Getting an Internationally Adopted Kid Up to Speed

[dharmamama]

I am looking for something that I can use with my daughter, Desta, who will be 11 when she gets here. She's in second grade in Ethiopia. I am looking for a prety much generally inclusive curriculum that will give her some of the cultural and general knowledge that she will need just to be considered reasonably educated by American standards. I want her to be able to go to college if she wants and not have these HUGE holes in what she would be expected to know.

My friend suggested the What Your First Grader Needs to Know series, and someone else suggested Home Learning Year By Year.

Any other suggestions? Has anyone had experience with the Core Knowledge (What Your _ Grader Needs to Know) series?

Thanks!

Namaste!

[AuntLavender]

I've read those books you mentioned

and they are really just one person's wish list of what children *should* know. I think whatever you choose for your daughter will Americanize her and prepare her for college. She's only 11 so she has years to prepare for college and life beyond.

For example I choose to teach my children how to sew and how to cook and how to fix things and grow food in a garden and raise butterflies (over 3 dozen Monarch's so far!). My son wasn't interested much in math until we started using a library book on math and projects. Now according to the public schools it was awful he didn't learn addition and then subtraction and multiplication and division in the right way but he learned it and he did so in a fraction of the time it takes his peers in public school to learn it. (No math (well not much anyway!) until he was 9 and now he's into algebra! He'd be in 3rd grade.

With homeschooling you decide what your daughter needs to know. I would think just grocery shopping would be terrific for learning our customs and language and math - have you ever shopped in a foreign grocery store!?! it can be a dizzying experience!

Congratulations on your upcoming adoption of your daughter!

Sincerely,
Debra

[Dar]

I've worked with kids around her age who came here from Sierra Leone... they spoke English, of course, and I'm guessing that your daughter won't. Even though they spoke the language, though, it took a good six months for them to just get their bearings, and to understand a lot of the things we just take for granted. For example, some of the kids had never seen a clock, and had no understanding of numbered time. I think that giving her a cultural context for information would be an important first step, and that would be most easily done by immersion.

After that, you might have better luck looking at curriculum specifically designed for older ELL students, because she will be able to learn most things far more quickly than the average 7 year old. You'll also need to figure out where her skills are, because second grade could mean anything, really. Perhaps the Key to workbooks would work? Or some software, like the ClueFinders series?

I agree that Core Knowledge is probably not your best bet... besides just being one person's opinion, it's one older white Christian man's opinion, and as such probably isn't very releant to Desta... or to me, either.

Dar

[dharmamama]

Originally Posted by Dar

you might have better luck looking at curriculum specifically designed for older ELL students

That's a great idea, and one that I had never thought of. Thanks for the suggestion! Do you have any suggestions of an ELL curriculum?

I agree that Core Knowledge is probably not your best bet... besides just being one person's opinion, it's one older white Christian man's opinion, and as such probably isn't very releant to Desta... or to me, either.

Yeah, I worry about that, too. But I keep having these recurring images of Desta as a twenty-something, repeatedly getting this deer-caught-in-headlights look in her eyes during conversations with others because they are talking about things that I never thought to tell her about.

I'll look into the Key to series.

Namaste!

[dharmamama]

This just occurred to me. What about using some of those big 2nd-, 3rd-, 4th-grade workbooks that I see sometimes at the store, maybe with a title like Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills? Has anyone used something like that?

Namaste!

[moominmamma]

Everyone has 'holes' in their knowledge. It's just a fact of life. Education doesn't stop at 18. I can't help but think that the best way to prevent a child from growing into an adult who gets a 'deer in the headlights' reaction is to nurture curiosity and confidence, not fill her up with facts. In fact, I'd think that during her first year or two in a new family and a new culture, thrusting the general body of American cultural knowledge upon her according to someone else's agenda is likely to undermine her curiosity and confidence and be counter-productive in the long run.

