What do they need to learn?

Apr 2, 2010

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Or more accurately, what do we need to provide/ teach?

As often happens on here, I’m reconsidering our educational provision. I tried last year to be autonomous, and it didn’t really work – I just ended up with two fractious children spending way too much time watching trash and playing repetitive computer games. (Hm. Tries not to think about Big Bang Theory/ NCIS repeats and Bubble island.)

So I tried a variety of ways to provide some structure. I gave them index cards and a box to keep them in, and they wrote activities on the cards and used the system for two days. Not a great success. Eventually we ended up with a weekly timetable for Big and a three work requirement for Small.

This worked well for Small. If he is given space and occasional reminders/ prompts, he does educate himself. He’s pretty handy with google/ wikipedia, likes a variety of online educational game sites, and can often be found with his head stuck in one reference book or another. Like the other day when he was using RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds Book to try to identify the bird he’d seen in the garden.

Big, as we’ve remarked once or twice, is a very different creature. To begin with the timetable worked *reasonably* well, in that she was productively engaged at least some of the time, which if nothing else gave Small time to himself. Otherwise she interrupts him and drags him off to play, which might *sound* like a good thing but actually results in a bad tempered Small, not a being you wish to share house space with, believe me.

But over time she became more and more resistant to the idea that she had more on her list than him, even though when it came down to it, he often spent hours more than she did “working”.

So I let it drift. Which was almost definitely a mistake. My children need some direction and structure, and while email strewing might be enough for Small it isn’t for Big. And I get jumpy around her basic skillset – she has a perfectionist streak that means if she doesn’t think she’llo get it right, she won’t do it. All those singapore maths books I bought, and they are just sitting there, unloved 🙁

Then I read about this, an experiment where children who were taught less learned more.

Aargh! Does this mean that I should back right off, mathematically speaking? Continue with day to day examples, measurement in baking or craft (although it turns out, after all these years of doing craft with her that she doesn’t enjoy that either. Which is why she never voluntarily finishes anything, or picks up a project of her own accord. Tim spotted that one, I thought she liked making things 🙁 ), work with money and time but worry about the foundations later? And what of Small who has just hit something in his maths book that he struggles with, and has previously always loved numbers? (Subtraction with borrowing in HTUs in case you were wondering. It’s the borrowing that does for him, everything previously he’s done in his head.)

I don’t know. I wish I didn’t worry so much about the long term effects of home education. Although if they were in school I’d probably be worrying about SATs or some such instead I guess.

So, am I backing off or charging in? I’ve kind of sidestepped it with a mathletics subscription, but I’m still thinking about it all. Wondered if anyone else had similar subject quandaries?

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Comments

5 responses to “What do they need to learn?”

Ria
2 April 2010
This is a hard one. I LOVE the idea of autonomous education and unschooling but it actually goes against my temperament (yes I guess that means I am fairly uncreative and controlling). I think I have curbed it enough to perhaps have a go at it with my 9 year old who thinks he likes the idea. None of my other children want to do it though and seem quite content doing what they have always done.
I think the trick is to find what works for everyone, somethings it might mean different things for different children, but if you can cope with that, then all is good. I think that is the beauty of HE that you can tailor it to each child’s natural bent and interests.
I have observed that more people are autonomous here in the UK than in Australia, so I guess I have often felt guilty when my kids are the ones doing curriculum I wonder if that means that other people do too? If there is a little more pressure to do that? Not a firm conclusion, just some musings.
The key is to listen to the heart beat of your family and do what works.
.-= Ria´s last blog ..Oh to be filled with grace and love. =-.
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Ria
2 April 2010
Side note- I wonder if people are less likely to be autonomous (or partake of Natural Learning as they call in Australia), because of the registration process and record keeping that is required.
.-= Ria´s last blog ..Oh to be filled with grace and love. =-.
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Debbie
2 April 2010
I think its one of the burdens that a home ed parent has to live with – am I doing it right? What if I mess it all up and my kids blame me for ever? The buck really stops with you, unlike if you choose to send your kids to school, and they mess it up.
I wonder if you can get any reassurance from Big’s rapid progress in swimming – having perhaps started later than others, she seems to have caught up and then overtaken kids who’ve been in lessons since they were tiny; this is what I understood the study referred to in Peter Gray’s article to mean. If she can do it in one area of learning she can certainly do it in others!
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Liz
4 April 2010
I would argue that this is a common misconception of ‘autonomous’ – that it is ‘doing nothing’. It sounds to me like you are being autonomous in that you are responding to what your children ask of you in terms of how they prefer to learn. It is possible to be doing ‘school at home’ and still be completely autonomous if that’s what your children want.
Lots of people (adults and children) need direction, structure, timetables, specific tasks to do in order to be productive.
I would also go further and suggest that it is still autonomous (child-led) if you are fulfilling your children’s needs and not their wants. I reckon that giving your children a relatively free choice, within the constraints of not making available to them things which you feel are toxic to their development, will get a better result when then leaving them to choose their direction and activities. So, for example, limiting screen-time daily removes the option of just lolling in front of the TV all day and inspires the mind to think of what else is enjoyable to do.
I suspect this probably gets harder to do in practice as children get older. Mine are only 7 and 5 but I’ve certainly noticed that start later but catch up quicker thing happening in a small scale with various specific tasks such as learning to tell the time. And I’m still not entirely sure how either of my children learned to read as I’ve not ‘taught’ them.
I’ve kind of lost the thread of the point I was trying to make here! Basically, as long as what you’re doing is ‘led’ and initiated by your child even if it’s then instigated (and even enforced to some extent) by you, then it is still autonomous, as it’s not thought up and imposed by some external force. That, to me, is the dangerous point – when education, learning and life in general becomes something which is imposed from outside and the child has no stake in it, no internal motivation or control. That’s when apathy sets in.
.-= Liz´s last blog ..Some thoughts on the end of breast-feeding =-.
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mamacrow
4 April 2010
yes, have these quandries often.. begining to think its all part of it.. the constant ‘adapt’ thing is important i think because circumstances change, deveopmental stages – well, develop!
so far i’ve found mixing it up helps… so for example trying a work book instead, or shelving the work books and doing some maths games or quizes, or finding (or re finding) some maths computer games or websites…
.-= mamacrow´s last blog ..Lets hear it for the boys! =-.
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