I did regular homeschooling 4 days a week. The 5th day was for delight directed learning, and my children did things for fun. It kept us focused, and helped us all enjoy homeschooling. But what does that look like in real life?
Lee
My boys have suggested to do core subjects 4 days a week and one day for what I believe you would call “Delight directed learning”. I was wondering what did your boys do on that day. I want to make sure it is not just a free for all because I know that my younger boy would play games on the computer all day.
~ Karen
Hi Karen,
First they did their school work, before anything else
Usually the day was completely filled with activities. That was the day I planned all of our out-of-the-home fun things. It wasn’t really an empty day, it was almost a “too full” day, because it included all our actiivities. Piano lessons, art lessons, field trips, skating and PE, perhaps a community class on history. Everything had to fit into that “free day” or we didn’t do it (with very few exceptions.) Because the day was filled with running around and stuff, there wasn’t much down time. I did make sure to have interesting things for them to do while we were running around. Alex brought economics or music courses from the Teaching Company with us while we waiting at Starbuck’s for Kevin to teach chess. Kevin brought courses on Russian History or read books about chess while I was driving to the different events and opportunities.
To prevent a wasted day, we had some fairly strict guidelines: no computer at all, not TV at all (unless it was a video lesson.)
This policy of one day out of the house was part of why we could accomplish so much in a year. When you spend a lot of time coordinating and going to activities, it’s difficult to actually spend time homeschooling. By combining all our activities into one day only, the other four days were actually devoted to JUST doing school each day. On those “school days” we almost never left until school was done for the day – again, with very few exceptions.
When Alex started working at the Think Tank, he had to leave for work at about 9:00am and got home about 5:00pm on Wednesdays. I didn’t have him do math or foreign language at that point – I didn’t even have him work on anything in the car! We just talked about what he had done during the day while we were driving. When Kevin started driving himself to his chess teaching jobs, he still had time to get his math done before he left.
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Listen. Learn. Discern. Get guidance. Sounds great! Now if we could just teach our children to have a quiet time and devotional with the word of God, they could listen, learn, discern, and get guidance too!
Proverbs 1:5
Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.
Sometimes kids will gobble it up, and love reading the Word. Other times… not so much. Same kid, just different stages. It doesn’t mean they have made a long term commitment to fighting you on devotions. In general it just means their brain is focused on other things.
There are two things that can help you train a child to have devotions. First, demonstrate a devotional lifestyle, but having a quiet time yourself. Show your children that real adults really read their Bible on a day-to-day basis, and that will become normal behavior for them.
We read it together, and discussed the scriptures we read. I called it “cozy couch time” because I wanted it to be a warm, friendly, non-schoolish environment. My goal was for them to love scripture. Like teaching them to love reading, I thought the best way would be to get cozy with the book.
Later in high school, I bought them each their own devotional. Rather than commentaries, I really liked The One Year Bible NIV
Each day it provides a section from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. It was a good fit for me, because sometimes I get bogged down in some sections (Lamentations and Revelation come to mind…..) and having a mix of Old, New, and Wisdom books really helped me have something each day that would spark my interest and keep me excited about devotions.
Books rule! We love books. We absorb books. Anything that we need to know can be learned in a book. Sometimes people ask me why our reading lists were so incredibly long. It wasn’t because I assigned all those books, I can tell you that much! For both of my boys, reading is their “love language.” Give them a book, and they will love you forever. Every Christmas, their wish list includes specific books. Our reading list is so long because that’s how my children learn best.
Try to identify the preferred method of learning for your child. Maybe they learn best by doing. Maybe they learn best when the hear something. Maybe they can imitate anything once they see it done first. It doesn’t have to be about books – just find the way they learn best.
Sometimes they’ll learn a subject no matter how your present it. But when you run into trouble, and they seem to just hate something, go back to their preferred method of learning. Try those strategies again, to learn the subjects they hate.
