It has been a long battle to get my daughter to spell better, and it has been a frustrating one, considering the fact that she is able to read anything she wants to. I worried a lot when we first started home schooling because I pulled her out in the middle of her first grade year. She had such self-esteem issues, and boredom to fight that I went ahead and accelerated her to second grade since we had already covered much of first grade work during the summer between kindergarten and first grade. Spelling was one of the subjects that she was the most unhappy with in first grade and the one that had made the largest hit on her self-esteem. She told me that her teacher thought she was the “stupidest kid on the planet”. I asked her why would she possible think that. Her answer, they gave her a spelling word list on Monday, and then made her practice and repeat it for four whole days, before testing her on Friday. My daughter just doesn’t get practice and repetition to learn something. I asked her what her solution to this problem was. Out of the mouths of babes…her solution was to give her the words and let her look over them, then test her. The words she could spell she didn’t have to practice, because she already knew them. The words she couldn’t spell she would practice only until she could spell them. This actually made sense to me.

Still, she struggles with spelling. She can recognize if a word is spelled incorrectly, but is unable to give the correct spelling. Did I mention that she hates repetition to learn anything?  Because of this, I am constantly looking for new and different ways to improve my daughter’s spelling and vocabulary. Word ladders are one of the ways that she works on vocabulary and spelling. It is actually very rewarding to see how much she enjoys working with word ladders. Word ladders are a good critical thinking exercise as well.

Another type of word manipulation that she is starting to use is Unscramble.  As she gains more confidence in her ability to spell she is willing to try more and different games. Unscramble works for her because she can recognize when a word is spelled correctly, even if she cannot spell the word from scratch. This game gives her the letters in a scrambled order and will give her the hint of saying the word out loud if she asks for it.

I worry that we missed something vital to spelling in the half year of first grade that she didn’t get. If I had to do it all over again, would I accelerate her again? Maybe not, but since I can’t very well have my almost sixth grader going back to first grade work, we will have to come up with new and inventive ways to plug any gaps she might have.

Do you have a reluctant writer? I’m not talking about penmanship here but about actually writing of paragraphs, reports, journals, and things like that. I have a very reluctant writer. My daughter does not like to write anything. She does not like to put pen to paper for any reason. We think that part of her problem may be something related to dysgraphia, where the actual mechanics of writing is painful for her. Her reluctance to write seems to point that direction, as does her terrible handwriting, and the amount of complains I get when I ask her to write. The problem with that line of reasoning is that she draws all of the time. And draws pretty well, so the idea that having a writing implement in her hand and putting it to paper is painful or difficult just doesn’t fit. The thing is that, as a fifth grader, soon to be sixth grader, I need her to write. She should be able to write a five paragraph research paper, basic book reports should be a breeze. Yet, we are still struggling with writing. One of the things that is so frustrating about the problems we are having with writing is that she does very well with her language arts curriculum as a whole. She does not have a problem reading, grammar seems to be easy for her, and she has an impressive vocabulary.

I started narrowing down some of her problem with writing early on. She seems to have a hard time with spelling. The odd thing about this is that she can tell if a word is misspelled if she sees it in print, but twenty minutes later, if I ask her to spell the word that she can recognize as incorrect, she is not able to do it, no matter how many times or ways we review the correct spelling.

I have researched on the internet for ways to help my daughter get a handle on writing. I have spoken to the other mothers in our local home schooling group. Several of them have children who have terrible learning disabilities, and thought that perhaps she has a form of dyslexia. I don’t believe that is the case. Another mom suggested that I have my daughter do mandatory copy work to improve her mechanical writing speed and neatness. It was all I could do not to laugh out loud, apparently she didn’t understand that mandatory, copy work, and my daughter should never grace the same sentence at the same time. The best idea I got from a very computer savvy mom was maybe I should let my daughter start a blog, someplace she could share her thoughts and feelings, and maybe her frustrations. This is an idea I might actually hold on to for a little bit, maybe combine it with the voice recognition software she is in the process of training.

We are trying to finish up fifth grade language arts, which is the main hold up to us going on to sixth grade. I have told her that until she can write at a reasonable level for a fifth grader, she cannot move on. Writing is just too important to let this difficulty with it continue to slow down her forward progress. In this particular conversation, I finally got out of her that she doesn’t mind writing, really, but she hates it that she can’t spell. Many tears and explanations later I came to understand that the fear of spelling words wrong has made her afraid to tackle writing at all.

So, what are we doing now? I had been letting her dictate, but recently I found a speech recognition program imbedded in my computer’s resident software. We got her a headphone with a boon microphone and she has begun the process of training the software. Once she gets the software trained, and she has worked through the tutorials, I believe that she will be able to write on fifth grade level without ever putting pen to paper, thanks to the magic of technology. Sometimes getting a reluctant writer to actually write is just a matter of the right motivation, whether that is letting them start a blog, or use speech recognition software to dictate their paragraphs into. I’m hoping we have found the tool that will help my daughter overcome her writing reluctance, only time will tell. Wish us luck!

I have come to the conclusion as of late that history, social studies, and political science are among the most important things I can teach my daughter. Numerous historians, politicians and philosophers have had their take on the saying that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history. Without getting political, I have come to the realization that it is vitally important that my child have some working knowledge of history. It is not just history, though. It is important that she understand political science. We live in one of the most unique political environments on the planet, indeed, in all of human history. Our system of government is unique as well. You do not have to like our system, or even agree with it to recognize that by its uniqueness, it deserves study. It is important to me that the social studies curriculum for my 5^th, soon to be 6^th grader teach her the things of the past, the current events, and also things like map skills. I tell you that it is a great thrill to hear your young child make a connection from something she learned in her social studies to something that is going on today. It makes you realize that your children are sponges, and that they are absorbing much of what you are presenting to them, even if you don’t think their test scores reflect that learning.

