Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Educator, Coach, Life Strategist

15-minute organization now saves time and sanity later

If you’re like many homeschooling families, the beginning of every new year marks the half-way point between the beginning of your school year and making it to the finish line sometime between May and August.  And while the half-way point means 4-6 months of hard work for your kids and homeschooling satisfaction already under your belt, it can also mean that time has taken a toll on the organizational systems in your home, too:

Source: Free Digital Photography

No matter when your school year begins and ends, it’s never a bad idea to spend a few minutes get things re-organized for the next round.  Taking just 15 minutes now to eliminate piles of papers, tidy school areas, or update household charts keeps things running smoothly for the rest of the year.  Better yet, periodically cleaning up your act insures that your time will be spent on the things that are important to you — rather than wasted wading through messes instead.

Here is a list of just some of the things that homeschooling families can accomplish in 15 minutes.  Choose any of the following (or any you come up with on your own) and promise yourself you’ll get it done today.  Do the same thing every day for a week and you’ll really set yourself up for success!  That’s because the rewards of these 15-minute checkups extend beyond today — yes, you’ll feel great about getting something done now,  but the payoff continues every single day that you don’t have to deal with that particular problem in the future!

Get your homeschool in order in 15 minutes by…

1. Dealing with a paper pile — either on your desk or your student’s desk.   Grade exams, file homework, discard doodles and scratch paper (a major problem in my home), sort mail, or whatever you need to do to remove unwanted paper from somewhere in your home.  As an added bonus, find a way to deal with these papers in the future by setting up boxes, file folders, or a nearby trash receptacle to hande papers as they come in from now on.  I recently used baskets to hold my most used discs and files and am very happy with the result:

I also couldn’t believe the change I experienced simply by placing a trash can under my desk — it fills so much faster than it ever did being on the other side of the room!

2. Checking supply levels and restock anywhere in your home that needs it.  This could be a student desk in need of pencils and crayons, an artist area in need of frequently-used paint colors, a pantry in need of restocking from bulk items stored in the garage, a closet or dresser in need of a seasonal clothing swap, or anything else that could use refilling.  I solved our problem recently by creating 2 well-stocked common areas where our children could grab supplies whenever they were needed (one upstairs, one downstairs):

Identify an area in your home that needs attention, then do whatever works for you.

3. Creating or revising homeschool forms, household or charts or any other standard item you use all year long. In my home, I recently implemented a 3-week rotating chore system that is working very well for us so far. But other activities in this category would include creating a form for an activity your child performs every day (reading, practicing karate or piano), revising a form that hasn’t been working well for you (a weekly or monthly planning sheet) or making photocopies of forms you use on a daily or weekly basis (to-do lists, solution sheets for mathematics, grocery lists, or pages of an entire household notebook).  Also don’t forget to make sure that calendars are hung all around the home where they are visible, pages are refilled in personal planners, and electronic devices are either standardized or sync-ed in some way so that all family members are communicating and scheduling well together.

4. Starting a new system — one that you have been wanting to try for a long time.  Turning over a responsibility to another member of the family, such as laundry or menu-planning, may be something you have been wanting to try for a while.  Or having children check their own answers on homework papers or do their own laundry could be the new system you are putting in place this year.  A word of advice — keep an eye on things at first, even operating both the old and new systems for a little while in case the family takes longer than anticipated to adjust (or the plan backfires altogether).  In our home, I am presently converting from my gigantic day-planner to an electronic calendar application on my wireless device.  And even though I’ll be duplicating my efforts for a little while, I plan to keep the planner going until I am confident that I know exactly what I am doing under the new system.

5. Cleaning something that needs it — like mom’s or dad’s desk, the corner of the kitchen counter where everything seems to accumulate during the day, or an area of the mud room where items always seem to land when kids enter from the back door.  In my home, little helpers in the kitchen often contribute to a messy pantry storage area — one area that I feel as though I am constantly trying to conquer:

Choose an area in your home that you have been neglecting and get it ready for the next day.  Even better, see if you can think of a way to keep that area a lot cleaner in the future (and if you come up with clever pantry ideas, please share them here, as well!).

