Developing an Independent Learner

[Chelli]

A recent conversation among homeschoolers on Facebook has me thinking about the coming years and what I should expect/require as far as independence goes. So I have some questions for those of you who have traveled this path before.

 

1) When did you begin giving your child indpendent work to do?

 

2) What independent work did you initially give them?

 

3) When did you turn over entire subjects for your child to complete on their own?

 

4) What subjects were the first ones you had them complete independently?

 

5) What format was the subject (workbook based, literature based, etc.)?

 

6) If literature based (our homeschool style), how did you make sure they understood what they read?

 

 

I think that's all for now, but I'm sure I'll come up with more! Thanks!

[Guest]

A recent conversation among homeschoolers on Facebook has me thinking about the coming years and what I should expect/require as far as independence goes. So I have some questions for those of you who have traveled this path before.

 

1) When did you begin giving your child indpendent work to do?

Age 4.  I didn't have a choice since I was working 16+ hours a day as a programmer.  He was ready for school, but I didn't have large blocks of time to dedicate to him.  Before that at ages 2-3, when he was doing "preschool" things like learning how to hold scissors or tracing or matching shapes/colors/whatever, he did on his own as well with me checking over his shoulder every now and then.

 

2) What independent work did you initially give them?

Math/logic puzzles, science experiments/projects

 

3) When did you turn over entire subjects for your child to complete on their own?

Last year at age 7.  He now (age 8) completes math on his own 95% of the time (the other 5% is when I have to step in and teach/clarify something), as well as English, science and history.  French is really the only truly dependent subject we have since I have to actually teach it :).  Music and composer study  is half-and-half.  Oh, cryptography he does on his own as well. And art but that's because we have the Atelier DVDs...

 

4) What subjects were the first ones you had them complete independently?

I can't remember which came first...but probably math.

 

5) What format was the subject (workbook based, literature based, etc.)?

History is reading SOTW with the activity pages. Science is Science in the Ancient World, so he reads and does the experiment and writes out some information in his notebook. English is literature based with writing in his notebook. Math is Beast Academy.  Cryptograhy is workbook based.

 

6) If literature based (our homeschool style), how did you make sure they understood what they read?

DS has a tendency to tell me *everything* so he will just naturally tell me about the book as he is reading it. Or I will ask questions. I printed off the narration bookmark from simply charlotte mason (I think) to give me some easy go-to questions.

 

 

I think that's all for now, but I'm sure I'll come up with more! Thanks!

 

[Luckymama]

I have a ninth grader who I began homeschooling in fifth grade.

 

1) When did you begin giving your child indpendent work to do?

I started during her first year home.

 

2) What independent work did you initially give them?

things like---read the next section before we discuss it, do these 10 math problems and we'll check them after lunch, do this mapwork

 

3) When did you turn over entire subjects for your child to complete on their own?

 

I have YET to turn over an entire subject for dd to complete on her own! (I outsource two subjects, English and Arabic.) She reads, studies, and does writing assignments on her own. (We watch videos together.) We discuss everything! I explicity teach chemistry.

 

4) What subjects were the first ones you had them complete independently?

 

Next year she wants to self-study Comparative Government and Politics. I am writing a detailed syllabus for her to follow. We will meet once or twice a week to discuss the material (I'll also do the readings and watch any videos). I will assess her progress through the discussions and by assigning/grading released AP Comp GoPo free-response questions each week/topic.

 

5) What format was the subject (workbook based, literature based, etc.)?

 

For the AP class, she will read a textbook, read each issue of The Economist and Foreign Policy, watch selected videos, read English-language articles from newspapers for each of the six countries (plus EU), and listen to selected BBC World Service and NPR reports. She will also be doing a lot of writing.

 

6) If literature based (our homeschool style), how did you make sure they understood what they read?

 

n/a

[lanabug]

Hmm, I think we are in the same FB group!  CoC, right?  Nice to "see" you here too!

Lana

[jaderbee]

My 3rd grader does SSL2 independently and when we used math worksheets she could complete those independently after the lesson (unlike TC where she sits next to me while completing it). Both of my girls complete their cursive lessons independently. When I taught a 5th grader she completed all but math and language arts independently, once she was trained how to properly work in each subject. She couldn't follow directions but she could memorize steps. For example, she knew to read her Latin lesson, make flashcards for new words, properly label her paper,complete the exercises, file her flashcards and turn in her paper because I trained her to do that daily. But she couldn't follow a step by step walk through on how to write a report on her favorite animal unless I guided her though each step. So I guess part of creating independence is establishing good habits? I hope that makes sense. Have you listened to SWB's lecture on the creating independence? I bought it during the sale last Nov. and its very informative. 

[stm4him]

My oldest two are independent except for checking their work. I do one hour of school together for memory work and worship and I read one chapter to each of a literature book of their choice. Other than that we meet to check work and that is it.

[stm4him]

My third one is mostly independent at eight except for spelling and when I introduce a new round of math facts. He will start Saxon 5/4 soon.

[stm4him]

My third one is mostly independent at eight except for spelling and when I introduce a new round of math facts. He will start Saxon 5/4 soon.

[stm4him]

I will answer in more detail later but I only have my phone with me now.

[lllll]

..

[Guest abajorek]

Thanks for sharing!

[Hunter]

In my experience it is rare to see a child completing schoolwork independently who is not FIRST doing WORK independently. WORK can be chores, caring for younger sibling and/or animals, volunteering, etc. and not just out of home employment.

 

Work first solves a host of "school" problems.

[Mom22ns]

 

3) When did you turn over entire subjects for your child to complete on their own?

 

6) If literature based (our homeschool style), how did you make sure they understood what they read?

