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teachingmyown
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| Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 10:18pm | IP Logged
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How much do you, or can you, tailor the education for each child when you have a bunch?
I am really floundering this year. I never finished planning for the year, because I was just so ambivalent. I am literally being blown in one direction and then another with each book, article, or blog I read. Do my kids need a classical education? Oh, wait, no one can actually agree on what that means.  Is unschooling the way to go? What if that is "cheating" them out of the education they "need"? Waldorf is so gentle and artsy, right for one child but a disaster for the others. And so on...
What I am finding it comes down to, right now for me, is how to fit the needs of each of my students. They are all so different.
Maybe I should do a series of posts on each child.
Dd13, very smart, but just as ambivalent and melancholic as her mother. She is looking at CLAA right now, but afraid that she won't follow through. I am hoping it is something she will like, because there is so much she doesn't.
Ds 11, this is the boy who "hates" school. Really. Everything is done reluctantly. But he does love to read. Can I unschool him without him missing something important? Is it okay that he spends most of the day playing with legos and soldiers and strategy games? When do I need to "force" more?
Dd 9, poetry and artwork literally flow out of her. She loves to read and has a tender heart. She will do her math and grammar because she is obedient. I cannot believe that this is a child who will be called to the business world or any such thing. Would it be cheating her to give her the bare minimum academically and let her alone to create?
Dd 7, my gifted child. Oh my, I could just give her any stack of books, workbooks, textbooks, etc. and let her go. She is already past her older sister in most subjects. But she is immature and strong-willed. Dh says she will be the one to cure cancer (or some such thing)!
Dd6, still playing 98% of the day. Not worried about her yet.
So, my top three are my worries, and they are all three so different. How do I tailor and balance their needs without going crazy and going broke?
I am tired, so this might sound terribly jumbled. I have been having physical issues myself which I think are exasperating my lack of focus. The original title of my post was going to be "I hate homeschooling" but I didn't want to scare off any newbies!  I love having my kids with me all the time, and all the experiences we share. I don't want them in any school. But I feel so inept when it comes to "schooling".
Thanks for listening. I feel better already.  Any and all ideas are appreciated. (Even if it is just referring me back to old threads of mine where I have asked the same questions.  )
__________________
In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 10:24pm | IP Logged
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Well I don't know about many of them but I did have one thought on #3.. you said you couldn't see her called to the business world and wanted to do the bare minimum with her.. but what about a mother? should she have the bare minimum if she's going to be teaching her own children one day?
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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ekbell
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| Posted: Oct 24 2009 at 1:03am | IP Logged
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My policy is if it's working don't change it, if it's not working we do our best to figure out *exactly* what's not working, and work at finding a solution.
My definition of working is that progress is being made towards our goals and the child mostly likes most of his or her lessons.
The important thing is that at the end my child knows, loves and serves God. I'd also like them to have the charactor, knowledge and skills necessary for them learn what they need to know to pursue their vocation.
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: Oct 24 2009 at 6:34am | IP Logged
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Molly,
I'm not any help. I just wanted to say "I hear ya!"  I could have written your post, but changed the details regarding each child.
We use MODG and it worked "OK" for my oldest (now in highschool), it's great for my dd, but I'm really struggling with the two younger boys. They are different from one another, but the MODG curriculum just doesn't seem to fit either of them.
I'm going over in my mind whether or not it's better to stick with the plan and teach the children that they have to "bend", or "bend" for the children!
I guess to make it more clear, my 8yo ds is a very visual learner. He is also very "hands on". Alot of MODG curriculum is geared toward an auditory learner (IMO). So, do I stick it out and help this one develop his auditory learning skills, gritting my teach the whole way, or do I go with something more Montessori, which I think he would love.
Anyway, as I said, I am no help because I have the same issues. I do know that God gave you each of these children because you are the best mom/teacher for them, and He will help you, just as He will help me. I'm thinking I need to commit to some sort of serious prayer for direction regarding this. Maybe a novena. I'll keep you in prayer as well!
