I read up on Webster's Speller from Don Potter's website and decided to teach my daughter to read using Webster's syllabary instead of Alpha Phonics like RC recommends. She's almost 5 and just beginning, so I cannot comment yet on how well she can spell, but she's doing really well so far. Before I started the syllabary with her, I took her through Don Potter's Alphabet fluency materials and taught her all the letter sounds using the RC phonics flash cards. So she had the alphabet and letter sounds memorized before beginning syllables. I also did the 3-letter spelling lists using letter tiles like you suggested in your RC course for Littles. I plan to continue that will the word lists in Webster's speller. The syllabic method teaches phonics, spelling and reading all at the same time, so children taught this way end up reading at a higher level at a younger age. Spelling rules are also covered, so children taught this way should not need separate spelling instruction later on. I have some experience both learning Chinese and teaching English as a Second Language. Pronunciation is my speciality. I've noticed that Webster's syllabary is like the Chinese pinyin for English in that it teaches all the sound combinations of the English language and how they are pronounced. It's really cool and I'm excited to go through it with my daughter! I love Noah Webster and his love for the Bible. His goal was to get America's children reading the Bible as young as possible. He believed the Bible should be the center of all education. I feel honored to use his method! donpotter.net/education_pages/spelling_books.html
Hi I am a long time follower, trying to find the video about hacking the Nook ereader, but it says it's private when I click the link. Did you make a new video about it?
Do you think letting them listen to a podcast they would enjoy or playing music they would like or maybe a audio book would be a good substitute instead of something like TV or video games? To avoid putting something on a screen I was thinking about just using my phone to find whatever they pick and then connect to a Bluetooth speaker for the whole house to enjoy.
I'm glad you mentioned supplementing the booklist. I know the books have always been a struggle for us. We love Mcguffey readers and Arthur Scott Bailey but I couldn't blame my kiddos for falling asleep reading Josephine Pollard's works.
None of my kids like to read books on it so they read from regular books, but I LOVE my kindle and use it practically daily. I don’t think they are ideal for young readers who aren’t very fluent or advanced, but if it makes or breaks homeschooling I would say use them :)
One more question with spelling- how do children learn things like doubling the consonant after a short vowel word when adding a suffix, or dropping the e with a long vowel and suffix? Hop-hopping or skate-skating? I find my kids are not figuring those things out through copywork and corrections alone.
Some of those things I noticed are in the Prof. k Grammar. I noticed a big difference in spelling through normal writing and reading around age 14. If you want to speed things up in that area, you could use something like All About Spelling. I wouldn’t recommend the whole kit and caboodle, just going over one tile at a time and dictating the words for them to write on paper.
Thanks for this video, Karen! I did personally find Saxon 3 to be a very good beginning to the Saxon program and independent learning. I didn't do 1 or 2, but Saxon 3 was great, because I could oversee the first side of each page, make sure they knew what they were doing, and then assign the second side independently. Then when they got to the more challenging 5/4, they were ready for independent learning, and it didn't throw them for a loop.
We do Math U See then Saxon 3. So many kids I have tutored didn’t master their facts with flash cards or memory work and Math U See does a great job explaining reasoning and even gives visual tricks for certain numbers.
We only do audio books in the car for fun, we don’t use them for academic purposes. A couple times in the past I would let them hear just one chapter or two of a challenging book for them so they could get a better feel for it and the vocabulary.
All my teens like DRAW THE WORLD and DRAW THE USA. The work has improved their orientation of the world and they really do have a map in their mind now.
That is helpful to hear! We have Draw the USA, and my sons have gone through it a few times for fun, but I always get hung up on the "blobbiness" of it ~ but I'm not sure I could perfectly label a US map! I sure couldn't draw one! I'm so ridiculously petrified by perfection! 😣
@@ourhouse Your channel has been a huge blessing to many, especially our home. Truly thank you for all you do! I love teaching and guiding my children and do not feel so overwhelmed...even with eight!
Thanks, Karen, for these ideas, just to shake things up a little. I can be such a purist, which can mean a total killjoy, and I don't want to do that to my kids' education! It's so hard for me to let them drink from the delights of learning at a pleasant pace instead of from a firehose!
A terrific video. We print out all the RC books but have got a kindle for our sons birthday (March) which we’ll load up with other books to encourage reading for pleasure.
@@ourhouse Well I just learned how to print for side by side binding. It is where you have four pages to one sheet, fold in half and so on. Instead of stacked inside each other. Then you just glue the stack together at the spine. So am really looking forward to going to try this out in the next day or two. Otherwise it’s the pinned at the spine method. (I learned from you.) 😊
What a great video. I am loving diving deep into your channel. I finally bought the CDs used. I have been wanting to get it for so long. Now that I have them I feel like I can truly join the club. You have done so much for homeschool families and the Robinson Curriculum.
