The Top 100 Educational Websites of the Year

If you haven't already taken a look at this website, you need to. Homeschool.com has listed the top 100 websites of their contributors. Go take a look! Its pretty exciting. A lot of them I already use, but I sure could look into those Science ones! I still hate teaching Science. I suppose it will always be thus. Sigh.

Time for Math (Part 3 in the series on independent study)

We do Math from 10:15 to 11:30 every day. How much independence should you give your child in Math? How do you teach Math at multiple levels? I begin my Math period with a 5 minute Math drill for all grades. Some are working on addition and some are working on multiplication. We see how many problems out of 100 they can complete in that 5 minute timed drill. Tink does these drills with us.

Even the first grader is in on this. She doesn't have 100 problems nor is she really being timed but to include her as if she was part of it is good practice for later. Everybody puts their name on top of the paper including the first grader with her page of apples filled with little addition sums. At the mark they all begin the drill. This gives me a blessed 5 minutes to regroup and make sure I have everything ready to go at the end of the 5 minutes.

After the timed drill Tink and the two boys do oral multiplication drills with me. We use flash cards or just do recite them by rote, whichever the kids want to do that day.

After the multiplication practice Tink takes her books and heads for the computer to do Teaching Textbooks. She is working independently on her Math. Other days she moves on in her Math book in Bob Jones. I have already checked everything over and have written down exactly what she is suppose to do that day. If she hits a snag she checks to see what Lesson in Teaching Textbooks I have written down to correspond with that part of Bob Jones. To see more on how I use the Teaching Textbooks in conjunction with Bob Jones you can read this post; Teaching Textbooks and How They Measure Up.

You can see here that it is important that I have done my homework and lesson plans. If I wouldn't have plotted all this out for Tink the evening before or the weekend before I would now have to stop and try to figure things out while I have three others waiting. By writing this all out I have made it so that Tink is in charge of her own destination in Math. So now she is working independently and I turn my attention to the two boys who are both in 3rd grade Math.

The first grader is still working on her sheet of apples while I'm getting the boys started. I explain each section of Math that is due that day. I work out a few of the problems on the board and we solve them together. Then the boys on their own. I spend the rest of the time until 11:30 working with the first grader. We do her Math lesson in just a short period of time. She doesn't need that entire time for the Math she has. I use the rest of that period to do Reading with her. If you look at yesterdays post you will see that she doesn't do her Reading during the reading time slot with the other kids. I fit her Reading in here in the Math space.

After lunch I read a story to the kids. We are reading Snow Treasures. This is one of two times that we all come together every day. The first one is at eight in the morning when we all meet in the living room and sing our morning prayer, Father We Thank Thee, and then do our Bible Memory. These two activities keep us all together as a group and keep even the most independent student involved with everyone else.

Story time is finished at 12:30 pm. The next period is from 12:30 to 1:45. This is the time that we do phonics and grammar, language arts and spelling. Again all the children are involved for the first five minutes. We do drills on the parts of speech or the different kinds of sentences; interjection, question, statement, command. Then everyone is off to their own books. I have laid the worksheets to be completed on their desks during the lunch break so they know exactly what to do. I then go to each child and explain each section of their lesson. They then begin work.

At this point the first grader who has done her phonics in the early morning reading time will go to the living room and listen to her Hooked On Phonics Tape. This gives me time to drill with Peter who still needs phonics help even though he is in the third grade. We go over charts of beginning and ending digraphs and consonant blends. He does timed word drills that focus on whatever digraph we are working on.

Peter is a fast worker. While the other third grader does his Language Arts Peter not only completes the drills with me but he does his Language Arts in CLE and his phonics pages in Horizons and A Reason for Spelling. Twice a week he works in Science and Bible. These subjects are just fitted into the time slots when he finishes early.

For example if he finishes his reading before reading period is over he begins reading in his Science. In Math if he finishes early he will again pull out the Science and start from where he left off before. In this manner these two subjects get done. Any experiments are done after the other students leave in the evening.

I give all spelling tests on Thursday. I call out the words to each grade so everyone is taking the test at the same time. I call out their names and the word that is for them. It goes like this: K- run, P & P - struggle, Tink - appreciation and so on down the list. Spelling is over in ten minutes and every one has had their test.

In the afternoons Tink is working independently on her History and Language Arts and Vocabulary. She does the spelling with us. Once again that keeps Tink, the independent learner, involved with the rest of us.

Once a week we take 15 minutes at the end of the day to do Story of The World. All four of the students are included in that class.

Hopefully this gives you all some idea how to include independence with one on one learning in your homeschool. Independent learning should begin at the first grade. Even when your child has mastered independent learning he should never be left on his own at the grade school level. Include that child in all drills, and memorization and any class that covers multiple grade levels, such as; Story of The World.

Remember there is nothing set in stone about all this. Do what works but keep the end goal in mind. The end goal is an independent child that can pursue his future with confidence because his mother gave him the skills at a young age to do so.
Does this all make sense to you guys?

More on Independent Study and Homeschool Structure

To school younger children who are less independent than the high school you will need to know your child and what they are capable of. Again remember that independence is the goal.

I discussed in the last post how I leave Tink on her own much of the time. But I still have three others to teach who are not independent learners yet. So how much independence should you give a child? A child at the first grade level will not be able to do a lot on their own. I start my first grader on handwriting first thing in the morning. The others start on their reading.

The first grader is doing handwriting because she can do that without help. The others are all doing reading. I start with the one reading at the second grade level. He reads to me the words from his word wall. Then we read in Pathway Phonics which is a wonderful book that teaches blends of sounds and then flows them into words. This takes about 15 minutes. I then release him to go read his story while I get the third grader. The third grade boy has been reading in his reader while I'm working with the second grader.