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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LLMom
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| Posted: Oct 24 2009 at 7:57am | IP Logged
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Molly,
I know exactly how you feel. I always want to tailor my schooling to each child, but it is so hard with a large crew. But I think homeschooling a large bunch is plain hard no matter how it is done. Mom is needed so much.
What does you dh think? I ask mine quite a bit when I can't decide. It also helps me if I take a break from homeschooling reading material such as message boards, blogs, books, articles, etc. and just pray and think.
At times I think to myself "if these kids were in school they would all be learning to read the same way at the same time. They would be disciplined, etc." But since we are homeschooling, it doesn't have to be that type of schooling. However, I don't think it will hurt kids to do a more traditional type schooling, if you need to for a season or even the whole time. Kids can learn in many different ways.
What about a booklist for each child (including science, history, literature) copywork/dictation/written narrations from those readings depending on ages, a good math program, and a good religion program. Then let them go with their interests for everything else.  I will pray for you.
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Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
homeschooling ideas
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rose gardens
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| Posted: Oct 26 2009 at 8:30pm | IP Logged
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teachingmyown wrote:
How much do you, or can you, tailor the education for each child when you have a bunch? ...What I am finding it comes down to, right now for me, is how to fit the needs of each of my students. They are all so different. ...How do I tailor and balance their needs without going crazy and going broke?
... I have been having physical issues myself which I think are exasperating my lack of focus... |
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Remember you are not simply educating a group of individuals-you are educating a family--YOUR family. As you try to taylor education to meet the needs of everyone in your family, don't forget YOU also have needs.
One great things about home education is tayloring the education, but your post brings up the down side to individualing studies.
I'm not the "model homeschool mom" who creates all my own lesson plans individually for each child. For some subjects, I rely on workbooks. Some subjects we do as a family while I taylor the specific assignments to the child's age & ability. One child requires more individual help with reading. After trying for over two years to custom teach him, I turned to teaching a scripted program created for teaching reading to people with dyslexia & auditory processing issues.
We must take our children's needs, interests and abilities into account, but we must also take our own needs, interests & abilities--plus the family circumstances--into account.
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: Oct 26 2009 at 8:45pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Ladies!
Jodie- I don't mean to imply that moms only need the "bare minimum". I guess my point with that daughter is that she thrives on the creative stuff and would it be cheating her if I give her a basic workbook-style education but sign her younger sister, the gifted one, up for something rigorous like CLAA. She has skills, and has the ability to cultivate skills that I not only don't have, but seem nearly incapable of learning. I sometimes wish I could go back and exchange a couple of my elective history courses for a home economics course. Does that make sense? If her interest and personality lie in one direction, should I still push her toward the same goal as her non-artistic siblings?
I am really thinking that I just need to stock up on some good workbooks while I take the time to get myself healthy and re-focused. Sometimes, I just get stressed because they are off doing their own thing and I am too distracted to make what I have planned work. I just have too much this year that involves me daily.
__________________
In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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ALmom
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| Posted: Oct 26 2009 at 10:12pm | IP Logged
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Molly,
I've been where you are at and am still navigating the course. All 6 of mine are immensely different - and probably only one shares my learning style. It makes for some unique challenges - but also some unique opportunities. I've had to temper my melancholic perfectionism and look for signs of progress. If progress isn't happening then something clearly has to be done. If it is happening, then unless it is really time consuming or we have time to try some other way on the side, better to leave it alone.
