What I am Doing versus What I think would really work....does anyone do this?

[gratitude]

This particular thread is about my oldest who is age 9. My other 3 have current home schooling plans that work for them. :hurray:

 

My 9 year old really and truly does remember what he reads, loves to read and reads extremely well, makes connections with what he reads, tells us about what he reads if it honestly interests him, and occasionally acts out what he reads. He loves to learn, has a desire to learn, and gravitates towards learning. He remembers what he learned in books from years ago. Since we are Christian he also knows a lot of Bible and Bible is something we will keep doing with him for years to come.

 

So what is the problem?

 

Well very simply put I am constantly trying to put him into curriculums for the content subjects of science and history.

 

This is how it usually goes:

 

I order a great curriculum thinking it will finally work well. I hide the books. He begs for the books. I finally give in. He reads them, learns a ton, and on we go to the next one. :lol:

 

I really do care though about what world view he develops from these books. So at this point I take care what books I order the best I can.

 

Then I try to get him to do all the great history and science projects and assignments and note booking that I am told he needs to remember the information and make them stick. He hates it. He does enjoy the experiments, reading the books, telling us about the books he reads, learning, and well that is probably about it. So I end up feeling like the rest of it is busy work...that I am told he needs...but does he really need it?

 

I am burning out on the cycle.

 

He does do work for me without complaint (and not all of it he enjoys): English with Rod and Staff, Rod and Staff Spelling, math, cursive writing, etc. He knows they are non-negotiable. I am thinking of adding some additional writing to these basics.

 

If you have read all of this thank you and now for my bottom line question:

 

Do I need to insist on all of the extra work for science and history or should I just let him read the books and tell me all about them and be done with it?

 

When I think of just handing the books over it feels disorganized. When I insist on science and history note books I feel like we are spending too much time on busy work and hurting his love of learning since he hates it. Thoughts?

 

Or, here is another example we are still slaving away on the Apologia Astronomy note book that he is learning very little from doing. He finished reading the entire book a year ago and remembers much from doing so and will talk about the information he knows. He knows a lot of history and science, that I don't remember myself, that will show up in everyday conversations from all of the reading he has done. Do I even need to teach a child like this history and science prior to Junior High? Or, could I just focus on Bible and the 3 Rs and let him read?

[regentrude]

I found that most "curricula" contain vast amounts of busywork in the form of worksheets, projects and activities that some students do not need.

Apparently, your son does not: he reads, understands, and retains what he reads. That is completely sufficient.

My children are the same way; they do not need the endless repetitions, worksheets, projects. They hate anything "hands-on". So, we don't do them and focus on the actual content. Works beautifully.

You can cover science and history before high school just fine by having your child read to his heart's content.

I let them read and ask them to choose a topic for a longer project each semester - either a report, or an oral presentation with visuals, or a poster. they had fun researching their topic and presenting their results, in whatever creative way they chose.

[gratitude]

I found that most "curricula" contain vast amounts of busywork in the form of worksheets, projects and activities that some students do not need.

Apparently, your son does not: he reads, understands, and retains what he reads. That is completely sufficient.

My children are the same way; they do not need the endless repetitions, worksheets, projects. They hate anything "hands-on". So, we don't do them and focus on the actual content. Works beautifully.

You can cover science and history before high school just fine by having your child read to his heart's content.

I let them read and ask them to choose a topic for a longer project each semester - either a report, or an oral presentation with visuals, or a poster. they had fun researching their topic and presenting their results, in whatever creative way they chose.

 

I was really hoping someone with children like this would answer. Thank you so much for your insights and what is working for you. Curriculum do contain vast amounts of busywork. He would love nothing more than to do his 3 Rs and read to his heart's content until high school.

[Farrar]

Just reading books is a curriculum. :D Your answer seems obvious.

[LivingHope]

That's how my niece (15 years old) earned a near perfect score on the ACT and was 2nd place in her state for the academic team club. She does her math, foreign languages, and reads, reads, reads...no book is left unturned.

[The Way of My People]

My kids aren't this age yet, but your post sounds exactly like ME in high school. I loved to read, and retained/understood what I read. I hated doing science experiments, worksheets, projects, and other activities that I considered a waste of valuable reading time. I honestly think I learned nothing from all the "extras" I was made to do in the interest of helping me learn. I got high scores on my college and graduate school entrance exams, attended college and law school on full merit-based scholarships - so I don't think my preference for learning material through reading hurt me.

 

If my kids end up like yours, I'll just let them read, read, read in the content areas!

