Chrysalis Academy Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 This is my second time around with a 5th grader, but the first time, I was only homeschooling the one. Â This time, I've got the 5th grader plus my 9th grader, plus part time work. Â I'm feeling like the 5th grader needs to ramp it up a little bit, in terms of output and content, but in order to make that work she'll need to do more independent work than she has in the past. Â Even though I dedicate several hours a day to working directly with her, I can't really add more hours to my plate - so the ramp-up will need to come from her having some independent work to do without me right at her elbow, or directly teaching. I'm trying to figure out what's reasonable to expect from this age & stage. Â I'm going to re-listen to SWB's talk on the topic, but I'm also curious to hear from experienced folks: how much independent work does your 5th grader do? What does s/he do independently? In what topics? Â Is s/he able to do a list of things independently, or do you have to check in frequently? Â I know every kid is different. But I have a tendency to expect less of the 2nd child than the first, for a variety of reasons, and I'm curious to hear what others experience. Â Hearing about a range of experience will be helpful to me. Â 1 Quote
MinivanMom Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 For my 5th graders, completely independent work was: Â K12 Human Odyssey 1 (they would read and outline the chapter independently) Story of Science: Aristotle (they would read and outline independently) Earth science/astronomy readings (read independently & wrote short report every 3rd week) Galore Park French Blast off with Logic Artistic Pursuits Literature readings (a book a week) Â *We had a set time at the end of each day where I would look over their outlines, French exercises, logic, and artwork. We would also discuss their history and science readings, and I would talk through any new French grammar concepts with them. This took maybe 30 min at the end of the day. Â With all our other subjects (Singapore Math, MCT Town, Sequential Spelling, writing instruction, and science experiments), they needed me right there to teach new concepts and/or to be available as they worked to answer questions. 1 Quote
regentrude Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 (edited) Most of my 5th grader's work was independent. I was sitting next to him for math - pretty much everything else, he preferred to work on by himself. In 5th grade, we spent 4 hours daily on seat work. I did not use scripted curricula, but mainly real books, documentaries, and some learning programs on the computer. Â I always worked while homeschooling, and me being able to continue my job was the one condition I set when I pulled the kids from ps. They wanted to homeschool, so they made it work. Edited July 13, 2016 by regentrude 1 Quote
fourisenough Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 Most if it. But I'm realizing that I have unusually independent kids (relative to other children I know well). By that age, my kids don't tolerate much direct instruction. 1 Quote
LMD Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 Most of it here too. I write up a weekly list and she portions it out through the week. Mostly she works independently with me nearby for questions. We do science all together and some of her maths and LA requires me to sit with her and discuss. 1 Quote
Arcadia Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 My kids 5th grade year is very light. Â DS11 did - math, AoPS books himself. Calls me if he is really stuck and wants me to see where he went wrong - science was a 2.5 x 30 homeschool lab class plus lots of independent readings of his own choosing - language arts, he did nothing other than read and read and read. He is a natural speller and good at grammar. - music, he did his music theory workbook and continue dabbling with my piano - german, saturday class and I just remind them to do their class homework - art, we do over summer as well as when a good affordable workshop comes up. - history, we didn't do anything other than watch documentaries and read - writing, we didn't do anything for writing because we plan for him to take a writing class in 6th. It worked out well. Â Â DS10 did - math, AoPS online classes, his social needs are much higher than DS11 - science was a 2.5 x 30 homeschool lab class plus lots of independent readings of his own choosing - language arts, he finished vocabulary workshop workbook and just read. - music, he did his music theory workbook and practice his flute - german, saturday class and I just remind them to do their class homework - art, we do over summer as well as when a good affordable workshop comes up. He enjoys different arts forms from DS11 Â My DS10 needed help in the beginning for planning his work. He was not good at estimating how long a task would take. He has his own planner. He also have a much higher need to talk to people. 3 Quote
