What Does Your 1-on-1 Teaching Time Look Like?

[Gil]

With your 10-13 year old? For those of you who do 1-on-1 teaching/tutoring with kids this age. I need ideas for crafting a new schedule for 2019. 

How often do you do 1-on-1 teaching with your 10-13 year old? How frequently?

What is the prep time like for you?

What is the prep like for the kid? How do you scaffold/guide them to being able to reasonably prepare for their 1-on-1 class with you?

Do you give "home work" or other assignments from these sessions? If so, how do you schedule them?

If you've come up with a clever way of organizing your time for 2 kids, please share. I only have 2 kids, but if you've done it with 3+ kids, still share. 

Does your kids subjects being a mix of classes with sibling /1-on-1 with parent/independent on their own help you get through/successfully balance all the subjects on the Wish List, or do you usually have to drop a subject or two to keep things going in the right direction?

What does the other kid do during their siblings class time?

 

Academically and skill-wise, we're in a good place to experiment with a new routine and school-structure. But heck if I'm not struggling to wrap my head around how I can make it work for us. Pretty much since preschool The Boys have been "a class" that I always taught together. Until they were 7-8ish and I had to split them for writing/composition. They're 11ish and to this day the only thing they're taught separately is writing/composition. Everything else has been taught as a "class" and it's been just fine for my purposes. Lately, I've been doing Spanish Language Arts with them 1-on-1, on an every-other-day basis and it's working pretty well. Each boy enjoys having a "day off" in that area and I enjoy that when I'm working with one, I'm focused on only that one and I don't have to dread "the next round" of LA when I'm done. I was going over the List of School Things for 2019 earlier and was trying to decide what to cut and where, when it occurred to me that it might make sense to split The Boys on some subjects now so that they get more individualized support in their academics, and have more support in their studies. 

 

Ideas?

 

[MerryAtHope]

At the 10-13 age range, my kids were starting to do more independently but still needed some teaching. I did Bible and history together for my two, and also nightly literature read-alouds. They did science and all skill-based subjects separately (mine were 2 grades apart).

I usually started our day with together subjects, then had one go read for 30-45 minutes while I worked one-on-one with the other. I would do spelling with them, go over the previous day's math homework, review/teach as needed with relation to any confusion, and then teach any new concepts. I also went over the rest of the assignments between then and lunch. Sometimes a writing/language arts type of assignment might need a separate time, or a grammar topic might need teaching. Depending on the amount of teaching needed for the day, I might be able to do just one or two teaching times with each one, or I might need a third time. One of mine did better with getting everything at once, and the other did better with more frequent interaction. Later in the day, we discussed their reader and/or science homework. Sometimes we discussed a reader over chores (me folding laundry or doing some dishes etc...) If they had trouble with a science concept (which I could tell from their work), I spent any time I needed to on reading about the concept so I could discuss and help them understand the concept. 

When they were older and they split for history also, we would have history discussions. For history, I had them do T-notes (like Cornell notes) and I could tell what they were grasping between their notes and our discussions. If I thought they were missing important points, again I took time to read more. I would say that happened more in highschool than in the upper elementary ages. 

Typically I spent 30-60 minutes per day correcting their work and doing any reading/prep needed for the next teaching times. There were some occasions that it took longer than that to prep (usually that was in high school though). 

HTH some! I'd say--if teaching together is working, keep going with it! Why fix what's not broken? Just separate for the subjects where you see they are needing more one on one (or they are working at different places). 

[Melissa in Australia]

 

 Because of the complex needs of my current homeschooled children I do twins schoolwork in the morning and ds15 in the afternoon.

My Ds just turned 15 has profound Dyslexia

 I sit with him for just about every subject, Reading the problems to him, reading the instructions to him helping him along the way.

for Math I work the example problems out on a  mini white board . I wrote the problems out for him form the text and he takes them to his room and works them out.  There is a lot of hand holding happening. I did this with one of his older brother's - profound Dyslexia. and his oldest brother I did this for everything except math ( 2E)

 for the twins I have one sitting either side of me  We work through their stack of subjects .when one reads to me the other does penmanship. sometimes they do the same book at the same time but mostly they are doing 1 on 1 with me simultaneously. Possible FASD - attention span is minutes only I have to be constantly tapping, touching on the arm or back of the hand and  tickling to bring their attention back. very very slow progress.

