Low Effort Homeschooling as done by Margery

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 04:50 PM

Ok here it is in as nutshell a form as I can make it. This is how we did it all except for the first year.

KISS principle RULES:

You've heard my mantra for the laundry, dishes and garbage removal (a load a day keeps the doctor away! or the psychiatrist at bay! -- however you want to phrase it)

Well fellow homeschoolers here's my homeschool version of simplified housekeeping.

A PAGE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY
and
A LESSON A DAY KEEPS MY PSCHIATRIST AT BAY

edited to add DO THE WORST FIRST!!!!

NEXT a few painless learning opportunities such as

the bathroom unit study,

maps and timelines on the walls,

and various cassette tapes of history, science, Shakespeare, classic books are great

while tooling around town in the obligatory homeschool rusty trusty van

(or at bedtime with the kidlets listening as they fall asleep or whilst playing legos)

all help.

Finally corralling the mess is super important. DISHPANS TO THE RESCUE!!!!!

I'll dolly up to each item in turn and explain in following posts

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 05:27 PM

I first heard it from Dr Robinson who taught his tribe at home, while holding down a chemistry professor position at university after his wife died.

A page a day.

BUT NOT TILL THEY ARE ABLE to write that much. When we started homeschooling ds was going into Grade 9 and couldn't even string 2 sentences together to make a paragragh. Dd was going into grade 7 and wrote BUCKETS!

When I've mentioned this concept in the past various over acheivers always wonder how to make their first graders write that page a day (or their 4rth graders).

Not gonna happen people!

This has to be age appropriate AND ABILITY APPROPRIATE!

So with that in mind the page a day rule might be a sentence or a word or a paragragh.

The point is that the student will produce some writing (you decide on the amount) each day that school is in session. (weekends off!)

Getting them into the habit of just cranking it out day after day makes it simple.

Now here's where it gets interesting. You want them to be creative and little Johnny has a writer's block. What to DO??????

Ok dokey! Here is what I did. I used Ruth Beechick's golden advice. When in doubt copy something. Kids learn by copying and writing is no exception.

I assigned A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens to my son. If he didn't have anything creative in mind, he could just copy out a page worth of HIS handwriting from Dickens. I knew it was working when I caught him reading Dickens by flashlight under the covers in the middle of the night one night. Two birds with one stone.

The copy method has many advantages. Learning from the masters, taking the stress out of creating something new every day, modelling on good writing. It goes on.

Learning Language Arts through Literature, that wonderful integrated system, uses copying to teach everything from Grammar to Spelling. They based the entire course level by level on Ruth Beechick's method.

If you use Ruth's booklet set for Gr K-3 THE THREE R'S [ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0940319063/qid=1122410794/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0229076-6752719"]Amazon.com: The Three R's (9780940319066): Ruth Beechick: Books[/ame]

or her You Can Teach Your Child Successfully: Grades 4-8 (I used both 3 Rs, and gr 4-8 to teach all the way thru high school in language arts) [ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0940319047/qid=1122410794/sr=2-3/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_3/104-0229076-6752719"]Amazon.com: You Can Teach Your Child Successfully: Grades 4-8 (9780940319042): Ruth Beechick: Books[/ame]

If you use those books you can throw away all the extra workbooks and textbooks on spelling, grammar, punctuation and reading comprehension. It's all in there including printing and handwriting practice. The integrated approach saves time and money.

If you want it all done for you, get Learning Language Arts Through Literature and use it. I supplemented LLATL at times with some other stuff, and alternated with making it up as we went along.LLATL and some of the other stuff is at Common Sense Press:

http://www.cspress.com/

Here are some of the other things I used:
Wordsmith series by Janie Cheaney
http://www.cspress.com/wordsmth.htm

I also used the Great Editing Adventure set, volumes 1 and 2, http://www.cspress.com/greatedt.htm but didn't bother with much from the Great Explorations in Editing

What I loved about GEA and LLATL was how they handle mistakes and corrections.

In LLATL the child is given time to correct their mistakes (use pencil and eraser) BEFORE IT GETS MARKED! As they rub out, and redo, they are learning where their weaknesses are.

You aren't wasting their time and yours going over and over stuff they know. It pinpoints the problem, and you do a low stress fix that teaches the kid at the same time. (they look up a number key that tells them the page in the grammar reference to find and fix their particular problem)

In GEA you put a comical and mistake filled sentence on your white board (you do have one don't you?????) or blackboard. The child has all day to spot the mistakes THE OTHER WRITER MADE. In other words, you aren't red lining THEIR writing, it's the other guy's mistakes!!! BIG DIFFERENCE. It is a painless method for learning editing skills, grammar, punctuation etc.

Think EASTER EGG HUNT!!!! It's FUN!!!!!!

HOWEVER

MOST DAYS I JUST DID A PAGE OR EQUIVALENT (ability) in writing. When I was a little more exciting I supplemented with these lessons. The point is get them writing and keep them writing.

I also enjoyed English from the Roots Up, Vol. 1: Help for Reading, Writing, Spelling, and S.A.T. Scores
by Joegil Lundquist
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0964321033/104-0229076-6752719?v=glance"]Amazon.com: English from the Roots Up, Vol. 1: Help for Reading, Writing, Spelling, and S.A.T. Scores (9780964321038): Joegil K. Lundquist: Books[/ame]

which comes in 2 volumes now, I used the first one. I used to do that once a week for a few weeks at a time, NOT AT ALL AS THE BOOK RECOMMENDS.

