What is your focus?

[Tabrett]

What do you try to focus on in school; your dc's strengths or weaknesses?

 

I keep trying to focus on their weaknesses, because I don't want them to have any "weaknesses". :glare:But....it that the right thing to do? I'm not advocating that what ever weaknesses a child has should be ignored, but would it be better to accept hard work in a weak subject even if it is only "c" work and let the child focus and work more on subjects they excel at? Would it be better to spend money on enrichments for a gifted area instead of trying to find enrichments to help a weak area? It seems like by the time we are done focusing on the weaker subjects, all attention is gone and there is no brain power left for gifted areas.

 

I mean, most people don't have a career in their "weaknesses" but in their strengths, right?

 

Would it be better to put more time and energy into their strength and accept that a dc has weaknesses?

[JenneinCA]

I work at the level the child is at in each subject.

 

So that means for my ds9 he is doing his language arts books at grade level and working hard and his math much higher and still working hard. I do not focus on his weakness or his strengths. I provide assignments that are right for him.

 

(And similarly for dd11 and ds5.)

[Twigs]

I'm going to throw out some thoughts based on my own experience. I have no children - I'm an adult here for my own self-education.

 

No one (parents, teachers, friends) ever talked to me about my strengths or weaknesses. No one ever said "You are good in math and science, here are some related jobs - like accouting, engineering, etc." or "You love books and reading - you should think about being a librarian. You will need to get a bachelor's degree and then a masters for that job. Your bachelor's can be in any field, so pick what you love."

 

My advice is to concentrate on their strengths, so they can make the most of those strengths. Put time into their weaknesses of course, but if your child is not a "________" person, he or she will NEVER be that (For example, I will never be a pro football player or opera singer, no matter how much time I spend trying to learn). IOW, don't force a round peg into a square hole.

 

We all need to know how to handle our personal and household finances, but not all of us will be stock brokers or financial analysists. We all need some basic first aid, nutrition, health, but we will not all be doctors or nurses.

 

Much of the joy of life is knowing what our strengths are and capitalizing on them. Focusing on our weaknesses is just :banghead: . With our weaknesses, good enough is good enough. With our strengths, aim for greatness.

[Verity]

In teaching my two students, both of which are gifted but also have some pretty severe learning disabilities I try to break up my focus. Some days I spend a good bit of time working on their poor fine motor skills. On those days I do a wide variety of "enrichment" for fine motor from copywork, HWOT, playdough to tiny legos, chalkboard work and puzzles. I know that their handwriting will come in time but I can't just neglect it either.

 

I see it as a fine balance - and one of the primary reasons my kids aren't in public school or even in a charter school. I choose every week/day/hour of school whether we need to focus on remediation or on enjoyment or on basic building blocks of a worldclass education. My decisions vary depending on health, attitudes, sleepiness, etc... :tongue_smilie:

 

I have longterm goals for each child and my focus varies daily based on what seems to be getting us to those goals.

[Karen in CO]

I try to ignore my children's strengths and weaknesses and focus on solid core skills. I also plan plenty of time in our schedule to allow them find and follow their passions. I will do things like focus on improving handwriting, but I won't focus on something like trying to get my ds to bring his "C" on his math tests up to an "A."

 

I try to spend most of my direct time with core skill subjects - math, reading & writing, and French. The content subjects are fun for our days and are much more free form - reading, projects, discussions. My kids love art and I spend most of my school budget on professional art classes for them at the local fine arts center. The other bulk of our school money goes to library late fees and zoo and museum memberships.

[texasmama]

Haven't read the other replies, but I tend to spend time on both strengths and weaknesses. I think that a balance is needed for my kids to feel successful and at the same time to address their needs/weaknesses. My goal is to stretch them without frustrating them because I don't think one learns anything when frustrated. I choose work in all subjects which is appropriate for the level at which my kids are capable of working. Sometimes this means that they are "ahead" of grade level and sometimes "behind" grade level. Having successes in schoolwork helps fuel their confidence to tackle the more difficult parts of the schoolwork. We all have strengths and weaknesses and most college programs/jobs encompass a bit of each so I figure it's a good life lesson, to boot.:001_smile:

[rafiki]

.

