Poll: After Schooling Focus

[toawh]

I'm finding that doing a lot of after schooling is taking away my kids love of learning as it eats into their hang time. We chose to stop homeschooling when we moved in order to give them full immersion in their new language, but school days are long here. If you don't have time to cover everything, or hypothetically don't, what do you/would you focus on. Any explanations behind your choice are welcome.

[kiwik]

I do random fun maths because school is boring him in that area. Our main focus at the moment is writing though because it is his weakest area - he just can't work out what to write and get it on paper simultaneously. We are about half way through WWE1 and will follow on with level 2 and have just started an Evan Moor workbook. They are both a year below him but we are going fast where we can and i feel he wasn't taught properly last year.

 

When i can i stick in history.

[sunnyday]

Hm. My son is in first grade and I'm very sensitive to overloading him with school work. That said, I don't feel like first grade really requires a lot to be thorough and rigorous, and we are getting a lot of time off of school, so we are able to make time for a lot of material even though we seldom have the time or energy to work after an actual school day. In fact, thanks to weekends and breaks, in effect I feel as though I am homeschooling him fully, with school as a lightweight supplement.

 

If pushed I would have to say that math is my main concern, because it is a strength. School math just bores him so horribly that I feel like I need to remind him regularly that there is interesting math out there. He's pretty keen on history so that's another emphasis since school barely touches on "social studies". I think we may actually work our way through Ancient history to the fall of the Roman empire or so before the school year officially ends, though we do very little output (some oral summaries, some drawings and copywork). I am starting to put some new effort into making sure we read interesting books and classics (mostly me reading aloud but trying to make time for him to read aloud to me every couple of days). And I'm pretty excited about our new foray into grammar, vocabulary, and poetics. He's really enjoying it, and I'm loving that we are gaining a way to talk about the grammar mistakes he makes during everyday speech.

 

Spring break starts in 2 days! He's a bit annoyed at me for going overboard talking about everything we're going to do, "Mom, they were so kind to give me a whole week off of school, and I really just want to watch Minecraft videos!" But in honesty he loves the intellectual stimulation and I think we're going to have a lot of fun. :)

[Uff Da!]

If I had to pick just two subjects, they would be Latin and Math. 

 

[SKL]

There was only one choice, so I chose what they're weak in.  However, life isn't that simple.  ;)   My two kids have very different needs.

 

Miss A really needs to go over every academic subject to a greater or lesser extent, including some remediation (though less and less of that).  Every day we work on math at least, and usually some language arts.  Periodically I have her read the science/social studies chapter she is doing at school (I bought copies of the texts) and give her some easy nonfiction books that correlate with what they're doing at school.

 

Miss E isn't "weak" in any area consistently.  A little effort and interest pulls her out of a slump.  And she's not happy to do what someone else tells her to work on.  (Granted, a little slacking after a day of school and afterschool homework isn't unreasonable for a young 7yo.)  For her I have a bunch of above-grade-level workbooks and nonfiction books, and I give her a lot of freedom to choose what she's going to do.  I do try to get her to do "some" work while her sister is working, as it's only fair, but for her I guess you could call it un-afterschooling.  ;)  Thankfully she enjoys reading and learning new things.

 

Both kids watch a variety of educational videos, and both have piano lessons / practice which I enforce a few days a week.  Usually I try to include some academic stuff in my read-aloud time, such as math storybooks or books that present grammar concepts in a fun way.

[Caroline]

We afterschool in what I think is important--logic, reading and comprehension, conceptual math, scientific principals. We also afterschool in what is convenient. When we are at the beach for most of the summer, we do lots of water, beach, marine animals type stuff. At home we take data on weather, the creek height, food we grow, etc. When we visit art museums, we read and talk about what we are going to see and what we have seen. We try to tie in reading to things that are going on in the news when appropriate.

[The Way of My People]

This is tricky.  I voted for the "weak" answer, but it's not exactly accurate.  DS is a relatively strong student in most areas.  We noticed him using his fingers to calculate for math homework early in the year - so we started requiring daily Xtramath.com practice, and that has really helped.  Other than that, we follow his interests and preferences.  

[EKS]

I didn't choose subjects based on my child's strengths and weaknesses.  I chose them based on weaknesses in the school's program (as you'll see below).

 

I have used three methods for afterschooling my son, who is in middle school.

 

The first method is the most enjoyable where we do whatever it is as a conversation on the couch.  I read history aloud (since the school doesn't teach history coherently or really even at all).  I read classic literature aloud (since the school doesn't assign it).  And I even developed a writing program based on MCT's Essay Voyage that we could do this way, reading and discussing on the couch (since the school doesn't teach writing).

 

The second method is the bribery method.  I wanted him to do Hake Grammar (since the school doesn't teach grammar), but I didn't think it was fair to make him do it on top of his regular school work without some sort of acknowledgement that it was going above and beyond, so we made a deal that if he completed the book, he would get something that he particularly wanted.