6. Decluttering an area — particularly one that has been making you crazy all year.  Although you might not be able to eliminate everything in the area, rehome (or discard) whatever you can, and simplify and organize the rest.  If it’s the spot in the garage where children leave their shoes and toys, tackle that one.  Or the place where all of your girls do hair and makeup in the bathroom is the area that creates the most problems in your home.  Wherever it may be, declutter an area that seems to attract messes or cause the most hold-ups for you and the other members of your household.

7. Finding a better place for something (usually one that has no home).  In my home, this includes small appliances that take up valuable space on kitchen countertops because they don’t have a place in the cupboards.  It also includes children’s laundry cubes that don’t have a home at the moment because I finally renovated our laundry room. (I’ll tackle these myself this week!)  In your home, it could be anything you continually find on the floors, the stairs, the workspace in the garage, or anywhere else it really doesn’t belong.

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Faciliators of learning

In many homeschools, parents decide upon a curriculum of study and then assign work to their students.  In these homes, parents take on the role of Teacher, Principal, Curriculum Designer or some combination of the three.

In other homes, however,  the students choose what to learn and do.  What, then, is the parent’s role when guiding self-directed learners?

The answer is — facilitate.

In homes where parents are partners in learning, I call these parents Facilitators.  In homeschools where students take the lead, parents as Facilitators have a different job than that of instructing students and dictating projects.

Facilitators of learning may —

  • Connect students to resources — by listening to students, performing research, and then by introducing products, web sites, people and places that could be useful to a child’s studies
  • Introduce ideas, reframe concepts — that result in adding a different perspective or another dimension to the learning
  • Encourage and support — by listening, acting as sounding board or brainstorming; by providing transportation, procuring materials, participating in discussions, guiding instruction, or any other way that might be needed
  • Help to track learning — alone or in partnership with students, to document experiences and monitor that learning has taken place

Do not be concerned if your role as homeschooling parent differs from the role of other parents you meet.  Individual differences and state laws, combined with the educational model you have adopted in your home will dictate your duties and responsibilities.  There are many hybrids and variations of homeschooling.  What matters most is that your student receives what he or she needs to be successful, whatever that may be.

[Image: Free Digital]

 

Awarding credit — three different ways

You may wonder how to award homeschool credit for learning that doesn’t come from a book.  Since there are many ways to homeschool, rest assured, there are different ways to recognize homeschooling achievements, too.

Use one of these methods to recognize your child’s efforts and award the credit they deserve for working outside of a book or curriculum.  Three of the most common ways to do this appear below:

1. COUNTING HOURS

Counting hours is perhaps the simplest way to award homeschool credit. Begin with the notion that no matter what the activity may be, as long as it’s educational, it counts.  You may track hours any way like, such as keeping a daily list and tallying the hours at the end of every school week.  Using these totals, hours may be grouped together to form one single course, or may be spread out over several courses, depending on the subjects you teach that year.  Assigning some limit, such as 150 hours per course, will help determine when a credit has been reached.  (Check your state to see if credit guidelines exist, or make your own.)  And don’t forget that anything related to the class counts, too; therefore things like studying, research, discussions and extracurricular activities related to the topic may be included as well.

2. TOPIC COMPLETION

When using a ready-made curriculum product, completing the book or finishing the entire course makes it easy to know when credit is due.  But, homeschool parents can duplicate this concept on their own, using other kinds of resources, too.  When spelling out the goals of a course, determine just how much material must be covered before the course is complete.  Writing down a list of objectives, either randomly or in the order you hope to meet them, is one way to do this.  Then, once students have completed most or all of what was expected on the list, credit may be awarded and the class considered over.

3. MASTERY

Since homeschooling is flexible and efficient, students may be able to grasp concepts and master skills very quickly.  Regardless of the number of hours, days or weeks something takes to learn, parents may award homeschool credit based solely on this mastery.  Looking at a student’s total level of understanding or mastery of a skill before a class, and at periodic intervals thereafter, homeschool credit can be awarded whenever mastery is achieved.  Resist the temptation to assign extra work to students who complete a class quickly; instead, reward achievement by awarding credit and either giving students a break or the chance to move on to the next course.