[Testimony]

On this one, I have never thought about my children's strengths and weaknesses. I have to admit that I really try to focus on the love of learning. My younger son struggles more than my older son is subjects, but they both love school. They both will to try things. I am not afraid to see my sons fail at something. I will either encourage them to try harder the next time or maybe it is not for them (depending on what it is). If my son struggles in math, we go slower and make bite size pieces. If he is not doing well at all in soccer, then we would drop it.

 

I guess I should think about the strengths and weaknesses, but I feel it doesn't hurt to try something new. If it is a skill that they need like reading, writing, and math, I try to work on their strength in the area which they like and work with them on the weakness at the same time. It like you keep the strong part strong and help the weak part get strong.

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

[Shelly in the Country]

What do you try to focus on in school; your dc's strengths or weaknesses?

 

 

 

Thought-provoking question for sure :001_smile:. I never really gave it much thought, but I suppose I've tended to focus on strengths. This is not to say I ignore the weak areas, but I just have always thrown more time and resources into my kids' strong points.

[elise1mds]

I think I tend to cater to strengths but try to work the weakness into them a little bit. For example, we have several science curricula floating around, but DS *hates* handwriting. So I'll tend to push him to write a little more when we're doing science because I know he'll be too excited to focus on how much he despises it. He'll never love writing, though, which is why I've already started letting him learn to type. The faster he learns that, the faster I'll let him do lengthy reports on the computer. Though he'll still have dictation till he's about 9 or 10, whether he likes it or not ;)

[Momling]

I've never really thought about it before... but it's probably true that I focus on weakness rather than strength.

 

My older daughter is an amazing reader and writer and thinker. She reads very difficult novels by herself and she reads history and science on her own. She tries to translate things into Latin on her own. She does these things for fun, so I don't need to spend much time on them. But she'll avoid math at all costs. So, of course, we work on math together and with more intensity. I want her to know how cool math is and I want her to feel successful at math. But reading/writing/spelling/history/science/latin? She already feels successful and loves these subjects.

[Tracy]

This is only our first year, so take this FWIW. I feel like I want dd to experience a satisfying amount of both challenges and successes in every area. In her stronger areas, I have to go out of my way to challenge her so that she doesn't think that it is always easy. In her weaker areas, I have to be thoughtful of the challenges that I give her so that that she can experience the thrill of mastery rather than just the frustration of difficulty. In our house, we have a motto of sorts, "I can do hard things." It seems simple and trite, but whenever she does something new, she says it with such pride and excitement.

 

Tracy

[EppieJ]

 

My advice is to concentrate on their strengths, so they can make the most of those strengths. Put time into their weaknesses of course, but if your child is not a "________" person, he or she will NEVER be that (For example, I will never be a pro football player or opera singer, no matter how much time I spend trying to learn). IOW, don't force a round peg into a square hole.

 

We all need to know how to handle our personal and household finances, but not all of us will be stock brokers or financial analysists. We all need some basic first aid, nutrition, health, but we will not all be doctors or nurses.

 

Much of the joy of life is knowing what our strengths are and capitalizing on them. Focusing on our weaknesses is just :banghead: . With our weaknesses, good enough is good enough. With our strengths, aim for greatness.

 

 

Gotta say, I agree with Twigs. :iagree: I think, while we should spend time on the weaknesses to bring those along as best we can, we should gravitate toward the strengths. Those areas in which the dc excel are where they will spend most of their time as adults (ideally). They should be allowed/encouraged to strive for excellence in what they are good at while not neglecting the further development of lesser skills.

 

We've all been uniquely blessed and should strive to use those gifts/talents to the best of our ability. (Preaching to myself, here!) :D

[sagira]

Much of the joy of life is knowing what our strengths are and capitalizing on them. Focusing on our weaknesses is just :banghead: . With our weaknesses, good enough is good enough. With our strengths, aim for greatness.

:iagree:

 

It's for this reason that I work, like an alchemist, with their interests, likes, strengths and talents to get them soaring. However, I do keep an eye on weaknesses and make sure they are at least up to speed. I believe that we are each unique, with our own God-given talents and passions. Don't ignore that passion. Nurture it.

