Redeem the Day with Story

Not every day in homeschooling runs smoothly.   In fact, some days are downright difficult.  Children are children, and they often have days of difficulty themselves.  They have times of temptation.  They have times of wanting to take the easy way.

I was checking my youngest daughter's work a couple days ago.  I had put off checking work because I was busy the last couple of weeks.  What I discovered was some missed assignments.  Random, sporadic assignments that she skipped because school has been taking her so long.  An English lesson, a math workbook page, a McGuffey lesson... blank pages where there should have been completed work.

All of my children try it at least once.  They all try to skip a little here and there, to see if Mom will let it slide.  As my youngest daughter becomes more independent, I am not surprised that she has tried to push boundaries.  So, she has the privilege of redoing all the missed assignments.  Every.. single... one... even if she is a few units ahead, even is she knows the material well.  It isn't about what she has learned as much as teaching that telling me she has finished all her school work while skipping assignments is a lie.

This entire school year has not been great.  I have felt as if every day is a battle.  My own college classes took up too much time.  I was overwhelmed by life and schooling, and had to reduce my schedule.  This semester has been a bit smoother, but I am still trying to balance it all.  Last night, I realized that I just want to redeem this school year.  I just want to make this year one that is full of good memories, not bad ones.

So far there has been too much of me telling my youngest repeatedly, "Come on, focus.  Come on, get going on school.  Come on, get stuff done."  There hasn't been a lot of joy.

Last night I was reading to my youngest daughter.  Reading at bedtime has become a routine, but sometimes we don't get to reading aloud during the day.  It used to be a vital part of our school day, but somewhere along the way I let it slip away.  My youngest is growing more and more independent in her work, and it is easy to simply hand her the books to read and think, "She can do this on her own."


Joy had disappeared and school had become... school.  It had become a checklist of things to get done instead of an adventure to share.  I have always included a lot of reading, and have tried to focus on reading aloud over the last few years, but it is always the first thing I cut when life gets busy or difficult.

So, this morning, I sat down with my ten year old and began to read.  An hour later, we had finished a book we had been reading sporadically for a few months.  The reality is that, as I read, the stress of meeting all the checklist demands disappeared.  We simply got to sit together, under a blanket, and read about little Anna in Prairie Anna as she made the decision about where she wished to live.

The sad thing is that I know the value of books and story in a child's life.  I am studying library science in college.  I am a huge proponent of reading to children.  I blog about it and read about it and talk about it.  But life still happens, and there are times when I stop making it the priority because I get so busy.  One story can teach more than a thousand lessons.  What I know in my head often difficult to do in real life when the world starts spinning fast and other things begin to take precedence.

This morning I put aside the math and history for a bit, and just picked up a story.  I read for a few minutes, even as workers came in and out of our home.  These same workers had distracted my youngest every day for three weeks.  While I was reading, she didn't even really notice they were there.  While I was reading, we were engrossed in the story, not worried about the lists of things that await us.  As I read, we were in a different time and a different place.

Now, we are ready for the day.  Now, we began the school day with story.  As I delve into my child's literature class for college, learning about fairy tales and folk tales, I know that I started our school day with reading to my daughter and enjoying the beautiful moments together.

If I can redeem one day with story, perhaps I can redeem a challenging school year the same way, one day at a time.

Making a Pyramid

Megan is reading about Jacob and his sons.  We are slowly coming to the story of Joseph.  Ancient Egypt is on the horizon over the next few weeks.  Today I pulled a project off of Easy Peasy Homeschool’s Ancient History lessons.  Megan was to build a 3-D pyramid.

At first, we were going to build the pyramid with cardboard. But transferring the outline to cardboard wasn’t working well for us, so we just used the paper we had printed.

This was actually a super-simple project.  It was intended for younger children.  Sometimes those simple projects just add a bit of fun to our day.  Megan loves hands-on projects.

Anytime she can color, draw, cut, glue, or tape, she is content.  The creative artist in her always wants to come out.

The final result wasn’t anything spectacular, but it did introduce Ancient Egypt in a fun way.

We often do the Heart of Dakota projects that are listed in the guide.  Occasionally, I will substitute them with something different if I see a project that looks like fun and would go nicely, if I don’t have all the supplies, or if I want to add some music or art to the lessons.  Easy Peasy Homeschool helps me to add these things nicely for no cost.  

Studied Dictation

Dictation with a touch of art.

 When this semester began, I knew I wanted my fifth grader to get some more writing practice.  Her handwriting isn't the best, but I was more concerned that she get more practice in actual writing.  She is a girl that is very creative, until it is time to retell what she has read or learned in her own words.  Ironically, this only happens with school work.  Most of the time she has no problem being, as her older sister calls her, a "walking Google."  She can spout off all sorts of facts about subjects that have captured her interest.  But, writing this information down seems to be more difficult for her. 

Even though we have taken a semester off of Heart of Dakota, I kept up with the dictation.  My ten year old has advanced through fifty-two dictation passages in the 77 days of school we have completed.  While she usually has to repeat a passage once a week or so due to an error, she is progressing well.  Every day, after she completes the dictation passage, she draws a picture to go with the passage.  I find it cute, and she loves being artistic. 

