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teaching v. providing materials to (younger) children


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I keep bumping into people IRL whose perspective on homeschooling is that if they provide proper materials to their children that the child should essentially be able to teach themselves. My experience has been that learning (especially math) comes more easily when the parent teaches a concept and the child does a worksheet to solidify/review their understanding of the concept. Homeschooling should be more than having amazon ship you a few boxes of books, iykwim.

 

Obviously as homeschooling mothers, we are short on time. Many of us have multiple students. And, we all have seasons in life when school is less than ideal (I've homeschooled through three bedrests, a child having cancer, etc.). I also believe children should work more independently as they grow older.

 

But, what's the baseline? What's the ideal?

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Sounds like another misconception of homeschoolers. However, I have known a family or two that have extremely self-motivated, trustworthy and responsible learners and somehow it works for these kids to be mostly independent. I do not have these kind of kids:001_smile:

 

I appreciated SWB's mp3 talk on Independent learners. She states, before 3rd or 4th grade the parent needs to be an "elbow" parent (this is exactly what it sounds like...parent at the elbow of the child. You are teaching, answering questions, keeping the child on task, etc). Then the parent can start "hoovering". Which just means you are stepping away a little but still teaching and holding the child accountable regularly. SWB continues describing the different phases of independent learning and how a parent can help train a child to be more independent. It's a good talk! I would recommend it!

 

For me, I like to be involved in my child's learning. There are some tasks that I feel he/she is capable of stepping away from me for a moment to complete, but mostly we are doing the learning and activities together. I'm teaching, talking, discussing, reading, etc. As my 2nd has gotten older, this has definitely become more difficult. I'm determined to make it work though as I WANT to be involved and hope to be working towards increased independence with maturity, trustworthiness and ability.

 

:bigear: I'd love to hear what other people think about this. Especially people with slightly older children. Anyone else??

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With DS4 and DS7 everything is very teacher intensive: RightStart math, reading, writing, WWE, history, science. However, they don't require hours and hours of instruction, and the rest of the time they play independently in a way that I do think is educational: puzzles, drawing, colouring, imaginative play, physical play outside.

 

With DS10 I still do a fair amount of teaching, but I also put a lot of energy into motivating him to work alone, inspiring him to enjoy what he's learning. He'll be 11 yo in February, and finally I seem to be able to leave him alone for good periods of time to finish math exercises, Latin, French, writing assignments. He does love my involvement though, it seems to make the difference between him slogging through something because he has to and him really enjoying a subject. I think that's OK too, it's one of the wonderful things about homeschooling. If only I had more time though ... He'll finally be going off to school in September, though, so I'm quite keen at this point to encourage him to become more independent and take responsibility for his learning.

 

Best wishes

 

Cassy

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I was homeschooled and my mother very much had the idea that we should pretty much be self taught. She was there if we needed help, she graded everything we turned in. She gave us spelling tests. She taught the younger ones how to read (I was in public school for first and second grade and obviously read by the time we started homeschooling). Otherwise, yeah, we were handed books and expected to learn. :p

 

My kids need a lot of supervision at this point. They will goof off or fight with each other if I am not right there with them. That makes it difficult to accomplish anything else on my own, which is why the school day ends pretty much at 3:30 in the afternoon regardless of how badly our day went. I have ideas that eventually they'll be able work independently and I won't have to hover so much. :)

 

ETA: Also, I think I pick materials that don't lend themselves to self-teaching very easily.

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It's hard to pinpoint because there are so many different homeschooling philosophies. I think one just has to figure out what works for one's own family. There is no right answer, no one size fits all. That's the beauty of it!

 

:iagree:

And for individual kids. I had one who wanted to take his books and disappear to figure it out himself. He did just fine.

 

I have another who can't handle a single moment of independence.

 

And then I have another in the middle.

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For us, it has worked out very well to provide materials for science and history (mainly just tons and tons of books for history) for the elementary years.

 

For history it was because I just couldn't figure out exactly how I wanted to do things.