God bless you Karen for sharing such great information, it's always encouraging to me. Next month will mark one year of us switching to the Robinson Curriculum, and I've struggled with letting go of the fear of making any changes. It's hard sometimes to get the fearful thoughts out of my head that if I change anything, then my kids aren't learning as well as they should. I have the same thoughts as you when it comes to the books. I think sometimes about how Charlotte Mason described books. Living books, which make up the RC booklist and then twaddle books, like Fashion Kitty....thankfully my 11-year-old likes BOTH kinds of books, lol! Math and writing are still the subjects we struggle with. For all three kids it's only been New American Cursive practice books, no essays yet. I'll definitely check out the resources you showed for those subjects to help get the motivation going for them to write more.
You can always have them get started too with just writing lists..how to make a sandwich, how to brush your teeth and transitioning to describing a book, their best friend etc.
Thank you so much for this! It’s a breath of fresh air with feeling like we can make RC our own:) My kids are still memorizing math facts but we’ve also done some skip counting too. I’m just wondering about place value- does that need to be covered? If we didn’t, would they completely flounder?
You’re the best. I have also been just making my kids read describe dog books until I am able to buy the RC curriculum and it’s made them better readers and it’s helped a lot
I read up on Webster's Speller from Don Potter's website and decided to teach my daughter to read using Webster's syllabary instead of Alpha Phonics like RC recommends. She's almost 5 and just beginning, so I cannot comment yet on how well she can spell, but she's doing really well so far. Before I started the syllabary with her, I took her through Don Potter's Alphabet fluency materials and taught her all the letter sounds using the RC phonics flash cards. So she had the alphabet and letter sounds memorized before beginning syllables. I also did the 3-letter spelling lists using letter tiles like you suggested in your RC course for Littles. I plan to continue that will the word lists in Webster's speller.
The syllabic method teaches phonics, spelling and reading all at the same time, so children taught this way end up reading at a higher level at a younger age. Spelling rules are also covered, so children taught this way should not need separate spelling instruction later on. I have some experience both learning Chinese and teaching English as a Second Language. Pronunciation is my speciality. I've noticed that Webster's syllabary is like the Chinese pinyin for English in that it teaches all the sound combinations of the English language and how they are pronounced. It's really cool and I'm excited to go through it with my daughter! I love Noah Webster and his love for the Bible. His goal was to get America's children reading the Bible as young as possible. He believed the Bible should be the center of all education. I feel honored to use his method! donpotter.net/education_pages/spelling_books.html
Amazing tips! Just what I needed. Thank you!
Hi I am a long time follower, trying to find the video about hacking the Nook ereader, but it says it's private when I click the link. Did you make a new video about it?
That’s so crazy because your teeth are sooo beautiful!! I looove your smile 😍
Aww you are too kind, thank you!
Do you think letting them listen to a podcast they would enjoy or playing music they would like or maybe a audio book would be a good substitute instead of something like TV or video games? To avoid putting something on a screen I was thinking about just using my phone to find whatever they pick and then connect to a Bluetooth speaker for the whole house to enjoy.
pdf files can now be added to kindle and read on all kindle devices/apps
We use the mom delights gentle grammar for writing in the early years- prompted sentence writing as a precursor to paragraph essay
Thanks for the recommendation of the wrapping math facts. My boys love doing them in the car.
That’s great!!
Do you kids learn computers at all? How to program, htmls etc....?
They do some occasional work on the computers like writing, art with apps, but not learning coding or anything like that.
I'm glad you mentioned supplementing the booklist. I know the books have always been a struggle for us. We love Mcguffey readers and Arthur Scott Bailey but I couldn't blame my kiddos for falling asleep reading Josephine Pollard's works.
I get it lol
Great video!! I love these resources!! You are doing a fantastic job being the homeschool friend that everyone needs. ❤️❤️
You are so sweet, thank you! I’ve been thinking about you, we need a Just Sew Trish update! 😀
Ditto! So are you, Trish!! Whether you're homeschooling or not! 😄
Karen, just wondering if your thoughts are still the same on the reader/screen option.
None of my kids like to read books on it so they read from regular books, but I LOVE my kindle and use it practically daily. I don’t think they are ideal for young readers who aren’t very fluent or advanced, but if it makes or breaks homeschooling I would say use them :)
One more question with spelling- how do children learn things like doubling the consonant after a short vowel word when adding a suffix, or dropping the e with a long vowel and suffix? Hop-hopping or skate-skating? I find my kids are not figuring those things out through copywork and corrections alone.
Some of those things I noticed are in the Prof. k Grammar. I noticed a big difference in spelling through normal writing and reading around age 14. If you want to speed things up in that area, you could use something like All About Spelling. I wouldn’t recommend the whole kit and caboodle, just going over one tile at a time and dictating the words for them to write on paper.
