Home Schooling a Special Child

A Long Overdue Update

2011-05-31T12:26:00.001-07:00

Oops! I have not written an update for so long and now there is this HUGE gap regarding what we have been doing. It’s impossible to cover what we have done the first term, but here is an update of where we are at now:

English:

Vocabulary:

We are concentrating on assimilating new vocabulary. As we read a new word, which seems important, we underline the word. Tammy later types the word in her vocabulary table, practises the word and looks up the meaning of the word in the dictionary. Next step is to “insert the missing word”. I provide the sentences with blanks and the meaning of the missing word in brackets. Before she attempts this exercise, we practice these sentences orally, with me providing the missing word immediately, if she hesitates. After one or two rounds, she fills in these words for homework. Generally there are only a few mistakes, which she then corrects the next day. After she has filled in the same word in at least four different sentences, at different intervals, she has to make her own sentences with these words. (This is a totally new experience, but she seems to enjoy it.) Again we first practice the sentences orally: she makes the original sentence and I correct it if necessary, before we practise saying it a few times. The oral practice is very necessary to improve fluency and to “stick” it in her head. I often write her sentence for her on the white board, so that she practises the oral sentence together with the written word. The white board gets wiped and her homework is then to type out these own sentences.

Recent vocabulary had much to do with shopping, as we are currently also busy with the entering of receipts on an Excel spread-sheet. At the bottom of the first receipt, was an explanation of the rules regarding the returning or exchanging of purchases and words such as receipt, original, packaging, label, unused, purchase, merchandise, exchange, return, expenditure etc. made their way to the vocabulary table.

Out of our Bible study book, we had words such as devastate, commit suicide, anxiety, loneliness, comfort, sustain, temptation, resist, circumstances, and out of her story book, words such as equestrian, invitation, injure, severely, surgery, insulted, hired, annoyed, date. (Tammy did not understand what it meant to be asked on a date and assumed it referred to a question regarding the calendar.)

Example of vocab. practice:

Reluctant:

The guests at the party had such a good time that they were …………………………….. (unwilling) to go home.

Tammy’s own sentence:

First attempt: My mother was reluctant to let me go outside the cold whether to let me get sick.

My mother was reluctant to let me go outside in the cold weather, because she was afraid I might get sick.

Her ability to express herself and to remember new vocabulary is improving by leaps and bounds, but it is a slow and time consuming process. The dividends are great though.

Comprehension:

Comprehension remains a high priority. So we read a lot and, generally, I think, her comprehension is much better, but comprehension exercises are often a nightmare. Questions posed are still very straightforward, e.g. “What clothes did she wear?” (A lavender top and slim black pants.) or “What did she do after Mary-Kate had left?” (She bumped into a strange boy.) Other questions are simple “True or False”. statements. At the end of a chapter there is a summary of the chapter with blanks for missing words. In all of this, however, progress is still very slow. This is disconcerting, because how can you learn if you do not understand what you read or if you are not able to communicate what you have read? I berate myself for “too difficult” questions, but am at a loss how to make them even easier.

Computer Literacy

Tammy loves computer work. She has compiled a budget and expenditure spread-sheet on Excel. She had to type in formulas, drag them, copy pages, rename them and compile a Total Year summary of expenses with referrals to other pages. (=mar!a1) Voila, the magic! Great fun.

Copying of text (Bible verses generally), has improved significantly. She CAN do it!

Mathematical Literacy

Last term we concentrated on “party problems” (If one, then multiply, if many then divide type problems. E.g. If 10 guests need 2.5 kg of …., then 1 guest needs 2.5 divided by 10 =.25, then 30 guests need .25 *30) We also did quite a bit of long division: she can do long division, but first has to write out the table of what she is going to divide with e.g. 16, 32, 48 etc. She cannot make an estimated guess yet. We will have to get back to long division until she can estimate, but I am not too worried about his.

We have also done a lot of visual representations of fractions. I make a blank pie chart on Excel with different fractions and she then has to colour in 5/6. 3/8, 1/4, etc. or she has to say what fraction the coloured “slices” indicate:

Colour in 0.33:

What fraction does the coloured piece indicate?

The past weeks we were busy with simplifying and multiplication of fractions (E.g. 28/4 * 16/2) Tammy progressed from about 20% till 75% per set of 20 problems.

At the moment we are busy with percentages. She has to calculate VAT (Value Added Tax) and add it to the given price. (14% of R100 is R14, so the inclusive price is R114). Later she will work out what the VAT was on a VAT inclusive price – this she will do with a calculator though and then on Excel, as these problems will require dividing by 114. Right now, it is not a bad exercise to multiply with 14 and to divide by 100! That Tammy needs time is evident in how long she took to multiply with the ten! (One time 9 is…… 9 and again, one time 9 is …….9) Multiplication with 1 or 0 is not something quick or automatic, as it would be for you or me, but I keep on hoping it will happen yet.

Geography and Tourism

The grade 10 level was a bit much and although we had quite some success with Tourism in the beginning, this began to frazzle out towards the end of last term and I was ready to throw in the towel. Tammy was tested at length by a professional, but in the end he could not advise as to whether Grade 10 was really feasible or not! (Frustration for her parents as well as for me.) Basically we decided to concentrate mostly on English (self-expression and comprehension), Mathematical literacy, computer literacy and tourism projects for fun. Tammy will still be evaluated by an occupational therapist regarding her future. We are dreaming about a placement in a workplace: perhaps somewhere where she could help to put out clothes? Or work with animals? Or look up flights on the internet?

Please God, guide us to make the right decisions for Tammy!

To the zoo on her 16th birthday

2011-02-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

Tammy turned 16 today. To celebrate we had no school except Bible and then we went to the zoo. The weather was great: slightly overcast, but not too hot or humid. We did not get to see all the animals as they were working in the bear’s and the tiger’s enclosures. But we did get a good look at the lions! The Pretoria zoo is one of the best in the world. It is quite big and we walked A LOT! I wish I had taken more photos. (Tammy took one of nearly every animal, but of course I do not have her camera with me, so I can’t blog her pics.) She did not flinch when we looked at the snakes in the reptile park, but said a firm “No thank you” when I suggested the critters. I guess no one needs to look at spiders and scorpions on one’s birthday!

To go to the zoo, was Tammy’s choice for an outing. At first I thought whom we could invite to go along (her mom works full time again), but in the end I decided it would be best if we went on our own. I’m glad we did, because in this way Tammy was really relaxed and we talked a lot. When she is in a group, she is inclined to withdraw and not to participate in conversations. I told the lady at the entrance that it was Tammy’s birthday, but when she asked Tammy how old she was, I almost had to prod her to answer. Old habits do not die easily and I think she is just used not to answer immediately, unless I prompt her with an “immediately”!

After the zoo we went to jewellers to have her ears pierced. I asked her a while ago what jewellery she was going to wear for her big party ( a Hollywood dress up party this Saturday). She wasn’t certain, but that’s when I noticed that her ears were not pierced. I asked her whether she would like to have her ears pierced and she was very enthusiastic! So after ensuring me again and again, that she was certain she wanted pierced ears, we went into the jewellers. She was shown the different studs and again she was quite certain which ones she wanted: she immediately chose gold ones with shiny red centres.

Next we went to Clicks to buy surgical spirits for her newly pierced ears and then we had a cold drink before heading to the beauty parlour. What a fun day! Happy birthday Tammy – only two more nights before your big night. I can’t wait to see you in your evening gown!

Here are some pictures of our day:

(PS. Look closely at the last two pictures: can you spot the difference?)

Getting out of math’s mud

2011-02-19T10:04:00.001-08:00

The past month hasn’t been much fun – we mostly did math – stole from other subject periods to finish the previous day’s homework… Tammy really struggled with most of the math we did – especially problems like converting recipes. But she has nevertheless shown much improvement in all areas. Here are a few examples of the types of problems we did:

Time calculations e.g.

On Saturday Tammy went to bed at 21:30 and she woke at 5:15. How long did she sleep?
Nick Jonas wants to phone Tammy on her birthday at 19:00. What day and time will it be in California then?” “Lana wants to phone Tammy at 21:00 on her birthday. What day and time will it be in Australia then?
The April holiday starts on 16 April and ends on 3 May. How many weeks/ days is that? (She calculates this without a calendar and then checks on the calendar to see whether she is right. These sums involved much subtraction, adding and division by 7.)
Why time calculations? Because it is important in every day life as well as tourism and geography – two of her subjects. Whereas other people just pick up these skills, Tammy has to practice a method for everything.

Adding or subtraction e.g.

Tammy invited 25 guests to her birthday party. 4 said they could not come. How many guests can she expect?
Tammy received 14 gifts. She has already opened 6 gifts. How many more gifts must she open?
Why? She still struggled with such basic problems, although we did a lot of them last year. I am convinced though that if we keep on practicing these, the ability to apply mathematical solutions to a variety of problems will emerge.

If one then multiply, if many then divide problems:

The following recipe is enough for 6 people. How must Tammy change the recipe so that it is enough for 25 people? (Divide ingredients by 6 and multiply with the number of guests. Round the answer – you cannot use 3.75 chicken or measure 7.33 ml salt or 990 ml sauce.)
Shaen will take 5 photos of each guest. How many photos will he take when there are 20 / 25 / 30 guests?
If one plate costs R25, how much will the dinner for 30 people cost – i.e. how much will 30 plates cost?
For the problems we whisked out the abacus and number line again. We drew pictures and real objects. And we practice and practice and practice. The conversion of recipes is part of lesson 1 of Grade 10 mathematical literacy, and both of us are determined to crack it – not only for the lesson, but forever!

Multiplication and division

How to multiply with 25: Since 25 = 1/4 of 100, divide by 4 and multiply with 100. These problems also took several exercise sheets, before she could do it. Once she got the hang of it, it was fairly easy, but then she would apply the same “recipe” when multiplying 10 x 25! Of course you can divide 10 by 4 and multiply the answer with 100, but it is so much quicker to just add a zero!
Besides the 1-12 tables, to also be able to count in 15’s and 25’s. To know the answers to 60/4, 4 x 15, 3 x 15, 45/ 3, 75/ 3, 3 x 25 100/ 4, 1000/ 4 etc. etc. This is much more fun and she loves it, if she “gets” me, i.e. if she can give the answer very fast!
Percentages: this is nothing new, but it requires continuous practice. Also to understand what it meant when you run at 50%, 80% and 100%! (Water aerobics)

There is still a massive elephant to be eaten and for Tamerin the bites can never be too small. I am just grateful for the few mouthfuls that she has been able to digest. Let’s pray that these skills will stick forever!

Grade 10 has started!

2011-01-26T11:25:00.001-08:00

As mentioned before, our aim this year is to start with Grade 10. Tammy’s subjects are English, Afrikaans, Math literacy, Computer studies (not science), Geography, Tourism and Life Orientation. Here is a summary of what we have done these past two weeks:

English

We continue as before: I tried to follow the handbook for about 2 days, realised it was no use, so we’re back to my method: lots and lots of verbal drilling of questions and answers. These exercises are mostly based on the cultural subject of the week – either Geography or Tourism. At the moment she is transcribing geography statements as questions e.g. Statement: “The earth moves from West to East.” Question: “In which direction does the earth move?” Statement: “The 0 degree of longitude is also called the Prime Meridian or the Greenwich Meridian.” Question: “What are other names for the 0 degree of longitude?” “South Africa lies at 30 degrees East.” “At which degree of longitude does South Africa lie?” and so on.

The forming of questions is still a major challenge, but there has been steady but slow progress. By integrating the cultural subjects with English, she has a better chance to assimilate the new vocabulary and concepts. Hopefully this will help her to better understand and answer test and exam questions.

Vocabulary and spelling practice also come from these subjects and her reader. We have started with “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis and what a joy! She seems to understand it well and anyway she enjoys it. I should just focus more on reading, but we so often get stuck in other basics and then the time for reading gets gobbled up! (Maybe we should start the day with reading….)

Afrikaans

We have started to read Afrikaans. She seems to understand it well – laughs at appropriate places. So far we have covered all the single vowels, double vowels and have started with diphtongs (oe, eu, ui) and some open syllables (oral, besig and a few others.) My aim is to enable her to read Afrikaans as soon as possible – we’ll only worry about grammar, speaking etc. much later. She still struggles so much to speak English that I really find it hard to switch to Afrikaans when speaking to her! It feels counterproductive! On the other hand, who knows, being able to speak Afrikaans, might just open up the communication gates for her! We haven’t had many Afrikaans lessons, but she loved the ones we did have.

(The rest of her family speak Afrikaans, but apparently Tammy preferred to speak English, when she was little, and the speech therapist suggested they stick to English because she struggled the Afrikaans r and g! I’d rather not say what I think of that suggestion! Whatever happened to mother tongue is best? When I came into the picture, she could speak neither language understandably…)

Geography

We started with how to use an atlas. She can look up a city in the index and find the right page and map position. The introduction included a host of new vocabulary such as population, physical features and boundaries, but she was very interested en mastered the new concepts satisfactorily. We skipped geography last week, when we concentrated on tourism.

This week we focussed on latitude, longitude and time zones. We had to begin with the earth’s movement around the sun. As she had had very little geography before, she thought that the sun moved around the earth. There are many gaps we have to fill somehow, and yet master the Grade 10 work as quickly as possible as well. Today she had to calculate time differences – this involved very simple adding or subtraction and counting of time zones. She seemed to understand what to do, but made many arithmetic mistakes e.g. 12- 8= 3. She knows her combinations very well: we have drilled them in the past, and yet in new situations like these she “slips”. So math’s was spent in revising deduction instead of continuing with division… so that we can do “story sums”!

Tourism

This is the “most likely to succeed” subject. Tammy was very interested in what tourism was and the different types of accommodation, tourist attractions etc. She looked up flights for an imaginary holiday, but struggled to understand what the differences in price really meant. The flight times did not intrigue her – I don’t think she really understands, despite our having done lots of time duration calculations last year. Time calculations remain a big must on our agenda!

Computer Studies

I try to let Tamerin do more work on the computer e.g. insert charts on Excel, tables of contents on Word etc. I must confess that computer studies is another subject that does not yet get all the attention it deserves, since the other subjects demand so much more effort. I just hope that the work I do let her do on the computer, will later be enough to really master whatever is required for Grade 10, and more importantly what is necessary for life! I am convinced that her computer skills are what will land her a job one day.

Life Orientation

As I don’t have a “handbook” yet, I just go with what her mother understands from Tammy’s cousins what it is all about: apparently mostly about HIV and sex. We have talked about sex in the past and did so again, especially about sexual abuse and her right to say no and what to do if such a situation should arise.

Math’s

The least favourite subject! The curriculum started with rounding up and down of numbers. We had done it in the past, so this was not really a problem. But the first lesson also had “story sums” (with vocabulary she could not pronounce!) and here the old problem of not being able to recognise what formula to use reared its ugly head again…. and, as before, she struggled with basic division. So we focussed much on division by 5, 6, 8 and decimals again. I also printed out charts on which she had to mark .66 or .33 or .125, .25 etc. (I wanted to share these charts with you, but do not know how to copy them onto the blog!)

Visualising a fraction helps: she is becoming quite good at estimating .5 ,125 etc. of a container. She loves it when I only show her the side of a measuring jug and she points to .375 and I turn the jug so that she can compare her estimate. More often than not, she is quite accurate! She can count in 125’s and I am very proud of this achievement – should help with cooking! (With multiplication she used to make more adding problems rather than with the actual multiplication. With division its usually the same: she makes more mistakes with deduction to work out the remainder, than with the actual division.

To do division by 7, I let her calculate how many weeks and days there are between certain dates. Any time related sum has always been difficult for her, and she still needs much practice. The problem this week was again deduction: “What is 31 – 25?” “???” Last year she was well able to do this. Why this slump? But I believe its just temporary. We’ll get the basics right (again) and then we try the Grade 10 work (again)….!

(It does not make sense to practise calculating decimals when dividing with 7 – when we come to long division she could maybe do it, otherwise a calculator will be fine.)

Sooo?

Maybe I do not sound to positive in this blog, but actually I am. It’s just going to take a lot of time and a lot of work. But Tammy and I are committed and that is half the battle! And of course I believe we have God on our side!

Sorry for this long post! Will try and post more regularly and have shorter posts! Next something about our very satisfying Bible study!

Next year – an Annie Sullivan year?

2010-12-05T22:49:00.001-08:00

Last time I said that Tamarin’s Individual Education Programme had come to an end – but not our homeschooling. (Drum roll)

Tada! Next year Tamarin is going to do Grade 10 (first year)!

The first year part is just to prepare for what I deem to be probable or inevitable: i.e. that it is going to take a few years to reach this goal!

Is it attainable? To jump from a more or less Grade 4 level to Grade 10? It’s a leap of faith that’s for sure, but with the amazing progress that Tammy has made so far, anything and everything is possible. Her subjects will be Grade 10 Math literacy, Geography, Tourism, Computer studies, English and Afrikaans. Why Grade 10? Her parents feel strongly that she should be benchmarked and that Tammy herself has an emotional need to be in a grade. Grade 10 has fewer subjects than the lower grades, and much of the groundwork for these subjects have been done already.

The math literacy book starts with fractions and decimals and rounding off: we have done this, so this should not be impossible.

Geography starts with learning to use an atlas and maps. We have often used maps and the globe in the past, so this is not totally new. The calculations of area, speed etc seem a bit “Wow!” ( Draw a cross-section of Koffiebus… Determine from the section whether tog station number 10 and benchmark 1237.9 are intervisible.What the…”?!!!)

My objective is to use the geography content as I have used previous themes: that is to use the content as basis for conversations and all grammar work e.g. to Rewrite sentences as questions. I first want to skim through the work with her, and then later return to the same work and “dig the hole a little deeper”. She first needs to just know the basic terminology in her bones. (In the geography book there are more than 17 words on the first page alone that she does not know yet !)

Apparently computer studies deal with the use of a computer (it’s not computer science). Tammy likes working on the computer and she generally remembers computer methods very well.

The languages will present the greatest challenges. She is still a long way from writing essays and magazine articles and headlines! And as for Afrikaans: we’ll have to start at Grade 1 level!

Her parents firmly believe that is the way to go and I am up to this huge challenge. It will be a team effort between me, Tammy and her parents. How do you eat up an elephant? Bit by bit. My job is to cut it up in small digestible pieces and to make the eating fun and to sustain Tammy’s appetite till the last mouthful. Tammy’s job will be to swallow, chew and digest, swallow, chew and digest….. a big job. Her parents’ job will be to cheer from the sidelines and to make sure she eats up her bit in the afternoons, so that she will be ready for the next plateful the next day. (That is they just have to check that she has actually done her homework.)

If God helped Annie Sullivan to help Helen Keller, who is to say God will not help us? We can only succeed with His help and with Him anything is possible! We just have to be obedient, even if the going is tough!

Php 4:13 I am able to do all things through him who gives me strength.

Rom 8:14 And all those who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Rom 8:28 And we are conscious that all things are working together for good to those who have love for God, and have been marked out by his purpose.

Rom 8:31 What may we say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

To anyone reading this: Have a special, blessed Christmas full of joy in the comforting arms of Jesus. May your last day of the year be a time for reflexion and a time to receive fresh inspiration for the New Year and may 2011 bring many blessings, hope and fun! Enjoy the holidays.

2010 Prize Giving

2010-12-03T01:27:00.001-08:00

Can you believe it? The highlight of our year has come and gone! The year has passed so quickly! Tammy’s prize giving was on Tuesday evening. After the superb pancake supper her mom had prepared so lovingly, all the family and friends moved into the T.V. room for Tammy’s presentations.

She started with a Bible “speech” i.e. a power point presentation on the nature of God and why He created us, what went wrong and His salvation plan for us. She stood still and spoke carefully and although her speech was still a bit staccato, it was much more fluent than before. She barely glanced at the computer with the text and pictures. She had typed out her prayer before: I helped her with sentence construction and grammar, but the ideas were her own.

Next she talked about why one should drink water, which nutrients support digestion and which nutrients improve or harm your brain function. These presentations were ended with a rather lengthy question session: Tamarin asked the audience nutrition related questions, for example “Why must you eat fish?” Practising to ask questions is very important for Tamarin, because she used to say sentences when she wanted to ask something i.e. “You can help me? “ instead of “Can you help me?”. But besides being able to ask a question, it is equally important to listen to the replies and to respond appropriately. When we prepared for this section, I used to give correct, partially correct answers or wrong answers and she learned to listen more carefully: should she say, “Yes, but… “ or “Yes, and…” or “No..”. Although asking question and responding to the replies have both improved much, we still have to work at these skills, especially at giving appropriate responses.

Sadly I have no video or picture of this part of the evening – it was in between camera swops – flat battery, would you believe! Jan took the video clips – I said short clips, but unfortunately most were way too short to illustrate what her capability was. Won’t complain though, without him I wouldn’t have had any for the blog and the blog is the only way I can ensure the pics will endure, even if the computer crashes or is stolen, like last year! In the post below are two pictures and two very short video clips of Tamerin doing her thing.

Then we played shop. We handed “enquiries” re health issues (for example "What supplements should I take to maintain strong bones?”) as well as price lists to the audience. Tammy responded to the queries with appropriate suggestions. These we had rehearsed at length. She astounded everyone with her ability to add up the prices mentally– up to three different amounts! Then she subtracted the total from the “money” handed by the client and quickly picked up the correct amount of change.

Next year, there will be less formal presentations, and more questions and responses, i.e. more interaction between Tamarin and the audience.

Her final speech was an introduction to a slide show in Phuket.

I gave her a certificate to mark the end of her three year Individual Education Programme. (End? I’ll tell you more about the new plans next time.) Her book prize was another Secret Seven book and an atlas. (An atlas? Also more about that next time.) It was a great year and it ended with a great evening.

Videoclip of Tammy's Bible Speech

2010-12-02T23:28:00.000-08:00

Tammy doing her Bible speech.

Tammy adding up the prices of Shaen's purchases.

Tammy's introduction to her Bible speech - slide 1

Tammy responding to the audience's reply to her question "Why must you eat fruit?

Before meets After

2010-11-25T07:39:00.001-08:00

Tammy has been going to the gym for a little more than two years and the last 14 months were spent doing water aerobics very regularly. It has been so worthwhile! Doesn't she look like a model now?

2008 2010

Keep it up, Tamerin! We are so proud of you!

Weekly Forms and Filing

2010-11-18T10:59:00.001-08:00

Tammy has to fill in a form at least once a week – a basic one requiring full name, full names of parents, residential address, postal address – that sort of thing. The aim was to improve her handwriting and to drill basic self-knowledge. Not once have I been completely satisfied. Either her hand writing was not neat enough or she did not plan the space well and used lettering that was too big or she started in the middle of the block instead of flush left. Or she left out something… or she used a lower case letter instead of a capital letter…. or she had some information wrong.

But there has been steady improvement! At least she knows her parents’ names and her address and telephone number. Filling in a form is so simple and yet sooo difficult! It has proved to be way more difficult than I anticipated last year! We’ll keep forms on the weekly programme next year and hopefully Tammy will move on to different formats like filling in bank deposit slips. And hopefully she will progress to using a pen instead of a pencil!

Filing papers with names has also been on the weekly schedule. I write names on separate papers and underline the surname and she then files the papers in her “Filing file”. Tammy has known the alphabet for a long time, but filing the papers has proved to be a real challenge. Even here at the end of the year, she still makes mistakes. This is another skill that will remain on the weekly time-table. Filing two or three papers alphabetically might just become a daily task. I want to make sure that before our journey together comes to a halt, that she is really able to file 100% . I think I can let her fill in forms on behalf of “other people” (she can look up their addresses and telephone numbers in the telephone directory) and then file the forms in alphabetical order. Filing according to date should also appear on the programme!

Speaking of dates and times: Tammy has been able to read a calendar for at least two years. She knows a month has 30 or 31 days- and can even use her knuckles to work out which months have 31 days. But when asked how many days are left between today and 3 December, or how many weeks are left until Christmas, she is totally floored! More intentional calendar work next year!