My kids were wonderful at math and science, so you might think that every subject came easy for them. It didn’t! My children positively hated art! Especially Kevin! In order to teach them art, after failing and failing at different hands-on projects, I finally got smart. I found BOOKS about art. I chose biographies of artists, and books with just the artwork of MC Escher (a big hit with my engineer) and art books with just impressionists (a big hit with my history buff.) We ended up doing pretty well with art, when I focused on teaching them HISTORY of art, and art through books.
We used to go camping a lot. Car campers, we would take every creature comfort from home, and set up our tent next to the car. We would take day hikes each day, and cook over an open fire. To be honest, though, most of the time we all spent reading.
When my children were younger, I would prepare unit studies for them to read. Books on insects or trees, or stories of survival and outdoor living. I would read ahead all their school books for the coming year. Hey, when you’re reading ahead for their 6th grade year, it’s pretty easy! I’ll admit it gets MUCH more difficult when you are reading ahead for high school!
When my children were older, I would try to read ahead some of their school books that I didn’t already know, or the books I was not planning to read aloud to them. I could get some real quality “planning ahead” done that way!
When we went camping, whether my children were younger or older, we always brought with us a huge box of books to read. I would try to sneak in some really great reading that I knew they would love – using books from “reading lists for the college bound.” Reading “Call of the Wild” or “Mark Twain” is much more fun when you’re camping!
Remember to save all the book titles for your reading list. It doesn’t matter whether they read the books for school or for fun, when camping or in bed at night. All their books can be put on the reading list.
I have been writing a LOT of articles recently. In fact, in a day or two I will be the number one homeschooling author on ezinearticles.com. You can subscribe and get my articles by email here. If you do subscribe, please take a moment to leave me a comment, send it to a friend or vote for it. My articles have been viewed over 3000 times but I only have one comment! Sniff…I guess my blog buddies spoil me!
Drop what you’re doing, and learn! Take a day off! In a homeschool, we can actually spend ALL DAY studying American Government and Current Events.
Tuesday if the inauguration of President-Elect Obama, and there is a lot to learn. You can take the day off from most of your formal schooling. . It’s an historic day, whether you voted for him or not. Research Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy, so that you can evaluate the comparisons as the pundits talk. Listen to the crowd, and discuss the meanings of words they use to describe Obama. Listen to the history of the 20th Century as they discuss Civil Rights. Watch the proceedings – there have been very few Presidents in our history, so this is a very special event.
In the Seattle area, one local school district has required parental permission slips before they allow students to watch the inaugural day proceedings. Homeschools don’t have a bureaucracy. We can learn during life, without getting permission. It doesn’t take an act of congress to be flexible with our homeschool. We can soak it up, and strike while the iron is hot! Seize the day, and allow student to watch history being made. Help them understand what is happening, and explain the views of the commentators. You can explain the historic nature of the event while presenting your own viewpoint.
Flexiblitiy is the key to supporting children when they learn through life events. In September of 2001, we moved into our new house in Seattle. After painting the interior, we were finally ready to start homeschooling in our new home. On our first day of school, before the children woke up, we were hit by the terrorist attacks of 9-11. It was incredibly traumatic, but we were together as a family, experiencing and learning together at home. I dropped all plans of studying Africa in geography, and we started with Afghanistan and the Middle East first. We spend hours talking about what happened, and the comparisons to Pearl Harbor. Remember all those comparisons? It was a great opportunity for the boys to REALLY learn the impact of Pearl Harbor, by learning about 9-11 as it happened.
So seize the day, and soak all the learning up while you can! Regular days are for regular school, but special learning days like this only come around once in a while.
I found this is my “memoirs” folder on my computer. It was written “a few years ago” about my younger son, the political economy major. He certainly doesn’t demonstrate ANY problems with reading comprehension anymore. In fact, he just told us that he heard all the news about the book “Twilight” and decided that he was old enough to read it. He read the entire series in two days, just before finals week. (Begs the question, though, why he wasn’t studying….)
