ASL as a second language

Last year I allowed Nevaeh to choose her second language to start learning and she chose American Sign Language. Over the year, we built a basic foundation  for her vocabulary and had a fun introduction by the use of random Youtube videos, cartoons, and online games. It was a fun way to get started and she learned a lot! I wanted to share her favorite resources from last year and share what we are using this year as we move on more in depth with her ASL skills.

Kidcourses.com was my favorite resource to get started. They had great videos with rhymes and had printouts that Nevaeh could use every day to go along with the rhymes that were built around the letters of the alphabet.

We were also able to find episodes of Signing times online and Nevaeh had a great time watching and learning from that show while being entertained. This was a great relaxing activity that she got a lot out of. Nevaeh really likes interactive television shows, so I was super happy to find something that applied to her current curriculum.

We also lucked out by having a friend who is very active with the Deaf community and attends a Deaf church. One of her friends lent her a huge pile of children's books with accompanying signs. I was so happy when she brought that pile of books over and we spent the day making copies of those story books which we used as coloring sheets to help build vocabulary.

This year, I am very excited to start using an actual curriculum. I have gone through it myself quite a bit after I found it through a random google search last year. http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/lessons/lessons.htm
I really like the vocab building aspects of this curriculum and the fact that it presents cultural aspects and history of the Deaf community as well. I am really looking forward to spending the next year or two with Nevaeh using this curriculum to help build her skills.

My goal for Nevaeh is that she feels comfortable enough by the end of the year with ASL to use it in conversation with a fluent ASL speaker. My friend who I mentioned earlier has told us about a Deaf church that she attends with her friends and I would love to take Nevaeh there to meet some folks and practice her skills.

 I'm very interested to see what she ends up doing with her second language. I think it was a very unique choice and I pray that I can help her foster that interest and make the most of her learning.

Our New Foundation: Time4Learning

About 2-3 months ago, I was pretty burnt out, and needed some help. The hubs kept bringing up the idea of sending Nevy to a charter school or something like that. He could see I needed a break. I knew this was just a phase. A moment that would pass. I knew we could make it through. I just needed some support and a helper. I had known a few families who had tried a web-based curriculum called Time4Learning. I went online and read some reviews, and decided to give it a try. There was a free trial period and I could cancel anytime, so I thought it would be great to give it a chance.

There was a learning curve the first couple of weeks. Nevy, who is 7, still needed me by her side. She was still gaining confidence in her reading skills, and needed my assistance in helping her read the tests questions to her and some of the modules. As far as navigating the modules, she did fantastic. She loved the characters on the modules and every day, she'd ask me, "When can I do school?!" She was so excited about the program. So, it didn't take long for her to fall in love with the program.

As for me, I was skeptical at first, but now I know it's a full time part of our homeschooling. At least for now. Let me start by giving a few points on the things that I love:

• I love that I do not have to do very much pre-planning. The lessons are there. I do not have to prepare. This is really one of the breaks I was looking for. This is what I needed right now. I am so very thankful for that. 
• I love how involved she gets when she is learning in her modules. I think the fun aspects to the lessons really do a great job at keeping her involved. 
• She's learning a lot. I love how she incorporates her lessons into every day conversation, so that I can tell how much she's learning.
• I like how I can view her progress online. 
• She's gaining so much more confidence in reading. Before we started this program, it was a battle to get her to do any sort of independent reading. Now she reads by herself at least one hour every day. I believe a love for reading helps foster a love for learning and will really make an impact on how homeschooling works out for us. I am so thankful that this program did such a great job at this. 
• She can do her lessons from anywhere. We've gone out of town, and she stays at her grandparent's houses regularly. It's so nice to know that she can work on her lessons no matter what my schedule looks like.
• I like the worksheets that accompany the lessons. I was worried about Nevy doing a web-based curriculum, because I was afraid that she was not going to get enough practice in writing and off-line lessons. But the curriculum has printable worksheets that allow her to practice her writing and work on her lessons off of the computer. This has helped her tremendously. Now she is writing more and more on her own, and even keeping a journal. 
• Time4Learning has online support forums where you can ask questions and discuss homeschool issues with other parents. This is a great support for me.

Some things that I don't like about the program (for Nevy. These things may not apply to every child):