As the switch between the boys is being made I use this minute to switch the first grader into her phonics book. She will now be circling all the pictures that start with the letter w. Then she will circle all pictures that start with wa then we then wi and so on through the vowels. It doesn't matter at this point whether she gets them right or wrong. This just gives her something to wrap her brain around and try on her own until I have time to work with her.

Now the with the second grader reading his story and the first grader doing her phonics I turn my attention to the third grader. He reads the words on his word wall then he reads a page of his story with me. He doesn't need a separate phonics course, being very proficient at it. He gets a lot of phonics stuff in his reading workbook and language arts anyway. So he reads a page to me.

There is no need for him to read the entire story to me. One page can tell you if the child is comprehending or if there are words that he doesn't know in the story. So he reads the page to me. Then I have him read the next page after me. I read a about two sentences and then he reads those same two sentences. This is fluency practice. I do this with every reading class including Tinks.

If reading two sentences is two hard and the child is still hesitating I read just one sentence at a time. Sometimes I have them read right with me. We both read a passage aloud. This gives the child the idea of how reading flows without stopping. This sort of reading is a huge part of teaching fluency.

By the time we are done the second grader is done reading his story. I take him and do the exact same thing with him for fluency that I just did with the third grader. Then both boys finish reading whatever they haven't finished and then move on to the comprehension exercises in their workbooks.

At this point I turn my attention to the first grader and for the next 20 minutes before break we do our reading. The phonics she was working on will be corrected and done together by the two of us after lunch. But for now it is just 10am and time for a 15 minute break. After break we do Math. Of course, that is a post for another time. Hopefully though, this has given you some idea how to teach reading to multiple grades and how to foster independent learning at each level.

Note that by the time reading period is over each child, other than Tink, has worked independently for about an hour and with me for half an hour. The reading period lasts an hour and a half.

What Age Should a Child Start Studying Independently Part 1

At what age should a child be studying independently? I hear this question asked everywhere I go in the homeschool community. Let me just start by saying there is no magical age. Having said that I want to add that if you have a child without any learning disabilities he should definitely be studying independently by the time he's in high school.

Much of a child's success at school is found in his study habits. If as a homeschool mom you spend all your time going over every problem with your child and coaxing him through every page you are doing that child a huge disservice. One of the main goals of parenting is to teach a child to be independent. If you haven't taught your child that by the time they leave home, your child will flounder in the real world.

So how much should the homeschool mother be involved? How independently should a child be working for their grade level? This question has about as many answers are there are homeschool moms. But since this is my blog I will just give you my opinion on this. Bear in mind that I am speaking of the child without special needs.

First grade is almost entirely hands on. Second grade is too. Third grade the child should be more independent. By fourth grade and on up a child should be able to work on their own about 3/4Th's the time.

I am schooling four children this year. They are working in curriculum at 6 different levels; grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Tink is the fifth grader and she is almost 100% independent. Tink would be a 7th grader if she were in public school. But we all know the story of Tink. If you don't you can go over to Dishpan Dribble and click on the Tink label and read about her struggles.

But even though Tink is working independently I go through every one of her workbooks on the weekend. She has a terrible habit of just skipping over a section that she doesn't understand or just doesn't want to do. I go through every subject and circle in red the sections that were skipped or the sections that she got wrong. She self corrects her books but she doesn't always go back and correct the wrong ones after checking them wrong.

As I go along I write on a piece of notebook paper what page each section is on. I tuck the paper into the book and this becomes her first assignment in each subject on Monday morning. Every book has a notebook page of sections she must repeat.

Before doing any quizzes or end of unit tests Tink has to check with me. I give a cursory look through the book and give her the go ahead or stop her and send her back to do more work. No quiz can be taken until all those little sections skipped have been made up. But sometimes Tink will go ahead with the quiz. Whenever she does this she fails the test.

If after completing, grading and redoing the entire section she still fails the quiz at the end of the unit then I take the section that she got most wrong and give her Extra Practice worksheets until she understands that section. You will find that usually if your child fails quizzes or tests it wont be the entire thing. It will be one or two sections that she just didn't understand thoroughly while going through the workbooks. Pay close attention to the things your child is missing most and concentrate on that area.

I give Tink a lot of independence but she will be 13 in a few weeks and she needs this. I even have her on her own at the charter school on Mondays. It is up to her to get herself from class to class and to write down the assignments and know what her homework is for the week. Again this is practice for life outside my four walls. All this does not come easy for a child with a processing disorder but Tink is doing very well and Im proud of her.

I say she is independent but even then I have her read aloud to me at least three days a week. She either reads from her history book or her reading book. I help her with fluency and comprehension while we read. She also reads the words to me from her word wall every day. Mondays post will have more about how to do a reading class with your child and how to teach them to be fluent readers.

If Tink is going to test out low on something you can count on it that it will be in the vocabulary part of it. She is doing book 5 of Wordly Wise and again I have her read every vocabulary word to me before doing the lesson. You can see that although Tink is basically an independent learner at this point I still need to be involved in a very real way in her learning.

Now you may be wondering why I don't keep a closer eye on Tinks work during the week and why I just go through her books on the weekends. The answer is two fold. I want to teach her to study independently and I don't have the time to check it all while she's doing it. I can tell you though that the parts she skips are becoming fewer and fewer because she's catching on that if she doesn't do them now she has to do them later. This is all part of teaching a child independence.

Now the other three children I follow closely. The first grader never leaves my side- well almost never. I will explain tomorrow how to work with children in grades 1 - 4 so you will more clearly see the progression of total dependence to independence.