Education Options Discussion

[Geoff Gentry xforce11]

I'm listening to ep 76(I have 7 min. left in the podcast) where you are discussing education styles.  Here are my thoughts.
1. I'm know families who had some kids in private school, some in public and some were home schooled.  They were addressing the needs (emotional, spiritual, and educational) of each child and doing what was best for each.
2.  In the school district I work for we recognize that children learn differently and the guidance dept. and teachers work with the parents and students to help them learn.  It is not easy but it is worth it and if your school will not work with you and Matt on this choose other options.

I think you as parents can look at Matt and see where his interests and strengths are at.  Then you can use those interests and strengths to help him tackle the areas that are hard for him.  For example he loves the DSi get him some of the educational games that they offer for it.  They have a ton.

Hope this helps!

[Cliff Ravenscraft]

Geoff,

Thanks for the feedback.  I hadn't thought about educational games for his DSI..  Brilliant idea!

[Geoff Gentry xforce11]

When I was young I didn't enjoy reading that much (I love it now but but time and eye fatigue from computer work limit me) so my Grandmother did a summer reading program with me.  If I read certain books I'd get paid.  Plus my parents let me read comic and other books just so I would read. 

Some people I know use music to help them learn.  It is about finding your learning style and going with it.

[shannonkay]

I definitely think that the best way to be a good speller is to read more. I was always a voracious reader and I recall our spelling tests in the fourth grade. My teacher would give us a pre-test at the beginning of the week and I would often get 100% of the words right without even seeing the list first.

I'm also going to hazard to guess that your schools are not teaching rules such as "i before e". I'm 26 and I know I didn't hear those rules in school. In fact I specifically remember first hearing that phrase in a Peanuts cartoon.

That being said, my dad is a terrible speller. I'm about 99% sure that I could out spell him by the fifth grade.

I am curious about the idea that he may be having testing problems. Does he spell better if he writes sentences for example? Perhaps a letter or story? Also, this may sound odd, but make sure his pronunciation of the words is right. If he has a pin/pen substitution or anything like that it could be a hindrance.

[Cliff Ravenscraft]

I definitely think that the best way to be a good speller is to read more. I was always a voracious reader and I recall our spelling tests in the fourth grade. My teacher would give us a pre-test at the beginning of the week and I would often get 100% of the words right without even seeing the list first.

I'm also going to hazard to guess that your schools are not teaching rules such as "i before e". I'm 26 and I know I didn't hear those rules in school. In fact I specifically remember first hearing that phrase in a Peanuts cartoon.

That being said, my dad is a terrible speller. I'm about 99% sure that I could out spell him by the fifth grade.

I am curious about the idea that he may be having testing problems. Does he spell better if he writes sentences for example? Perhaps a letter or story? Also, this may sound odd, but make sure his pronunciation of the words is right. If he has a pin/pen substitution or anything like that it could be a hindrance.

Great points.  I think it's mostly that he has high anxiety when it comes to testing.  Though we've noticed a major improvement the past two weeks.

[Winnie]

I never had (graded) tests until I was 12 and I was scared to death when I had to show my first failure to my parents. I did some things I shouldn't have done which I won't go into.
In primary school I didn't have grades. We got letters that said excellent, good, needs improvement,... I liked this system and I was always among the best of my class. I loved the way we learned then. There was no memorising. The way I remember learning how to spell was having to write texts. Each school day started with half an hour of writing in your notebook. You could make up a story, or tell something that had happened to you, as long as you were writing. These notebooks had to be handed in to the teacher who underlined all the misspelled words. We then had to correct them (not being given the answers, if we couldn't figure it out we could ask a fellow student or the teacher) and hand them back to the teacher who would look through them again. This went on until all words were correct. One of my most vivid memories from my 2nd year of primary school (when I was 7) was having spelled 'voetbal' correctly the first time round. This seemed like a huge accomplishment because it was such a long word. Later I realized it wasn't such a difficult word but that didn't really matter.
As I said, I excelled in this school. My brother on the other hand didn't like this at all. There was too much freedom for him. He always had to take work home (we didn't get homework), he couldn't plan his assignments correctly.

I was held back twice in secondary school (high school for you Americans) when I was 15 and 17. This meant I didn't graduate until I was 20. It still hurts a little every time I have to explain it. I don't do well on tests and have a real problem memorising material. I learn the most by doing exercises. I have only recently come to this realisation and hope that now I will once again do good in school.