Dictation is a unique and old-fashioned way of teaching spelling, grammar, and sentence structure.  Truthfully, dictation made me very nervous.  My older daughter despised dictation.  She was happy with her spelling lists.  She is a good speller, so I let her choose.  If the lists worked for her, we went with it.

My ten year old gets sick of lists and workbooks.  She enjoys dictation.  It's fast.  It's effective. She has a passage a day.  They get progressively more challenging as time goes on.  She studies the passage for a few minutes, spelling the words to herself, taking note of punctuation and the general sentence structure, as well as learning the meaning of the words as they are used in the context of the passage.  After a few minutes of study, I "dictate" the passage to her, usually phrase by phrase, and she has to write it perfectly.  She can't misspell words.  The punctuation must be correct.  I even expect it to be neat, with decent handwriting.  

The passages are taken from the Heart of Dakota guides.  Heart of Dakota took the passages from an old spelling program entitled Dictation Day by Day by Kate Van Wagenen.   These passages were published in the early 1900s, and are not available for free in the public domain.  The passages are sorted into levels, with a student moving forward at their own pace, mastering the passages of one level before advancing to the next.  This is how I love teaching... in a mastery based way

My ten year old is doing well in dictation.  I wasn't very consistent at first, and would do dictation as well as a spelling program.  However, I can see the genius behind the choice as we progress.  Words are learned in context.  Further in the dictation levels, quotes and passages from classic literature are added. 

"The whole secret of spelling lies in the habit of visualizing words from memory, and children must be trained to visualize in the course of their reading".  Charlotte Mason

The passages begin as short ones.  Eventually they will be long passages of beautiful literature.  Dictation continues into High School for Heart of Dakota, giving the child exposure to incredible literature passages in writing, not just in reading.  As the child advances, he or she will gain incredible writing and spelling skills by examining great works of literature and seeing the words in context, not simply by getting a new word list every week or completing vocabulary worksheets.

Dictation is more challenging than spelling individual word lists because you have to hold the sentence in your head.  This means that you can't just learn the word, place it in short-term memory,  pass the test, and then forget.  The words in one passage will be reused in different sentences in a later passage, repeating until the words are part of the student's vocabulary and spelling them is natural.

When my daughter misses a passage, that means she has an error or errors.  Perhaps she misspelled a word. Perhaps she forgot punctuation.  There isn't a big deal made about it.  She didn't "fail."  She simply repeats the passage the next day.  She studies what she missed and reviews what she got correct.  The point is for her to succeed, even if it takes multiple attempts.  She is to be challenged, not overwhelmed or feeling like she failed in some way.  Slowly, as she progresses through the passages, she will improve her writing, spelling, and vocabulary.  Studying literary passages will also help her reading and speaking.

Imagine, if you will, year after year of slow progress through high quality passages, writing and mastering them, advancing until you reach graduation.  These are students that will be well-spoken and write extremely well.  Spelling.... writing is so much more than spelling. Writing well begins with having the ability to think clearly.  Using studied dictation helps achieve that aim.  Some of the quotes come from Tennyson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William E. Channing, Benjamin Franklin, Wordsworth, Abraham Lincoln, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Longfellow, Shakespeare, and more.

To show a bit of the progression of work, here are some samples of the dictation passages at different levels:


Level 2:


I am going out to pick the corn.  It is ripe now.  Two women will help me.  born  horn

Level 3:
Nearly every day the rose's pretty face was washed by the dew.  Was the dear little flower happy when it felt the drops of dew?

Level 4:
Robin Hood was captain of the band.  Little John was second in command.  Friar Tuck was another one of Robin Hood's men.  Maid Marian also lived in the forest and cheered them all with her sweet music.

Level 5:
Her brain soon became very active, and she was taught grammar, and arithmetic through fractions.  She gained a knowledge of geography from a raised map.  She was fond of sewing and knitting and never spent an idle moment.

Level 6:
Grown people do not always like to see the snow whirling about.  They know it means more coal for the furnace.  Boys cannot use their bicycles and must often shovel snow, and yet most of them prefer this season. 

Level 7:
There are some Eastern countries where many unhappy missionaries have been attacked by soldiers who resented the introduction of Western ideas.  Those who escaped death were often separated from their friends, kidnapped, and conducted across the frontier.  There they received instructions never to return.

Level 8:
In accordance with an old custom, the hereditary kings of France were always crowned with their standards raised in the cathedral at Rheims.  Charles, the Dauphin, felt confident that, if he could be crowned as the rightful sovereign, his claim would then be absolute and unquestioned.

As you can see, studied dictation is so much more than a list of words. 

A Homeschool Mom Once Again

When I began college a year ago, I could never have anticipated the time commitment that even online classes would demand.  My first semester was challenging, but most of my classes were fairly manageable.  Then this semester came, and life threw up some challenges, and I struggled like I never have.

The stress level was unbearable.  Yes, there was unforeseen circumstances that arose, such as a daughter in the ICU twice.  But that wasn’t the core problem.  It added a bit to a stressful time, but I melted down on the second day of classes.  Each day since has been a challenge, comparable to trying to swim with an anchor tied to my feet.  I just felt like I was drowning all the time.

