K12/Virtual Academy Fall 2009 - Page 14

What is an F2F meeting?

Face to Face meeting....the way she explained it is we meet once quartly, where I have to bring in examples of their work in each subject and theri pe log.

At the F2F's I've had, we've turned things in, signed papers (like the PE log), sometimes she'll do a quick assessment (particularly if they're about to move up to a new class in a subjects), she asks if they need any extra help, makes a few suggestions, and that's about it.

Gina,
My son is in 3rd grade and we started in early October - I was overwhelmed with JUST ONE, so I really feel for you! I am learning where I can drop lessons or activities and it's easing up.

You really only have to show work a few times a year to prove you're doing the exact curriculum, so you have some flexibility and the ability to combine your 2nd and 3rd graders.

I would take a big step back and have just one child complete work for a day or two with you in each subject and then move on to the next child. When it's that child's day, watch for things you can change or cut.

I noticed that some of the lessons just drag ON and ON with different activities and my 3rd grader was so bored. I started allowing him to verbally tell me answers to questions instead of writing them ALL down.

There are things they could do at the same time with their siblings (like spelling... you could call out a word to kid #1, then a word to kid #2 and then kid #3, and they only have to wait a few seconds extra).

For art I would only cover the art history stuff as needed for each lesson, then choose a project for them ALL to do together either from a lesson or from your own ideas. Rotate the different skills they're using like sculpting, drawing, painting, crafting, etc..

Have them all do literature together by reading silently and answering questions silently. Then you can all discuss together perhaps. I don't think they absolutely HAVE to all read a separate book. The 2nd and 3rd could possibly share the same lessons and, in fact, they could take turns reading out loud, so maybe it covers the Kinder kid.

I've been cutting out a lot of little things. I don't do handwriting every day and i skip a few assignments in some lessons. If they know the spelling words well enough to pass, I would skip lessons 1-4 and assess them out, mark the assignments as done. Sme with math.

This may sound crazy, but could they do 2 science lessons more quickly TOGETHER with you than having you struggle between them to do two separately? I know you said one child was struggling though.

Do you have a partner who could work with one of the kids in the evening and/or could someone do weekends to knock out several lessons? Like maybe your Kinder kid does bare minimum during the day/week and does most on the weekends?? Then just space the stuff out when marking it off in the progress and attendance during the week.

Next year you will have a few more things they can do independently and each yr works towards more independent work.

I quit that music curiculum too. We're doing a free piano course online from Piano Nanny and he's joining a kids chorus in January. That's good enough.

I hear you about the toddler. Mine's turning two Nov 15th and he's been a nightmare since we started!!! my mild mannered toddler turned into a beast

I figured out if we keep a stack of fresh library books on tons of subjects in the middle of the table, my son will grab one in between lessons and do an impromptu reading/discussion alone or with me. Then he seems refreshed and will easily transition into another lesson. So far there's less resistence and more happiness. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thank you for that! Yes...I can do the boys science together!!! Just reading what you wrote and realizing how I can change things around (even though I knew I could, I was so overwhelmed, I just couldn't figure it out, kwim?) makes if it feel like I can actually do this!

My daughter who is in kinder is a night owl by nature and looooves to sleep in. I am finding if I start her work around 7ish she does really well, then because she was up later then her brothers, she sleeps in until 9 or 10 in the morning, which gives me a few hours to work with her brothers.

Luckily, dh works nights, so he is home in the mornings to help me out, especially with the baby or one of the boys if need be.

Thank you mamas!

Gromero (and others with multiple kids!) This should help with the science courses:

K-6 Science Content Themes across the Curriculum

In looking at the K12 Curriculum for grades K through 6, you can see some recurring “themes” or big ideas. In an attempt to help you coordinate those themes into your teaching, we’ve developed this simple listing.