Marie-Claire Moreau, Quick Start Homeschool

 

 

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A relaxed way to look at elementary science

  

Science is a favorite subject for many students and their families.  Some just like hearing the ideas, while others prefer to practice the concepts interactively.

Though teaching science in homeschool is important, and even required for college-bound students later on, I believe it is important for parents of younger students to put the teaching of homeschool science into perspective.    Introducing a formal science curriculum at an early age is fine.  However, it’s not the only way to introduce scientific topics to elementary school students.  In fact, teaching science less formally and on a more relaxed schedule can be just as effective, maybe even more. It might even be a little bit more fun in some families, too.

Consider this.  Science takes place all around us.  Unless a student lived in total isolation, it would be impossible not to live everyday life without experiencing some form of science.  Observing and interacting with things in the environment happen to children whether we notice them or not.  No student would probably ever reach the age of 10 or 12 without knowing that most liquids can be combined, flames are very hot, and ice eventually melts in warmer temperatures. By 12, most students will also have experienced moving heavy objects using some form of leverage, the rippling effects of tossing rocks into a pool of water, and plants that have wilted or died from a complete lack of sun or water.  Inquisitive children and those with extra guidance and resources will have learned much more.  But others, completely on their own and just by interacting with the world, will most likely have hit upon most of the main ideas taught in standard science texts during those years anyhow.

Next, knowing science is accumulated and it is learned incrementally.  Just like mastering the use of written language or gradually learning more and more complex mathematics, the study of science builds upon itself.  It isn’t something that can be taught in a year and then ignored thereafter.  Instead, year after year, experience after experience, students gain an understanding and continually practice with the physical world around them.  That is why pre-packed science curriculum products repeat the same ideas throughout a child’s education.  And like other subjects (say, history, for example), the same ideas are reviewed and practiced every few years only in more detail and requiring a higher level of thinking and understanding, over and over again.

So, how would it be if instead of teaching formal science from a book, families allowed children to experience science all by themselves?  That’s exactly what some homeschool families do — no curriculum needed.  Some call this child-directed learning, or unschooling.

Or, what about doing simple science on one’s own, in the kitchen or outdoors or with a group of friends, instead of following a traditionally paced science schedule?  Other families do that, too.  This falls under many different types of homeschooling, including relaxed homeschooling, hands-on learning, Charlotte Mason Education, and eclectic homeschooling, just to name a few.

The trick to teaching science during the early years is to consider the child.  If a child thrives on curriculum, enjoys using it, and learns a lot this way, it is obviously the correct choice.   But if the child is comfortable experiencing the world, reading, drawing, measuring, collecting or just talking about it, that method can work well, too.  If a family enjoys studying science daily during a particular time block, that’s fine too.  But if the parent prefers to identify or point out opportunities to understand scientific concepts throughout the day, no matter what is happening in and out of the home, that can work as well.

Some years ago, I heard a rather popular conference speaker discuss elementary science.  The talk was about the early stages of learning and the memorization of oodles of scientific facts and information leading to the eventual application of scientific topics as the children grew older.  As I listened, I imagined how my children and other children I knew would feel if they had been denied the experience of science when very young, but had been asked to learn science instead.  Over the years in talking with parents, I understood that other families felt the same, some even describing early science books as school-like and boring when their children far preferred to do science instead.

Several years later, I attended the lecture of a teacher-turned-author of homeschool curriculum.  The teacher’s viewpoint of science (and history, by the way) was that it should be introduced early, but sparingly, and under very low pressure.  That lecture and further research, combined with my instincts and my experiences with homeschool science, helped to cement my thoughts about relaxed science during the early years.  And like many other things I learned along the way, I began to see homeschool science more clearly.

That being said, teaching science in a relaxed way is a personal preference and one that may not be appropriate for every student.  In our home, we followed a traditional science curriculum for some of our students, but not for the others.  Sometimes, depending on what was happening in our lives and what our goals were, we alternated between the two, hopping back and forth from science books to conducting our own experiments and creating things from kits and stuff we collected around the house and yard.  Ultimately, how to do science will depend on a family’s goals for science, the children, the available resources and of course, budget.  Some years, we had no documentation of science except for photos, because so little written work had actually been done.  Other years, we had textbooks and workbooks, notebooks full of written definitions, drawings and completed lab reports to fill our portfolios.

