For first grade homeschoolers-how long do u do school?

Post Reply New Topic

I am curious- how do other folks out there homeschool your child with AS. Do you break it up in segments so you do not lose attention or do you do it all in one sitting?

How long do you actually home school each day?

Because my son is having so much trouble reading and writing we are focusing on that, and his math and some science (mainly science with electricity and light, that is what is interest is).

Thanks for your input!

Laura

At 1rst grade I would not push for more than 1-2 hrs of cumulative schooling. If memory serves, we did about 1/2-1 hr of math, and about 1/2 of writing. He read fluently on his own so I let him just do his own thing for that.

I had/ have a very strict policy about no TV or video games before 3pm (and none in the morning, either).

I also let him play lots and lots of educational computer games, like the Reader Rabbit games, which are for math and reading.

He is age 9 1/2 now and reads at an adult level, I'm guessing his math ability is around 6th grade. His weak points are handwriting and spelling. I've let him type, for the most part, rather than write.

Good luck!! !! !

My son is older and we keep it very relaxed around here. We use the DVR to tape some Classroom programs (History channel and A & E both have these) and we will watch those in the evening. The other night we watched about the Grand Canyon. It included history, engineering (Hoover Dam, Great Depression) and a little on the rafting business.

Math is done on the computer (games), on paper or in the kitchen (fractions, measuring while cooking). Over the summer, some math was in the garden or during board games. Social studies can be reading the newspaper in the afternoon or reading his various magazines that he loves.

Writing is so difficult and after several years of public school, we don't really write much. I backed off and now he is writing lists, but we're still not pushing it. Once we do "school" we'll probably use dictation and/or keyboarding. Kids around here start this week, so we'll start easing into it then when the other kids are gone all day.

We do break things up - use different media, different locations. When we first started, I tried school-at-home. That's when I realized how little time it actually takes when you're one-on-one instead of trying to manage 20 or 30 kids. There were days when we could be done in under 2 hours. There were other days when he really enjoyed learning and I would have to make him stop so he could get ready for supper.

We were going to school year-round (my idea) but he just couldn't get over that - but mom, it's SUMMER, a kid's supposed to have time off. But, over the last two weeks, he's started reading again (on his own) and he's getting out the educational games and paying more attention to the Classrooms on DVR - he's basically ready to start learning again.

Yes, absolutely it takes 2 hrs or less of one on one time.

One thing I forgot to mention-- SINGAPORE MATH. This is an excellent, amazing program that seems so wonderfully suited to aspies. I love it, my son loves it. It is a fantastic program. Homeschoolers and some private and public schools have adopted the programs after educrats began noticing the Singapore was consistently scoring in the top positions in worldwide math comparisons.

The books are inexpensive-- about $7 each. You need 4 of then per school year. If you want to be really cheap, you can just buy the workbooks.

Use the US edition of Primary Math.

www.singaporemath.com

Rainbow Resource (www.rainbowresource.com) also sells SM books.

Thanks for your replies-I am glad that I am not under-teaching! I thought we were getting done too soon. But after listening to some moms whose kids are in public school there is a lot of "filler" time with kids at this age.

I have heard a lot about Singapore math, if he does not like Saxon as well this year, I might change, but he is use to the way Saxon goes, so that is good. School is going great so far, but then we just finished our first week!

Have a good day
Laura

thanks for the link for Singapore Math. That looks interesting. My son is terribly bored with the run of the mill math books. His academic problems are that he learns quickly, then is so bored with the subject that he abandons it. So, he hits a plateau and stays there a while. Reading is the same for him.
I'm not home-schooling him but we prep him for the school year in case he falls behind or has to be pulled out.

Singapore math is fantastic for kids who learn quickly and bore easily-- it is streamlined and has a visual--->concrete--->abstract order of teaching. The emphasis on visual is good for AS kids. There is little repetition, which is nice, too.

I think most people would learn math easier if it were presented "visually". That and teaching word problems appropriately would make higher levels of math look a lot easier. most problems with math are that it looks intimidating. I had an algebra class in which the book was made up of most word problems and it was the easiest thing in the world. The next semester I had a different teacher and different book that was all problems and words and no one did well. I was failing her class but she thought I was such a good student that she asked me tutor someone in another class. go figure. I went on to tutor an eighth grader and taught her algebra in place of arithmetic.

thanks again, I checked out the samples, looks good.