independent study

You know what really makes independent learning work?  Trust.  A trust from the student that their teaching parent will do their part to make them a success.  Then trust from the teaching parent that their student will do their work to the best of their ability.  Without that two-fold trust, independent learning simply won’t work.  So how do you go about establishing trust?

What is Trust?

Trust: firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone.

Trusting someone means that you think they are reliable and that you have confidence in them. When you trust someone you feel safe with them.

How do you establish trust?

Trust is something that comes with time and experience.  Sometimes your intuition will have you trusting someone immediately, but overall, trust takes time to develop. 

Since we live in a fallen world, where people do things they aught not to, trust isn’t the easiest topic to converse on.  People who are in positions of authority who should be able to be trusted, sometimes they can’t be.  Families aren’t always what they should be, parents do things they aught not, kids do bonehead things, and I cannot address every situation in this post.  I will work based on my experience only!  🙂 

Teaching Parent

It starts when you first meet.  Kids in my classroom, children of friends, and son of my own.  Trust starts to build from your first meeting. 

1. Do you do what you say you will?  Can your words be trusted?
2. Do you act like you say you will?  Do your actions show truth?

Once you have that baseline established, trust is furthered by your

• Competence
• Reliability
• Integrity
• Communication

Questions to ask yourself

In your home, do your children trust that you will do all you can to help them?  Whether that is pointing them in the right direction to get the answers and help they need, or by providing them with the answer yourself. Have you established yourself as reliable source of aid?

Do you take the time to learn how to communicate with each other?  This is something that is continuing to change in my household as my son matures. He LOVES precision in words..they matter a lot to him.  Having to deal with a mom who is not so precise in her language sometimes creates barriers (both from his end and my own). 

Integrity comes by saying and doing what you say you will. It shows in how you do your work. I made a promise to my lad that I will never deliberately lie to him.  What I say is so.  This doesn’t take into account the occasional misunderstanding, but since he knows I don’t ever intend to lie to him, it’s good.  He knows me well enough there and it becomes a matter of clarification not wrong-doing.  Can your children say the same of you?

Competency comes through in the accuracy of your help. Can you render the assistance needed?  Can you organize their stuff, order their supplies, keep them on task, and do the myriad of supportive tasks to get them through their schooling?  My son has learned that when it comes to estimating the time it takes to do something… I am horrible!  🙂 So he always doubles the time of what I think something will take (I learned this two weeks ago).  🙂   But he’s also learned that I do have my areas where I shine and takes full advantage of it.  

Independent Learner

Your student has the same expectations placed upon him/her.   They need to show competency in doing their work, reliability in completing it, integrity in holding to what he/she says/does, and have the ability to communicate with you clearly when there is a problem.

Some of these skills needed to be encouraged and/or strengthened, or perhaps outright taught.  Youth don’t just pick up these skills, they learn them through being taught what’s a correct response.  

Teaching them when they are little to have a system of organization (even if it doesn’t match yours), allowing them to make decisions about when to do what in their school day, and finding a way to finish what you started.  Accept them for who they are, but encourage them to do it well.   

Trust Takes Time

So for my son who has a thing for insects, he raises ants and has learned to create habitats for them, with the end goal being to sell them (the ants as a colony) at some point.  I have used my love of mice (and his love for his snake) to teach him how to sell mice as a precursor to him selling his ants when they are ready.

Over this past year, we’ve discussed changing the price we charge and have worked out things like commission if I sell his mice for him, and which mice we keep back.  This year he’ll be responsible for taking pictures of the mice and posting decent ads for them.  Now.. mice don’t move as fast as ants do, but it takes patience to get a good picture of a mouse. All these incremental steps give him the confidence he needs for when he assumes control of this business.  Running your own business means balancing a lot of skills. 

Just as I’m slowly allocating more responsibility to my lad for his mice, is how you increase their abilities to be trustworthy with their school work. 

Establishing trust takes time. Give them time to cement the skills you’ve taught them, add new expectations, and before you know it, they’ll be running the show.  🙂 

Summer is almost here and let’s just celebrate now with the homeschool year wrapping up.

