is being remodeled. Not sure what it will be like, but keep it in mind. English Language Arts Animated Shakespeare - just one here; we'll have to look for more... Shakespearean rhyming - old English so different from ours... MadLibs - buy online, gift stores, bookstores; super fun way to learn basic parts of speech Book Creator - an Apple app for creating e-books complete with illustrations and music Just a few things from our day....
Math: bulk section of co-op; counting money for pizza; counting music Music: piano lesson learning to play Star Wars music Social Studies: - Geography... looking up cities and nations mentioned on the spy show we watched several episodes of: Madagascar; Budapest, Hungary; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sri Lanka etc.... Spy movies are great for learning geography ;) Science: Chemistry club English Language Arts (ELA): met with an author to discuss Helena's latest work of fiction; typing/reading during gaming Minecraft and other games with friends; spent most of the day at the local homeschool center  Once again, I marvel at day's end all of the "subjects" covered in a day of child-led, unforced, non-curriculum-based, learning!
Math: Finished another Life of Fred book together English Language Arts: Read a poem together on parts of speech and posted it on the fridge; played a rhyming guessing game at PPA, independent reading; reading together; working on science report; working on fiction writing. History: Focused on Black History Month, we watched a short video of inventions brought to us by Black people: everything from traffic lights and mail boxes to super soakers. We also looked at some amazing photos of Misty Copeland, America's first Black principal dancer at ABT, recreating famous Degas paintings. Science: We learned about the scientific current event of the century, the discovery and proof of gravitational waves that Einstein predicted the existence of. This led to a question of what exactly Black Holes are. Helena's two favorite places to look things up are Brain Pop.com or YouTube. We watched an Astronomy Crash Course on Black Holes on YouTube. Crash Course videos are awesome! And did you know spaghettification is a real scientific term? It's what would happen to you if you fell into a black hole. The gravitational pull on your feet (presuming you fell in feet first) would be so strong it would stretch you out crazy-long and thin like spaghetti. Yep. For realz! Helena also watched a short video on chlorophyll and photosynthesis to help her better understand the concepts for the iMovie she's creating for her science project. And we could also count funny animal videos as science! :D Arts: Helena is a big lover of the arts! Today she did Playful Performing Arts (PPA) class with me, and she also finished her iMovie, learning more editing techniques in the process such as the Ken Burns affect. Practical Life Skills: housework, cooking, caring for her animals, set-up and break-down of room for PPA; figuring out the best way to keep our 2 hens warm in the predicted NEGATIVE 12 degree temps coming up... Health & PE: cleaned chicken coop, PPA class, healthy food choices, slept when tired, woke when rested Fine Motor Skills, Spatial Reasoning, Geometry, Geology: Video games, spec Minecraft Culture: Facebook, Skype, Video games, cartoons, hanging out with friends at PPA  I love being the mama of an unschooled 10 year old. Each day is full of curiosity and adventure and so much learning!
Just today.... reading; connecting with friends on Skype which they helped her sign up for; building and mining in Minecraft with and without her friends; video gaming; reading together The Last Safe House about the underground railroad, questions about the Civil War, several BrainPops on the highlights of the Civil War and Civil War discussions; watched dance online from several different nations; watched a brief video on how deep the ocean really is and marveled together at it; talk of the upcoming election and the candidates; taikwondo class, practical life skills cooking lunch, cleaning the kitchen, taking care of the dog and getting/paying for things in the grocery store; watched a brief video together on Pixar animation and math and lighting; read over a list of English phrases that come from Shakespeare's writing and we both marveled at how much we owe to him; read together about the Greensboro Four who staged sit-ins for desegregation; read some Life of Fred math together; worked on her science fair project iMovie; meditated, watched cartoons, talked about similes and metaphors, pointed out similes and metaphors in daily life, listened to Robert Louis Stephenson's Treasure Island audiobook in the car and of course some funny/cute animal videos!  I love sharing these because I'm always amazed at the immense amount of learning that takes place when it's all child-led. And my nerdy, academic self gets so excited seeing it all detailed according to the required NYS "subjects."
