I need advice...we pulled DD out of school after Kindergarten because she was frustrated she wasn't learning anything new. (She went into K reading on a second grade level, and had asked to learn multiplication before K...so learning her letters and how to count wasn't what she had in mind). Last year went pretty well, but I was totally laid back. I felt like I didn't capitalize on the time I had with her, so I decided a workbox system would be best for both of us. Over the summer she got lazy. She has spent the last hour doing a review worksheet from the beginning of last year's math. I think her brain is fried, and she's only done half what I had planned. She doodles on her paper, plays with her braid, stares off into space (with me interjecting, "Focus!"). I'm frustrated, and I'm sure she is too. She had a science worksheet with the question, "Why are hotdogs called frankfurters." The answer is because they first originated in the German city of Frankfurt. She says, "Can I just write 'German' so I don't have to write much?"
My options are to cut her workload in half, knowing that she won't complete a year in a year, but since she's a grade level ahead I guess it doesn't matter. Or to keep at it and hope she learns to focus? Or just give up and send her to PS after our Disney trip.
More information: She's 7.5. We are finishing up last years curriculum as we had a few weeks left. She's doing Singapore 2B, Sonlight LA 2, Core B, Science B.
Have you read about various learning styles and how to work with your children's learning style? She might learn better by doing than writing or hearing than reading, etc. I'd encourage you to check that out and see what works best for her.
Also, I would not stress about worksheets and too much writing at this time. Read together, talk about things, have her draw pictures to tell a story and write out the story for her. Get some math manipulatives and a book of "games "to play with them. Let her explore and enjoy learning. Collect things, take walks, go to performances, listen to music, get a few books from the library on a subject that interests her and cuddle up on the couch with them. Sing, play, draw, join a music class - or something else she'd enjoy. Don't feel pressured to get a lot of worksheets "done".
I'll repeat this one: READ together (or I should say, read to her.) My girls are almost 17 and almost 15 and I still cherish the time we spend reading together. We've used Sonlight Curriculum most of the time and we have really loved it.
I don't know what your state requirements are, but you are the teacher and you can decide what your child needs. School doesn't have to look like public school. There will definitely be a time for learning proper grammar, spelling, etc. Even if she already reads pretty well, a good phonics program would be good just to give her the framework for the difficult reading that will come down the road. We used a vertical phonics program (
http://www.verticalphonics.com). It was great for my girls who also picked up on reading fairly quickly.
For math, I highly recommend Miquon Math. It's a little quirky, and if you're not at least a little interested in math yourself and willing to read about the system, it can be intimidating because the pages of the student book don't really give directions. It uses cuisennaire rods and my kids and I really loved it.
I need to go for now, but those are the basic things I used in our early homeschooling. I'd be happy to share more later or answer specific questions.
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