I’ve gotten together with 7 other bloggers to bring you this wonderful giveaway so that you can enjoy planning for your next homeschool year.

We are giving away 3 $100 giftcards from the place of your choice. You can choose from:

• Amazon
• Rainbow Resource
• Hobby Lobby
• Christian Books

The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize or else another winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you will be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Read the terms and conditions for more details.

One of the hardest things I had to learn as a homeschooling parent was learning when to take a step back.  I needed to learn when I actually could not teach my son something.  It was a pivotal moment in our homeschool journey.  For it didn’t matter the curricula, it didn’t matter my heart or desire, or his willingness to learn.  Learning to take a step back and let him figure it out… this was what was important.   Every independent learner will have some subject that makes this matter pivotal in their journey.   Being prepared will make it easier!  🙂 

Our Story

I loved teaching my son.  Learning together, making discoveries and talking about them.  It’s such a great thing to watch a child learn something and make it their own. A total highlight of my day.  But you know what?  Children learn and grow, they develop their own way of thinking.  It’s a good thing no? And it’s occasionally eye-opening as well. 

I still remember saying to my hubby. “I can’t do this, I can’t teach this boy math, I am so DONE with it.”  In the ensuing conversation, I brought up how the lad thinks about math differently than I do.  My approach is to come at it from point a to point b.  Math is a subject I like, and it’s generally very straightforward to me.  The lad looks at math more like a solution.. and then how do I get there?   It seems so very backwards to me but it works for him. 

Since we think very differently it was a matter of here is some really different math curricula… do it.  Think about math differently.  See how it goes.  Over the course of six months, the lad explored math-art.  That six months gave the lad a break from “mom math” and the time he needed to decide what he really wanted in a math program. 

Something he could do on his own, that would challenge him, and would teach him real math.  I came up with three solutions for him.  One proved a total bomb (total waste of dollars), one worked extremely well(mostly free), and the other was a back up for when the extremely well one didn’t explain things properly (completely free, old textbook).   He also utilized youtube and khan academy.  I was a sounding board and nothing more.  No more frustration!  The lad learned to teach himself math, in a way that totally works for him.  He loves math and does well at it. 

Be Prepared

Just as you need to set your student up for success with electives, giving them choices that will help them with their future endeavours, you need to be prepared for your student to take some initiative. They will at some point, balk at something you want to teach them, or a method you use, or the style of the material.  

And that’s okay.

It is.

It’s a sign of growing maturity, of burgeoning independence in someone who is discovering their own way.  Light their path for them.  Give them the tools they need to get there. Tools for the future, and options in the here and now.  They will (hopefully) thank you for it later. 

Just as you organize their day and the stuff they need to do their schooling, you can organize your stepping back, exiting from where you are not needed as their independence blooms.  And enjoy the process (and yes, it can be hard), but independence is our goal after all is it not?

Summer is almost here and let’s just celebrate now with the homeschool year wrapping up.

I’ve gotten together with 7 other bloggers to bring you this wonderful giveaway so that you can enjoy planning for your next homeschool year.

We are giving away 3 $100 giftcards from the place of your choice. You can choose from:

• Amazon
• Rainbow Resource
• Hobby Lobby
• Christian Books

The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize or else another winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you will be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Read the terms and conditions for more details.

Organization is essential to independence in our students. There is nothing more aggravating to a student about to write a report, or do a needed experiment, or make Syrian dish and they can’t find the materials they need.  That leads to dependence on their teacher and stifles their ability to move forward on their own.

As we look into the importance of organization, I thought it would be good to look back at what we have discussed so far.

• Encouraging creativity: helping youth learn to make good choices and survive bad ones.
• Answering Questions: Learning how to answer questions asked.
• Acceptance is the start: accepting who we and our students are.

What to organize

If you were to ask my son, currently a ravenous almost 15 year old, what he likes that I have organized…. SNACKS!  He loves that I buy snacks, that I make snacks, that I have easy access to creating snacks.   