• Well, it's a web-based program. So she does spend quite a while in front of the computer. She started out spending about 4-5 hours trying to do just a few things, but now she has it worked out so that she can get her lessons finished in just around 40 minutes to an hour (which is what I was hoping for). 
• She wonders. Time4Learning has a great concept of "Recess" where your child can take a break and go "play" online at an approved website, which is listed through the program. This option comes up after the parental-appointed amount of time. My daughter tends to get side tracked and sucked into the games. Time4Learning has the Recess timed through their program, but she will open a new window with the game and I walk in and realize she's been playing on some other website 15 minutes longer than her appointed time. This is simply something that I'll have to set better boundaries for. 
• I wish the worksheets were easier to find. I may be doing something wrong, but currently it's a bit of work to figure out what worksheets to give her every week. As it is right now, it seems sort of difficult to figure out what pages to print out for her, since she is not old enough to print the pages on her own yet. 
• I wish the tests and quizzes were all read aloud at her age level (at that she had that option, if needed). Every once in a while, there are words in the tests and quizzes that she just doesn't understand. 
• This is an expensive program if you have more than one child in school. It's about 20 bux a month. Since I have 3 (soon to be 4) kids who will one day all be in school, it's overwhelming to think of what our monthly bill will be like. But as for now- I can handle the price for one child. I do wish it were more like $10 or $15/month. I could make a longer commitment and say, yes we will do this for quite some time, if it were that price. But we don't have cable, and we cut other corners so that we can make it happen right now. 

All in all, this program is doing exactly what I needed in this point in time. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm able to actually get everything accomplished in my household without feeling like one thing is being overlooked. This program is giving us opportunities to learn and explore other things with a lot more joy and I really appreciate that. I still have to supplement here and there to fit Nevy's needs but it is a great foundation for her daily education. And she loves it so much, she'd be torn up if we got rid of it! 

As a member of Time4Learning, I have been given the opportunity to review their program and share my experiences. While I was compensated, this review was not written or edited by Time4Learning and my opinion is entirely my own. For more information, check out their standards-based curriculum or learn how to write your own curriculum review.

Free Curriculum

I try to keep up with the cheapest home school options out there. Education can be expensive enough even without paying for fancy curricula. This one was brought to my attention recently, and we have started playing with it. We are going to add it to our weekly routine somehow, and review it after some time has gone by. Until then, I thought I would list this free curriculum so that you can play with it too and tell me what you think.

www.theheadoftheclass.com

The curriculum at the Academy

I keep getting asked what curriculum I am using. I guess this is super important to do in homeschool? Well, I'm not a fan. I actually searched and searched and have yet to find a curriculum that manages to fit our family. So, I opted out. Sure, it's a lot of work, but it's worth it! I do use a lot of cheap and free materials that have been very helpful. some online resources include:
www.abcteach.com
www.starfall.com
www.progressivephonics.com

And of course I take advantage of her interest in many cartoon characters (no matter how little TV you allow, there seems to always be a fond admiration-at least that I have noticed). I will use printables from PBSkids.org and the nick jr. website.

Of all of the materials that I use, the one I am loving most right now is a book called Learn at Home, Grade 1.
This book is just fantastic; it is full of ideas and worksheets and even has weekly lesson plans. I don't think they are enough to rely completely on, but it is a great jumping off point.

But I can not say this enough: USE THE LIBRARY! The library really does have so much to offer. It has saved us so much money and it has really helped my daughter fall in love with reading and research. I would say that the vast majority of our lessons include reading. Sure, we spend a small amount of time at a desk doing bookwork, but it is more important to me to be able to teach my children to learn. If they know how to learn, then they afford themselves endless opportunities.

Most importantly, Nevaeh is not yet 6 years old. Do you remember being 6? My husband hardly remembers his childhood, but I remember it to a frightening extent! I remember how I learned the most: playing dress-up, playing board games, playing with puppets, playing with paint, playing with play doh, playing by myself, and so on. Key word: playing. She's a kid. I really want to give her the space to be a kid. Yes, discipline and order are very important to me. Because of this, I set up structured play time. And we have house rules that she must follow. But it is so important to give her the space for her imagination to take her away. When I do this, I often find her pretending to be a waitress, and she practices writing while she takes my order at a restaurant. Doing this, she learns the role of serving and learns how to spell "hamburger" or "spaghetti." Or she decides that she wants to write someone a letter and draw them a picture. While playing outside, she gets side-tracked by the mail man and starts asking him questions about his job:
Nevaeh-"Hi! My name's Nevaeh. Who are you?"
Mail man- "I'm the Mail man."
Nevaeh- "What are you doing?"
Mail man: "Bringing your parents a package." 
Nevaeh- "Why?"
Mail man- "That's my job. I deliver the mail and deliver packages."
Nevaeh- "Oh! I like you car."
Mail man- "Thank you, that is a special truck that I use to deliver the mail."

...and the conversation continued while Nevaeh learned all about the mail man, his job, and his family.

Did you know that part of kindergarten and first grade social studies is learning about professions? There is a whole lesson on firefighters, policemen, doctors, mail men, etc... And look, Nevaeh had a chance to learn all about the mail man and his job first hand! It is amazing how much day to day life lends toward the curriculum. I try to take advantage of these moments as much as possible. We are constantly making mental notes to remember a certain experience to talk about later if we do not have the opportunity to discuss it when it happens.

So you can now understand why I cannot always give a quick answer when I am asked what curriculum I use. Will I ever use a curriculum? I don't know, maybe. But right now, I really don't see the need for one. I really do enjoy putting together class materials and planning out our days (even if I plan to do nothing).