"Wow, the summer has sped by!" I hear that from so many friends these days. And I can relate ... look how long it has been since I posted on this blog!
How did you spend your summer? I've done a lot of traveling this summer. Most of it has involved homeschool conventions - I did 7 of them this year - but I also spent a week with my parents and am looking forward to some time next week in the Tennessee mountains with my husband as we celebrate our 32nd anniversary.
I can't begin to tell you how many homeschooling families I have spoken with this year, but I have enjoyed it as much as in past years. This year it seemed that there were many more families just getting started on their homeschool adventure. Unlike me when I got started, they have been willing to consider using real books instead of textbooks, and I have gladly shared my family's experiences and helped to guide them in their selections.
When will you start your school year? Have you made any significant changes in your homeschool plans? Do you have goals for this year, so that your efforts are aimed in a particular direction rather than simply going wherever you happen to step next? If you haven't yet established some goals for this year's homeschooling, I would be glad to provide you with our Homeschool Goals Guide. Just send an e-mail to me at klutman@sonlight.com and ask for the Goals Guide. I'll send it to you so that you can aim for something, because if you aim for nothing you are all too likely to hit it.
Blessings!
Kelly
Friday, August 3, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
A Treat in Your Mailbox
Have you received your 2012 Sonlight Catalog in your mailbox? For many years, eager Sonlight users have written poems about their anticipation of the new catalog and tracked its arrival across the nation and around the world. If you attended a convention last year, purchased from Sonlight within the past two years, or requested a catalog on our website, yours should be arriving shortly.What will you find inside? That's where the treat is located ... a vast collection of literature-based programs that come with great books and an Instructor's Guide that walks you through those books page by page, chapter by chapter, as you or your child read them and discuss them. Talk about a world-wide adventure from the comfort of your couch!
Why real books instead of textbooks? Because textbooks skim the surface details in their predigested narratives of the people and places in history, while real books immerse you into the history by letting you live it through the characters in the story. Whether real historical figures or fictional characters based on history, your child will be drawn into the events of history and the lives of people in a way that imprints it on their minds. Real books produce real learning, with real enjoyment.
Give it a try ... you'll be oh-so-glad you did!
Kelly
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
How to Correct Spelling Mistakes
There are different approaches you can take when your child misspells a word. Some would simply show the child how the word should be spelled, but that would not provide explanation for the correction to enable the child to learn from the mistake. Instead, I would recommend that you follow the steps taught by the folks at All About Learning Press to help your learn.
If your child misspells a word during a spelling lesson, follow these steps:
1. Ask your child to slowly read exactly what he has written. Often the student will see his own error and be able to fix it.
2. Take a look at the cause of the spelling mistake -
Did you and the student pronounce the word correctly?
Is he unclear on a particular spelling concept or rule?
Did he segment the word correctly?
Do you need to re-teach something?
If you need to review a phonogram or spelling rule, do it now.
3. Have the student spell the word again, preferably with letter tiles or magnets first, and then on paper.
When your child misspells a word outside of the spelling lesson, such as during dictation exercises or other written assignments, only hold his responsible for writing the word correctly if it includes concepts you have already taught. If that particular word, or words with a similar spelling pattern, have been taught, ask the student to segment the word and write the letter or letters for each sound. If he has misspelled a word for which you have not taught the pattern or rule, simply show him the correct spelling and have him write it himself, so that he imprints that spelling into his brain. When you cover that pattern in a future spelling lesson, he will likely remember what he has already practiced.
Why not encourage inventive spelling? First of all, it can imprint an incorrect form on the child's brain, which will require more "unlearning" later. Secondly, this approach can be counterproductive to teaching students the right way - they may use the first option that comes to mind (figuring that's what the teacher would allow) and not make an effort to spell correctly. My brother was taught this way in his early elementary years and had to work very hard in later years to overcome the incorrect imprinting and bad habits this approach established.
It is also not recommended to direct younger students to "look it up" in the dictionary. This can be a very frustrating process if the student does not know what basic phonograms are used, since the dictionary is organized by the proper spelling. If the student has not yet been taught a spelling pattern or rule for the word in question, simply tell (or show) the student what the correct spelling is.
The manner in which you correct mistakes can significantly impact your student's progress.
Kelly
If your child misspells a word during a spelling lesson, follow these steps:
1. Ask your child to slowly read exactly what he has written. Often the student will see his own error and be able to fix it.
