I have four children, ages fourteen, nearly twelve, nine, and nearly six. As is the case in every family, each of these children is an individual. They have their own personalities, their own ways of learning, and as their mother, and their teacher, I’ve had to stand on my head quite regularly to figure out how to reach them.
Because the children are on different learning levels, I had each of them working in different books. It made sense to me. But when it came time to start school again after our break, it just didn’t feel like the right method anymore. My nearly twelve-year-old son was showing signs of real boredom, and when he’s bored, he’s impossible to teach. Things have to bounce along like a bunny to keep his attention, and that makes for one very tired Mama Rabbit.
As I thought this over, I had a realization. My son loves games, and he loves to do things together as a group. I pulled out the school books, looked them over, and hit on a new plan. Instead of having each child hunker down over his or her own book, we were going to do each book together. We would have reading aloud and discussion rather than silent reading and writing down answers. If there was a long list of questions on a page, I could call on the children in turn and they could each answer one or two questions, rather than tackling the whole thing alone.
We’ve been doing this since the start of school, and while my son is still not the most eager of participants, it has made all the difference. The children are interacting more. As one of them asks a question, and the others hear the answer, we are all learning together. We can stop at any time and look up more information, or head to the library to get a book on the subject, instead of having to wait for Timmy (not my child’s real name) to finish his paragraph so we can go.
Home school provides parents with the opportunity and ability to change methods as often as they need. I imagine that at some point down the road, we’ll encounter a situation that requires us to rethink the situation. But for right now, this is working wonders for me and my family.
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