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Jan 23, 2012

Smart Start: Something for my youngest student!

We got these over Christmas from Nana and Papa...they are great, Great, GREAT! Both my Tiny Queen Bee and Little Engineer love reading these books. They have built in 'finder' holes that are not easily broken, torn, or anything else little hands can do to books. Having something for her to do that's hands-on reading is awesome. 
by Just for Kids PRESS, A Charles Reasoner Book
What's the point in teaching WH questions to a child who is learning to speak and pre-ker? Because while they are learning to read at age 4-5 they will already understand and use their brain strategically for comprehension.
Teaching Reading Comprehension

TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

A Look At Reading Comprehension Strategies



As Steve mentioned on the Teaching Reading Page, comprehension is the only reason for reading. Without comprehension, reading is a frustrating, pointless exercise in word calling. It is no exaggeration to say that how well students develop the ability to comprehend what they read has a profound effect on their entire lives. A major goal of teaching reading comprehension, therefore, is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and experiences they must have if they are to become competent and enthusiastic readers.
For many years, teaching reading comprehension was based on a concept of reading as the application of a set of isolated skills such as identifying words, finding main ideas, identifying cause and effect relationships, comparing and contrasting, and sequencing. Teaching reading comprehension was viewed as a mastery of these skills. Comprehension instruction followed what the study called mentioning, practicing, and assessing procedure where teachers mentioned a specific skill that students were to apply, had students practice the skill by completing workbook pages, then assessed them to find out if they could use the skill correctly. Instruction did little to help students learn how or when to use the skills, nor was is ever established that this particular set of skills enabled comprehension.

Taken from http://reading.uoregon.edu/comp/comp_features.php
Research indicates that we build comprehension through the teaching of comprehension strategies and environments that support an understanding of text. It is important for educators and parents to teach children active strategies and skills to help them become active, purposeful readers. Teaching reading comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning, not skill application. The act of constructing meaning is:
  • Interactive – It involves not just the reader, but the text and the context in which reading takes place.
  • Strategic – Readers have purposes for their reading and use a variety of strategies as they construct meaning.
  • Adaptable – Readers change the strategies they use as they read different kinds of text or as they read for different purposes.
  • Homeschooling for Kids with LD from Smart Kids With LD

    This is not a job for the fainthearted, easily discouraged, perfectionist, or disorganized. 
    Homeschooling for Kids with LD « Smart Kids With LD
    Could it work for you? A great article and some helpful tips if you're considering homeschooling your child with a learning disability. From the website www.smartkidswithld.org under the Guide to Action are some helpful articles and tips on homeschooling a child with LD. 
    The website it also good for learning ways to track your child's progress.

    Jan 18, 2012

    Kindergarted Health

    Lately I've been feeling an overwhelming sense that I'm not covering all the subjects I'd hoped to throughout the fall and into the winter months of education. I am beginning to think about our schedule and re-organizing everything into a less complicated and more simple day. The only problem is that I have my hands full and piling on extra stuff would be a hindrance to our already lesson-filled days that I'm trying to simplify. Henceforth I concluded in my own brain that this was just not applicable this academic year and next year we could explore some new topics such as health education. However, knowing that health actually is REALLY important for my children and myself I've decided to boldly open-up the Health Kindergarten curriculum I ordered and thus right in my face the truth...A simple reminder of the task at hand during my introductory year of homeschooling lay right in front of me as I read through the introduction:
           Christians believe that God created each human as a organic unity. The Genesis 2 account of creation says that the Lord God formed man from dust, breathed into him the breath of life, "and the man became a living being." The Bible does refer to various aspects of the person-such as mind, flesh, soul, spirit, or heart-but the stress is on the unity of the whole being. The various aspects of a person-the intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, and physical-are interdependent. In the New Testament the apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthian Christians, supports this point of view. Some Corinthians, influenced by their pagan culture, apparently believed that gluttony, drunkenness, or promiscuous sexual activity did not affect their "spiritual" life. Paul counters by strongly denouncing this attitude (1 Corinthians 6:12-19).
          What is the significance of this Christian view of the person for education? It means that health education cannot be treated as incidental to the curriculum. Rather, it must be an integral part of the curriculum at every level. Physical fitness, nutrition, personal health, emotional health, the functioning of the body systems-all strands of the health curriculum-affect the whole child. We must recognize that since healthy living affects us in our totality, health education plays a solid role in developing children and equipping them to serve God in the world.
    Ok so now I know I cannot continue to procrastinate on health education. Therefore, as a secondary study to the Christian curriculum units that we will be studying, I have decided that I really need to do some 'research' in my Bible about what it says about my whole being and see things in a new light rather than rehearsing stuff I've already known my whole life. fyi-I am a fan of Jesus Christ and believe speaking boldly in truth. Stay tuned!


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