Please read if your child participates in planning homeschool

[Connections]

For those of you who include your child in planning their own educations, please share how you go about this, to what extent they are involved, lessons learned, etc.

 

While I want my children to continue to cover certain topics and work on specific skills, I also want them to begin to take more ownership of their educations. DSs are middle school age. I imagine this will be a process. I am envisioning planning sessions, working together to clearly define learning expectations, ongoing meetings, etc. But I really want to hear from those of you who have involved your children in planning curriculum, schedules, and/or assessment techniques.

 

Thanks!

[GoVanGogh]

From the beginning, I have taken my child to homeschool conventions and the local homeschool store and let him look over curriculum. I let him pick some of the material or at least have a say in it.

I go over our schedule with him on a monthly and weekly basis and talk about what we need to cover and why.

Right now, I am occasionally scheduling "self-education" days where I give him a list of what needs to be done that day. (This material is different than what we are normally using - supplements like Life of Fred, reading an educational magazine, etc.)

DS is upper elementary age so I'm not sure how I will transition through middle school.

[LisaKinVA]

My oldest is in middle school, my 2nd is nearly there. But, all of my children have "some" say in what is going on with their education.

 

My oldest is going to attempt a version of Omnibus next year. He's more of a "textbook" kind of guy, so this will be a real stretch. I'm using the K12 series as a spine, and he'll be reading selections, probably not entire books. He's much more into science and math, so if he wants to really work hard in those areas, I know something will have to give. While history and gov't, geography and literature are still important, I feel "okay" scaling back those areas, so that he has more room to follow his interests in science, technology and math. He doesn't really have a "defined" interest yet...so we're driving toward a more general goal...with the hope that we'll stumble onto something he is really passionate about. At that point, we'll jibe or tack...and make adjustments as needed.

 

My oldest dd is throwing herself "whole-hog" into Marine Biology right now. She is taking Earth/Space science next year (mandatory), as well as reading Apologia's Zoology series (which she'll probably finish up pretty fast), and I'll be getting her books on Marine Biology to read as well. I gave her a choice of a "less intense" Biology course in 6th or more difficult (Abeka vs. BJU). She chose BJU. The challenge in this area excites her. Thanks to others on this board, we're taking a different approach to math for her. I expect she'll still take caclulus, but instead of going further in math that direction, she'll take more statistics and probably AoPS Algebra III. She'll need Statistics and more Algebra with Chem and Bio than Calc. Of course, this is all subject to change, since she is only 10! But, letting her know that she has choices gives her ownership of these decisions and helps her drive forward to a goal.

 

My younger son (8yo) is really just starting this process. He got to choose which science he was doing this year. And, when we hit the "if I have to look at one more page of Math Mammoth I'm going to scream" point, I sat him down, we talked, and I grabbed Life of Fred Fractions...which he's happily doing without complaint. I'm trying to teach him to talk to me about his school -- and that I'm willing to change things up (I'm not letting him NOT do math, but we can certainly change the math he's doing for awhile).

 

My 5yo... she more or less gets to choose what books she's reading in free-reading time, whether she does math first...phonics first, or penmanship first. She didn't choose any of the curriculum.

[KAR120C]

Not so much in planning sessions though... if I ask him to sit down and make lists with me, he loses interest at about the 3 minute mark.

 

For the things that I require, like penmanship and spelling, I pick a couple things that I'd approve and ask for his preference from among those choices. For instance when we were choosing a cursive handwriting font, I printed his signature in each of them for him to choose his favorite. And more recently, when I was looking for an Environmental Science text, I found four that met my criteria and sent him links to their Amazon pages with descriptions and comments and asked him to choose. That's not really what I'd call involvement, as much as a nod to just giving him a minimal say in things.

 

Where he's really more actively involved is in projects. I pretty much stay out of those except to veto enormous expenses or anything needlessly dangerous. Every year he does a science fair project from planning to experimenting to writing and presenting, and for that he's more or less on his own. It's a large part of our science for any given year, and it's always his own question and experimental design.

 

Between those two extremes of barely-involved and entirely-student-driven, there are topics that DS cares about, sometimes unexpectedly, and I try to make it work when I can. He really wanted to add Electronics to science this year, and although we haven't fit in as much as he'd like, we have taken a good stab at it, and will continue through next year too.

 

Also, DS has very strong opinions about where he wants to end up after high school. We have talked about what it's going to take to get him there (and how much still relies on chance... so even perfect preparation isn't a guarantee...), and a good bit of what I require of him that isn't his immediate preference is chosen with an eye toward preparing him for where he wants to go. So for instance... while he might not enjoy writing, he knows he needs to be prepared for writing in college. And while he's not a huge fan of exams, he knows they will be a good addition to his college applications.

