| Author |
Message |
    
Jo Dee (jodee)
Board Administrator
Username: jodee
Post Number: 402
Registered: 06-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 03:57 pm: |     |
Great job of explaining a very difficult thing to put into practice.
It's amazing how much an older child can learn by helping the younger children, patience, figuring out how to explain it a different way, and how to love them...
Jo Dee
Nothing takes God by surprise! |
Susan (susan)
Moderator
Username: susan
Post Number: 232
Registered: 05-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, June 27, 2004 - 12:08 am: | |
First Section: “I NEED MORE HELP” pages H-1 through H-3
Teaching several children is a challenge, but pre-planning a schedule is an absolute necessity to succeed.
First plan the Language Arts and the Math times of your day. Grouping is a must.
Language Arts: While older children are working independently, you can work on phonics or punctuation skills. Then, when the younger ones have been engaged in a hands-on project, you can spend time with the older ones checking their comprehension skills or working on a literature project. Although the younger ones should get the priority time, you must touch bases with the older students daily.
Math: Have all your students participate in a 5-minute drill every day. The review won’t hurt the older students, and sometimes can even lead the drills for the younger ones. Then, while the younger ones are “building their math” (younger students usually need more work with manipulatives), you will have the time to explain that algebra problem that is plaguing your older student.
Now the fun begins….UNIT STUDIES! Teach history, science, social studies to all of your children together. Your older students will have to delve more deeply into the subject areas for high school credits, he can still participate in group activities (such as field trips) with the other children, and perhaps even teach some of the lessons.
Begin with the interests of your children. Let each work at his own level within the subject area. Build a time line, create a diorama, keep a scrapbook, take a field trip, observe, record, draw, collect, take a walk, Etc.
Sit-Down academic time for children 8-10 and younger should not be longer than 1 to 1.5 hours at most per day. Upper elementary children and high schoolers should spend no more than 3 hours per day on sit-down work. This doesn’t mean that education should stop at the school desk, however.
Homeschooling is a total program, that begins when the children hop out of bed in the morning. It takes planning, scheduling, replanning, rescheduling, self-discipline and patience.
Keep the children working together as a unit wherever possible, giving related assignments or project according to the children’s ability and learning pace.
Okay, there it is. A big stew of different ideas to start us off with a bang this New Year. You have all had two months to soak up and digest the manual and our discussions. What are your thoughts? Questions? Struggles? Praise reports?
In Christ,
Susan McGlohn
Homeschooling 10 years and counting
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