Could it really be that Less is More ?

[merry gardens]

I need to cut back. Since resuming homeschooling after the summer break, I have felt on the brink of burn-out. After reading extensively about dyslexia and education in general, I've tried incorporating too many techniques, ideas and specialty programs into our homeschooling. I feel like I'm doing none of it well. There are lots of good materials out there but using them all is counter-productive. I'm taking to heart something that I recently heard Susan Barton say regarding teaching children with dyslexia, "More is not better--more is confusing."

 

So...I have revised my signature. We'll do a little more than just four things, but those programs in my signature will be our core focus. They cover the basics: reading, 'riting, 'rythmetic and religion.

 

I'm not sure what we'll do with all of the various materials and workbooks that I bought that we've already started using this year, but the writing and vocabulary workbooks that caused such struggle between my 12 yo and me in the past will become "optional". Many of the great programs and books that I selected repeat or only slightly vary from other great programs we're doing, but in a slightly different sequence that adds to confusion or requires me to adjust them. No more of that.

 

There will also be no new therapies, no new evaluations, no more new activities, and no more yelling by a stressed out mom who is expecting too much from her children and herself. There will be less worrying and more trusting.

[Tiramisu]

You are on the right track. :grouphug:

 

There were times I wish I had the guts to do what you're doing.

[PeterPan]

You go girl. I'll tell you one more thing an OT (not ours, but another I was talking with) told me when I was telling her about our frustration with Callirobics. She said that it was obviously too much of a step. That TOTALLY had not occurred to me, because the activities were developed by therapists and obviously right and should be implemented that way, right? But I finally realized she was right. I took the therapy thing that was causing the grief, comprised and weedwhacked and altered it till it was something she could do COMFORTABLY, and decided it was ok to let her do it at that level. So that's what she's doing, and it gets done.

 

And maybe next year she'll do the book the way the author intended. But this year at least she's taking a small step.

 

So definitely streamline. But I think I also heard you saying frustration. If that's the case, on that stuff, sometimes you don't have to *drop* it but just simplify it and get it back to where it's an actual next step for him and not a Mario turbo leap. :)

[PeterPan]

BTW, maybe you have this problem, maybe you don't, but do you ever feel like if you make it easy enough that he CAN do it by himself comfortably then he's not doing ENOUGH? Or that it wasn't hard enough?

 

Obviously there's a point where we *can* make it so small a step that there's almost no improvement occurring. I'm just saying for this year one of my big goals has been to make the tasks so SMALL a next step or so very clear, that she can literally do them without me. That still doesn't sound right. Oh yeah, we're all marvelous and we all sit there pouring into them every day, everything we'd like. And our houses are spotless, husbands fat with stew and roasts, and there are cookies in the jar. We do it ALL. :)

 

I'm just saying there's less yelling when as much as possible (say 50-75%) is as realistic as possible. And in our house, realistic means she can open it, make heads or tails of it, and do it.

 

Just something to think about. I'm looking at your list, and it doesn't look like Barton will be. But maybe 50% of the rest? Even just time apart is good. Even if you WOULD do a better job.

Edited September 25, 2011 by OhElizabeth

[peacefully]

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[merry gardens]

You are on the right track. :grouphug:

 

There were times I wish I had the guts to do what you're doing.

Thanks. :grouphug: Please pray for me next week. I've got some bad habits to break and it might not be easy.

[ChristusG]

DD7 had dyslexia and when she began "reading" (I use that term loosely because she's still not reading fluently), it was when I had stopped doing history, science, map skills, etc. I really ramped up the reading/writing/spelling portion and kept on with the same math and Bible. Now she's actually begun reading sentences and can read Level 1 books without sounding out every single word.

[PeterPan]

But OhE, I think it's really important to make steps that small when it comes to the specific processing issues of these kids. One of the things that I think is absolutely *magic* about our SLP and her therapy is that each week there is only the tiniest, incremental improvement, but stretched out over this past year, ds has made HUGE gains. It's counter-intuitive, but it also totally makes sense. I've learned so much by watching her assess and adjust. I feel like it's a great teaching model, especially in terms of my ds's weaknesses. There are other areas where I can make big leaps and crazy connections, and ds loves it because it speaks to his learning strengths, but I'm all about taking small steps these days.