Yes, you can tailor for each child IF you are not the one holding the reins, having to present the lessons, etc. I'm not going to be able to actively teach in a plethora of styles myself - but I can provide materials that will assist with whatever style learning is needed. Also, accept that some things have to be done and done in the easiest manner possible for mom to assess regardless of learning style or preference. Part of the tailoring, has to include a realistic assesment of mom (talents, comfort zone, energy, stress level, crisis in the family, and time available). Tailoring doesn't mean you don't use an easy workbook here and there - even with the highly creative child who doesn't seem to be particularly suited to that manner. It does mean that you look at strengths and weaknesses. If a child is pretty self directed in an area, then why complicate the matter. Give them lots of good materials to stretch them - and they are often the best judge of what materials. Look for where they avoid and then find some means of assuring that something is done regularly. If a child struggles with something in some serious way, then what you select to use has to help them get over the hump. After they are over the hump, if you have to use some other easier for mom materials, they'll be able to handle it. Knowing the particular children, I always have tons of supplemental stuff suited to the different children and they are always free to pull this stuff out and use it. So I have art technique books, art supplies, music books, histories or lives of artists and composers, history of technology, all kinds of science kits and experiment books. I have books that have project ideas and lots of paint, scrap wood, fabric, straw, grass, electronic parts and other parts from old equipment, field guides. I have charts and posters - a lot our stored under a clear plastic cover in the Montessori room. Others are displayed on the wall or on a cheap easel. I have books on all different areas of science and history at all kinds of reading levels. There is a variety of literature. I'm very relaxed and laid back about their projects - if they dig a huge hole in the front yard, they fill it up when they are done kind of stuff. I don't sweat it if they eat dirt like Bernadette.
In the process of looking at things, I came up with a few givens about me:
1) I am not a craft person (don't know how to sew, cannot even picture things or pick colors for our own home). I'm more likely to need confession than be of any service in a craft project. I will not function well if I have to rely on me to come up with projects and definitely I will not be organizing them or leading them.....I enjoy watching the children come up with ideas - some quite messy and smelly. I'm a wonderful, enthusiastic admirer of their final products - and sincerly impressed by their abilities - none of which I have myself. They sometimes teach me - and find it hilarious the kinds of things I do - or rather cannot seem to grasp.
2) I am not a science teacher. I don't have the time to bog through all the science I never really learned. I don't have time to try and create, help or design a program. Unless textbooks fail my children entirely - Or the child is clearly teaching themselves just fine without much of anything from me - it will be textbooks or tutors here - whichever God provides in any given year. Something is better than nothing and anything is better than me.
3) I don't speak any foreign languages well enough to be the responsible assistant for anything beyond a "fun, it doesn't matter terribly" introductory Latin or a pre-school learn to count in a variety of languages.
4) I have to have some sort of easy way to hold children accountable - especially my houdinis and side tracked ones. I find it difficult to go by the seat of my pants, even if my children thrive on that. I will not remember what I had in mind with this lesson unless I write it down when I first look at it. I won't remember what sequence of books would fit our history or science studies - and I may not be able to find them when I need them unless I have a good plan and an organized preparation taking into account all these details. I love plans, details and a clearly mapped direction before I start. I need this for me to get the big picture of what we are doing and to be able to function. I don't necessarily need this for the children - depends on the child to some extent. I always have to have it for me. I also don't have time to make up 6 different plans, so some sort of pick and chose, or prioritizing has to happen.
5) I am not a very timely or efficient grader of papers. If I'm assigning them, they deserve reasonably prompt feedback so that they can improve. Someone else does the assessing for me by a certain age.
6) Only my non school age child likes to talk extensively. Everyone else would rather die than have a formal MODG style discussion with me. The thing they most despise is waiting around for me.
7) I do not have the time to discuss in every subject with every child every day. I must prioritize where I spend most of my time with each child. I'm not particularly good at formal teaching and horrible at asking good, leading questions. It feels more like the quiz show to my children. I tend to be more of a tutor - focusing on weak areas and just enjoying and celebrating strengths.
So how do my limits correlate with the huge differences in children. One thing I came to is that I'm a much better tweaker than decision maker  so I have to work with that gift/handicap as well. I am also far better at being an advocate for my child and totally uncomfortable with "teaching" a class. I operate better as a detective. Therefore, school here is organized accordingly - not that I don't stretch some of the time, but in general this is the backbone of how we operate. It also works remarkably well for older children (above 10) who really are bucking for more control and independence - some of whom are great organizers and keep up with their stuff, and some who seem like the mad scientist houdinis and some who just seem perpetually distracted to the next exciting project they've dreamed up. I try to be a detective to guide and channel this energy that is already there.
I must say, I didn't figure a whole lot out with our first. She suffered some from our experimentation - but is a great person. Most importantly she has a solid faith, integrity and a good head on her. She is fully capable of filling in any gaps we left. That is my great encouragement now when I tend to the grass is greener at someone else's home.
