Mommy To Bees

Fostering independence in homeschooling, collected

Fostering independence in homeschooling

in order:

(click on the hive)

Part 1

Part 2

 
 Part 3

 

Fostering independence in a homeschool day, Part 3

 

Step 1:  Establish a routine, with props to allow the child to work independently.

In our case, the props are assignment sheets and independent work easily found and one day at a time.

Step 2:  Teach independence using the routine the child is already accustomed to utilizing by adding more of the joint teacher-child tasks to the child's responsibility.

Step 3: Teach note taking and time management skills with only a defined end due date.

Teach note taking!

Teach your child how to take notes.

Why is this an important skill to teaching independence?

With good note taking skills your child will have the ability to record their own assignments in their future classes outside the home.  If you teach dictation from the beginning, then note taking is an easy skill to learn; but if you are like me, dictation is a _chore_ in our household and is one of the first tasks to get axed.

Time management skills!

How many of us have good time management skills?

Too often I hear from other homeschooling moms, "How do you have the time to do _______!?!"

It all falls to time management skills.  We all need to learn how to keep track of our responsibilities; our children are no different in their needs.  Once children reach their teen years, their opportunities for time spending activities expand.  Between hobbies and friends, school work and money earning opportunities, they need to have the skills to use their time wisely.

There is no easily made spread sheet to use to teach these skills.  Some of these skills are going to have to be learned on the fly, you lecture and he writes.  You spend the time each day and weekly in dictation exercises.  There are plenty of dictation exercises out there, just google and check out the book The Well-Trained Mind.

Time management comes with experience and with practice.  It also comes with effort.  You can read and read and read, but some skills come with practice.  There are a multitude of planners, both electronic and paper to help your child learn these skills.  Try one and it might work, or it might fail horribly.  Help your child recognize what worked and what didn't work in each type.

Have you ever tried to google "time management"?  You can spend hours reading and finding more books to read on time management.  Find a method that works for you, then teach that to your child.  If what works for you doesn't work for your child, then you can help your child progress from there.

The second part of time management, "only a defined end due date."

When your child goes off to college, or enters into a trade, their instructors aren't going to tell your child, "I want you to read Chapter 3 today, and Chapter 4 tomorrow...."  Their instructors are going to tell them to have their book read by the end of the week or to have their project ready to turn in by the end of next week.  Have your research paper ready to turn in for review by two weeks from Friday.

Our infants learned to walk one small step at a time, well the same principle applies to time management.  First we hand them a book and say, "Read chapter 1."  Then, they learn to look to an assignment to know to read chapters 1-5, one chapter a day for the week.  Finally, they learn to plan their own time frame and have the book finished by the due date.

Using the book as an example, I will assign the book on Monday with a due date of the following Friday.  This gives 10 school days and 2 weekend days to read the book.  Is it in the child's best interest to wait until Thursday night, the day before the book is due?  No, of course not.  You help the child assign the book to themselves, using whatever method you choose.  For us, this first method of learning will be a day planner type book.  Eventually, I can see Kyler moving to an electronic planner.

As you consider how to implement steps to create an independent minded homeschooler remember that these are just three of the many steps you can use to help your child.  These are the steps that I've used, and they can be adapted or changed or even tossed.  

Remember:  you know your child best.

 

 

Fostering independence in a homeschool day, Part 2

 Yesterday I started a series of posts on fostering independence in homeschooling.

Step 1:  Establish a routine, with props to allow the child to work independently.

In our case, the props are assignment sheets and independent work easily found and one day at a time.

Step 2:  Teach independence using the routine the child is already accustomed to utilizing by adding more of the joint teacher-child tasks to the child's responsibility.

Kyler is finishing up the 6th grade and this past year was one of learning on both of our accounts.

I took the responsibility to learn and figure out how to grade.

I understand the concepts of grading and how to implement the grading process,

but, how do you grade subjects that are subjective?

He took the responsibility of not only learning the subjects we studied,

but also learning how to manage time, use a changing assignment sheet,

and how to roll his eyes when his teacher, aka mom, played him the guinea pig.

