3musketeers wrote:Julie,
I picked up on this too for your ds's drawing. I am interested in your decisions and how to model certain subjects for ds's as well. I really like how Carrie has described how to model narration for those like me that need help. Good question Dawn.
Carrie does an awesome job of writing modeling into her curriculum already, you're right, and that is such a find as it is relatively nonexistent in most curriculums!
Additional modeling is something I go back to when I can see an area that is harder for my ds because it is not a natural ability of his. For instance, the dictation was harder for him because he had speech therapy for several years early on in life. Spelling and dictation have always been harder for him, as well as correctly pronouncing words. So, he needs a little more hand-holding, usually in the form of modeling. This struggle if his also comes out in his oral narrating, as he has a very difficult time remembering how to accurately pronounce names and places. This is something we are still really working on and probably always will have to.
For my oldest, drawing has always been difficult too. He was still drawing stick people at an older age, and my middle ds's coloring surpassed his coloring a long time ago. That's o.k. - every child has strengths and weaknesses, but I realized when doing the DITHOR project that I had never REALLY sat down with him and shown him how to draw a person's face in detail. We talked a lot about looking at our own faces for help, or at pictures in his books. We also talked about the basics of coloring again. We went over this a TON when he was littler, but the fact was he just was unable to do it at that time. So, for his DITHOR project, I sat by his side and modeled outlining, coloring in circles, coloring in the same direction, shading, etc. , and we also talked a lot about when to use markers as this is what he always uses and the markers often destroy the pencil details he'd added by completely covering them up. We talked about using colored pencils, thin markers for outlining, and crayons more often.
Anyway, these are very basic things that I should have talked about before, but when I chatted with Carrie, and she said she looks at her DITHOR projects as the time to go all out and really show them what a good final project would be, this hit a chord with me. I realized I don't do this often enough. Ever since we finished our DITHOR project of drawing, I can see Wyatt taking his time to draw more carefully, especially when it comes to people's faces. Also, he has stopped coloring with marker all of the time - thank the Lord!
So, I guess modeling comes in handy in dc's weaker academic areas. However we can portray each step of the process through modeling (in an encouraging way that doesn't get too overwhelming or tedious for them), seems to be super helpful when possible. I hope that makes sense!
In Christ,
Julie
Glad something here could help!
But, now that my ds is older, he is at the right stage (for him) to really be able to take something from the modeling/teaching, and it's pretty exciting because the results happen so much more quickly than they did earlier! I am so glad some of these ideas are working for others as they've been a huge source of relief (and joy) for me too.