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!
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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Ah, the snooping around is a fear of homeschoolers all over the world.
Oh no! I am sorry about your computer! I don't know how strict your regulations are there, but in Mississippi... they are almost non-existent. (Other states in the US are not as fortunate.) I hope you can stick to your schedule... I love making them, but I am not so adept at sticking to them for long periods of time!
Hi Adelaide
Yep, it takes a lot of discipline!
Hi Heather
In South Africa education is really in shambles so I don't worry too much, but still I like to do things the correct way...!
Thanks for dropping in. Great to see a new face. Discipline is a definate in our house to hs but there have been a few minor acceptions but we are working to get back on track. God bless!
Like Tammy, we have been learning how to fill in forms.
I showed my Grandad how to fill in a police check form on the computer. Now all he has to do is take it to a witness and get it signed.
It will be interesting to see what you are studying in maths, reading and social studies. These are the core subjects.
Meanwhile many of the parents and teachers are angry because there is a site with how the students did on their national tests.
Hi homeschool101
Good to hear from you. Good luck with your homeschool. I will surely visit again!
Hi Adelaide
At the moment we still concentrate on filling in forms by hand, so as to improve handwriting and spacing: you have to make small letters if the space is little, may not go over the lines etc. And then you must remember what the difference is between residential and postal address and that your email address does not start with a capital letter! Filling in forms is now an official part of the timetable -so that I won't forget to pay enough attention to that!
I'll soon blog about what we do in the other subjects.
UGH! You have been having way too many computer problems. Glad to hear your new timetable is working out for both you and Tammy.
You asked on my blog how Jacob is doing with his reading... he is doing quite well and progressing at a pace I am pleased with. My biggest concern right now is his spelling. Do you have any suggestions? We currently are not using any curriculum for this, because I haven't found one to suit his needs. I am just using a word list of sorts and having him study them. However, he doesn't retain these words at all, which makes creative writing or sentence writing difficult.
I had to get some rewritable disc after ous crashed. I use the free version of homeschool tracker from on line and lost 2 years worth. I now back up every couple of days.
Oh, yes!
The difference between residential and postal address.
The former is where you live and the latter is where you post to. There might be a Post Office box, for instance, and a different post/zip code. It could well be in the next suburb.
Especially relevant in country areas or in organisations/charities.
I tend to remember words from context clues and sometimes sounds. Not necessarily how they look.
On Scribd there is something about how a dyslexic may see the alphabet. Right now it's featured.
Paschar's View of the Dyslexic Alphabet
And maybe the Davis Dyslexic Reader can help.
Davis Dyslexic Association
How is his auditory memory and visual memory? What about digit span and the copying part? That used to give me heejeebies, even on the Weschler.
And sometimes e-mails do start with a capital letter, sometimes names certainly do.
(in the computerised forms we fill in, everything turns into capitals or block print. Very convenient for us where punctuation is concerned).
With the tracker-type applications, would it be worth it investing in a paid version? Or making your own solution?
Hi Jen
Good to hear from you. Will blog about how I do spelling with Tamerin - you also might want to check out the sight Adelaide mentioned below.
Hi April
We've been thinking of getting an external hard drive for back ups - should in the meantime follow your advice and put it on C.D's. Most are still on memory sticks - but they get mixed up and lost.
Hi Adelaide
Thanks for the comments and the links. Will check them out.
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