Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: family lessons, independent lessons, independent work

This topic has 8 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 2 months ago by Claire.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

Author
Posts
February 11, 2014 at 12:48 am
Dawn
Participant
I was wondering how independent are your 11 and 9 year old children? How much do they do alone? Which subjects? How do you check their work?
February 11, 2014 at 1:36 am
petitemom
Participant
Well I have a 10 and 12 year old. They do all their work independently. We read scriptures, caracter study material together.
They correct their math, we go over anything they didn’t get, same w/grammar and I help w/science experiments.

February 11, 2014 at 1:42 am
LindseyD
Participant
My 10yo does independently math, map drill, some history reading, some literature with written narration, and typing. Of course, he needs me to dictate to him.
My 8yo does independently (most of the time) math, some history with oral narration, some literature with oral narration, typing, map study, and typing.
Subjects we always do together include Bible, science, family history reading, family literature reading, and picture study. My goal for the rest of this year is to get my 8yo more independent without me having to remind her to give her full attention to whatever she’s working on. I am always nearby to help or answer questions when needed, but I’m quite content with their independence at this stage.
February 11, 2014 at 1:46 am
missceegee
Participant
My dd13 and ds10 (both had birthdays in Jan.) are fairly independent. I do read the scm family history module books aloud to all the kids, but dd13 usually does it on her own instead. I review troubling spelling words with ds. They both read aloud to me occ. for elocution practice. Fine arts we do in our co-op. Other than an on-going family read aloud, everything is independent.
February 11, 2014 at 2:20 am
Alicia Hart
Participant
I have an 11 and 9 yo and they do math, transcription/SW, geography (game), drawing, nature notebooks, personal devotions, and my 11 yr old does latin independtly.
However, they often have questions on these subjects so it is not TOTALLY independent.
Family subjects are SCM history modules, Bible memory work, picture study,etc.
In term one of this year, I tried to have them do Bible memory work individually and independently but that did not work.
Also, I am still doing oral narration with all my kids. My 11 yo does written narration 2x/week but I guide her through that at this point.
I also tried having my 11 yo do science by herself in term one – did not work for us.

HTH,
Alicia
February 11, 2014 at 2:23 am
petitemom
Participant
I forgot to mention I do art, picture, music and nature study w/them and oral narration too w/my 10 year old.
February 12, 2014 at 3:53 am
artcmomto3
Participant
My oldest is 9, and she does math, memory verses, map drill, and the bulk of her science independently. She is doing apologia science through co-op, so labs and lessons are taught there, and I assist her when needed for her homework, but she does most of it on her own. At the beginning of the year I read everything to her from her text, but over time I gradually had her do more independently. She has been reading orally to me still, but I am about to drop it as soon as she finishes the 3rd grade reader (in the next 2-3 weeks) and let her do some independent reading quietly and then narrate it to me. We do Bible and history as a family as well as literature unless I opt to read different books between my son and daughter.
February 18, 2014 at 12:06 am
Dawn
Participant
Thank you. That is helpful. I can see that I should start moving towards some more independence for the older children. It would certainly help me to have more time to focus on the ones who are not strong readers.
February 18, 2014 at 6:49 pm
Claire
Participant
Another perspective …
We do a majority of our work together here. My children are 13 and 11 years old.
- We read both American and World History out loud together. They read biographies and literature for these independently.
- We read our History of Science out loud together.
- We read Shakespeare and Plutarch out loud togehter.
- We are not in high school Sciences and so we do that subject with a variety of reading out loud, reading indpendently and investigating/discussing together. They read biographies and literature for this independently.
- They do Math independently unless there is a new skill to introduce, but even then we usually just review it together and they show me their work when they’re done.
- Foreign Languages, Literature, Current Events, Copywork/Commonbook, and BOC entries are done independently.
- Poet, Art, Hymn, Folksong and Composer studies are done together.
- Composition is done independently and I use this to teach all Language Arts so if there is that information to cover we do it together.
- Nature Study, nature sketch and nature readings are done both independently and togehter
Their narrations are done on a different variety of these lessons either orally or in written format each week. More written for my 13 year old child (working on getting my 11 year old to that point is my focus this year). Oh, we school year round too. About the same number of weeks as everyone else, but we don’t stop for long periods. We spend a lot of time together and from what I gather here, a bit more time daily on our lessons. Our pace is pretty mellow during the day. This is probably because we do so much together, but it works for our family. I should say that there is no issue if I give them their lessons to do independently either. They will gladly do that as well without complaint. And occasionally we all want that too, so there is that option.
Honestly, if they got up every morning and went to their list of lessons and did them all without any interaction from me or with me, I would be so bored silly with homeschooling! I like the more Socractic method of open ended discussion at the end of narrations (oral or written) and I like the interaction of a small circle of readers over a lesson too. We gain a lot from one another’s perspectives. I narrate sometimes too! And most anything they write or sketch I do too. It’s fun and it keeps me engaged. I also know when a lesson is really awful too and I can change it or adapt quickly.