So how has this played out with the rest of mine. For the most part, I do have to have the children learning independently and coming to me for help. So how do I try to facilitate this? Sometimes well, sometimes not so well - but I have learned a little bit over the years.
Our first child is extremely artsy, and creative with a strong need for beauty. She is no longer at home. You mentioned sewing - well this child bought a doll, and I bought a sewing machine and gave her free reign with it and a lot of scrap fabric and any doll dress patterns she wanted and stayed completely out of the way. I could not have taught her to sew if my life depended on it. I still cannot sew a straight seam, though I did manage costumes from step by step patterns. This child doesn't read directions on anything by choice unless nothing else works.
I bit my organized body cells tongue when she started out cutting from the middle of the fabric. (She learned very quickly without my input). When she got to the point where she was coming to me to ask me how to do stuff and I couldn't help, we hired a wonderful lady to come to our house for $25 per half day. This woman helped us on a regular basis. DD would work on her doll stuff, or making her own dresses and swimsuits and when she got stuck or thought she'd done something wrong, we'd have a half day worth of projects to work on and call in our help. The sewing teacher invariably found an easy way that would not require major seam ripping. This skill has been a source of joy for this dd - and a means to inexpensively make her own living space beautiful. She doesn't need patterns. It also quickly paid for itself in the services she, in turn, rendered at home. She has re-covered my chairs for me, made gifts, sewn clothes for herself, her sister and for me. I didn't do very well at tailoring anything else for her (poor thing was stuck with poorly mimeographed black and white copies of old texts - I didn't know back then how much she needed variety and beauty and companionship); she did survive.
Next child - extremely creative and talented. She tends to be good at everything she tries (except science)but loses interest quickly. Her biggest thing is staying on task and finishing something. She will teach herself French or Arabic for a while, but... She loves to write - and we've harnessed that in many ways. For a while she wanted to be an author. She hates school but is superb at researching whatever her latest passion is about. In areas of passion, we can pick and chose some paper topics and set her free - except she has to have some means of staying accountable - or some sort of deadline. Kolbe - modified our own way, has worked for her, except in science. That has been a struggle. She doesn't learn the way I do, does not deal well with a preponderence of words, needs a big picture and real-life connection before she'll even process the information. No matter what we tried, I just couldn't help her. I lost her as I was talking myself through to try and figure things out. Lesson plans with clear breakdown of what had to be done and when helped - but mostly she needed someone to give a good introduction. We ended up with a very hands on tutor. Now textbooks work fine. We have some folks to call on when she gets stuck with science as I'm just not knowledgeable enough or close enough to her learning style to be much help. Lesson plans with specific assignments were really important to her to stay on target. Still there's always been a lot of projects going on in whatever subjects - but this is all self directed. She is so much fun that she generally gets the others involved in whatever. She is such a project person that it always baffled me why she didn't take to that approach with science - just didn't have an interest at all and totally avoided the subject even with all kinds of hands on stuff and a fun science that was all doing with a real teacher. We bumbled and struggled until this one mom came along - and now she is fine with Kolbe science plans. Still hates school. I would have let her have a very unstructured type of school except that she floundered with this and would drop something before it was well begun. Her temperment just needed more structure (by her request) to help her stay on task and work long enough on something to take it to the next level. She tends to be phlegmatic sanguine - so she was either being distracted by the new thing that seemed more fun or not persevering if there was a stumbling block. With structure, lesson plans and work, she has finally discovered that she can do science, that she can finish projects, that she can take research and stick with it to a depth. The fun part is a bit missing unless she creates it. She always does unless she overloads herself.