Tammy has been able to read a clock for about three years. She is pretty certain of international time and knows that 17:00 is five o’ clock p.m. But despite lots of practice, she still gets confused when asked what the time was x minutes before or x minutes or hours after. I had really thought that we had cracked those: we did lots and lots of adding or subtracting minutes, with and without a physical clock at hand…. and yet her marks for this section of the exam paper was only 2 out of 7! I could have cried! Another skill that she will crack in the end, but I am preparing for a year of focussed effort!

On a positive note: counting money was also on the weekly schedule and she CAN NOW COUNT CASH!! Hurrah! Praise the Lord. For this section of her math exam, she scored 100% Her measuring of lines and dividing them into three and four also got 100% Drawing lines according to given lengths (e.g. draw 2 lines of 10 cm and divide them into 4 columns) was another weekly activity.

Weekly repetition pays dividends and we are going to crack the time, calendar, forms and filing challenges! Among other challenges that will rear their heads!

Technorati Tags: Math,Time Sums,Forms,Filing

Some more about money and playing shop

2010-11-16T08:07:00.001-08:00

Quite a few people have asked me about my teaching methods and then I refer them to this blog. However, I realise that if I blog so seldom, it is not of much worth! And it won’t be of much worth to me, should I one day decide to write a book about my experiences with Tamerin. (I am trying to write a book about my views on child rearing in general and specifically about the education of pre-schoolers, but the going is slow.)

So here is more info on using money to teach math.

I have been trying to get Tammy to count money for more than two years. I remember that she said in her first end of the year speech “I have learnt how to count money.” Ha! Yes, I had taught her that and at that stage (2 years ago) I believed she could actually count money. Little did I realise that she would need much, much more, and continual, practice before she would truly be able to say “I have learnt how to count money.”!

We practised more money counting the 2nd year, but the results in her math exams were very disappointing and I realised that a much more intentional effort was needed to be able to count money and to grasp decimals. So this year, money counting was on the timetable and Tammy counted money at least once a week, writing down the amount. Many mistakes happened and it is only recently that I was able to say she could actually count money! Conclusion: to be really able to count money takes much more time and effort than is originally apparent. (The same can be said for mastering metrics and understanding minutes and hours, and filing according to the alphabet “in your bones”. More about these skills later.)

Part of the normal curriculum is to add columns of three, four or five amounts with carrying over and to deduct with borrowing. This we practised at nauseam in the beginning of the year with mediocre results. She could do it, but too often made mistakes – especially with deduction. She was inclined to deduct from the bottom to the top instead of borrowing e.g. 35-29 would be 14: 9-5 =4, instead of 15-9 = 6.

How to get her to understand what deduction is, and not to just do it without any real insight? Out came the number line again! I found that she was better able to do mental arithmetic than she was able to do on paper!

1. She had to practise to deduct 10. (e.g. 40 –10 -Nothing is easy for Tammy – everything has to be drilled first.)

2. Then we added ones to the ten and this is how she went about it to work out difference e.g. 35-11

5-1= 4

so 35 – 1= 34

and 34-10= 24

so 35-11 = 24! Hurrah!

3. Next we practised deducting from 100.

100 – 10, 100 – 20 etc until she could do that easily. She had known her combinations e.g. 3+7 or 10 – 7 well, but could not make the transition to 100 – 70 without intentional practice. Of course, once the penny dropped, it was plain sailing.

Next was 100 – 31 =

10 – 1 = 9, so 100 -1= 99

99 –30 = 69

so 100 – 31 = 69! TADA!

(Interestingly, at first she really struggled with “easy” subtraction e.g. 100 – 1 of 100 – 2. NOTHING is easy for Tammy at first.)

4. Next step was to set up a “shop”. As we are busy with nutrition, I ask Tammy a health related question e.g. “What supplements could I take to improve my brain function?” (Vit B-complex, Omega 3, Calcium, Zinc) She then talks about what foods contain these nutrients and suggests supplements. She rounds the prices (R45.99 = R46), adds up the prices as in 2 above, deducts the sum from the money given to her and hands out the change. That is the fun part: the working out of the change!

She is so thrilled with herself when she manages all this! To me this is far better than a lot of work sheets, that were anyway mostly meaningless to her! One could always use a calculator to add and subtract, but in the end one has to be able to COUNT OUT THE CASH! No calculator can do that! Right now, Tamerin could, in my opinion, get a job as a cashier! Praise the Lord for this progress!

(Posts to follow: filing, time sums)

Last few weeks of the year!

2010-11-12T10:34:00.001-08:00

I feel guilty that I have blogged so little about Tamerin this year! Looking back we’ve had a good year of consolidating: we started with prescribed Graded books for English and Math in the first term. She did reasonably well with those, but there was not enough practice, practice, practice for her. A few exercises do not cut it! Also there were many , to my mind, “unnecessary” stuff eg “Fill in can or may.” If you cannot communicate properly, how important is “can and may”? How many people use can instead of may anyhow, and we all understand they mean.

The rest of the year we focussed much on speaking: all work (grammar, spelling, themes etc.) was drilled orally, and I do mean drilled! Now we are reaping the results. When Tammy recently wrote out her prayer for the end of the year, she included “Thank you for helping me to speak fluently!” For Tammy to be able to speak well remains the main objective for both of us. We are not “there” yet, but the improvement has been vast –not only in ability to absorb and say new words, but to understand spoken language. The first time I ever heard her say a 100% correct sentence of own accord was in September and how we high fived! Since then good, correct sentences have become much more frequent. Drilling pays dividends!

We did not tackle a new theme this term, but revised “nutrition” over and over again. Tammy is very interested in nutrition and I believe it to be a very important life skill theme, so I do not think that we have been fiddling away the time! We have prepared questions and answers on various nutrition questions e.g. “Why do you have to eat fruit?” “Why do you have to drink water?” “Why is animal protein not a good idea?” Tammy knows a lot about essential fatty acids, Omega 3, essential amino acids, free radicals, anti-oxidants, cholesterol, fibre, low G.I. food etc. etc. I am so proud of her! I have learnt a lot about nutrition along with her!

The trouble now is to know what to talk about at her prize giving: digestion or how to improve brain function or how to improve your immune system….. Decisions, decisions!

For math we play shop: I (the client) come to her with a health query e.g. “What can I take to prevent weak bones?” (calcium, magnesium and zinc, Vitamin D and omega 3.) She then looks at her price list and rounds the prices:

Caltrate: R123:99 = R124

Omega 3: R97.90 = R98

Magnesium: R68.99 = R69

Then she mentally adds the figures: 4+ 8 = 12, so 124 + 8 = 132 and 132 + 90 = 222 and 2+ 9 = 11, so 222 + 9 = 231, and 231 + 60 = 291!

I give her R300 and she mentally deducts the change and then the greatest fun of all is to pick up the change and work out the cents 99c = 1 c + 10c + 1c = 12c =15c (We haven’t got smaller coins than 5c in South Africa.)

This combining of theme and math works so well for us: adding and deduction are interrupted with short spells of conversation re nutrition.

As we plan to play shop on her prize giving night, please pray that everything will work out well. I hope to blog soon about her other endeavours for the evening and to add a photo of the new slim Tammy!

Phuket, The Jonas Brothers, Spelling and Speaking

2010-09-13T12:52:00.001-07:00

I see I have not blogged in a long time! In the meantime we had other themes like building, because they were building next door and it provided us with “something to talk about.”

But the best recent themes, by far, has been talking about… PHUKET! The family are leaving for Phuket soon, and Tammy and I have had a great time preparing for this event:

We looked at different activities and tours that are offered there and concentrated on snorkelling and elephant treks. I only provided very skimpy information, but Tammy practised a wealth of new vocabulary, spelling and grammar.

This is how we have been going about it for the past eight weeks:

On Fridays, Tammy writes a spelling and vocabulary test. Over the weekend she inserts a table in Word , on a page set on landscape. The table has a column to enter new words in, and others to “practise” the words in and one column each for synonyms and antonyms. Any corrections from Friday’s test are transferred to this new list.

I prefer that Tamerin practises her spelling on the computer, to prevent her practising mistakes! She can use the spell check, but Friday tests are definitely hand written! She finds synonyms and antonyms from the thesaurus or the dictionary.

Starting on Mondays, she adds new words to her list as we discuss a new theme e.g. what to expect when going on a speed boat cruise to Phi Phi island. (New vocabulary included words such as discover, explore, guides, legends, tropical, coral reefs, spectacular, scenery, price per person etc.)

On Tuesdays all these words are used in a grammar exercise e.g. “Rewrite in reported speech.” (Not that she rewrites the sentences, we just drill them orally – over and over.) Example: My brother asked, “Dad, can we go on a speed boat trip while we are in Phuket?” Reported speech: Her brother asked whether they could go on a speed boat trip while they were in Phuket.

Then I try to make the exercise practical by suggesting possible conversations e.g. “Dad, I wondered whether we could go on a speed boat trip….” This drilling has helped her to form sentences and questions: to be able to speak remains our number one priority.

On Wednesdays, I will have the same or similar sentences, but this time as a “Fill in the missing word”. Next to the blank spaces, I provide the synonyms with which she is familiar. Before giving her this exercise for homework, we again go through all of the sentences orally, and Tammy often has to repeat the sentence on her own, i.e. without reading it. As on the two previous days, she again practises her spelling, by retyping each word twice. New words, acquired later in the week, have to be practised more.

On Thursdays, we do similar drills as well as dictation on computer. Dictation is a typing exercise, but it also requires punctuation (still a big problem) and of course spelling!

On Fridays she writes her spelling test and fills in vocabulary again – but this time without a list to choose from! Her average score has gone up from around 40% to 78+%. Once she scored 95%!

Our new “reader” is “Burning up” by the Jonas Brothers. We read it together and new vocabulary is added to the list. Today’s section dealt with Joe’s working out. Questions were “Why does he work out before a show?” “What exercises does he do?” “Who is his trainer?” “What exercises do you do in water aerobics?” “Which exercises do you like best?” Etc. etc. I also get her to ask the questions to an imaginary friend e.g. “Did you know Joe Jonas can do the splits? I wish I was as supple …”

Whatever we do, is connected to real life situations and possible conversations. I now realize that creative speech can only happen, if you have the “tools’ (language patterns and vocabulary) with which to express yourself. For most children, this happens spontaneously, but for a child with a serious language (speech and comprehension) impediment, it takes a far more dedicated and focussed effort to acquire these tools.

So far, I am very excited about our results of our newest concentrated efforts to improve Tammy’s language in totality.

Math concentrated on converting Thailand Baht to Rand. She has to round prices and then divide them by 4 – mentally! It has taken considerable effort, but we are getting there: B 14 = R3.50, B140 = R35, B1400 = R350, B14000 = R3500 …. ! Calculation speed and insight are picking up fast!

Other math included time sums: What is 21: 30 in ordinary speech? (Half past nine p.m.)
Adding hours to departure times to work out arrival times.
Deducting hours to convert Phuket time to S.A. time. Can you phone your ouma if it is 7:00 in Phuket?

Please God, let everything work out well for the family, and let Tammy feel free to participate in conversations!

A History theme, grammar and speaking

2010-08-09T11:41:00.001-07:00

With Nelson Mandela’s birthday in July and our “recent Bible study re forgiveness and loving peace, I talked quite a bit about this wonderful man. Tammy was interested in history and chose it as a theme. “Safety” was once more put on ice.

All her spelling and vocabulary for the week sprang from this theme. She was very interested in the unfair laws of the apartheid era.

We also watched Invictus together. I stopped the D.V.D. every now and then to explain the why and where. Afterwards she practised sentences to tell her family and friends about the movie e.g. “Invictus is a movie about Nelson Mandela and how he encouraged the Springboks to win the world cup in 1995 – the year in which I was born! “

All grammar exercises also came from this theme: she had to rewrite theme sentences as questions and write questions as sentences.

Grammar examples:

Sentence: F.W. de Klerk released Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990. (When?) When did F.W. de Klerk release Nelson Mandela from prison?

Or Did Nelson Mandela ever want to take revenge?

Nelson Mandela never wanted to take revenge.

Tammy struggles with tense and concord. Strangely, she makes fewer mistakes with did, does and do, when she speaks than when she writes! We do all grammar orally first and often she has no problem with that, but when she writes, mistakes like “Did he wanted…” and even “Did he was…” often occur.

I believe that the grammar and vocabulary practices are helpful in enabling her to speak better and to remember the history facts better as well.

Apparently she did tell her mother and father about the movie. She gave me several hugs and thanked me for teaching her “this”. It just makes more sense to bombard her with the same facts, vocabulary and sentence construction over and over again. And comprehension is not just about what you read, but also about what you see and hear!

Someone warned me not to “bore” her. I don’t think there is much chance of that. I find that children are bored when the work is too difficult or when they have to chew off too much at the same time. This integrated approach makes the work easier, and therefore more fun, for her to digest.

Her spelling has improved dramatically – time will tell if this has a lasting effect or if it was just a short term co-incidence.

Third Term 2010 Plans and Good news

2010-07-14T10:44:00.001-07:00

We have just started the 3rd term. After all the excitement of the World Cup, we (and many other people) experience a bit of a "Now what?"
Tammy and I made some plans for this term: she wants to learn about Phuket since her family are going there in September. I am trying to gather enthusiasm for another important theme that we had just started on before World Cup fever gripped us: SAFETY! Last term we discussed sexual abuse (hardly an exam or speech topic, but very important nonetheless!) What to do if there is a fire in the house, what to do if someone chokes, bleeds and a few other basie first aid topics, and improved usage of her cell phone are some of the safety topics that I planned, but that we have not yet got around to them.

First priority now is to evaluate reading, speed of looking up words, typing tests etc. - its report time again!

Yesterday at 12:15 Tammy asked me whether I wanted some tea - her hint that she wanted a break. As it was still 15 minutes from lunch time, I said "Let's first finish the chapter." We were busy with the last chapters of "Friends Forever" (A My Secret Unicorn Book). We both read the book out loud together and Tamerin follows with her finger. When we came to the end of the chapter, her finger of own accord moved to the next chapter, so we kept on reading. After a while I suggested we break for lunch and Tammy said "Let's first finish the chapter!!" This is a first! She has never asked to continue reading in lunch time! After lunch, she asked if could go on reading!

When I asked her questions about the story, a few 100% correct answers came out: "Why did they all shriek?" "Because a pine had fallen across the track." Wow! Tammy has never been able to put together a sentence like that. What a big improvement!

Something is happening language wise and this is what I have been praying for these past 3 years! Praise the Lord with me!

What shall we read next? Tammy wants to read "High School Musical 2", but I'm not so sure: on the one hand yes, because she is so interested, but on the other hand, the vocabulary is just a trifle too difficult and the language is not always the best. For example sentences with question marks pose as questions. This is a problem as I am trying so hard to get her to form proper questions, starting with a verb and not the subject! I am inclined to want to read another Unicorn book, just because she will be familiar with most of the vocabulary and should be able to follow the story easily.

And math's? She got 95% for her long multiplication homework of yesterday! She only made one small mistake: 0+ 4= 5! Oh Tamerin!

Thank you Lord for such progress! Thank you for the hope that you give us to keep us going! Thank you for helping Tammy! Thank you for her love.

Video Clips of the World Cup Speech

2010-06-12T10:35:00.002-07:00

Here are some excerpts out of Tammy's World Cup speech - click on previous post for more pics and info on this speech.

Speaking is very difficult for Tammy, but practice makes perfect and practising speeches is a very good way to master pronunciation and sentence patterns. I am very proud of her and very thankful for the way her speech has progressed the past two and a half years that we have been homeschooling.

To understand more of what we try to achieve (and have achieved) with these speeches click on here.

Tammy sharing some background of the World Cup.

Where in the world are all the countries?

Tammy explaining the different teams in their respective groups. We cut out flags and pasted them onto different sized containers to represent the different teams's rankings.

Tammy’s World Cup Celebration

2010-06-12T10:35:00.001-07:00

Tammy’s World Cup Thursday finally arrived. About ten friends and cousins and five other adults attended.

Tammy setting up the 32 different teams in their different groups. Part of her speech was to explain which teams were mostly to go on to the next round (the large containers) and which ones were rated low – the small containers… and South Africa was one of them. As Tammy said: “It is predicted that South Africa will be the first host country to lose an opening match! But miracles can happen. Bafana-Bafana have won their last 12 matches. ……What are our chances? Not too bad. We rank 25th out of the 32 teams and Mexico ranks 18th and Uruguay 19th. It will be difficult, but not impossible to win.” (True words – the opening match between S.A. and Mexico was a draw! Bafana-Bafana did us proud! They were ranked 83rd in the world and Mexico 16th!)

The guests were warned to listen carefully to her speech as a quiz was to follow: After the speech they divided themselves into 2 groups and then had to match the 32 flags to the names of the countries, fill in a world map with blank call-outs pointing to the 32 countries and complete a questionaire with questions like “How many teams participated in the qualification phase?” “Which country has won the cup 3 times?” Tammy helped one group and felt quite important. The other group “cheated” and checked on her notes and props. I feared that both groups would have full marks, but not so! Many said afterwards that it was interesting and that they have learnt a lot i.e. where Honduras was. (The live writer I am using here, cannot publish my video clips, so I’ll try to publish a clip or 2 in a next post.)

The next competition was to decorate two ring cakes as stadiums. (Tammy’s mom’s and her brother’s idea and a huge success!)

This team inserted stadium lights, but the other one was much neater.

Adjudicator Tammy listening intently to the presentation of one group’s cake project. (He was pretty convincing and Tammy had no hesitation in appointing the winner!)

Tammy announcing the winners of the cake decoration competition.

Afterwards the team played “soccer” in the pool room – it was quite cold outside! Hamburgers and a big plate of French Fries completed a wonderful celebration.

Thank you God for helping Tamerin, and thank you for kind friends and relatives who made the day special for her.

Technorati Tags: Speech

More World Cup Theme News

2010-06-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

Two days to our own World Cup celebration and three days till our end of term... and Bafana-Bafana's opening match against Mexico!
Tammy is working hard on her speech and painting (colouring in ) lots of flags. Today we cut out all 32 medium sized flags and matched them with the names of the countries. Many flags look very similar, so to help along memory, we made various associations between the flags and the countries: Here are some:

Honduras: the stars in the middle look like an H.
Slovenia: Venia sounds a bit like venue (one of Tammy's latest vocabulary words) and there are mountains (i.e. places/ venues) on the flag.
Slovakia: The flag looks like Slovenia's flag except this one has crosses in the emblem. A cross in Afrikaans is a "kruis" and matches the k in Slovakia.
Serbia: Similar flag colours as Slovenia and Slovakia, but white is at the bottom. A SERvant serves the king. There is a crown on the flag. (Servant = Serbia)
Côte d'Ivoire: The orange elephant has white ivory and he eats green leaves.
Ghana, Cameroon, Chile, Algeria: Ghana is in Africa and has a black star, Cameroon a yellow star and Chile a white star. Algeria has both moon and star (ALL evening lights -ALgeria)

It was great fun and in no time, Tammy was able to name all 32 flags.

Thank you God for her happy face and cheerful giggles. Please help her when she types her italics for Romans 1: 13- 15.
(For Bible homework she is going to write how she would explain Jesus and why we should believe to a non-believer. She did it verbally verby spontaneously and understandably this morning.)

Tammy and the World Cup

2010-06-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

This past term we spent much time on long multiplication, forming of questions and reading. Two weeks ago her mom suggested we have "Football Fridays" - the whole South Africa is preparing for the FIFA World Cup. and for a long time people have been wearing Bafana-Bafana (national soccer side of South Africa) shirts on Fridays.

We are really rugby people, so I have not paid much attention to all this, but when Tammy's mom said how much fun the school children had, I warmed to the idea, and now we're very much into the World Cup!

We learned a bit about FIFA, when and where the first World Cup was held (1930, Uruguay) and about the qualification phase and of course the final phase - now I too know why this part of the tournament is called the World Cup Finals. The most interesting part, however, was of course the different countries: 13 from Europe, 6 from Africa, 3 from North and Central America, 5 from South America, 3 from Asia and lastly Australia and New Zealand. (31 out of 204 teams qualified and South Africa is the 32nd country. We did not qualify, but may participate because we are the host country. The team has improved much, and who knows? A miracle might just happen!)

Tammy remembers all the teams fairly easily and she has no trouble pinpointing them on the world map. When she names them she cites them more or less in geographical order: France, Spain, Portugal, England, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia. She had trouble pronouncing some of the names, but we're quite adept at breaking up words and practising them syllable by syllable until she can easily say them. The word "participate" was also a hard nut to crack, but now she says it confidently. We now work on speaking phrases fluently e.g. to say participate in and not participate.... in.... Today we spent minutes practising to say "Welcome to our....." (She had said .hmmm ...Wel.....come....to)

I am a bit afraid that my hammering on fluency, will be counterproductive - make her too anxious to speak. On the other hand, this very, very slow, clipped way of speaking with lots of throat clearing, seems to me to be a habit. If people ask her a question and she takes forever before she answers, they just assume she doesn't know or doesn't want to speak and then they talk about other things. That is why I try to get her to respond immediately.

Her mother has invited friends and cousins over for a "Football day" next Thursday - a day before the actual World Cup opening game. Tomorrow Tamerin will colour with paint as many flags as she can - there are 32 flags! These we'll use as decorations.

She will also cut out printed flags to paste onto empty pill containers. These containers will represent the different teams in their respective groups and the sizes of the containers will be an indication of the team's rating. Brazil, Spain, Portugal etc. are big containers, and New Zealand and North Korea (31st and 32ne) are very small containers. She will use these containers as part of her "World Cup Speech", when she welcomes her friends and shares her knowledge of the World Cup with them. I bet most of them won't even know where the different countries are, or what their ratings are.

We have been very busy practising questions and answers about the World Cup, e.g. "Do you know which teams from Africa will participate in the World Cup?" "Which country has been the most successful so far?" "Who do you think will win the World Cup?" She can ask me these questions correctly, but she is very slow. She has to think about every word. I do not think other people - even her family - realize just how difficult it is for her to ask a question. When she asks them a practiced question during break, they try to make normal conversation and she just clams up.

Although mastering the language has, as usual, been our main focus with this theme, it has also afforded us enough math's practice: Some of the problems she had to solve were:

If FIFA was founded in 1930, how old is FIFA now?
If the World Cup is held every four years, when was the last world cup?
If there are 32 teams, and there are four teams in a group, how many groups are there?
If 2 teams out of every group move onto the next round, how many teams will be in the next round?

The last two problems were not too diffult, as she had the pill containers ("teams") to work with as well. Tammy can do basic calculations quite well, but word calculations are tough! We have been working much on "If 1.... then 3....." (You have to multiply) and If 5.... then 1....."(you have to divide), but more on this another time.

Please God, help Tammy to master her World Cup speech in time, and help her not to become too nervous. And please God, it will do South Africa the world of good, if South Africa can at least beat Mexico in the opening game... And how about South Africa moving onto the next round?... Please?

Conversations

2010-03-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

Tammy now types out imaginary conversations instead of writing her diary. Conversations challenge her to formulate questions and to use present, future and past tenses, wherease "diary"only required "telling sentences"and the past tense.
Before she writes out her conversation, we orally practise conversations she could have - from imaginary dates with Nick Jonas till possible ones like telling her brother about antioxidants!
I am quite excited about her progress in this regard. She still struggles, but boy, has she come a long way!!
Now the biggest hurdle is to get her not to be too shy to speak to real people. On Friday I told her that the gym coach would like some feedback from us, and I suggested she tell her which exercises she likes and which ones she doesn't like so much. So we practised a possible conversation on our way to the gym:
"Gill, I really enjoy water aerobics. I like the floating exercises a lot, but I do not really like the kicking exercises. Thank you so much for helping me." (Gill is the first and only instructor to really pay individual attention to each of us, including Tammy.)
And on Friday, Gill really paid a lot of extra attention to Tammy, showing her how to improve and giving her positive feedback whenever she succeeded. At the end of the lesson she said to me that Tammy had really improved. It was the opportune moment for Tamerin's conversation with Gill, so I urged Tammy to speak to Gill and then moved away. It was to be between her and Gill.... On her way out Gill said to me that she thought she had understood Tammy....

