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!
A walk to the stables
Tamerin at the horses: we walked there on Thursday and talked rugby nearly all the way!
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4 comments:
Beautiful writing prompts! When you get to Disney, they should have brochures and maps in every language you can think of. You can get one in your native language easily. Disney is one place I have heard almost every language spoken and you should have no trouble even if the parents' English is not good. (From the looks of the homeschooling I wouldn't have known it was a second language, though.)
:]
It was good to "hear" from you, and the children did well on their Latin test! I was not so alert, however! :) We have not gotten a foster child yet; the government makes you jump through an incredible amount of hoops before you can do that. Sarah's ballet recital was beautiful! I will post pictures in the next few days. I hope you have a fun trip to Disney... does your husband get to go with y'all?
Hi Mrs. C
Thanks for the info! I'll pass it on. Tamerin loves being able to tell her family things that they did not know. Another family will be going with them. Most South Africans are bi- or multiligual and although English is the home language of a minority of South Africans, it is everyone's 2nd language. We have 11 official languages, but English is the business and government language. Most children are still taught in their mother tongue, but Tammy apparently struggled very much with Afrikaans (a modern language derived from Dutch), so they switched to English.
Hi Heather
Best wishes for going through the foster child applications. I'm looking forward to the ballet pics. I don't get to go to Disney - I'm not part of the family but a teacher employed by the family to teach Tammy. Tammy and her mom, dad, and brother will be going with another family.
"We do not do "grade" work - we just do what seems necessary"
Same here - and not only with our special needs son, we do the same with our daughter who doesn't have any obvious disabilities (there are a few learning issues, but nothing of the severity of her brother) ...we work at whatever "level" each child is currently at in a particular area. :-)
Disneyworld, awesome! She\ll have such a good time there - I was in Disneyworld when I was 12 and had a blast. I remember going to some sort of thing - I think this was actually at Epcot Center nearby - where you could "visit" various countries.. they had performers, food, music, buildings, etc all set to resemble different countries.. very fun - and educational as well! ;-)
Speaking of educational, I had no idea that South Africa had 11 official languages! You've taught *me* something new today, baie dankie! :-)
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