The more stressed I became, it seemed that my youngest ADHD daughter became more unfocused, more symptomatic.  In fact, of all the homeschooling years, this one with her has been the worst.  My patience would wear thin and my frustration and stress levels would rise, and she would slowly deteriorate even more.  I would cut her courseload, but it often made no difference. What should be a couple hours of work would stretch on and on.  The joy was gone.  She hated it all.  She is a big bookworm, but was sick of reading.  She procrastinated and got distracted and lost any joy.

I knew I had stopped the things that added to our days.  Reading aloud stopped because I didn’t have time and she wasn’t getting anything done.  We stopped projects because they took too much supervision.  That meant most of the art I had wanted to include stopped.  School was a duty and a drudgery for me, as it was all about getting stuff done.  I wasn’t enjoying myself.  It was a drudgery for my ten year old, and she has begun to hate it.

Then the panic attacks began.  Now, our family is going through some stuff right now.  The stress from those things takes a toll.  But the added stress of trying to do it all got to me.  At one point this past semester, I was barely sleeping and the few times I would sleep, I would wake up with my heart racing and my chest broke out in hives. I spent at least three weeks with my chest feeling like it was being squeezed in a vise.  I struggled to breathe.  I cried all the time.

A couple weeks ago, as I was going through old blog posts, I realized that I miss being a homeschool mom.  Am I still a homeschool mom?  Yes, but I am a disconnected one.  

Homeschooling is not just about presenting information and skills to a child.  Homeschooling is about relationships.  Homeschooling is about building up the strengths and gifts in each child so they can be the person God made them to be.  Homeschooling is about giving my children and myself a foundation that is missing in this world.  Homeschooling is about sharing with each other...  books, ideas, conversations, time, God.  All of that has been missing for months.

I will still be a college student.  For now, I will be a part-time student.  It will still require I balance my time.  But, I will get to step up and be a homeschool mom again.  Instead of forty hours a week or more focused on school, I get to cut that in half.  Maybe my ten year old can have read aloud time with Mom again.  

I asked myself why I was pushing so hard.  Truthfully, it was because I am an overachiever, as my daughter calls me.  But also, it is because I will lose a large chunk of financial aid by dropping to part-time.  This saddens me because there are many that would love the opportunity to go to college, but have other responsibilities and can’t go full-time.  They are punished for having jobs and being parents and having elderly parents to care for.  They are punished for not being a single, young man or woman with very few other responsibilities.  

Perhaps the idea is to have these students take out student loans.  Perhaps the goal is to limit those that aren’t serious about getting a college degree.  But the reality is that money is a factor, and it has been a major part of the struggle in this decision.  

But as I think about next semester, and the thought of repeating this past semester, my chest tightens and I feel the panic setting in.  I know that God will have to make a way, because I can’t keep going at this pace right now in my life.  

I breathe easier, knowing that life can slow down a bit and I can be a homeschool mom once again. 

Christmas Memories with Laura Ingalls Wilder

It was a little something that I knew my youngest daughter would enjoy.  A local library was advertising Christmas Memories with Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Of course, the real Laura Ingalls Wilder passed away in 1957.  A beautiful woman named Laura Keyes, who tours around giving a monologue as Laura Ingalls Wilder, put on a wonderful performance.

Megan, my little inattentive girl, sat and watched the performance from beginning to end, barely moving.  The actress told stories of Laura’s Christmases growing up from when she was a little girl to when she was engaged to Almanzo.  We knew most of the stories from reading the books, but it was such a fun time!

There were little trinkets that respresented different things from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Christmas Memories...  the tin cup, ribbon candy, the muffler that was on the tree, the button necklace made for Carrie, the beautiful mirror and brush set. There was even a rag doll to represent Charlotte.  

Megan was thrilled with the beautiful things.  I am seriously considering buying her a beautiful brush and mirror set for Christmas...  and perhaps making some button necklaces!  Maybe I’ll fill her stocking with a tin cup and old fashioned candy!  

This is what having a reading culture provides... memories that last forever!  Little things in books take on new meaning forever.  A small figurine of a person might always be a Borrower.  A mean, stuck-up old woman will always be a Miss Minchin.  Every lion could possibly be Aslan.  Every time we read a book aloud we could have an Inkheart scenario. And with each new word we create, the possibility of a Frindle could happen. 

We had such a great time today.  The experience brought the Little House on the Prairie books to life.  The only thing better might be to get the opportunity to travel to the museums and homes of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Who knows?  One day, we just might...

Mid-Year Evaluation

When Plans Fail

I had it all planned.  I had what I wanted to accomplish with my fifth grader all written out. I had prayed and researched.  I knew my ten year old wasn't ready for the writing in Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ.  I wanted to give her a chance to bump up her writing level, while exploring and reading.

Life doesn't often go as planned.  I may want it to, but these past few months have been challenging and full of unexpected crisis moments.  One daughter has been in the ICU twice, for over a week each time.  Another daughter has battled some health issues that require treatment.  My college classes have been more demanding than I anticipated, with project after project.

Re-evaluating

And so, it is about this time each year where I reevaluate what is working and what is not working.  Usually, this is simply a curriculum thing.  Is the child succeeding with this curriculum?  Do I need to switch anything?  Do I need to slow down or speed up in any area?

This semester, to some degree, has felt like a lot of work and little progress for my fifth grader.  The things that need to change are not simply a matter of curriculum.  I need to carve out more time.  Things like read-alouds have been pushed to the background because of my work load and stress level.  Even more, I don't feel like my daughter has improved her writing the way I wanted when I began to plan.