 

So it's not all sitting and planning together... some of it is his independent work that I leave room for, some is my plans that are influenced by his preferences, and some of it is my recommendations or requirements made with his goals in mind... He's involved in all of it, but it's not really the "sitting and planning with me" kind of involvement.

[SkateLeft]

I sit down with my kids periodically to go over what's working and what's not. I want them to think about their own learning process, so we talk about that a lot.

 

I have them look over curriculum with me, and give them a say in choosing what we use. We make educational decisions and plan together. They tell me what they want to learn more about. That way, the stuff that I want is getting done, but hopefully with materials that work well for them. There have been times when we've chosen something that hasn't worked well, and after giving it a fair shot, we sit down and figure out what it didn't work. It becomes a self-discovery experience.

 

I think it's also important to be open to following and facilitating rabbit trails. In 8th grade, my daughter found an copy of Fahrenheit 451. That book grabbed her so strongly that she woke me up in the middle of the night when she finished it, because she wanted to talk about it. It turned into a semester long study of dystopian literature and movies, and resulted in a really cool portfolio of projects, artwork and papers. I had to set aside my lesson plan that semester so we could take off on this rabbit trail, but that whole thing ended up being one of our favorite homeschooling experiences.

[SuperDad]

I sit down with my kids periodically to go over what's working and what's not. I want them to think about their own learning process, so we talk about that a lot.

 

I have them look over curriculum with me, and give them a say in choosing what we use. We make educational decisions and plan together. They tell me what they want to learn more about. That way, the stuff that I want is getting done, but hopefully with materials that work well for them. There have been times when we've chosen something that hasn't worked well, and after giving it a fair shot, we sit down and figure out what it didn't work. It becomes a self-discovery experience.

 

I think it's also important to be open to following and facilitating rabbit trails. In 8th grade, my daughter found an copy of Fahrenheit 451. That book grabbed her so strongly that she woke me up in the middle of the night when she finished it, because she wanted to talk about it. It turned into a semester long study of dystopian literature and movies, and resulted in a really cool portfolio of projects, artwork and papers. I had to set aside my lesson plan that semester so we could take off on this rabbit trail, but that whole thing ended up being one of our favorite homeschooling experiences.

 

From the beginning, I have taken my child to homeschool conventions and the local homeschool store and let him look over curriculum. I let him pick some of the material or at least have a say in it.

I go over our schedule with him on a monthly and weekly basis and talk about what we need to cover and why.

Right now, I am occasionally scheduling "self-education" days where I give him a list of what needs to be done that day. (This material is different than what we are normally using - supplements like Life of Fred, reading an educational magazine, etc.)

DS is upper elementary age so I'm not sure how I will transition through middle school.

:iagree:

 

Obviously, I adjust how "involved" the child is by how mature she is (I prefer to go by maturity rather than age), but all of my children are involved in planning their own education to some extent. It's extremely important to me (and to my personal educational philosophy) that my kids are involved in the planning and implementation of their educational programs. I don't force my kids to follow a parent-planned curriculum. It's their education.

[Ester Maria]

My children can study pretty much whatever they want, provided they satisfy my general framework. It is a quid pro quo, really: I require of you to do A, B, and C, and in exchange I am going to get you resources / finance a mentorship / however else you want to learn D, E, and F. So, there are some things they study that way.

 

Then within that framework I allow them to emphasize / deemphasize areas. I do not allow them to rule them out, and there are minimal requirements, but I am okay with one daughter doing a basic progression in a subject, for which she employs some 3 hours weekly, and with another daughter wanting to REALLY get into it and obsessing it for 8 hours weekly and wanting a separate program / different modality of learning / etc. So, we can negotiate intensity and requirements within the areas which are still required. That way we have a cookie and eat it.

 

I also plan some leeway in text-heavy areas, so sometimes we can negotiate readings, order of readings, or supplementary readings... but again within a general framework.

 

I tie languages partially to their interests, that has been a big success.

 

I allow self-scheduling, and we also schedule sessions with me / deadlines. So, for the most part, there is freedom as regards time and when to do things.

 

I DO NOT ALLOW: choosing their primary materials for areas that are not emphasized (they cannot make an educated choice about them), ruling out entire areas of study (rather, we adapt the load and intensivity and negotiate negotiable specifics), intense rabbit trails taking over main schoolwork (they are to be pursued separately most of the time), negotiate basic output / exam requirements.