Use this guide to help you coordinate your science teaching in a multi-child family. Just keep in mind a few items:
•We’ve listed Animals, Chemistry/Matter, Classification, Earth/Fossils, Forces/Energy/Machines, Habitats/Ecosystems/Conservation, Human Body/Senses, Light, Methods/Measurement, Oceans, Plants, Rocks/Soil/Weathering, Solar System and Weather as the major themes or big ideas in the K12 Science, but it certainly is not complete. Use this as a starting point to see overlapping themes..
•Use this to help teach the same theme to more than one child but still use the age-appropriate lesson and assessment for each child.
•Siblings may sit in on the lesson for enrichment.
•This can be a great resource for planning library trips and using supplemental materials.
•You may see a unit listed under more than one theme because of content.
•In some cases if you rearrange the order of the science lessons there may be some earlier concepts that your child will not have had. You will need to fill in those knowledge gaps until you come back to those lessons.
•If there is not a unit listed for a particular grade level under one of the major themes, it may still be covered in individual lessons for that grade level,, but we were aiming to highlight units in this document.

Animals
K:Unit 3: Introduction to Living Things, Unit 5: Animals, Unit 6: Where Animals Live
1:Unit 4: Animal ClassificationUnit 5, Adaptations
2:Unit 10: Circle of Life - Animals
3:Unit 2: Classification of Vertebrates
4:Unit 1: Ecosystems, Unit 2: Plant and Animal Interactions, Unit 6: Classification of Invertebrates
5:Unit 7: Taxonomy of Plants and Animals, Unit 8 Animal Physiology
Earth Science* (ES):

Chemistry/Matter
K:Unit 8: Matter
1:Unit 2: Matterland
2:
3:Unit 5: Properties of Matter,
Unit 6: Physical and Chemical Changes of Matter
4:Unit 3: Chemistry of Solutions
5:Unit 5: Chemistry
ES:

Classification
K:
1:Unit 4: Animal Classification
2:
3:Unit 2: Classification of Vertebrates
4:Unit 6: Classification of Invertebrates
5:Unit 7: Taxonomy of Plants and Animals
ES:


Earth/Fossils
K:Unit 11: Planet Earth
1:
2:Unit 7: Rock Hounds
3:
4:Unit 10: Fossils and Geologic Time
5:
ES:Unit 4: Earth’s Interior, Unit 5: Plate Tectonics,
Unit 7: The Fossil Record


Forces/Energy/Machines
K:Unit 14: Make it Move
1:
2:Unit 2: Forces and Motion, Unit 3: Simple Machines,
Unit 4: Magnetism
3:Unit 8: Energy
4:Unit 4: Forces in Fluids, Unit 7: Electricity and Magnetism
5:Unit 4: Motion and Forces
ES:Unit 10: Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources


Habitats/Ecosystems/Conservation
K:Unit 6: Where Animals Live, Unit 12: Taking Care of Our Earth
1:Unit 8: Habitats
2:Unit 8: Weathering, Erosion and Soil
3:Unit 3: Ecosystems, Unit 4: Ecosystems of the Past
4:Unit 1: Ecosystems, Unit 2: Plant and Animal Interactions
5:
ES:




Human Body/Senses
K:Unit 1: Observing My World, Unit 2: My Body
1:Unit 10: Human Body
2:Unit 6: Human Body
3:Unit 7: Human Body
4:Unit 5: Human Body
5:Unit 6: Cells and Cell Processes, Unit 8: Animal Physiology
ES:


Light
K:
1:Unit 6: Light up Your Life
2:
3:Unit 9: Light
4:
5:
ES:

Methods/Measurement
K:Unit 7: Make the Measurement
1:Unit 1: Acting Like a Scientist
2:Unit 1: Metrics and Measurement
3:
4:
5:
ES:Unit 1: Mapping the Earth, Unit 11: Research Project

Oceans
K:
1:Unit 9: Oceans and Undersea Life
2:
3:
4:
5:Unit 2: The World’s Oceans
ES:Unit 8: Oceans

Plants
K:Unit 3, Intro to Living Things, Unit 4: Plants, Unit 13: Farming
1:Unit 7: Our Green World
2:Unit 9: Circle of Life - Plants
3:Unit 3: Ecosystems, Unit 4: Ecosystems of the Past
4:Unit 1: Ecosystems, Unit 2: Plant and Animal Interactions
5:Unit 7: Taxonomy of Plants and Animals
ES:
Rocks/Soil/Weathering
K:
1:
2:Unit 7: Rock Hounds, Unit 8: Weathering, Erosion and Soil
3:
4:Unit 8: Rocks and Minerals, Unit 9: Weathering, Erosion and Deposition
5:
ES:Unit 2: Minerals, Unit 3: Rocks