2. Take a look at the cause of the spelling mistake -
Did you and the student pronounce the word correctly?
Is he unclear on a particular spelling concept or rule?
Did he segment the word correctly?
Do you need to re-teach something?
If you need to review a phonogram or spelling rule, do it now.
3. Have the student spell the word again, preferably with letter tiles or magnets first, and then on paper.
When your child misspells a word outside of the spelling lesson, such as during dictation exercises or other written assignments, only hold his responsible for writing the word correctly if it includes concepts you have already taught. If that particular word, or words with a similar spelling pattern, have been taught, ask the student to segment the word and write the letter or letters for each sound. If he has misspelled a word for which you have not taught the pattern or rule, simply show him the correct spelling and have him write it himself, so that he imprints that spelling into his brain. When you cover that pattern in a future spelling lesson, he will likely remember what he has already practiced.
Why not encourage inventive spelling? First of all, it can imprint an incorrect form on the child's brain, which will require more "unlearning" later. Secondly, this approach can be counterproductive to teaching students the right way - they may use the first option that comes to mind (figuring that's what the teacher would allow) and not make an effort to spell correctly. My brother was taught this way in his early elementary years and had to work very hard in later years to overcome the incorrect imprinting and bad habits this approach established.
It is also not recommended to direct younger students to "look it up" in the dictionary. This can be a very frustrating process if the student does not know what basic phonograms are used, since the dictionary is organized by the proper spelling. If the student has not yet been taught a spelling pattern or rule for the word in question, simply tell (or show) the student what the correct spelling is.
The manner in which you correct mistakes can significantly impact your student's progress.
Kelly
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Why Dictation?
When I began using Sonlight's literature-based approach, I asked this question. I was working with mid-elementary students and part of the Language Arts exercises was to dictate a passage taken from their Readers. Thankfully, I persevered through the early weeks, and then it dawned on me what we were gaining through the use of dictation exercises.
What is the whole purpose of studying Language Arts? To learn to effectively express yourself or to take what is spoken and record it in writing for another to read and comprehend later. One of my students was the type of child who doesn't like to spend extra time doing what he has already mastered, but even he began to see that through dictation he was practicing all aspects of Language Arts skills - capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and handwriting. Writing from dictation allows your student to concentrate on the writing process without having to compose original sentences. An added benefit was that he was learning about sentence structure through examples from skilled authors. This is actually one of the methods that Ben Franklin used to improve his writing skills.
There is an added benefit for you, the parent - you will improve your skill in reading aloud. When giving dictation, you must use your vocal intonation to help your students hear the punctuation.
Sonlight encourages younger children - those who have not yet mastered handwriting comfortably - to do copywork, rather than dictation. This gives them the same exposure to all aspects of Language Arts skill while removing the pressure of taking auditory information and transforming it to written. As they become more skilled in spelling and handwriting, you can begin to wean them off copywork and into dictation.
Dictation can also benefit your child's spelling skills. When you dictate a passage to your child, present it in phrase lengths that are appropriate to his age and readiness. Have your child repeat the phrase and begin writing. Do not offer help in the writing process - let your child commit his own mistakes. I recommend not even watching what your child is writing as this can cause him to focus on your body language for signals about his performance, rather than concentrating on what he is doing. Allow him to pause when spelling an uncertain word to consider various alternatives or recall the spelling rules he has learned. He should feel free to think through the spelling process. When the full passage has been dictated, have your child read his writing aloud to determine whether he is satisfied that he has spelled everything correctly, as well as using capital letters and punctuation properly. As soon as your child has completed proofreading, compare his work with the printed sample from which you gave the dictation. Make note of any misspelled words and discuss any punctuation errors.
I'll provide some guidelines for correcting spelling mistakes in my next post.
Kelly
What is the whole purpose of studying Language Arts? To learn to effectively express yourself or to take what is spoken and record it in writing for another to read and comprehend later. One of my students was the type of child who doesn't like to spend extra time doing what he has already mastered, but even he began to see that through dictation he was practicing all aspects of Language Arts skills - capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and handwriting. Writing from dictation allows your student to concentrate on the writing process without having to compose original sentences. An added benefit was that he was learning about sentence structure through examples from skilled authors. This is actually one of the methods that Ben Franklin used to improve his writing skills.
