Moving from Bigger to Preparing and Technology Questions

[bethelmommy]

I have two questions regarding my oldest son. He is 9 1/2 and we are on week 25 of Bigger. Our original plan was to finish Bigger by the end of September and then start Preparing after a 2 1/2 week trip in October. However, our summer has been so busy that we will be 2 weeks shy of finishing the guide by the time we leave on our trip. Now, I know it is usually recommended to just continue on with the guides as scheduled. However, I would really like to have our trip be the break between the guides and my son is completely ready for Preparing. He actually placed in Preparing last fall for everything but writing and has made dramatic improvements in that area this year. So, what I would like to do is have him continue with the guide as is for the next 4 weeks until he finishes 3B math and then double up on the guide days the last few weeks of the guide.

We would only be doubling the left side of the plans and science/storytime as he has already finished DITHOR 2/3 and is free reading the level 4/5 books this summer. Math will be finished. He has already finished Cheerful Cursive and has been doing copywork all year and is 1/2 way through R&S book 3. He would also double up on the extension readings but that will truly be more of a joy than a chore for him. This child is my self-starter, so he has been doing a good portion of Bigger independently all year. He starts on his own at 7 am and gets as much done of the guide on his own as he can (reading, science, notebooking, grammar, math, copy work, hymn time, etc..) while I am busy with the other children. He has done all of his own writing for the majority of the year including DITHOR and all three vocabulary words each week. So, does doubling up for the last few weeks of the Bigger guide sound ok in this situation or is it a bad idea? If there are other suggestions you have that would help us finish the guide in the same timeframe, I am open to that as well.

My second question is about technology. My son is interested in learning more about computers and technology and I am not sure what direction to take. We do not have video games or TV and his technology use has been limited to leap pads when we travel, some educational apps on the iPad, chess and typing lessons on the computer, and his Lego robotics club. We occasionally look things up together and I know he will get some additional computer time researching things in the Preparing guide, but is there more that can be introduced in a healthy and safe way? Does HOD schedule or plan to schedule a computer/technology credit at some point in the guides? If not, are there recommendations as to how best to introduce technology and what types? My son is on the spectrum for autism and tends to fixate on and obsess about topics of high interest, which is a big reason we have avoided media and technology up to this point. We are not even sure if this is the right time/age to increase his technology access, but his desire for more is very high right now, so I thought I would inquire to see if anyone has any insight or experience. I'm sorry this is so lengthy, but I appreciate any thoughts or advice. Thanks!

[MelInKansas]

Doubling up sounds fine. I understand your desire to have it done at the end of September, and if the doubling up will allow you to do that, great. You seem to know what your son can handle and it's good to not be doubling up on everything. It will make for some longer days, and that will be the thing to be aware of. Maybe you could double every other day? Rather than doing it every day. Having a long school day can lead to frustration and burnout for both you and him.

Technology - my husband and I both have tech degrees. Sadly so far none of our kids are particularly interested in technology (other than liking to watch TV and play games). My older ones are girls, my 3 year old son does show some promise for having similar interests as his dad. Watching TV and playing games isn't how you learn about how technology works. If you want to PM me I can give you very specific recommendations about things you could set up/have for your son in order to give him the opportunity to explore technology in his free time. For most of this we would recommend NOT being connected to the internet, and a very basic computer set up with a Linux operating system and some tools that would allow him to see how computer programming works and let him play around with that. That along with things like Snap Circuits that allow him to understand electronics. If you have old electronics you don't want anymore let him take them apart and see what's inside. Ask others to donate their old electronics to your cause. See if there are any other homeschooling parents in your area who could mentor him and encourage him in learning about technology. Those people might print out news articles for him to read, ask him questions about what he's been doing/trying, and occasionally present lessons or talk to him about things around you. Go on tours if there are any good technology museums or places to see in your area (you can do this with him or ask his mentor).

Can you tell other homeschool families in our area have asked us about this? My husband serves as a mentor to some preteen boys who are very interested in technology, but their parents really don't know much about it. Oh in answer to your question, I am not familiar with the upper HOD guides but as far as I know technology isn't one of the credits they address. I think they plan for that to be an outside topic you would add to your 5th day or other free time if the child has an interest. I know I certainly wouldn't see the kind of stuff I am talking about here as something every child would need in a good high school program. It's definitely more of an elective. There is a need for everyone to understand technology and be able to use computers/tablets/smart phones and navigate the Internet safely. But I think they tend to figure that out pretty well and hopefully with parental guidance.

[bethelmommy]

Thank you, Melissa for all the helpful information. I will definitely pm you for details regarding technology, as that is not dh's or my field. Regarding the guide, I may start combining day 4 & 5 now, so there will be less than a week left to double up on at the end. That may be easier to handle. Thanks again.

[Nealewill]

Melissa,

I would love to hear some of your ideas too

My son is very interested in how things work and is already becoming my right hand man when something breaks. He can't always fix it - he needs his daddy for that. But if my husband is at work, and something doesn't work, I usually call my son over too look at it if I can't figure it out. Currently, whenever something does break or my husband works on the house, my son is right by his side. My husband is a network administrator for a company so he lives and breathes technology as well. But my husband also has a Godly gift where he can literally fix anything. The fridge, the stove, pipes, concrete, electricity, the car........anything (so long as we don't needs some special expensive tool LOL)! My husband is so gifted that one time I lost some work files on my computer and several files got corrupted. He was somehow able to take my windows based PC, convert or start it up in a Linux server, recover the files and turn them back into windows files. He learned how to do this because he took a forensic computer class for his degree and he learned about tools for recovering deleted data. Anyway....my husband is gifted. It seems to me that my son is gifted in this way too. He lives and breathes seeing how things work. My son is very creative and constantly thinks of ways to test his environment. For example, when BeyBlades were popular, my son would take them and try and spin them in different shaped bowls to see how they worked. One time, he was able to spin the BeyBlades in a way that there were spinning on their sides (not the bottoms) and they were moving up the sides of a bowl. I am having a hard time describing this but basically he needed to spin two at one time and synchronize them in a way that completely balanced each other out. He will also test other things for stackability and balance. When left to himself, he just seems to test his environment all the time.