freesia Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 My dc who just finished 5th is my 3rd. For reference, he gets overwhelmed easily by new things and is mildly dyslexic. However, I have 4 and needed him to do some independent work. In our house, I meet with each child individually for a teaching time and go through all the lessons and some lesson practice (one after another--so I intro math, we practice a few, I assign the rest for independent work, some for grammar). We also do some group work (mainly memory and some history). Okay, so this year he did independently: Lit selection (1-2 chapters). He sometimes had an activity sheet with this, but not every week. Writing--I helped with outlines and editing, he wrote the paragraphs on his own time (usually 1 paragraph a day-3 days a week). Grammar--1 lesson in Climbing to Good English 3x a week Science Reading/Health Reading--he does all his science reading by himself. We work at a steady pace. History--starting second semester, he had some reading in addition to what we did together. I would guess history and Science were about 20-30 minutes 3-4 times a week. Math: Most of the Horizons math lesson (I sometimes skipped things he knew well) Latin: Prima Latina--just learning vocab. Very light. 1 Quote
LEK Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 My eldest in only half way through 4th now but she does pretty much all of her work independently now. We work together on spelling (AAS), grammar (FLL) and sometimes writing, other than that she mostly works on her own. 1 Quote
deerforest Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 (edited) I have just one DD who is a very social learner who struggled a lot with anxiety, perfectionism, and time management. She has 2e issues with processing speed. I work full time also. Just setting the stage because I had to learn to teach the child I had whose input capacity was so asynchronous with her output throughout the elementary years so middle grades have been a big transitional time. Â 5th grade she did independent reading only. Everything else I sat next to her to help her manage her time. 6th grade we moved to a set time for each subject. If we used that time together, she was done with that subject for the day. If we had time remaining, she worked on it on her own. I assigned based on time rather than task, and we had a much more successful experience with independent work. She had less anxiety knowing she just had to work hard for 20 minutes rather than until she finished a task. I realized that she was psyching herself out and getting completely overwhelmed. Â ETA: I should also add that independence at this point is not a goal or priority for us. Edited July 14, 2016 by deerforest 2 Quote
kbutton Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 I chose specific things that I thought would make my son more independent, and I started with subjects that were get 'er done for him, like history and geography. The history program we chose had daily lessons and checklists (Notgrass). I did have to be sure he was keeping up. Ditto for geography (Evan Moor). He also started teaching himself math for the most part, but I hadn't expected that (Singapore). He did writing with a tutor. Â It was a year of learning how much supervision he needed. He learned to assign a list of weekly tasks to specific days by looking at which tasks were the most difficult, where his blocks of time were to work alone, etc. It had it's ups and downs, but it was successful. 1 Quote
RootAnn Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 For my oldest, fifth was when I needed lots of independence from her, so she did history, biology, Spanish, and some math on her own. Some subjects bombed on the independence front. Megawords, for example, was not as independent as I was led to believe. Â My next one was not doing much independently in fifth- grammar, maybe? Â Dd#3 will be doing the same type of independence stuff as #1 this year: biology, history, some Latin, and some math. We'll see how it goes. Â My advice is to keep close tabs (daily check ins where you see her work and answer questions). Things can go downhill quickly when you don't do your part of the check process. Good luck. 2 Quote
lewelma Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 For my younger, none.  Well, maybe that is not fair.  He could work independently for about 30 minutes at a time on literature reading or typing program or a documentary, but he could not *initiate* anything on his own.  And for that matter, he still can't. So I couldn't give him a 2 hour list and expect him to accomplish it, and we are only *maybe* approaching that goal in 7th grade, definitely depends on the day.  What this meant was that every 30 minutes I needed to come in and move him to the next task.  This is still true in 7th grade, and I have had some thoughts on whether it is caused by the 2E nature of his learning, as it seems to be outside of what is normal for this board -- just look at the responses above.  But you asked for a range of experiences, so I will stand tall and come in at the bottom. :001_smile:  Ruth in NZ 4 Quote