Praise the Lord that Tamerin finally got the courage to say something more than "Hello" to a "stranger". Please pray that her tongue will be unleashed much more, so that she can be free to communicate. How frustrating to have to "practice" such simple conversations! But how thrilling for her to slowly (finally) overcome her inability to speak coherently and to "wow" herself by being able to express herself and answer questions - no matter how simple the topic.

Reversed Comprehension and Money

2010-03-05T21:23:00.000-08:00

Anyone, who has been following Tamerin's progress, will know that speaking and comprehension are her biggest problems. Following the success she had with formulating and verbally asking questions at her birthday picnic (see previous post) I decided to expand the method further.

When we now read anyone of her books (Jonas Brothers, a High School Musical based book, and a Secret Seven book), I get her to ask questions and I answer. In this way she

Reads with comprehension
Gets grammar practice
Practises speaking

She finds formulating questions very difficult and often does not know where to start, so I still often give her clues e.g. "Jack grabbed Susie by the arm and dragged her home." "Why....?" Most of the time she is then able to complete the question, but often gets the grammar wrong e.g. "Why Jack dragged Susie home?"

She so enjoys this new way of doing comprehension, that I have expanded it to her current theme as well. The latest theme is "Money". We have been talking about employers and employees, salaries, wages, working hours (parttime, overtime etc.) business, profit, stock, cash, interest rate, credit and investments. She types a conversation she could have with her dad about these things. "Today we went to the shops and I compared the prices of products. A 1 kg packet of Viennas costs R30. A packet of 500g of Viennas costs R21. So two packets of 500g cost R42. That is R12 more." Etc. etc.

This theme has been a huge success! Besides the general knowledge and vocabulary, she gets to practice her math skills as well. We look at advertisements of shops. Some have (in very tiny print) the number of installments, the installment amounts and the interest rates below the advertised cash prices. Tammy works out the total amount payable on the calculator. To work out the difference between paying cash or buying on credit, she does the deduction on paper. She was enthralled by her discovery that sometimes you end up paying nearly double for an item. After school she immediatly took the advertisement to show her mother!

We also went to the bank to read the notices and get forms to fill in. (A part of our weekly schedule is to fill in forms - basically to practise neat lettering, but also because it is a very necessary life skill.) Tammy was intrigued with the delayed opening security doors. Afterwards we went to Pick n Pay to revise vocabulary such as "Dairy" and "Bakery" (Food theme), but also to read prices and to compare them. Measuring has also a weekly activity been a weekly activity for months and she had no trouble understanding how to compare 500g, 1 kg, 2.5kg and 5 kg.

She is beginning to remember the methods for calculations e.g. if you know the price of one and you want to know the price of more you must.... MULTIPLY and if you want to know the difference you must TAKE AWAY! We compared the prices of viennas, sugar, flour, pens and wshing powder. In the case of sugar, flour and washing powder, the medium packaging was cheaper the the bulk packaging! "Mom you have to compare prices of products!"

Thanks God for a really fun week! Thank you also that Tammy can finally count money.

15th Birthday!

2010-03-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

Tamerin turned 15 last week. She has grown so tall and is slimming down very nicely. She has lost about 5 kg since last year. Water aerobics seem to be paying dividents - even though she still has bit of a spare tyre around the waist, it is so much better and I am really proud of her. A major goal is now to improve posture: she and I are inclined to slouch. I let her stand with eyes closed in front of the mirror. When she opens her eyes, I let her focus on a pelvic tilt to see what wonders that does to her posture and how much better her clothes look. (She is to remind me to stand up straight, but she has never done it. None of us wants to look like an old woman!)

I could not attend her birthday party on the Saturday, so I packed a picnic on her actual birthday and her mother, her grandmother, Tammy and I had a lunch in a park.

One of the gifts I gave Tammy was a book by the Jonas Brothers. In it there are interview type questions to each brother e.g. "What type of ice-cream do you like best?" "What is the best movie you have ever seen?" Before we went on the picnic Tammy practised some of these questions. Asking questions is just as difficult as formulating answers! She asked us these questions at the picnic. At first she was hesitant, but soon warmed to the idea. This could become an annual event!

You might have noticed that she no longer blogs. That is because, all of a sudden, she can no longer copy and paste her diary onto her blogs. It is quite a shame - she has kept a journal (with my help of course) for two years and her sentence construction, spelling, typing etc. have improved much. However, the diary thing has become a bit boring: its always more or less about where they went and what they ate, and perhaps about what school work we did. She never writes of own accord about how she felt.

I now want her to write dialogues. She is still inclined to have conversations with imaginary people. I do not want her to "speak to herself" because she does this in front of other people and other children, especially, just think she is "mad". I do recognize her need to express herself in conversation though, and therefore creative writing will now be "conversations".

By the way, the PACE she has to do this week is just about homonyms: underline the correct word: e.g. flew/ flue. (Who needs to know what a flue is? Certainly not Tamerin.) This goes against all I have tried to teach. I believe these exercises will just confuse her in the long run. She did a few of these underline exercises and did them quite well, but I think that is because she has known these words in context for a long time. She has never confused "eight" and "ate". Generally she even gets her "their"and "there" right.

Anyway, I have made a list of the new vocabulary in the book and will teach these words to her separately - I am convinced if she learns earn and urn at the same time, she is bound to use the wrong word! Who needs to know about homonyms anyway? As long as you know the words and can spell them and use them correctly in context.

God, please help me to make the right teaching decisions for Tamerin!

Tammy and Spelling

2010-01-29T21:02:00.000-08:00

A quick review on Tamerin's spelling: Yesterday she spelled "Hydrochloric Acid", "duodenum", "enzymes", "pancreas" (Guess what theme we are busy with!)

The reason why she could spell these words is because she struggled with the pronunciation of them. Every time she struggles with pronunciation (which is still very often), I break up the word and write it, syllable by syllable on her little white board and then we practise to say the word syllable for syllable e.g. "Hy...Hy...Hy (add dro) hydro, hydro, hydro..... (add chlo) hydrochlo... " etc. I find that by the time she can say the word - even long words - she can spell it too. In her theme test, she could not spell stomach, although I could see that she had tried to write it. She never struggled with the pronunciation of stomach, so we never practised the word!! (I'll make sure next time, that we practise all the words, before giving her a theme test again.)

Copying lists of words is not really effective for her: she often makes mistakes and to practise a mistake is just unforgivable! The only lists she ever has to copy are lists of new vocabulary that comes from her reader, and it works best if we practise them together - pretty much as we would do with words that she could not pronounce.

Words that sound the same, but are spelled differently (e.g. there and their), must also be learned in context and totally separately from each other, otherwise she gets very confused. In the ACE paces that we do now, she often has to underline the correct word (two, to, too). In the beginning this was terribly hard for her to do, but she is getting there. However, I still don't believe this is the best way to go about teaching these words. She has never before written to or too when she meant two! I believe these words should be learnt naturally and separately to minimize confusion.

Thank you God, for the 70% Tammy got for her test on digestion yesterday. Please help me to know how to teach her, so that she will do even better next time. Thank you that her speech has already improved soooo much! Thank you that her writing of sentences has improved. Please keep on unlocking her tongue Lord, so that she can be free to express herself.

Ode to a time table.

2010-01-25T09:29:00.001-08:00

Our school computer has crashed! And with it the CASS file - i.e. the Continuous Assessment File as required by the Department of Education. I last printed it out in July 2009! My own home computer was stolen in December. It is quite frustrating to have lost so much work. Weekly backups are a must!! Anyway, I just pray the department won't come snooping around. If they do? Well, tough luck. At least there is a thorough descriptive report of her progress Aug - Nov.

Up to now we have always had a sort of a timetable - but we did not really stick to it. Very often followed our noses: did what Tamerin was interested in at that moment. We usually wrote down an "agenda" for the day and ticked off the items we had dealt with - but at the end of the day, there often were several items that we did not get to like practising posture or looking up words in the dictionary.

But now I have made a new weekly timetable!! It took me quite some time to set it up for this year. I thought we would fall behind even on day 1. But we did not! I showed it to Tammy and she seemed happy enough to follow it. Obligingly come after break which now ends 5 minutes earlier, has lunch at 12:30 and then continue with after lunch lessons until 14:00. (We start at 7:20, but leave for gym at 7:55 and are usually back by 9:30)

We will now do ACE math two days a week, and ACE English the next two days. I made sure that we leave enough time for the activities I believe in like regularly counting money, filling out forms (to improve planning of writing - if the space is small, you lettering must be small, you have to start as far left as possible ), filing papers, looking up telephone numbers, practising of conversations etc.

I found it also gave me a sense of security - when the math time was finished, I said "Time to read now", knowing that we would get round to all the other activities as well. The homework timetable is attached to the morning schedule: E.g. on Mondays she has to write her diary, do reading comprehension, ACE math and do some theme work (Social studies).

When I checked at the end of the day - that is exactly the homework I wrote in her homework diary as we worked through the timetable.

Long live timetables!

First week of 2010

2010-01-17T05:36:00.000-08:00

The first week went very smoothly indeed. Tammy works hard in her Ace books - math and English. She will finish the last of Grade 3 work in math soon and then start with Grade 4! This week she had to count money again and that was fine, but when I scored her measuring of pictures and drawn lines, the answers did not match those in the score book - only to find that the drawn lines in the book were not accurate at all! A line of 12.3 mm is given as 12 1/2 cm. I find this pretty shocking - should write to ACE. The lines they draw in the book, should be very accurate don't you think?

English is still Grade 2 level, but we are getting there. She is much more keen to do creative writing e.g. to write sentences with given words. On Thursday I stayed the afternoon while she did her homework and she really battled with making sentences with "isn't", "wasn't" etc. It is not that she doesn't know what the words mean, but to have to think up sentences is still hard for her.

On the grammar side, I find that the ACE books do not give enough drill work - she needs much, much more before she really grasps a concept. When she has to chose between three words e.g. to / too/ two and underline the correct one, she is usually able to do it, but when it comes to chosing the correct form of a verb, e.g the children is / are at school the alternatives seem to confuse her. I now try to get her to give the correct form of the verb, by simply writing the verb e.g "eat, ate, eaten" at the top of a couple of sentences with blanks where she has to write in the appropriate form of "eat". I also underline the timewords or auxiliary verbs to help her choose the correct form. So far it seems to work.

For reading we are busy with two books. I want her to read a Secret Seven book by Enid Blyton all by herself - I just give her monkey puzzle type questions on the story, which she has to score herself. The idea of the questions is just to make sure that she understands the story. I wrote meanings of new words in pencil above the few words that I thought she might struggle with, but they are few and far between. So far she seems thrilled with the book and that is my aim: to let her experience that reading by yourself can be great fun! For speech we practise asking and answering these questions orally.

The other book is another "High School Musical" story: this one is about school elections - a fun way to revise the whole voting process and the vocabulary that goes with it. (If we hadn't done Elections as a theme last year, I doubt whether she would understand anything of the story.) We read this book together: We read aloud together and she follows with her finger and we discuss the story as we go along. My aim is to keep on improving fluency of reading (eyemovements) as well as her vocabulary.

May the rest of the year be as much fun as the first week!

Long overdue news

2010-01-10T08:25:00.000-08:00

The 2010 school year starts tomorrow for Tamerin and me. I cannot believe the summer holidays have whizzed past so quickly and I cannot believe that I never commented on her end of the year success either! Her prize giving evening was really fantastic. My husband took some short video clips of her speech so that I could put some in the blog. I was so sad that we had not done it the first year. (We have been doing homeschool for 2 years now, so this was our second prize giving.)

And now there are not going to be any video clips either: we had a burglary and my computer - with the precious downloads of the video clips and pics of the speech - was stolen! FRUSTRATION!

Anyway, here is an account of a very successful evening. Tammy's mother had invited about 20 friends and family members for a delicious supper followed by Tammy's speeches.

Tammy was too nervous to do her introduction (welcoming her family etc.), so I told her to skip the intro and get going on the power point presentation. This went very well. She first spoke about the government and the elections.

Tammy found the "strange" mouse of her brother's laptop a bit intimidating, so she stepped up to the projected images instead and explained them by pointing with her finger. E.g. she pointed to the pictures of some cabinet ministers and told the audience of which departments they were. (Most have difficult Xhosa or Zulu names, so we did not bother with names, but she can recognize the different ministers when they appear on television.)

After each theme the audience could ask her questions they had drawn from a box full of questions. I had marked the different types of questions with matching icons e.g. government questions had the state emblem, wild life questions had a cheetah and so on.

Tammy answered the questions very well and then she asked the audience some questions e.g. "Which state department looks after the poor people?" We had practised the questions and anwers before of course. She had to be able to say whether and answer was correct or not and to give the audience the correct answer to her questions without looking at her paper! She loved this - especially when they did not know the answer!!

The next two themes, "Blood circulation" and "My favourite carnivore, the cheetah" were dealt with in the same way and were equally successful.

Then is was math's time: the audience asked her "sums" that I had typed out beforehand. Tamerin had not practised the exact same "sums" before, but lots of similar ones. Questions included "What is 1/2 of 25?" "What is 50% of 60?" What is 80% of 50?", "What is 85-14?" "How much is $4 if $1 is R7.50?" "Can you read this? 6,528,945?" She answered all these very quickly and very easily. I was so, so proud of her.

The next item was her "High School Musical" speech, where she gave the audience the outline of the story with the help of power point pictures. She also showed them where Albuquerque and Stanford were on a map of the U.S. I'm pretty sure her cousins had not known that!

It was time for her to do her musical part and she played two songs on the guitar. There is nothing like knowing that you have to perform in front of others, to get you motivated to practise!

The last speech was her The Holy Nation of Heaven speech -another power point presentation about Bible verses we have dealt with - mostly out of Matthew. She illustrated the calling of Matthew with toilet roll puppets. I had helped her to make Jesus, but she had made Matthew completely on her own.

She illustrated "First seek the Kingdom of Heaven and all these other things will be given to you too" with ping pong balls and rice: If you fill a bottle (your mind) first with worries about daily needs, there is not enough space for Jesus (the balls), but if you first concentrate on being right with God and on loving others, God will see to it that you get everything else that you need too. (If you first put the balls into the empty bottle, there is enough space for the rice also.)

After receiving her certificate and book prizes, she prayed. She had written out the prayer herself some time before and practised it, but still I knew her thanks were heartfelt.

Please pray for us for this new year, that we will make the right decisions regarding programme and content - that we both will be obedient and follow His will for us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Speech news

2009-10-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Tamerin and I have started working on her end of the year speech. Speaking is Tammy's biggest handicap, so learning a speech is a BIG challenge. Last year Tamerin learned this looong speech about everything she had learned. It was a big success. The speech has helped her much with speaking patterns and general fluency and pronunciation.

My aim was to practise such speeches throughout the year this year. We did it in a small way, but never really got stuck into it. However, now with the end of the year only weeks away, we are more focused on getting it right. I have written a "High School Musical" speech and one on government - our first term theme. We have gone through them a few times this week and Tamerin seems so happy and determined to master these speeches. Yesterday, she started with memorisation, i.e. to speak and not to read the speech. She has pictures and key words to help her along.

She had to practise how to say "probably", but otherwise was able to pronounce all the words and her tongue did not get all tied up. Afterwards, she gave me a big hug with shiny eyes and then went proudly off to say her new word to her mom. If I think how much she had to practise a sentence like "This year I have improved my ability to read...." last year. BIG IMPROVEMENT!

Praise the Lord!

Progress - slowly but surely

2009-10-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

Tammy is doing O.K. with her PACEs (workbooks), but I find some of the exercises no good. In an exercise when she had to choose between "a" and "an", she had to fill it A or An at the beginning of each sentence. When I gave her a selfmade additional worksheet, she wrote A / An with capital letters in the middle of sentences too. She has never done that! Frustration.
She does well her tests, but comprehension is still a problem.
I think "High School Musical 3" is a bit difficult for her, but she always thanks me so profusely for helping her to read it, after a reading session, that we keep going. I often give her multiple choice questions and then we practice asking and answering these questions verbally.
It is nearly the end of our school year, so we have to start thinking about her end of the year speech, what she is going to do for Christmas and so on. Last year, she made puppets and we had a puppet nativity show at her prize giving evening. Not sure what to do this year, Bible wise. Perhaps memorize and dramatize Bible verses?
She wants to play a song or two on her guitar and I also want her to do some water aerobics on prize giving evening. All this on top of her workbooks and other work.

Please pray for us for discernment regarding choices for her special evening!

We're still here and doing fine!

2009-09-22T02:42:00.000-07:00

I have been away (to Russia no less) and the modem has been giving us some problems, so I have not blogged about Tamerin for a long time.

She has been tested and is currently doing ACE English and Math. For math we are currently reviewing some Grade 2 work like place value and adding and subtracting multiples of hundred and reviewing ordinal numbers. For English we are revising punctuation: full stops (periods) and question marks and starting sentences with capital letters. Tammy has always struggled with this, and the book has helped a little, but I had to type extra work sheets in this regard. Today she seems to have really grasped it! Praise the Lord. Right now she is busy with her self test.

She also struggles with the exercises where she has to chose between "is /are" and "was/ were". Tammy has never said "She were" or "The children was", but when she has to chose she gets confused and makes mistakes. I hate these exercises: to my mind they are not helpful and only confuse children. For the same reason I never teach similar words like "there and their" or "bear and bare" at the same time! We have always dealt with them separately and there has hardly ever been a mistake. But along comes these workbooks and.....! Generally these books are helpful, but sometimes I do not agree with the method at all!

There are often little cartoons in her books and we spend a lot of time reading these and adding words to the wordless pictures e.g there was one cartoon of two little girls waking and one said "We are going on a picnic today." (The other did not say anything). In the next picture they were watching rain through the window (no words) and in the last picture the mother brought in a tray of food and the one girl said "A picnic like this is fun too."

Tammy had to say how the other girl would respond to "We are going on a picnic today" and what they would say while watching the rain. ("Oh no, it is raining!" "That's too bad, now we can't go outside.) She also put words in the mother's mouth: "Look what I've got for you! Here are your snacks."

Expanding vocabulary and speaking fluently remain our highest priority and these cartoons have been very helpful in this regard.

Other feedback:
We finished "My body" prematurely because the family planned to go to the Kruger Park, so we quickly switched to "Wild Animals" as a theme. She thoroughly enjoyed this and loved telling her family interesting bits and pieces e.g. how long a giraffe's tongue was (53cm) and why thorns do not bother them when they browse the Acasia trees.
We still practice to count money nearly every day: it is a slow, but promising process. There has been significant progress.
Tammy still keeps record of her gym progress on Excel. With the advent of the workbooks, time for life skills has dimished somewhat, however.

I've got to run. We have a short break and then it is off to swimming lesson.

3rd Term 2009

2009-08-06T00:25:00.000-07:00

I wrote Tamerin's report last week. I am very grateful that she is still progressing so well and so fast. Her development is amazing and its exiciting to be part it!

This term we started with My Body and How it works as a theme. So far we have covered the heart and blood circulation, the skeleton and the brain. Tammy is quite interested and remembers a lot of detail - she has even told her family what she has learned. The challenge with this theme is how to keep it practical and in line with the vision to be as independent and self-sufficient possible one day, whilst also realising that she will probably not write matric or do tertiary studies. What do you really need to know about your body? To my mind, you need to be able:

To know how to keep your body in tip top condition
To know how to best utilise your resources (your brain, your muscles etc.)
To understand what a doctor might tell you about your body

After the successful exams in June, I have started to give her weekly tests and she scored 7/10 and 8/10 for the first two weeks. I am thrilled. At the moment she is busy writing evaluation tests: she is to start with ACE math's and English this term. I am very curious to know at what grade level she is.

Exams

2009-06-25T05:08:00.002-07:00

Tamerin wrote two exams this week (here we write them, we don't take them). She got 63 % for literacy and 62% for math's. I am very proud of her for reading the papers herself and actually doing what was asked. Here are her results.

Literacy
7/10 for spelling:
She couldn't spell "provided" or "specifically", but she easily wrote words like "government" and "immediately".
7/ 15 for choosing and filling in the correct word.
The vocabulary came from our Disney World website work earlier this term, and our government theme. She still confuses words like "enjoyed" and "enjoyable". Some more revision needed here.
6/12 for completing sentences e.g.
"He discussed...", "I remember seeing..." "Yesterday...." Many mistakes here, but there were also gems like "I like it when... you sing the song to me." She would not have been able to do that even a couple of months ago!
13/ 15 for a monkey puzzle and questions on the "Our government".
9/10 for a monkey puzzle on general knowledge (Mostly other countries and sport.)
Questions included were "When is the shortest day of the year?" "Who is the president of Israel" "Where is the highest mountai in the world?" (She did not have to write the answer, but choose among 3 options and this in itself is a skill. I am very proud of her for reading, choosing without hesitation and marking the corresponding symbol!)

Math's
Long division: 1/3
Calculate the amount e.g. 80% of 200: 2/3
Calculate the %: 3/3
Multiplication (e.g. 59 X 7) : 1/6 (all adding mistakes!)
Adding tens and ones: 3/6 (she "carries over" when there is no ten to be carried over!)
Deduction: 5/6
Choose the highest/ lowest price, temperature etc.: 3/3 (very good progress!)
Round to the nearest Rand: 3/3
Convert $ to Rand (multiplication): 5/6
Counting of the money in my purse: 0/1 (big dissapointment here!)
Taking out R45 and R80: 1/2 (she confused R4 with R40 and gave me 2 x R2 coins and a R5 coin instead of two R20 notes and a R5 coin!)
Read the number (43,680,000 and 587,329): 2/2

Next term we will do one minute reading tests, dialogue etc. Right now she must practice guitar before her lesson! Our school breaks up tomorrow for three weeks of holiday and we'll be back on 20 July. To anyone reading this, have a wonderful holiday!

Exams

2009-06-25T05:08:00.001-07:00

Tammy's Bible Blog

2009-06-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

I did not realize that Tammy's Bible verse blog was not on my Blog list! I have added it now, so if you click on it, you can see what we have read and discussed. The terminology might not be very correct, because of limited understanding - especially last year - but this blog reflects a very special journey Tammy and I had learning about God. I would love to hear your comments on "How to become a child of God" (Thursday, August 14, 2008). It is sometimes difficult to explain God's grace and that we are saved through grace and grace alone - but also that we have a choice: we have to choose whether we want to follow Jesus or not (Narrow and wide road), but that it is not our good deeds that gets us into heaven.

Tammy copies the verses out of her contemporary English Bible which she got as going away gift from her previous school. (I am at home at the moment and haven't got the title before me.) It has tiny print and when she received it, I never thought that she would be able to read it so soon.

Anyway, I first read a passage out of the Bible to her, with her following where I am reading. If the same passage is in the children's Bible also, I read that too, but sometimes let her read it. Then we talk about the passage and what God is telling us. Tammy then chooses a verse or verses from the passage we have read. Homework is then to copy the verse(s) in her "Bible file" in ordinary font and to "write the italics" - i.e. to type in italics the meaning or message. The italics are there to make the difference clear between the Bible verses and her (our) interpretation, but with blogging the italics disappear and she sometimes forgets to convert the sentences into intalics again. Last year I often wrote down "the italics", but this year I usually leave it to her to type the interpretation on her own and to make her own labels for the post. I still often have to help with sentence construction, but as in all things, help dimishes slowly but surely.

Last year and the first term this year, she also illustrated the verses - her file of last year is beautiful - but this year with more attention to academics and going to the gym this has fallen away. It is a pity because the art enhanced the message. However if she does the art for homework, she just rushes it and no real thought or effort goes into the illustrations, so it seemed to me a waste of time. I could not commend her "illustration" the next day and who wants to start the day with a dissatisfied teacher?

We sometimes pray together and sometimes takes turns. I try to get her to respond to the passages we have studied because if you talk to a friend, and your friend tells you something, you can't just talk about other things - you have to respond to what your friend has told you.

I am curious to know what other homeschoolers do for Bible. Please pray for us that we will do God's will in all of this.

