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Sometimes I wonder
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Sometimes I wonder about a few subjects we are doing….
My son has ok cursive handwriting…. when he is doing copywork. But he just can’t seem to write anything original, without printing. (And I never taught printing… we did cursive first…. so it looks horrible.) I know that it is a lot harder to write something without a model… and even harder if you are trying to think of what you are saying too…. but I know if he had gone to school he would be doing a lot more physical writing and would probably be more comforable with the idea of doing it…? And my 5yo (who is a leftie) can’t seem to make even simple strokes…. and is tending to print on those occasions she wants to write something (again, not taught…) – and then most often backwards. So now I’m wondering if I should be doing cursive first after all if they are tending to print anyways. I like the method but I just don’t know how to make things improve. (And the people at Peterson gave lots of good ideas… but the ideas mostly assumed that he would be writing things for school that he is doing orally.)
And then German. We have been working at German for a while (with a mixture of methods) for 3 years… and I don’t feel like any of us are getting anywhere. The kids say “only a little” in German, and can count in German – and probably understand some more…. but I certainly don’t feel like we are getting anywhere at all. And that includes me…. I know the site that I’m quoting in a moment is just giving the suggestion…. and is Spanish instead of German… but in Year 1 they do “illustrated Children’s Tales with Audio”, “Primary Song of the Month in Spanish”, “Teach me Spanish 1&2”, spanish songs, and they added in the First Steps series when I mentioned it. In Year 2 they do 3 more Illustrated children’s tales with audio, transcribe sentences from tales, translate small passages into English orally, primary song of the month in Spanish, more spanish songs. In Year they do more of the tales, with them narrting orally from tales in English and Spanish, Copywork once a week from the same story, primary songs, etc….. AND start another language. So yeah, I shouldn’t be comparing… but…. as said, I don’t think my kids could do any of that. I don’t think I could do any of that.
And we don’t do term “exams” or anything…. but I’d mentioned before that sometimes I don’t feel like my son remembers much of the readings we did at all, even though I have him narrate. I’m hoping to add some notebooking….
It just sometimes feels like I’m doing a lot of effort, having them do a bunch of effort…. and not getting much out of it.
To be honest, almost all the boys/men I know revert to printing as soon as they possibly can. My own included. I did not do cursive first, and I did teach cursive, and they do write in cursive when I MAKE them . . . but not at any other time at ALL. This is not that unusual. And foreign languages are just tough at home. I’m not saying not to do them–we still do–but it is one thing in my home that retention is a problem unless I speak the language. One of the reasons I like Latin so much is we seem to GET somewhere in it, lol. So problems with a foreign language aren’t unusual either. Do you know anyone who speaks your target language–German? I always hit up all my Spanish speaking friends for help with my kids (we always begin in Spanish) How old is your oldest again? I signed my middle son up for an online German class at Currclick and I hope it helps him–I know no German at all. I can help my other son who is doing French but not German. Perhaps you could explore options like that?
About memory and narration—how are his narrations? Is he going through obvious effort? How is his power of attention? Do you recap the next time you pick up that book, before you begin reading the next portion? Notebooking can help, working in a BOC or something can help, but the most important thing I’ve learned with narration–often when I’m noticing poor retention, if I look closely at my children during reading, I can see I’ve lost their attention. Also I hate to say it, but distractions, especially the electronic kind, can in my experience “mess with the circuits” and cause problems with retention at times. I had to cut way back on those things at some points in my sons’ narration-learning-curve. Yes, you are going through a lot of effort. CM is sort of stealth learning at first. By that I mean that at first one might not notice exactly what is going on in a child’s mind for a bit. It sometimes takes time to show. I had periodic panic attacks until my first turned about 12ish. Then something clicked and I suddenly started realizing that he had been retaining much more than I thought he had. This has also happened with my second and I’m beginning to notice it in my third son. I relied a lot on prayer as I tried to “diagnose” things that weren’t working well with the boys. Sometimes I got an answer that I needed to fix something or change tactics a little and sometimes I ignored the answer I got and whacked out and bought a writing curriculum or something dumb like that (it never worked! LOL) but sometimes I got an answer to “Just stand and wait until you see the arm of God revealed” and I occasionally even paid attention.
Hope something useful turned up!
My husband is fairly fluent in German (lived there 7 years) but doesn’t talk to them in German. Originally he was going to teach them German…….
Maybe I should teach my son how to print properly… sigh.
He struggled a lot with narration his first year. I thought he was doing better this year – but it tends to be a summary type of narration instead of any details…. I just hope he is learning more than it seems. Oh, he turns 8 this fall.
I know I shouldn’t worry about what other people might think – but other than my husband and dad, there is NO support in our family for homeschooling. My grandson is in the same age/grade at school… and I worry about it. I also worry that he will be starting Cubs this fall, and I know that for some stuff there will be writing, and I guess I worry about whether he will be able to write as well as they do, or if they all write about the same… (funny, a few years ago I was a cub leader… you’d think I’d know!) I know I shouldn’t worry so much, but when you have people close to you against homeschooling, and things just aren’t running as smoothly as you’d like…….
I can only chime in on the cursive really. this year will be our first go at a language. narrations are a continuous art we develope as I see it. My children did and are doing the Phonics Museum by Veritas Press. It teaches handwriting using the modern manuscript font, sometimes known as D’Nealean. They also use tracks to follow in to form letters rather than a dotted line to try and keep on. this is a stroke of brilliance in my opinion. The modern manuscript font has little curves on the letters so the transition to modern cursive is very simple, very. I have also used the startwrite software to generate practice sheets using scripture and to make up copy work for language lessons. This software allows you to choose from many fonts. from Handwriting Without Tears font to the above mentioned, even a few Aussie fonts! So, If you want your son to learn more penmanship than go for it! You are the best gauge for him and it’s OK to follow gut instincts. there a no CM police. My question is where the root of your decisions is coming from: fear of judgement, varying from a learning plan to stay “true”, …. Could be anything. but I do think you should address it so it’s not a worry. Non-decisions only fester and affect other things. I know how quickly the doubt train can pick up speed. Equip him to print better or trust in your original plan and wait to see the fruit it can bring. Equip or trust, either way you can rest on a decision.
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