Right now Kyler's assignment sheets look a lot like Loralai's.

 The main difference is two fold:

1) he has more work

and

2) he has more independent work.

Some of the subjects that are considered independent for Kyler, are considered "with Mom" work for Loralai.

 (click on images to enlarge).

Several of the items listed on Kyler's assignment sheet are joint teacher-child activities.

For example, History, Read Aloud, Poetry, & Science are all joint activities.

Occasionally, a read aloud or a history book might be in an audio book format, 

and then I may or may not assign him to listen on his own.  

However, History Assignment is an independent task which

I only check the worksheet at the end of the assigned day.

Further down the page you'll see math.

I assign the lesson for the week (he does 1-2 lessons a week now)

and then he is responsible for watching the dvd lesson and starting

each worksheet.  I am always available for help with the assignment in some

format and I check each day's work after the worksheet is finished.

Kyler and I no longer go over his weekly assignment sheets.

He is expected to bring any questions he has to me

and I'll clear any confusion.

At this point I am 45% a teacher,

45% a tour guide,

and 10% a proctor.

 Download Ky homeschool schedule

Fostering independence in a homeschool day

 
A few days ago a fellow homeschooling mom

and budding friend said to me:

"I saw your daughter at the park last week

and I thought, 

'I'll trade kids!!!'  She was sitting there at the table

doing her school work, alone.  I can't do that with my son."

(Her son is 5 days older than Loralai.)

She was floored that not only could I send my daughter to the park,

alone, 

but that she would get her work completed.  

We talked for about an hour on the process of fostering independence

in her son and how to go about creating a plan.

 

The process really wasn't very hard and only took a short amount of time to set up for my children.

It took a few weeks of daily reminders to take out her assignment sheet,

check her work to do, check off her work completed, and then to turn the sheet 

in to me on Friday.  Finally, setting her up for the next week takes me an extra 5 minutes while I set up the next week's school lessons and books.  For both children that means about 10 extra minutes a week.

 

My method is very simple and uses a very similar sheet to the one I use for myself.

I'll start by showing Lori's assignment sheet;

it is easier since she doesn't do as much as Kyler does.

It shows everything Lori is responsible for during the week.

Read:  What pages or chapters need to be read this week.

Handwriting:  What pages.

Wordly Wise: What Lesson.

Assignment (critical thinking worksheet) & math games:  What page & she records how many minutes of math games she plays during the week.  It also lists how many she is responsible to complete.

Critical Thinking:  She should record how many minutes she plays on the critical thinking games during the week.

Journal:  What exercise # for the week.

Project:  Some weeks she has extra projects for different subjects, I will record what she should be doing during the week to complete the expected tasks.

This sheet is slightly different then the previous sheet.

Summer time is much slower.

This week, Lori needed to read Chapters 16, 17, & 18 of one book

and pages 6-16 & pages 16-23 in a second book.

 How did we start?

Every school morning she gets out her school work.

She keeps it in a plastic folder that I found in a store here in Japan.

  These folders are similar to a page protector we use in the US.

This kitty folder is her assignment sheet folder.

Each of the other subjects are kept in their own separate folder.

This keeps each page neat.  She turns in her work in the folder.

Subjects like Grammar (the pink hearts folder two pictures above)

are turned in daily and then I give it back to her the next day when we do the next Grammar lesson.

The other subjects, like handwriting, which can be done either daily or weekly are all turned in at the same time, by Friday at the latest.

  

 I like my children to feel in charge and apart of all of their schooling tasks for the day.
So, the first thing we do is go over the day.

I pull out my schedule book and she pulls out her folder.

This picture shows perfectly what I mean.

Lori's folder is on the left side of the table and

my folder with her schedule is right beneath.

Kyler is getting out his own independent work while I start.

Lori and I then discuss everything she needs to do.

We briefly discuss what I expect to get finished.

Then, she pulls out her assignment sheet and tells me what she has to finish for the day.

This is, essentially step 1.

Establish a routine that the child can follow themselves.

  Tomorrow I'll post step 2.

 Download Lori homeschool schedule