 

We didn't start homeschooling until 5th grade and my kids were already capable of some independent work then, so I can't say when or what was first. However, I will say that I NEVER turned a subject over completely to my kids. They certainly did things like vocabulary workbooks completely on their own, but that isn't a complete subject. The closest I came to turning a subject over to them was enrolling them in online classes or at the local CC or University.

 

I always found the best way to see if my children understood what they read was to discuss it with them! They did literature curriculums that were supposed to be independent, but we still discussed books - all the books!

[lllll]

..

[elmerRex]

We have a family study time. Quiet Study Time is something that everyone in the family does for about 90 minutes in the evening and we start the kids in it when they are toddlers.

[Arcadia]

 

1) When did you begin giving your child indpendent work to do?

 

Around 3. My oldest love workbooks

 

2) What independent work did you initially give them?

 

Math, handwriting

 

3) When did you turn over entire subjects for your child to complete on their own?

 

Oldest went to public school for K but he self taught for preschool so not sure how to answer that. He is independent on public school homework and in the the later years does K12 in the public charter independently other than me grading written tests.

 

4) What subjects were the first ones you had them complete independently?

 

Math, Music (he prefer self taught), Science

 

5) What format was the subject (workbook based, literature based, etc.)?

 

Textbook (printed and online), workbook

 

6) If literature based (our homeschool style), how did you make sure they understood what they read?

 

Literature is outsourced every year so I can't answer that. This kid reads the library clean and can retell what he reads so I am not worried.

 

My younger boy is similar in self study/independence but only devours non-fiction.

 

My oldest has an independent personality since birth and my youngest had many blood draws in his first year because of failure to thrive. So the ancient not tablet Leappad with stylus taught my oldest to read and write in script as a toddler due to me buying it for him to keep him occupied while we were often at the medical center.

 

I guess if you count reading as a subject, then it would be a year old. He is an outlier though. My younger self taught reading at a later age.

 

This is one of the ancient Leap Pad books with cartridge I bought him. He didn't need help from me.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00005BYR8

This is ancient Leap Pad system he used since it is now obsolete.

http://www.amazon.com/LeapPad-Plus-Writing-Learning-System/dp/B00009IM5V

[stm4him]

Even though I love teaching one room schoolhouse style, it has become hard for me to do for most subjects.  Also, my daughter has a hard time retaining anything, especially when it is taught as a group because she will shut down and let others answer anything technical.  (Though she is always happy to participate in group discussions).  I try to still have read aloud time daily, worship time, and memory work time together each day (totally an hour and a half), but I can't pull that off every day.  I find our homeschool days easiest and most stress free when my children have regular assignments to complete that are basically the same each day and require little to nothing from me to get started.  So once my children can read well on their own they are assigned Saxon Math, Hey Andrew Greek, and Latin's Not So Tough.  I have been working in a music theory workbook since we can't afford lessons right now.  I also like to put an emphasis on grammar so right now my oldest two are using Hake Grammar much like Saxon Math.  I always try to correct their work and reassign anything they missed.  If they can get it right the second time they can move on.  Anything they still have wrong (or clearly don't understand) they have to go back and study the corresponding lesson and do the lesson practice problems.  This keeps me on top of what they are learning and how they are doing despite the fact that I am not teaching.  We may switch to Professor K Spelling and Grammar (through Robinson books) but I am not sure about that just yet.  I really like Hake but the copywork and journal topics aren't as beautiful as using something like McGuffey.

 

My goal for my younger children is to get them to the point of independent study as early as possible without pressuring them.  So I don't push them past short lessons and I am leaning towards not requiring anything of them before six except to sit with us during worship and memory work (an hour) and sitting with us for at least part of read aloud (about 4 picture books worth for the little ones).  So I teach them how to write their numbers so they can copy a hundred number chart and learn to count and recognize all the numbers with an abacus and base ten blocks.  And then I teach them how to practice math flashcards once they understand what the facts mean.  From that point on they can study their flashcards themselves and show me when they think they have mastery.  At that point they can begin to learn to write all their letters and learn all the sounds so that they can put the sounds together to build words and learn blending.  When they have that concept we continue with reading words and easy readers and spelling the words they are reading until they are fluent enough for silent reading.  They also have copywork, but only words they can read.  Once they can do all of that they are ready for self-study and I am only focusing on teaching one thing at a time (numbers to facts to handwriting to reading/spelling).  They can take off in those subjects alone after I have given them the tools.  

 

Also, I find it easiest to assign everything that is not a skill subject to silent reading from books with oral narrations here and there.  I require them to work up to 2 hours of reading at night when it gets dark (so they have as much play time outside as possible).  I require 40 of it to be Bible reading, 40 of it to be nonfiction (for which I usually assign a daily topic- biography, current events, geography, history, life skills, or science), and 40 minutes of fiction of their choice.  I may decide to actually dictate what books they read, but for now I have been happy enough with their selections.  

 

All in all this is about 1 1/2 hours together per day, 3 hours of independent study and checking work with me, and 2 hours of reading once they are ready for self-study.  My six year olds start at 30 minutes and work up to 1 1/2 hours of study and work up from 20 minutes of reading to an hour.  Once they are reading very well their study time changes.  They all have playtime from 4:00 until dark (unless they have not finished work or schoolwork) and they have play time in the morning before 12 except for chores and our read aloud time together.  

 

This seems to be working very well for us :-)  It leaves us all feeling productive even when I can't have group time.  And while the kids have certain assignments, they also have a lot of control over the speed of their work and the content of their reading.  

[stm4him]

I forgot to say that I also require a drawing from them daily.  They can start that very young if they wish.  I emphasize pencil grip and sitting posture before beginning any study by having them sit up during worship and having them hold a pencil correctly for a few minutes at the start of every lesson and during all of their handwriting practice.