 

The third method is to piggyback onto school assignments.  Last year, when he was taking math at the school, I retaught each lesson and had him do some practice problems before setting him loose on his homework (since the teacher didn't actually teach).  I also do the same for writing assignments--we talk extensively about the assignment first (since the teacher just assigns things without explanation) and then when he's done with a draft we talk about its weak points--structure, wording, whatever--and how to strengthen it (since the teacher never gives this sort of feedback).  Then I have my son fix the problems (since the teacher doesn't ever have them fix their written work).

 

So there you have it: conversation on the couch, bribery, and piggybacking. 

[AuntPol]

I afterschool in areas that I feel the school/teacher is weak or where my child has a goal

 

English -weak teacher that is not doing any academic writing. We supplement with writing at home and will continue over summer

Math- She's trying to skip an entire year of math by placing out on placement test -she goes to a tutor once a week and we supplement at home

 

Next year, it will be Spanish II online because that doesn't fit in her schedule.

 

Other than that, I help her by editing her papers, offering suggestions, conversing with what she learned, buying books she mentions that she likes, etc

 

[Momof3]

I chose 'other.' My purpose is to focus on strengthening the 3 Rs. I taught ds5 'unofficially' before he went to K. He was at a 1st gr level in math and a 2-3rd gr level for reading. (He wasn't writing at all.) I want him to continue to build on that foundation and not grow lazy. He enjoys the 3 Rs, but a lot of the K work they're doing is boring for him. So we do a couple pages from MM or practice math facts with flashcards, I have him read a book of his choice for 20-30 min (occasionally aloud to me), and he keeps a simple journal. I read aloud from good books/classics to all the kids for at least 30 min after lunch, and we discuss them. He practices piano 5 days/week. He works on Scripture memory.

 

Some days he really enjoys afterschooling, and some days he drags his feet. I've found it helpful to let him choose the order of what he wants to work on (usually math first). There are always things I wish we could spend time on...but that will come. :) Just 6 or so weeks of school left! Then I hope to be hsing him (and dd) this summer/fall. :)

[IsabelC]

It depends on how weak and/or strong the kids are, and what the school is prepared to do.

My first priority is always reading, because you pretty much fail school if you can't read, no matter how hardworking or talented you are in everything else. I after-school both my girls with reading, one because she is behind and the other because she is accelerated.

 

[SKL]

I after-school both my girls with reading, one because she is behind and the other because she is accelerated.

 

Just curious - how do you afterschool the child who is accelerated in reading?  I have one like that and other than letting her enjoy her books, I don't have a lot of ideas.  She is not fond of assigned work and I would rather not turn reading into a chore when she is so motivated on her own.

 

(Sorry for going somewhat off topic....)

 

[IsabelC]

You would not be curious if you saw how low the standard is at our school.

Right now she is in K and reading grade 4-6 (depending on which levels you believe). I've been encouraging her to finish up her phonics program and start on spelling, whereas at school her class is learning the Golden Words.

I agree with not turning reading into a chore when the kid likes it, however my kid is obsessed with reading (it's her autistic 'special interest') so there's not much danger in her case.

[jennynd]

I afterschool my older math and vocaburary, and my younger math. Both because the school can't meet their needs

[nd293]

I after school different things at different times for different reasons: because my schedule is ahead of the school's (reading), because I think a different approach is useful although the children are strong (maths), because it's important to me that they know (history and country identification), because the children are weaker than I'd like them to be (handwriting and spelling).

[Sabah]

It depends: math because its a weak subject, reading because he is very advanced, and in the summer I chose to cover subjects that are not included or lightly covered in his school curriculum (math and science) plus reinforcement in math and reading in his academic (2nd) language.  We're also using PS for language immersion and I have difficulty balancing afterschooling in his native language vs. work to support schooling in the 2nd language. 

[MistyMountain]

.

[Ohdanigirl]

How about both? One ds struggles in math, so we afterschool math. The other is great at math but hates common core math. We afterschool with AOPS, and he insists it's the only Math he has learned all year. We are also continuing grammar, because they are barely learning to find subjects in ds's middle school class. With R&S, he learned that in 3rd.

[wapiti]

We also afterschool math with AoPS.  This is an area of strength for my kids.  It's not so much that it's an area of weakness for their school as it is an issue of meeting their needs.  It's just easier to do it at home.  For one of them, this is by arrangement with the teacher.  For the other one, the teacher knows about it, but he still does math in the classroom (long story, me not happy).

[Michelle_NC]

When my daughter was in elementary school, her afterschooling revolved around scouting and I think we finished all of the Brownie Badges.  She's in 10th grade now and the scouting badges have changed quite a bit - but it was great at the time because we could choose a subject and plan 5 - 6 activities to go with it.  We usually ended up doing more than was required.

Best of all, she got a badge at the end which was a tangible reward for completing a particular subject.

[Arcadia]

Just curious - how do you afterschool the child who is accelerated in reading?

 

My boys both accelerated in reading likes word searches, vocabulary workbooks and etymology. They like the SAT vocabulary cartoon books.