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Claire F
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| Posted: Nov 04 2012 at 10:16pm | IP Logged
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One of my goals in our homeschool is to teach my kids to be independent learners. They are young still - my oldest is in 2nd grade. But I'm wondering how that transition can happen and what I can be doing now to help nudge him in that direction. Because right now, he wants me to read everything TO him, have me sit with him while he does anything and everything, etc. He's just very social and extroverted and thrives on interaction. Even something as simple as free reading time is often a struggle in our house because he doesn't want to feel like he's alone (even if he's sitting in the same room).
Part of it is his age. I sometimes have to remind myself that he's not even 8 yet, so I shouldn't cast my expectations too high. And I'm not hoping he will outgrow read alouds and such. But, I do envision a time when he can manage some of his reading assignments on his own. I don't want to find myself still hand-holding him through every subject when he's clearly old enough to handle it on his own, if that makes sense.
I guess my questions are these - what kinds of things have you done that helped your children develop good habits for independent learning? And how old were your kids when they were ready for that?
Thank you!
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Claire
Mom to DS 12/04, DS 5/07, DD 8/09
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JuliaT
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| Posted: Nov 05 2012 at 12:47am | IP Logged
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I remember when my oldest was 7 and I wondered if she would ever be able to do things on her own. The answer was yes, but in her time, not mine. I realized that I had to be patient and let her decide when she was ready to do things on her own. She started to read on her own when she was 9. Doing lessons on her own was a gradual process that started when she was 10. She is 13 now and is doing all of her subjects independently.
Every child is different, though. My ds (11) is having difficulty doing things on his own. He is able to read some things but he still likes me to sit with him when he does his lessons. Last week, I let him do the research part of a paper on his own. It was a bit dicey but he did do it. So we will continue to do this until he has more confidence and then I will extend my expectations until he does more on his own.
My youngest? Well, I have visions of doing everything with her even when she goes off to college. 
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Erin
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| Posted: Nov 05 2012 at 4:45am | IP Logged
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Claire F wrote:
| I guess my questions are these - what kinds of things have you done that helped your children develop good habits for independent learning? And how old were your kids when they were ready for that? |
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At 8 my children are only independent in a few areas for short unsupervised times. To begin to develop good habits though we clearly state our expectations of what needs to be accomplished so that when possible they can work unsupervised. In our case each child has a sheet with what to do on it, if I'm busy with another child they find what work they can do unsupervised.
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Erin
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Becky Parker
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One thing that has helped my kids to become more independent is a workbox system. My dd, at that age, was very capable but she's such a social bug she really wanted me to be right there with her. Workboxes really helped her to become more independent. I use them for my 11yo ds now because they help him with organization. There are still some things I do with him though, making sure he understands.
My 8yo ds uses them as well, but there aren't as many things that he can do without my help. He's just not ready for it yet. I set up his workboxes so he has some independent subjects to work on while I work with his younger brother. The things he can do on his own are: the math drill sheet that goes with his Saxon Math lesson, Explode the Code pages, and handwriting practice pages. I would like to add some quiet reading next, now that he is getting a little better with reading.
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Becky
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Mackfam
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My answer is similar to Erin and Julia's.
Each of my children has moved into independent work at their own pace, and this has largely been determined by their reading abilities. Everything seems to settle out completely by the time they're in 4th grade - that's the time everyone really starts working independently...(though one of my children was independent a little earlier).
To foster self-education/independent work in our home:
:: Have clear expectations of work to be done during the day - a list, a set of lesson plans you write, whatever you do to keep up with the work you expect for the day. Have this accessible to them in a timely manner each week. Nothing short circuits a week faster than when Mom still hasn't printed/written lesson plans and it's 3:00 on Monday. (And I've been there! I just brainstormed and brainstormed and worked and finally found a system that let me break out of that!)
:: Once they are reading, have them read the assignments on the lesson plans aloud to you. I may have to prompt a little (esp with a boy) and mention that in order to do the history reading the child will have to actually walk over to the shelf and get the book...it won't be flying into our lap. But these kind of promptings, even though they seem ridiculous (and maybe even discouraging), are setting up the habits of what to do when the child sees an assignment listed - get the book and read!
:: Once the child is reading independently with ease, I make sure that all the assignments reflect that and the child moves into independent reading and narration of his reading. This may mean assigning fewer pages to be read in a day so as not to overwhelm a new reader. It's sort of a transition time - I hang out to act as a guide in moving the child forward through the lesson plans (which again, have to be clear or the child won't know what to do independently), but this doesn't usually take too long. It's more of a training period. Our lesson plans stay the same for an entire term, so I invest a short period of time making sure the child understands what books to read, how much to read, what to do after reading, what kind of written work I need to see after each assignment (if any).
:: In our home, I request that at the end of each child's day they bring ME their lesson plans so I can check over them quickly. I may find an area they haven't completed. It's easier to hold their feet to the fire on a daily basis than it is to discover that a month's worth of work hasn't been completed, and worse, that the child has gotten into the habit of shirking his/her responsibility.
