What works for your family? - Page 2

[LitMom]

Originally Posted by Fillyjonk 

At this age, playing. Honestly, I don't think you need anything else. There is a window of opportunity for a particular kind of play, I think, up to the age of around seven, and kids need to go through this much more than they need to learn to read.

I don't mean I'd stop a child from learning to read or teach them if they requested it (providing other signs of readiness were there, like sign recognition), just that I would not push it on a child before seven. (maybe not even then-just that IME most kids are ready at seven for the beginnings of abstract work if thats what you want to do with them)

(random question here. I often see posters saying "my 4 yo is on a pre-K level with this " or a "2nd grade level on that". How do you know this stuff? I never have any idea what level my kids are at. For my 4 year old, I could say, "she really likes drawing and animals but has no idea how to spell", and thats about it. Even my 8 year old it would be, he's done a year of latin and two years of maths and knows basic arthimatic and the tables and likes algebra and probabilty more than geometry...I mean, how do you know what level your child is on? Genuine question.)

I go by the grade levels for the curriculum we're using for Math; the level of standardized test we do annually; and the grade level that I submit on our paperwork. I also know, from previous work experience, roughly what reading level DD is at. 

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by Fillyjonk 

(random question here. I often see posters saying "my 4 yo is on a pre-K level with this " or a "2nd grade level on that". How do you know this stuff? I never have any idea what level my kids are at. For my 4 year old, I could say, "she really likes drawing and animals but has no idea how to spell", and thats about it. Even my 8 year old it would be, he's done a year of latin and two years of maths and knows basic arthimatic and the tables and likes algebra and probabilty more than geometry...I mean, how do you know what level your child is on? Genuine question.)

I think the idea of "levels" in anything except math and basic literacy is a little silly, myself. If I have a 4-year-old who has factual knowledge about science or music history that is normally taught in a 10th grade classroom, that doesn't mean he's at a 10th grade level in science or music history. Subjects like that aren't "levelled" inasmuch as the content is simply distributed over many years of schooling in an often arbitrary manner. As homeschoolers my kids are able to learn about the world around them in their own arbitrary manner.

With basic literacy it is quite easy to guage reading level by looking at the RL code on the back of many children's and YA novels. If a kid is reading and enjoying a Harry Potter book marked as RL 5.7, it's a safe bet she's reading at a 5th grade level.

As for math, many people use a systematic curriculum which has a correlation with grade levels. If a child is completing Singapore Math 2B, that correlates with early 3rd grade in North America. My ds is using a Canadian textbook called Pre-Calculus 10 which is a 10th grade academic-stream course so I'd describe him as being at a 10th grade level. Most math curricula make this straightforward.

As for pre-K vs. KG vs. 1st grade, as a mom to multiple older kids that just seems to me like splitting hairs. My kids certainly never progressed steadily and tidily through those levels. (Nor did we use curriculum at that age.) They'd be playing in the sandbox with the garden hose for weeks, and then they'd turn around an write a birthday card to grandma, having given me no previous indication of any progression in writing ability.

I suppose if you are a person who uses a lot of leveled curriciulum with your children from an early age you could get the illusion of steady progression through orderly grade levels in multiple subject areas. My kids have certainly never learned like that though.

Miranda

[JamieCatheryn]

My 6yo (officially a Kindergartener) now does pages for Math, Phonics and Language, and Handwriting (all grade 1) (A Beka this year, switching to Saxon Math 2 and Growing with Grammar 1 next school year). We read picture books to each other and play math games and I read him books about History and Science and read him the Bible. Also he gets included in household things, practical skill stuff, and he is practicing with the football team his age. The almost 3 year old plays the math card games with us with help, listens to the reading, and colors while DS1 works on pages. We're pretty much looking at it in the classical education model, teach him the rules he needs now to figure out stuff while he can soak them up, but not purely rote memorization of sight words and math facts like the local school district is doing.

[Treece]

Originally Posted by Fillyjonk 

(random question here. I often see posters saying "my 4 yo is on a pre-K level with this " or a "2nd grade level on that". How do you know this stuff? I never have any idea what level my kids are at. For my 4 year old, I could say, "she really likes drawing and animals but has no idea how to spell", and thats about it. Even my 8 year old it would be, he's done a year of latin and two years of maths and knows basic arthimatic and the tables and likes algebra and probabilty more than geometry...I mean, how do you know what level your child is on? Genuine question.)

For me, this means that I have looked at a scope and sequence (such as World Book offers for free) and I just paste it into a Word doc and highlight what he knows. I keep going until I come to a point where he no longer knows enough to be worth the amount of work. Does that make sense? It's not a be all end all process, but it does give me a very good idea where he is at compared to the expected norm.