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| No, my children do not know how to take normal pictures. |
Friday, February 17, 2012
Movie day!
I had a dentist appointment earlier this week and the kids brought along their educational electronics to play with while they waited.
We also met up with a few fellow homeschoolers for a movie day. A
local movie theater had a free showing of The Little Mermaid, you just
had to purchase food there. So we had a fabulous lunch and a great time
watching the movie!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Besides Math and LA...
This week we added our Science, LA Extensions and Social studies units in T4L. In Social Studies, Jayden is learning about basic needs (food, shelter, clothing) vs. wants. He had a difficult time comprehending that something like water is a need, while a computer (or other electronic devices) is a want. Apparently, like his father, he believes electronics are necessities. Whenever the option came up to choose between a basic need vs. a computer or other electronic device, he picked the electronic device as a need. "Mom, I don't need a house, I can live in a tent with my computer!" I see where his priorities lie. I am waiting for a magazine in the mail which we will use to cut up and separate needs vs. wants, so the lesson can sink in some more.
In LA Extension, Jayden is learning about pollution. He says that New York city has a lot of people littering because there is a lot of garbage on the street. He plans on making sure to tell people not to throw trash on the floor. We are currently reading The Berenstain Bears Don't Pollute Anymore.
For Science he is learning about living and nonliving things.
In LA Extension, Jayden is learning about pollution. He says that New York city has a lot of people littering because there is a lot of garbage on the street. He plans on making sure to tell people not to throw trash on the floor. We are currently reading The Berenstain Bears Don't Pollute Anymore.
For Science he is learning about living and nonliving things.
T4L Review
So far we are REALLY loving T4L. This online curriculum offers hundreds of activities for all of elementary school up to 8th grade, in all of the core subjects. Apart from the regular lessons, parents can access worksheets as well as answer keys under the parent login. I *LOVE* the fact that parents can login under a separate section and can access everything the student has done (or not done). I can check to see if Jayden has completed the entire lesson, passed the scored activities, and passed his quizzes/tests.
Here are Jayden's grades.
Anything that is blue that shows incomplete was me. I make Jayden redo certain portions of a class if he doesn't understand something, or I clicked him out because the lesson was way too easy and it was a waste of time. The red shows the one quiz he failed. I was taking a shower and made him take a quiz and he was annoyed because he wanted to play PS3 so he "just clicked anything" according to him. So he had to take the test again and LOST his PS3 privileges for the day. My rules are no score under an 85% in a class/quiz/test is permitted. If he gets something lower than that, he has to retake parts of the lesson and we supplement with extra worksheets on top of the ones we already do. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for Jayden, I can access all of his work and make him redo anything under my acceptable score. Whenever he doesn't understand something, we go over that specific portion of the lesson again.
I love that each lesson is animated and has interactive activities, which break down the work in simple terms. Jayden is learning SO much. I can download detailed daily, weekly or monthly reports. Reports can be broken down by attendance, subject, type (lesson, quiz, test) or viewed altogether. The bottom shows his cumulative scoring. I plan on saving a monthly report (saved as a pdf) and keeping them for the evaluation process we have to start at the end of 1st grade.I love that the student can go at his/her own pace. Jayden is only required to do one lesson per subject a day but sometimes he wants to do 5 lessons in a subject!
The only thing I don't like about this is that you can't use the "assignment" section of the site because it is used by schools only. I would like to set up an assignment for Jayden so that he can know exactly what he has to do. While some lessons have worksheets, not all do. This is easily remedied by Google searches though! You can find worksheets or even make up your own if your child needs extra help.
For us, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I find that this program helps me stay organized, helps Jayden go at his own pace and is lots of fun! We definitely plan on continuing this program.
Here are Jayden's grades.
Anything that is blue that shows incomplete was me. I make Jayden redo certain portions of a class if he doesn't understand something, or I clicked him out because the lesson was way too easy and it was a waste of time. The red shows the one quiz he failed. I was taking a shower and made him take a quiz and he was annoyed because he wanted to play PS3 so he "just clicked anything" according to him. So he had to take the test again and LOST his PS3 privileges for the day. My rules are no score under an 85% in a class/quiz/test is permitted. If he gets something lower than that, he has to retake parts of the lesson and we supplement with extra worksheets on top of the ones we already do. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for Jayden, I can access all of his work and make him redo anything under my acceptable score. Whenever he doesn't understand something, we go over that specific portion of the lesson again.
I love that each lesson is animated and has interactive activities, which break down the work in simple terms. Jayden is learning SO much. I can download detailed daily, weekly or monthly reports. Reports can be broken down by attendance, subject, type (lesson, quiz, test) or viewed altogether. The bottom shows his cumulative scoring. I plan on saving a monthly report (saved as a pdf) and keeping them for the evaluation process we have to start at the end of 1st grade.I love that the student can go at his/her own pace. Jayden is only required to do one lesson per subject a day but sometimes he wants to do 5 lessons in a subject!
The only thing I don't like about this is that you can't use the "assignment" section of the site because it is used by schools only. I would like to set up an assignment for Jayden so that he can know exactly what he has to do. While some lessons have worksheets, not all do. This is easily remedied by Google searches though! You can find worksheets or even make up your own if your child needs extra help.
For us, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I find that this program helps me stay organized, helps Jayden go at his own pace and is lots of fun! We definitely plan on continuing this program.
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