First Day

[pinewarbler]

Tomorrow is the first day of the school year (B&M) for my grade 6 & 10. I just wanted to say that this is the first year in 11 years that I don't feel sick to my stomach that they are going to school. (The first year I was clueless and thought it would go well sending a HG kid to public school.) I feel that it is because of the short time on this board watching what you are all able to achieve.

Knowing that there are lots of people who do this well every day gives me the confidence that I could home school my youngest if needed. Here's to a good year for us all  :001_smile:

[Guest]

I hope it went well. Its so nice to see all the online afterschooling options available these days.

[pinewarbler]

So, the youngest is on his THIRD homeroom teacher as of last week.. that's 3 teachers in 3 weeks. His school decided to make grade 6's seniors and took away their recess :cursing: (which his peers organized like prof. party planners) and he got perfect on the math assessment and they don't think they should single him out and give him different work than the others.  :confused1:

 

Having said that, the latest teacher (who is staying) is good. He seems to be the FIRST who has immediately noticed that DS is at high school level and as a bonus I think he is willing to be flexible. Unfortunately the first words out of his mouth were "why don't you send him to the gifted program".. which is far away and the particular year my son is in is full of serious behaviour issues. This gifted program is not designed for PG either; they literally don't have a plan for people like him. I hope the teacher isn't indicating an unwillingness to deal with a kid who is different. 

 

Also, DS has a complicated schedule (which I wouldn't do at home) and has had to figure out how to balance it and his down time. Has led to tears, but also problem solving and solutions. I started to introduce kanban boards last year with his sister, and he has now adopted it and is using it well. So the friction has led to growth...

 

This fall we are aiming to make the provincials again with his FLL team. We are going to continue strings practise at home and start AoPS Intro to Algebra and see how fast it'll go. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions for this board because at that level he is self-taught  :glare:

[mathnerd]

 I started to introduce kanban boards last year with his sister, and he has now adopted it and is using it well. 

I am interested in learning how you use Kanban boards for scheduling with your kids. Could you please explain or share links where I could find information? TIA!

[pinewarbler]

I think you could google 'kanban and kids' or 'kidzban' and get a ton... it seems to be trending!

 

I found a video that I think clearly explains the process and the reason for it:

http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/

 

for kids:

http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/featured/kidzban-around-the-web-1/

 

We use 3 columns: To Do, Doing, Done. The kids colour code their post-its by subject. We also have a calendar at the bottom of the board to allow for due dates. It is done visually as well; Oct 15 has a pink post-it square because that is when the english essay is due (and english is pink). So, when you look at the calendar, there are just colours. The exception would be if there were 2 english items due. Then each post-it would be labelled with the name of the item due.

 

The most important part of this, which is not in the video, is chunking down the tasks. Recently I painted one of the bedrooms, and there was a post-it flag for each task I could do in about an hour: "get painters tape, patch holes, sand, wash walls, tape off trim", etc. Kids need a lot of help on this stage.

As mentioned in the video, only 3 items are allowed in 'Doing'. The only time we've broken that is if the kids are preparing for a concert and then 'practise piece' stays in 'Doing' column for a little while.

 

Here's a pic I found online with colour coding, but note: they have too many items in 'Doing'. Our kanbans are never as neatly arranged as this... the 'to do' or 'backlog' items are randomly arranged.

 

One more thing... they kids should find fun things they want to do to put on the board. One child has 'go to corner store with friends after school' as a fun item. He uses it only a few times a month, but I think it sends a positive message to have those fun items up as well.

 

So, I'm sure you're dying to know if I got that bedroom painted. It was the fastest I've ever finished a project I hate to do, and there was no background emotional clutter in my brain while I was doing it. I didn't even THINK about the tasks that weren't in my 'Doing" column. Every morning, I got up and looked at the "To Do" column and I just executed. No prioritization worries, no procrastination (you can't run away from only 3 small tasks), no confusion.

 

Edit: I'm too cheap, er, frugal to use this many post-its... we cut them into flags and print small :lol:

Edited October 6, 2017 by pinewarbler

[mathnerd]

I think you could google 'kanban and kids' or 'kidzban' and get a ton... it seems to be trending!

 

I found a video that I think clearly explains the process and the reason for it:

http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/

 

for kids:

http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/featured/kidzban-around-the-web-1/

 

We use 3 columns: To Do, Doing, Done. The kids colour code their post-its by subject. We also have a calendar at the bottom of the board to allow for due dates. It is done visually as well; Oct 15 has a pink post-it square because that is when the english essay is due (and english is pink). So, when you look at the calendar, there are just colours. The exception would be if there were 2 english items due. Then each post-it would be labelled with the name of the item due.

 

The most important part of this, which is not in the video, is chunking down the tasks. Recently I painted one of the bedrooms, and there was a post-it flag for each task I could do in about an hour: "get painters tape, patch holes, sand, wash walls, tape off trim", etc. Kids need a lot of help on this stage.

As mentioned in the video, only 3 items are allowed in 'Doing'. The only time we've broken that is if the kids are preparing for a concert and then 'practise piece' stays in 'Doing' column for a little while.

 

Here's a pic I found online with colour coding, but note: they have too many items in 'Doing'. Our kanbans are never as neatly arranged as this... the 'to do' or 'backlog' items are randomly arranged.

 

One more thing... they kids should find fun things they want to do to put on the board. One child has 'go to corner store with friends after school' as a fun item. He uses it only a few times a month, but I think it sends a positive message to have those fun items up as well.

 

So, I'm sure you're dying to know if I got that bedroom painted. It was the fastest I've ever finished a project I hate to do, and there was no background emotional clutter in my brain while I was doing it. I didn't even THINK about the tasks that weren't in my 'Doing" column. Every morning, I got up and looked at the "To Do" column and I just executed. No prioritization worries, no procrastination (you can't run away from only 3 small tasks), no confusion.

 

Edit: I'm too cheap, er, frugal to use this many post-its... we cut them into flags and print small :lol:

Thanks for the detailed reply. I think that I will try this system out for a while to see if it will make my son’s schedule easier to manage. He has a complicated schedule with sports, music, hobbies and special coaching for competition for a lot of them. I am trying to make him manage more of his schedule on his own- this could certainly help. Thanks again!