Second Quarterly Report 2015/2016 Helena Aviles 5th Grade Hours of Instruction: 225 + Helena has made satisfactory process in all subject areas. Math:
- Redstone in Minecraft - Attended a Little Bits electronics maker’s workshop at the Gravity Tech Center
Spanish: Spanish games club weekly at Yacon, a variety of active games that allow for usage of basic Spanish vocabulary such as greetings, directions, prepositions, places, animals, actions and so on.  Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but each state has different regulations governing homeschoolers. NYS, where we live, is one of the stricter states.
We file an annual IHIP or Individualized Home Instruction Plan. We file quarterly progress reports throughout the year. We turn in an end of year assessment. The annual assessment from grades 4-8 must be an approved test at least biannually. And in high school the annual assessment must always be a test. This puts some pressure on folks to keep their kids in a more average learning pattern and can be stressful for people who don't believe in catering to the average but rather to the individual child. But I believe that you can easily cater to your child AND meet NYS guidelines - even excel at them. When Helena was in 3rd grade we did the California Achievement Test, or CAT test, just out of curiosity to see what it was like. She scored far ahead of grade level in all ELA - English Language Arts - areas, and scored on average for math. On both she scored far above the level needed to "pass" which is only the 33rd percentile. So how do you expose your child to ELA without doing worksheets, curriculum, and tests and so on? I read to her a LOT. I try to read quality literature with well constructed sentences and above level vocabulary. I point out if the grammar is incorrect. We do MadLibs together. Great way to learn basic parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, plural nouns, adverbs.... We read funny library books on grammar and punctuation such as Greedy Apostrophe. Honestly, there are so many funny and free library books that appeal to kids that I don't see why anyone would prefer what to us is dry, boring curriculum! We talk about grammar in real life "Well actually you'd say, 'He is coming with Sarah and me' not 'He is coming with Sarah and I' because you'd say 'He is coming with me' not say 'He is coming with I.' If you just take out the other person then you know the correct pronoun to use." We find math everywhere. Or at least I try REALLY hard to. Since math is not my strong suit this is trickier! But we weigh the produce and bulk items together and estimate cost based on the per pound price. We play math games in the car where we spot 2 numbers and then either add or subtract them mentally. We do things together until she begs to do it herself. It's a game. Not forced. We add up items on the grocery receipt and figure out the mean, median, and mode and talk about what these statistics mean to our shopping habits. We get out funny library books on math topics for me to read to her. There are so many ways to learn if you are curious and keep it casual and game-like rather than forced!! We also read Life of Fred and watch Math Antics online. Helena has chosen these. I don't do forced learning, preferring child-led learning. ((See other blog posts on that if curious)). But she knows she needs to learn fractions, for example, for the NYS testing, and she doesn't want to be way behind her peers - even though she is able to explore many subjects and topics that they don't get to learn in school. Truthfully, you only have to score above the 33rd percentile on the annual NYS assessment. That's super low! That means that you scored higher than 33% of other kids - or that 77% of kids scored higher than you. We easily scored much, much higher than this without any formal curriculum or forced learning. Why? Because children not forced to learn LOVE to learn. Helena is curious about everything. It's like kids don't outgrow the two year old "why" stage or their wonder at the world around them! So if your child has dyslexia, don't despair, and don't feel you need for torture both yourself and the kiddo in order to meet requirements or keep up with standards or not raise a child who will only work at McD's. Find their strengths and cater to them. And then.... gently... patiently.... help them to strengthen their weak reading. That way only the reading itself will be "behind" and you'll still meet and exceed state standards required to keep homeschooling. Anyway, that's what's worked for us! What have you found helpful? |
Rebecca Grace AndrewsWelcome! I'm a college professor, herbalist, writer and photographer. Archives
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