Like Dar, I'd tend to give her 6 - 12 months at least to "find her feet", to begin to feel part of your family and of American culture and society, to develop her language skills. Language immersion will be a profoundly unsettling, intellectually exhausting experience for a child when combined with a complete shift in social / family bonding and cultural circumstances. It's called culture shock for a reason. I would definitely wait on the Melting Pot agenda until the earth-shaking language and family adjustments she'll be going through have abated. Then I'd let her curiosity lead her forward from the emotional safety of what we knows gradually reaching into the netherworld of the unknown. I'd think there would be plenty of time while she's an older teen for her to learn about the origins of democracy in Ancient Greece, to read "Huckleberry Finn", to memorize state capitals and learn the history of the Apollo missions.

It must be darned exciting to be at the stage of realistically considering these sorts of homeschooling questions for Desta!

Miranda

[dharmamama]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

Like Dar, I'd tend to give her 6 - 12 months at least to "find her feet", to begin to feel part of your family and of American culture and society, to develop her language skills. [snip] I would definitely wait on the Melting Pot agenda until the earth-shaking language and family adjustments she'll be going through have abated.

I absolutely agree with you. I have no intention of beginning any type of "schooling" with Desta for AT LEAST the first six months, and probably not even then.

But ...

I'm a planner, and I am also one of those people who finds something to distract me while I wait (I laid out my entire homeschool curriculum for Ramona while I was pregnant with her ... of course, it's all changed by now), so I am thinking about these things now.

Namaste!

[Irishmommy]

Butting in here. Does this mean she's definitely coming??

[moominmamma]

Oops, double post.

[UlrikeDG]

I think I'd start with Sonlight for read alouds (you can get them from your library, but I think that catalog is a good place to start for ideas). Check out the research in the Read-Aloud Handbook. I think reading aloud to her is probably the single best thing you can do to improve her English literacy. Reading American books will also help to familiarize her with American culture.

I also like the The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas for some fun & flexible suggestions.

Beyond that, I'd wait and see what she's like in person. Give her a few weeks at least to get over the stress of moving before getting really gung ho about academics, whatever curriculum you decide to use. And be prepared to try out 2-3 different methods or curriculums before you find the best match for the two of you. Remember that older kids learn things faster than younger ones, so don't freak out that her "peers" have a "head start." If you help her to LOVE learning, she'll do great!

[warriorprincess]

Originally Posted by dharmamama

This just occurred to me. What about using some of those big 2nd-, 3rd-, 4th-grade workbooks that I see sometimes at the store, maybe with a title like Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills? Has anyone used something like that?

Namaste!

Yes, I have used these from time to time with my kids, and they an easy way to make sure my kids are staying "up to speed".

[PancakeGoddess]

Originally Posted by Irishmommy

Butting in here. Does this mean she's definitely coming??

have you seen the blog?
http://bringingdestahome.blogspot.com/

I know how it is to be a planner, but I think you might be amazed at how much general cultural knowledge she can pick up in the decade of her childhood you'll still have with her! I'm so excited for you.

[ErikaDP]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

Everyone has 'holes' in their knowledge. It's just a fact of life. Education doesn't stop at 18. I can't help but think that the best way to prevent a child from growing into an adult who gets a 'deer in the headlights' reaction is to nurture curiosity and confidence, not fill her up with facts. In fact, I'd think that during her first year or two in a new family and a new culture, thrusting the general body of American cultural knowledge upon her according to someone else's agenda is likely to undermine her curiosity and confidence and be counter-productive in the long run.

Like Dar, I'd tend to give her 6 - 12 months at least to "find her feet", to begin to feel part of your family and of American culture and society, to develop her language skills. Language immersion will be a profoundly unsettling, intellectually exhausting experience for a child when combined with a complete shift in social / family bonding and cultural circumstances. It's called culture shock for a reason. I would definitely wait on the Melting Pot agenda until the earth-shaking language and family adjustments she'll be going through have abated. Then I'd let her curiosity lead her forward from the emotional safety of what we knows gradually reaching into the netherworld of the unknown. I'd think there would be plenty of time while she's an older teen for her to learn about the origins of democracy in Ancient Greece, to read "Huckleberry Finn", to memorize state capitals and learn the history of the Apollo missions.

It must be darned exciting to be at the stage of realistically considering these sorts of homeschooling questions for Desta!

Miranda

:
Miranda and Dar gave such good advice that it bears repeating!
And I also wanted to say:

Congratulations!

Take Care,
Erika:

Hannah-Rest in Peace Sweet Girl