How do you teach?

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Ok, weird question, I know. A local home school friend and I were having a discussion and it ended up with 'How do you teach?' Ok, so if your child reads a lesson from a book (science, history-whatever) and there are no projects or experiments, how do you teach the lesson? Do you just let the child read it and hope they retain? What if there is nothing but reading for a while? Do you quiz them? Make your own comprehension worksheets? Discuss it? If so, how? I mean, I know how to discuss but what do you do to give your kids that deeper understanding?

[JenC3]

Okay- math is taught to Dd. I teach a MM3 lesson, but she also does a TT4 one which I do not teach. I take notes on the problems she missed and give review quizzes later. We all read math books together and play games/logic puzzles.

 

Latin- I'm also learning and then teach at the board. We also started Visual Latin together. I quiz her vocab everyday.

 

Grammar- we snuggle on the couch and go over the lesson together and do the exercises orally. She then completes the assigned worksheet.

 

SWO- she does this independently.

 

SOTW- she does the map and lapbook independently. We listen to the audio in the car. She reads the chapter to herself once and takes a test. We also read corresponding lit and do theoccasional activity. I don'treallyteach it. I do quiz her using the review questions.

 

WWE- we follow the book.

 

Science- dh and i are struggling to get it done, but he teaches them.

 

I am always fielding questions or looking things up on the ipad. We kind of look at our life as homeschoolers. Today was spent at a big colonial living history park and so there were many lessons happening. We are studying DaVinci right now and will attend a traveling exhibit next month. We will spend the day at the regional ren faire in 2 weeks. Dh taughtthe kids to play chess last month and we have nightly games. All of this is in addition to our regular curric.

[Miss Tick]

I suppose it depends on the subject, but helping them pick out the important points (through discussion, or having them outline) and then reviewing periodically if needed. Mine are in first, so this is mostly supposition. So far they surprise me with the amount of retention - but it's all new, and they don't have a lot of other random stuff they are trying to remember (like items for the grocery list, where I last saw somebody's favorite toy, the fact that I need to get gas before I get more than 10 miles from home...:D)

[Mommy to monkeys]

Math and English- I teach the lessons. They do the practice problems. We go over any mistakes.

 

Everything else- Narration, narration, narration.:D For history, I do require them to locate the places on the map as well. Did I mention narration?;)

[zenjenn]

I teach with questions.

[lucyfan70]

Itdoes depend on the subjects. For math there is a textbook. But for most of our subjects narration is the key. For history they have to write down facts or sentences about what they heard me read.

[MinivanMom]

Math and English- I teach the lessons. They do the practice problems. We go over any mistakes.

 

Everything else- Narration, narration, narration.:D For history, I do require them to locate the places on the map as well. Did I mention narration?;)

 

This is exactly what we do.

 

As my kids get older I imagine that oral narrations will evolve into written narrations and outlining (accompanied by literature and history discussions).

[2squared]

Ok, so if your child reads a lesson from a book (science, history-whatever) and there are no projects or experiments, how do you teach the lesson? Do you just let the child read it and hope they retain? What if there is nothing but reading for a while? Do you quiz them? Make your own comprehension worksheets? Discuss it? If so, how? I mean, I know how to discuss but what do you do to give your kids that deeper understanding?

 

Narration and then discussion. That's it. We rarely do projects, never do comprehension worksheets, and seldom do experiments. We read, narrate, and discuss. Sometimes narrations are accompanied by notebook entries. Next year I expect my oldest will start outlining as well.

 

ETA: My kids are still young, but they are constantly making connections on their own. My philosophy so far has been to fill them with a living books, natural learning environment and then to get out of their way. My kids generate their own projects and experiments in their free time.

Edited October 16, 2011 by 2squared

[Lily_Grace]

I teach with questions.

 

Same here. I'm also not a by-the-book person. While the lesson in the curriculum might call for only reading and possibly narration, that's not what will happen in our house. I'll add in links, or a small project, or find a video on youtube. Every week I check out books and videos from the library for science and history. We'll discuss the lesson and I'll ask questions about it.