RootAnn Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 So I couldn't give him a 2 hour list and expect him to accomplish it, and we are only *maybe* approaching that goal in 7th grade, definitely depends on the day. Ruth in NZ It definitely depends on the kid. My second kid just went from no independence to being able to self-start and follow through to a certain degree this past school year (7th). She and her 2 1/2 year younger sister are at the same level of independence right now. And we don't have any diagnosed LDs. We are just average late bloomers, except for dd#3 who is my only relatively normal kid so far (met developmental benchmarks at the proper age vs way late.) Â My next one, a boy, will probably be at elbow 100% of the time in 5th. Too early to tell for sure about #5. 3 Quote
regentrude Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 (edited) For my younger, none.  Well, maybe that is not fair.  He could work independently for about 30 minutes at a time on literature reading or typing program or a documentary, but he could not *initiate* anything on his own.  And for that matter, he still can't. So I couldn't give him a 2 hour list and expect him to accomplish it, and we are only *maybe* approaching that goal in 7th grade, definitely depends on the day.  What this meant was that every 30 minutes I needed to come in and move him to the next task.  This is still true in 7th grade, and I have had some thoughts on whether it is caused by the 2E nature of his learning, as it seems to be outside of what is normal for this board -- just look at the responses above.  But you asked for a range of experiences, so I will stand tall and come in at the bottom. :001_smile:  When I say my 5th grader was working independently, that did not mean he would work without interaction for four hours straight. At that age, I would not leave him alone with older sister for more than two hours and either be at home, or have him come to the office with me if I have to be at work longer, so that I would be able to redirect, answer questions, help get something started.  For example, a day at hone might start with kid reading independently for an hour, then I get  him for 45 minutes of math working near or with me, and then I send him off to watch a documentary, check in with him when finished and see what he is planning do work on next. I still would not dictate what he had to work on, and he was free to select from the resources, but in between the different segments of independent work, we would touch base. Edited July 14, 2016 by regentrude 5 Quote
ScoutTN Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 Last year my DD, who was 10, did these things independently (with checking-in between things or if she had questions etc.):  History - read and outline or write a summary, do timeline, sometimes watch a video Science - read library books and either outline or write a summary, sometimes watch a video Latin - watch lesson video and do the workbook pp, vocab review on Quizlet Keyboarding practice Math - I go over the lesson with her at the beginning and again after I've checked it. Memory work - poems, Bible, catechism, speeches etc. Writing assignments - like math this would have interaction with me before and after   1 Quote
Farrar Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 Fifth grade was a nadir for me in regards to independent work, I'm sad to say. Both the level of work and my thinking that they'd do more independently both ramped up throughout fourth and fifth grade yet they didn't actually do hardly anything independently. They needed me sitting right there more than ever. Â Every kid is different... going into seventh now and I can now say that they do most work independently. But they simply couldn't do it at that age. 3 Quote
Soror Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 (edited) Depends partially on when we count 5th grade, my son's bday is the day before the cut-off. Him being younger for grade(just turned 10) he didn't hardly do anything at all independent- maybe typing or something else small. Older for grade (11) he would do science & history reading some on his own, typing & spelling that didn't require me. Especially towards the last half of the year he started to really get some independence and would work from his checklist doing whatever didn't involve me.  My second has been more independent almost from the start, she did more on her own last year in 3rd than he did in 5/6. Next year I expect her to be fairly solo. I'll likely be getting her started with writing, explaining new concepts from math if she doesn't get them and checking checking over work.  Kids are just different. He was diagnosed ADHD and when given that diagnosis she said to expect him to lag behind 30% in EF skills, so I honestly wasn't expecting any independence until 12. But he had a jump in maturity before then and I was glad for it. This year is 6/7 we've just started back but it seems he will be doing quite a bit on his own. With his jump in maturity he really prefers to do what he can on his own.  My second daughter coming up seems to really like her independence too, at 1st she pretty much always works with me but if there is anything she thinks she can do on her own she wants to do on her own without help.  I honestly didn't pay much attention to what my son was *supposed* to be doing, I just met him where he was at and we went from there. Thank goodness he was my oldest so I had more time. I think when they're ready you;ll know, you can try some more independent work and if it goes well she is ready if it doesn't you can look at how to modify it, break it down, scaffold etc to see if you can get some more independence but if it ends up being a big stress back and up and just work with her. Edited July 14, 2016 by soror 2 Quote
