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Will KONOS work for my child? Any good teacher will use a number of teaching methods when she presents materials to her students. On of the real strengths of KONOS is that the curriculum incorporates all of the teaching methods teaching to all learning styles. The kinesthetic learner will be captivated with the hands-on activities, the field trips, and the dramatizing. The visual learner will thrive on the KONOS Timeline, the great KONOS literature list which includes classics, Newberry Award and Caldicott Medal winners, as well as the wonderful KONOS writing program. The auditory learners needs will be met through dramatizing, family reading, and dialoguing about the various topics with parents and siblings. The creative, artistic child will flourish when given the chance to learn about horses by drawing the points of the horse or to learn the parts of a castle by designing and building a castle from refrigerator boxes. Since all methodologies are included in each unit, each learning style is addressed daily. At the same time, each child’s strength is being taught to, his weaknesses are being worked on. While a child with an attention deficit will thrive on hands-on learning, he may have difficulty reading or writing a paper. If a child with attention deficit is given only hands-on activities, his ability to sit still, read, and write will never improve. Each child needs to be stretched to his maximum potential in every area. The quite, passive, voracious reader may be very shy, but by donning a king or queen costume and dramatizing Henry VIII or Elizabeth I, for the family, and then for friends and relatives, the little bookworm is rounded out. There may also be a variety of different learning aptitudes within a family. Some children are gifted learners making their teachers look like wizards. Other children may struggle to sound out it and drive teachers to the point of surrender. KONOS has been an incredible benefit to moms with precocious learners, because the open-ended flexibility allows her to give that child a more challenging book or to assign a more advanced paper, while she continues teaching the same topic to all her children at the same time. The less advanced learner can learn the same topic as his more advanced siblings, and yet, read a less demanding book and write a less complex paper. The advantage of using real books allows each child to read at his own level without identifying that level. The fourth grader who is only reading at the second grade level, escapes being labeled for life by not having to read from a book with a giant 2 on the spine. This child may be a little slow in his read skills, but he will certainly be aware enough to know the world thinks he is two years behind in reading. |
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Will KONOS work with a dyslexic child?
Here is the best answer to that question.....
Dear Jessica, |
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Will KONOS work for ADHD kids? We cannot guarantee anything, but we are 100% sure that ADHD children are typically very bright, but don't process information the same way other kids do. One thing is curriculum choices for ADHD are limited because most curriculum continues to teach using workbook, textbook, fill-in-the-blank methods. ADHD kids have trouble sitting and maintaining their focus. KONOS specializes in "working with the wiggle". Sadly, most homeschooling moms are still teaching with the old pete and repeat, textbook, workbook method. The non-traditional learner doesn't need more of the same method that did not work for him in regular school. He needs hands-on learning that is up and doing and fun. Putting an active child at the dining room table all day in front of a stack of boring textbooks is almost cruel and unusual punishment! What we can guarantee KONOS is for ADHD kids, is all the correct methods to hold the attention and challenge those very bright minds. |
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What's the best way to co-op with other families? For the ultimate home schooling tips, visit Jessica teaching co-op at www.homeschoolmentor.com. There are a lot of ways to do a co-op. A friend of mine was in a co-op where all the moms stayed, but they divided into groups - one mom had babies/toddlers for a whole unit, one mom had K-3, one mom had older. If there were more moms, they team taught. They also only met from 9-2. I could never sustain a long day like you had! Our co-op is a "drop-off" co-op. We never have more than 6 or 7 kids involved and there's never more than a 3 year spread (grade wise) with-in the group. If we have a large group with a broad spread (K-7 or8) we break it into 2 smaller groups. The drop-off is great for us. I plan to teach only one or two units - the rest of the year I have those mornings for errands, special time with my toddler, etc. We have 2 planning meetings in the summer-one to choose units, the next to pass out our plans to every mom so we don't duplicate at home what one mom has planned to do on her co-op day with the kids. Another possibility is to do one or two units together, then pursue your own units and meet for a "sharing" day each month where you do some fun activities that don't require any pre-preparation for the others. We did this one year when a bunch of us had babies at the same time. The neat thing was that, on our share day, my son really carried a large part of the teaching because we had completed the unit we were sharing and he had a lot of information. As the other boys left at the end of the day, they told their moms that they wanted to stop at the library and get some books on what we'd done that day! I've found that our best co-ops were shorter but intense days with units lasting 4-6 weeks. We take 2 weeks off between units so everyone can have some breathing time at home. Hope this helps some. Linda Trumbo, KONOS Rep |
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How can one child do dramatizing and plays? We've just completed our first month of KONOS! Last year I used a
regular curriculum and my son was bored; school was really work! We began
with the Animal classification unit. For the first time, my son asked
"Is that all the school we're doing? Can't we do more?" We have
covered more things, and he has learned so much more than I would have
even attempted before. We got the information books from the library, read
animal stories, sang animal songs, and read the original "Jungle
Book" by Rudyard Kipling. I had read the children's version to them
before, but it never occurred to me to read the original. Amazingly, (to
me) my 1st grader, my toddler, and my husband sat and listened to the
story every night. No pictures, big words, and great fun! We had our first
co-op where I learned that KONOS really is like a bus; my toddler hopped
on and off the activity bus and learned a little something, too. We
finished our unit with a "scavenger hunt" at the zoo. The kids
had index cards labeled "animals that live in groups, in the jungle,
in the desert, mammals, etc." Our educational field trip was actually
educational! Studying the information prior to the trip really increased
its educational and enjoyment value. My son now constantly
"dialogues" what he has learned, (to anyone who will listen). My
skeptical (school teacher) mother-in-law is now on board, too, asking me
what she can do to help us along. |
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