Next child hates to be taught anything. This one is almost exclusively a visual learner - a perfectionist and very choleric. The more independent the better. This child is an avid reader, but hates most everything else except airplanes. He hates to even talk - forget a lot of formal discussion. However, I can be sneaky and set him to debating with his sister on topics related to subjects. This child is never off task and is keeping sister who cannot stay on track so well in line and she is getting him to argue! He hates to lose an arguement so he is being more thorough about his evidence! (Sometimes a little healthy competition goes a long way with this one as long as he is not totally outmatched). When it is content knowledge that is the primary goal, then reading and doing things like making timeline, chronology and putting him in debate settings with older child works fine. Other areas, there was so much struggle we just had to find something. Workbooks for some things help somewhat in terms of letting him work independently and giving me some clue what it is he doesn't understand. Selective use of Seton courses in things like grammar and Kolbe courses in writing (he can easily handle Kolbe reading, it's the writing practice he needs). I'm using the EES service but also ordered a book from Seton on visual organizing of ideas. (He is free to use that resource or ignore; it is a resource for him as a visual learner to find alternatives to outlines to help him organize thoughts. If he prefers to just outline, I'm fine with that too. Saxon was too disjointed for him, but he is loving and thriving in Jacobs - so we use it. He is good at math. I find a lot of visual charts to help supplement whatever we use - brightly colored. When he was studying/memorizing elements of the periodic table, I purchased a set of flashcards that had the actual pictures of elements as well as their symbols. For this child, that made the difference between success or failure. He has a wonderful German tutor who is teaching in a style perfectly suited to him. We are putting cards with words around the house. Because he wants to be totally independent, we have to have plans. I am officially with Kolbe with him, but use some single courses from Seton and ditch some things I see as totally irrelevant. With his vocabulary, he doesn't need to do that formally this year. Allowing him to be in some comfortable group settings in some areas to pull out the competiveness helps some - but right now this is in non-graded, non-stress ways with boys with whom he is quite comfortable. Because of his goals, we have to work on science. Workbooks seem to help him. We used a tutor - but a very different one than the one our dd used. They were doing the same course, same book but using different tutors. We could do this because both tutors worked out deals with the children on services they could render in payment for the tutoring. I never have to worry about documentation, getting work done and such with this child. Order is his nature. I have to remind myself to check in and kind of touch base on mood. He would never tell me if he didn't get anything - by golly, he'd just stay there and get frustrated trying to do it all by himself. It is a real exercise in humility when he has to accept help and I try to be sensitive to this. Having an outside source review his papers is essential to our relationship.
Next child - another hands on learner but the most disorganized of the bunch. Picture mad scientist and that is it. In most areas I must not only give good plans - but very detailed instructions. These must be answered neatly in complete sentences, your name and date must be in the top right hand corner .... Honestly, he handed in a paper once with no identification as to subject matter. Nothing was answered in sentences and I had no clue what he was doing. He couldn't even remember so it took us some time to find the original assignment and figure out what question he was answering. Furthermore, he didn't start with question number 1 - it might be 3, then 1, then 6, then 2, then 4 ... and some were upside down and most were not numbered at all. Obviously we had to address that for both our sakes. While I had to be very gentle and encouraging with most, this child needed some firmness. It took me making him rewrite an entire assignment to get things on track. We have to practice some of this with some subjects to develop the habit - but I do let him run free and creative in his area of passion.
