My youngst daughter 'Gina' has three little boys, 6yrs, 4yrs and 2yrs... she is married to a career military man and has already moved 4 times in their 8 year marriage. While in Miami she enrolled EC into Kindergarden for about 6 months and saw a huge diffenence in his personality with each new day of school.. she said 'it was not for the better' and it was then she thought of "Home Schooling" her children...Then the military transfered her husband to the 'SoPacific'. Before the move Gina bought supplies and books of all sorts. Did alot of research on Home Schooling and even bought, on Craigs list, a huge 12' by 10' white board, for her upcoming classroom in their new home.
After moving into their home on Base, she 'set up school' in the third bedroom and has been teaching with amazing results. E, now 6 yrs old is reading at a 3rd grade level, JJ at 4 years is reading at a first grade level and the baby, Anow 2yrs old, is repeating the alphabet and numbers, and he is totally enjoying learning to write them.
Four year old JJ uses his 'book map' to afix his reward sticker for each book he has read. JJ is reading at the first grade level.
Gina has looked into the "Japanese" method of teaching math. Giving the children alot of 'paper work' is not part of the lessons... The idea is to 'learn mentally', to visualize. For math they use the "Abacus" instead of the American way of teaching... they do not solve their problems on paper most of the time...
Gina said:
"To appreciate visualization, try to imagine eight oranges in a line without grouping them-- almost impossible.
Next, imagine five of those oranges as yellow and three as orange. Now you can see them. The kids learn to use these mental models for mental arithmetic.
For little kids, counting is inaccurate, and it ignores place value. The understanding is stressed. Math Japanese style is taught so 95% is understood and only 5% "memorized".
When the kids "understand", they need to spend less time in review and practice. When kids don’t understand, they memorize until the burden becomes to great and then, they just give up.
The abacus is amazing, it has 100 beads grouped in fives; by color and grouped in tens by rows. When two quantities are added, the sum is obvious: no further counting is necessary.
Most Asian languages refer to 23, for example, as "2-ten 3" and 67 as "6-ten 7." In English the quantity ten has three names, ten, -teen and -ty. (ie: 10, 15, 20)."
Two year old "A' doing his best to 'write his numbers'.....Gina also said, "he is loving working with his brothers" and his mind is already thinking and asking the questions most 4yr olds ask... Their all enjoying their class room at home and I have to add.. I love that Gina 'dresses the boys for class' each day.. she said 'they are sluggish when left in their jammies or play clothes'....
Looking out to the "Philippine Sea"
The boys belong to a "Co-op" for home schoolers and through internet sites.. they have 'field trips twice monthly and the boys also belong to sports teams... "They are happy and healthy" and 'that is a good thing'.
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