There is an added benefit for you, the parent - you will improve your skill in reading aloud. When giving dictation, you must use your vocal intonation to help your students hear the punctuation.
Sonlight encourages younger children - those who have not yet mastered handwriting comfortably - to do copywork, rather than dictation. This gives them the same exposure to all aspects of Language Arts skill while removing the pressure of taking auditory information and transforming it to written. As they become more skilled in spelling and handwriting, you can begin to wean them off copywork and into dictation.
Dictation can also benefit your child's spelling skills. When you dictate a passage to your child, present it in phrase lengths that are appropriate to his age and readiness. Have your child repeat the phrase and begin writing. Do not offer help in the writing process - let your child commit his own mistakes. I recommend not even watching what your child is writing as this can cause him to focus on your body language for signals about his performance, rather than concentrating on what he is doing. Allow him to pause when spelling an uncertain word to consider various alternatives or recall the spelling rules he has learned. He should feel free to think through the spelling process. When the full passage has been dictated, have your child read his writing aloud to determine whether he is satisfied that he has spelled everything correctly, as well as using capital letters and punctuation properly. As soon as your child has completed proofreading, compare his work with the printed sample from which you gave the dictation. Make note of any misspelled words and discuss any punctuation errors.
I'll provide some guidelines for correcting spelling mistakes in my next post.
Kelly
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Help Your Child Make Connections to Improve Learning
Last fall I posted a series of articles about the brain and how it collects and stores information. Today I'd like to revisit a concept that I first posted as Wired to Learn. The learning process involves the addition of new information to what is already known. Each day of our lives, our brain is continually reorganizing, adapting, and restructuring itself to expands its ability to connect information and thereby retain it for future retrieval.
You could envision a child's brain as a large wall, and each concept to which he has been exposed can be represented by a hook on that wall. As further information is added, it is hung on a corresponding hook, and often connected to several hooks on the wall. The more information hung on each hook, the more complex the child's understanding of that concept becomes. These "hooks" could be referred to as schema, defined as an underlying structure, or conceptual framework. When we organize our educational efforts to work in conjunction with our children's existing schema, we can expand their ability to retain the information ... and to learn effectively.
Another way to 'picture' this concept is to consider how a color printer works. The printer requires cartridges of black, yellow, blue, and red ink (yes, the official color names are different, but let's keep it simple). When you tell the printer to produce a color picture, it will use a combination of these four ink colors, and produce a much more intricate picture than if you were to print it in black and white or grayscale settings. Our brains do the same thing with information - the initial concept gives us a black and white framework, and additional related information adds the color variations to create a beautiful picture that excites our senses. You can add "color" to your child's learning process by following some basic steps as you teach.
Kelly
You could envision a child's brain as a large wall, and each concept to which he has been exposed can be represented by a hook on that wall. As further information is added, it is hung on a corresponding hook, and often connected to several hooks on the wall. The more information hung on each hook, the more complex the child's understanding of that concept becomes. These "hooks" could be referred to as schema, defined as an underlying structure, or conceptual framework. When we organize our educational efforts to work in conjunction with our children's existing schema, we can expand their ability to retain the information ... and to learn effectively.
- Make connections to things your child already knows. When teaching history, expand your child's connections to the information by utilizing maps and timelines to help your child "see" where and when the events happened or the person lived. If they are already familiar with the time period or another historical person, show them how the new information fits with what they already know. For example, if your child has already been introduced to George Washington, he can connect Thomas Jefferson to several points of reference - both lived in Virginia, both had plantations, both were political leaders and U.S. Presidents, etc. And Justin Morgan developed his Morgan horse breed during their lifetimes - I wonder whether Washington and Jefferson had Morgan horses on their plantations?
- Use analogies. An analogy is a comparison between two things that are otherwise dissimilar. Enlist your child's help in developing analogies by selecting symbols for different events in time or historical figures. You may want to color code entries on your timeline (see my last blog post), or use symbols to indicate parts of speech that words hold in a sentence. There are a variety of ways you can connect information by attaching symbols or analogy comparisons, and link that information in your child's brain.
- Provide content with unifying themes. This is already done for you when using Sonlight Curriculum. Sonlight's Core programs are organized around 3 themes - World Cultures, World History and American History. These themes are reviewed 3 times in the span between Kindergarten and High School studies, beginning with introduction of information (setting the hooks on the wall, or creating the black and white framework) and then adding greater detail and complexity to the information as they visit the themes again.