Solar System
K:Unit 15: Astronomy
1:
2:
3:Unit 10: Sun, Earth and Moon, Unit 11: Solar System and Beyond
4:
5:
ES:Unit 12: Our Place in the Universe

Weather
K:Unit 9: What About the Weather, Unit 10: Seasons
1:Unit 3: Everyday Weather
2:
3:Unit 1: Weather
4:
5:Unit 3: Earth’s Atmosphere
ES:Unit 9: Weather and Climate

Its more of a major mismatch with my style and the style of my oldest child. I'm all for scripted stuff for teaching (which is why I love k12 right now lol) but this is soooooo corny with how its done, I rolled my eyes when I read the first lesson the night before I did it with Melissa the first time. I mean really, it just is that fingernails on a chalkboard thing for me personally. And I'm learning exactly how like me Melissa is, and in how many ways, she responds just like me to almost everything. It just isn't good for her and I, but I know that it will be ok with Lydia probably because she's just that kind of kid

gromero- Gina- Yes, I'm Cat from LF over at BBC. I've recently stopped posting there for a while myself, after some *interesting* discussions that have come up (decided to spend more time focusing on other things that don't involve tv celebrity families) When they switched over to the new format, I almost left but I'm a group owner on a few boards and can't leave since I'm the ONLY active GO on one and they do need some occassional moderation and deleting of stuff. As for how to handle the littlest one, well I'm teaching K and 1st right now with a 3yo and 2yo, and I try to do stuff with one kid at a time. I sit Lydia (my K'er) down for seatwork and we do it while Melissa (the 1st grader) plays with the 2 little ones. Then after lunch the 2yo, Jordan, goes down for a nap and I do Melissa's lessons while Lydia plays educational games and puts together puzzles and stuff like that with Kimmy, the 3yo. I'm really dreading when Kimmy starts K in 2 years, I'll have kids in K, 2nd, and 3rd grades with one that is in 4yo preschool (Jordan meets the K cutoff in our state by 3 weeks, we're debating if we want to hold her back a year though) If we don't hold Jordan back we'll have kids in K, 1st, 3rd, and 4th grade but if we do hold her back it'll be K, 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades. We really can't decide, but currently are leaning toward holding her back for my sanity's sake LOL

I am so tired right now, tomorrow is our last soccer game for fall season and Monday starts dh's week off vacation (lord help me!) We have a TON of work to do around the house, and the big kids get to take next friday off lessons because we have to take both of them to get fillings (they gotta get gassed to cooperate) I have a feeling we'll be doing a LOT of life skills lessons next week, with a ton of practical application of current skills for reinforcement.

Is anyone is using K12's foreign language courses, and if so, which one and how you like it?
We're using time4learning.com 1st grade language arts, math, science and social studies with my gifted preschooler, but they don't have any foreign languages and he really wants to learn at least one. I'm too poor to go K12 for all subjects, so it would just be for the one subject.

They use powerglide http://www.power-glide.com and honestly? I thought it sucked big time, at least the spanish did. There were a lot of errors in the program and it moved way way to fast for us. Once your child is kindy age K12 is free in most states if your in the US

Not in Michigan, unfortunately. We looked into it with my older son last year. Thanks for the review-- I don't want to waste my money.

My kids enjoy the foreign language, but it's not something I'd pay for.

Well, I'm all for a new k12 thread if you want to start it.

As for how I'm liking it as a first-year user, well I really like it a lot. DH has gotten involved this week since he's on vacation from work, and the kids are learning a LOT of stuff. We are discussing going with public school though for a while after this year, we're at a point in our marraige that we're exploring our options right now and depending on what we choose, I may end up going to school again to get a degree so I can get a decent job. Tough spot but it'll work out as it does.
The only thing I absolutely can't stand about k12 is the music program. I am so happy that I was able to drop that curriculum and go with my own stuff instead. Melissa's having a blast with violin lessons and we're getting ready to start a unit study for music that I pulled off homeschool share.