[heliconian]

This year, we tried a new, touchy-feely, approach that has worked very well for us. A friend recommended that we check out self design (http://selfdesign.com/curriculum.html). While the general program was more open-ended than I prefer, we really liked the circular life map. Before we started the school year, we created large pie charts, divided into areas of learning that I created. Then, with my sons (8 and 11), we talked about what might go best in each area. They got more input in some areas than others, and some were largely shaped by curricula that we already have and know that we like, but the boys got to add topics and ambitions and really reflect on what they wanted to get out of their learning. An added bonus has been that, when schoolwork is met with resistance or frustration, we can go back and look at the map and see how it is supposed to fit together. When they are reminded of how this helps them meet a goal that they helped set, they are much more willing to to work on things that would otherwise be a source of conflict.

[slackermom]

DD7.5 is very involved in the planning. She is in PS, but we spend significant amount of time afterschooling, due to her frustration with the pace and level of the PS curriculum, and also because our educational goals for DD call for significant supplementation. I've helped her to look at her education as something she has control over, and that it can occur around the clock, with her time at spent at school as one part of that. For the last 2 years, we have worked with her to create her own personal learning plan. We revisit the list several times during the year. She comes up with items to add to her learning wish list, and we discuss methods and resources for meeting those learning goals. Keeping to a realistic budget is part of the discussion.

 

The list has included items such as learning violin, Mandarin, Irish dance, how make brownies and pumpkin pie, how to ride a bike, how to knit, learning more about science and technology, and "complicated" math. I decided we would also study ancient history at home last year, and she chose ancient China as her first focus. I suggest projects to reinforce her reading. We switched to Ireland (also her choice) when she felt she was ready to move on to another area. She recently said she would like to go back to studying Chinese history soon, picking up where we left off and continuing until we get through current events in China.

 

This year her 2nd grade teacher has encouraged her to blend her at home study with projects done at school, especially in the various writing assignments they do. The teacher also allows DD to bring in her own books to read at school, and when she brought in a bunch of biographies of scientists, the teacher came up with an independent study project related to that area of interest. The teacher also allows DD to work independently in math, using Primary Grade Challenge Math at the moment, and she also suggested Khan Academy, which DD has just started using. DD's teacher assesses her on the work she submits to her.

 

Given our scenario, we don't have any at home assessments at this point, other than reviewing the learning list to see if learning goals have been met, and if it is time to make adjustments to the list. I am very happy with the way it has worked so far. I think that by 4th grade we will try to be a bit more systematic with history and a few other subjects, such as Latin, including using some assessments, but I expect DD to continue to be very involved in choosing resources and projects.

[Greenmama2]

For the things that I require, like penmanship and spelling, I pick a couple things that I'd approve and ask for his preference from among those choice

my eldest is not quite six but she is very involved in planning and this is mostly how we do it. She also decides on frequency i.e. at our last "meeting" she requested maths seven days a week and science three. Obviously I will give her suggested time frames, but generally she is more ambitious than me. We chat in the interim about how it is going and adjust accordingly. I've let her know gently that 4-5 days a week may be a more realistic goal than 7 ;)

[Spetzi]

I like a curriculum to follow. If I didn't, we'd probably want/need more meetings.

 

I let the kids choose their science topic. Often, I will recommend a few programs that I like or think will work. Sometimes a child tell me she wants to study chemistry so I find some way to make that happen.

 

We evaluate curric that we've used and discussed what we liked and didn't.

 

We usually plan when we need to find something new and evaluate as we go along. Generally, we both make great choices so dropping curric is rarely needed. I've had to change the pace of some, but as long as it's solid and the child is digging in I don't mind at all whether s/he finishes in half the time or double the time.

[Donna]

My dd has always participated in her schooling. When she was very young, I left materials within her reach and when she grabbed something, we did it.

 

Now she still has a bit of say in how our day goes...when she'll practice and when we do her schoolwork. We talk about things she'd like to learn and non-negotiable things. I try to include the things she'd like to learn into our schedule and like Ester Maria, I allow her to emphasize and de-emphasize topics in her non-negotiable subjects. So if we are studying history or science and she becomes fascinated by something, we go off on rabbit trails and research that topic or find experiments or visit a museum, etc... I let her pick books that we read together or chose from books I suggest if she needs ideas.

 

If there is a certain curriculum she doesn't like, I will try to change it. She is generally very motivated to learn so when she tells me she doesn't like a particular program, I don't force it and will find one that covers the same material in a way that works better for her or is more appealing for whatever reason.