Date: Apr 4, 2000
I have been very concerned about my 10 yo ds’s reading comprehension.
When I quizzed him on Charlotte’s Web this week, he only got 5 out of 10 questions right. (I used Scholastic’s Reading Counts software – we had added this book as additional reading.) Any way – HE STUNK!
So, I read in Beechick’s book. She says that reading comprehension is overrated. That if they laugh at parts of books, that means they are comprehending. So I thought maybe he was OK. But I was feeling like a failure that my kid can’t understand a simple child’s book!
Last night, while at baseball practice devotions (we are on a Christian baseball team) the boys were all discussing tithing. My 10 yo says to the team, “Yes, but God doesn’t always reward us with money. It is not like some sort of Ponzi scheme! God doesn’t take your money and promise you more money in return.” WOW! We read about Ponzi last year in SL FT4! Isn’t it only a one page story in the American Adventure book? I could not believe that he remembered OR that he really understood Ponzi OR that he was able to apply that knowledge to a different situation.
Perhaps he has pretty good reading comprehension: but only when he wants to! He can understand Ponzi (I am not sure I can) but not Charlotte’s Web. Maybe we are OK.
To read about the most recent incarnation of Charles Ponzi, say hello to Bernard Madof, the $50 Billion man. Please teach your children history so they aren’t swindled as adults.
When my boys were very young (perhaps 5 and 7) we had an uncomfortable realization about comparisons. During Christmas when they were young, I always tried to be careful about gifts. They had to be similar size boxes, so THEY thought they were the same value, but they had to be similar prices so *I* knew they had the same value. It was hard work and emotionally exhausting. Then one day I heard them playing by the Christmas tree. When I went to check on them, I had quite a surprise. They had pulled all the wrapped gifts from the tree, and piled them into two piles. They were carefully weighing each stack of gifts on our bathroom scale, and adding it together. They wanted to find out who had more POUNDS of Christmas presents!
I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard! It just goes to prove that no matter HOW careful you are, it’s possible for kids to measure life in a completely different way!
I have to say, parents, just do your best at Christmas. You can’t do any better than that. If they weigh they Christmas presents – oh well! As parents we simply can’t be perfect. Just do your best, and it will be fine.
Now… back to that Christmas shopping!
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I have a friend with children slightly older than mine. When we were homeschooling, we got together once a week for coffee. At first, we pretended it was for the kids – they had to have some socialization, you know! Later on we realized that we both needed each other’s support. I thought I got the better end of the deal, though. Since her kids are older, she was usually just finishing a stage in her children’s development that we were just starting. “Don’t worry!” she would say. “It’s just a stage they outgrow!” She would share stories that would mirror what we were going through.
Most of the frustrations homeschoolers deal with aren’t really homeschool related. Nine times out of ten, our struggles are just because we have children!
When you are struggling, be strong! When you can, try to find an older homeschooling parent who can knowingly tell you it will be OK. Someone who has lived through your struggles with messy boys, or whatever you are dealing with. Last week, at coffee, my friend confided that she, too, had an older friend to encourage her.
Find a friend, and be a friend.
And if you ever need to have coffee with your “virtual” homeschool friend, just give me a call and we can set up an appointment. I’m always up for Starbucks!
Eva asks: In the situation of a poorly completed test where it is clear either the student misunderstood the instructions or was truly ill, is it acceptable to ask for a “re-do” and record the score only on the second attempt? (9th grade spelling)
I absolutely encourage you to allow your daughter to retake tests. The goal in homeschooling is completely different than the goal in other schools. In a classroom setting, tests and quizzes are their only way to really assess kids. In contrast, our goal is LEARNING. Retaking a test or quiz can really help students learn. That’s why I believe it’s OK to provide solution manuals and teacher manuals during the learning process. My own son learned upper level math without my help by using the solution manual on a daily basis. I only took it away when he was ready for a test. I know the strategy worked, because he has a great grade point average in electrical engineering.
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