Kelly
Saturday, February 18, 2012
The Timeline Tool
Have you ever wondered why we should use a timeline? If you are a Sonlight user, you have timeline figures in your program - at least for Cores A through H - and a Book of Time that is a required resource. But you may have asked yourself (or others) why we need it.
Think back to your years in school. If you are like me, you studied history primarily from textbooks which may have bounced around in time periods. I don't recall having history texts that covered the whole world chronologically, so we may have studied one area's history and then moved to another continental area, but we did not necessarily connect the people we read about in order to be able to identify which were contemporaries. It wasn't until I was using Sonlight Curriculum that I discovered that Archimedes was studying mathmatical equations at the same time that Hannibal was crossing the Alps with his elephants, and the Chinese were building the Great Wall to keep out invaders. I don't think I would have even connected these facts if it were not for the timeline that we kept as we studied different people in history.
You see, putting events, places, and people on our timeline, enables us to "see" what was happening at the same time, even if our books don't point this out in the narrative. As you add timeline figures, the whole world converges in one place and you are able to make connections - actually form additional brain synapses that tie information gleaned on separate occasions together and hang it on a hook. That hook will actually aid your retention of the information. So pull out that Book of Time that you may have ignored until now and set aside some time to assemble your timeline.
As you do, let me share an idea that a friend of mine gave me years ago. When you place the timeline figures on the pages in the A.D. portion of the Book of Time they tend to blend in to the paper. We found it beneficial to trim the figures with a small border (perhaps 1/8") around the picture and then place it on the page. Then, depending on the color associated with your Core program, use a marker to draw around the edge of the figure. If you are using Core B, the associated color is red, so you would use a red marker to draw a line around the figure. This not only helps to see the figure on the page, but also identifies what Core level you studied that particular person, place or event. If you encounter that same person, place or event in another Core, you can add another line around the figure in that Core's color. If you don't know the color associated with your Core program, search for "book labels" in the sonlight.com search engine and you will find a full list with the colors.
As your Book of Time is assembled, use it for weekly review. You can simply flip through the pages and point to a figure, asking your child(ren) to tell you what they remember about it. The more you review, and talk about the events and people in the same time period, the more you will help your child remember what you have studied.
Enjoy the adventure!
Kelly
 |
| A Sample of My Book of Time |
Think back to your years in school. If you are like me, you studied history primarily from textbooks which may have bounced around in time periods. I don't recall having history texts that covered the whole world chronologically, so we may have studied one area's history and then moved to another continental area, but we did not necessarily connect the people we read about in order to be able to identify which were contemporaries. It wasn't until I was using Sonlight Curriculum that I discovered that Archimedes was studying mathmatical equations at the same time that Hannibal was crossing the Alps with his elephants, and the Chinese were building the Great Wall to keep out invaders. I don't think I would have even connected these facts if it were not for the timeline that we kept as we studied different people in history.
You see, putting events, places, and people on our timeline, enables us to "see" what was happening at the same time, even if our books don't point this out in the narrative. As you add timeline figures, the whole world converges in one place and you are able to make connections - actually form additional brain synapses that tie information gleaned on separate occasions together and hang it on a hook. That hook will actually aid your retention of the information. So pull out that Book of Time that you may have ignored until now and set aside some time to assemble your timeline.
As you do, let me share an idea that a friend of mine gave me years ago. When you place the timeline figures on the pages in the A.D. portion of the Book of Time they tend to blend in to the paper. We found it beneficial to trim the figures with a small border (perhaps 1/8") around the picture and then place it on the page. Then, depending on the color associated with your Core program, use a marker to draw around the edge of the figure. If you are using Core B, the associated color is red, so you would use a red marker to draw a line around the figure. This not only helps to see the figure on the page, but also identifies what Core level you studied that particular person, place or event. If you encounter that same person, place or event in another Core, you can add another line around the figure in that Core's color. If you don't know the color associated with your Core program, search for "book labels" in the sonlight.com search engine and you will find a full list with the colors.
As your Book of Time is assembled, use it for weekly review. You can simply flip through the pages and point to a figure, asking your child(ren) to tell you what they remember about it. The more you review, and talk about the events and people in the same time period, the more you will help your child remember what you have studied.
Enjoy the adventure!
Kelly
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