[8filltheheart]

I found that most "curricula" contain vast amounts of busywork in the form of worksheets, projects and activities that some students do not need.

Apparently, your son does not: he reads, understands, and retains what he reads. That is completely sufficient.

My children are the same way; they do not need the endless repetitions, worksheets, projects. They hate anything "hands-on". So, we don't do them and focus on the actual content. Works beautifully.

You can cover science and history before high school just fine by having your child read to his heart's content.

I let them read and ask them to choose a topic for a longer project each semester - either a report, or an oral presentation with visuals, or a poster. they had fun researching their topic and presenting their results, in whatever creative way they chose.

 

 

 

This is the way we do things as well except my younger kids don't do semester long projects (actually my older kids don't either ;) but I think a semester long project for a 9 yr old is probably too much. ;) ) My kids don't do a "writing curriculum" with writing assignments nor do they do written narrations. At 9 I pull a topic from either history or science and that is their writing assignment for the week. Efficient and works. :)

[Hedgehogs4]

let the boy read. throw your box away.

that is all.

[regentrude]

This is the way we do things as well except my younger kids don't do semester long projects (actually my older kids don't either ;) but I think a semester long project for a 9 yr old is probably too much.

 

Just to clarify, because what I wrote earlier was apparently misleading: my children did not do semester long projects! They did a longer project per semester, usually for a couple of weeks at the end.

[Hunter]

My younger son learned science and social studies primarily from trade books and VHS tapes. That was before DVDs :lol: Sometimes I had a plan, but often I just used whatever was currently available at our small library and local bookstore, or whatever I had recently heard about and sounded interesting.

 

We even did this through most of high school.

 

I wasn't afraid to use videos and books that were easy, as well as those above his level. He learned something from them all. The easy books are like first reading an outline/cliff-notes before reading an on grade level book. The advanced books can at least be appreciated for the pictures and captions.

 

Also don't be afraid to just have your boy read textbooks but not do them. Amazon sells texts from the early 2000s for a penny each. Again don't be afraid to use texts below grade level and above grade level.

 

Hardcopy encyclopedias are great to just READ. Multiple broken but overlapping sets can be better than one complete set and can often be acquired for free.

 

I do not believe students learn better from texts than from trade books, but I also don't believe textbooks are useless. I do think trying to complete most of the activities and assignments in many textbooks can interfere more than help with learning a topic. READING them though is good. Or just doing a bit of the exercises.

[Tracy]

At that age, in science and history, you are going for exposure rather than retention. He is going to see all this again anyway. If he likes to read and does so willingly, then just have him do narrations. You can even have him write them and call it composition.

[SorrelZG]

This thread was timely, validating and liberating. My firstborn is the same and I go through the same dilemma and even guilt!

[kiwik]

See if you can find Lewelma/Ruth's thread about doing science by reading and doing one in depth research project per year. He youngest is about your son's age.

[EmilyGF]

Gratitude,

 

I have children like that, but I want to leave some sort of paper trail of their work.

 

I'm experimenting with narrations of books they have read but aren't quite happy with it yet. My kids need input (the reading), but they also need to output it or it doesn't end up very useful in the long run.

 

Emily

[SorrelZG]

One idea I've had is to have pages ready for writing and illustrating narrations to add a page to a science or history binder if he's interested enough to do so. That way it would be his own creation. I haven't implemented the idea yet, however.

[warneral]

When he is ready, logic stage Well Trained Mind might be a good option. Outlining and researching topics of interest

[xixstar]

Sounds like reading works well for him and busywork does not. But (not knowing much about higher-level organized curriculums) I think there can also be advantages to extension activities in addition to reading. The good questions having children think critically or make an analysis of what they're reading more than just remembering exactly what happened can add a lot to learning. So while I'd be inclined to just keep the reading going, I would probably scan through what isn't being done (if you're still doing organized curriculum) and pick out questions or small projects that will get your child to think deeper about stuff.

 

I remember reading a ton and remembering a lot when I was younger but it was often still a surface-understanding. I really appreciated later when in classes that really dived between the lines often to question things presented, discuss why or how, and also look at different ways or options that could be done.

 

So just a thought AND you may already be doing this. Projects could be a good way to do this. I did this with my teen in middle school because I needed tangibles for portfolio reviews but also needed some ways to draw out her reading a little too. Good luck.

[gratitude]

This thread was timely, validating and liberating. My firstborn is the same and I go through the same dilemma and even guilt!

 

 

Me too! Aren't their answers helpful and liberating!