2011-2012 School Year: Independent Work
I discovered one fascinating thing last year, which was our first year with independent work: What is independent work gets done more consistently than anything else. So, this year rather than fight overmuch, I decided to work with what appears to work for us. Those things that I would like to happen, but that I would be quick to shove under the rug, I moved to independent work. This puts me in the authority, enforcer position (in which I excel) rather than the initiator, band-leader position (in which I suck). Plus, it then puts the child into the initiator position, and my child loves that.
Hans’ Independent Work
- History reading: For Hans’ history reading, I bought two biography series: Lightkeepers for Boys and the History Lives series. These he will read and narrate.
Map Work: We’ll be learning world geography in Circle Time with Geography Songs, following along with maps and focussing on a different continent each term. For independent work, Hans will take a blank map of the continent we’re on for the term and fill in the countries (all countries twice a week) and rivers and mountains (once a week) by copying from a reference map in an atlas. Then on week 5 or 6 in the term, I’ll have him do all he can from memory instead of copying. This is my adaption of Lindafay’s suggestion for mapwork, which I now can’t find. Hans did something similar just with labeling states this last year, and it worked out well. I don’t think he could label all 50 from memory, but he knows more than he did at the beginning of the year, and we’ll cycle through and do it again. I count activities like this as “little drops of water, little grains of sand” more than “Well, check, now we know the states and we’ll never have to study them again!” :)
Drawing: Hans will draw through the Drawing Through History series, one per week.
Writing: Once a week Hans will write a 2-3 sentence narration from the prompts provided with the science and Bible materials (each one once per week, for two written assignments a week).
Timeline Board: Ok, I decided to change from a Book of Centuries when I realized it meant printing off a page for every century since 4000BC! Nevermind! Instead, I stole an idea from my favorite lady (a real-life friend) to steal organization ideas from (I love buying her used stuff! It’s already spiral-bound, tabbed, and laminated!) and made a timeline board for each of the boys out of the presentation boards that science fair displays are made on. The top line across is BC, Christ divides in the middle, and the line below is AD. I’ll post pictures. I’m not done setting it up yet.
Poetry Memorization: For poetry memorization, I have Hans read the poem aloud to himself three times a day. It’s the first thing on his list to do. Usually by the third week or so he has it memorized, and then he’ll come show off by saying it three times without reading it — and then finds out which parts he needs to work on. This year I asked him if there were any poems he wanted to memorize, and he said he really liked “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” I gave him two terms to memorize that one, since it’s so long! Other than that, he didn’t really have much input, but when I showed him the ones I was thinking of, I got “buy-in”: “Jabberwocky” and “Bilbo’s Walking Song” being chief.
Science: I found this last year that science happened more regularly if I made it Hans’ work rather than lead it myself. I was much more likely to shove it under the carpet and ignore it, whereas Hans was delighted to initiate all he could.
Picture Study: Once a week Hans has a picture study assignment — again, it’s much more likely to happen if Hans initiates it than if I have to. Each term there are three different assignments on his checklist, and each term we cover a different artist. The first assignment is “color art masterpiece coloring sheet, copying correct colors from art book [which we check out from the library]“; the second and third weeks his assignment is “study art picture of your choice [from the oversized library book] for 5 minutes [he sets a timer], then describe it vividly to mom”; then his assignment for the remaining weeks is “make a page for one artist print: glue print onto cardstock, write title & artist’s name; add to your art binder.” I downloaded 3 famous prints from each artist, uploaded them to Costco, then ordered 4×6 copies for both boys. The first two assignments I began doing this last year and they went swimmingly. I also printed copies last year, but we really didn’t do anything with them, so the binder will be a new thing.
Latin Review: If Hans finishes his work in a timely manner, he can mess around at Latin for Children’s Headventure Land online review games.
Jaeger’s Independent Work
Jaeger begged to have his own poems to memorize and his own independent work now that he is 6 and can read, so I’m taking him up on that.
Poetry Memorization: Jaeger will follow the same memorization protocol, working on such poems as “Purple Cow,” “The Cow,” and “The Whole Duty of Children.”
Map Work: Same as Hans, but he’ll only have to copy 5 countries at a time, 3x a week.
Drawing : Jaeger has an assignment to draw a picture of choice from any Draw Right Now book once a week, and an assigned picture from Drawing Through History once a week. He loves to draw, so these are his “school is fun!” assignments.
Timeline Board: Same as Hans.
Greek Alphabet: Every week he has these assignments mapped out once: listen to the Greek Alphabet song on Mommy’s computer; listen and read along with The Greek Reader on Mommy’s computer; Go through the Greek Letter Flashcards, saying the letter names; Write 3 each copies of [3-5 Greek letters listed, so that he writes the entire alphabet once per term].
Geography & History reading: As I was going through the Lightkeepers for Boys series, plotting it out for Hans, I realized that Jaeger would have no problem reading these. So he will be reading them as well, about one book per term, and also 2 books from the Rookie Read-About Geography series per week. I really like these readers, and our library has over 100. They are short, have great photos, and after reading them Jaeger will practice giving complete narrations.
Picture Study: Same as Hans.