P.S. We start every morning but checking homework and writing down the plan for the day and if I should forget to write it down, Tammy comments "And Bible..!"

Some objectives for June

2009-06-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

I realise we have not done lapbooks yet- I have forgotten about them somehow. Its a pity. They are definitely still on the agenda.
Tammy's language is coming along. I understand her speech better, but she is still inclined to rush when she gets excited and then speech becomes clipped e.g. "He go, you turn, like this (gesture) down...at the back.." Then I have to get her to slow down: "Come again. I missed that. Where did you go?" Poor speech patterns from the past persists e.g. "You want some tea?" instead of "Do you want some tea?" Past tense is still formed through the use of "did" - a habit of many South Africans! "What did you eat?" "We did eat..." However Tamerin now says "I want to show you what my mother did bought for me..." It is going to take lots of practice still to get rid of that "did".

Language exam will include

Spelling
Comprehension (filling in missing words and answering questions on a passage and choosing the correct option out of given words),
Grammar (rewrite in the past tense; say whether it is a verb or a noun).
Speech (reciting a poem, telling what she has read and talking about any topic she chooses. I hope to record it again so as to compare her speech with evaluation done in April.)
One minute reading - same level as November 2008 (My Secret Unicorn) as well as from new text (Disney World Website or Zac Efron Annual. She can choose.)
Creative writing: Make sentences with..... and Blog post.

We are still revising government structure and so far it is going well. She has remembered much of earlier discussions and knows what someone who works in a government department is called, she knows what "Correctional services" "Department of Health", "National Treasury" etc. are. "Etc." is also a term that she learned this week! It is often used in the dictionary and a very necessary abbreviation! My aim with the government theme is simply to help her to understand news and to be able to read a newspaper with understanding. There is a wealth of vocabulary here: public, private, tax, income, service, official, department, office, etc. etc. (Wink!)

As far as her journeying with the Lord is concerned: She still finds it hard to express what she understands at first when we read the Bible, but after we have discussed it and I have lead her with questions, her insight is quite amazing. E.g. that if Jesus is the seed from which our new life comes, people should be able to see Jesus in us, the same way you would see a mealie after you have planted a mealie. (1Peter 1:23) (See her Bible verse blog). After choosing and copying a Bible verse from the passage we read, she has to write "The Italics" i.e. what she understands the verse / passage is saying to her. Of course I help, especially with sentence construction, but in the end it is her record of what we have discussed. We have mostly been doing Bible study out of Matthew - we have just finished Chapter 7. It is a very satisfying and enlightening study.
God has a purpose here and I continue to pray for wisdom!

Big disappointment and a new challenge

2009-06-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Tammy and family will no longer by going to the States this year. It is a big disappointment to the children, but there it is. Tammy and I still check the $ exhange rate each day, and she plots it on her Excel graph, but there is no longer the urgent need to learn to mentally calculate how much an item of $36.99 would be in our currency. It was fun while it lasted though, and she has learnt a lot.

So what do we do now? She is busy with Unicorn School and it starts with the unicorns preparing for exams. Seeing that her brother is busy with exams too, I decided it might be a good thing for Tamerin to also write exams. It might help her to join in conversations when she visits with her cousins.

Sooo.... what to "study" besides math and spelling? We have had several discussions on government and elections last year and earlier this year, so we will revise notes again. I hope to make the "exam" very practical e.g. to look up the telephone number of a certain government department. Just exactly what should every citizen know about government? I suppose we'll stick to the structure and functions of the different "parts" of government, the names and logos of the main political parties and taxes... and anything that is in the news this month.

Language will mostly be "fill in the missing word" based on her reader and her history notes, spelling, and finding the verb/noun/ adjective or adverb. (I find that it is important to know the difference between, for instance, a noun and a verb when using a dictionary.) I would love for her to make her own sentences with certain words as well.

Other subjects will be sport: again because it helps Tamerin to understand what is going on when family and friends watch it. (She has written on her Father's Day card: "I love watching rugby with you.) Tallying up the scores also provides good math practice. In rugby (our favourite sport) a goal counts 5 points, the conversion kick 2 points, a penalty kick 3 points and a drop kick also 3 points. In cricket you have singles, two's, fours and sixes and then there are six balls to an over and in limited cricket only 50 overs....
But why, oh why do they count 15, 30, 40 in tennis??

The math exam will include multiplication (e.g. 325 x 6), division (e.g. 325 / 6), fractions, adding with tens and hundreds, subtraction, percentages, rounding of prices and counting of money and reading of amounts involving millions and thousands.

Before finalising the study material, I better check on our goals again.

Please Lord help me to choose the right stuff and the right method to revise, and please let Tamerin enjoy it.

Money Matters

2009-05-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

Part of preparation to go to the U.S. is practising to convert $ to Rand. This involves checking the exchange rate every morning and while Tammy is going to do that for the next couple of weeks, I let her enter the data on Excel and insert a chart: since starting that at the beginning of the week, the Rand has steadily strengthened against the $ and it shows on her chart. This morning Tammy proudly announced today that the Rand has strengthened!

She then converts $1 - $10 dollars as well as $100 and $1000. In the beginning she has made lots of mistakes, but she has done 2 sheets without a single mistake.
Example:
R 8. 35
x 8 (How does one underline this on a blogpost?!)
66 . 80

Today she made 2 mistakes - both with adding e.g with the above calculation when she had to add 4 + 2 she wrote 7!! Tammy, Tammy....!

She loves these calculations and I love them too as they involve multiplication, adding and the use of the decimal point. She also has to estimate the answer before calculating it i.e. 8 x 8 = 64 and 8 x 9 = 72 so the answer must be between 64 and 72, but today it will be closer to 64 because 35c is closer to R8 than R9. Since estimating the answer, she has made far fewer mistakes! This is also what she will use if she has to convert $ to R without a calculator or pencil and paper.

The other money matters that we practice is rounding prices. I have started with it last year, but only now feels that she understands. So we go through newspaper ads and she reads me the real price and then what it "actually" costs. R69.99 = R70.00. Great fun.

We also count money. We have been doing it for a long time, but it is not easy and Tammy has to really focus on not confusing R and c.

This week I also let Tammy "pay" for stuff.
She first counts her money to establish how much she can pay.
Then she has to round the price e.g R35.99 = R36.
Then she gives me enough cash to cover the price, but not too much (e.g. 2 x twenty Rand notes, seeing that she has no R10 note or coins to make up R6).
Then she has to calculate how much change she would get. (R40 - R35 = R5 .... + the 1c, but seeing that we no longer use 1c coins, the shop would round it and give her 5c.)

She has also calculated discounts e.g. 50%, 25% and 10% discounts. Percentages are not new to her, seeing that she always has to calculate the percentage of her homework or test results and we used percentages a lot when we covered the elections.

She still needs lots of practice, but she understands what it is all about and is very determined to crack it. This is very practical, fun numeracy and works for us.

Preparing to see Disney World

2009-05-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

While we still "struggle" with the long division (Tammy can do it alright, but she takes forever), we have had great fun with language this past week:

Seats have not been booked yet, but it seems sure that Tammy's family will be off to the U.S. end of June. Disney World will definitely be on the intinerary, so Tammy and I have started to "study" this Disney World Guide. It loads faster than the official website and gives us everything we need.

I copy the text to a Word document and then we read it together, write down then new vocabulary and discuss the contents. Then we go back to the actual website and Tammy reads it to her family!! Great stuff!

So far we have done the home page on Disney World and introduction to Magic Kingdom. New vocabulary included words such as performance, recreation, destination, options, entertainment, unique, focus, specific, area, include, incredible. ("Incredible" is so "wow"! English is Tamerin's 2nd language and communication in either her home language or English has always been a very big challenge for her, so these words are "quite big"!) We practice the tongue twisters like specific by breaking them up into syllables as we have always done and she "reads" them aloud over and over until she can say them fluently.

For her spelling test on this weeks vocabulary, she scored 16/20! (Mistakes were: guid (guide), includ, (include) increadible (incredible) and imaine (imagine).

The discussion of the contents is very important. Tammy can tell you that 50 million people visit Disney World per year. She worked out how many visitors there are on average per day (50,000,000 / 365) and also what percentage visit Magic Kingdom. The practical math we have done at election time, is paying dividends! She can read thousands and millions and write down the numbers too! I am so proud of her. We also talked about Everest and checked on the globe where Nepal is. Will check tomorrow whether she still remembers what Everest is, but I am sure she does.

To reinforce the vocabulary (and facts), I make up sentences with missing words and give her the options to be filled in, in a box above the sentences. My aim is not to confuse or to test her, but simply to make language fun, to reinforce and to read with comprehension and focus! I use the same words again and again, but each time in a different context. Tammy has to read the whole sentence first and substitute the missing word with hmmm before she chooses the word from the box.

(I wish I knew how to blog word documents, but if I try to copy a word sheet, my blog refuses to publish it? Any suggestions?)

Anyway, typical sentences would be

entertainment / option / attractions / incredible / celebrate

There are many different things to do at Disney World. You even have the .............. to .................................. your wedding there.

The variety of shopping and ......................................... areas is simply ...............................................
One of the main ...................................... in Disney World is "Expedition Everest".

To help with choosing the right word, I refer to parts of speech such as verb, noun, adjective and adverb without making a big fuss. You need to know what verbs, nouns etc are when you use a dictionary and Tammy has to look up new words daily. When do children actually learn parts of speech in school? Grade 4? I haven't the faintest idea. We do not do "grade" work - we just do what seems necessary. Right now, being able to talk about the coming trip and to feel good about herself seem very, very necessary. (By the way, the looking up of words in the dictionary or telephone numbers, and fiddling with search engines form part of my vision of her working in an office one day. )

Homeschooling is the greatest!

Long division has started!

2009-05-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

While we worked out fractions, I realised Tamerin's ability to divide is not so good: She doesn't know what is 20 divided by 5, but when given a prompt i.e. what times 5 gives you 20, she answers without hesitation! She knew her tables well, but division practice was sorely needed!

This week we spent a lot of time on long division, using 6 every time as the divider. Tammy likes to follow a given method and she managed the long division quite well: we marked the number line with the six times table to help her count the sixes, but after a day, it was no longer needed. I realised that her knowledge of tables would kick in again, but it took some frustrating time before it happened.

What I found frustrating (and where I had to remind myself that she is "slow" and I need to be very patient) is when she had to deduct e.g. 20 - 18: For most of the week, she would do the deduction the "long method": She would say 0-8; no it can't, so I take a ten and cross out the 2 and make it a 1. 10 take away 8 is 2. 1 take away 1 is zero....! She couldn't just "see" that 20 - 18 is 2 or that 30 - 28 is 2.

But - praise the Lord - by today she started to take short cuts: 20 minus 18 is 2! Long division is the only division she can do: even 606 divided by 6 is done the long division way, but I figure, it doesn't matter, the short cuts will come with time.

We never have remainders - remainders are calculated as decimal fractions until the 2 decimal. It was good to see that 39 / 6 = 6.5. She knows very well that .5 is 1/2 and could see that the remainder of 3 is half a six.

Reading and other exercises are a bit on hold, until we really crack long division. She has made giant leaps through taking many, many, many baby steps! Tammy has had a very bad cold, so we did not go to gym this week - that's too bad, but on the other hand, it left us with more time to do math.

Today we spent most of the morning, making a computer scrapbook page for mother's day. She has a nifty programme called "Scrapbook factory", but I am not very familiar with it, so we struggled a bit, but in the end the page came out quite successfully. Next year, I'll make sure she takes more pictures of her mom. There were actually very few pics of mom on the computer. (Guess who takes most of the holiday photos?!) Tammy has a camera, but today the batteries were flat.

Our vision is that she will work in an office one day. My dilemma is now: is it better to practice to do this type of thing on computer, or should she get more practice using a ruler, scissors and glue? Which type of activity will be more beneficial in the long run? I am not too sure about this one. Either is fun: she loves working on the computer and the end result is neat. But cutting, pasting and painting are fun too!

Have a Happy Mother's Day!

First days of 2nd Term: Elections!

2009-04-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

Besides our school vacation, we have had many public holidays in April: 22 April was Election Day, 27 April was Freedom Day (to commemorate our first truly democratic Election 15 years ago) and Friday 1 May is Workers Day. Last week we had two days of school and then I took off the rest of the week to go to the sea with my children (after we first voted of course!). So this is our "2nd week" of school, but actually today has only been our 3rd day of school this term. We could get used to have so many days off!

Last week Tammy and I spent a lot of time calculating how many people would vote if the voter percentage was 80%, 70%, 60% etc. based on the actual number of registered voters. (23,180,000). The ruling party i.e. the A.N.C. had a 2/3 majority after the last elections and that meant that they could change the constitution by themselves. To ensure true democracy, it was hoped that they would not get a 2/3 majority again. We have a very high crime rate and service delivery throughout the country is deteriorating and in many places virtually non-existent. In these aspects, the country is a mess and change is desperately needed if we are not to share the lot of Zimbabwe.

Anyway, it was good talking to Tamerin about the importance of voting and how the parliamentary seats would be allocated. Today, we studied the real results ("results" and "statistics" were today's new words) and then Tamerin "practised" speaking about the results.

She again did a lot of % calculations - from very simple ones e.g. 10% of 100 and 10% of 200 to 65.9% of 17,680.729 i.e. the election results. The complicated ones she did with a calculator of course! She also calculated percentage the other way around e.g. 40/ 50 x 100 =80% . Here too she worked from very simple calculations to real election results i.e. 11,650,748 out of 17,680.729 (the A.N.C.'s results) and 2,945,829 out of 17,680.729 (the D.A.'s i.e. the main opposition's results) It was good to see that her calculations were the same as the official statistics!

So what did she learn in this theme?

What elections are about and a basic understanding of how our government is put together.
The importance of voting: the higher the voter percentage, the more votes are needed to get a seat in parliament.
What an I.D. document is.
The voting process
To read figures that run into hundred thousands or millions. A million has six zero's!
To calculate % and to have a basic understanding of percentages e.g. 50% is half.
These % calculations helped to reinforce basic arithmetic: multiply and divide.

Tammy has been familiar with the term "percent" for a long time, as she daily records the weather forecast and it often includes 30% or 60% chance of rain. Since January, I let her calculate her homework results i.e. calculate how many sums she did, subtract the mistakes, and work out the percentage that she achieved. Working with percentages is not difficult, but an important life skill and I am thrilled with how well she copes with them. We can now go on to work out discounts and interest rates.

Thank you God for Tammy's good progress!

P.S. Tammy wrote (with help) on her blog about the election results. This helped her to verbalize her election information as she would explain it to her Ouma.

Last day of school of First Term 2009

2009-04-06T01:51:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful last day of term last week: Tammy and her family came to our farm for an outing. First we had a lovely picnic on the stoep and then we climbed up the koppie (hill) behind the house. It is not very high or far, but it is quite steep.

Tammy and her brother climbing up the rocks. Since doing water aerobics, Tammy's general muscle tone has improved much and so has her balance and stamina. She climbed up with far greater ease than December last year when they first came to visit.

Tammy's grandmother and her mom.

On top of the world. Tammy still had a fever blister: she had tonsillitis last week. The spare tyre around her waist is slowly but surely getting thinner and thinner.

Ouma Vossie posing with the horse, with brother Shaen and cousin Lee standing by. Tammy has always been fond of horses, so riding had to be included of course. Hendrik was at home, so that worked out well. I wouldn't want to saddle and handle the horses myself.

Tammy on horseback. She has several toy horses. Last year we read "My secret Unicorn". Getting onto the real thing was a little intimidating, but Tammy seemed to really enjoy it.

Big smile before the dismount!

Shaen's turn.

While waiting their turns, the cousins had fun playing with the dogs.

Mommy's turn!

This has been a great term. There has been noteworthy progress in especially the following areas:

Spelling and ability to "make out" words. Big improvement.
Pronunciation generally and especially of "long" words like "electricity".
Ability to use multiplication purposefully e.g. every day she has to calculate how many problems or sums she had by adding the amount in a column with the number of columns. (She usually did about 60 sums per day.) After counting and deducting the mistakes, she has to work out the percentage on the calculator. She also converted Rand to Dollars. We will do much more of this as their trip draws close.
Ability to determine "highest" or "lowest" number.
Ability to read the thermometer.
Knowledge of sport (cricket and rugby) and awareness of political parties in South Africa (We have an election coming up.)
Understanding of the meaning of Easter.
General fitness and improved muscle tone, coordination and balance

Most noticeable challenges:

Creative language (Speech and written language).
Adding - this is a bigger problem than multiplication!
To improve her posture

Have a Happy Easter. We will be back on 20 April 2009

Spelling that works for us

2009-03-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

Tammy's reading is picking up - we have changed our method quite a bit from our previous sight reading method and it seems to work. We read a piece together and Tammy has to follow with her finger and read aloud too. In this way I immediately pick up if she lags behind. Sometimes I stop and let her read a word alone, especially if it is a word she has recently learned. We do not have a graded reader, but read anything that she fancies from the Bible to the newspaper to High School Musical and Zac Efron's annual and webpages. In this way, she becomes familiar with a great variety of words and expressions.

We stop our reading quite often too discuss what we have read. If I don't do this, she doesn't pick up the story line. New words or words she has forgotten are written down on a small white board. I often let her look up the word in the Oxford S.A. school dictionary. We make sentences to explain the meaning of the word e.g Tammy is a resident of M...... Minh is a resident of S..... etc. (If you are new to this blog: Tammy is mentally challenged and English is her 2nd language.)

When the board is more or less full, we go through the list again. I.e. she reads the words and words are explained again if needs be. Long words are broken up in sections to help with pronunciation. I try to use syllables that she knows well and add the prefixes and suffixes. For example today we had recently. I wrote down cent (a word she knows well!) and had her read it. Then I added re and then ly. No problem! We also had attended. I wrote down ten for her to read and then added the rest. Again no problem.

If she struggles with pronunciation, we add similar (known) words to help e.g. when she struggled with malicious, I added delicious; She struggled to remember the pronunciation of au words e.g audition and applause, so I added August with which she is very familiar. This works like a charm. She had some problems with long and short vowels, but here again, I would give her familiar examples like use and us, at and ate. We have never bothered about rules, bus she is "discovering" rules as we go along.

Then she writes the spelling as in a spelling test, but if she hesitates, I quickly show her the word again. There is absolutely no point in ever misspelling a word, merely for the sake of a test. I find that in the twenty words or so, it is very seldom necessary to show her the word again. She spells with ease words like immediately, atmosphere, dedicated etc.

Lastly she reads the piece all by herself. It is heartening to see how she "makes out" the words. Fluency and comprehension improve all the time.

One of those school days....

2009-03-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

For about two months now, Tammy and I have been very going to the water aerobics class at the gym every day at 8:00. It is well worth is, but it makes a big dent in our teaching time, so to save time, we put on our swimming costumes (yes that is what we call them here in South Africa) under our regular clothes. I was just about to leave for work when I saw I had an SMS from Tammy's mom - its that time of the month, so Tammy can't swim. O.K. so out with the cozzy and on with gym pants and tackies. I take a small towel and leave my big gym bag - I'm not going to need that....! I finally leave, but am now 5 minutes late.

Five km down the road, I realize my gym locker key and more importantly my access card are still in my gym bag, so I have to turn back, unlock the gate again and retrieve bag - now about 12 minutes late.

When I get to the toll gate 30 minutes later, an alarm rings: my E-tag was upside down, so it has not registered at the gate - I have to reverse and the irate official tells me I can't go through, because the gate has now been locked. (She unlocks it for the other cars, why not me?) Oh what embarrasment! I have to push my way in another queue! I can just imagine everyone swearing at the dumb woman who goes in the E-tag only lane without an E-tag! Another few minutes wasted!

Once trapped on the highway, the traffic moves at snail's pace: another accident. I try to phone Tammy to get going with some work as I certainly am not going to make it in time. (Fortunately today we do not have to be at the gym at exactly 8:00!) Tammy does not answer. I try a few times more: no luck. I can just imagine her sitting in front of the T.V., oblivious to her ringing phone, which is probably in the kitchen. I fume.

Once at their house I am not in a good mood and hate myself for being so grumpy with Tammy. She doesn't know where her gym record book is, she hasn't done the weather yet, she hasn't done her homework and I don't feel too good about this day!

But God gives me the grace to calm down. In the car I ask her some questions about Global warming that we discussed yesterday. She answers beautifully. I ask her what she would like to talk about today and she says "Parties". "What party?"... "No, political parties." (She struggles a bit to say political, but says it clearly enough.) Bless my soul! We have discussed them a bit before as we have an election coming up in April. We have a glorious trip to the gym, talking about Jacob Zuma and the possibility that the prosecuting authority will stop the prosecution. She remembers that he is accused of CORRUPTION! And that he is the leader of the A.N.C and will be the next president! What a clever girl you are Tammy! What a joy to teach.

At the gym I measure her waist for the first time in a long time: she has lost quite a few centimetres around her waist: she still has a long way to go, but the aerobics are paying dividents. When we do spinning she generally seems fitter than a month ago.

We pick up a free local newspaper on our way back to their house. She chooses an article to read - Kind hands save a dog. New vocabulary out of this piece are words such as dedicated staff, comfortable, treatment, resident.

During tea-time she reads a piece out of her Zac Efron Annual to her grandmother: she does us proud as she reads fairly fluently and with understanding. Between some more reading and multiplication, she practices guitar. Yesterday she was lethargic during her lesson and plucked the strings very halfheartedly. Today however, she manages reasonably well to alternate plucking with her index finger and her middle finger. And she counts of own accord 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4 A great improvement.

A bit of a dissapointment was when she no longer wants to practice a dramatisation of the cruxifiction. She has originally chosen this piece to prepare for Easter, but for some unknown reason she now backs off. I hate leaving a project hanging in the air, but also realize that it will be futile to persevere with something she has lost interest in. She is keen enough to just read the scripture and I am grateful for that. God will give us another theme for her to dramatize and to perform. (Dramatisation really helps with her speech, but I feel pushing her will be destructive.)

Thank you God for days like this! Even if it started off on the wrong foot! And please forgive my foul temper! Please grant me more patience God!

Fractions

2009-03-17T05:13:00.000-07:00

This week we did some division with remains. Tammy struggled a bit with this, so we used the number line and piled the threes / fours onto the right spots: 3, 6, 9, 15 etc. She could then easily count how many threes there were in 28 etc. The remains were always expressed as a fraction e.g. 16/3 = 5 and 1/3. In the beginning she confused 1/3 and 2/3 but she soon caught up and "loved" this work.
However, I picked up that her tables were a bit rusty. This surprised me, because she really knew them exceptionally well: not only in sequence, but also when asked at random. Anyway to make "math" a bit easier we are back onto multiplication, but this time "longer" multiplication e.g.
27
x5
135

We converted miles to kilometers. (1 Mile = 1.6 km). She liked this. This was necessary to understand High School Musical 3 better and also to help her prepare for the U.S. trip and in any case it is problem solving and practice in multiplication and decimals.

She is busy writing a letter to Zac Efron. Formulating questions is still very difficult for her, but we are working on it. Spelling and reading ability are improving by the day, but she still needs a lot of guidance with comprehension. (There has been a vast improvement, but she still needs considerable practice before she will really be able to read a book on her own just for fun.).

Other new activities include water aerobics and swimming lessons and guitar lessons. In all of these she shows promise. (I will blog about these activities later.) Right now we are waiting for her guitar instructor. She has just had her 3rd swimming lesson. After lunch break she came up to finish her Zac Efron letter, but since I started blogging during break (and thus occupy the computer), I asked her to start on the multiplication homework work sheet so long. Guess what she said? "I would like to do division by 3...!"

She has done 3 multiplication problems while I've been typing this paragraph, but she forgot to add the tens, so I'd better stop babbling and help her.

Homeschooling is great! Have a great week.

A visit to the U.S.?