And this brings me to another thought. Sometimes I get caught up in the idea that we must study our curriculum, to the exclusion of everything else. As we near the end of a grade, I tend to get more bossy about covering our curriculum, and not adding extras, because I want us to finish. What this does, in effect, is limit the resources my daughter uses to learn, because she is not getting access to any other sources of information that she normally depends on. I know that it is wrong, but I am in a hurry. I have to be reminded that my daughter learns in many ways, not all of those ways are strictly by using her home schooling curriculum. She learns by using the internet, by using books, and magazines. She learns by means of programs on television, she learns by means of audio books. She learns by playing games. Is there any reason to think that an idea learned through her social studies curriculum is any more important than an idea learned through a social studies game? Of course not! In fact, wouldn’t learning about history through a kingdom building game give my child a better understanding of the dynamics involved in the rise and fall of empires? I guess the reminder here, to myself as well as others, is to remember that our children learn in many ways, and to limit the sources of information is to limit their education. I, for one, know that I never want to be accused of causing a limit on what my child can learn. What do you think?

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One of the biggest problems with the traditional school year is the long summer break. During that break, many students do not continue to make academic progress. The three places that students fail to continue their forward progress are math, reading, and spelling. Some students lose as much as two months worth of knowledge in the three month summer break. Upon returning to the regular classroom, the first weeks and months of school are spent regaining and reviewing the knowledge that the students lost over the summer. By then, the school year is in full swing, and the push is on to complete a years worth of learning in the remaining time until the next summer break. Does this seem like a crazy cycle to you?

It certainly does to me!

The first year we home schooled we started second grade in January. My child was so hungry for knowledge, we finished second grade by June. And I was so proud of us, and what we had accomplished, that basically took the summer off. When we started back to home school in the fall, just like public school students, my daughter had “forgotten” stuff that I know she had learned. It was so frustrating, that I took a look at the way we did things, and we started year round school. We had shorter, but more frequent breaks all year long. Because it is so hot and humid in the summers where I live, I decided that we would continue working on school during the summer, and take breaks in the spring and fall, when the weather was more agreeable. And that is how we have done school for the four years that we have been home schooling.

For parents with children in traditional schools, or who home school, but adhere to the traditional school calendar, have no fear, there are ways to help your students retain the knowledge they have gained. Skills that are leaned by repetition, such as math and spelling , are the ones that are first lost, and easiest to maintain. Parents can use summer bridgework books, or other workbooks for math, but students will see that as work, and they are supposed to be off for the summer, right? Well, there is a way to get them to continue reviews, and not make it seem like school.

What am I talking about? GAMES! Kids love computer games. Here is an example, Unscramble is a game where their spelling words are given to the child in mixed up order, the child then has to pull letters, and rearrange them to form the spelling words. Random math games are another way to help your child stay in practice with multiplication tables, and other math facts that are learned by repetition. Math and spelling words games are two places that you can really find grade level appropriate computer games. Some places even let you make your own spelling lists so it is possible to tie the games directly to the summer reading list. Don’t forget that reading is another place where students need to stay in practice. Most local libraries have summer reading lists that are level appropriate. Then take vocabulary and spelling words from those books, place them in spelling games like Unscramble. As a parent you are helping your child stay up on their skills, yet you are not making them do drudgery repetition. These are just a few ways to beat the summer learning loss.

Many parents are finding out that there child is not where he or she should be at the end of the school year. Final evaluations are out or will be soon, and some parents are in for some rather unpleasant news. It may even be unexpected news as some school systems are teaching “to the test” so much that there is a fair amount of curriculum left at the end of a school year. Because of this many students bring home final evaluations that indicated some level or work to get them up to what the starting level will be for the next school year. Parents are sometimes left in a bind, having to scramble for some program over the summer to help their child catch up to level.

One of the subjects that this tends to happen in is reading for early elementary school students. It is difficult for a parent to hear that their child needs a remedial reading program. Many parents are particularly unhappy to hear that their child is not reading on level. For some parents, especially those who have always read to their children, it becomes like a personal thing.

The need for a remedial reading program is not necessarily a bad thing, Some students are just a little slow to get started, while other students have genuine learning delays. It is important for a parent to find out what their child’s issue is before plunging head first into a remedial program. There are some things a parent can do to increase their child’s reading fluency, even before they know what specific problem their child has, or if it is a matter of just a little more practice.

To increase reading fluency, parents can read out loud to their children. While reading aloud, allow the child to follow along. Sometimes just seeing a word and hearing it pronounced at the same time is enough to place the word firmly in your child’s recallable vocabulary. One of the earliest books we read to my daughter was Winnie the Pooh, the story of him getting stuck trying to get out of Rabbit’s house. It made my daughter giggle, and we were asked to read it over and over again. At one point I heard her talking in her room, and I peeked in to see what she was doing. She had a whole pile of stuffed animals piled around her, and the Winnie the Pooh book on her lap. She was reading to her toys, in just the rhythm we had read the book to her, she was pointing to words, and turning pages at the correct spot. Was she really reading? I’m not sure, she was very young, but she sure was practicing the art of reading! And sometimes it is just that sort of practice that helps reluctant readers, or those who need remedial programs up to level.

Don’t be dismayed if your child has specific difficulties. Work with teachers, or other evaluators, to find out what your child’s needs are where reading in concerned. Once specific needs are presented then it will be time to get very active in finding a program that will meet those needs. It is possible with a little targeted practice, and some extra one-on-one time with a parent your child will be reading at level or above in no time.