Looking at next semester, I am struggling to find more time. I am planning to drop my class load to part-time.  When I went back to college, I had this idea in my head that I could work when my children were working.  That has only somewhat worked.  I am still needed for my ten year old.  She is growing in independence, but not quite at the rate where I can spend hours on something else.  And so, I am determined to find a compromise so that I can continue my education, even if at a slower pace, and still be here for her.

We have made some headway.  In her dictation level, she has advanced forty-seven passages.  She tends to get the majority of them on the first try, repeating maybe one a week for errors.  She is looking, at this rate, to be well into level four by the next school year.

Plans From Here

Taking a look at different categories of studies, this is the plan for the rest of the year:

English - My fifth grader will continue with dictation daily, to improve writing and spelling skills.  She will slowly do a Word Building program over the next few months to help with handwriting and reinforce her spelling.  She will finish a couple of the workbooks for English that she has, because they focus on writing.  Then she will begin Rod and Staff English.  Rod and Staff emphasizes writing more than our current program, and is wonderful for leveled learning.  She is also slowly going through the McGuffey Reader, which combines reading with writing and vocabulary.

Reading - My fifth grader will continue to read slowly through the reading list I have for her.  She is currently reading through Clara Dillingham Pierson's Among People.  This will take her to the end of the school year, at one chapter every other day.  She is enjoying this series.  She is also going through Literature and Creative Writing, and is currently reading North to Amaroqvik.  She will finish this book and read Heidi before the end of the school year.  She has also started Drawn Into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR).  She is currently reading Fanny Crosby.  Also planned this year is Noah Webster, Kitten's Tale, and Riding Freedom.  She is only working on DITHOR every other day, alternating with the Pierson stories.  Megan is also alternating Abeka readers with her McGuffey Reader. 

Bible - Megan will finish her Christian Light Education workbooks studying the New Testament.  She will then begin Heart of Dakota's Bible as planned in Creation to Christ.

Social Studies/History - Megan is currently finishing some workbooks studying Christian leaders and missionaries in American history as well as Biblical heroes.  After this, around February, she will begin Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ at half-speed.

Science - Like with History, Megan is finishing up some science workbooks.  In February, she will begin Creation to Christ at half-speed, where she will begin a study of Land Animals.

Math - I have bounced around in math this year, attempting to cement math facts and skills before the math becomes much more challenging.  After some trial and error, I have settled with Singapore math mixed with Life of Fred.  I have Meg reviewing skills until after Christmas.  I like that Singapore is also leveled, and my child can master skills before moving on.  I have scheduled it strangely, however, bouncing between a couple levels at this time so that she is reviewing more in a spiral approach.  However, that stops in a few weeks and she will begin normal plans and working straight through the textbooks and workbooks for Singapore, with a chapter of Life of Fred every couple days. Math is one area where I feel it is okay to slow down and make sure the foundation is solid before moving on to more advanced concepts.  If the foundation isn't solid, the child will not be able to grasp the more advanced concepts.

My high school senior is staying with the plans I made for her.  Unless something is completely not working for her, she won't change.  She is working for credits, and needs to be pretty consistent. She graduates this spring.

It may seem as if my fifth grader is doing too much, but many of the plans spiral.  This means that she may only work in an area every other day or a couple times a week.  When we begin Creation to Christ, she will be working at half-speed because my plan is for the level to last her through sixth grade.  She will begin next year at half-speed also, with some subjects being done daily, such as math and English.  This allows her to focus on core areas, advancing in her writing, so that by the end of Creation to Christ, she is definitely ready for Resurrection to the Reformation and the skills needed at that level.

Over the years, I have often felt that I wasn't doing enough, and I pushed my older children too hard.  I have learned to slow down, to use their natural skills to reinforce areas where they are weak, and to take things a day at a time.

Celery Experiment

As Megan works through some Science Paces before we head  back to Heart of Dakota, she has been learning about water.  She has learned the characteristics of water, the minerals and germs that can be found in water, and why plants need water.

This is a nice lesson.  Soon Megan will study why animals need water, how water is used in the human body for things such as digestion and cleanliness, and why Jesus leads us to lie down by still waters. 

She did an experiment with celery.  She placed a celery stalk into water with dye to see how the water is drawn into the celery stick.  Plants do the same thing when they draw water from the ground. 

Megan loves experiments!  As much as I would rather give her a book to read only, Megan also loves hands-on stuff.  She loves learning by doing as much as she loves reading. 

I have been out of balance lately in this area.  But I’m getting things worked out. 

Why Levels are Better than Grades

Heart of Dakota: A Leveled Curriculum

I have noticed that, in homeschooling, there exists materials that are "level" based.  This means that they are for a range of ages or grades or developmental stages.  They aren't just for third graders or seventh graders, they are for ages 9 to 11, or grades 2 through 5.

I like this!

I have written previously about how my youngest daughter often is in more than one grade level at once.  My older daughter did the same thing through the years as she was being homeschooled. It was standard to use levels for education in the past.  Take the McGuffey readers, once a staple in the American school systems.  Students were in a "reader" level, not a "grade" level.  Those books, when placed into modern reading levels, go well into college level reading.  This explains why a student that mastered all the McGuffey readers was well-educated.  It also explains why we had a  96% literacy rate and why the farmers could easily grasp The Last of the Mohicans, Shakespeare, Dickens, and The King James Bible all through the 1800s and early 1900s.