2009-03-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

Tammy's family might visit the U.S. in June. Even if they don't go, planning for it, is great fun and gives us lots of scope for learning themes.
The past week we spent quite a bit of time on converting U.S.D to South African Rand. The average currency last week was $1= R10. 50. How much is $6? Multiply with 10 and add 1/2 of the dollar value. Then check the answer on the calculator! What bliss! The exercise meant revising

what to do when you multiply with 10 (add a zero or move the decimal point)
odd and even numbers. 1/2 of an odd number means there must be a half (a .5), but even numbers divide cleanly - no half.
adding e.g. 70 + 3. (For a while she was a bit confused and would say 100 i.e. she mixed the ones and tens, but she soon caught up again.)

By Friday she was able to convert $1 - $10 to ZAR mentally - no more adding on paper! She was very proud of herself and I am curious to see how well she fares on Monday. "How much is $5?" "R52.50!" Without hesitation! Hurrah!

Reading exercises were found in the Disney World website. She searched for the website and then clicked on "animal world". We copied the text onto word and now she did comprehension on sections she chose e.g. discovery. (As I write this, I haven't got the info in front of me - it's on their computer, but I hope you get the drift.)

Other work was discussing (and watching) cricket and checking live scores. How much must S.A. score to beat Australia? (Subtraction) How does the coach indicate it was a four / a six?

For rugby (the Super 14 tournament is well underway and the Blue Bulls of Pretoria are doing very well so far), we checked where the different teams come from and how many points are awarded for a try, the conversion kick, and a penalty.

School is fun!

Tamerin's birthday and reading

2009-02-26T03:12:00.000-08:00

Tamerin's 14th birthday was a great occasion. We went to see the South African stage version of High School Musical and she and friends were enthralled. Such a happy day. She blogged about it here. (To any South Africans who might be reading this post, the show is well worthwhile.)

I gave her a Zac Efron (the main actor in the HSM movie) book and below are a few short video clips of how we go about reading it. As we did last year, we still:

1. Match words (look at the word and hear it and match it to the correct word on the base sheet).

2. Choose and show words (hearing the word and finding it, without an example.)

3. Sight read the words individually (flash cards).

4. Write the words.

5. Read sentences.

The words are chosen from text she wants to or needs to read: i.e. they are most of the new words in a particular piece and include words I know she has struggled with before.

What I find very satisfying is that Tammy is now better able to split up a word in syllables and read it syllable by syllable instead of just guessing the word. When we come to a difficult word, I write down the "bits"and we practice saying it, bit by bit. Not only does it help much with pronunciation, but I find that in the end she can actually spell words like inevitably, mischievous, initial, relationship. (Bearing in mind that she is supposed to be mentally handicapped, this is quite an achievement.)

Pronunciation is improving - very slowly, but surely. The HSM dialogue she and her brother did on her birthday party went quite well, but unfortunately the video clip is not too clear - they were pretty much silhouetted against the light. I will keep the clips though, as they will help me to evaluate progress in speech later this year. It is already light years better than 20 months ago, when I first met her.

"Gabriella" arriving at her new school.

Matching words

Choosing words

Flash cards

Writing out new words

Reading Zac Efron's Annual.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-13T04:41:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of Liesa George.

Thanks Liesa! Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Preparing for Valentine's day

2009-02-12T04:37:00.000-08:00

This week's been short due to my swimming the Midmar Mile and taking a day's leave. We spent much time talking about the weekend and Tammy even left a comment on my other blog - she read most of it and wrote the comment all on her own.

For the rest, we practised the High School Musical Dialogue and started to make Valentines. Tamerin talked of own accord about what she wanted to write in the cards: Daddy I miss you (He's gone to Angola for business) God loves you and I love you too. You are special, Much love Tamerin. For her Mom, she wants to say Enjoy your meetings. She is still thinking about what she wants to write in her brother's card.

The Halleluja thing here is, that she is able to string a coherent sentence together. Communication is slowly, but steadily improving!

Tammy's first attempt at sewing a valentine - as you can see there was a lot of undoing!

Pinning "slippery" pieces of material together and getting the edges even! Not so easy, but Tammy has shown great improvement here, since last year. (Her very first sewing attempt was for Valentine's day last year - she was terrified of the machine!)

Taking out her valentine.

Her second attempt - the 2nd curve did not come out to neatly, but the first one's not bad he? (There was black thread in the bobbin and we did not bother to replace it with red - which turned out to be a good thing as it was easier to see the thread when she had to unpick!)

She stuffed the valentines with lavendar and attached them to her cards. She typed her own text in tables and copied and pasted some pictures we found on the web. She is sooo excited about the cards!

Dialogue practice, Speech Dividends and an imaginary trip.

2009-02-06T03:32:00.000-08:00

This week we continued with reading my abridged version of the "High School Musical" book. Tammy enjoys it, but even with the "easier" words and expressions, she still does not read as fluently as I have hoped she would. Comprehension is a little better though. I really want to get her to just read for the story's sake and enjoy it.

I have written down the dialogue between Troy and Gabriella (main characters in the movie) where they talk to each other after they have just met, and again after they have met again at the school. In between the two dialogues there is a short linking monologue by a nervous Gabriella expressing her fears and hopes for the new school.

The idea is that Tammy and her brother will perform this on her birthday party on the 21st. Tammy loves practising this little 3 min skit and she laughs at the jokes. Memorisation has really helped to improve fluency of speech and pronunciation. (She in inclined to say sh for s and s for sh e.g sour for shower and sho for so). We break up difficult words or phrases and keep on repeating them until she pronounces them correctly and says them fairly fluently.

The speech of last year is paying dividents: because we "drilled" the contents so that she could say it, she still remembers the facts and now we can continue with the same themes e.g. she said last year "We hope the new president (Obama) will sort out their (U.S.) money problems. " This week we reviewed our own government. We talked about how we have a parliament whereas the U.S. has a congress and how our ruling party (the A.N.C.) has more than 2/3 majority allowing them to pass just about any bill they want to, whereas Obama has to get the support from the opposition as well. She said she hoped he sorted out their money problems now and I could tell her that it is just what he trying to do this week. (We just fetched her friend from school and Tammy told her that it was the opening of parliament today - her "normal" Grade 4 friend did not know what parliament was...! Tammyexplained that that was the place where "the president stood in front and talked" and in reply to my "But why do they talk so much there?", she answered "They make laws." Very satisfactory. )

Tammy's dad went to Angola this week. We talked about trips, flights etc. I then let her calculate how long the flight would be (subtraction). (She struggles a bit with subtraction, but true to form, is working hard and showing progress. ) Then we planned an imaginary trip - she would like to go to Albuquerque (where High School Musical took place). With my help, she checked rates of flights, hotels and car hire on the internet. This led to subtraction: how much more would it cost to go in July than now? and mulitplication where the rates were given in $ instead of ZAR. We calculated that it would cost about R44 000 to fly there, stay in a hotel for 2 weeks and hire a car, but we have not calculated how much feeding ourselves or seeing sights would cost! This was a fun exercise and we'll definitely do something similar at least once a week... but then next week is Valentine's day and they are going away for the weekend, so we have only 4 days to make our valentines. Adele has suggested lavendar bags... hope it's not too late to get started!

Have a great week!

Reading Abridged "High School Musical"

2009-01-30T11:24:00.000-08:00

The reading of the abridged High School Musical story is going well. Both of us enjoy it! Tamerin does not yet read fluently, but compared to her reading ability a year ago, her progress has been very good. Comprehension is also much better. After we have read and discussed an extract, we watch the DVD, but only that particular part. She has watched the whole HSM DVD many, many times on her own before, but I do not think she has really understood the dialogue up to now. (English is not her mother tongue, however, she has always been taught through the medium of English.)

In my printed version I try to take out most new words - we now read just for the fun of reading and for the story. I have for instance substituted "learner" for "student", as she is more familiar with the South African term for school going children. However, of course there are also new words necessary to the understanding of the story like "audition" and "drama".

I also try to stick to the original dialogue so that it is exactly like the DVD, but this is not always so easy. In this video clip that I took yesterday she reads the dialogue of the basketball players discussing Sharpay. Until now she has not understood the reference to Sharpay as the Ice princess. In this exerpt there are still too many new words like "muttered". Today's had even more like "academical" and "accompanying", but I can't wait for Monday: there are no new words in Monday's piece. We are just going to consolidate for a while.

The sheet with loose words next to the page she is reading, is the sheet we used for matching, choosing and naming the sight words of this page. This method has worked well for her (and many other mentally challenged children I have taught before). I got the method from my sister in law whose Down Syndrome daughter learned to read very well this way. I will try to make a video clip of how we do it, but not next week...! No new words for a week!

High School Musical Mania or How parties can promote language.

2009-01-26T07:39:00.000-08:00

Hannah Montana is on ice for the time being. Tammy wants a High School Musical party for her 14th birthday next month. She plans a singing competition and quizz on H.S.M. 1. She will ask the questions, but of course she must know the answers as well. I bought her the book, but plan to give it to her on her birthday. In the meantime I "rewrite" it in Tammy English i.e. in words I know, she knows or can make out. For example instead of self-assured, I write confident, instead of vacation resort, I write ski resort, instead of crisp air, I write cold air. I also leave out most of the jargon about basketball that neither she nor I really understand. (Because time is of the essence right now, I do not want to bother too much with "new" words.) After reading, we watch that part on the DVD again and discuss questions. Her vocabulary is expanding rapidly, and expression is miles better, but still a big handicap for her.

Today we watched the eclipse. We made round holes in a sheet of paper and saw the half moon sun shining through the holes. After the eclipse, the sun shining through the holes made full circles again. She wrote about the eclipse in her diary and her homework is to tell her parents what an eclipse is and what we have seen. We practised the sentences a bit in class and I hope she remembers them. She really tries hard.

We also watched cricket. South Africa thrashed Australia! Tammy seems to understand the game much better. We watched a website which gives the score the continuously for a while. We worked out how many balls were left and how many runs S.A. needed to score in order to win. (Multiplication with 6 and subtraction.) We did the last few "unknown" multiplication tables today. (Last part of 7 and 8 times tables). I am looking forward to teach her multiplication problems. Adding with ones and tens is improving steadily - she understands the concept much better now and got 46/50 for her last homework.

There are so many activities we would like to do and so little time. Please pray for us that we will get our priorities right!

First two days

2009-01-17T01:42:00.000-08:00

We spent the first day fixing the year calendar on the computer. I made a calendar on Excel for Tammy, but I made it in Grade 1 font. I forgot that their computer does not have Grade 1 font, so Tammy had to select all and change the font to Ariel. It was good Excel practice nevertheless. I have had this calendar for a long time: every year I just retype the first 7 days of the month and Excel calculates the rest e.g. if the first Monday is 3 and in Cell A4 then the next Monday is =A4 + 7, i.e. 10. I have to change the holidays of course. It takes a little bit of time to do it, but then I get a custom made calendar. Next year I will let Tammy make all the changes.

She also completed the weather charts and register of November 08 on Excel. She fills in the weather on the calendar every day and on the first day of the next month, she enters this handwritten data onto an excel data base. Excel automatically reflects this data in visual charts. Tammy thinks it is so "cool". It helps to see that summer is hotter and has more rain than winter.

Of course our charts are not complete, because they only reflect the weather of school days, but one gets a reasonable picture anyway. This year we will add the daily rainfall - there is a rain-meter in the garden. Our charts reflected very few rainy days, as she only drew rain on the calendar when it actually. However, it seldom rains in the morning, so her charts reveal only about 1/3 of the rain!

Well last year's charts are now filed along with the printed register and the calendar with the hand written weather on it. Our register reflects all the outings we had and of course also all the sick leave or vacation leave either Tammy or I had.

We have started to read Hannah Montana: "A Nightmare on Hannah road" and it is a hit, but she does not read it as fluently as I have hoped she will. BUT she read 5 PAGES IT WITHOUT PRACTISING SIGHT WORDS BEFOREHAND! I must just be careful not to push this "test" of reading too far. It must remain easy and fun, so I will probably revert back to the match, choose, sight read method. It is a bit tedious for me, but she never seemed to mind and the important thing is, it worked. She asked for Hannah Montana work sheets where she can fill in words again. We will concentrate a little more on drilling of spelling as well - that is something the end of year tests indicated could be helpful.

For history we discussed general world news very briefly: the cholera in Zimbabwe, the trial of Jacob Zuma and the new political party COPE and more at length the fighting in Gaza. I copied news articles and rewrote them in simpler"Tammy" language for work sheets. Yet, even simplified there is a lot of new vocabulary! We have covered new concepts like infrastructure (a very topical one for anyone in Southern Africa!), the United Nations, firing of rockets, Hamas, controlling (of borders) destroy, smuggle, terrorists, import, export. The Gaza theme also compelled us to revise concepts we dealt with last year like refugees, borders, government, political parties, Egypt and Israel, elections, unemployment. Of course we used the globe to locate Israel again and maps to locate the Gaza strip and the West Bank. (While explaining I wrote on her board "people lose jobs" and she corrected me "People loose their jobs"! It was a sentence in her prize giving speech last November!)

We live in an interesting world and Tammy is part of it and should know what is happening is this world! She said she would ask at Sunday School that they pray for Gaza: "The fighting must stop." The pictures and news of Gaza fill us with such sadness! It is all so unnecessary, if only....

Plans for 2009

2009-01-13T22:36:00.000-08:00

I thought school started yesterday, only to find out that it starts on Thursday! Anyway Tamerin finished her 2008 register and weather chart on Excel and printed them - there was not enough time to do it on our last day last year.

Our overall goal remains getting her ready to stand on her own two feet (life skills) and to be able to do a job (probably as a clerk in an office doing something on computer) (academics) and to be a HAPPY, self-confident "independent" young lady one day! ( "One day" meaning by the time she is 18. She will be fourteen in February).

These are some of the objectives for the first term:

To ask what God's will is everyday, and to be obedient! (God will tell us what scripture to read and discuss - He has always done it in the past.)
To fill in a personal profile, so as to get her to know herself a little better. (I must compile the questionaire still today. It will contain questions like "What is your favourite colour? Who is your favourite T.V. star?")
To improve language: speech, comprehension (verbal and written) and reading. (We made great progress last year, but this remains our toughest challenge.) Specific objectives this term: to talk about the themes we deal with and to tell the story of the books we read. Chosen books: "Nightmare on Hannah Street" (A Disney Hannah Montana book) and "My Secret Unicorn - A touch of Magic" by Linda Chapman. To practise talking about themes and other school work, we'll compile and "practice" a speech again as we did the end of last year (see previous post.)
To practise conversations e.g. on telephone and to give verbal directions how to get to house from the main gates of the estate.
Spelling: at least 20 new words per week. We did not really practice spelling last year, but in the tests I could see that practising it could help.
To learn new computer skills e.g. publisher or on-line scrapbooking. (I don't know it myself yet, so will have to learn it with her. She is creative and being able to use the computer for expressing yourself creatively could be fun and less frustrating than working with hands that cannot really cut and paste neatly or draw lines or fold papers accurately. It can also be helpful to get a job in the long run .)
To use the alphabet daily e.g. to look up words in the dictionary or specific telephone numbers.
First term themes will include parliament, politics (we have an interesting election coming up and then there is the inauguration of the U.S. president), economy (the oil price, inflation etc., but with main focus on practical economy like shopping, making a budget, saving etc.) and we'll find a nature theme. Gardening perhaps? ( This will be a tough one for me as I don't like fiddling in the soil, but most women do, so I should encourage gardening. It could be very satisfying for her.)
To make lapbooks of her themes, throughout the year. This term: parliament and the judicial system. (It sounds so grand, but it isn't really. The opening of parliament is soon: we watched in on T.V. last year and discussed it, but she will understand it much better this year. Jacob Zuma is constantly in the news and with new court cases definitely in the pipeline, courts, laws etc. are very topical.)
To continue with her diary, but to bring more photography in it!
To complete the weather chart more thoroughly - also over weekends - so as to get a better picture of the weather. She will also record the rain fall in their yard. (She still struggles a bit with highest and lowest temperature - but we'll get there, if we faithfully record it. I also want her to record the classroom temperature this year instead of just writing down the temperatures of the weather forecast The aim is improved concept of more, less, most, highest. lowest etc and also practice in the use of Excel as she fill in the data for the charts!
Other math's: To know and understand all the tables. To improve adding with ones and tens. To practise estimation as basis for long division later. Measuring using decimals (length, mass, volume).
To sew simple things like bags or pillow slips: things that she can sew without my constant help. (Any ideas for Valentine's day?)
To use whatever the Lord provides in terms of learning content. Last year I found that He kept on supplying us with a practical, usable curriculum as life happened.

Or end of year concert? Probably along the same lines as last year with the inclusion of at least one dance, physical exercises and guitar playing. (She got a guitar for Christmas, but here her family will help - I haven't got a clue!) Apparently she manages the chords quite well already. She might just really surprise us, as she surprised us with her ability to master typing on the computer!

Dear Lord Jesus
Please bless us this year, as You have blessed us so much last year. Fill us with your Holy Spirit, so that we will hear your voice and be obedient as You tell us which way to go. Please take our hands - without your guidance and help, our efforts will be meaningless. Help me to choose the right content and methods for Tammy and help Tammy to remain positive, focussed and willing to work hard. With Your help, miracles can happen again.
Let it be so, Lord Jesus!

Tamerin's Prize Giving: Her End of Year Function

2008-11-29T05:41:00.000-08:00

The prize giving evening was a huge success!

Tamerin's biggest challenge is to communicate properly. Her comprehension has been improving steadily, but her spoken language has been a handicap all along: from pronunciation till sentence construction. To stimulate spoken language we prepared a speech which she practised for her prize giving. This was held on the eve of the last day of school. (The school year in South Africa runs from January till beginning of December.) So instead of an end of the year concert, she had an end of the year speech on her year's work. I believed that as a ballet or music exam or an Eisteddfod or an gymnastics competiton motivates children to polish their year's practice, this speech would motivate Tammy to give her all. And boy, has it ever!

Her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins attended and all were most impressed. Best of all was that Tammy really enjoyed it. No-one, except me and the Lord and in a way her mother, knew just how much her speech has improved through this effort. If you have been following our blog, you would know that this speech preparation has gone on for a long time, but it has paid dividends: her pronunciation has improved and pattern sentences has been drilled in a meaningful way and skills such as reading the thermometer were also fine tuned.

The speech was presented as a show and tell and covered most aspects of her school work such as her reader, numerical skills, geography, history and life skills.
Tammy ready to start - the stack on the left table were mostly pictures which she lifted and discussed one by one and then put them on the table on the right. The stack also included her reader and her dictionary!

It took a lot of guts to stand in front of an audience and speak, but she did it well. She stood reasonably still and did not fiddle too much with clothes etc. (We practised this a lot too!)

"I understand prices. The price of this milk is R13.99, but it actually costs R14."

The temperature right now is 24 degrees (Celcius)

"I also know the map of South Africa, especially the road to Durban..."

"The Voortrekkers were farmers from the Eastern Cape, who trekked north..."
"
The Southern Right whales come all the way from Antartica to our coasts every spring..." It is the first time she was able to pronounce "Antartica" correctly! (The Southern Right whale was part of our curriculum because the family went to the whale festival in September.)

Between her speech and her Nativity puppet show, she passed round a box with sums and problems - the audience asked her tables, division etc. and she answered without hesitation .She loved this. In the meantime I set up her puppet show. I was the narrator and Tammy did the dialogue. We ended with a discussion as to where Jesus is now, what He is doing in heaven, how you become His child and what will happen when He comes back. I asked her the questions and she answered them.

"Don't be afraid Mary. God thinks you are special. You are going to have a baby boy and you must call Him Jesus."

The setup.

Tammy's puppets: crib and all were made out of toilet roll tubes - got the idea on the internet. (I cannot edit my posts once I leave this page, so I can't add the link now. Does anyone else have this problem?)

The angels were another internet idea.

"Thank you for my book prize Teacher!" (She also got an Excellence Award with a gold sticker on which I first embossed an A+ with a ball point at the back. She was most thrilled with the A+)

I am just sad, that due to a misunderstanding, we only have photos and no video clips to share. Fortunately her Oupa made a full scale video for the Durban Ouma to enjoy when she comes to visit in December. The enthralled audience had tears in their eyes and were full of compliments and praise. However, all this is God's work: He brought us together and made all this possible. All praise to Him!

Thank you, thank you God for a wonderful year.

As we now have our summer vacation, this blog will sleep for a few weeks. We'll be back early in the new year. Tammy might come to the farm for a visit, so you might hear from me next week, but in case I have no homeschool news before Christmas:

MAY YOU ALL HAVE AN ESPECIALLY BLESSED CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Gratitude... Tagging others

2008-11-26T12:09:00.000-08:00

As you can see in the post below I've been tagged by Nicole. So now I tag Dorette, Thelwyn, Lora, Jen and Beth:
Rules are easy. Name ten things you are grateful for, it can be anything! Funny, serious, whatever. And then tag five others. Spread the gratefulness around!

Gratitude tag.

2008-11-26T10:39:00.000-08:00

So I have been tagged by Nicole to name 10 things that I am grateful for. As this is our last week of school, it is an excellent time to think of all the things that I am truly grateful for. Since this is a homeschool blog, I'll concentrate on the blessings of my homeschooling year.

1. I am grateful to God for providing this job for me - I am homeschooling a very special child - not my own. Two years ago, I was principal of a very busy pre-school and on the brink of collapse, last year I was teacher of the Special Needs class in a private school and exhausted and frustrated. This year I am teacher of only one and loving every bit of it. Thank you, thank you!

2. I am grateful that my husband supports me in this. I live 50 km from my job, so it costs a lot to go to work. But Jan never complains.... he has ALWAYS supported me in whatever I did. After 33 years I am still very grateful for the coffee in bed and the breakfasts he makes every morning and for the coffee for the road... Jan I'll keep you! (The coffee for the road is actually only hot water, but it does make the road shorter!)

And I'll keep my son Hendrik too! (And the rest of my family: Frans, Thelwyn and Martelize and Gert, Dorette and Franco. Read more about them here.)
3. I am grateful for Tamerin's parents for believing in me.... I was her teacher last year, so it was quite a compliment for me, when they asked me to homeschool her.
4. For Tamerin of course: She tries so hard and she has shown such wondeful progress! She is a sweet loving girl who is keen to learn. And she is a GOOD girl - it is not difficult to be patient with her!
5. For her aptitute for computers -she took to it like a duck to water! Much better than many adults.
6. For her improved academic ability: language, mathematics and history and geography (Well...the last two sounds a bit grand but we did do some, with good results! At least she now knows what an election, a goverment, a law, a court, a president etc. are!)
7. For her improved muscles: I don't see it, but many other people have remarked how well she looks. And the express abs classes do me the world of good as well!
8. And her abililty to sew with a sewing machine: she is able to really control the pressure of her foot on the pedal. The beginning of the year, she could hardly pick up a pin, let alone stick it through material and now she has made a skirt and a T-shirt, albeit with a lot of help. She really did stitch it on her own, even though I stood behind her shoulder like a policeman watching her with a hawkeye.
9. The lovely view from the classroom. It is magnificent! However, it also gets very hot in there as the windows can't open.... but (big gratitude here), my hot flushes are now nearly non-existent. I am back on hormones and I can live again and the heat does not really bother me!
10. Hackneyed expression or not: last but not least - definitely not least - Tammy now knows Jesus so much better: she knows about salvation and grace and forgiveness and..... and..... And she can read the Bible!

God I bring to you Tammy: you have used me to plant seeds. Please God, let them grow in abundance! Please bless Tammy greatly! Please loosen up her tongue so that she can speak freely - especially tomorrow night!

11. I have to add another gratitude: my blog friends! Thank you for friends who encourage and support and for their great ideas. Thank you for the internet, for bringing me in contact with wonderful people all over the world!

Thank you God for a GREAT, GREAT year!

I'll tag others in a separate post - for some reason I cannot edit my posts, so I cannot go out of this one to copy the "rules". Does anyone else also have this problem? I can click on edit, but can't change a thing... (Sorry! I should not moan in a gratitude post!)

Some statistics for her end of year report and "The Speech" progress

2008-11-24T03:58:00.000-08:00

When typing text out of her reader, Tammy types about 4 words per minute: She still makes many mistakes, but she corrects them herself. If only I could get her to use the delete button or select and retype method more. She spends a lot of time getting the cursor in the right place, then she backspaces and only then does she type in the correction. I have never given her a computer test before, but wanted a "statistic" for her end of the year report, so that we can gauge progress next year. She thoroughly enjoyed it, and wanted a test for homework.