Just knowing that there are many ways to teach science may come as a relief to parents, particularly those that worry and stress about meeting science requirements each and every day (one reason I like to share our stories). It may also help to know that many families do not do science every day with young children, reserving science studies for summer or days off, or for when daddy is home to help, or for when the mood strikes and all of the materials seem to magically come together at the same time.

Learning about science takes time, something that kids have plenty of as they grow up in homeschooling.  Children grow quickly and formal studies come soon enough.  Parents who prefer to wait on buying traditional science books may have confidence in knowing that other homeschoolers have waited, too.  Choosing the most appropriate way to do science in your unique homeschool is always the best method of all.

Related posts:

Popular science curriculum

Relaxed homeschooling

 

Covering all the bases

Homeschooling moms and dads sometimes worry about covering all the bases.  Particularly when just starting out, they may worry that they haven’t taught all the subjects correctly or that they’ve missed something terribly important along the way.  This is perfectly understandable, and many homeschoolers will admit to feeling exactly the same way at one point or another.

It may be helpful to look at this concern from a couple of different angles, the first being to ask the question, in all seriousness, “Does it really matter?” That is, of all of the things that are learned in homeschool, does it really make that much difference if something small is actually overlooked?  Unless the omission is something quite major — as in a child not knowing how to read, write, perform basic computations, or generally understand his or her system of government – does it really matter in the larger scheme of things?  Looking at it statistically may help, too.  How likely is it that this particular child will actually need to recall and utilize each and every piece of trivia learned during his or her school years?  If the student really didn’t learn whatever-it-was, will it severely impair them as an adult?

The second angle is all about asking why a family is homeschooling at all.  That is, having chosen homeschooling generally means families aren’t particularly satisfied with the way things are taught in schools anyway.  That being said, why try to teach exactly what is taught in schools and, moreover, who’s to say what they’re doing is right anyway?  The school-at-home approach, the method which tries to duplicate what goes on in conventional classrooms, is only one way to homeschool.  There are others to consider trying, too.

A third perspective involves thinking ahead to the overall accumulation of knowledge over a child’s entire homeschool experience.  Knowledge, experience and wisdom are cumulative – things that keep growing larger and larger with every passing school year, and throughout a person’s lifetime, too.  If something really is missed in an earlier grade, there is a pretty good chance someone will notice it later on, and cover it then (“Woops!  I guess I forgot to show you how to reduce fractions last year.  Let’s quickly learn it now…”).   Or perhaps nobody will notice but the student will somehow learn it anyway, naturally, during the course of school and everyday life, perhaps even easier now that the student is that much older (“Wow,  I guess I’d better figure out how to create a resume since I’m looking at getting a job soon.”).   Look at it this way – if primary colors aren’t specifically taught in preschool or kindergarten, does that mean a child will never learn them?  Can you even imagine a child who doesn’t know the difference between blue, red and yellow as an adult, even if they never had a lesson on colors?  Sometimes things get learned anyhow – even if they were never covered in homeschool at all. 

And for those who still worry about covering all of the bases, consider this option.  There are many useful guides that parents can follow to be sure that most of the traditional subject areas are covered.  Many homeschoolers use these guides as a way to plan the year, being sure they don’t miss anything that students that age typically cover that year.  These resources can range from reviewing national standards, to looking over statewide requirements, to using curriculum products with a “scope & sequence”, to buying books that outline a traditional course of study for every grade from K-12.  Obtaining one of these guides is a very easy and inexpensive way to take the guesswork out of what to cover, and put one’s mind at ease that nothing important has been missed along the way.  Some of these resources are described in this post.

As a final note, parents are reminded to slow down and relax about the process.  Despite their fears, it is highly unlikely that good, conscientious parents who diligently homeschool their children will forget any of the big things anyhow.   Though they worry about it happening, it really seldom does.  After the first year or two of homeschooling, once the learning curve levels off a bit and parents become more comfortable with the entire process, these things tend to take care of themselves.  Worrying about them only makes the early homeschooling years more nerve-wracking, plus having access to general homeschooling information and a decent support system ordinarily helps to avoid these kinds of problem altogether anyway.

[Photo: Free Digital]