The truth is that our modern education system has been dumbed-down in many ways.  And while that saddens me to a great degree, I can pick and choose from the modern educational methods and ones used in the past in deciding how to educate my children. In so many ways, homeschooling brings freedom in that my children can learn in ways that suit them best, with instruction that is individualized to a large degree.

Megan is in the second reader.  She could easily read into the third reader, because she is an advanced reader.  I placed her in the second reader so that her writing could catch up to her reading level.  She probably won't stay there long, as she is telling me that she is bored by the level.  The second reader corresponds to a 3rd through 5th grade reading levels.

I have discovered that this type of learning, progressing through levels, or mastery learning, works in nearly every subject.  We have been doing mastery learning in many different ways this year.  I have a book list sorted by reading levels.  I have math sorted by levels.  Even grammar is sorted by levels.  She works slowly, methodically, through each level, gaining skills and not simply grade levels.

 Many of the homeschool curriculum sellers know that mastery learning works.  They write their materials to span grades and ages, easy to customize, with a focus on skills and concepts, not specific to a restrictive narrow age and grade level.

The modern system sets skills they want students to master every year.  The problem is that if a student struggles in an area, they are considered "behind."  If a student can easily master the standards, they are considered "advanced."  Most students fall in the middle, where they can easily master some concepts and struggle in others.  The truth is that, if left to master one concept at a time, taking the time to master the harder to understand ones, then moving more quickly through the ones they can grasp easily, then a student will progress at a more natural pace, often a quicker pace.  They will have mastered concepts by taking them line upon line, precept upon precept.  They won't be rushing through the materials to keep up with a class.  There won't be any moving ahead until a concept is grasped.

This means that most of the time a child won't be moved on to the next skill level if he or she doesn't understand.  Occasionally, when a child is struggling, I have moved on to something different or reviewed other skills for awhile, and then gone back later to the area that was not understood.  I have found that this helps in many ways.  It gives the child's brain a rest from what they weren't grasping.  Sometimes their brain needs the rest.  Sometimes their brain simply needs to mature a little more to grasp the concept.  Nearly every time when I have taken a break and then gone back to the concept later, the child understands it without the struggle they had earlier.  In a classroom environment, this can't happen because the teacher has thirty students and an academic plan that decides what is taught and when it is taught.

Most often, in a homeschool situation, even if a mom has five children, she can easily stop a skill and review.  Working in levels helps in this because it is not a big deal to review skills for a bit before tackling a tough area.  The student is not going to get to a new level and be lost because he or she hadn't mastered the material in the previous level but understood enough to pass.  Incremental steps, a little at a time, building and building, until the student is working at an advanced level, has developed critical thinking skills, and is developmentally ready for the next step means that a child isn't going to feel inferior or superior based on ability alone.

I have seen over and over that learning this way works.  There is one thing that is key in this type of learning... no comparison.  In contemporary education, students are pitted against each other and measured against each other.  They are tested and tested and tested some more.  Competition does not always breed healthy learning.  With levels, students are in competition with no one.  They only have to master the material before them, engage in the learning, not feel that they have to do better or be better than the student next to them.  It becomes about learning, not competing.

This past semester has been one of experimenting more with "leveled-learning."  I took some time off of our regular curriculum with my ten year old, even though it is also level-based, to focus on increasing the level in the basics.  I like the results.  As my daughter makes her way through the McGuffey reader, she is mastering the vocabulary, the sentence structure, the spelling.  We are doing the same thing with dictation.  She is slowly mastering each lesson, one day at a time, growing and learning without pressure.  I even have been doing something similar for math, even backing up a bit and reviewing so that she has truly mastered the concepts before moving forward.

Soon, she will jump back into her curriculum.  She was struggling with the writing.  She will have had a semester of review and slow skill building, especially in her writing, to ensure that she can  more successfully get the most from her studies.  I am slowly moving her from the grammar program we have been using to one that has more writing, to build her skill level even more.  She has focused on increasing her dictation level and completed a lot of copywork through her McGuffey readers.  Mostly, she has done a lot of reading.  In the words of Sally and Clay Clarkson, "If you want your children to be good writers, have them read good books."

There is a sense of relief and peace that comes from leveled learning.  A child isn't pushed to conquer skills that they aren't ready for developmentally, but they are still learning and growing all the time.  They can come at a skill from multiple ways, or maybe just take a break from it for awhile.  Suddenly, their brain matures and they have that light bulb moment.  They learn easily and quickly what was taking them months to previously learn.  It is not uncommon for a student to jump the traditional grade levels in weeks or months.

 My youngest did this in her reading one summer.  She was involved in the summer reading program at the local library.  Every week I would take her to the library for books, and let her check out materials that interested her.  When fall came and we jumped back into her phonics program, she read through material she hadn't gotten to the previous school year as if she had already learned it.  I had her read every book in the program.  What should have taken a year, she completed in two weeks with ease.  Reading for fun had boosted her reading level by at least an academic school year in weeks.  She had been making steady progress in her skills, but giving her brain a break and coming at reading a different way, even if unintentionally, helped her to grow her skills quickly.