 

Yup, it was your comments on that plus the comments of the OT that together made it click in my mind! :)

[merry gardens]

BTW, maybe you have this problem, maybe you don't, but do you ever feel like if you make it easy enough that he CAN do it by himself comfortably then he's not doing ENOUGH? Or that it wasn't hard enough?

Absolutely! That's one of the reasons why I've added too many programs, too many workbooks, etc. I try to make the tasks achievable, but they seem like "not enough" to part of me, so I add more easy tasks and then some more. None of them on their own seem all that difficult--so none of it looks like a "solidly academic program", but together there's lots of little things that I research & find, pull all together, assign, make sure they do, correct, etc.---and it's *not* easy trying to manage that a large quantity of easy tasks from various sources! I'm tired and can't keep up with keeping track of who's doing what and are they keeping busy doing something academic during our "school hours" and are they learning, and blah, blah, blah.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[ClassicMom]

You are on the right track. :grouphug:

 

 

:iagree:

[PeterPan]

My downfall has, sadly, been the boards. I've been homeschooling for almost a decade and the WTM-style rigorous education model has been my measuring stick for a long time. It is hard to let go of all those niggling feelings that we really should be doing art, or a modern foreign language, or logic, or for goodness sake haven't you at least started Latin???

 

Good for you for for having the courage to shelve the workbooks. It's a lot harder than it sounds. :hurray:

 

Shari, I know what you mean! There's sort of a lemming thing to being on the K-8 board, and it creates this secure feeling that if you're going along with the crowd everything will work out... But we've learned it doesn't. So now I spend almost no time there. I glance maybe once a day and see if there's anything unanswered that got buried or something that seems dreadfully relevant. But otherwise, I don't hang out there. The people are too SEGMENTED in their approach. They're still looking at it as one curriculum after another, the perfect search, pieces you put together. We're looking at this whole child, where the difficulties interconnect, and we're trying to find ways to bridge the subjects and do more with less.

 

In reality, it TAKES a veteran to do that. The newbies on the K-8 can't do what we're doing, so they go on the perpetual curriculum hunts. It's fun, btdt. But I'm pretty happy with where I am now, the idea that I have this NEW goal, not to research every new thing that is out there and find something perfect, but to think hard and be creative every day about how I can streamline, squeeze water from a rock, get good juice from green tomatoes, make more happen with less. So we're at a more creative stage of our homeschooling, because we're veterans. :)

[JennW in SoCal]

If I may offer some examples of how to be successful with less -- how to make it more.

 

Divide "learning" into two categories, skills and content. Skills are the 3Rs, and are done each day but only for a small amount of time. I used to set the timer for 20 minutes for math, for instance, and knew if we had a truly focused 20 minutes each day of math, more would be learned than me nagging our way through an hour of doing each and every problem in a chapter. The amount of time for math grew over the years, but the idea remained that a regular short but focused period worked best.

 

Grammar or spelling was done in a similar manner, but both were never done on the same day. I didn't have to deal with dyslexia, so I don't know what therapies or programs you need to include, but I would imagine a similar limited and focused daily time slot would work best.

 

Everything else is content, and content is never limited by "school time" or by the kinds of materials used. It is history, science and literature without the limits of time or the "scope and sequence" of a packaged curriculum. Content is the good stuff, both interest led and mommy directed. Reading aloud, listening to audio books, independent reading of fiction and non-fiction, working from kits, building legos, collecting rocks or bugs, watching good documentaries -- all of that is content and all of it is part of learning. It doesn't look like "school" yet it leads to the a well rounded education.

 

'm not around these boards that much any more as my homeschool days are drawing to a close, but I've got two successful young adults who were educated this way -- slow but steady with the skills and limitless immersion in content. And yes the education was "rigorous" enough to prepare them for college. The special needs kiddo is getting A's in college and the other kiddo, who is finishing high school with community college courses, is being courted by some selective colleges.

[PeterPan]

Hey Jenn!!!!! So glad to see you here!!! So where did you put *writing* in your skills vs. content plan? I seem to oscillate, sometimes trying to blend it into the content, and sometimes trying to pull it out so as not to ruin the joy of the content. These days I've been thinking you really need a bit of each.