Julie of KY Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 Very little independently, but he's dyslexic and not an independent reader yet. Â He does: Teaching company videos typing listening to literature some math 1 Quote
Farrar Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 Depends partially on when we count 5th grade, my son's bday is the day before the cut-off. Him being younger for grade(just turned 10) he didn't hardly do anything at all independent- maybe typing or something else small. Older for grade (11) he would do science & history reading some on his own, typing & spelling that didn't require me. Especially towards the last half of the year he started to really get some independence and would work from his checklist doing whatever didn't involve me.  Yes, that's true for us as well. My boys just meet the grade cut off so they didn't turn 11 until the start of 6th grade. This past year, they've really taken off in terms of what they can do independently. 3 Quote
Tiramisu Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 I'm planning fifth grade to be very independent. My youngest is a rising fifth grader, and fourth was almost completely independent by necessity. Through third grade everything she did was parent led and that scheme imploded at the end of the year. It was only the two of us at home that year and the one-on-one intensity, give my expectations, was too much for her. But she also burned out from working with her grandma a year before. Â Since I knew if we were going to continue hsing, I had to get out of the picture. So I spent months thinking out a plan of what materials she could work through on her own and still meet the goals I set. It was scary, honestly, but partway through the year, things started to happen that showed me this method was just as successful as me guiding her along in everything. Â The curriculum I chose for her was very specific her strengths and weaknesses, and wouldn't necessarily be helpful to you. But if you choose carefully with his strengths and weaknesses and interests in mind, independent work is doable and can be beneficial. 1 Quote
HilJoy14 Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 I think it obviously depends on the child, but also on the curriculum you're using. We chose a balance of independent vs. together curriculum, based on what I wanted for each subject. (And the "together" ones could have been done independently, but I chose that as our time to work together.)  Starting in 3rd for my youngest, both girls did these independently: Spelling (Spelling Workout) Grammar (R&S grammar pages only, Easy Grammar) (When we did CC's Essentials program, I did that with my daughter every day.) Math (we used TT first, then Saxon - for which I did walk through the lesson with my 4th grader and did mental math with both, and some Horizons) Together we did science (which my 5th grader proved to me she could do a WONDERFUL job with alone, when I was busy one week - she did BETTER work that week than when we worked together!), history (they could do alone, but I chose to leave a lot out, so I wanted to participate), and writing (IEW).  I'm impressed with people who had 5th graders outlining. I tried that with mine, but she either didn't really understand or pretended not to understand so I'd continue to help. ;-P 2 Quote
Minerva Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 (edited) Independently:  Geography (mapwork) Mental Math Typing A grammar fix page Some of her math practice  The above takes about 45 minutes  With me: Math Lesson and some of the math practice Spelling Writing  The above takes about 1-2 hours  My dd reads silently for about an hour a day and I read aloud to her for about an hour (at bedtime).  We haven't officially started Spanish, Science, or History for the year. I am still not sure how to fit them into our day.  Last year was the first year she did any independent work. I remember reading posts from parents saying that their kids did independent work and wondering how in the world they pulled it off. I love that she is doing more on her own, but also see that she still gets a lot more out of the things we do together. It's a tricky balance.  We have only been back to school for two weeks, and I definitely don't feel like I have it figured out yet.    Edited July 14, 2016 by Minerva 1 Quote
Roadrunner Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 Part of the reason why he can't do more independent work is the choice of our curriculum. MCT anyone? So vocab and grammar isnt independent, but it could have been if we went a different route. Same with science. We use BFSU, so it's completely teacher led. But if you go with a different program, you can make science independent as well. Foreign language requires interaction, but grammar excercises can be done independently. So that's the reason in our home truly independent work for my little guy is reading, SOTW reading, writing a summary, and writing first draft of WWS 1. That's it. I feel like I am being split into two halves, so my solution next year is to outsource most things for his older brother (6th grade) and hope he can be more independent. I feel OK outsourcing since his classes use the same books we would be using at home. Keeping my fingers crossed that it works. So my short answer is I could have my little guy mostly independent if I chose materials differently. 2 Quote
