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Dictation and other CM methods?
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Hi there
I’m a little confused about dictation. On some blogs, I read that CM HS’ers are doing dictation daily. So I upped ours, now I feel like it’s just “another task to get through”. We seemed to value it more when we did it less often, and the children seemed to make fewer spelling errors.
I’m fairly certain that on the SCM video about dictation Sonya says that it is only neccesary once or twice a week. How often do you do dictation?
We have implemented as much of CM as I know about now, and I cannot believe then change. I am still fairly new to all these CM methods, and at times they seem so “simple”. At the back of my mind, I find myself asking “Will this really work, will my children be adequately prepared doing this?” For the first time in years we’re enjoying school and I am more relaxed and loving it 😉
Thanks,
Lindy
Yes. Sonya suggests dictation exercises are to be done 1-2 times per week. We do it about this often, except when they are transitioning toward dication from copywork. Our youngest is trying to work up to it. We might do a dictation exercise 1-2 times per month. I don’t forsee having dictation more than twice a week at our house. If it works for other families to do these exercises every day, that’s fine, too. Your children, your decision. Do what works best for your family.
Maybe they are studying their dictation exercise on some of those days? I usually assign the dictation exercise on Monday, my son studies it throughout the week and I actually dictate it to him on Thursday or Friday, whenever he feels he’s ready. But in my record book I list the subject as “dictation.” For us it would be counter-productive to actually DICTATE every day.
We’ve always done dictation twice a week It seems about right, allowing plenty of time for preparation. They don’t all LOVE dictation, but at twice a week they don’t mind it. I think if I made them do it every day I’d have some unhappy campers. 🙂
Thank you for those replies. I’ll go back to less frequently rather. I like the idea of reviewing it on certain days. I didn’t think of that, it would actually help, but not be as intense as a dictation lesson. My 3 are all different. One child loves it, the other is ok, the other does it.
Thank you,
Lindy
Like Bookworm and RobinP we do dictation 2x per week (started with 1x) but Spelling Wisdom is on our list daily because on the days I don’t dictate they are expected to study. The pace and amount of dictation seems to be working quite well.
My only challenge is getting them to be a little more proactive and creative on their study days. I’ll see “Study Spelling Wisdom Dictation” checked off on our school list and I’ll ask, once in a while, “so, how did you study today/what did you do to study the passage/hard words”. Most often, the response is simply, “well, uh, I READ it, mom”….
Having said this, so far, they have achieved perfection on dictation days. Sooooo, until it’s broken I guess I’ve got nothing to fix! (just feeling as though at some point, we need to get a bit more serious about what “studying” is…but that is another thread, of course!)
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