For her Excel test I gave her a few number to enter and to add and to change to Rand. (Our currency.) She used the autosum button with ease and went to Format, but there she got stuck. However, when I told her to click on "Cells", she immediately went to "Currency" and clicked on R.

She reads 28.5 words per minute. (Maximum score was 35 words.)

For her math's test she scored 100% for multiplication and 57% for adding with ones and tens. She knows her bonds, but she makes many mistakes with carrying over.

In October she pedaled 1.5 km at level 1 in 10 minutes. Now she pedals more than 2.5 km at level 2 in 10 minutes.

She started to stutter again....! I felt so dejected this morning when we did the Nativity puppet show, and she stammered so. (She looked happy enough?) We prayed and then had break and then I really prayed....

After break, she did some sewing before I suggested we practise her speech again. (practise spelled with an s in S.A.) She was very slow and uncertain in the beginning, but became more cheerful and self-confident as she progressed. AND SHE DID NOT STUTTER! And what's more, she did not want me to cut anything from the speech, in fact she wants to say more! Instead of saying "I enjoyed seeing the whales at Hermanus", she wants to say "I enjoyed seeing the whales in the Indian Ocean at Hermanus". Instead of saying "the story of how Jesus was born", she wants to say "the story of how Jesus, the Saviour of the world, was born."!!

Thank you, thank you God! PLEASE help Tammy on Thursday. It will be so humiliating for her to cancel the whole speech now, and it will even be worse, if it does not go well on Thursday. Please free her tongue and her mind. You can do anything!

Speech Progress 3

2008-11-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

Tammy is still speaking very slowly, but she is progressing well. The speech is too long, so from tomorrow, we will start to cut out sentences and probably whole sections. I have been reluctant to do it, but we have to make sure there is something well rehearsed for the big night. She likes the nativity play better. I tell most of the story with Tammy handling the puppets and the dialogue. The puppets are dressed up toilet rolls and we found a pattern for the angels at Christmas Paper Angels, but today the website did not want to open!(?)

To practice (practise) spelling or not?

2008-11-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

If you have read the previous posts of this blog, you will know that I have given up on formal spelling practices early in the year. Tammy found them boring and I wanted school just to be fun and meaningful. Besides her name, she could hardly spell any word at the beginning of the year. Spelling was mostly "practised" through regular (first daily, lately weekly) updates of her Diary, through copying of Bible verses and other (irregular) computer lessons like typing a recipe, a cash flow spreadsheet, emails etc.

We never write tests, but this week I let her write a spelling test to satisfy my curiosity as to how good or bad her spelling is.

Test 1: No specific preparation, words taken from Grade 3 spelling and My Secret Unicorn:
Score: 32/ 60 = 54 %

(Reading alone does not seem enough to improve her spelling. She has to type or write these words regularly as well, as she succeeded better with the words that she has regularly typed before.)

Test 2: Same test after correcting mistakes and practicing them by typing each word 4 times:
Score: 51/ 60 = 85 % (!!)
(Practice makes perfect!)

Test 3: 25 words taken from text that she has typed before – mostly her diary
Score: 12/ 25 = 50%
(Sigh.... Oh dear!... There goes my original theory!)

She could spell Wednesday, but forgot to use a capital letter. She typed drew for draw - the diary is usually in the past tense so she has written drew more than draw. She could spell words like monument, picture and express (from Express abs class). However letter order confusion still occurs a lot e.g. baver for brave, stirk for shirt, who for how and vice versa.

Conclusion: Typing a diary is also not enough although it certainly has helped a GREAT deal! Next year we will continue with the diary and Bible verses, but I think practising spelling will now become a regular part of homework as well - as the Grade 3's do in regular school. I will make sure however that they are not just meaningless lists of words, but words that she needs for her diary, a theme or whatever.

About her diary: it is not entirely her own work: she first writes an entry in a file called Diary Originals and then she copies it to Diary and then I help her to find and correct her mistakes and to expand - i.e. to help her to express what she wants to say. My aim with Diary was to improve both oral and written language and typing. It certainly has helped. We started with her diary at the beginning of the year with me dictating letter for letter. She started her Diary Originals in June - before then she could not string 3 words together on her own.

Her first entry:16 July 2008
We have walk houses ride
We the to Kim possible
I do blog

Her most recent entry: 18 November 2008
On Friday we went to Durban.
On Saturday we played with Caelen, Robyn, Tayle, and I.
On Sunday We went to the show. (The "show" was actually a funeral service. Her vocabulary is still limited, but still...)

Thank you God for letting me be part of this wonderful journey of PROGRESS! Thank you for Tammy's cheerful face! Keep on blessing this child God!

Speech Progress 3

2008-11-13T00:10:00.000-08:00

We have two weeks before Tammy's prize giving and still a lot of work to do before this gala event. She is now able to say most parts of her speech ( a "show and tell") correctly and without help, but she still speaks hesitantly and softly. So we have two weeks to practice to make sure she can speak confidently, fluently and clearly! Progress has been very good - for both her "speech" and the Nativity puppet show. Through practising the speech, she has internalised "pattern sentences" and new vocabulary with its sometimes tricky pronunciation (she struggles with words like ability, illustrate, rowing). The best part. however, is that her comprehension of both written and oral language has improved drastically.
She still sways a little when she practices her speech, but usually she corrects herself: she really tries to stand still and to hold her pictures still when she speaks. We still have to work on speaking with a smile and enthusiasm though.
Please pray that all will go well. So far, so very good! Thank you, thank you Jesus!

Speech Progress 2

2008-11-08T04:09:00.000-08:00

Tammy's speech for her "Prize Giving" is coming along just fine! To make it more interesting and to make it easier for her, we have added a photo for each concept. E.g. a printout of the Excel weather chart for when she speaks about the temperatures, R5 and R2.50 coins for when she talks about fractions. There are pictures of S.A. history and old themes like Hermanus and the Southern Right whatles, but also current history ones like Obama, Mugabe, the inflation in Zimbabwe, the farms etc. To explain how unemployment spirals, she uses carton people and empty containers as businesses.

The important thing here is that her speech has improved much, but also her comprehension. Her homework comprehension this week was about her speech. All her answers showed understanding, even if the written answers were not 100%. For instance, in answer to a history question "What happened to Louis Trichard's people?" She wrote "Sickness malaria mosqito" instead of "They died of malaria". BUT SHE UNDERSTANDS! Halleluja!

Her mother says that Tammy took an old diary with a world map along when they visited a friend. There she showed them the different countries and talked about them. For someone who had not even known that she lived in South Africa at the beginning of the year, this is quite an achievement and I am so so grateful. The Lord is really helping her.

P.S. She was quite upset when Obama won the election - she even phoned me! This is the first time she has phoned me to tell me news. Her mother thinks it is because Mc Cain looks like her grandfather.

Here are some gym photos I took for her speech. We'll print them on their colour printer on Monday.

Tammy now pedals 2.5 km in 10 minutes - a big improvement over her 1.5 km in 10 minutes a month ago!

Abs exercises. She still struggles but does them without a complaint!

Speech Progress

2008-10-29T06:01:00.001-07:00

We are practicing Tammy's speech for the end of the year function. At this stage we just read it together, but I already see signs of improved fluency in speaking and comprehension has definitely improved. When she "boasts" about her multiplication ability, I first ask her random sums (adding, division, multiplication etc.). We intend giving the audience time to ask her sums. When she talks about the weather chart, the hottest day etc., she is also to say "The temperature right now is...." This part reminds us to check the classroom thermometer every day, so as to make sure she will really be able to read it easily on the big night.
When talking about history, she has to refer to the earth globe and the map of South Africa. She does this quite well. We also talk about present history e.g. the election of the U.S. president, the problems in Zimbabwe, what causes economic problems. (Nogal!)

The second part of the programme will be a Nativity "play". I will be the narrator and Tamerin will do the speech parts of the different characters. The different characters will be portrayed by toilet roll puppets. Tammy still has to make them, but we have started with easy cut out angels.

Please pray that all will go well. I am not sure how well she will handle stress in front of an audience. I do not want to put pressure on her, but on the other hand I do want to give her a chance to show off her abilities.

Outings and New Plans

2008-10-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

Tammy, her brother and his friend in the door of the Voortrekker Monument

Tamerin in front of the circle of wagons around the Voortrekker Monument.

Last week Tamerin's brother's school closed for 2 days (Jewish holidays), so I took them to the Voortrekker Monument. It is a huge monument erected in memory of the pioneers of Dutch and French descent who trekked northwards between 1835 and 1850. Their history is depicted in a frieze on the ground floor and in beautiful tapestries in the basement and in displays in the museum.
We discussed the history at length before the outing and Tamerin seemed to understand much of the history: their daily lives e.g. why they had to make biltong (dried salted meat) and bake bread in ant hills, but also the bigger issues: why they moved out of the Eastern Cape, why Piet Retief talked to the Zulu King Dingane, why they had to trek out of Kwazulu-Natal again... History and geography go hand in hand, so to explain the Great Trek, I often referred to the map of South Africa and in this way we revised earlier "geography" e.g. Mozambique (her father went there in the beginning of the year, and that is where the first Voortrekker leader died), the Drakensberg Mountains that the Voortrekkers crossed with great difficulty and which Tamerin got to know on their trips to Durban.
There are only a few weeks of school left. We are planning her prize giving evening. We envisage an evening with her family and possibly my family. We are working on a speech that Tamerin will make on her year's work. My idea with the speech is to get her to practice pronunciation and "pattern sentences" in a meaningful way, i.e. she practices speech on subjects which she might want to discuss anyway. Today she really struggled to say "ability", but in the end she could say: "This year I have improved my ability to read." I pray that her ability to speak will also improve drastically.

Read

2008-10-17T02:28:00.000-07:00

Today we had 10 1 minute "fluent" reading sessions: Tammy read out of My Secret Unicorn for 1 minute exactly, then we counted the words and deducted the ones she did not have right. Between the 1 minute reading sessions, we discussed what she had just read, to make sure she understands the story. After the 10 sessions, we added up her scores and divided it by ten. Her average today was 24.8 words per minute - not too bad considering that she was reading "new" work, i.e. it was unpractised sight reading.

We are now on page 94 , but are now going back to practice the underlined (unknown) words from pages 74 - 85. Tamerin inserted a two column table and typed all these words twice. (23 words to a column). We printed these on carton and cut out the words: one set for her and one for me. We printed another sheet: this one has blank spaces next to the words. She will place her cut out words in the spaces.

After break I will get her to match the words (Put "hesitate" next to hesitate), then to choose (find) the words (Can you find "hesitate"?) and finally read the sight words (What is this?)

This method works well for her. When we started the book in January, she needed a set of words for every page. Gradually the number of unknown words per page became less and less and now we are down to 1 set of words for 10 pages! Praise the Lord! I am convinced that we will have finished the book before the end of the year and fulfill the promise we made at the beginning of the year i.e. that Tamerin would be able to read the book independently by the end of the year.

Fractions

2008-10-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

This week we went to the gym every day except Friday. Although we still take it slowly, Tamerin is already showing signs of increased fitness. We just have to keep at it. I have not yet spoken to the "bio". She took the abs class on Monday and was going to show me more apparatus after our workout on the floor (cardio), but I must confess: I was just too bushed after the cycling, rowing etc. to go and look for her to do more... Next week we will let her show us around first and then we'll work out!

None of us has lost weight yet: in fact I have gained!! But it does leave us with feeling good about ourselves.

The trips to the gym are spent doing oral math's. Tammy asked to do 1/4 fractions. She gets confused at times, but understands that to get to a 1/4 you have to divide into 2 and then into 2 again. She generally gets it right and even knows that 1/4 of 10 is 2.5: with R10 one can buy four items of R2.50 at our old school's tuck shop.

Sometimes Tamerin has to buy groceries or stationery. She has an excel file marked "Daddy's Money" where she keeps record of expenses, what the balance of the cash box should be and then of course we have to count the money. She thinks it is so cool to drag formulas. Excel is real fun.

Going to the Gym

2008-10-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have joined Tamerin's gym so that I can take her there in the mornings. This week we have done 2 "Express Abs" classes and 2 sessions on the floor apparatus: cycles, treadmills, steppers, rowing machines and another stepper/ walker thing - not sure what it is called. Tamerin enjoys spinning most. Once or twice, she hinted that she would rather practice at home than go to the gym, but generally she is quite eager to go - even to the 2nd abs class. She has not yet complained of any stiff muscles. This is surprising because I don't think those classes are a joke and at home Tammy soon complained when we did tummy exercises. She does much more there that when we practice at home, but it does take quite a bit of extra time, what with changing and travelling there (10 km there and back).

Next week we will speak to a "bio" or physiotherapist to make sure the exercises are good for her. (Her muscle tone is very low and she has some back problems.)

We're back!

2008-10-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

Tamerin did get to see whales and visited a wine farm during their holiday. Yesterday we spent a long time discussing their holiday and she wrote her diary with my help. After writing it, I suggested she copy it and get the modem started while I quickly went to the bathroom. When I came back, she had already connected to the internet, opened her blog, copied her diary inscription and published it with her own heading (albeit without a capital letter). The "big thing" is that she did all the actual blogging totally on her own! I am so proud of her.

Her reading is getting more fluent by the day. Comprehension is also improving steadily. I have not started the 1 minute reading programme again, but remembered about it today and will do so again. (Thanks for the tip Jen!)

After all the theme projects in preparation of the September holidays (Whales, Hermanus, Wine Making, Jan van Riebeeck etc.) we are back to her My Secret Unicorn. The book has helped to expand her vocabulary. Before she knew about 3 emotions: happy, sad and proud. Now she often uses "disappointed" and today "dejected"! I still let her often look up words in the dictionary e.g. today she looked up "suffering" and "wise" during Bible lesson.

Some planned projects for this term: Revision of the route to Durban as the family plan to go there again this weekend, some more history, sewing of bags for gifts, lots of physical exercise, a speech about meerkats (a type of mongoose). (The family has just got a baby Meerkat for pet.) A very special project should be to plan for a prize giving / concert evening towards the end of the school year. All I can do, is take these plans to Jesus and get guidance from Him as to what to do and when to do it. He has proved to be so faithful this year and I believe He will continue to do more miracles in Tamerin's life.

Holiday Preparations

2008-09-23T01:33:00.000-07:00

School holidays started today for me! Tammy and family fly to Hermanus to see the whales today!

After the successes we had with the discussions, reading and comprehension exercises on the Southern Right Whales and Hermanus, we did similar exercises on three different Cape Town themes yesterday. At least we only discussed the themes and read through the papers on the themes. Tamerin will do the "Fill in the missing words" exercises on these papers the rest of the week with her Mom. (Schools officially close for a week on Friday, so if she does school work this week, they can still count as school days - a requirement by the Department of Education.)

The themes we chose were Jan van Riebeeck and the Castle of Good Hope (the oldest building in South Africa), The history of the winelands, How wine is made and Parliament. Hopefully the family will visit the Castle of Good Hope and at least have a look at the Parliament building - even if they do not do go inside. I know they plan a visit to a wine farm. Tamerin should be able to understand most of what goes on and hopefully be able to talk about her experiences.

I have written the papers mindful of her reading vocabulary, i.e. I tried not to use too many new words. When writing about the castle for instance I wrote about the 5 corners of the castle instead of "bastions". When writing about Parliament I wrote Department of "Money" instead of "Treasury".

It is not about the facts being 100% correct, but about reading with ease, reading with understanding and being able to talk about it. There was not enough time to really practice talking about these themes, but she practised questions like "Daddy can we please drive past the Parliament?"

The whales are a different matter. It seems our speech practice worked: according to Tammy's mother, she told a friend all about the whales - something she had never done before. This shows me we are on the right track! I am so proud of Tammy.

She understood the story of Jan van Riebeeck very well even though she struggled to say his name! When I asked her (as part of the comprehension exercise) whether the Castle of Good Hope is the one that he built, she answered "No, his castle was destroyed." (Destroyed nogal! The word did not even feature in my article! I think she picked up the word, when we read Kim Possible) Anyway, her answer was correct. Jan van Riebeeck's castle did not last because he had used mud and wood to build it!

I pray that the family will have a safe journey, that Tammy's sick grandfather will get better and that Tammy will be able to use her basic knowledge of the holiday destinations to enjoy her holiday more! Have a wonderful time Tammy!

Please email me at miekie@nes.co.za if you are interested in the theme worksheets. It is not so much about the facts, but the method used to encourage reading with understanding.

Hermanus, History and Outings

2008-09-21T02:28:00.000-07:00

Left:

Tammy at the Union Buildings

Tammy at the Monument of the Unknown Child in Salvokop.

In preparation of the family holiday next Tuesday, I copied a website of Hermanus and edited it e.g. I changed "champagne air" to fresh air, "meandering cliff paths" to cliff paths and "historic village" to old village. There was stilll plenty of new sight words for Tammy to master in the usual match, choose and name method. This took only a few minutes and then she could read the "website". It included several words that she would not find in her reader e.g kilometres, breathtaking scenery, coastline. After reading it, I asked questions about it, e.g. "Why is Hermanuas a well loved holiday destination?" "Is it an old town or a modern town?" "What can you see if you go walking on the paths?"

My aim was to get her to read fluently, to read with understanding and most importantly to be able to converse about a topic that is very current in her family! Speech is still slow, but it is improving by leaps and bounds. Tamerin amazes me!

On Thursday, there was a power cut and we could not use the computer. So instead we discussed the history of South Africa! Starting with why Jan van Riebeeck came to South Africa, to the Great Trek and after the Great Trek: the beginnings of Pretoria and the Anglo Boer War.

I drew pictures to explain as we went along. Later we looked at History in Picture.

I had to attend the unveiling of the Monument of the Unknown Child in Salvokop the next day. I planned to take Tammy to the Voortrekker Monument afterwards, but time ran out and we'll do this outing next term.

Anyway, we still did some history: we went to the Union buildings where President Mbeki's office is. It gave us time to again talk about government and paliament: the place where they make laws. At the Union buildings we had a view of all most places we were planning to go to: the Voortrekker Monument and the City hall and even The Freedom Park in Salvokop. We drove down "Church Street" and revised the story of how Pretoria started around a church.

At the city hall, we looked at the statues of Chief Tshwane, Andries Pretorius and his son Marthinus Pretorius after whom Pretoria was name. Then we drove down "Paul Kruger Street" to go to church square - where there no longer is a church, but a statue of Paul Kruger.

(What a pity the powers that be, want to change the street names! They are really helpful in reinforcing history!)

Tamerin seemed intrigued by the history, but could not easily recall the names of the people (statues) she saw. The word "statue" made a big impression however! (What did we see at the City Hall? Statues!)

I plan to make a few worksheets on South African History in Cape Town. There will be very little time to do the base work on Monday, but hopefully we'll be able to cover enough so that she can do a history sheet on Jan van Riebeeck's castle (fort), one on the winelands and one on parliament. We have touched on these subjects, but need to revise. If she does work sheets the first week of their 2 week holiday, these days will be counted as school days. She will have to take along her weather chart and register as well!

Why history? Well history helps with a sense of identity. In Tamerin's case, the facts are not important, but understanding where the family are, what they are looking at and why they are doing that, will help her to really feel included when the family goes on outings during their stay in the Cape. If she can join in the conversations, it will enhance her self- image. I am convinced that these discussions stimulate her to think and to consentrate. We will continue with "speeches" (like the one we had on the Southern Right Whale) once they get back.

Sewing a T-shirt Sewing and Speech Progress

2008-09-11T03:01:00.000-07:00

Tamerin is busy pinnng the sleeve to her T-sleeve. Today she has sewn so neatly, I am very happy. Yesterday, she had to unpick quite a bit. Pinning T-shirt material is not easy: she struggles to get the edges of the material to meet and yet, she succeeds surprisingly well! After the sleeves, she has to do the neck line. Please pray that this will come out neatly! It will be a big dissapointment if the shirt is an embarrasment to wear! So far it looks OK - not as neat as the skirt, but not too bad.

She is not keen on sewing, but was nonetheless very proud to show her work to her Grandmother when she visited on Tuesday. The idea is that the T-shirt will be finished in time for their holidays at the coast, so I am putting on a little pressure here. (Besides I need my sewing machine at home!) We had better choose an easier project for the last term, but the way she is working now, we might consider another "easy" garment.

Her speech on the Southern Right Whale is coming along very promisingly! She really tries hard.

What a joy to see her progress! Praise God for such an obedient, eager child.

The Southern Right Whale Continues

2008-09-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Tamerin is still very keen to learn about the whales. I combined the facts we have learned so far into a "speech" which we are now practising - i.e. she must not only read the piece, but tell it to an audience. To do that, she had to decide which word in each sentence should be emphasised. Was I pleasantly surprised: she pointed to the main subject of each sentence! There is real understanding here. After we had underlined the main words on the first version, she had to make these words bold and colourful on the computer, before we printed the new "speech" version. Besides practising computer skills, this exerise forced her to read with attention.

After practising "telling" the facts, I asked her to form the questions on the piece. Although the questions were not grammatically correct, she had a good idea of what to ask and how to ask. I gave the answers and sometimes asked her to answer her own questions and the oral results were quite good.

Her homework for today is to type the answers to the questions on the computer. I am looking forward to see her efforts, although I know that written work is often still a problem. Nevertheless God, a big thank you for her progress here!

We have started to read for 1 minute periods and to count the words read and deduct the number of words that she did not know. She enjoys this and I think it will really help her with fluency. Thanks for the tip!

The Southern Right Whale

2008-09-05T01:39:00.000-07:00

Tamerin's family are going to the Whale Festival at the end of September. The Southern Right Whales come up to the South African coast to have their babies in Spring, before journeying back to Antacrica and are often seen from the coastal towns around Cape Town - especially from Hermanus, where the Whale Festival is held annually.

Tamerin is very interested in the whales, so instead of continuing with her self chosen reader, My Secret Unicorn, I looked up basic facts about the whales and wrote short, simple paragraphs about these interesting creatures. We then looked at videos and pictures on the internet, read and discussed the pieces I wrote and finally she did comprehension on these pieces:
a) Filled in missing words in a copy of the essay e.g. The Southern ...........Whale is found in
the oceans of the southern ...................................... (She knows the words hemisphere!)
To do this she has to read with attention and if she does not the word look it up in the
original paragraph above.
b) Answered questions e.g. "Where do the whales live?" "Do they eat big fish or small
food?"
This method has really helped her to read with understanding and to improve her ability to answer questions. (At the beginning of the year, she did not know the difference between question words like Where, when, why etc. There has been a vast improvement since then, but she still finds it a challenge.) I loved her answer to "Why don't they hunt the Southern Right Whales any more?" They must have babies. If she took the answer from the paragraph, it would have been something about the law prohibiting hunting. Her answer showed real understanding of the whole issue and an ability to think. A new milestone has been reached!

Interestingly the Southern Right Whales were so called by hunters, because they swam slowly and had a lot of blubber. This made them easy to catch and when dead they did not sink. To make sure Tammy understood why they did not sink, we had experiments with margarine and oil in water.

We also measured off how big the whales are: as big as their swimming pool room. One baleen plate is as high as a door (2 m) and as wide as a ruler (30 cm). A whale eats about 400 kg of plankton a day! That is about 7 Tammy's a day (if Tammy was made out of tiny, tiny little fish).

I suppose knowing facts about whales are not really important for a handicapped child, but she was so keen to learn more about them, that it made the whole project very worthwhile. When given a choice she would rather read about and discuss whales, than My Secret Unicorn.

As always, life itself presents the curriculum for Tamerin. I pray that this whale project will enable her to understand more when they watch whales and or exhibitions at the festival and that her interest will be in the whales and not only in what there is to be eaten. I am convinced that her family will be pleasanty surprised by what she knows....!

Unfortunately I was sick for four of the five days this week, so we are a bit behind schedule.