Sneezyone Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 DD objects to nearly all direct instruction these days. That doesn't mean she gets none but that it is imposed on her when she's clearly misunderstood a topic.  She completes weekly history reading and chapter outlines and shows the final draft to me. Her math is done independently and brought to me for review every 2-3 days. Her reading is done independently and we discuss the novel each night at dinner. We still do art together 1x/week. Science is still done together 1x/week  ...you get the idea. This frees me up to spend more time with DS who needs much more in the way of direct instruction and discussion. 2 Quote
happypamama Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 Last year my fifth grader did, independently: Singapore practice problems after I taught the lesson Typing History Odyssey Science reading/Khan Academy computer programming DuoLingo for a while Trail Guide to US Geography Literature Bible Logic -- CryptoMindbenders  I did, with him: Spelling Math teaching Latin Writing Memory work Group work and read alouds 1 Quote
Roadrunner Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 What curriculum are you using? I am not willing to sacrifice together time on math and writing feedback, but I think the rest of subjects could really be reduced to either worksheet type of programs (Sandlier for vocab, Megawords for spelling for example) without sacrificing much quality and to reading (science and history) at that age. If she likes art and you want to see output, have her make main lesson books in history and/or science a la Waldorf. That could be an independent task as well. That's all I got as I am looking at next year. 1 Quote
Soror Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 DD objects to nearly all direct instruction these days. That doesn't mean she gets none but that it is imposed on her when she's clearly misunderstood a topic.  She completes weekly history reading and chapter outlines and shows the final draft to me.  That is my girls! It annoys them to need me, whereas ds thrived with working with me. 2 Quote
Melissa B Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 Despite being old for his grade, my ds who's going into 5th does not work well alone. However, I work part time an have two other children to work with, so I do have a list of work he needs to get done each day on his own.  CNN student news - online VP self paced history - online VP Omnibus secondary lit - online Pentime Vocabu-Lit Saxon math lesson - after we have gone over the lesson and practice problems together  If he finishes that and I am still unavailable he works on his typing skills or watches documentaries I have provided for the purpose. 1 Quote
Heatherwith4 Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 We finished 5th grade with my oldest in May. He did math facts, part of his math work, spelling (ocassionally), and independent reading without my direct supervision. He also took enrichment classes which were drop-off, but that doesn't really count because he was not independent of the teacher there. Â I am still planning a lot for next year, but I'm hoping he will be more independent. 1 Quote
EKS Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 For that age, I had my son do math problems, grammar exercises, a writing assignment (or part of one), and assigned reading as independent work. Â Â For "together" work, we did math and grammar lessons, history reading (spine and select readings), science (spine and any activities), and literature (lesson and select readings). 1 Quote
Momto6inIN Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 Completely on her own in 5th: reading lit selections and writing summaries practicing piano Building Thinking Skills and Mind Benders Typing Instructor Wordly Wise read Human Odyssey and summarize and keep a timeline notebook Trail Guide to World Geography Math Mammoth - practice problems after the lesson read Mr. Q science lesson and do worksheets/activities  With me: Math Mammoth - go over lesson and make sure she understands the concepts Discuss history reading Artistic Pursuits Discuss science questions and do lab/report AAS FLL & IEW on alternating weeks 1 Quote
