Straddling delight directed/project based schooling and Mom-led learning

[jkl]

I am all starry-eyed over the concept of project-based learning. I just stumbled upon Lori Pickert's blog and am getting ready to order the book. I think this type of learning would fit my 6 year old project-loving son perfectly. The problem is, I'm not ready to go totally delight-directed. I know we could have a certain project time after all of the stuff I want him to learn is covered every day, but I love the idea of allowing ds to immerse himself in a project without his time getting squeezed out (which is what seems to happen to any "extra" things around here). So, I'm toying with the idea of schooling year round like this.....May-Sept totally delight-directed/project based, except for 45 min-1 hr of math and LA that I teach. Oct off (it's too hot here to take summers off anyway, so this will work well). Nov-March we reverse it and the bulk of our day is mom-directed learning, with an hour devoted to projects he wants to do. April off (before the horrible heat, so this will work well too). Is this just way too complicated? Has anyone ever done anything like this?

[jkl]

Anyone? Am I not making any sense? (I am tired ;))

[Wee Pip]

Well...I'm attempting an interest led year with my bunch, you can peruse my blog for ideas.

[Wabi Sabi]

I thought that we would continue to school year-round but it didn't quite work out as I'd hoped this last summer. I failed to consider that all of ds' friends who attend regular school would be out all summer and therefore our days would be consumed with sleepovers, spending the day at the pool, playdates and other socializing. Because of his friends' traditional school schedules they don't get to see each other as much as they'd like during the school year. We ended up never really getting into enough of a consistent routine to keep our homeschooling going over the summer.

[happypamama]

Can you do a delight-directed/Mom-directed sort of hybrid? I often take my cues about what to plan based on what the kids are interested in.

 

I also leave plenty of time in the day for them to follow their own interests. Our support group does a history fair every year as well, and my kids' projects may or may not be related to what we've studied as a family that year; they may have their own subject.

[Arcadia]

My "required" learning for my kids stop by lunch time. After lunch and weekends are their interest led learning. It can be projects, simple experiments or even just reading up on their own particular interest.

We school year round though. We do about two hours per day "school work" for summer.

[Wee Pip]

I require Math, handwriting, writing, Bible,and piano. If the kids want to write a novel or other creative writing, then I count that as their writing. Otherwise, I give the assignments. I let them pick what/how they want to study science and history. I gather those resources and schedule it. So if they want to do sci experiments, I put it on the schedule. If they want to research and then create a project, it goes on the schedule. If they are clueless, I might pick something, assign reading and have them journal it.

 

We school 6 wks on 1 wk off, with 4-6 wks off in summer. I'd prefer 4 wks but our big gardening project and 2 wk traveling vacation pushed it to 6 wks. Learning still happened though - our trip to yellowstone taught more geology then I ever could pull from a book (although I did pull in books too).

 

Our schooling is rather light and allows for a lot of spontaneous outdoor and field trip learning.

[momto2Cs]

My "required" learning for my kids stop by lunch time. After lunch and weekends are their interest led learning. It can be projects, simple experiments or even just reading up on their own particular interest.

 

:iagree: Although reverse that for our learning times. I work outside the home in the mornings, so they have free time then with dh or my mom, and we do "mom-directed" learning in the afternoons.

[jkl]

Thanks everyone! Visiting everyones blogs for ideas! I think my problem is that with the chaos around here, we don't do school all in 1 big chunk. We do it here and there throughout the day, between diaper changing, toddler and preschooler meltdowns, nap times, etc. I like it this way because ds gets tons of time to play, and it seems like we are just learning all the time (no firm boundaries of school and not-school). This works fine for ds' own projects--the ones he thinks up and does all on his own (a dinosaur chapter book, at the moment, complete with illustrations). However, to allow the type of project-based learning to occur that I am thinking of, I have to be able to be available to him while he's working on his projects--note taking, assisting him in getting materials, etc. I'm afraid that if I try to do both mom-led and Project-based on the same day, the chunk of time when I am available to focus mainly on him will be taken up with all of the stuff I want to do.....Hmm, I'm rambling, as usual. Back to blog-reading to see if I can get some more ideas! :) I'll come back when I have a solid question :)

[Arcadia]

However, to allow the type of project-based learning to occur that I am thinking of, I have to be able to be available to him while he's working on his projects--note taking, assisting him in getting materials, etc.

 

Maybe give your son a notepad and let him write down whatever questions he needs to research on, or whatever materials he might need.

When you are free, you could work on his list.