A disaster at Tammy's Tea Party

2008-08-27T04:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Thelwyn and Dorette came to visit Tamerin. She had invited them and spoke to Dorette over the cell phone. I realised that she struggled to explain the route, so early yesterday we practised explaining the route from different directions, to her house. Then she made some scones and fish bites. (She is still afraid of the oven since her burn at the beginning of the year, so I took the baking trays out of the oven. Otherwise she did nearly everything herself.)
Tamerin set the table in the swimming pool room where there is a lovely view. When Dorette came Tammy showed off her bedroom and the rest of the house. Tamerin is obviously very proud of their house. When Thelwyn arrived, Tammy was ready to serve the goodies she had prepared and was about to ask what her guests would drink, when she tripped and fell in the water! She was so shocked and complained bitterly that her ankle was broken. So it was a question of trying to salvage her cell phone, getting dry clothes and getting her foot attended to. Quite a commotion. Otherwise the party went well and this morning she still remembered how baby Franco smiled at her.
Organising a party certainly has educational possibilities and it is also socially beneficiary for a lonely homeschooler! We should do it again, but next time not so close to the pool!

Mastering 10 + and 9+ and the 10 and 9 times tables!

2008-08-22T01:05:00.000-07:00

We have not progressed much in terms of sewing, but at least the side seams are sewn - one little unpick here: she generally sewed nice and straight. We pinned darts in the sleeves (yes, the sleeves - not your ususal type sleeve yet!). Hopefully we'll get to sewing them today.

Tamerin's back hurts - it is a pity, because she has finally been showing some progress with the exercises. The exercises are very low key. Today we should go for a walk, but for some inexplicable reason, my feet hurt! What a pair of old crocks! Maybe we'll just dance a little bit. It is a glorious almost spring day, and we really should get outdoors.

In terms of school work: We practiced a lot of 10 + and then 9 +. (10 + for her was not just easy or natural as they are for other children. Adding with 0 is always part of her sum revision sheets!) Anyway she showed good progress here. We also did the 10 times and 9 times tables. I am very proud of her.

Her reading is becoming more fluent and comprehension is also improving. Sometimes she gives great answers and other days she seems not to understand the obvious. We just have to go slowly and patiently up the hill and we will get there. God is so good and faithful!

Progress in typing and general activities

2008-08-19T00:59:00.000-07:00

Although it is nearly spirng, today is bitterly cold. It is cloudy and rather miserable. I was hoping to go for a walk, but don't feel like it in this weather. Tamerin also opted for "exercises". It is break right now, so I quickly want to update.
Tamerin's typing is improving much: she types her diary on her own in "Diary originals" (usually for homework). Then she copies it onto her "Diary" file where I help her to correct it and to add news that she has shared with me verbally, but not in writing. I always let her read what she has typed and more and more she finds her mistakes herself: e.g. where she has left out a word or a letter or where her word order is all wrong. When the diary of the day has been completed, she copies it to her blog. (See bloglist). She has really come a long way from the beginning of the year: she can type simple sentences on her own, but I cannot yet say that she can write her diary on her own. She also enjoys copying Bible verses. Ability to copy and to understand what she has typed has also improved much. Slowly but surely she masters spelling without formal spelling sessions. Ordering words or "license plate" letters in alphabetical order is also a favourite activity.
Her speech remains a problem. She likes to "practice" pattern sentences though and it seems to help. We have also started to dramatize a monologue - adapted from her reader "My Secret Unicorn." She loves this.
With the Olympic Games and Tri Nations Rugby going on, we are practising the National Anthem. She sings it with me, but not on her own yet. (Whispers when I try to get her to sing it on her own - with the words in front of her.)
Last week she cut out a top for the skirt she had sewed last term. The pattern stated stretch fabrics only, so we got T-shirting, but it was far more difficult to cut out than the skirt. Hopefully we will start to sew today. Tamerin is not too keen on sewing, but I believe such life skills are very important for her, so we try. Pray that the top will be a success and completed before the family leaves on holiday at the end of September!
Next week we will try to organise private horse riding lessons. When we tried last time, the roster was full!

Rugby, the National Anthem and the Olympics!

2008-08-09T03:06:00.000-07:00

Tamerin's adding ability has slumped a little - when she works on paper, she usually does fine, but she is not really able to transfer her adding skills to every day life. She told me that she and her father were going to see the rugby test between S.A. and Argentina. I explained the game to her in very simple terms: How many members in a team, how they score a try (goal), what a conversion kick is, the basic rules and what happens if you break a rule (scrum / penalty kick). We then pretended on paper that there were two teams playing and added up the scores: The Springbucks scored a try and succeeded with the conversion kick: i.e. they got 5+ 2 = 7. points. They made a mistake and the Pumas (Argentina) succeeded with a penalty kick between the poles= 3 points. Which team was ahead? Then the Pumas scored a try and the Sprinbucks another try and so on and so on.

A lot of adding, but more importantly practice in the concept of more / less. Which team is ahead? How many points did the other team need to score to win? Tamerin has always been struggling with more, less, higher, lower (temperature/ price), etc. and subtracting is not her strong point. The rugby exercise gave us the opportunity to revise these basic calculations. I hope it helped her also to understand and enjoy the game more. Will talk some more about the rugby on Monday.

We also practised the National Anthem a little bit, but we did not have enough time to really learn it well enough to be able to sing along freely. We will continue with this: hopefully South Africa will get a gold medal in the Olympics, and hopefully we get to see the prize giving. Our anthem has four verses: one is Zulu, one is Sotho, one in Afrikaans and only the last one in English!)

This week we also talked a lot about the Olympics. Tamerin knows the alphabet and with a little help succeeds to find a word in the dictionary. However, she struggles to put words into alphabetical order. Last week I gave her six words (names of countries) each starting with one of the first six letters. (Angola, Brazil, Canada etc.)She easily ordered these alphabetically. This week we continued with the alphabet, but now I gave her two counties starting with the same letter, so that she had to look at the 2nd letter too e.g. Mozambique and Madagascar. She struggled a little more with these, but showed interest. She then looked if she could find the countries on the globe. Usually she found them quickly. I had thought that she would enjoy the Olypic parade when the countries come in in alphabetical order... only to find the came in in Mandarin alphabetical order! Oh well, I took her to play with a cousin on Friday, so I doubt that she even watched it. But at least, she had interesting practice in the alphabet and she knows about the Olympics.

I think it will be fun to watch some swimming or gymanstics with her next week (one of the perks of homeschooling), as long as we can combine it with numeracy (Who scored most points? Whose time was the fastest?)

We are also revising her Bible verses - a time of great blessing for both of us.

Understanding highest and lowest, more, most, less and least.

2008-07-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

Tamerin enters the weather of the day on her calendar every morning. At the end of the month, she types in the highest maximum temperature of the month, the lowest max, the lowest minimum, number of cloudy, party cloudy, rainy and sunny days on her weather chart on excel. Every month she struggles to determine which temperature is highest / lowest. She knows the number line very well, so this is strange - until I realized that she struggles with the concepts of higher, lower, more, less. Her problem here is more a language problem than a math's problem!

Today after struggling to determine which day was the coldest and the hottest, I made tables for her where she simply had to determine between two numbers in a row, which one is the highest and mark it with red. Then we did the same with lowest number, but this time she had to mark the answer with blue. She seemed to grasp this easily enough, but I plan many more exercises with more and less and higher and lower numbers.

Booking tickets for Cinderella

2008-07-29T00:44:00.000-07:00

Tamerin and I will go to see a show tomorrow morning. We booked seats yesterday on the internet. Tammy typed in Computicket in the search block, then searched for Cinderella, pulled down Gauteng for the area etc. She had to type in her email address, her card number etc. so she had losts of practice in filling in a computer form (again). She also had to do that when she started her blogs, so she is getting quite an old hand at it! The only dissapointment was that Computicket only takes credit cards and not debit cards, so her booking attempt was rejected and I had to do the paying. Nonetheless it was a good fun exercise.

Her typing for her blog has improved a lot. She is retyping all her verses from the beginning of the year - today we finished the Easter verses. I was rather upset this morning when I came to school and found that she had not done her typing homework - she was supposed to have typed three verses. She switched on the computer, but at the end of the file (where I expected to see the newly typed verses) there was nothing. I was really cross, because she had said that she had done it! I let her do the typing in class and went out to fume a bit. I came back and was delighted with her typing and she was very sorry etc. But.... when we went through the whole file with her to make some changes to the headings so that she could insert a table of contents, I found all the homework verses - typed here, there and everywhere among the previously typed verses! So she had done her homework, but not in the right place. This has happened before with paper homework too: she files it anywhere and then it is a big search to find it! I think after today she will be more careful. At least I hope so!

Reading progress

2008-07-24T04:11:00.000-07:00

Today Tamerin did a lot of typing again. She read 3 pages out of My Secret Unicorn by Linda Chapman and that before we practised the words for those pages! She got stuck on about 3 words on a page. Up to now we've concentrated on sight reading e.g. we would match, choose and then only read the words, before she tackled the page in her book. Her sight reading has now expanded so much, that we no longer have to "practice" 20 words before trying to read a page. The book is a little bit difficult, but that is the one that she chose at the beginning of the year and her motivation is quite high. She really tries hard. I am excited that soon she will be able to read the other books in the series on her own. At least that is what I am hoping will happen.

Thank you God, for Tamerin's progress in reading!

Tamerin's own blogs

2008-07-23T01:47:00.000-07:00

We are back after the holidays. Most of last week was spent in Tamerin creating her own blogs. She enjoyed writing her profile, choosing her favourite books, music etc. I sometimes had to give hints e.g "What C.D do you always play in my car?"
Making the Diary Blog was easy - she just had to copy her diary she had typed so far. The Bible verse blog was a different matter, as she has been copying her daily verse by hand, which meant she has had to retype them all. She types slowly, but with less and less help. She types her written work, without me having to dictate. When she has finished, I get her then to read what she has typed and she is usually able to see where she has left out a word or a letter. This is a major step forward! She has retyped the verses we did in January and February, so there is still a long way to go before we get to just our daily verse again. Usually these verses were taken out of the Bible story we read that day, but sometimes they were verses that just the Lord just gave us. It has been benficial to revise our Bible "work" of the year again.

The past week we have spent more and more time in praying together. We have a schedule based on the Lord's prayer that we use. Praying does not only help her in her relation with the Lord (of course) but also with her speech. (Generally her speech is still indistinct, but there has been a slow by sure improvement).

Tamerin now writes her diary for homework on her "Diary originals" file. The next morning she copies it onto her "Diary" file and I help her with corrections (i.e. from present tense to past tense) and to expand it (i.e. to write about important happenings she has left out). I can really recommend keeping a diary. She enjoys it, although it is still tiring. In the beginning of the year, she wrote very short sentences and these were more or less dictated letter by letter. Now she can write simple sentences independently and is usually able to correct her own mistakes. She is so proud of herself when she remembers how to spell a word or "worked out" how to spell a word e.g. "pram".

I hope that later in life she will read her diary again and enjoy remembering this time. My vision is that her diary will become more and more a mirror of what she has done. I also hope that the practice in typing written script and generally working on the computer will lead to a job one day.

Our Real Names

2008-07-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

With Tamerin's parents' permission, we now blog under our real names: Miekie and Tamerin. When the schools reopen in July I'll have a photo taken of me and Tamerin, so you can see what we look like. Except for deciding to go public, everything in the blog remains the same. I'll publish Tamerin's (alias Amy's) diary next week and after that, she will do it herself. I think she will really enjoy having her own blog. She loves writing her diary. She still does it with my help, but her own input (content, sentence construction, spelling etc.) improves steadily.

This is our winter break. I use the time to catch up on some home chores and to prepare for my daughter Thelwyn's baby. The baby is due the end of July. Dorette's baby, Franco, my first grandchild, was born in April and I have offered to make his clothes for his "christening". (The child will be blessed and not baptized, but to me it is more or less the same thing.) Anyway I started with some trepidation.... it is a long time since I have sewn for a baby!

I also plan to work out some conversations for Tamerin. Communication is still the biggest stumbling block and I have some new ideas to deal with basic expression. Will let you know....

Climbing on the rocks

2008-06-13T02:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon Amy did not have friends so I wanted us to go for a walk again. She said she would rather play ball! I was rather baffled because neither of us is good with a ball. We played "rugby" i.e. we had to pass the ball backwards and in running. After passing you had to run forwards so that you could pass the ball backwards again. It meant more running than Amy has done the whole year.

We saw a balloon in the air and it seemed to be tied to the fence of an empty space next door. I was intrigued and wanted to see what was next to the fence. (On Google earth it looked like a reservoir) There's a heap of rocks in the back of the yard and I climbed on it to see better. Amy also climbed on it, but had to do so on all fours in the beginning. She really struggled to keep her balance and nearly fell. (I got quite a fright!). She then held my hand and I taught her how to walk on the rocks: make sure one foot is very secure before you move your other foot. She improved much and I think rock climbing will soon become part of our weekly routine.

I can get so caught up in "academics" that I forget the basics of learning and concentration i.e. balance, co-ordination and body imate still apply.

Finished skirt and Father's Day.

2008-06-10T00:42:00.000-07:00

Amy has finished her skirt. Despite all our measuring and lengthening of the original pattern, the skirt would have been too short with a conventional hem, so I just let her sew in the hem with the machine. Folding over a cm, stitching it and then folding again and to pin and stitch it again, was difficult enough. Here and there she had to unpick to sew closer to the edge, but she is actually capable to sew very close to the folded edge! She seemed very proud when she put on the skirt, but on Monday it still lay on the school table. She never showed it to her Mom. ?? I wonder why. She still has to hand sew on tapes for a hanger, but at the moment we have a more pressing concern: the Father's Day Card!!
For Mother's Day she copied (by hand) verses out of Proverbs 31. For her Dad, she copied 1 Cor 13:7. At the end of the verse she wrote: Thank you for loving me like that! Her Dad is crazy about her and by employing me to home school her, it is obvious that he has hope for her, so I think the verses are appropriate. She practices to read the verses out loud to him. (Her reading lesson for the day)
She is now busy to type a letter to put in the card. Here are her reasons for loving him:
I love you because you always shower and smell so nice. You look so cool in your jeans and T-shirt. You brush my hair. You talk to me about shops and Wimpy. You call me when it is weather forecast. I am so proud of you because you work so hard and you pay for everything we need.
She did not come up with this all by herself, but through me guiding her thoughts with leading questions e.g. What makes your Daddy so special? What does he do? What does he do with you? Would you like it if he did not work and sat at home to watch T.V. all day?

After typing all this, of course she has to read it too!

We have focussed a little on how to draw - she is past the stage of spontaneous drawing (I always believe one should not teach little ones to draw, but just guide them through discussions and experiences). However, Amy's drawings are not going to improve of own accord. She is a sensitive child and drawing and painting can be outlets for self-expression. There are wonderful short videos on the internet giving guide lines on how to draw a face, a body etc. She has drawn some faces facing sideways and this is quite new for her. Today she is going to draw her Dad - not her usual pictures, but a special new one, using guidelines.

We also plan for her to do photography as another expression outlet. The plan is to insert a photo of herself in the Father's Day card as well.

So although Father's Day is still four school days away, we have had to get cracking already. This means other school work is standing still for a while, but we will catch up.

Success with sewing!

2008-06-06T01:46:00.000-07:00

Amy is busy making her skirt and so far she is doing fine! She threads the machine with a little help and she can thread a needle: both the sewing machine needle and an ordinary needle. I am pleasantly surprised. At the beginning of the year, she could barely hold a pin or a needle and now she can thread it and baste with it! She can stitch fairly straight with the machine, but I have to stand close by and watch, otherwise her mind wanders and she does not always look what she is doing, so we have had a session with the "Quick unpick" as well. She has had to measure the width of the casing and fold it over herself. She needed a little help here, but I think she has the basic idea. At the moment she is busy threading the elastic through the top of her skirt and the great moment of fitting it on is nearly on us! However, then she still has to put in the hem!!

Learning to stitch a seam and to put in a hem are some of the life skills I planned to teach her. Our homeschooling aim is to teach her the basic life skills she will need to live on her own one day. Mending or altering clothes seemed more important to me than being able to embroider or knit - skills that are often taught to special needs children but for what? Embroidery is often expensive and if not well done, no one wants it. However, I admit that such activities could be relaxing and we will hopefully get to them, once Amy can really sew. I am convinced she will be able to sew clothes on her own one day and not only be able to put in a hem or sew on a button!

I am so proud on what she has achieved so far.... will blog about the finished skirt.

Fractions and dress patterns

2008-06-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

Going to the shops, reading prices and counting money have been regular school activities. Amy knows that there are 100c in R1, that 1/2 Rand is R0.50, a 1/4 Rand is R0.25 etc. She also knows that if you have to divide 7 in half the answer is 7 1/2 or 7.5.

Part of her life skill plan is to learn to sew with a sewing machine. She has sewn a little: she practiced stitching without thread on lines on paper. She has also made a couple of bags - usually to put in Mother's Day cards etc. She is not fond of sewing because she dislikes the noise of the machine, but once we get started she actually enjoys it.

Amy and I went to the shop recently to search for a simple skirt pattern that she could make herself. She was not very enthusiastic, but agreed to a long A-line skirt with an elasticized waist. Her mother had long before bought material for a skirt, but they never got round to making it. I planned to let Amy use that material for making her skirt.

Today I let her read the back of the pattern to determine how much material was needed for the long skirt. (First I had to explain the difference between inches and cm and yards and meters and why we had to read the French side of the pattern. Fortunately my measuring tape has inches and centimeters) Anyway she could read that she needed 2 m for the long skirt. We then measured the piece of the material: 130 cm. It was not difficult for her to "translate" 130 cm into 1.3 m, since she is used to converting cents to Rands. She then had to see how much extra material she would need to make the long skirt: a subtraction sum and a visual measuring of 70 cm on the measuring tape. Once she realized that the material was not enough for the long skirt, she seemed quite happy to make the short one, and even showed her brother which pattern on the packet she was going to make.

Then we measured the width of the folded material: 72 cm. As the material was folded she had to add 72 + 72 to get the total width. The material is not the required the 150 cm, but what the heck, we cut out the paper pattern and tomorrow we'll lay it out on the material to see whether
the short skirt pattern will fit.

Once again I was amazed to see how much math's and reading go into a life skill like sewing a skirt. She had to measure and read the tape, she had to understand fractions, she had to subtract, she had to measure again, she had to add (double) and then she had to cut! There are so many opportunities to apply class room math's to every day life and each time it is fun. I can see how Amy blossoms each time when she succeeds with a new life skill!

I pray that the skirt will be a success and that she will be motivated to keep on sewing!

Using a dictionary

2008-05-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

Amy knows the alphabet and can order loose letters in alphabetical order. She learned this through the alphabet song, a child computer she used before that taught the ABC, and by matching the loose letters to a printed alphabet.

I recently got her to look up words in the dictionary. She is used to look up the date in her homework book (a small diary in which I jot down reminders for her), as well as Bible verses, so "looking up" something, i.e. paging forwards and backwards, is not new to her.

At first I had to help her a lot to look up certain words, but she soon caught on and needs little help. We started with s combinations e.g. sc (scatter), sh (ship, shop etc.),sk (skin) sl, sm, sn (snorted). Later she looked up new sight words that she did not understand (English is her second language!) e.g. concern and suspicious. Quite difficult words, but because they appear in her storybook, she has to recognize them. I found that by looking up the different phonics as well as the sight words, her memory of these words has improved much!

She enjoys looking up the words, but the best part is that this activity has really improved her reading and spelling. We use The Oxford School Dictionary. More often than not, Amy is able to read the meaning of the word. And to think, my aim originally was only to get her to know the alphabet, so that she could file things and look up telephone numbers! She is showing me, that she will be much capable to do much more one day! In the meantime, we will continue to regularly look up words - it is a fun way to learn phonics!

Progress in math's

2008-05-19T12:37:00.001-07:00

Amy knows most bonds very well and yet she can sometimes get stuck on something simple e.g. 8 + 6. If she does get stuck, I ask her which bond she knows (usually the double e.g. 8+8) and then she has to work backwards or forwards until she gets the answer: i.e. 8+ 8 = 16, 8+7 = 15, so 8+ 6 is.....! She is grasping this method more and more and it is rewarding to see how her insight improves!

We have also started with carrying over - both working out the sum on paper (counting the ones and then the tens) and by doing mental arithmetic. We started with adding 0 + 3, 10 + 3, 20 + 3, 30+3, 40+3 etc. until 100 + 3. Then we would take another set e.g. 3+4, 13+ 4, 23 + 4 etc. I always asked the sums in sequence and never skipped a set! She soon caught on and can now mentally calculate how much is 18+ 7, 58+ 7 etc. I no longer have to ask them in sequence. She understands!! She sometimes forgets to carry over (58 + 7 = 55), but such mistakes get less and less. It is so wonderful to be able to help her discover math's at her own pace. It is so much easier to drill sums verbally, than to only do worksheets. Homeschooling is the best!!

We have also done some fractions: 1/2 and 1/4. I focus on practical fractions e.g. of 100 and 50 and 60 and 30. The reason for this, is for general measuring and also for understanding time better. I have started to teach her to read the time last year, and she is quite good at it, but we until this month, we always read time in full minutes e.g. it is 8:55 (eight fifty five). We have now started to use the terms "past" and "to" e.g. 8:55 is five to nine. (8:15 and 8:45 involve "quarters" and therefore the focus on fractions.) When she asks the time I give her both versions of saying the time. On some days I leave at 13:15, and she now asks if I am leaving at "Thirteen fifteen" instead of "One fifteen". International time still requires some thinking, but she knows what it is all about!

Today we focussed on measuring again. How long is a metre? We measured from her right shoulder to her left fingertips (nearly a meter), the window (99 cm), and her steps (75 cm). We tried to give one metre steps: we put the measuring tape on the floor and stretched our steps. In the process, she lost her balance and we had a good laugh. I think she now has a better idea of what a metre is though. (It all came about because of an E-mail she received about a 17 foot shark that befriended a man. How long is a foot? How many "rulers" (30 cm) are there in a metre etc. )

I find often that opportunities for math's and reading present themselves as life itself happens. Amy is usually very interested - I believe it is because she senses the importance of such skills or knowledge. Weighing herself and measuring her waist are important to her. She is a bit overweight due to the fact that her medication stimulates her appetite too much. Weighing herself has two functions: to be aware that if you drink out 2l of Coke all by yourself, there will be consequences, and to become familiar with measuring concepts.

Homeschooling is fun!

A new term!

2008-05-13T06:29:00.000-07:00

Long time no blog!
Amy came back after the holidays full of beans, but it took a few days to really settle down, back in the old routine and to realize that we were not going to count the days till the next holidays (starting 20 June) from now on! We are going to enjoy each day and each week as they come. She has written about the holiday in her diary and then we had to get ready for Mother's Day.
She copied verses from Proverbs 31 by hand and typed her own message for her mother. Compiling her own sentences is still very difficult for her, but she is better able to see what word is missing when she reads aloud what she has written. I especially did not want to help her too much with sentences for her mother's card, but guided her with questions: why do you love your mom? What does she do? Is she special? Why? What makes her special? Thinking about her mom as separate from herself was difficult. Amy generally has a hard time figuring out reasons. I love my Mom... Why? I like my Mom, she is nice.

After making the card, she practised reading the verses from Proverbs 31. I had to make sure she understood what she had written! There were "long" words like instruction and surpass, but she managed them.

Because so much thought went into the wording of the card, there was not much time to make a gift, but she did sew a bag on the sewing machine. She learnt to do this when we made things for Valentine's day, and did not want to make anything else. I suppose it is better to do the same things again and sort of consolidate what she has learnt. So many little things one takes for granted e.g. to thread a tie through the top of the bag, are difficult for her. But once she has succeeded, she simply beams!
Progress is slower than at the beginning of the year, but she is still doing great.