My planning for him in science consists of taking him on a walk of our schoolroom and resources and asking him what he has and has not read in science. I notice what he has been working on. Next step, I show him resources I've found in catelogues and on-line and let him tell me what looks interesting. Then I kind of group things around this (focusing on whatever parts of it correlate to what the oldest is studying in science). Honestly, I'm sneaky (or lazy) but my motto is to commandeer the workforce. This is the science guru of our house and if we can let his passion fly and rub off, well, we're all better. Plus if oldest has a question that I cannot answer (which is generally every question), we have this kid who can probably help. I pick up anything science from friends of the library (at 25 to 50 cents, I cannot lose), bring it home and have him assess it. He also helps me select material for younger children. (My husband does help some here too as he is an engineer). I also have kits (homescience has some wonderful things for ages 3rd - 12th ) that I make available (note: I do not lead any experiments, the ones I tried to do with oldest dd ALL failed and frustrated us both). This guy tinkers with them and figures out how to make them work even if the instructions are lousy or incorrect. He also likes to read science books and then think of a way to test what they say to see if it is true. I've finally figured out that it is a waste of my time and energy to worry about science plans for him. I simply buy lots of books (textbooks and real books), kits, have supplies on hand (wires, batteries, broken appliances, old motors from stuff and whatever else seems relevent or that he reasonably requests for science experiments or projects). His lesson plans literally say : science - and then he fills in what he does do or I fill it in at the end of the day when I go over other things with him. There are days that I don't actually write anything in but I don't worry overmuch as I know something in science has happened that day and as long as something is written in a few times a week we're covered legally. History, I love and wanted him to love - but we approached it from the technology angle at first. Now, he reads and I provide project kits or books with ideas. He can chose his project. It is not his strongest nor most favorite subject but we're covering it at least some. The projects make it fun for him and he usually turns them into a history/science project. He avoided writing and literature - so we started with papers on science topics and then signed up for Seton Reading (don't even remember if the grade correlates with his grade, just picked the course with the books I thought he'd like and in his ability range). He loves the Seton reading course, I'm free to be his cheerleader and mentor/resource person and he is learning to be organized as he takes full responsibility for uploading work here. I also put him in the same Seton grammar as his brother - one book for both and I have someone to call quickly if I cannot explain something. I don't care how long it takes us to get through. We go at the pace we need and reinforce. He loves these Seton courses (who would have figured that? I chose them more as a desperate attempt to keep houdini from escaping literature one more year. In the process of his science love, he has taken an in depth interest in art, began nature sketching and using whatever art technique books we had around the house to teach himself and this year is taking an art course from an artist (loves it). He also wanted Latin - the nemesis of our lives and the one thing I've tried to teach for years and never survived more than a week. Well, a few years back, he took a very informal course at a co-op and got to maybe chapter 9 of LC I. When folks wanted Latin this year, I looked at what I had around, decided for me to start with Prima . This child is always correcting my pronunciation and has it all under his belt before I start. I also decided to do whatever Latin all together with whomever was interested (DD #2 already took 2 years of Wheelock with a tutor and older ds took the LC 1 course with the co-op so I'm not forcing this). Science fan and his younger brother are doing this together. They can quiz each other when I'm distracted, etc. Plus they compete so they stay on top of it and have a blast quizzing mom who is in the dust at the moment still trying to learn the prayers. I did buy the DVD but MODG plans work better for me with the reminder to Keep it short! They got bored and demanded something more challenging, so we have pulled out LC 1 again and seeing what happens. We may need to look for on-line possibilities if this doesn't keep him challenged as I know my limits. This child has also drifted into the poetry recitation. He is doing Singapore math but tends to be careless and do everything in his head. I'm probably going to do a year of Saxon with him just for the repetition and the drilling of the steps - he's got the big picture concepts. My biggest challenge was coming up with an organizational system for him that worked - 3 ring binders and a place behind closed doors where he can stack his stuff. He has gotten better and has taken total ownership of his Seton course.
Next child is still resolving a few vision issues so copying is difficult as is writing. I wanted to have a gentle approach but one that prepared for writing. We pulled out MODG 4th and stared with a lot of their plans. As the year has progressed, I've discovered a few things. He hates having to wait for me to hear his dictation, to do the next thing. MODG tends to have kids waiting around for mom - and realistically that is hard to do for a lot of things with a lot of children. He really did not like the history at all - but the poetry and the Latin are perfect. I don't want to totally do away with Intermediate Language Lessons, but when it takes him 3 hours to copy 1 sentence, something isn't working. We backed off a lot of the copywork for now and are doing the oral dictations - but he seemed so interested in brother's reading from Seton. We looked at it and I actually did order their reading workbooks, science and history workbook. The 4th grade history workbook is actually quite good. We are not in a rush and read plenty of things along with both the science and history workbooks. The science gives him a simple overview, but he does always pull out our science kits and tag along with big brother on the experiments and there are tons of just fun books to read. So Seton 4 had something on constellations. He read those few pages, then started with HA Reys Find the Constellations. Dad will take them out to look with the telescope as soon as it isn't totally cloudy. It is working, is gentle and I'm not messing with it. We have taken a break from Singapore to try and get faster with math - using Developmental math for a while to reinforce. He is a very visual learner - so we have used a lot of blocks and abacus work to solidify math facts. Something must be working, because he went off and wrote a poem in 2 days in imitation of the Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue. This child is a more phlegmatic personality so I'm thinking that the structure of Seton just builds confidence for him. Now, I cannot see doing a full year Seton, but utilizing a few single subjects in areas that provide him with some guidance and confidence and keep us moving forward in the language arts - that seems to be working and we'll keep at it.