 

There is rarely a day in our house where the lesson is just "read this". I believe wholeheartedly in getting as many senses involved as possible and tying it to other lessons or current events.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I'm very "teacher intensive", I sit with them through everything. Math is spent with me going back and forth between the two explaining and clarifying concepts. Grammar is MCT so I read then we discuss, make up silly sentences. History I either read to them or after they read something we have long discussions (DS) or not so long with DD. Science is a bit more independent with some stuff on computer. We also have a co-op that I help out with. Activities for Science I of course am involved with. We watch video's together that take 2X as long because I often pause to make sure they understand the info or go off on tangents. Spelling is actually my least intensive. I introduce/teach the phonics of the words they use flashcards to learn the words taking turns quizzing each other. They help each other with ideas for spelling sentences They even give each other the weekly "test". Except for math we really don't do much bookwork. A phonics or grammar WS occasionally is about all. I really don't test on anything other then spelling, even then it's casual. I know they know the info because they can retell Daddy what they learned/studied that day. If they can't remember then we talk about it some more. I love this style of "teaching"(lots of discussion). I never experienced until I got to college, and I learned so much more in the 3 years there then I did in the previous 12 in PS.

[Joyofsixreboot]

Math and English- I teach the lessons. They do the practice problems. We go over any mistakes.

 

Everything else- Narration, narration, narration.:D For history, I do require them to locate the places on the map as well. Did I mention narration?;)

 

Us too. Fifth grader does two written narrations a week, second grader is all oral narration.

[Ritsumei]

Math and English- I teach the lessons. They do the practice problems. We go over any mistakes.

 

Everything else- Narration, narration, narration.:D For history, I do require them to locate the places on the map as well. Did I mention narration?;)

 

We narrate a lot too. Some oral, some I scribe to get a written narration. Then, once in a while we go back & read the old narrations to remind & increase retention. Though, the kid's mind is a trap, and he retains more than a little even without much of that. I can see it in the stuff that shows up in play, and comments he periodically makes, often out of the blue. I'm currently trying our first lapbook with him to see if that (a form of more intense narration, the way we're doing it) helps us go deeper. Seems to be working, though we'll only do it occasionally, since it's a lot harder than your basic narration with pictures from google.

 

Mostly, I can see it in his eyes: bright & comprehending/interested, zoned out, more or less clueless. Oh, and the narrations tell a lot. ;) We often start with, "What did you learn about ____" to get 'em going.

[Jyniffrec]

Lots and lots of talking after we have read the material. It isn't really something I think about, though. I mostly introduce the subject and we do the work. Later just during life is when the discussion comes up. I'm not good at formulated questions (my kids think they are inane anyway) so we just talk about most things as they come up.

 

There are a couple of subjects that are exceptions now thatdd12 is in 7th grade. For Greek we go over flashcards a lot and I check her homework. It is, by nature, a very teacher intensive class (although I am not technically the teacher).

 

For LA and math (for all the kids), I check the answers and have them correct the pages.

[Donna]

I teach differently now that I only have one child at home than when I was teaching 3 at a time. We often snuggle on the couch or lay on the floor to read anything that needs to be read then she will do a short summary for her notebook.

 

Many of her subjects are on the computer like math, foreign language and science. She does foreign language by herself, though I am usually close by because I want to learn it as well so I listen from the kitchen or something. Math, I print out the notes from the lesson and encourage her to look through them then listen to the lectures then do the problems. For science, dd takes notes from the lesson and puts those in her notebook.

[Penelope]

Ok, so if your child reads a lesson from a book (science, history-whatever) and there are no projects or experiments, how do you teach the lesson?

 

You are referring to content subjects, then?

 

Well, sometimes, yes, they just read something and either write a narration, give an oral one, or discuss it with me in some way.

 

Ideally, though, I also know something more about the topic, and can give some introductory background knowledge, help them look for terms they do not understand and define them (together as they get older), and have more of a discussion because I can provide more depth. Or we might take some aspect of it and look something up, in another book or on the net.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

You are referring to content subjects, then?

 

Well, sometimes, yes, they just read something and either write a narration, give an oral one, or discuss it with me in some way.

 

Ideally, though, I also know something more about the topic, and can give some introductory background knowledge, help them look for terms they do not understand and define them (together as they get older), and have more of a discussion because I can provide more depth. Or we might take some aspect of it and look something up, in another book or on the net.

 

 

Any subjects- I just used history and science as an example.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Ok- I was just wondering because I also do alot of narrations, extra books/websites. My oldest does outlining (and just FINALLY admitted it helped her retention :hurray:) She will also do a writing assignment occasionally based on History or Science (or geography since we are doing ECC this year!).

 

 

When I told my friend that she gave me a look of :001_huh:. She said she does not have her children read from the textbooks or any books at all. She reads, digests and then just lectures (her words) on her take of the information she read.

 

That to me sounds like the mom is getting the education and dictating to her dc :lol: I am sure its not that at all but considering her youngest is a 6th grader and her oldest is a 10th grader it just made me think.

 

 

 

I do want to thank you guys though also because you did give me a few ideas also ;)