[JoyfulSparrow]

I am listening to the episode right now and cracking up about how Cliff can never remember how old the kids are.

I'm here to comment about the i before e thing.

In my son's school they are learning a LOT of these rule type helps, - many of them ones I didn't even know... but I never see them written down... they are learning them in the form of songs. I am amazed at what they can teach them with a song.

I wonder if that might be the case at Mat's school. If not, they should look into it becuase it works great for helping Ethan remember stuff. In fact I wonder if there are recordings like that which parents can buy to use at home.

Hmm I just thought of one more thing to look for on Mardel.com...

[JoyfulSparrow]

I used this set of spelling games for the computer with Ethan when he hit a point where he was really struggling with spelling.

http://wareseeker.com/Home-Education/spelling-games-5.0.zip/417366

It was free to use for a trial period. I liked it well enough to be willing to pay, but my hubby got a new computer & by that time Ethan was back on track with spelling so I never tracked it  down and loaded it on the new computer.

It's not real graphic pretty -but Ethan enjoyed playing the games and would beg me to load in the new words for each week so he could play. I was able to put in his spelling words for the week and I could record myself saying the words so that he could self-test.  I think self-testing "Spelling Bee" also helped him with getting used to spelling test taking.

[Geoff Gentry xforce11]

Here you go as per your request in FFTH 77

On DSi and education http://edugamesblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/how-the-nintendo-dsi-could-be-educationally-useful/

Spelling http://www.amazon.com/Spelling-Challenges-More-Nintendo-DS/dp/B000QJLQB2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1254157870&sr=1-2

Math http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Trainer-Math-Nintendo-DS/dp/B001LNYM90/ref=dp_cp_ob_vg_title_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1254157870&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Math-Blaster-Prime-Adventure-Nintendo-DS/dp/B001FEO71S/ref=dp_cp_ob_vg_title_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1254157870&sr=1-2

Words http://www.amazon.com/My-Word-Coach-nintendo-ds/dp/B000ME25P2/ref=dp_cp_ob_vg_title_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1254157870&sr=1-2

And a lot more at Amazon.

[Geoff Gentry xforce11]

Also Cliff talked about Kindle for textbooks.  Check this out:  http://www.macrumors.com/2009/09/30/apples-tablet-effort-aiming-to-redefine-print-media/

[Cliff Ravenscraft]

Geoff,

thanks so much for the links to the DS games.

Also, awesome report on the Apple Stuff.. I may put that in the show notes for HIGAM

[joyfulmomlea]

We use the personal trainer math (DS) with Jamie. It helped her a lot when she was learning her Times tables. We just had her do it before she could play any other games.

Here's a link for a website for Songs for teaching http://www.songsforteaching.com/. I'm sure there are more out there. THis is just the first one I've found.

Also, check out They Might Be Giant's podcast. They do a weekly podcast with lots of educational songs. It might be a little young for Matt, but then he may like it.

Here's a neat Spelling game website I just came across http://www.kidsspell.com/  You can enter your own spelling list or use one of theirs. Then there are several games you can choose from to play to help you learn those words.

Google is a wonderful thing. You can search for free educational games & find all kinds. There are so many teacher/school & homeschool websites that offer free games/programs & general helps.

These are just a few thoughts I have on this...

[BeckeyZ]

I use spelling city with my kids. http://www.spellingcity.com/

It has games that help keep them interested...and then they can test when they feel prepared.

[Cliff Ravenscraft]

I tried Kidsspell and those games didn't work well

I do like http://www.spellingcity.com/  though.

Very cool stuff!

Thanks

[chefster]

Hi, I was just listening to old episodes of Family from the Heart, and I wanted to share what my parents do, as my educational option. First of all, I think it really depends on personality, because my whole family is made up of people who thrive on pressure from school. This means that it was my own choice to take Reach-Ahead summer school, and I made a choice to take an extra class on Saturdays, and pile on the extracurriculars as well. What my parents chose to do was to take a "your education is your own business" approach. Of course, I am in the tenth grade now, so it's different. But in any case, I don't have to do homework if I don't want to, and I can come up to them, and tell them: "I choose not to do homework for this class", and they accept that. They NEVER reward me for grades materially, and also NEVER ever punish me, which happens to some of my friends. They're also very involved, helping me whenever I want. Partly as a cause of this, education is my priority, which in some cases comes over my friends. I don't get straight A's because I do struggle with math, but if I don't do the homework for that class, I know that I made a choice to not understand anythng in class the next day.