Holiday preparations - computer skills put to use

2008-04-15T06:53:00.001-07:00

Amy's family are going to the coast next week. Besides counting the "sleepies" on the calendar each morning, she also worked out how many weeks there were i.e. she had to divide the days into 7. Besides the 2 times table, Amy does not know any tables yet, but with the abacus she was able to work out how many 7's there were in 18 etc. The 2nd 7 on the abacus (i.e. 8 - 14) is of course divided, so she had to remember that the group of 3 + the group of 4 make up one 7. She understood this quite well. We looked on the map where they are going and she looked up on the distance chart, how far that is (638 km). Then we worked out how long it would take to get there if one drove at 80 km/h, 90 km/h, 100 km/ h.

The next day we looked up the road on the road atlas: she had to look up to which page to go, find the route, follow it, and then see to which page she had to go next. Amy typed the different towns on excel and the distances between the towns as indicated on the atlas. We also worked out how long it would take for each distance more or less. Afterwards she added up all the distances and times with excel - the minutes had to be divided into 60, to work out how many hours the minutes made. Because we worked with estimations, the minutes came to an exact 180, so it was not difficult to work out the hours! Of course she also had to work out what time they would arrive: if they left at 6:00 it is 6+ 7= 13 , if they left at 12 it would be 12 + 7 = 19. Then of course she had to work out again what time 13:00 is on her watch. She looked thrilled when she started to remember without calculating that 17:00 is 5 o'clock etc.

Amy also typed in all the different toll gates (5 between Johannesburg and Durban would you believe!). If we can find out how much each one charges, she can work out how much cash her Dad should have ready. It would be good for her to count out the money - she loves doing this.

Amy also used a search engin to search for things she hope to see (dolphins and whales), as well as the place they are going to stay. I am amazed at how well she can read words like "search", "print" "back" etc. on the internet, yet takes her time to read the same words in her story book. I have tried since the beginning of the year to make Amy aware of road signs. She took note, but not as much as I have hoped. Yet when she saw lists of road signs in the atlas, she was clearly more intrigued. Today we drove a short distance on the highway and noted many different road signs - also that the routes have numbers - then we checked on the atlas again, and so on and so on.

These holidays have given us much opportunity to learn. How wonderful not to be bound by a curriculum, but to use life itself as it happens, as the curriculum.

The 3 R's: progress this week

2008-04-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Amy suddenly grasped that 8+2 = 10, 2+8=10, 10 -2=8, 10-8=2 is the same combination, just in different forms. I let her write out all the bonds of 10 (i.e. 5 bonds) in this way and since doing that she's been her old self again. She loves it if I ask her sums. We walked to the shops and back (more than 5km all in all) and she never complained. We discussed many things we saw along the way, but also spent much time asking and answering sums. The "new" sums of the day were 8 + 3 and 9+3. She still remembered them today, and answered without hesitation. She has known all her doubles e.g. 8+8 and the uneven bonds between the doubles: 3+2, 4+3, 5+4 etc. for some time, and she knows how to work out 9+ (work out what is 10 +...and then go one less.) For a child who could not grasp how to add +1 without counting blocks last year, this has been a major achievement. I am so, so encouraged by her.

This morning I could see that she was not in bright spirits and when we started. It turned out she was angry with her Mom... Why? Because she did not like school! I was rather taken aback, but I realised, it is not that she does not like school, it is just that she likes watching T.V. more! We talked about have idols again and what God wanted of us. We read 1John1: 8-9. If we tell God about our sins, He forgives us. What a relief to be able to confess these things. After Bible and prayer, she was much happier and we had a very good day of hard work.

Amy's reading and writing ability is progressing well. I do not bother any more with phonics and spelling - we just do our sight reading routine and comprehension routines, but I am amazed at how much she remembers - also when she writes or types. She types her diary a few times a week. In the beginning I had to spell out letter for letter for her to type. Now she types many words without me having to spell them for her. I just have to remind her not to leave out the little words e.g when she wants to write "I like computer", she is inclined to want to simply write "computer" without the "I like".

She enjoys typing her diary and e-mails her updates to her Mom. It still takes a very long time to complete her diary or a short e-mail, but I have seen tremendous progress here. (I still dictate most, but her own input in what to write is increasing steadily.) I think it is because the diary and e-mails are about what she does every day. The words used, are the important ones in her life. The copying of Bible verses have had the same effect - she can now write a word like "forgive" without my help.

Tomorrow we are going to cook and hopefully read the road map to the coast, where her family is going the end of the month. I hope there will also be time to surf the web. I hope we can make a blog of her diary.

Language comprehension

2008-04-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

We are back in full swing after the school holidays and my mother's funeral. Amy did not seem keen to start school work again, but once we got going, she was fine. Her sums were disappointing. I had planned on doing adding with ones and tens, but she was not too sure of her bonds , so new work had to be put on ice for a while. She made many mistakes with last week's homework. (I think she did it in front of the television!) We have to do a lot of revision again, but I am confident that she will quickly pick it up again and then we can go on. I believe math's should always be easy and fun.
Reading was good, but what especially made my day, was the way she responded to verbal questions - both when we discussed what she did this weekend and also when I asked her questions about the story we read. She definitely listens better to what is asked and seems to understand when and why better. She also attempted to ask me questions and I helped her to formulate them properly. She loved "catching me out." We still have a long way to go as far as comprehension is concerned, but there has been promising progress! We do a lot of comprehension homework i.e. the filling in of missing words from the text and answering simple questions.
Both Amy and I were rather disappointed that she gained nearly 4 kg during the school holiday. However today she had lost 1 kg again and 1 cm around her waist. Tomorrow we plan to go for a long walk again. She needs the exercise and it is a good time to talk. We need to talk and talk and talk - at this stage it seems the most pressing need.
For fun, and improved understanding, we searched for horse farms in the Blue Ridge mountains on the internet. Amy's book, My Secret Unicorn is about a family on a farm near the Blue Ridge mountains. She loved finding the pictures on the internet. We still have to find Carolina etc. on Google Earth.
Teaching one special child is great! What a priviledged teacher I am.

Easter

2008-03-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

Discovering the Bible has great meaning for Amy and me. We read the Bible stories in My Favorite Bible Storybook for Early Readers by Carolyn Larsen and then we read the relevant passages in the "real" Bible (New Life Bible - a very contemporary version). We choose a relevant Bible verse, which she painstakingly copies by hand and then illustrates. In this way, she understands the stories better, but also realises that they come out the Bible and are not just stories. We try to choose verses that have relevance on how we should live. For instance, yesterday we discussed how we hurt Jesus: if we, like Judas, love money more than Jesus, if we like Peter pretend we do not know Jesus and lie, if we, like the crowd, do not believe Jesus is the Son of God. (Matthew 27: 4, Matt 26: 74, Matt 27: 22, 39-40). Amy enjoys looking up the verses. (Going to the index, finding the right Bible book and verse.) The repetitive writing of Bible verses has not only helped her understanding, but her handwriting and spelling have improved much as an extra benefit. Not only are her Bible files a joy to look at, but we often refer back to previous scripture and meanings that she has written down in them e.g. the ten rules, what obedience means, what sin is, what love is (1 Cor. 13). Amy is growing spiritually. In the beginning she was to shy to pray and if she did, she whispered inaudibly. Today after talking about why Jesus died on the cross (John 3 : 16), she asked that we pray... Jesus is faithful! May we all have a blessed Easter!

Mastering sight words with ease.

2008-03-17T03:48:00.000-07:00

Before we started homeschooling in January, I asked Amy to give me a book that she would like to read. She chose "My Secret Unicorn: Dreams come true" (I do not have the book in front of me and cannot recall the author now, but anyway it is a series of books about a pony, Twilight, that can be turned into a unicorn.) Amy loves horses and fairy tales, so the story is just right for her. However, the vocabulary is quite difficult to master: to read it, to understand some of the concepts and to pronounce many of the words e.g. managing, exclaimed, electricity. (English is not her homelanguage.)

The first day of school we made a "deal" that we she would be able to read this favourite book all by herself, by the end of the year. I was concerned because the book seemed a bit too difficult and I was afraid she would become discouraged. However, so far, so good. We manage to read about one new page per week. This does not sound like much, but compared to what she was able to read last year, and what she is able to read now, it is considerable. (It helps that she is not ADD - she can concentrate if she wants to!) We are now on page 14.

Our method:
1. New words: I go through the new page and make three identical lists of all the new words + old words she still struggles with. One set of new words is on paper with an open space next to the word. The other two lists I print on different coloured carton and cut them up: one set for her, and one for me.

2. Matching: I then show her a new word e.g. "totally" and ask her to put "totally" next to "totally" on the sheet of paper. While she searches for the word, I make up oral sentences with the word e.g "Everyone totally agrees that you are a very good cook."

3. Choosing: After she has matched all the words (about 26 words per page), I again show her my flash cards one by one and ask her to find the word on the paper. Then I ask her to find the words without me showing her the flash card. I continue with this until she can indicate the words easily. (If she gets stuck, I quickly show her the flash card again.)

4. Naming: I then show her the flash cards one by one and she reads (names) them. The ones she can't read, go on a separate heap and we revise them again. She also writes down the difficult words to improve visualisation and memory.

5. Practicing reading: Then we build sentences with the new words and previous words. In the beginning we used the actual word cards, which were sorted into an alphabetical "dictionary". It was fun, but a bit time consuming to find the right words. Now I just make up sentences with the words on a white board. I use the same words over and over until she remembers them easily. She loves reading these sentences and ask that I write about "Amy". A typical sentence would be: "Amy's mother expects her to be ready at 16:00 for their visit at the nearby farm." (New words: expects, ready, visit, nearby, farm.)

6. Only when she shows that she can read (and understand) the new words in context, do we read the actual book: first together (i.e. I read and she follows with her finger) and then she reads it aloud by herself. By this time, she can usually read it reasonably fluently.

7. Homework: The last exercise is a comprehension: I type the whole passage, but leave out words for her to fill in from the text in the book. The words to be filled in are mostly high frequency words like "ago", "again" etc. rather than difficult words. Then I ask a few questions to determine comprehension:"Why did the family move the farm?" "When did they move to the farm?" Amy finds these questions still very hard, but we are getting there. I think it is very important that all reading should be linked to comprehension as well.

I know this method works - not only for Amy. I also did it with small groups in my class last year and then words were vere basic. First set of words: fat, cat, mat, hat, man, sat. With these words we made sentences like" fat cat sat on man" "fat man sat on hat" (Who sat on the man? Where did the man sit etc.)

Isn't teaching just the greatest job? Especially if there are no playground duty and staff meetings!

Life Skills and motivation to learn academic work

2008-03-10T05:22:00.001-07:00

The advantage of home schooling is that there is no set time table or curriculum, so we can adapt learning to Amy's specific needs of the day. The day after she learned how to send an email, she said she ate chips (crisps) for breakfast. This lead to a discussion of the food groups. To corroborate my hastily compiled chart, I got Amy to use a search engine to find an article on food groups. Amy was quite keen to work on the internet again. Her reading ability is not good enough yet, to really search through the various options, but just to get the search engine to search was in itself is a good beginning! (She printed the chosen article and we'll get back to it, when the need arises to talk about food groups again.)

The day after we practised international time i.e. that 16:00 is 4:00 pm., her mom emailed that she would be seeing her at 16:00. I don't think Mom even thought for a minute that for a child who has only been reading time for about 6 months, 16:00 does not automatically translate into 4 o'clock. Fortunately, we had been practicing how to convert international time to "ordinary" time and vice versa, so Amy could work out when he Mom would be coming home!

The point I am trying to make is that by concentrating on the specific math's and reading needed for life skills like reading the calendar, the weather forecast, the clock, recipe measurements etc., the child is motivated to master them. Once the child turns on his/ her own motors there is no saying how far one could go. Finding that what you learn and practice in the classroom, is actually used in the shops, in the kitchen, in the car etc. makes you feel you belong in the real world.

Homeschooling is great! Thank you God for giving us this opportunity!

Electronic communication is really thrilling!

2008-03-10T05:17:00.000-07:00

Last week I helped Amy to open an email address - she had to do everything herself, from plugging in the modem to opening "compose" to type her very first email. Her mom was thrilled. For a child who struggles to read, it was amazing how fast she could she find terms like "inbox", "send", "subject" etc. on the screen! She sent her first email to her Mom. Subject "Surprise!". Mother, me and Amy herself were all surprised by how well she could do it. Her homework of course was to send an email to me! Amy also enjoys SMS's, but Emails are far more satisfactory. At least they do not disappear as eaily from the screen as have happened in the past with painstakingly typed SMS's. (Mom and Dad, she typed a grand SMS to you, thanking you for her birthday party, but something went wrong when she tried to send it - what a dissapointment.) It took us much longer than the usual reading of math's lesson time, to get the email up and running, but the amount of reading and typing she did was the same (or more) than she would have done in a "normal" reading lesson. The big difference here was, that she was really motivated to master this. If a child is motivated, there is no saying what he/ she could achieve. Last year Amy was an emotional, stuttering "mentally handicapped" child. (See background, posted February 2008). This year she is just a bundle of untapped potential that is waiting to be discovered. God has a very special task for her and it is for us to discover what it is and how to get her there!

Going for a walk

2008-03-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

Today we walked 2.4 km. As homeschoolers do not walk to school (even from the carpark to the classroom) they miss out on much physical activity, so we have started to "walk to school" - often within the family's big yard. Today we walked on the sidewalk to the main entrance of the complex. We took 45 minutes, but at least Amy walked all the way without a sour face and without lagging behind! While walking, we discussed street signs e.g. how fast one may drive, the reasons for speed bumps etc. Amy aptly interpreted the cul de sac sign that looks like a T as "Turn around". We also revised math's: she added double figures and almost double figures e.g. 3+4 as we walked.

Amy tried to tell me the news of last night. Apparently the family went out for supper while the son had choir practice and somehow the uncle and Grandmother also played a role in last nights happenings.

When she was in my class in school last year, she also liked to tell news, but for the greater part I could not make out head nor tail of what she did - all I could make out, was that she and her mom often went to buy groceries. In class there was no time to really listen and to help the children express themselves: there was barely time for each child to share his news, and one had to prevent boredom. It was difficult to help a child to communicate and still keep within time constraints.

Today however, we could speak without interruption (except for traffic noise - next time we'll choose a quieter road). I am strict with her to answer only what I ask e.g. if I ask "Where?" she must name a place and not a person and if I ask "When?" she must give a time. We have focused on simple answers to written questions in class, these past weeks and I already detect better comprehension. Grammar is still poor - especially tenses. She also leaves out the "little words" like prepositions. She is inclined to repeat herself often and often makes use of onomatopoeia to express what happened. I verbally interpret what she has said (or rather what I think she has said). I hope that by repeating the correct word order, tense etc. her speech will gradually improve.
In the meantime, going for a walk is a good physical exercise and a time to really communicate without feeling that we are "wasting" time.

Adding + 9

2008-03-03T03:29:00.000-08:00

Amy succeeds well with doubling numbers e.g. 8+8= 16. Last week we started with the uneven numbers e.g. 7+ 7 = 14, 8+8=16. therefore 8+7 comes in between = 15. She practiced these combinations (1+2, 2+ 3, 3+4, 4+5, 5+6 etc.) in sequence until I was sure that she really grasped what it was about. We also did it with numbers written under each other, so that she began to grasp ones and tens and even carrying over. All the while we checked answers on the number line and she was thrilled every time the sum she worked out on paper, proved to be correct when we counted it on the number line.
Today we practiced 10 + (i.e. 10 + 2 = 12, 10 + 4 = 14 etc.). Thereafter we did 9+ sums. When you have to add 9, first add 10 and then the answer must be 1 less. What fun. Can't wait to see her homework tomorrow!

Updating Diary

2008-03-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

3 March 2008
I must let my light shine so that other people will honour God. I practiced tennis. I hit the ball with the racket 7 out of 12 when teacher threw the ball at me.
I practiced new words for page 11 of My secret Unicorn. I learned +9 sums.

Odd numbers and progress generally

2008-02-29T00:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Amy built a 1-100 magnetic board where she could easily identify even and odd numbers. She enjoyed working with the magnets and doubling figures (1+1=2, until 50 + 50 = 100). Today she built the board again, but this time we concentrated on odd numbers. She easily followed the pattern e.g. if 2 + 2= 4, then 2+3 = 5, 3+4= 7, 4+5 = 9 etc. I pray that is insight will continue and that she will be able to remember bonds better.

Walking is still a bit of a problem - she is a bit lazy, but a star chart helps.

We spent quite a bit of time on creating Excel data charts: the highest temperature of the month, the lowest, the number of sunny days etc. She was very charmed with copying of worksheets and renaming them and then making the few necessary alterations to the sheet. I want her to be able to use the computer as much as possible and am amazed at how fast she learns to use new methods.

Updated diary

2008-02-29T00:28:00.000-08:00

26 February 2008
My birthday party was on Saturday. Nine friends and about 11 adults came to my party. We swam and ate a lot. It was a Bratz party. On Sunday it was my real birthday. Mommy and Daddy hid my present in their room. Mommy and Daddy gave me ponies. We went out for breakfast. We went shopping.

Yesterday we walked 7 times to the gate and back i.e. 1.4 km.

28 February 2008
I walked 300m. I baked a maize meal bread. I built the number line and did division sums (2 times table till 100).

29 February 2008
We walked 9 times to the gate and back i.e. 1.8 km.
I made a weather chart in Excel.

Special child's diary Jan - Feb 08

2008-02-24T07:33:00.000-08:00

I have taught Amy to type on the computer and she has caught on surprisingly quickly - uses the right fingers on the different keys. However, she types very slowly. I try to get her to practice both spelling and typing by typing rows of same or similar words e.g. these and those or day and say. She quickly tyres of this. It is boring and although I see the progress, it lacks meaning for Amy. She enjoys typing her diary though. Her language ability is poor and she struggles to construct sentences, so I help her to think about her day and to give her the means to verbally express her daily experiences. Most sentences are dictated and words are spelled. This is itself is significant: I hope that one day she will be able to take down messages. At this stage it seems more important to learn to "write" from dictation than to be able to spell by herself. But because many words are repeated often, she types quite a few from memory e.g. the word chicken. We have made several purchases of chicken for several chicken recipes. Through reading the word in her recipes, shop adverts etc. and through writing it out in various shopping lists and budgets, she is now able to type it from memory.

I have taught her to copy and paste text, so some sentences lose out on the actual typing practice, but then learning to use windows properly, is also "so cool".

Whilst the diary helps her with spelling, sentence construction and typing, it is also a mini record of what she has done in school - for herself, her parents or anyone to read. (I often let her read her previous inscriptions and she loves this.)

From now on I'll post her diary inscriptions regularly, but here is the whole lot to date:

Tamerin’s diary
9 January 2008
Today I learned about money.
I read My secret unicorn page 1 to 3 .
I swam 40 laps.
I painted a rainbow.

10 January 2008
I drew a cross.
We went shopping.
We made bobotie.
I practiced spelling.

11 January 2008
I drew a heart and a Bible.
I counted money.
I practiced words.
We played a memory game.
I started to knit

15 January 2008
I started to sew.
We played cards.
We swam 50 laps.
I read My Secret Unicorn page 1 to 4.
I made a shopping list.
The electricity was off.

16 January 2008
I learnt I must obey my leaders.
The electricity was off.
We went shopping.

17 January 2008
I made chicken a la king.
The electricity was off.
We played cards.
I sewed again.

21 January 2008
On the news they talked about power cuts.
We watched weather forecast. There was a 60% chance of rain.
We practiced ay spelling words like day and way.
We read My Secret Unicorn page 4-6.
I sewed on a button.

22 January 2008
On the news they talked about power cuts and a man who was charged with murder of Bret Kebble.
They talked about tennis in Australia.
We watched weather forecast. There was a 60% chance of rain.
I learned about google earth.

28 January 2008
Last week the power was off often.
Last week I practiced sh spelling.
Today I practiced th spelling.
I counted in twenties.
I counted my money.
We danced and did exercises.

29 January 2008
Yesterday I went to have my eyes checked.
Today I drew Joseph and his boss’s wife. He said no!
We watched weather forecast. There was a 30% chance of rain

4 February 2008
Last Thursday I burned my arm.
On Friday I went to my cousins’ house.
Today it is windy. We walked to the gate and back.
I practiced th spelling.
We played ball.
I weighed my animals. Duchess weighs 370g and Poodle weighs 110g.

5 February 2008
I practiced th spelling some more.
I nearly made a crab stand. We danced for 30 minutes.
We checked for Ingredients.
Chantel came to visit. We had chicken for lunch.
We watched High school musical 2.

6 February 2008
I went to the garage with Daddy. A man worked on his car.
I learned about the Passover ( Exodus 12).
We revised all the sight words until page 8 of My secret Unicorn.

7 February 2008
We went to the shop. We bought Food for R 98.65. I got R1.35 change.
I made lasagna without spinach. The shop did not have spinach.

8 February 2008
I watched news with my Daddy. Today was the opening of parliament. I saw President Mbeki.
Mommy is going to the dentist. I am going to the eye doctor.

11 February 2008
I played tennis. I sewed on the sewing machine. I made a bag.

13 February 2008
Yesterday I sewed a lot on the sewing machine. I typed a recipe.
Today I made my parents cards. I counted my money. I made a budget.
I made valentine cards.

15 February 2008
Yesterday we bought food at PicknPay . I made chicken pie and roast vegetables. Our guests liked it.
Today we measured the distance between the house and the gate.
I did ½ price sums.

19 February 2008
Yesterday we practiced When and Where questions.
I made sums from 1+1=2, 2+2=4 till 25+25=50.
I practiced words of page 9 of My Secret Unicorn. I read pages 1-9.
Today I typed God’s ten great laws and painted the two stones. We walked 6 times to the gate and back i.e. 1.2 km.

21 February 2008
Yesterday we went shopping. I counted money. We went to school and I gave my friend her watch.
Today I made chocolate squares for my birthday party on Saturday.
We practiced sums while we walking. We walked 7 times to the gate and back
=14 x 100m
=1400m
=1.4km

22 February 2008
Yesterday I got my glasses. Now I can see better.
Today I made a fridge tart for my birthday party on Saturday.
I practiced explaining how to make the tart with my teacher, in case my aunts ask me how I did it.

Reading with comprehension

2008-02-20T06:32:00.000-08:00

Today Amy read two more pages out of her reader. We have practised to sight read the new words last week. We practice to sight read through matching the words, i.e. I show her a flash card with e.g. "Important" and ask her to find "Important" among her yellow cards and to place it next to "Important" on her worksheet with the list of words. Then I show and name the cards again and ask her to find the correct word on her list. Only then do I ask her to name (read) the flash cards. Usually she succeeds well with this, but any word she has forgotten goes onto the pile of words to be practices some more. Then I build sentences with the new and familiar old words. Amy loves this. Lastly we read the new text together, before she attempts to read it herself. (It is quite a difficult book, but she has chosen it herself and is therefore quite motivated.)

In verbal conversations I found that she responds poorly to questions e.g. "We went to Spur." "When did you go?" "With my mother." "That is not what I asked. I asked when did you go?" "With the car." I am concerned about this and we have since practiced written sentences where she has to give answers to "when" and "where" questions of the same sentences. (E.g. Mary went to Durban last week.) These exercises have not been too bad, but there are stilll too many mistakes.

I have copied the text of her reader onto the computer. For homework I ask her which words I should delete. In the space of the deleted word, I type in a red . , which she in turn deletes when she types in the (red) missing word as she finds it in the original text. Today I also asked her to compile her own questions on the chosen text. This she found extremely difficult, but we finally managed a few good ones i.e. Who will visit the Cassidy's and "When will Lauren and Twilight visit the Cassidy's". It seems so easy and yet it is surprisingly very difficult for her. (She has progressed so much the past few weeks, that I sometimes forget she was in the special needs class for a reason!) I'm lookin g forward to see her homework tomorrow. She seemed so positive about it and I just hope that the T.V. was not too big a temptation to lure her away from her homework.

I pray for wisdom and insight!

P.S. She has not done quite as well in math's as yesterday, but she remembers most doubles very well. Sometimes she does not listen carefully to what I ask e.g. when I asked what is 26 divided by 2, she answered without hesitation 32! She now manages a crab stand for a few seconds on her own. Last year I would never have thought it possible. School is great!