Thanks for this video, Karen! I did personally find Saxon 3 to be a very good beginning to the Saxon program and independent learning. I didn't do 1 or 2, but Saxon 3 was great, because I could oversee the first side of each page, make sure they knew what they were doing, and then assign the second side independently. Then when they got to the more challenging 5/4, they were ready for independent learning, and it didn't throw them for a loop.
That’s great feedback to hear, thank you. I do really like Saxon 3 math worksheets too.
We do Math U See then Saxon 3. So many kids I have tutored didn’t master their facts with flash cards or memory work and Math U See does a great job explaining reasoning and even gives visual tricks for certain numbers.
How often do you allow for audio books? I was thinking of allowing one audio in the midst of the other reading for the 2 hours... thoughts?
We only do audio books in the car for fun, we don’t use them for academic purposes. A couple times in the past I would let them hear just one chapter or two of a challenging book for them so they could get a better feel for it and the vocabulary.
All my teens like DRAW THE WORLD and DRAW THE USA. The work has improved their orientation of the world and they really do have a map in their mind now.
That’s so great!
That is helpful to hear! We have Draw the USA, and my sons have gone through it a few times for fun, but I always get hung up on the "blobbiness" of it ~ but I'm not sure I could perfectly label a US map! I sure couldn't draw one! I'm so ridiculously petrified by perfection! 😣
Great ideas as always! Thanks again Karen!
Thank you for watching and commenting Brenda, always a great help to the channel.
@@ourhouse Your channel has been a huge blessing to many, especially our home. Truly thank you for all you do! I love teaching and guiding my children and do not feel so overwhelmed...even with eight!
Hi Karen, I'm trying to find the video where you mention a website that is similar to grammarly but for children.
I think maybe you are thinking of the night zookeeper website?
@@ourhouse Ok, I'll check it out thank you so much.
Learning the Numbers With Spunky the Donkey math workbooks are super affordable and reinforces the math facts well.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Karen, for these ideas, just to shake things up a little. I can be such a purist, which can mean a total killjoy, and I don't want to do that to my kids' education! It's so hard for me to let them drink from the delights of learning at a pleasant pace instead of from a firehose!
I ordered some of those books! I can't wait to use them!
Yay!
You will love them!
A terrific video. We print out all the RC books but have got a kindle for our sons birthday (March) which we’ll load up with other books to encourage reading for pleasure.
What’s your favorite way to bind the books that you print?
@@ourhouse Well I just learned how to print for side by side binding. It is where you have four pages to one sheet, fold in half and so on. Instead of stacked inside each other. Then you just glue the stack together at the spine. So am really looking forward to going to try this out in the next day or two. Otherwise it’s the pinned at the spine method. (I learned from you.) 😊
Great information, thank you Karen!
Thank you for watching!
These were great tips. Thank you!
What a great video. I am loving diving deep into your channel. I finally bought the CDs used. I have been wanting to get it for so long. Now that I have them I feel like I can truly join the club. You have done so much for homeschool families and the Robinson Curriculum.
Welcome to the RC family!! ❤️
Hi Karen, did you just buy the books from the news press individually or in bulk?
I bought them individually but in a couple large orders.
God bless you Karen for sharing such great information, it's always encouraging to me. Next month will mark one year of us switching to the Robinson Curriculum, and I've struggled with letting go of the fear of making any changes. It's hard sometimes to get the fearful thoughts out of my head that if I change anything, then my kids aren't learning as well as they should. I have the same thoughts as you when it comes to the books. I think sometimes about how Charlotte Mason described books. Living books, which make up the RC booklist and then twaddle books, like Fashion Kitty....thankfully my 11-year-old likes BOTH kinds of books, lol! Math and writing are still the subjects we struggle with. For all three kids it's only been New American Cursive practice books, no essays yet. I'll definitely check out the resources you showed for those subjects to help get the motivation going for them to write more.
You can always have them get started too with just writing lists..how to make a sandwich, how to brush your teeth and transitioning to describing a book, their best friend etc.
Thank you so much for this! It’s a breath of fresh air with feeling like we can make RC our own:) My kids are still memorizing math facts but we’ve also done some skip counting too. I’m just wondering about place value- does that need to be covered? If we didn’t, would they completely flounder?
Don’t worry it will be covered in Saxon 54.
I've been eyeing NWP for a while. Just the thought of how nice bookshelves would look with all those covers is such a satisfying image.
It really is! Lol
You’re the best. I have also been just making my kids read describe dog books until I am able to buy the RC curriculum and it’s made them better readers and it’s helped a lot
I’m glad to hear it!
What a great video Karen! These are really great ideas to modernize RC.
Thank you Friend!
I love New West Press books as they have a calming feel to them.
They really do!