Leveled learning is not common, except in environments such as homeschools and tutoring centers.  It is very difficult to do such individualized, leveled learning in public or even private schools where the teachers have large class sizes.  However, it is not impossible, as this is how the one-room schoolhouses of yesteryear taught.

The one-room schoolhouses had students of a variety of ages and levels in one classroom.  They were sorted by levels, slowly advancing in their level, progressing at the pace they learned best.  Not all children in the same levels were at the same pace in those levels, either.  It was very individualized, andA person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read. students learned with some one-on-one time with instructors or older students in their levels of reading and math, and what amounted to unit studies for other areas such as history and science.  Some of the greatest minds came out of those one-room schoolhouses.  Even more, the rate of illiteracy was small.  There were immigrants and a few uneducated that couldn't read.  It was illegal for slaves to be taught to read in the South.  However, there was also an emphasis on Bible reading and understanding the Bible well was of utmost importance.  That couldn't happen if the population was illiterate.  As a result, the literacy rate was high.  Today, the literacy rate is around 85% in the United States, but the problem is not just literacy.  The problem is that many can read, but average materials are at a fifth grade reading level.  High School students struggle to understand our founding documents.  It is no wonder the Constitution isn't a document that is respected when many can't even understand it.

Then there are the people that don't read.  Many people simply don't read and instead choose to gain their information though television and the internet.  In the words of Mark Twain, "A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read." One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.  80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

What does this have to do with leveled learning?  Leveled learning keeps a child engaged because the learning isn't a cause for burnout.  A student may read a thousand books over the course of his or her education, but they are reading at a level they built up to, not one that is above their comprehension and skill level.  The result is that a student won't see reading as the enemy, as a drudgery.  While it might not be a favorite past-time of every student, a student that doesn't see learning and reading as a form of torture will be more apt to stick with what helped them succeed when they were younger.

We have done leveled learning since beginning homeschooling.  We will continue to take this route because it works.  Leveled learning individualizes education, creating a tailored experience, giving the student the ability to reach their potential.  While there are many motivations for homeschooling, this is one of the most important reasons to me.  If a child can learn and grow in healthy ways
, they are more able to be all the God calls them to be.

Reading Journals

I would like to thank Sarah MacKenzie of Read Aloud Revival for making her master class on reading journals available for everyone.

If you don't know who Sarah MacKenzie is in the homeschool realm, she is the author of the blog and host of the podcast, Read Aloud Revival.  She also is the author of the book, Homeschooling From Rest.  She recently posted a class, which normally would be a part of her premium membership.  I have listened to Sarah's podcast for a couple of years now, and she is fun and excited and knowledgeable.  She interviews incredible children's authors, homeschooling leaders, curriculum writers, and more.

I went the very next day and bought the journals to use as reading journals, both for me and my youngest daughter.  I set them up, and my daughter and I are off and running!

What are Reading Journals?

Reading journals are an amazing idea that, as a bookworm, I should have thought of earlier.  I wish someone had told me about the idea years ago.  Basically, the front of the book is list of books you have read.  You can put the author, the pages in the book, or whatever description you want.  I keep a running list every year of the books my children read in their planners.  For my personal reading, I began keeping a list on Pinterest last year.

However, a reading journal is more than simply a list of books read.  What makes the reading journal so special is that, after a few pages for the book list, you create a common place area.  The rest of the journal is full of whatever you desire to help you interact with the book and make it  yours.  I am following Sarah's lead and putting in quotes from the books I am reading that touch me in some way.  However, I could see an artistic person adding in artwork.  I could see even adding in personal thoughts or Scripture.  I might do some of that eventually, as I get used to interacting with my books.  After all, reading books can be a bit like a conversation with the characters or the author.  There can be some deep thinking about concepts.

I am curious how my ten year old will interact with her reading journal as time goes by.  She loves writing and drawing and creating.

What is best is that, in years to come, these journals are wonderful keepsakes.  Almost like a diary, they tell about the history of a person, the thoughts in their minds, the things that touched their hearts, the reading material that formed who they were.  I wish I had reading journals from when I was a child.  Other than a diary, there isn't a better way to look back and see what was influencing me at a certain age.

Books are holders of knowledge.  They are reflections of our hearts.  They are the stories that shape us.  Engaging with a book on a personal level means that the story becomes more than just a story, it becomes a part of you.  Concepts and lessons are taught very easily through story.  I believe this is why Jesus used parables to teach lessons and engage His disciples.  Stories impact the world unlike any other method of teaching.

We are just beginning our reading journals. I am entrenched in a couple of novels at this time, and find myself reading a little differently.  I am looking for passages that touch me.  I am still enjoying the story, or taking in the information.  Now, when a passage catches my attention, I don't just share a quote on Facebook or underline (highlight in my Kindle) the words, I copy them into my reading journal.  I find the passages in the children's stories I read to my daughter, and in the enchanting Baxter Family brought to life by Karen Kingsbury.  It's like receiving messages from the authors or characters.  The thoughts and words and lessons are stored, an interaction has occurred, and a piece of the book becomes a piece of me.

