A Cornucopia of Gifts from The Henry Ford Museum!
Added by Heather Idoni
Monday, October 29, 2012
========================================================== Vol. 13 No. 17, October 29, 2012, ISSN: 1536-2035 ========================================================== (c) 2012, Heather Idoni - www.FamilyClassroom.net ========================================================== Welcome to The Homeschooler's Notebook! If you enjoy this newsletter, please recommend it to a friend! And please visit our sponsors -- they make this publication possible! :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Learning Ally
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A Homeschooler's Response to the Usual Back-to-School Advice
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A recent issue of the Sunday newspaper supplement USA Weekend offered the usual back-to-school article; this year, the author devised a 7-point plan for parents sending their children back to their local school.
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Copyright 2012 Barbara Frank/ Cardamom Publishers
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Your feedback is always welcome! Just send your email to heather(at)familyclassroom.net
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Listen to What A Learning Ally Member Has To Say... "Learning Ally makes learning so much easier for me. I listen and read all at the same time.
Now, instead of struggling to figure out words, I match the word I'm hearing with the word I'm hearing.
My grades have never been better! I never thought I would love reading so much!" - Jason F., student with dyslexia Find out more about Learning Ally
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The Henry Ford
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Our family recently made a trip to The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield
Village in Dearborn, Michigan. While there, I split off from the rest
of the gang to learn about the many resources available to
homeschooling families and other educators. While there is more than
enough for those who plan field trips to experience The Henry Ford in person, they also offer
quite a bit for those who want to learn from the comfort of home.
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"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't -- you're right."
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Homeschool "Strewing"
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"Hi, Heather! I've 'strewn' things for my kids to pick up since they were toddlers. Early on, we started keeping a book basket in the bathroom which would be filled weekly with a selection of books around a theme. Initially, the intent was to keep them busy on the potty while toilet training -- they had a tendency to sit for a nanosecond only before announcing 'nothing happened!' and running off to play. The books kept them on the potty long enough to start having successes -- but as they grew, they started really paying attention to the themes in the basket and it triggered some great conversations.
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"Oh, this is just too fun! Loved the suggestions -- I have SO done this too! Especially -- a book left out on the coffee table would get consumed (or even a stack of white paper and some good pencil crayons!) Now that the kids are older, things like the Perplexus maze on the coffee table or, even last weekend with a daughter's university friends, a Scrabble FLASH game.
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"I am looking for some advice regarding my 12 year old son, who is galloping through algebra at the pace of a chapter every day or two, but STILL has trouble with math facts, in spite of a large variety of techniques including manipulatives, songs, flash cards, computer programs, mental math rules like the rule of 9's and practice since he was about 6 years old. He is learning his facts, but oh so slowly, and still has trouble frequently.
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"This may come as a strange response, but have you considered dyslexia? Dyslexia is so NOT what I thought it was. The dyslexic brain simply processes things differently than the non-dyslexic brain. This makes some things harder -- like how your read and anything that is rote memorization -- like addition/subtraction and multiplication/division facts, or reading sheet music. Many of our best inventors and leaders are dyslexic -- probably because they 'see' things differently. And dyslexia runs in families." -- Pam H.
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"Debra -- I hated doing math facts when I was younger because I was so slow. I didn't make my oldest do them for that reason, but once she hit Algebra, etc. I sure did regret it. With my younger kids I have given them math facts on a daily basis and it has helped immensely. They are far from being speed demons but they eventually do get them down. I print up 5 minute drills from www.themathworksheetsite.com and have them do them for 5 minutes and see how many they can get done. I started mine on quarter sheets (I just took the 5 minute drill and folded in fourths), then moved them to halves (folding them in half), and then moved up to a full sheet. You can have them do 5 minutes in one color and then finish up the rest of the problems in a different color. That way they can see if they are improving, but don't get off easy if they don't do their very best. I think the daily drilling does help. Doing facts quickly is a skill and it needs to be worked at to be perfected. I told my 4th grader that if she gets where she can consistently finish all 100 facts in 5 minutes she won't have to do Math Facts any more. Boy did that motivate her to do her best! She is now up to 75 facts in 5 minutes -- better than her siblings were at that point. I think starting younger with +/- facts helped with focusing and speed." -- Sandy in UT
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"I have 4 sons. The oldest two are 19 and 14. When my 19-year-old was in his early teen years, he had the same problem. He is very intelligent and always academically advanced, and he was doing great in algebra and other math courses, but he consistently made small computation errors. Like you, we used many different methods to try to get basic math facts and functions into his brain, but it just did not happen. I finally found an online conversation among some other homeschool moms, and they were all saying that their teenaged sons were making the same kinds of errors, and that this seems to be a common problem! Now, I am seeing the same thing happening with my 14-year-old, who is very math-minded. I really have come to believe that this is something that just happens in teenaged boys, and that in most cases, it will improve over time." -- Mindy
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"I am really struggling with breakfast this year. The boys and their dad would eat pancakes with fruit and milk every morning with few complaints, but I'm over that! They don't love warm cereal, and boxed cereal is just too artificial. Any good ideas for a good, QUICK, healthy breakfast? Thanks!" -- Brenda
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