[PenKase]

Thanks for the advice from you BTDT moms. I have been giving a LOT of thought to "less is more" as I've watched my children slowly drown in a pool of curricula these past few weeks. I drove myself crazy this summer planning and scheduling, trying to fit all into neat little time slots. The realization hit me our first full week back that sitting down at the dining room table for hours at a time is not my idea of a well rounded education for them. Since I've let go of the reigns (by letting go of the time I spend here looking for the brightest and best next thing) my children have been immersed in things I would never have been able to implement all for the sake of staying on schedule. And as a result, we are much more relaxed and happy. I'm only now realizing that giving them more control over their learning has made attitudes much better and has made them more open to the stuff I think they should learn.

[Tiramisu]

Thanks. :grouphug: Please pray for me next week. I've got some bad habits to break and it might not be easy.

 

I will definitely pray, especially that God will bless your desire and efforts to simplify your homeschool. May the Prince of Peace reign in your home.

 

:grouphug:

[JennW in SoCal]

So where did you put *writing* in your skills vs. content plan?

 

Hi back Elizabeth!

 

I realized while I was on my morning commute to the community college that I had left out writing in my post. So here's a brief description about what I did.

 

I combined writing with content by pulling out sentences for dictation, or by assigning something for a narrative, but only, dare I confess...once or twice a week. I preferred to have writing replace grammar or spelling workbooks because the real world practice was far more effective than a worksheet. I never used writing prompts from a curriculum, never worried about working on just paragraphs or types of sentences. Never did outlining. It was copy work, dictation, narrations and essays along with letters (e-mails) to Grandma and writing for fun, and they both turned out to be fine writers.

 

And one last point, which I'll make standing on my soap box. ;) If you spend lots of time with a special needs kid working only on skills, or trying to make your kid fit into the standard school box, all that child will be aware of are his short comings. The interesting stuff will get lost amidst the difficult tasks and the child will come to see anything that counts as learning as painful drudgery. The child will mature to a point where he (or she) can see how those skills will be helpful in exploring the interesting content in deeper and more meaningful ways. It may not be until the age of 16 or 18, but it will come!

[merry gardens]

Thanks for all the encouragement! :grouphug: You ladies are great!

 

DS 12 was beaming when I announced my new plans. :D While I worked with one child this morning, most of the others filled in their time with history and science materials of their own choosing. DS 10 was bouncing off the walls once he finished his math. I'll have to somehow direct him if he can't come up with better ideas for ways to use his time beyond pestering his brother when I'm trying to work with his little sister. :glare: Anyway, there are still some bugs to work out. I haven't managed to spend all the one-on-one time I want to spend with everyone, but this morning went fairly well. I feel good about the things that we did manage to accomplish.

[QuirkyKapers]

That sounds like a great idea! What are the 4 programs you decided on to use? Like you said, there are many things that look great!

[PeterPan]

And when did you start into those essays, Jen?

[PeterPan]

Thanks for all the encouragement! :grouphug: You ladies are great!

 

DS 12 was beaming when I announced my new plans. :D While I worked with one child this morning, most of the others filled in their time with history and science materials of their own choosing. DS 10 was bouncing off the walls once he finished his math. I'll have to somehow direct him if he can't come up with better ideas for ways to use his time beyond pestering his brother when I'm trying to work with his little sister. :glare: Anyway, there are still some bugs to work out. I haven't managed to spend all the one-on-one time I want to spend with everyone, but this morning went fairly well. I feel good about the things that we did manage to accomplish.

 

Merry, my dd loves to do lots of things, but they totally slip her mind if they're not out, front and center. What you might do is create a list of options. Or better yet, discuss ahead of time with him, say on Sunday night, what his interests are for the week and what projects he wants to tackle in his free time. That way he knows ahead of time what he's planning to do when he has those free moments. Then make sure that stuff is set up some where, accessible, all supplies bought, and read to go, so he can actually DO that task. Like if it's a birdhouse, then it all needs to be in a box in the corner of the garage or room or wherever. Then when he has free time between subjects he knows he's allowed to go work on the birdhouse. Or as soon as he finishes his core he can go birdhouse.

 

I like to be spontaneous with projects and fun stuff like that, but I find we get a lot more done when we pre-plan it a bit. Somehow even these kids with working memory issues can keep something in their minds when they're looking forward to it and really want to. ;)

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[JennW in SoCal]

Wow, thank you Shari for the nice words!

 

And Elizabeth, with my ADD/Aspie kiddo, I didn't start with essays, didn't worry about what a thesis was, until he was in 9th grade. He figured it out pretty quickly. I mostly read aloud Lively Art of Writing

[PeterPan]

Jennifer--Interesting, thanks!! :)