hsmom Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 So what do you consider busy work? I am starting to wonder if I am adding in busy work without really realising that I am doing it. Just for the sake go getting "work" done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 busywork= work only done for the sake of keeping the child busy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mammaofbean Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 work that doesn't lead to retention is busy work. it needs to be relevant, reinforced and developmentally appropriate. the spectrum phonics workbook my mother bought dd is busy work. she did the pages, but retained none of the rules. there was a lot of work, but the rules weren't mentioned much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 Okay - I am normally against busy work, but I do give my kids busy work on purpose sometimes. My dd9 loves Mindbenders and will happily do them for hours. My dd5 loves dot-to-dots and will do them for minutes. :) Sometimes I need that. Kumon cut and paste books are great sometimes for the younger one so is finger knitting. The older one knits - also busy work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In2why Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 Okay - I am normally against busy work, but I do give my kids busy work on purpose sometimes. My dd9 loves Mindbenders and will happily do them for hours. My dd5 loves dot-to-dots and will do them for minutes. :) Sometimes I need that. Kumon cut and paste books are great sometimes for the younger one so is finger knitting. The older one knits - also busy work. I give my 7 y/o busy work when I need time to spend with the 4 y/o. It usually involves a computer game, otherwise known as edutainment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 I consider busy work anything where my kid would have learned the same amount of stuff if I had left it out ;-) I.e., if DS retains his history from reading the book and narrating, then making him fill out worksheets is busy work and just produces paper. Public school is notorious for busywork... I still remember the mounts of useless paper that came home each week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 Teaching subject matter in isolation can lead to a lot of busy work. Writing assignments in writing programs are notoriously lame. Taking the same writing concepts and giving an assignment from history, science, or lit teaches the same writing skills while reinfocing other subject matter which in turn means they don't need a worksheet (which I categorize as busy work) on that subject. Busy work requires very little thinking......essentially copying and pasting answers (whether literally or out of a book) is busy work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Okay - I am normally against busy work, but I do give my kids busy work on purpose sometimes. My dd9 loves Mindbenders and will happily do them for hours. My dd5 loves dot-to-dots and will do them for minutes. :) Sometimes I need that. Kumon cut and paste books are great sometimes for the younger one so is finger knitting. The older one knits - also busy work. :iagree: Busy work can have its place. But if it is making anyone unhappy, that is when you have to consider getting rid of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsMe Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 A public school example (real story heard from my neighbor): Writing their weekly spelling words 5 times every night. (There's about 15). If they got one wrong on a pretest, the have to do them ALL anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorriekay Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I don't know if the lapbooks we do are busywork. We do the lapbooks for history (tapestry of grace) After we learn about the subject I have him do the appropriate portion of the lapbook. We also are doing the apologia notebook (same thing as a lapbook) After we read and discuss the text, he fills out the section of the lapbook. This is time consuming. I was just thinking this same thing today. I *think* it is reinforcing his learning, but how can I judge that? I know my day is too long and that is just doing one lesson per subject not accelerating the lessons uggh. :001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom Posted September 21, 2010 Author Share Posted September 21, 2010 LorrieKay that is how I was feeling. Well I am feeling, that is why I asked. I wish I had an answer for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsMe Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 I don't know if the lapbooks we do are busywork. We do the lapbooks for history (tapestry of grace) After we learn about the subject I have him do the appropriate portion of the lapbook. We also are doing the apologia notebook (same thing as a lapbook) After we read and discuss the text, he fills out the section of the lapbook. This is time consuming. I was just thinking this same thing today. I *think* it is reinforcing his learning, but how can I judge that? I know my day is too long and that is just doing one lesson per subject not accelerating the lessons uggh. :001_huh: I've had the same thoughts as well, but I think it depends how often, what you're using it for. I tend to use portions as I think a lot of it is time-consuming busy-work, things they already know. For harder concepts, I may use a certain portion. Instead of writing on a sheet of paper, we'll make certain concepts on little sheets of paper and make it into a book to solidify a concept. Then I may glue it on the back of sheet we did an experiment on. But I certainly pick and choose. I think when you're really young, it works as good developmental techniques of cutting, pasting, applying, etc. When they're a bit older, the lessons that are well known and are not used for reference in the future would be twaddle in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisamarie Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 I've wondered the same thing about having my DS use R&S 2nd grade reading. I purchased it to be a supplement to BLHFHG's reading schedule, so he's doing both. I am having him continue with R&S because I hope that he is learning to dig out answers from the text and not just learning to fill in the blank. But I still wonder if it's just busy work. It is expanding his vocabulary if nothing else and he's learning the Bible really well.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 It depends on the child and the subject, and even what is being taught within that subject! For my daughter at first when we switched to Singapore, she needed to do all the pages and many lessons needed a few extra problems. After she caught on and started truly understanding math, we can now do less than the full lesson, more would be busywork. Yet, we did extra borrowing and carrying work last year and are doing extra this year. For another child, this would be busywork, but for some reason, this is an area where she needs 100 different explanations and 1,000 problems to get it. Some of my remedial students need to read and spell each word type hundreds of times before they get it. Others only take a few words for most but may struggle with something like c as s before e, i, or y. Or, they may get that but need a ton of work with silent e. My daughter gets most spelling rules after being told them once or twice. Yet, we went over hoping/hopping about 1,000 times and explained it several different ways, and she is only now figuring out how that rule works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeOrchidSong Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 We just started Apologia Astronomy with notebooking journal. I debated if I should get the journal and now I am glad I did. Dc love making the minibooks and ds7 who usually hates writing gladly does his writing on the journal. It is time consuming, but it does reinforce the new vocab/concepts (with the word puzzle/matching) as well as writing out the projects. So I don't think it is busy work. If it is too much, I can cut some off. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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