Chrysalis Academy Posted July 15, 2016 Author Posted July 15, 2016 (edited) Yes, curriculum choice is the $64,000 question, isn't it? Some lend themselves to independent work, some don't - MCT, I'm looking at you! Â Dd tends to prefer the type of curriculum that requires a lot of interaction, and so do I, frankly. Â I feel like most of the learning in the content areas comes from the discussions we have while we're reading aloud together, whether it's history, science or literature. And I don't want to give that up. Â Last year, she did independent online math practice, typing, and cursive/copywork, as well as some reading and writing in science (read a library book, write a paragraph about it type stuff). Plus reading of course. Â We did math, spelling, writing, history, science, and lit read alouds together. She wants to do more hands-on projects in science & history, and I don't have more hours in my day. So we may need to look at block scheduling or pulling out pieces of the work that she can do on her own in the afternoons while I'm working with her sister. Â Or possibly adding a few more workbooky things that she can do on her own, but I really don't want to add anything that feels like busywork just for the sake of increasing her school hours. Â I'm thinking about using Mr Q, I think she could do the reading and worksheets independently on day 1 & 2, then we can do the day 3 project together. Â That means one longer science day - on that day, she could do reading & writing in history on her own, but we could do it together the other days. Something like that. Â I just have to think creatively and ask for a little more independent output, which she is certainly capable of. Â Â I think what I really need are some ideas for meaningful projects that she could work on independently in the afternoons. Â So far, "project" to her means something we do together - cooking, or science experiments, or field trips so she can nature journal, or something like that. She's always pushing for more of that stuff, and I don't have time to add that in. Â But if we could come up with some meaningful project ideas that she could run with at least partially independently, that would be good. Â Any project suggestions for a kid who loves lions & other big cats, art, acting, horseback riding, being outside, and dreams of being a wildlife photographer in Africa?? Â Stuff she could do that would be meaningful, but wouldn't involve me having to drive her somewhere or work with her side by side for the whole project? Edited July 15, 2016 by Chrysalis Academy 1 Quote
Sherry in OH Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 Â .... Â I think what I really need are some ideas for meaningful projects that she could work on independently in the afternoons. Â So far, "project" to her means something we do together - cooking, or science experiments, or field trips so she can nature journal, or something like that. She's always pushing for more of that stuff, and I don't have time to add that in. Â But if we could come up with some meaningful project ideas that she could run with at least partially independently, that would be good. Â Any project suggestions for a kid who loves lions & other big cats, art, acting, horseback riding, being outside, and dreams of being a wildlife photographer in Africa?? Â Stuff she could do that would be meaningful, but wouldn't involve me having to drive her somewhere or work with her side by side for the whole project? Â She could practice photography skills by photographing birds, squirrels, or other visitors to your backyard. Â She could experiment with different lens, filters, and camera settings. Â She could choose the best of the photos and create a slide show or book showcasing her work. Â Books and online resources could provide guidance in theory and technique. Â She could also research the animals (or plants) she photographs. 1 Quote
Chrysalis Academy Posted July 15, 2016 Author Posted July 15, 2016 She could practice photography skills by photographing birds, squirrels, or other visitors to your backyard. Â She could experiment with different lens, filters, and camera settings. Â She could choose the best of the photos and create a slide show or book showcasing her work. Â Books and online resources could provide guidance in theory and technique. Â She could also research the animals (or plants) she photographs. Â Those are good ideas. Any books or online resources that you think would work for a 5th grader? I know zero about photography. Quote
Arcadia Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 Any books or online resources that you think would work for a 5th grader? I know zero about photography. There are plenty of wildlife photography books in the library. Use Link+/ILL if you have to. My DS10 loves photography. There are even books on how to do better wildlife/nature photography with your smartphone. Â Also she can blog about it. Just remember to watermark her photos and disable downloading. 1 Quote
vaquitita Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 My oldest will be in 5th grade next year and this is something I'm trying to figure out too. Up till now it has worked best to do certain subjects as a family; history, science, poetry, etc. But wth four kids, I need to transition them to working independently. I'm just not sure exactly how and when to make that transition. My oldest has preferred to work as a group, partly personality, partly laziness. Lol. But my two oldest kids are two years apart, my second k was slow to read, so if I was reading everything out loud to her anyway, why not include them both? But my next two kids have a larger gap, so combining is going to get harder. Making skill subjects independent was a mistake, though of course it might have been the young age, which leaves history and science. Which is kind of a bummer, because that's the fun stuff! Lol. Â Last year I saw my oldest do much