In case you think we are snack happy in this household, I have a hubby who works late shift and as a picky eater often can’t figure out what to eat until he has something in his belly.  Snacks help him think. They seem to do the same with my lad, a quick snack rejuvenates him nicely. 

As important as snacks are, having at hand things like his books.    He does have his own system of organization in his room.  

 I also his curriculum organized that isn’t currently in immediate use. 

A long time ago we discovered the joy of plastic bins.  They are an excellent way to organize your writing supplies, crafting materials, or legos. 

Keeping all science related items in one area has been incredibly helpful as he has studied biology this year.   A great place for microscope supplies, tinting agents, and other needs. 

How do you make it easier for your students to be independent?   Have you also discovered that organization is essential to independence?

Follow Along in the Blog Hop

These wonderful bloggers will be discussing topics such as creating a stress-free home, Health worksheets for children, encouragement for parents, unit studies, preschool activities, dinosaur worksheets, homeschooling tips, nature study,  and much much more. 

• Health Worksheets for Kids by Living Life and Learning

• Homeschooling and Parenting Encouragement by Simple at Home

•  DIY Summer Camp at Home by Forgetful Momma

  Prepare Teenagers for Work by Living Ideas

• Free Unit Studies for Summer Homeschooling by Faith & Good Works

  Teaching Independent Learning by A Net in Time

  Preschool Science Social Study Themes by This Crafty Mom

  Dinosaur Printables by Preschool Powol Packets 

  Hands-On Learning Activities for Kids by Mama Smiles

  Time Saving Hacks for Busy Moms by Purposeful Motherhood

  Nature Study by Heart and Soul Homeschooling

  Free Homeschool Curriculum by Subject by Life in the Nerddom

  No Stress Home Management Binder by No Stress Homeschooling

  10 Ways You Can Nurture Artists in your Home by Beyond the Stick Figure

  Printable Word Puzzles for Kids by Tree Valley Academy

  Planning for High School by This Life of Ours

  Learning with Nature by Wonder-filled Days

  Teach History by Beyond Mommying

I have entitled this post encouraging creativity, but I could have just as easily called it encouraging choice making.   I have a creative lad so I’ve learned to spotlight the creativity of making choices. 🙂   

So far in this series we discussed acceptance and answering questions. Both are steps on the road to independent learns.  Encouraging the creativity of making choices is yet another step. 

How to Teach Choice-making

Children sometimes need to be guided in making choices.  It can be, afterall, a rather daunting prospect to figure out what you want to do in the course of day.  What if mom gets mad? Or Dad doesn’t like the decision you made?  What if the choice you made is completely wrong?  Or you end up not liking the choice you made?  The what-ifs’ can stop some children from making any decisions.   So then you start small. 

Small needs to be determined by your student.  It could be as simple as, jam or peanut butter?  Do you want to do math or reading first?  Do you want to use the blue pencil or the red one?   Something small and then slowly work your way up. 

The Value of Choice Making

What is the benefit of offering choices?

1. Confidence:  It does wonders to a child to know they can make their own decisions, and be able to live with them. 
2. Control:  Some youth just need that sense of control.  They want to figure out what works best for them. Some guidance may be need, but mostly, they just want to decide when and where they wish to do a task.
3. Responsibility: Live up to your obligations, complete the tasks that have been set out for you. 
4. Sense of Value: their opinions and decisions matter, that this particular child matters. 
5. Creativity gets fostered: Choosing how to do a project, deciding what colours matter in an art project, discovering the joy in doing history before math, etc. Encourage abstract thinking in your children.
6. Teach problem-solving: Not all decisions will be good ones, how will your child resolve the problem? What lessons will they learn when things go awry? 

The Creativity of Choices

One of our earliest uses in encouraging creativity was in art. I combined poetry with art.  I’d read a poem from a book called Imagine a Day.   There’s a number of them in the series, I’ve linked (aff) below the ones we’ve used. 

