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Independent Study…
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I’m asking for a friend who is starting a home daycare this fall and her dd (6th) just asked to be homeschooled again. She’d like her to be mostly independent during the day, using naps/evenings for stuff w/mom. She’s looking into Abeka Online or Switched on Schoolhouse. Anybody familar w/these?
If you were doing CM-style, any curriculum, structure ideas I could share? Thanks for any input:) Blessings, Gina
I do think that AO can be done mostly independantly once a child is old enough (you are saying 6th grade?)… except for the narrations. That would be the same with any CM type of program. SCM could be done mostly independently too at that point.
I’d have a look at http://www.URtheMom.com for ideas on being independent. I haven’t bought any of her stuff (planner or books) – but have gotten info from the web page, an associated Yahoo group, and an article written by the author.
For a simple to implement independent curriculum, they could look at the Robinson Curriculum (if looking at that, let me know – most of the books for it are available on the internet for free… you don’t need to buy the program…) – I’d recommend adding in science – and I personally wouldn’t use the suggested Saxon math – but maybe something like Math U See….
Nothing more to add except that Teaching Textbooks is a quality math program that is completely independent. My 10YO has been using it for a year and it gives me nice one-on-one time with my younger son while he is doing math.
I didn’t have a good experience trying to encourage independence when my son was using Saxon.
suzukimom,
Thanks for sharing that link. It looks like a neat idea and I think the schedules could easily be homemade. I have been thinking about how to transition from workboxes to a more “grown up” way of doing things. This might be the ticket if I can figure out how to make it CM friendly 🙂
I love Joanne Calderwood from URthemom! We’ve been implementing independant study/ self-teaching method along with CM for several years. We started when our oldest (now nearly 17), was in 5th grade and now younger siblings are following suit. It’s definitely doable!
I could use any hints from people too… as we are just starting on the path this year to get the kids more independent. I have read a lot – but haven’t tried it yet!
Heart of Dakota is a program that is written mostly to the child at that level, and could be largely completed independently, checking in with mom at intervals. It uses a nice mix of living books with some traditional materials, and might meet their needs. Any CM type curriculum could also be paired with a computer math program (we like Saxon’s teacher CDs here, and many others like Teaching Textbooks).
Thanks, Evergreen! I would probably do something like that if I needed to be more hands off. I actually just heard from her and she seems pretty set on Abeka…had just not heard much about their online school. Her dd did well w/Abeka and excelled at ps last year after being homeschooled with it, so I think she feels confident w/that. And she understandable doesn’t want to change things up too much w/getting her daycare started. She has also used Sonlight, and while they loved the books said her dd didn’t seem to retain much using that/doing narrations.
Thanks all for the input! I’d love to hear how much independence others give their kids (mine are 13 and 10). They work well independently and I think retain more. And honestly, time seems more efficient than together time. But I still want to guide certain things….trying to figure the balance in the next 2 weeks before school starts:) We’re using the SCM guides for the first time. Thanks again! Blessings, Gina
Suzukimom…don’t know if this helps, but I use the SCM planning sheets from “Planning Your CM Education.” At the beg. of the year I type out what they are to do each day of the week. I’m non-specific…so it’s 2 pages of math, next copywork, etc. I write lit. and history readings, and have a page behind it that lists their readers in order and how many chapters per reading…plus books on their bookshelf in order. I put the checklist page in a page protector in a folder and they check off w/a dry erase marker. I also put their chores on there and all is supposed to be completed before play or any electronic time. My struggle is figuring out how much I want to give them! Should we read bible together, separately, listen during breakfast? Those sorts of things:) Gina
Well, here is what I’ve been thinking of – but not sure. I’m doing AO…..
I have found a great 4-day a week 1 page plan… it says what books to read each day for the particular year. This file has check boxes, and a reference sheet for each term, indicating what to read from the AO schedule. So ideally, that would be the main thing.
However, I also have everything entered in the SCMO… I have found it invaluable in the past – and found it helped a lot when we did AO before and got off-schedule. Because I want to do a 4 day rotating schedule, I am not going to put in the “read this book this day” into the SCMO, but will have everything scheduled every day. I can check the AO schedule, and make a weekly to-do list (sort-of)… that would be specific to where we are. A part of me wishes I could just let my kids access the organizer directly – but because of AO’s schedule (not reading every book weekly) it would be confusing for them. Or of course, there is the option of just printing the daily to-do-list…. however, I’m hoping to get some of the benefits from the URtheMom independent type learning – which would be giving some flexibility on when to do the specific things….
And then, I have a blank weekly grid I could print up, which could let them put in what they do when – which is more like the URtheMOM planners…. again, they would need some sort of list with it….
So – I’m trying to figure out the stupid logistics… lol.
Oh, one idea I”ve been debating too… is having a visual representation of how they are doing against a goal. I am trying to think of the AO weeks more like modules… finish up the whole module before moving on…. (so hopefully I’ll not have the “we are in week 4 in the schedule in science, week 6 in history, week 7 in literature – except for finishing this reading thing… etc.)
And – in my thoughts, comes the fact that my kids play “Super Mario Galaxy” – which occasionally has a task they need to do faster than a “shadow” version of themselves. This is quite challenging, but possible. So, I was thinking of putting up a little chart on the wall for each child – one with a 6 week (6 module…) mini-term grid – and 2 markers per child. One marker is the “shadow”, the other would be “them”.
Every 5 days – the time I am alloting for a week (not necessarily M-F, because of holidays)… but their plan is for 4 days. So, every 5 school days, the shadow moves 1 space on the grid. When a child is finished a week’s worth of work (in theory in 4 days) – they move themselves. After 6 weeks, everything would reset… and we can adjust goals if necessary. I hope that way to create motivation to get things done… a visual way to see how they are doing – but by basing it on a 6 week term instead of the year, it hopefully won’t be de-motivating…. (I know from experinece that charts in scouting or in school can be demotivating to some of the kids… and mostly motivates the kids that are motivated already….)
Thoughts?
It can be challenging, can’t it? 🙂 I need to take a few quiet hours and go at it…instead of just running things through my mind all the time! I haven’t used the organizer yet…but contemplating for h.s., not too far off. I’m very non-techy….but it sounds so helpful:) Thanks! Gina
I am following this thread as my soon to be 9th grades asked to work indpendently. She knows it is much faster. I checked out the web site posted above and found it interesting. On thing on her web site made me courious….
“Believe it or not, the answer to the question of how is to set some short term goals with your student, give them the materials including answer keys, and then step back and watch the transformation.”
If you did this how would you know if they were cheating or not? Anyone do this with success?
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