Overlearning

[Raising Little Shoots]

Would anyone be willing to share how this looks in their own home?

 

I think this would be a great approach for my 9 yo dd.

 

Thanks in advance

[laughing lioness]

Performance demands over learning. Our kids have participated in lots of hoemschool theater. To get on stage and deliver your lines means you have to know them rock-solid.

We also do lots poetry memory -word perfect.

My older kids did awanas for years- word perfect memory.

 

Timed tests are a great way to measure over learning.

[PeterPan]

I've used the term on the boards, but I'm not sure I used it in the same way someone who knows the terms might mean. There's probably an actual definition, lol. For me, or rather for dd, what it has meant is we go back through it over and over in fresh new ways. She finished the TT pre-algebra, so, while she moves forward into the TT algebra 1, I'm having her do the BJU pre-algebra. She's doing the same topics as the TT stuff, but she's doing it in a fresh way, at a new level. That way she gets to see it over and over, new contexts.

 

With spelling, it meant we went through our lists in SWR 3+ times. Sanseri says to do them two years in a row, and we did them 3. We'd go back through the same things a fresh way. Every time you'd get more circuitry, more connections, so it would go faster and be a bit deeper understanding.

 

Dd is quite frustrated by strict memorization at this stage in her life. She tends to get the jist and not the specifics. She even admitted to me that's why she rereads books so much, because she's trying to read and read them over and over till she finally gets it all in and understands it. She has read LotR 17 times through! LOL She can actually tell you how many times she has read a book. She does that a LOT.

 

I think it has to do with the brain structure, like what the Eides describe in Dyslexic Advantage, with the widely-spaced columns in the brain needing more time and stimulus to make connections. Her connections are all over the place and do take longer. I just roll with it. She's a good student and bright, but she needs that extra exposure to cement things. I can't assume that just because she's *bright* it has cemented. There's that gap there between what she can think at and what cements. So I try to let her see the same thing lots of ways till the connection, well, connects. So for spelling, when we were repeating those lists, we didn't just do word dictation per strict SWR. One time we'd do their style marking dictation. Another time we'd do it with sentence dictation. Another time with enrichment activities. Another time with...

 

The combo of TT plus something more conceptual for math is turning out to be golden for us. Even in grammar, we used spiral (Shurley). Now we're doing the BJU, which is a really crunchy fit, not perfect. I find myself needing to do the lessons with her (conceptual work), then more practice, then more practice. She has to see it a lot of times before those connections are there to know she has actually seen it before and before she starts to get fast. So I try not to stop exposing and doing until she's actually at the point where it's fast and easy for her. For her brightness it *ought* to be fast and easy, so if it's not it goes into the keep working on it pile, kwim? I try never to give up on her ability to learn.

 

That's not totally true. On this harder science we're getting into, I alter the expectations to fit her reality. I can't just wear her out to make her fit someone else's theory. But on things that are important or things that are pared down to where I know the expectations are appropriate, I teach to mastery, proficiency, ease and speed, and I do what it takes, whatever it takes.

[rafiki]

nt

[Raising Little Shoots]

thank you everyone.

We do quite a lot of memory work already. I have printed off your replies to study in a quiet moment (!)

 

thank you again

[Heathermomster]

Would anyone be willing to share how this looks in their own home?

 

I think this would be a great approach for my 9 yo dd.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Would you please explain what over learning means? I have no idea what it is or if we even apply it to our daily living.

[laughing lioness]

o·ver·learned also o·ver·learnt (-lûrnt), o·ver·learn·ing, o·ver·learns

To continue studying or practicing (something) after initial proficiency has been achieved so as to reinforce or ingrain the learned material or skill.

 

Practically I like to think of it as having information available for re-call rather than just recognition.

For ex: when ds is doing Shakespeare he memorizes his lines to the point that he is waking up in the morning saying the lines, or something will remind him of a scene in the play and he can quote the lines (his and others).

The CM system of poetry memorization. you continue to reinforce the poems previously memorized so that you don't forget them.

[Heathermomster]

When DS was little, say 5ish to 10, he used to stomp, clap, and sing in order to learn Bible verse and catechism. DS now uses a white board and speaks aloud, eliminating one word at a time for Bible memory. We used to do memory work in the car; however, he finds that distracting.

 

For spelling, same thing with clapping and the added bonus of table writing and using a chalk board.

 

For content areas such as science and history, 15 minute review sessions with the possibility of mnemonics. I tend to know the material myself, so ask DS the odd question throughout the day. He learns better in smaller doses. We talk about these subjects a great deal, and DS loves maps and making historical connections. Videos are helpful and anything he can pull apart and touch.

 

For math and grammar, conceptual understanding with review from different publishers has helped. Mnemonics again for procedures. My kiddo has to attach meaning to things in order to keep info long term.

 

Things like skip counting numbers and chanting grammar never worked with DS, but then again, he has dyslexia. Timers are completely out, except as indicators for break time beginning/ending. Accuracy trumps speed with DS.

Edited October 18, 2012 by Heathermomster