better wth his independent work, and I'm starting to think the time is coming soon when he will do a lot better working on his own. He may not like it, but he will learn more. Right now I'm starting to suspect his wish of continuing family style subjects is just because he doesn't have to do as much work. I'm doing the reading, the narration is shared, etc. This past year his independent work consisted of piano practice, MUS worksheets, Copywork, math app, typing, reading 1-2 chapters. For next year I'm trying t she more reading over to my kids. I'm limiting myself to reading just SOTW, everything else in history they read. He began written narrations last year, so Im going to have him do those for SOTW every week this year. He will either have to listen harder or maybe I'll have to have him read SOTW for himself. We shall see how it goes. Science, well that one is going to be a family subject still. I'm planning to teach math, RLTL and ELTL with my two oldest kids, kiddo #2 will also have AAR. Kiddo #3 will be in kindy, so I have to sit with him for math, writing, reading. There's too big of an age gap, he is just not interested in the big kids history. Science he will probably join at least sometimes. Going forward, I don't know what to do. I had planned on using beautiful feets history of California, but that seems like it would mean keeping history for my oldest two as a group subject. So that may not work. A that point, I'll have three school age kids and a preK I will be teaching to read. I'm totally overwhelmed just thinking about it. My energy level can't do an eight hour school day (for me, not them) in order to do everything with them I'd like to do. I need to make choices. Right now, even though i hate for 'school with mom' to just be the boring stuff, I'm feeling like I better stick to teaching the skill subjects and make everything else independent. 1 Quote
deerforest Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 Do you have Great Courses Plus? There is an excellent basic photography course taught by National Geographic Photographer. DD has been  working through it this summer. Here's a link to it on the main site but it's on the plus site too: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/fundamentals-of-photography.html 2 Quote
BlsdMama Posted July 17, 2016 Posted July 17, 2016 This is my second time around with a 5th grader, but the first time, I was only homeschooling the one. Â This time, I've got the 5th grader plus my 9th grader, plus part time work. Â I'm feeling like the 5th grader needs to ramp it up a little bit, in terms of output and content, but in order to make that work she'll need to do more independent work than she has in the past. Â Even though I dedicate several hours a day to working directly with her, I can't really add more hours to my plate - so the ramp-up will need to come from her having some independent work to do without me right at her elbow, or directly teaching. I'm trying to figure out what's reasonable to expect from this age & stage. Â I'm going to re-listen to SWB's talk on the topic, but I'm also curious to hear from experienced folks: how much independent work does your 5th grader do? What does s/he do independently? In what topics? Â Is s/he able to do a list of things independently, or do you have to check in frequently? Â I know every kid is different. But I have a tendency to expect less of the 2nd child than the first, for a variety of reasons, and I'm curious to hear what others experience. Â Hearing about a range of experience will be helpful to me. Â Â I have two kiddos that are less than a year apart. Â So they just left 5th and 6th grade. Â One I must constantly direct and help and keep focused. Â The other is almost entirely independent. Â I think the bigger question here is: Â What is this child capable of? Â 1. Is she a strong reader? 2. Is she able to sit and focus for 20 minutes? 3. Does the curriculum I have lend itself well to independence? Â If number one is a no, I'd focus on that until it's a yes. If number one is a yes but 2 is a no - then focus on training that as well as switching up your timing so that sit still is alternated with activity. And if number three is a no then you will have to decide if the curriculum you are using is THAT important to you that you are willing to sit near her and direct her OR if it's more important to change things up so it's more self directed. 2 Quote
Targhee Posted July 17, 2016 Posted July 17, 2016 My DS who just finished 5th did these independently: Lively Latin BB1, Practice Town, RSO Bio 2 (we did weekly co-op labs as a group, he did readings, videos, and other work on his own), BA 5A/B and SM 5 (this was 75-80% independent), and his personal study time (we met each week to agree on what we would do to explore interests and fulfill commitments, and scheduled it out), and SOTW (he only listened, did map work). Â We hit W&R together. And read aloud/lit discussions. We also have a 1-hour Morning Basket. 1 Quote
SparklyUnicorn Posted July 17, 2016 Posted July 17, 2016 Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE it if he'd do some stuff independently, but he doesn't. Which I think is ok for that age.   1 Quote
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