Feb. 19, 2006 - Make new friends!
Hi, I am new to blogging. I hope to make some new friends and learn some new things. I have a 20 year old daughter who will bless us with our first
grandchild in April. I also homeschool my 13 year
old daughter and 11 year old son. I haven't really
figured out our style of homeschooling yet since things seem to change a lot. We kind of just go with the flow of the day (is there a style for that?). Well I am going to go look around on the site and hope to hear from someone.
Comments
Feb. 19, 2006 - Welcome to the blogging world.
Posted by hskubes
I'm somewhat new to blogging (a few months). I've been enjoying it so far.
I don't know if there is a word for the approach you use... I'd love to know it because we pretty much do that too.
I hope you enjoy your time here.
Happy Homeschooling.
~ Christina
www.homeschoolblogger.com/hskubes
Feb. 19, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by creativehsmom
Hi Lisa!
Welcome to Homeschoolblogger!
My name is Cathy. This is a great community to share and learn in.
Come over and visit my blog sometime.
Feb. 19, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Titus2Mom
Hi. Welcome. Flexablity is one of the joys of homeschooling. I think what you're doing doesn't need a name. It sounds like you are treating you children as a family instead of a school and learning along the way. I think it's wonderful. I am never doing the same thing the second half of the year that we started out with in the begining. Sometimes there is a little more stucture than at other times but if something doesn't work we change it. I've enjoyed the ideas in books like School Proof by Mary Pride and Mary Hood's books like The Relaxed Homeschooler. You might want to check them out. I think you would be able to relate to them as too. I'll see yo around the blog.
Feb. 22, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Grace
Hi!
You stopped by my blog and asked me about Language Arts for your 13 yo daughter. Yes, I have homeschooled for ...oh my...I temporarily forgot! It's either 14 or 15 years now.
I have used several different Lang. Arts curriculum also. Out of my six children, I only have one that likes to write. So, I have concentrated heavily on reading good literature. They seem to incorporate the good language skills through the books.
If your daughter hates the whole noun, verb, etc., I would recommend that you look into Writing Strands by National Writing Institute. I have attended a conference in which Dave Marks spoke. He made some very good points regarding grammar instruction. He is a professional writer - published. He mentioned that he had NEVER been asked to put a "prepositional phrase" into this paragraph. He, also, never thought...Hmmm...I need a future pluperfect tense of the verb to run here. Therefore, he feels that the grammar may be unneccessary until High School (if then.) His curriculum focuses on writing, giving the students step-by-step methods of making their writing sound better, more interesting, and readable.
That said, I have had my older high school children use Easy Grammar to get the general gist of grammar. (Yes, it does look a little funny for the high schoolers to be using a book labeled for 5th graders...but it's clear and concise...and boy do they learn fast.) My one child that loves to write wants to do Easy Grammar. She is in 5th grade. I'm letting her use the Easy Grammar book when she wants to do so. Some points of grammar are difficult for her to understand, such as the use of "to lay" and "to lie." She enjoys trying.
For my chidren's final year in high school, I require Expository Writing. I have used Writing Strand's Expository Writing book. However, this past semester, I just enrolled my high school senior into a college course on Expository Writing. (The name for the class was "Argument Based Research." (He is a highly verbal person and made an A in the class.)
Now with the New SAT college entrance exam they must write an essay, therefore I am having my high school junior learn to write expository papers.
Sorry this is so long...I guess all this is to say...the technical grammar is not used in the everyday world, with the exception of Linguistics and Legal work. My oldest daughter is getting her degree in linguistics and for the most part just used Writing Strands during her last year homeschooling.
Oh, I forgot, I also keep this book around for me. I use it to talk with the children about their sentences. Learning Grammar through Writing. Here's a link to it. http://www.bookpeddler.us/Language_Arts/Grammar/Page_1/2132.html
Read lots of good books! She will probably enjoy this a lot.
Sorry so long! If you have more questions, feel free to email me at hopegrace@gmail.com
Sheila
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