Homeschooling the Late Bloomer

 

When I first started homeschooling I used BJUP Kindergarten. When it asked me if I wanted to plan for a 3 hour kindergarten or a 6 hour kindergarten, I chose the 3 hour, because I did have a toddler and a baby on the way. I am not a trained teacher, so I loved the Teacher’s Manual that told me what crafts to prepare for, what songs to sing, and how high to jump. I did EVERY activity it suggested, and with my kinesthetic first born, we were done with everything in about half an hour. My first born soaked it up, and by the end of Kindergarten he was reading proficiently.

When I started with the second one, I started to learn about learning styles, and she was a visual learner. She didn’t want to do all the activities, she just wanted to move on to the next lesson. She was reading the Bible by Christmas, as a 5 year old.

Number 3 was pretty much the same story. A visual learner, who wanted to teach himself. Again, by the end of Kindergarten he was reading proficiently.

I would hear mothers from the public school saying, “My child can’t read, so they are holding them back in Kindergarten.” I would think, smugly, “Well, if only you taught your children phonics, and not sight words, they would learn!”

And, then I had number 4. By the time he was school age, I had a 6^th grader, a 4^th grader, a 2^nd grader, and a toddler. He was my loudest child (I was always reminding him to use his inside voice) and he was my “drama king”. Not only would he cry for himself, but he’d cry for others if he sensed they were hurting. I started the tried and true Kindergarten curriculum at the age of 5 and a half. He didn’t get it at all! He just wasn’t ready. His times outside with his older siblings were his favorite, and he was super observant in all that they did. He formed his letters on a cookie sheet in either salt, sand or shaving cream. He climbed trees, had lots of PE and got to explore his outside world. (Such a blessing we are in California and our kids have opportunities to be outside a LOT!)

We finished the Kindergarten curriculum and he wasn’t reading anything. I wondered if I should start the First grade curriculum, but I didn’t want to repeat the Kindergarten curriculum as he was coming close to 7, so I went ahead and did the first grade curriculum.  I read everything to him. I would have him dictate sentences to me, I’d write them on the white board, and have him copy them. But he had no idea what he was copying.

At the end of first grade, when he still wasn’t reading, I was full of self-doubt. Was he dyslexic? Did he need a specialist? Was I not equipped to handle whatever his “learning disability” was? Should I seek professional help? I spoke to another veteran homeschool mom who told me not to worry about it and to just keep on reading out loud to him.

Second grade was a repeat of what happened in first grade, except that the self-doubt was stronger. Fortunately, reading every single lesson to a second grader still only takes about an hour, so I’d school the others in the morning, and then after lunch my second grader would get my undivided attention.

Now we are at third grade. I’m frankly starting to panic. I take him to get his eyes checked and to have some tests done to make sure he didn’t have some weird vision things going on. And now I’m noticing that when I read out loud to him, he can seem to be distracted with Legos or lining up Match Box cars, but as I notice the tears rolling down his face when Charlotte of Charlotte’s Web dies, I know he has been paying attention the whole time. I also notice that he also likes to be cuddled right next to me while he is doing Math problems.

I’m praying about what other kind of help I can get him to start fourth grade. As the summer is nearing the end, and I’m doing lesson planning, I hear him reading Hop On Pop to his younger brother. Every week through the curriculum, he is making great strides. Now he is reading instructions on his own. Now he is reading picture books with a plot. Next he is reading chapter books. By the end of fourth grade, he is reading the Bible with proficiency and understanding. He had TOTALLY caught up in reading in one school year.

And that was just about the time fractions were introduced in the Math book. And that became a struggle. The others were all ready for Algebra 1 in 7^th or 8^th grade. He wasn’t ready for Algebra 1 until 10^th grade. He and I worked to find a curriculum that worked for him. He attended a CHEA convention with me and he picked Math U See. I figured he needed skin in the game. (I had BJU, Chalkdust, and Teaching Textbooks at home, but those didn’t suit him!)

He decided that he wanted to go to a four year University, so we worked to that goal. I was a little concerned about him only finishing Algebra 2 in high school, but when he took the Math placement test during College Orientation, he placed into Calculus 1.