Sarah suggests not making the journals into "school."  I agree.  I don't want to damage the heart of reading, the joy that my daughter gets from reading by making it an assignment.  I want to add to her love of reading, not detract from it.  And so, the stories that make us who we are are engaged in with these reading journals in a special, individual way.  It's beautiful and holds a depth that cannot be compared to "school."  Books are about so much more than the academic lessons we call "school."

My Daughter is in Fifth Grade... Sorta

"What grade are you in?"


This question is the one asked the most to children.  It is a sense of pride for children to say at the end of the year, "I'm no longer a fourth (or first or second or whatever) grader, and I am now a fifth (second, third, etc) grade.  When I am asked, or my daughter is asked, what grade she is in, we say what she would be in if she was in public school.

But homeschooling often doesn't work like public school.  In public school, standards are set for all children to meet in a certain age range.  There are children on the high end of the grade range that meet the standards easily.  There are children on the low end of the grade that struggle to meet the standards.  Fall outside of these "standards" and you will receive a label.  If you can't meet the standards, you will receive a "Learning Disabled" label.  If you can easily meet the standards and maybe move on to the next set of standards, you will receive the label of "advanced" or "gifted."  The truth is probably more mixed.  A child may have a natural aptitude in certain areas, but struggle in others. 

My seventeen year old will have met the standards for the state we live in, the standards most colleges would want to see, and the standards I have set for my child, to graduate high school this spring.  In all her years of homeschooling, I don't believe she was ever in a single grade in every subject.  She was all over the place.  She would do well in one subject and advance quickly, but struggle in another.  I would switch curriculum, and she would find the way it was structured made things worse.  I would find something else, and she would do extremely well for awhile.  She made odd progressions at times.  It took me a long time to realize that she is perfectly normal and this is how most children learn.  They make slow progress for awhile, struggle a bit, then make a leap ahead. 

Homeschooling offers the chance for students to receive an education tailored just for them.  When the areas of struggle come up, most homeschool students can simply slow down the lessons, or even forgo that subject briefly, until they understand.  Sometimes the brain just has to mature to be ready to master the material.  Sometimes it is just an area where the child needs extra practice to master the lesson.  Either way, the child should never be made to feel as if there was something wrong with him or her.

In other areas the child can move at the pace where they stay challenged, moving quickly through material they easily understand.  This has happened to my children often.  One summer my youngest daughter jumped over a year in her reading level simply due to summer reading.  When we began the school year, she sat down and read her entire phonics and reading curriculum in less than a week.  I didn't have to keep her at a lower reading level or put her through a phonics program she didn't need.  We just moved forward.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned over the years is to choose materials where a child can make steady progress without the burden of grade levels.  Yes, grade levels are a burden.  The math program that we are using has grade levels, but I choose to simply call them levels.  It is an advanced program, and no one was more surprised than me that my daughter prefers this program.  So, instead of worrying about "grade level," we are just making our way through the lessons at a steady pace.  First of all, the grades on the cover of the books don't match up with American grade levels, or a child wouldn't finish level six and be ready for Algebra.  I am supplementing with Life of Fred for a different approach to math that is more story-based.  This is working for her, this slow and steady pace that puts emphasis on the basics.

The reading and grammar we use is similar.  I have chosen to use the McGuffey readers for my children.  The steady progress goes from learning to read to college-level vocabulary and sentence structure in six books.  However, these books aren't the same as any six books.  These books are power punches for the brain.  They aren't dumbed-down.   We literally go through a lesson or two a week, with daily work in whatever lesson she is studying.  We don't just read the lesson.  We copy parts of the writing.  We look up the definitions of the vocabulary words.  We draw pictures.  We look up extra facts in some of the lessons.  It takes at least two years to get through a McGuffey reader properly.  Oh, and I base the readers on writing levels, not reading levels, because my advanced reader is learning sentence structure and proper grammar with each lesson, not simply reading a story.

I have a different grammar program we are also using.  It is such a gentle program, was free through Google books, and focuses on writing before introducing grammar.  It is wonderful!  My ten year old loves it!  Occasionally I add in some workbook pages from a grammar program that I bought, to give a little more time in certain concepts and add in more practice.  It isn't needed for every child, but I wanted the extra practice for my little leftie.

I am learning so much recently about how to set up a gradual learning program.  In this system, grade levels don't really matter.  I don't worry about what other fifth graders are doing at the local public school.  In most areas, my daughter is ahead of them.  In a few areas, she might be on the same level.  Even if she was behind, if she is progressing, does it matter?  What tends to happen is that a child will make slow, steady progress for a long time, and then suddenly jump in skill level.  It's like the brain suddenly hits a growth spurt, like a child does in height, and makes quick advances.

I stumbled upon this quote this morning.  "Omit grade levels.  Each student should simply move seamlessly up the road of knowledge at whatever rate of progress his abilities and study habits permit.  Grade levels have become a means by which student achievement is normed to public school academic levels.  Children should not be deprived of the chance for a superb education by subjecting them to the failed standards of the public schools."  - Art Robinson of Robinson Curriculum

 I find a freedom in this idea, this belief that grade levels are truly arbitrary.  I'm not alone either.  I have found that other homeschooling moms share my belief.

http://momdelights.com/index.php/2016/06/01/escape-the-slavery-of-grade-levels-printable/

http://www.theunlikelyhomeschool.com/2017/03/without-grade-levels.html

https://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/homeschooling-grade-levels-relax/


Even public schools are beginning to see that "grade levels" don't matter as much as learning and mastering material.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/say-goodbye-fifth-grade-k-12-schools-test-competency-based-learning/

More Reading, Less Lessons

 

Books...  they are the backbone of our homeschool.  I might need a break once in awhile, and give my girls some workbooks.  But books have been the main tool of our school.