 

When all the older ones were younger and being homeschooling I grouped some together for some subjects and had some separate subjects. They were also in shifts. I was actively homeschooling someone form 7.30 am until 4 pm. We had a staggered lunch so I keep on assisting them. It was hectic for me but worked out for them as all the older 3 have completed  a tertiary education and dd18 is currently doing one.

[8filltheheart]

With a few exceptions, I have almost always taught my kids individually. My current 13 yr old and I sit together for math. I teach her lesson and she completes it while I check every answer. We also do religion, spelling, grammar, and writing instruction together. Last semester she read science, history, and literature independently and then we would discuss and she would alternate writing papers based on those topics. This coming semester we awill be don g the chemistry of cooking together and my 3rd grader will work with us sometimes (simply bc she wants to.)

[wendyroo]

My (almost) 10 year old mostly works on a “flipped classroom” model.  For most subjects there is a resource for him to read/watch/engage with first, then he completes the assignment, and then I correct/teach/expand on the topic as soon as he is done. When written out it sounds lonely and very independent, but I am always around to guide, supervise, encourage, answer questions, etc.  The advantage for us is that I can really tailor his lesson based on what he actually understands or struggles with instead of what I anticipate he will understand or struggle with.  For example, we use AOPS for math, so he starts by reading a section in the book.  Then he completes the practice problem. When he comes to me, we discuss the section’s material, but if he aced the problems, then I won’t spend much time actually teaching that topic because he seems to have a good grasp on it. Instead we might spend some time looking at different methods we could have used to solve one of the problems, or I might tweak one of the problems to make it more difficult and we will work it together, or I will teach him a little about how the topic if useful in higher level math or in “real life” math.  

I do very little day to day prep work. At the beginning of a course or semester I choose a curriculum or piece on together on my own that has clearly defined “do the next thing” daily lessons...though we are obviously not opposed to hanging out on a given lesson until the student has truly mastered it. I make sure that I am very comfortable with the material, so that I can confidently teach and ad lib as required. Then each day I spontaneously customize (aka wing it) based on how well the student is grasping the topic, how much time we have available, their attention and frustration levels, the needs of all the other kids, the student’s current interests and passions, etc. 

Wendy

[PeachyDoodle]

I have a morning meeting daily with my dd. She is 13 but advanced/mature and independent. Our direct instruction times are primarily for discussing what she is doing on her own. I like a Socratic style of teaching for most subjects.

In general, I create a weekly schedule for her in 6-8 week chunks. Meaning, I sit down and come up with 6-8 weeks of schedules at once -- so I do this about 4-5 times per school year. For some subjects, I give daily assignments, and for others I list out what I want her to accomplish for the week and allow her to schedule it as she sees fit (we have been slowly working toward letting her organize her own work for a few years now). At the same time, I schedule our morning meetings. Some subjects are daily (math, primarily -- we go over the lesson and discuss any questions she has and work a few practice problems together). Others are more dependent on what is going on in a given curriculum that week. Since I have a good idea of what she's going to be assigned in any given subject, I can schedule our direct instruction to coincide. For example, I know that she will start reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn on Monday, so I schedule a discussion of the first several chapters later that week. In my planning, I make note of questions I want to ask her, information I want to be sure she has a grasp on, connections I want to be sure she makes. It's easier for me to do this during my planning time, when I am seeing the big picture and not bogged down in the day-to-day assignments. Of course, it's all there in my One Note, so I can add and rearrange easily as things come up. I am not an on-the-fly kind of mom; I keep up much better when I am organized and think things out ahead of time -- but there's always room for flexibility if we need it.