But these are things we learned about him along the way. He is a kinesthetic learner, with auditory learning as his second learning style. His love language is physical touch. When he went to college he knew he needed to not miss any classes so he could listen to each lecture. And that he needed to play hard. So, he took a PE class every semester and he played Ultimate Frisbee every Sunday night.

And that late bloomer now? He is a 20 something year old, sought-after, software engineer, who is leading worship at his church, and  loving his little family.

With time, patience, and lots of learning activities, your child can be "caught up".  If your child is read to, and you have a math book, you can likely catch your student up when they are ready and they can exceed their grade level. Mine just wasn't ready at the ages of 5, 6, 7, or 8!

Answering the Questions about Schooling When You Have Toddlers and Infants

One of the biggest questions I get from young families as the new school year starts is, “What do I do with my little ones?”  Well, I only had five, which may not seem like a lot to some of you, but it felt like plenty to me.  For 12 years I taught older students (Basically all of my eldest ‘s school years) while I had at least one preschooler.  For many years I had an infant and a preschooler, while homeschooling.  The funny thing is that I started that way (David was in Kindergarten when Priscilla was 2 and ½ and Stephen was an infant), so I didn’t realize that it could be any other way.

Let me give you my overall philosophy.  Your little guys are going to take your time, no matter what you do, so you might as well give them your time up front.  Plan for it.  Schedule for it.  Make it a part of the routine.  It will be a lot less frustrating.

I had lots of ways of coping.  Some years required different tools.  I’ll list some of the different things I did to accomplish the formal part of education.  If I think of other things that I did (the things that didn’t work for me, I blocked out!) I’ll edit this post.

1.       Divided up the toys – I had 5 Rubber Maid containers, and I divided the toys into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  The Legos were left out all week, along with the Thomas the Tank train track (along with pictures of previously made tracks to be copied), and the dress up box.  We’d only open one container each day.  Then, at the end of the day, we put the toys back in the same container and they wouldn’t see them until the next week.  Yes, I had enough toys to fill more than 5 Rubber Maid containers!

2.      Flip school hours -  One year our routine looked like this:  breakfast, dishes, throw laundry in, do Bible, head to the park with the math books and a timer.  Let the kids play for 15 minutes, when the timer went off, David was designated to run over and do a page of math.  I chose math for him because he had great understanding and there were no needs for additional tools.  When he was done, he’d run back and play and Priscilla would run over and do a page of grammar.  I’d try to do 2 subjects with each of them.  Finally, we’d head back home, ready for lunch and naps.  I’d feed everybody lunch, throw the clothes in the dryer, and then do some read aloud history (we used Beautiful Feet http://bfbooks.com/ and did literature based history).  Now the little guys were ready for naps.  Then, I’d finish the subjects with David and Priscilla before the little guys woke up.

3.      Do a subject that can cover multiple grade levels -   For me this meant Bible and History.  Some of my most precious memories of homeschooling my kids is nursing a baby, a toddler sitting on big brother’s lap sitting next to me, the other little brother sitting next to me, with the girl curled up like a cat on the back of the sofa, looking over my shoulder.  We did a lot of read out loud books.  And with Beautiful Feet, they also had recommendations for tapes (before the CD era), so we’d all sit there together and listen.  This was a good segue to nap time also.  After the little guys were down, I’d work on the writing and research with the older ones.

4.      When you have many that need to be schooled intensely, use a timer! -  I would set my timer for 15 minutes, and I would play with the little guys.  Maybe we’d build a train track.  Start a puzzle.  Line up all of the trucks.  Read a picture book.  By the time the 15 minutes were over, my goal would be to have them involved in an activity that they could complete/play on their own.  When the timer went off, they understood that that was the signal for me to work with the older kids.  I’d set the timer for 45 minutes with the older kids.  When the timer went off, I might have more than one little one at my side, knowing it was their 15 minute time segment.  If I was intensely teaching something, like writing or research, I’d ask David and Priscilla to take a turn and play with their siblings for a 45 minute stretch, while I worked with the other.  David almost always took them outside, and Priscilla almost always read books to them.

Again, the little guys need and deserve your time.  You might as well just give it to them up front!