[5LittleMonkeys]

I focused on weaknesses the better part of this year with my second oldest. Math is her nemesis....hates it with every fiber of her being. She is an artist through and through. Math would bring her to tears daily and take FOREVER. But ask her to draw every feather on a bird's wing and she would spend hours on it gleefully. She understands the mechanics of subtraction, addition, mult. and division but can not for all her months of trying remember her math facts. We drilled and we played games (I even posted here about how playing games seemed to finally be working for her) but she can't retain long term.:confused:

 

I finally decided we'd done enough and I gave her a calculator. Cut our math time to 20 minutes max and use the other 30 min. to an hour for art or cake decorating. Her attitude toward the rest of her schooling has improved and she even wants to try to learn French. She informed me she wants to open a cake decorating shop in France so needs to be able to speak the language. I asked her how she will manage the finances of the business and she said she would hire an accountant. :lol: Smart girl.

 

Once we accepted that it's okay to be mediocre in math she felt she could try other things that might be difficult because if she ended up not being great or even good at it it was alright.

 

I should have remembered my father's advice - Be knowledgeable in all things but find what you love and master it.

[Lori in MS]

Focus on strengths to make sure that they are successful at something. That will encourgage them to pursue their strengths and interests more fully. It will also encourage them when they are struggling through their weak areas. A child who feels he is not good at anything is in a sad state, but a child who is successful in at least one area will have the courage to persevere in his weakness.

[jld]

I focus on interests. I want them to enjoy what they're doing!

[woolybear]

I agree with much of what has been said. I also keep in mind that what might appear to be weaknesses right now might change. Either they are not mentally ready for something or sometimes later there is a connection that makes a light bulb go on for them. I do think it can change.

 

Wooly

[johnandtinagilbert]

*I* spend more teaching time on weaknesses, but constantly encourage them through their strengths. For example, if a child loves to read, then I make sure they have plenty of time to enjoy reading. The same student may need some extra help in math, so they get a lot more face time on that from me.

 

Otherwise, we have a core that they are required to complete, so I try to work through their weaknesses on that core. Handwriting is a weakness that is easy to incorporate into daily school, for example. So is sentence structure and noun verb agreement.

 

In some cases, say memorizing math facts, we have just stopped everything and practiced that skill so they can turn this weakness into a strength as they move forward in the next level of math. I have found that in some subject areas, particularly math and writing, if the core is not solid, the subsequent levels will suffer.

 

Weaknesses do need more attention, so you can change them into strengths. Most people are more likely to *want* to work where their strong, so they'll have more internal motivation. At least, that's our mileage :)

[cathmom]

My theory is: before high school, spend time trying to correct their weaknesses while supporting their strengths (like one PP said, making sure there's plenty of great books around for a voracious reader). Once you get to high school, just do the minimum necessary for future goals in areas of weakness and go for broke on their strengths! Their strengths are what get them into college and careers! For example, my oldest had the minimum number of credits necessary in history and science, but had a ton of literature (plus the normal 4 years of English) and foreign language. Now he's majoring in English with a unofficial minor in German. You couldn't pay him enough to study science or history!!

[*Jessica*]

I'm going to throw out some thoughts based on my own experience. I have no children - I'm an adult here for my own self-education.

 

No one (parents, teachers, friends) ever talked to me about my strengths or weaknesses. No one ever said "You are good in math and science, here are some related jobs - like accouting, engineering, etc." or "You love books and reading - you should think about being a librarian. You will need to get a bachelor's degree and then a masters for that job. Your bachelor's can be in any field, so pick what you love."

 

My advice is to concentrate on their strengths, so they can make the most of those strengths. Put time into their weaknesses of course, but if your child is not a "________" person, he or she will NEVER be that (For example, I will never be a pro football player or opera singer, no matter how much time I spend trying to learn). IOW, don't force a round peg into a square hole.

 

We all need to know how to handle our personal and household finances, but not all of us will be stock brokers or financial analysists. We all need some basic first aid, nutrition, health, but we will not all be doctors or nurses.

 

Much of the joy of life is knowing what our strengths are and capitalizing on them. Focusing on our weaknesses is just :banghead: . With our weaknesses, good enough is good enough. With our strengths, aim for greatness.

I love this post! I'm going to print it out and put it somewhere where I can see it every day.