[jar7709]

Both is us, too. :) Mom-led mornings include MBTP, math, and "writing practice". The "writing practice" is really very child-led, as well. If there isn't significant writing in that day's MBTP, I ask them to write something of their choice into their notebooks...Bravewriter/TWJ has really helped me be flexible here. Afternoons their time is mostly their own. I may do a couple read alouds, or host them in an art or science project if they seem to be at loose ends.

 

Maybe give your son a notepad and let him write down whatever questions he needs to research on, or whatever materials he might need.

When you are free, you could work on his list.

:iagree:

 

 

I find that when my kids are off on their own projects, they don't actually need me much. They know how to get books off the shelf (putting them back is another story, haha), pull out their notebooks or paper and crayons, etc, on their own. The older knows how to look up information in an index, and how to do a wikipedia search. I might need to get out some other art supplies, or read the younger some directions, but I am lucky that my kids appear to be on the self-directed side. If there's something more complicated they want to make or do, they tell me what it is, help make a supply list, and we keep it in mind for a rainy afternoon or when we have more time.

[lewelma]

We do a 10 week long science fair project from April to June every year, and adjust our schedule. Not sure this x-post is the kind of info you are looking for, but here it is:

 

We work on the science fair projects both during our school hours and after hours. Our project runs 10 weeks. The first 6 weeks, we mostly keep up with our other work and doing thinking, planning, data collection etc often after hours (our day ends at 1:30) but sometimes during our school hours. But during the last 4 weeks, everything goes except math and mandarin (plus they still read literature and father reads history to them), and for the youngest I drop the math also.

 

During the last 4 weeks, I consider the science fair like a big unit study:

Math: graphing

Language arts: writing up the report, editing it

Art: layout/design of the poster + all the fancy decorating

Computers: using all the fancy features of the word processor including table making, and graphing software

Public speaking: designing and practising the presentation. Practising answering questions succinctly

Science: obviously lots of this

History: my husband reads to them at night so this is covered.

 

So there is not really much missing.

 

I still try to make sure that we are keeping up with the curriculum choices I have made for the year. I do things like:

1) Math: for the younger, I move the statistics unit to science fair time, so it does double duty and we skip most of the unit in Singapore Math. Older son will keep working on math throughout the science fair (because he loves it!)

2) Writing: remove or collapse 4 weeks of WWS (shhhh don't tell anyone), so we don't have to do any during science fair month

3) Spelling and grammar: just skip for a month as we don't use annually organized programs

4) Logic: condense the curriculum so we are done in 30 weeks instead of 36

5) This year for IGCSE Chemistry, since we are working towards an external exam, we will work for 3 weeks during January (school holidays) to make up the time.

6) Mandarin: tutor will only come 1 time per week instead of 2

 

I think you get the idea. I just keep it in mind when making my annual plan.

 

Ruth in NZ

[briansmama]

We're transitioning to PBH and will keep our current afternoon practice work/skills time (about 30min for my 3rd grader). Our main lesson time takes up the bulk of our morning (9-12) and we are starting this week with replacing the main lesson with Project Time. Today was our first day and it was a huge success. I fact, after we gathered again in the afternoon, following lunch and quiet time, for practice work, the boys wanted to continue working on their projects.

 

My third grader has never, ever asked to continue working on a main lesson before when he didn't have to. I really see the value in PBH.

[jkl]

We're transitioning to PBH and will keep our current afternoon practice work/skills time (about 30min for my 3rd grader). Our main lesson time takes up the bulk of our morning (9-12) and we are starting this week with replacing the main lesson with Project Time. Today was our first day and it was a huge success. I fact, after we gathered again in the afternoon, following lunch and quiet time, for practice work, the boys wanted to continue working on their projects.

 

My third grader has never, ever asked to continue working on a main lesson before when he didn't have to. I really see the value in PBH.

 

Are you still doing this? How is it going? Can you give more details about how your day looks?

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I'm in a very similar situation- same aged children, same thought process regarding PBHSing. My oldest is a great project-finder-and-doer, without any prodding from me. However, the skill subjects are very important to me, especially at this age, and I feel the content subjects allow for a general exposure that can open up questions and bunny trails for projects.

 

Currently, we do about 1-1.5 hours of school each day (math, reading/phonics, handwriting, history/science), another hour of read-aloud time from any number of books the kids choose from, and that's it. But, we maintain a pretty strict "quiet time" from 1-3pm in the afternoons, that have naturally become my son's project time.

 

At this point, I think we will do the core skills- math, reading, handwriting- year round, with little to no extended breaks. But during summers, I can definitely see expanding on project time.