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Independent Work
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How do you start the transition to getting them to do their work independently? I have one almost 9 year old. We do every single thing together (school-related, I mean). We do use Teaching Textbooks for math, but I have to be near her/available for questions, so that’s only about half way independent. Which is fine, it doesn’t bother me, as our school work is done near the kitchen (which is where I usually am if I’m not sitting next to her! 🙂 )
I’m not wanting her to be completely on her own by tomorrow or anything, I’m just wondering how the process is done. This is our second year of homeschooling, and I’ve noticed that I’ve never read anything on how to know when they are ready to transition, and how to go about it. We are pretty solidly in the CM camp right now, and I just can’t visualize what it looks like for a student to do their work independently, in a CM way. What does it look like?
She’s not a super strong reader yet, so should I wait until she is a stronger reader before starting the process? Or will starting the process towards independence help her become a stronger reader?
Yes, you should absolutely wait until she is a strong reader before starting the transition to more independent learning.
Honestly? When my children are 8, they aren’t doing much independently at all. If my oldest were 8, we would be doing history, science, Bible, and literature as a family. My 8 year olds aren’t doing any grammar yet so that’s a nonissue. Copywork is simple and she’s not yet old enough for dictation.
I look back so fondly on the years when my children were young and we did school all together. If I were you, I would just relax and enjoy learning together as a family. She really is too young, IMO, to be sent off to do school independently. My children were older when they began to make the transition and I still do several subjects with my 14 year old daughter just to give her some interaction and because we love learning together! 🙂
There should be lots of reading together, enjoying nature and music and art together, and a bit of independent work with copywork and math while mom is close by if any help is needed.
If my oldest were 8/9 our school days would look something like this:
Mom gathers everyone for Bible, poetry/picture study/composer study, history and science. Afterwards, we would do math and copywork. This could easily be done before lunch to leave afternoons free for nature study and personal pursuits.
The transition begins IMO when the child is reading well and comprehending what he/she is reading. Then I slowly switch one subject at a time to independent work. We still do science together, buddy reading, because it helps to have someone to discuss science concepts with and to do experiments with. We also do Bible, hymn study, picture study, composer study, poetry and scripture memory together. We have a daily read aloud time together as well.
We begin each day with our morning readings. Each morning takes about an hour. Over the course of the week we cover history, science, Bible, music/art/poetry, geography, literature, character studies, and a few other things.
After that the kids break off to do some of their own work while I remain available to help with reading, math, etc.
These are some of the things my 8 and 10 year olds do independently:
-Teaching Textbooks (my 10YO)
-copywork
-listen to audio books (that accompany English Lessons through Literature)
-entries in their Nature Journals
-various computer supplements and games (Xtra Math math drills, Sheppard Software geography, Typing Instructor for Kids, Children’s Music Journey)My three youngers kids – ages 10, 8, and 6 – still do read aloud to me daily. My 10YO is about ready to read on his own, but when he does I think he and I will still read his assigned history books together (history is his least favorite subject).
Hope that gives you some ideas.
Ditto to what Melanie32 said. My oldest is 10 and we still do several things together. You’ll start to feel when it’s time to hand over some work for her to do independently.
HTH!
I haven’t read the other responses so please forgive any repeats. 🙂 When my children are “ready” I transition them to independent work on a subject-by-subject basis. I have a ds8 that is ready to start a little of this. For math, I cover new material with him then he does the review problems while I am busy nearby or elsewhere. If he does start to daydream/get distracted, we either re-focus with mom in the same room to keep things moving or just put it away for a few minutes and then come back to it. I want to make sure he gives it his full attention because a habit of dawdling can develop so quickly!
My dd10 does more work independently, but we still come together for parts of most assignments. I go over her new math concepts with her, she works for 20 minutes (with a timer that she sets). She will then read history or science and come to me to narrate (or write a narration once or twice a week). Then she may practice the piano before she finishes her math. We handle language the same as math: I go over new things with her and then she finishes the work for the day.
And we are all together for family subjects/read-alouds. I think working independently should be taught gradually.
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