I’d read a section to him without showing him the page (as I covered up as much of the page as I could so I wouldn’t be influenced) and then we’d each draw what we thought the author was imagining.  We’d talk about the words being used as we drew.  Sometimes the work we did was incredibly similar (barring the age difference) and sometimes what we saw was very different.  What a grand time of exploration.   Words, drawing, conversation, and creative expression. 

We used a program for about a year called MathArt.   This program did it’s best to combine math with the larger world around us.  It was a great program to get my son thinking differently about math.  The creative approach to math was what my lad needed, and sometimes that is to your students’ benefit. It also naturally encouraged students to make choices. 

Last year my lad studied world war 1, he did a series of research projects.  I gave him a list and said: “each project needs to be different, here are your options.”.  He did video reports, brochures, essays, and more. Was he always delighted?  No, he prefers to write straight-up papers, but knowing different ways to present material will serve him well in the long run don’t you think?

Encouraging Creativity

That’s what choice-making is to me you know.  It’s the creative ways that people use their life experiences to make decisions.  They don’t always make sense to me, and mine won’t always make sense to you, and that’s okay.  The question is… will we learn from the choices we make?  Will the choices we make benefit us and give us the courage we need to make more decisions… for good or ill?

How do you encourage creativity of decision making in your household?

One of the earliest memories I have of my son saying he liked school was after we took a nature walk together.  I had my phone, a sunny but not hot day, and a curious lad. He was perhaps 8 or 9.   Still at an age where he was chock full of questions.   We meandered quietly through the forest, listening to birds, watching ducks, and then we spotted it.  A small stream emanating from spring.  In that stream were water striders, “MOM!  Look!  “What are those?  How come they don’t sink?  What do they eat?”  The questions came fast and furious as my lad hunkered down next to the stream.  My afternoon become one of answering questions and watching a boy’s delight.  We learned their lifecycle, eating habits, about water tension, and more.  Anything I didn’t know, my handy phone was able to provide.

This was just one of many steps on the path to independence. Helping to instill a love of learning by answering questions from a fascinated child.  Showing him the wonders of a world, the wonders of knowledge in helping him to understand the world around him. 

What Types of Questions are there?

Questions need to be answered, don’t they?  They come from all over the place.  Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.   Questions always fall into one of 8 categories though. 

• Closed  (yes/no)
• Open (the answer is open-ended, could go anywhere)
• Probing (asking for clarification).
• Leading (questions that lead to a certain answer)
• Loaded (leading to revealing information you’d rather not)
• Funnel (a big question that eventually leads to specific questions)
• Recall and process (information questions, like on a test)
• Rhetorical (don’t really need an answer).

Many of the questions I hear every day, such as  “Mom?   Are you cooking supper tonight?” are simple yes/no questions, or questions with a definable answer (How do you spell Mississippi).    Very easy to answer aren’t they?

Using questions to encourage thinking

Going back to the water striders, imagine for a moment that I only answered the closed, process or open questions.  Would that have drawn my son into asking more questions?

One thing my son hadn’t considered was “what happens to water striders in the winter?”  It was springtime, water striders were everywhere.  Why was that?   Did you know that water striders hibernate?  I know …. fascinating isn’t it?   Why do you suppose that is?  That whole conversation got my lad off and running.  He’d never considered that an insect could be like a bear in any way.  Mouth-dropping astonishment!  🙂 

Our answers to questions can simply be answers, or we can let our answers lead to additional discoveries. So as answer questions, let us always consider the bigger question.  How can I help my student look deeper?

Our questioning learning helps theirs

We can also make discoveries of our own. 

“Lad, did you know that in WW2 there was a society called the White Rose Society?   They were a resistance group of young people that operated out of Munich.”   My son, since he is currently studying WW2, immediately attuned his ears. Learning about the White Rose society he then learned about the Polish Home Army (and has since written a short paper on them).   Our learning can spur on their own. 

Resources to Help You

If going out in nature you might find these hello Nature cards helpful. 

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has more than 400 courses, enough to help your children ask questions. Help them ask questions, and to get the answers.