Not ready for BY?

[DeniseR]

I just realized that I needed to start looking into what we will be doing for next year so read through a few posts (incl. the on from Becky Jane on planning). I'm freaking out a bit here.

DD will be 9 in October. We have or will have gone through almost all of the FIAR 1-3 books twice (except a couple that just didn't do it for us the first time) and almost all of the Vol 4 books. The ones we haven't done will be the ones that the library doesn't have or I didn't come across cheap and/or used somewhere.

DD is bright and grasps/retains information but doesn't have good fine motor skills and her handwriting is at K level, has issues with reading (but is making improvement) and, though I tried spelling, I quickly ditched it because of the other two issues.

I am seeing things for BY like essays, research, independent projects and I don't know if she is ready for such things. She doesn't know how to use a search engine (she can't spell), nor a library computer catalog (can't spell and her reading isn't the best).

Should I even attempt BY? If not, what do we do?

[Suz MamaFrog]

Here's what I suggest:

*Instead of essays, either have a conversation where you discuss the topic at hand OR have her do an oral narration and you write it out for her

*Instead of independent research, help her with it - research the titles your library has and then help her find them, help her read them, do presentations instead of written reports (posters, speeches, illustrated texts where she only has to write a caption, etc.) She could perhaps work on her presentations independently - drawing, copying the text, etc. so they would still be partly independent projects.

*Try BY, starting with Boxcar and the other Volume 1 titles, as they are the simplest. If it's a struggle for her, then go back and do more Volume 1 - 4 at a higher, more in-depth level.

My dd wasn't ready for BY the first time I tried it last year, so we went back over FIAR Volume 4 and HSS Level 4 titles. She still prefers scrapbooking/lapbooking to a lot of writing, so we scrapbook/lapbook/notebook our BY. She's learning, she's retaining the information, and she is growing in her independent skills, so I say "why not?" BY is a lot like FIAR in that respect - you can make it your own to fit your needs. It doesn't dictate what you do or how you do it.

Blessings!
Suz

[DeniseR]

Thanks Suz.

I think I will go ahead and order Vol 1 now so I can get a better idea of the lessons and what is involved. Maybe this summer can be spent working on some of the skills needed in a ultra-relaxed way using some of the thngs from HSS. That, combined with your suggestions, should hopefully work.

[CINDY LB OH]

I am currently doing Beyond with my ds11 who has dyslexia and dysgraphia. He reads at the beginning first grade level and writing is non-existent unless he copies. He loved the mystery writing lesson in Boxcar though. He dictated a wonderful story and I wrote it down for him.

We do most of the lessons conversationally, we keep a timeline, a biography notebook, and maps. We have taken lots of rabbit trails because he likes read alouds. We do everything together. He has also come up with some great ideas on his own (stemming from something we read) that we then explore together.

We started with Boxcar, then did Thomas Edison. We've gotten stuck in Edison's time and ended up reading about Buffalo Bill, and now the gold rush. It's been fun even though we haven't stuck to the manual much :lol: I hope to end with Homer Price before summer.

So, yes, it would be possible for you to move into Beyond. It might just look different for you, that's all.