Taking Stock for a Successful Year

We are entering our eleventh year of homeschooling. That number alone is astounding, as this journey was not one I had planned. I was always committed to being a stay-at-home mom for those first five years, but was part of the masses that thought traditional education was the most “natural” thing to do. Ha! Of course, those ideas were formulated before I had children that I had nutured and enjoyed for all those years. Life experience definitely changes outlook!

I am always trying to learn despite myself, uber-planner that I am. Homeschooling is much more fluid in that I have a continued view of each child’s progress and place determined by their actual level. I do not blindly follow an arbitrary external set of measurements for children of their same age/grade. These tools can be a guide, but their actual lessons and experiences are the real measure here.

This gives us the ability to make their education fabulously personal. Each of them is all over the board in their skill sets. I am sure that your children are the same way. Yet many parents still rely too heavily on external measures. Instead of looking at the child, they make the curriculum their guide. I fear they are missing a very important mark here.

Taking stock before you begin a new year is the most crucial step in all lesson planning. Start by making a brief list of your child’s stengths and weaknesses for your eyes only. Be brutally honest. Scout’s list may contain items like great memorization skills, quick reader with excellent comprehension, has developed a flair for creative writing, has wonderful verbal narrations as strengths. It will also cite weaknesses such as low attention to detail causes math stuggles, essay writing is a struggle and does not show child’s voice, and organizational skills are weak and lead to many forgotten assignments.

Don’t stop there. Look through last year’s work for each child, and their weekly planner. Keeping a weekly student planner for each child is a great tool for me. It is rather informal, as I just jot down what has been done each day, and any triumphs or struggles.

For instance, I can see that Girlie’s math skill acquisition is a bit slower than the norm, and adjust our lessons focusing on success rather than schedule. I see that she has made great strides with written narration, and can do it quickly. She is reading and typing well, and continues to work on her handwriting on her own. She is very interested in geography . She loves creative writing. She struggles to understand history within context.

Don’t forget to address the child’s personality and maturity in this exercise. Are they willful or lazy? Are they intense and overly critical? Are they struggling with social issues or responsibility? All these factors play a part in designing the plan for the student.

Then, have a meeting with each child. Don’t just ask them what they want to do…they probably won’t be able to articulate that. Ask them more specific questions like “Do you feel rushed with ______ ( subject) ?” “Is there anything about _____ that you aren’t clearly understanding?” “What subect is your strongest and why?” “What is your weakest and why?” “Is there anything that you want to learn more about?” Keep asking questions until you really understand how your child feels as a student.

In analyzing all this data together, you can create a personalized plan. Scout has all the skills, but really needs to be taught organization. There is great truth that some people are born with it, and others are not. He’s asked for help, as he knows he needs to learn to use a planner and coordinate syllabi, and how to use his time wisely to complete those goals. He needs to become more self-reliant, and get in the habit of making his own checklists. He admits he waits for me to get frustrated and do it all for him, and he realizes I can’t do this for him his whole life!

We will continue to work on Latin and add logic to help him mature in his thinking. We will work on helping him find is voice in his writing, as he enters the rhetoic stage. We’ve diversified his reading lists, giving him more freedom to choose. He has proven his ability to focus and succeed in his writing class this year. He needs to now learn to apply what he learned there to his work at home. As he makes strides in this way, I see so many of his other issues falling aside.

Girlie is still developing many of her skills and interests, and is keenly aware of her needs as a student. We have already started doing 20-minutes of daily math so that we will not be faced with two months of review at the beginning of the year. By doing this, it frees us to be able to take seven days to teach each skill to mastery, instead of rushing past complete understanding because the schedule allows for only five days. She asks for more time, and that I stop trying to help her so much, because she will get it when not rushed. (certainly put me in my place!)

Her reading speed has increased, so that she can complete her history readings in two days instead of the previous four. This will allow for time to add more geography to her social studies. We will begin using timeline framework for her narrations, so that she can start to visually gain an understanding of history. She really over achieved with science last year by doing two programs, so this year we can relax a bit and only do one. Instead, she can put more focus on fantasy literature and creative writing.

We have also acknowledge that one of the chief struggles of last year was the lack of shared experience in our homeschool. The afternoon movies and library trips, the activities and crafts, everything shared became a thing of the past as Scout went through a period of seeking a world outside of us. While I was fairly certain it was a phase, it was still hard to watch him work so hard to separate himself so drastically. He has, happily, matured and recognized how much that he doesn’t need to choose between friends and family, and is looking forward to regaining those fun aspects of our weeks.

Both kids, in looking at the plans for next year, are really excited. They have given input and made requests, and I have listened. When they take interest in their studies, they are more likely to take ownership in their success.

~~~ I want to remind you that this exercise may take some of you outside your comfort zone. What if you do it, and find that a certain curriculum you were set on using is completely wrong for your student this year? What if it isn’t touching on any of the weaknesses or interests of your child?

I must ask you how much your really believe your child will learn next year if you choose to stick with a curriculum that isn’t meeting their needs? As hard as it may be, it is time to step outside your comfort zone. It isn’t about you. This is about finding/creating something that puts your student in their comfort zone, stretching them just enough that they are challenged and continually learning. Most of all, it is about creating a homeschool where learning is alive and interesting. You’ll be amazed at the results!