Answering a Question

My friend Janet asked if I skipped over some of the stuff at the beginning of new books since a lot of it is review. Short answer: No.

With Abeka science and history I don't skip over anything. The material is different and even though some of the names will occasionally be familiar. Only judging by the first day (history) I can see how the questions are asked is a less concrete and more infered. I'll keep an eye on this and see how this fits into Jordan's learning style. He is a VERY concrete kiddo. Maybe he will figure out how to answer the questions, maybe not. I will adapt it to his needs.

Math is a different story (although I still don't skip anything). The first 10-20 lessons in the Saxon Math are mostly review. I base how quickly we move on how many he is missing in a given lesson. One of Jordan's bigger deficits is reading comprehension (he reads well, comprehension is lower)and therefore word problems are more of an issue. Basically I have, for the last several years, been teaching math as a language. Once we get past the first few intro lessons I always spend 2 days teaching a math lesson. The first day is more hands on and introducing the concept. The second day is spent reviewing. If he misses more than 5 we repeat the lesson and do some suplemental practice (from the end of the book).