With the age gap between my two, working together is pretty much never an option. In the past, ds has had a play break during dd's direct instructional time. As he matures, we are working towards independent work for him during that hour. I generally spend an hour or so with him first thing in the morning, while dd works independently. I like for her to have studied her math lesson, but beyond that it doesn't really matter to me. I rarely try to cover something in our morning session that was assigned for that day (or that I haven't given ample time since the assignment was first given for her to have completed) but if that's necessary I make a note of it on her assignment sheet, or just tell her I need her to make sure it gets done. We hardly ever have problems with that, but if we do, we just bump it to the next day or whatever.

Of course, she knows that outside of our meetings I am always available to help with questions or review her work.

[Momto6inIN]

A *lot* of change can happen between 11 and 13 ...

My almost 11 year old does most of her work with me. I teach a lesson and watch her a bit for understanding, then she continues to finish practicing on her own. There are a few misc things she does on her own, but all primary subjects are with me.

My 13 year olds on the other hand, have done a ton of stuff on their own. I still teach LA and Math at that age, but most other subjects are "here read and do this and come talk to me about it".

The leap in maturity between 11 and 13 is huge. Huge! At least is has been for us.

[Gil]

Clarification: I'm only considering splitting them in SOME areas, but that is proving more difficult to schedule on paper than if I just split them in ALL areas.
As for fixing what isn't broken-it's less a problem of our current system being broken and more of a "we're outgrowing this model".

At this point The Boys have the academic basics (3Rs) mastered and a good foundation in the studying from a book basics (reading, outlining and/or notetaking, summarizing, short-essay writing) down packed, but they lack the executive function, which will obviously come with more time and experience, but in the interval they need the support of daily parental involvement to get through the day-in/day-out mundane bits of learning a new subject or applying and mastering a new skill.

Now that they have good Book-Reading and Book-Study skills, the various strands of the Humanities and Social Sciences are accessible to them. They can't do a course independently but so long as I'm present to tell them to get started, refocus their attention, monitor their learning and to generally keep them progressing through the material, they'll do fine. I'm young and set in my ways--so I really don't want to give up the security blanket of a "class-based" system that works,  but arranging our time to give them individualized 1-on-1 courses feels like the next best step towards them gaining academic and scholastic independence.

Even if it's not, I can better support each boy with a lot more time/attention/help in the tackling of project or the study of a subject that he's personally excited about or interested by, even if he can't do muddle through all of it his own just yet. I've noticed a lot of growth in how they tackle and 'stick-with-it' in their hobbies in the last year or so, and I hope that if they can experience similar success and satisfaction from school projects and course that interest them, it'd go a long way.

I know that I could make them pick smaller "more doable" projects, or I could even make them pick a single project so that I can coach them through doing roughly the same thing, but I think that it'd be better for me to find a way to let them each pursue (within reason) their "big projects" and preferred "subjects" because it's what has them excited currently. 

So I guess that I have a scheduling/logistics problem more than anything else.

[MerryAtHope]

On 12/28/2018 at 9:09 PM, Gil said:

Clarification: I'm only considering splitting them in SOME areas, but that is proving more difficult to schedule on paper than if I just split them in ALL areas.

 

Interesting--so what part of the scheduling isn't working?

What I used to do is make a list of everything I wanted to do with the kids together, and then make lists of individual subjects for each student. Then I'd divide their individual lists into 3 categories:

• do with mom
• start with mom (to go over instructions or a sample) and then do independently
• do completely independently

Then I started laying out the individual activities--I'm with one while the other works independently. I start one while the other has a 15 minute break or does a quick chore, then I do something with the other when the first one is working on his or her own. It's kind of like doing a time-jigsaw puzzle! But identifying how you think you'll do each subject can really help. My kids had daily family-service jobs, so if I ran into a road-block with one, I could usually say, "Can you go do your family service, and then I'll be ready to work with you?" or something like that. You can also have activities at the ready for getting out energy for one who has to wait a bit for you (jumping on a trampoline, shooting some hoops, running around the outside of the house, etc...)

If there isn't enough that they can do somewhat independently yet, then you may need another year of together school while you help them work toward more independence.