This and That

Well, homeschool has been going pretty well since we started using Switched On Schoolhouse for my son.  He still needs a lot of help to stay on task, but having everything laid out for us makes that easier.  I am able to point to what is due that day and he knows there is an end in sight, he won't be doing homeschool forever if he stays on task.  I only wish I could be home with him more.  If I was able to work with him more, we could get him done with the 4th grade level before summer, and he'd be able to have a summer break.  As it stands though, we will work the entire summer, just so he will be only a year behind in September.  I have decided that once we get him into the fifth grade level, I am not going to push too hard to catch up, he can just be one year behind in everything but math.  We'll just call him a 5th grader and not stress about it, and he'll be doing 6th grade math by than, so his test scores should show him ahead in that subject.  Later when he is older, if he wants to catch up in order to finish school on time, he can work toward that. 

It is also easier because at times I am able to leave him alone to work, the text-to-speech is certainly not perfect, but it still makes some independence possible for him.

He is working with the One Minute Reader program I blogged about last time as well, and it really seems that it is going to help him.  Of course it is too soon to really judge, but so far it seems to be having some positive effect.  If nothing else it is giving him more practice, and because his sister isn't doing the same thing, he isn't feeling like he's being compared to her.  He is competing against his OWN best speed, not someone's else.