:: I'm still available to ALL my students when they need my help! I still work one on one, even with my highschooler, at times. And of course, I work closely with my littles. But I have the time to do that because all of my older children can just pick up their lesson plans and work when we begin our day. They don't need prompting or pushing from me - the habit of self-education was laid in the early years and they know what to do.
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Though your children are still quite young, Claire, this is a great question, because you are so correct that one of our goals should be to foster self-educators! It's a huge help to me and makes the day very, very efficient and it's essential to the student.
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Claire F
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| Posted: Nov 05 2012 at 11:17pm | IP Logged
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Thank you, these suggestions are very helpful!
Mackfam wrote:
| :: Once they are reading, have them read the assignments on the lesson plans aloud to you. I may have to prompt a little (esp with a boy) and mention that in order to do the history reading the child will have to actually walk over to the shelf and get the book...it won't be flying into our lap. But these kind of promptings, even though they seem ridiculous (and maybe even discouraging), are setting up the habits of what to do when the child sees an assignment listed - get the book and read! |
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I had to laugh at this. This is exactly what I am struggling with a little. For example, my oldest has a history notebook and for each unit, I print off a checklist that includes the reading assignments, a project or two, etc., with spaces to check things off. When it is time to do history, I would LOVE it if he would actually grab his notebook and look at the checklist. But each and every time, he just looks at me expectantly and I have to say, "Ok, let's get your history notebook and see what we have left to do."
I think I need to get better about allowing him opportunities to do even those small things, like getting out his notebook or getting the book we'll be reading, for himself. I tend to just grab everything and do all that prep work. I need to think more about your suggestions and see what will work for us in the short term to help him move towards doing some of these things for himself. I figure if we start with the small things, the bigger things will be easier to tackle down the road.
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Claire
Mom to DS 12/04, DS 5/07, DD 8/09
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CatholicMommy
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It sounds like you have great input here! I'll just reiterate it ;)
Start small, maintain those expectations. Have a daily or weekly plan or whatever helps YOUR family the most; then expect them to utilize it. Not that they do everything on their own - but you are there to guide their thought processes towards what needs to be done next, what should be done now to make later in the day easier; etc.
It will come!
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sunshinyliving
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| Posted: Nov 06 2012 at 5:01pm | IP Logged
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Claire F wrote:
| One of my goals in our homeschool is to teach my kids to be independent learners. |
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I was wondering if your goal was actually to have your kids be independent learners or independent workers. I think there is an important distinction to be made.
In a traditional school setting, we would not think highly of the teacher who handed her students text books and expected the students to teach themselves. If she did this, the students could be called "independent learners".
On the other hand, we would think highly of the teacher who thoroughly and engagingly taught a concept to her students. Then, if they were able to complete an assignment that related to what she taught, we would say the teacher had been successful in her efforts. These students would be "independent workers".
I know as a homeschoooler I often did not perform well the role of Teacher. I expected my kids to read the text and answer the questions with little input from me. While I think kids can learn like this (and some do thrive on it), I do not think it is usually the best method, and I would be appalled to find out that that was the local school-teacher's method.
I know everyone has different homeschooling methods and different expectations and goals for their kids, but from my experience I think a 7yo should have his lessons taught to him first, and then he should perhaps be able to do a short bit of work on his own. Depending on the child, reading can be the sticking point. Many 7yos will still benefit greatly from reading aloud to a parent.
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Diana, wife to Brad, Mom to dd18, dd16, dd13, ds10, dd7, ds5
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CatholicMommy
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I like Diana's point!
I have friends who use a particular curriculum that has a selling point of being "independent" - literally hand the child the books and they should be able to learn it. There are moments marked, "now go get your teacher to go over this concept (flash cards, request the test, etc)."
Are these children really learning how to work independently? Or are they actually learning how to follow the directions of an authority, step by step? It's just supplementing one authority (the parents directing every second of the day) with another (the curriculum doing the exact same thing).
The same users of this curriculum don't like the older levels of said curriculum because it isn't so precisely laid out and they actually have to look at the curriculum and decide how to plan it out for their own child.
Hm. ;)
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Claire F
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| Posted: Nov 14 2012 at 6:47pm | IP Logged
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That is a great question!
I think there are bits of both - being an independent worker and an independent learner - that I'm going for. I don't expect to reach a point where I hand him a stack of curriculum and expect him to teach himself. I'm thinking more in terms of, he can use a lesson plan or checklist to see what he needs to do, then get the book he needs, and go read it. Obviously reading ability is key in that, but he's capable of reading a lot of what we read (he just don't often want to). He just still wants me to do everything for him.
I'm also thinking ahead as my other kids get older and I won't be able to work one on one with each of them for every single bit of their learning every single day. Already our days take longer because I'm integrating my five-year-old more into our days. So I need to take some steps to create habits in my older son that will move him towards doing some of his work independently, as he is able.
I have some good ideas - thank you for your feedback!
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Claire
Mom to DS 12/04, DS 5/07, DD 8/09
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Progression to more independent learning
