Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Discrepancies in abilities (& homeschooling)

Has anyone else used this? Any idea how much it costs?

Haven't used Muzzy. We use Rosetta Stone. If you sign up for the homeschool co-op and purchase the homeschool version it runs about $200.

Welcome Staceyshoe! So glad you are here. I think your above idea is bad, but your idea below is good.


Have you read about the 'unschooling' ideas? They might be interesting to you as you ponder.

I think that 'learning how to learn' is really important, but you have years before you have to get out the whip on this one. It is possible, depending on your child's personality, that if their internal motivation isn't ever killed by adults taking over, that you won't ever be the one who has to apply the whip. On the other hand, when he gets to be 8 or so, if he still hasn't found a way to do the 'boring stuff' that you might have to do some steering. Remember that if he were in a school, it would probably be playbased until at least 1st grade.

A lot depends on personality 'every child needs someone to think about her well.' But at age 4, it's hard for me to picture that a child would need pushing.

Which is not to say that you can't be sneaky. If you are one of those mom's who hides the vegtables in the tomato sauce, then you know what I mean: Find something that he does want to learn about, and then link it to something on the 'weaker list' so that the weaker skill gets some practice. The periodic table has lots of numbers on it. You can certianly teach addition and subtraction facts with the number 8 by teaching about electrons in that outer shell. You can practice handwriting by having him copy the chemical names of common molecules. Or his Geography places. Drawing Maps will help develop those small motor muscles. Maybe could learn to spell by seeing how many words he can spell using the abbreviations of Elements - mabe have a contest and see which row makes the most words.

If those ideas don't pop into your head like popcorn at the begining, post here and we will help, ok?

Smiles and Welcome,
Grinity

Wow! There are so many great ideas here! It's such a relief to be able to "talk" with other parents who "get" what my kid is like!! Your stories of your children sound so familiar. You make very good points about not squelching his love of learning. He is so thrilled. I started get a few homeschool materials together, and ds was literally jumping up and down with joy today.

This is probably something I'll need to feel my way on. You're right that just a few minutes consistently every day can make a huge difference after a few months. I guess I really need to just relax about the whole thing. I have such a tendency toward over-organizing everything that I feel like I need to have my entire plan perfectly in place before I begin anything. Maybe someday I will learn to go with the flow a little better.

If you have more ideas about incorporating what he loves into his daily routine, I'm all ears!

I strongly recommend at least trying to go with the flow for homeschooling, for a couple of reasons:

Really just about the only mistake you can make with homeschooling a young child is to be too rigid. If something doesn't work well, you need to be able to shift gears. If you spend too much on curriculum and planning, you won't be as willing to dump it and do something different, even if that's the right thing to do. And that happens a lot the first year. Most people don't know what will actually work until they try a few things.

Plus if your child makes a big cognitive leap in a subject, he can skip past all the materials you have so carefully prepared. That's pretty frustrating!

Everyone is different, and you have to figure out what works for you. But "perfect plan" is definitely a phrase I'd suggest striking from your vocabulary!

Keep talking if it helps...

I ordered Muzzy Chinese last summer. It is a good introduction to the language, but it is not for serious study. There was a 30 day satisfaction guarantee, so I returned it after 30 days.

I found Muzzy Spanish at the library. I do think it is good for kids. On Discovery Education United Streaming they have thousands of all sorts of educational videos including comprehensive, fun spanish courses for k-12 They also have lessons plans with these videos and worksheets. I simply love DE United Streaming. They have a 30 free trial. I found videos on science, history, language arts, math, foreign languages, music, art, etc. appropriate for all grade levels from K-12.

Another option is Powerspeak through K12 for foreign language. We use it for German, but we get it for free from our cyber school. DE United Streaming has some on German, but not full, comprehensive courses like it does in Spanish which I find to to be great. So IMO if you are thinking of Spanish, then I would consider getting Discovery Education United Streaming.

The Spanish program on Discovery Education is also on DishTV if you get it:) I still love Discovery Education United Streaming though
https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1036

They also have the basic package which is $139.00/year and also has the spanish videos.

My husband has our computer hooked to our HDTV 32" tube TV via a video cable to stream the videos onto the TV. Now some of the videos are older and a little bit grainy, but IMO still very enjoyable. Many are new and come out great on the TV IMO. If you have a super-size TV, then I am not sure what the quality will be My son has loved every single one of the videos.

I wasn't too enamored of the Muzzy Spanish that we bought a few years ago. I don't think that the kids liked it that much either. They didn't find the stories or the animation particularly engaging.

As a free place to start with a foreign language, you could take a look at the BBC languages site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

I did also buy Rosetta Stone and liked it better than Muzzy for serious language learning.

I agree Muzzy is only a good introduction for young kids. If you can sample it for free at your library even better.

I have used Rosetta Stone with ds, but it was hard to keep his interest. I may try again though since it does seem comprehensive. Another thing to try for free that is very similar to Rosetta Stone is Livemocha.com. However, you need to sit there with your child to supervise since occasionally pop messages will occur from other users asking you if you want to converse. I just close the pop boxes. I have never seen anything objectionable though on the site:)

Another possibly is Mangolanguages which I have not used but I have heard good reviews.