He does play legos and loves it. He is always building something. We have Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, SuperStructs, and Kinects. One interesting thing about my son is that is rarely interested in following any directions. He wants to build his own thing. I also do have a circuit set - it is the one where things light up - and he has never seemed all that interested in it. I have seen the Ollo robot kits and have thought about that but again, he doesn't care too much about following directions. I have thought about lego robotics club but I am at a point where he needs to work on reading and spelling right now. Every day his skills improve but I want the flex in my schedule to have a 5th day of school if we need it or to be able to shift my schedule to give my son more 1 on 1 time should he need it. I anticipate I wouldn't be ready to commit to something like this for a year or two. Currently, to feed into his interest my husband just has him help with fixing things. About a month ago, my husband had to replace the gas line on his truck. So my son and husband when out and my husband had Sam do all the physical work of changing it. We also recently installed a pocket door on our upstairs bathroom. My husband had to adjust the pipe connections from the sink to the wall because they shifted. So my husband had my son help with that - even with soldering the pipes and stuff. I have heard people say take things apart that don't work and let them look at it. Sam doesn't seem too interested in this. If he takes it apart, he wants to put it back together and see that it works. However, because my house is old, along with all of my appliances, my son has plenty of opportunity to fix things with my husband LOL. Currently, that is pretty much what we do. But my son is always hungry to learn and test things. So.......any thoughts you have I would love to hear them too.

[Nealewill]

Melissa,

I would love to hear some of your ideas too

My son is very interested in how things work and is already becoming my right hand man when something breaks. He can't always fix it - he needs his daddy for that. But if my husband is at work, and something doesn't work, I usually call my son over too look at it if I can't figure it out. Currently, whenever something does break or my husband works on the house, my son is right by his side. My husband is a network administrator for a company so he lives and breathes technology as well. But my husband also has a Godly gift where he can literally fix anything. The fridge, the stove, pipes, concrete, electricity, the car........anything (so long as we don't needs some special expensive tool LOL)! My husband is so gifted that one time I lost some work files on my computer and several files got corrupted. He was somehow able to take my windows based PC, convert or start it up in a Linux server, recover the files and turn them back into windows files. He learned how to do this because he took a forensic computer class for his degree and he learned about tools for recovering deleted data. Anyway....my husband is gifted. It seems to me that my son is gifted in this way too. He lives and breathes seeing how things work. My son is very creative and constantly thinks of ways to test his environment. For example, when BeyBlades were popular, my son would take them and try and spin them in different shaped bowls to see how they worked. One time, he was able to spin the BeyBlades in a way that there were spinning on their sides (not the bottoms) and they were moving up the sides of a bowl. I am having a hard time describing this but basically he needed to spin two at one time and synchronize them in a way that completely balanced each other out. He will also test other things for stackability and balance. When left to himself, he just seems to test his environment all the time.

He does play legos and loves it. He is always building something. We have Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, SuperStructs, and Kinects. One interesting thing about my son is that is rarely interested in following any directions. He wants to build his own thing. I also do have a circuit set - it is the one where things light up - and he has never seemed all that interested in it. I have seen the Ollo robot kits and have thought about that but again, he doesn't care too much about following directions. I have thought about lego robotics club but I am at a point where he needs to work on reading and spelling right now. Every day his skills improve but I want the flex in my schedule to have a 5th day of school if we need it or to be able to shift my schedule to give my son more 1 on 1 time should he need it. I anticipate I wouldn't be ready to commit to something like this for a year or two. Currently, to feed into his interest my husband just has him help with fixing things. About a month ago, my husband had to replace the gas line on his truck. So my son and husband when out and my husband had Sam do all the physical work of changing it. We also recently installed a pocket door on our upstairs bathroom. My husband had to adjust the pipe connections from the sink to the wall because they shifted. So my husband had my son help with that - even with soldering the pipes and stuff. I have heard people say take things apart that don't work and let them look at it. Sam doesn't seem too interested in this. If he takes it apart, he wants to put it back together and see that it works. However, because my house is old, along with all of my appliances, my son has plenty of opportunity to fix things with my husband LOL. Currently, that is pretty much what we do. But my son is always hungry to learn and test things. So.......any thoughts you have I would love to hear them too.

[raindrops]

I was going to suggest the snap circuits and taking apart real things is an excellent idea. Have you searched for science museums in your state? Field trips to places he is interested in? Science dvd's from the library or science magazine subscriptions that can come in the mail. We do the Lego robotics too! That is great. I bet if you search on Amazon for snap circuits you will get suggestions for more things like that...there are little kits where you build cars and that sort of thing with a controller...they can lift and move objects. I saw these sort of things in a homeschool science catalog.

[MelInKansas]

Nealewill - it sounds like your DH is pretty much able to teach and do the same types of things my DH does. Have your DH just search for "computer programming for kids" or something like that and look through some things for your son to try.

[Nealewill]

Thanks - I will definitely do that!