I know it looks like it is so many different things with all these different plans for different children - but honestly it isn't difficult. They are mostly doing things themselves and bringing things to me to look at. I have binders for each subject and have the teachers books and supporting teacher materials tucked in the pocket right in the binder. These all are on the shelf by the area where I work with the children. It is easy for me to stack each child's plans - and grab my pile for them when they come to work with me. They bring their own stuff to the worktable. The independent stuff may seem a bit dull - but it is simple, covers the basics in an overview and we supplement with the things we love.
Another reason we keep our sanity is that we keep general areas the same - all the history studies are related to American history this year (geography, government and history) and the two oldest are doing the exact same course and most of their discussion occurs between them rather than with me. We have plenty of informal discussion and debates around the dinner table so I do have an idea of what is going on. I do the same thing with science - we are studying the same general areas (anatomy, botany ....) with a few folks finishing up physical science and the youngers branching into astronomy because they've just about depeleted my resources (that were to last the whole year) in botany and entymology. Because of this, the projects can be group or individual - however the children drift or decide is what works. Because of the mix of kids, we always have at least a couple of on-going projects, re-enactments, nature studies or experiments. Often what fascinates one child in a time period is different from another - so we are reading lots of different but related things, doing lots of projects (not me, the kids) which are then the visuals for some of the visual learners. Everyone is learning from everyone else even though there isn't any really planned group learning. Science experiments are generally led by science fan with everyone else tagging along. If one of the youngers is wanting to do something, they generally consult their brother - not me. They're smart enough to know where to go to get good information and help.
Latin and poetry recitation just kind of happened together. I did it with one child - the other 2 drifted in and wanted to join. The three oldest are doing a Bible study together - with each doing some independent religion work as well. (My husband and I are doing the same Bible study - but different time and location). I do try to discuss with each child in religion. The rest happens as needed or very informally. We bought some Seton art videos and have done those some for fine arts - also I have many Montessori type materials for further enrichment and learning.
I have to work most closely with the 7 and 10 year old. The 7 year old is not legal school age here yet and so there isn't as much stress yet. He is slightly far-sighted so I'm guessing not quite ready for reading until just recently beginning to show more interest. My biggest focus with him is discipline, ten commandments, and learning to read. We do plenty of read alouds and fun activities. He has joined in the poetry recitation. Sometimes I play phonics games with him, sometimes one of the older siblings does. You should have heard the 7 yo recite America for Me with all those words. He learned as fast as any of us. Not quite sure why he is having so much trouble learning the ten commandments. I'm sure I need to sit on him a bit more and we're working towards that. He listens in to both the German and the Latin lessons and gives every indication of being a very auditory learner. I'm pulling out those phonics songs tapes!
We'll be tweaking some all year - but not messing with anything that is achieving progress. My tweaking in the near future will be more in working more with the younger and ordering some more science stuff as we run out of things for the science fan to do - but he'll be the one to guide the selection with a good oversight from dad. I'll also be looking for a good way to get in the therapy that will hopefully build speed. All along, I consult with the children about what is and is not working and why. I guess I'm more of the general manager, resource person and admirer of this crew - other than just good old mom who will call them back to take their plate to the sink or mop the floor where they forgot to take off the muddy shoes, or provide a bandaid and bake cookies with them and listen to their joys and sorrows. I'm just not cut out to be a formal teacher.
Janet
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LLMom
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| Posted: Oct 27 2009 at 6:46am | IP Logged
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Molly,
Your question reminded me of another great post by Kim about this type of thing. You may have read it.
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Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Tailoring education