I returned to college last semester.  I was never taught how to do MLA and APA papers.  It wasn't a "thing" when I was in high school...  or college.  But I learned how, and I learned quickly.  I had some classes that wanted papers written in MLA format.  I had other classes that insisted on APA.  With multiple papers due, it was learn fast or flunk. I learned fast.

My children need the ability to do this.  They need the ability to look at information, to read the knowledge, and use that knowledge in the way that is appropriate.  I learned to write papers in two different forms in a couple weeks because I read the chapters in the English book that talked about these formats, and then I applied that knowledge.  No, it wasn't simple at first.  I had my grown daughters that have been in college in the last few years check my first few papers to ensure I was not making errors.

We are four weeks into this school year and the year has been a fight with me and my youngest daughter.  She is smart, but is very distracted.  I planned and planned this year.  She is ADHD, and we have always worked around it in the past.  This year she is struggling like I have never seen her struggle.  It's like trying to get her to see clearly through mud.

And I am working on my college courses also.

But then I remembered that I am probably putting too much on myself.  My girl loves to read and is normally quite happy.  She loves to be creative and is always singing.  Maybe I'm trying too hard, expecting too much. 

Knowledge comes in books. I know this.  We are a reading homeschool.  And yet, when stressed, I cut her books.  What?!  I gave her more workbooks?  What was I thinking?

Workbooks have their place and, in moderation, can be an asset to homeschool.  But I want my daughter reading.  She learns so much from reading.  She jumped multiple reading levels after first grade because she read all summer.  She will spend hours writing down facts and drawing pictures, all based on what she is reading in her books.  When given the chance, she is self-taught. 

And so, I spent the last couple of days logging book after book into an Excel spreadsheet with titles, authors, and reading levels.  They are listed by reading level.  I have a couple lists going, actually.  One list is books I want her to do that have accompanying curriculum that I feel supplements nicely.  The other list is books...  old, new, Kindle, print.  Some I own.  Some I will have to purchase.  Some will be borrowed from the library.  The list is, currently, over three hundred books.  This in no way is a comprehensive list, however, including every book from every level.  

It is a mix of old and new.  I have some Robinson curriculum choices, my Heart of Dakota selections, some others I have purchased over the years, and some recommendations from various sources.  On Monday, she will have some assignments, and then she will read.  I want her reading from my lists, with some time for her to read what she wants.  Then, she will have time to delve into her own interests.  

My format is simple...  reading, writing, math, personal.  She will have a LOT of reading time.  Right now her writing consists of copywork, vocabulary, dictation, with Grammar and some creative writing.  She will write more as she gets older.  She will have math.  Right now I have her math time split into two half hour segments.  That seems to be working.  She doesn't get as tired in two shorter sessions than she did in one long session.  Finally, she will have personal time, for piano lessons, music and art, and free reading. 

That is it.  She focuses well when she is reading.  So, I'm going to give her reading time with lots of breaks.  My little wiggled needs to move, so she can move.  I need her to learn, and the materials I am using will help.  

Knowledge, true knowledge, comes from books and experiences. No one lives life in a bubble.  My daughter still interacts with her world.  She is a social little buttlerfly.  Her brain may be maturing at a different rate than others, and I need to be able to work with her, not feel at odds with her all the time.  

Science shows that the ADHD brain develops and matures a little slower than others her own age.  I do t want her to think she is a problem.  And yet, I have felt that way often the last couple weeks.  And I realized that I was causing more damage than good with my attitude.  Ironically, it was a fellow college student that unintentionally helped me.

We have discussion boards every week, since I'm taking online classes.  One student in my major was homeschooled.  We were discussing the value of libraries.  He stated that he spent his middle school years in his local public library, reading all the time.  He said it was the best education ever because he was given that time to dig into his interests and to live in other worlds.  

Yep, that is what I want for my children.  

And so, I am relaxing.  Yes, there is math and grammar.  There is writing.  But I want my daughter to fall in love with learning.  I want her to be able to learn whatever she needs to learn when she needs to learn it, as I did with writing papers.  That skill comes from learning how to learn, from digging into her interests and escaping into worlds with heros that show how to solve problems.  

So much comes from reading!  The brain of a reader receives many benefits.  Vocabulary grows.  Thought processes differ.  Readers even develop more empathy.  Language skills are boosted, but so are math skills!  Reading even boosts writing skills, which is one of the goals I have for a semester or so, before we go back to our literature-based curriculum.

So many literature based homeschool programs have touted the benefits of reading.  And yet, when I planned school, I didn't olacethe focus on literature this year.  In wanted well-rounded.  But it is clearly not working as I planned.  Then I read a quote that basically stated that there is a costnfor everything.  If you try to do it all, you won't do anything well.  

I knew this in my personal life, but didn't apply it to my homeschool.  At this time, when I'm trying to complete college classes as well as homeschool, it requires being selective.  I need to be able to balance all the balls in the air. 

I am praying this will be an answer.