MelissaM wrote:My son is 7.5, will be 8 in Jan. We'll start school in Aug. He's a kid that I have flip-flopped for the entire last year about whether to have him evaluated for some kind of learning difference.
1st grade was rough for us, both because he didn't progress at the speed I had expected him to (based on how he did in Kindy), and because he just plain would rather be playing than doing school (I think I've posted about this before). I don't mind adjusting my expectations, I'm just not sure what to adjust them TO - does that make sense? I'm really struggling with knowing what parts of RtR I should expect him to participate in and to what level I should expect participation.
He cannot just write a sentence out of his head, but he does a great job with copywork. He doesn't know very many math facts yet, but he likes math and doesn't mind working on them.
Added to all of this is my 2yo who has a bunch of issues, which require lots of time with either people coming into the house to work with him, or us going out to see people to work with him. Lots of disruption to our days, when I know my poor middle child would really prefer the structure of "9 am is math time" - it's a bit harder to get him back if I lose him because I need to send him out for 45 min while the therapist is here.
Help me figure out what to do! I'm tired of not feeling peaceful about this coming school year - I feel good about the curriculum decision, I'm not wavering from MFW - I just don't know how to use it with this particular kid at this particular stage. And, for anyone who's been through it, do you think ds should be evaluated? And what kind of evaluation would you have done? (My ped suggested taking him to a developmental psych, which would include a wide battery of stuff, but I don't know if we need to have all that done - for instance, I KNOW he's not ADHD, so do we have to have that profile done?)
I hope it makes sense, and any thoughts/opinions/advice appreciated!
Hi Melissa!
Well, we haven't done RtR yet. We'll be doing it next school year along with you. I will have a 2nd grader, also...turning 8 in February. Now, I have a dd, and girls are different than boys. So my situation might be a little bit different than yours. But, I can tell you what my plans are for next school year for my 2nd grader in RtR.
I keep 2 things in mind as I make plans for my 2nd grader. 1--My eldest dd did Adventures for her 2nd grade year, and I try to think of the types of things that I expected from her while she did ADV, and I plan to have similar expectations for my 2nd dd in RtR. The day in ADV is only about 3 hrs. long, and I want my 2nd grader to have a similar length for her day...a bit longer than 1st grade, because there are new subjects added in 2nd grade, but not as long as my 6th grader's day. 2--My 2nd grader will be doing RtR again in 5 years, so if I decide to have her skip something this year, I know she will cover it again when she is a 7th grader.
So, here are a few things I am planning for my 2nd grader.
I will not require her to do English From the Roots Up at all. She will get that next time she goes through RtR.
I am going to do something different for Scripture memory for my 2nd grader, AND I want to continue working on my 2nd grader's handwriting, so I am going to do A Reason for Handwriting Book B with her, and her weekly verse to copy will be her memory verse for that week, also.
For art, I may not have my 2nd grader do all of the lessons in God and the History of Art. This past year, in 1st grade, I started I Can Do All Things with my middle dd. So, I will probably continue that with her. My eldest dd used ICDAT during her 2nd grade year, and it seems more suited to my middle dd than GHA. I may have middle dd do certain GHA lessons if they fit our history lessons or something like that. I'll see how that goes.
I will take each day as it comes as far as history is concerned. My middle dd was not required to sit in on history readings (Streams and Ancient World) during CtG, because she was a 1st grader, and because she had her own lessons in MFW 1st. During RtR, I will look over each day's lesson as it comes and decide how much I want her to sit through. I will probably have her listen to the readings from the Usborne books, but probably not from Streams.
My 2nd grader will join her sister for Bible and science. She did these two things with my eldest during CtG, and they will do those subjects together again during RtR. Other than that, she will have her math and language arts at her own level. And, she has expressed an interest to study German, so we will probably purchase Rosetta Stone German, and she can work on that independently (her older sister does Rosetta Stone Russian).
My middle dd doesn't know her math facts yet, either, so I started her on Quarter Mile Math at the end of 1st grade to start working on them. I will continue to do a combination of Qtr. Mile, flashcards, etc. to help her drill her math facts.
That's my plan for now. I hope it gives you an idea of one way to tweak RtR for your 2nd grader. Don't feel bad about skipping things or lightening the load for your son. He'll go through it again in 5 years, and he can do it all then.
