A question about independence in upper grades.

My 2 oldest (13) are both reading history books that I haven’t read.  Every day they chase me down and tell me what they read that day.  They have the choice now of a written narration or an oral one.  They just ‘tell me what they read that day’.  While I haven’t read the books, I can tell if they did, and if they understood them.  For example, “This one guy went to a place….I don’t know why….and he talked to someone.  Then he went to another place and met some person.  This one girl, it might be his sister or someone he takes care of, they were talking about their city.  And that’s all that happened.”  *this is an actual narration*  Well, I can tell right there he didn’t understand what he read so he re-read those pages and came back with names, relationships, locations, and such.  If YOU can be made to understand what they read, then THEY understood it.  If they don’t understand it, they can’t teach it.

I also agree. My oldest two are reading books from the SCM Module that I have never read.  But the books are so good that they are anxious to share with me.  Even when they do a written narration, they bring it to me and want me to read it right away.  I think the keys is good books. I used to worry that I wouldn’t know if what they were narrating was “right”, but now I see how much they are getting from it all and I see that they are excelling at reading and narrating so I no longer worry.  Trust the methods.  They work!:)

Hi Heather! I am so glad working independently is going well for your dd. I am working this out with my 6th and 7th graders, as well, and it sounds as though we will be doing something very similar. Basically, I am doing a year of world geography (loosly ECC, but with more living books) with my youngers, while my 2 older kids move into Mod 6. The way we are working it so far:

The big kids are using SOW as a spine – so they read 3-4 chapters per week of this, plus a living history book or biography, per week.

They also have a historical fiction or literature book they read each week

They are also working independently in science, so they have assigned readings for that each week.

At the end of their independent readings on these subjects, I ask for an oral narration in one of the subjects (and they don’t know which subject I will ask for).

Fridays are sort of ‘accountability day’ in these subjects. I assign either an essay topic or written narration to them on Fridays. They also have notebooking assignments and book of centuries assignment due on Fridays. I feel like this has given them good incentive really pay attention to their readings and think ‘big picture’.

And I agree with the other posters – it is amazing the coorelations they make on their own at this age!

By the way, we have also transitioned their Bible reading and nature journals to independent work, and it is working out wonderfully. My son started in January and is through Numbers. He is loving the Bible, and they are both finding out new things from God’s word. It has been a real blessing to me to see them progress:-).

So grateful for Charlotte as I watch my kids grow – and grateful for SCM and the ladies who post for making it simple for me to implement!