 

For science it was because I just didn't really like any of my options. I provided, and also required from the library, lots of books and some experiments. Any time someone asked "why", we would find out. We didn't do as well as 8fromtheheart, but I'm pleased with the progress, and will continue this with the younger children. Partly because of time restraints (just being honest), but also because it worked well for us.

 

It has turned out great for us. My olders know way more history than I did by middle school, and are doing great in BJU science.

 

With other subjects, I don't think this approach would work well for us at all. I have an extremely heavy focus on both reading and math, requiring that work to be done with me, or at least checked by me daily.

 

Of course, my children are happy to slack if they can get away with it! :lol:

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I think it can work depending on the type of learner your child is. If my DD is very interested in something I can give her a bunch of resources and she will happily use them to teach herself. However for everything else I have to teach her.

 

Right now she is fixated on all things Ocean - and even though she can only read at the CVC stage she has somehow managed to figure out a lot of words in the encyclopedias on her own :glare: She is very motivated by interest.

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Some people think that the only way to achieve an end goal is practice of it. So to achieve a child who is an independent learner, they must learn independently from the beginning. I disagree, and I think the process of creating an independent learner requires a lot more (as you can see from my signature. :D)

 

Some people don't have time to teach the concepts to each child. They have many children or they have other commitments or issues.

 

Some people believe that "learning should never be imposed on a child and they will figure it out if they need it" (direct quote from an unschool friend.)

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It's hard to pinpoint because there are so many different homeschooling philosophies. I think one just has to figure out what works for one's own family. There is no right answer, no one size fits all. That's the beauty of it!

 

:iagree:

My son HATES anything that sounds remotely like a lecture and will shut down during that type of teaching interaction. One of the reasons we crashed and burned at RightStart math was of the way it has the instructor "teach" a lesson in a very classroomy, scripted way. I have much more success with with things that either he can figure out himself and/or we can work on side-by-side if he needs some direction (for example, we are having success with Math Mammoth since he can read the instructions himself, and when he needs help I'm there to "help figure out the directions"), or that I leave by his seat for him to 'find' (this works great for history). So I'm a big believer in "strewing" for our family at this time.

 

Now, as soon as I get DD over the hurdle of learning to read we'll see if she learns well this way too. ;) She is curious and independent like her brother so I hope so, but we'll see!

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How young? I have a 4th grader who very much wants me to back off unless he asks for help. ;) It works for us. He uses Singapore, reads the text himself and does the workbook. He comes over if he is confused and we work problems together. If he misses too many on his assignment, I make him go over with me to figure out the situation (is is sloppiness or not understanding?). He is in that upper grammar heading to dialectic stage, and chows through 10-15 books a week on various topics. My role is often nowdays making sure I understand the subject matter and talking with him. It is not as much "teaching" him. He is an advanced learner.

 

My 4th grader DETESTS WWE and FLL now. He is half way through the 4th books though so we are finishing them off. He has been looking at samples with me though and very very strongly wants something he can work through himself, without needing me by his side. My 1st grader loves nothing better than interact 100% of the time. FLL1 is his "favorite subject" he says. Hard to tell if he too will want independence by 4, but given his personality I don't think so, at least not as much.

 

Really really young I don't teach either. I give them nice materials to explore and leave them be part of the time, until which point they desire my help in learning something. I don't subscribe to teaching a 3yo to read unless they specifically ask.

 

In the middle there I generally teach to give a taste of everything. My 1st grader says he doesn't like such and such but has never really tried it. I get some books, read, do experiments and so forth. Sometimes he really doesn't like a topic, but often he does and takes off from there with more of a child-led interest. He isn't a strong reader to lots of times he picks his books or tells me what he wants, and help him read it. He is not advanced at all, more likely a smidge slow in most areas, and will likely want me at his elbow a lot longer than his older brother.

 

If what someone is doing in their home is working though, I am all for that person using that method.

Edited by WeeBeaks
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