I generally acted out the words, goofing around, making the kids laugh and guess wildly at the Latin or Greek root and it's permutations. I stuck pencils up my upper lip and pretended to be a walrus on one memorable occaision.

Did this happen every day? NOPE

But the page a day sure did.

And my son and daughter both thank me for teaching them to write volumes of material with ease. It's been one of their strengths in university. The kids coming out of high school fold under the pressure of the writing assignments, while my kids simply snorted HAH, and got down to it.

Final point. TEACH YOUR KIDS TO TYPE early on. It's not a substitute for handwriting but an addition to it. It's a literacy skill and means they are speedy on the keyboard.

We used a silly and fun typing program "Super Mario Teaches Typing". Don't use something all dried up and serious like Mavis Beacon. The whole object of low effort teaching is to help them have fun with learning, to the point that they do it themselves, VOLUNTARILY!!!!

Which saves a ton of pushing, effort, tears, tantrums and general disgusting behaviour. Save that for when you really need it. Make learning an adventure.

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 05:39 PM

did I let them do their writing on computer using a spell check.

Yes I sure did. Spell check with it's constant pop ups and reminders, helps the child spot their errors and change them. They begin to get a visual memory for how the word SHOULD look.

Grammar checker is the same.

Of course it's not a substitute, but it's a big big help. Yes they still have to know when to use a particular spelling of a same sounding word for proper useage but think of it this way-- ITS REINFORCING THE RIGHT WAY more often than not.

Now balance is key here. If your child refuses to do ANY handwriting or it's sloppy, I'd work on handwritten stuff first, then use the computer.

One last point-- have that computer in a central location. Porn sites etc prey on children with their easy internet access. You want to be able to see AT ALL TIMES what they are doing and with whom.

GAMES AND COMPUTERS are a great way to learn. Everything from Reader Rabbit and Operation Neptune (phonics drills and math drills) to typing lessons and foreign languages come in fun computer games now.

Save the gaming for something that has some learning to it and otherwise restrict access to the computer. If you allow easy access and games without learning content, you won't be able to get them into the learning games.

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 05:42 PM

Ok here is a lesson a day keeps my psychiatrist at bay!

Math lesson that is.

I used Saxon math but there are other fine Math systems such as Math U See and Horizons to name a couple.

Just make sure that a lesson a day gets DONE. Like the page a day this ensures the 3 R's get finished. As long as those are happening, school is fine even if you don't have time for a full course load on a particular day.

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 05:49 PM

I'm going to have to add this other saying into my list of make it easy mantras.

DO THE WORST FIRST!

You know what it is for each child. With dd it was math, with ds it was writing.

I frequently went back to bed after dh left for work in the morning with an Agatha Christie murder mystery and my 2 teenage students in tow.

Dd lay beside me in bed doing her math lesson. Ds put his feet in our faces just about, waving them about and hung over the bottom of the bed, with his writing resting on a TV table while he struggled thru his page a day.

I was handy to keep them on task, but relaxing with my cup of coffee and my book. All was peaceful. Well till the peace was shattered by dd starting to sniffle a bit which she always did when a problem was getting to her.

I would stop reading, help her and keep her on track.

Ditto with ds who would start to wander in his attention (ADD/ADHD kid). I could get him on track in a hurry.

BE THERE on top of them as they do their worst subject first. Get it out of the way, the rest is gravy.

If you wander away, they will drag their tough subject out forever and ever amen, and you won't get ANYTHING done.

So grab your coffee, and a book, and take them to bed with you, and keep them on track WHILE

THEY DO THEIR WORST JOB FIRST!!!!!!

It's a timesaver, and a sanity saver and a VERY GOOD WORK HABIT TO INSTILL IN THE KIDS!!!!!

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 05:54 PM

I have 2 things to say here:

Time lines

Maps

yup. That's it.

Put up a big long timeline on a handy hallway and mark the centuries. As you read a book fiction or otherwise, find the time on the line. Print the title or the heroe of the book in that space.

This painlessly teaches a sense of history.

Maps, yes maps. I used the ones from National Geographic magazine as they are chock full of fun fascinating sidebars.

Have a globe hanging around too.

Rotate the maps according to the current unit study.

Now as to where the maps should go, my sister and I got a lot of mileage out of the bathroom location.

The kids are trapped there, bored, what else can they do but sit AND READ THE MAP!!!!

I supplemented the maps with the bathroom unit study but that is another post.

**Early Bird** · 07-26-2005, 05:56 PM

Thank you! Keep talking.

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 06:00 PM

OK Unit Studies save a ton of time. You can combine science or history/geography/social studies with language arts. You can do all the grades at once and it's interesting.

The stuff the kid studies stays stuck in their head because units come with built in context and we all know learning in context is much easier to grasp.

BATHROOM OR DISHPAN UNIT STUDIES

I put together a dishpan for the back of the toilet tank complete with library books on whatever we were studying.

Nat'l Geo mags, Discover mags, Usborne books, Kingfisher books, Cultural Atlas books

Whatever was COLOURFUL AND EASY TO READ IN A SHORT TIME!!!

This practically guaranteed that my little learners were using their time efficiently.

MAKE IT SIMPLE!!! This is another concept I got from Ruth Beechick. When you want to teach something, see if it can be found in the children's dept in a grade level BELOW the child.

WHY???? Because reading for content is what you are doing, and the lower the age the book is written for, the more clearly it is written, and the easier it is to read.

You can increase reading ability and level using fiction, but here is where you simply want easy access to the information.

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 06:06 PM

Pop a tape in the player at home while they are playing Legos or doing art and they are listening to Shakespeare, Dickens, or the Bible. If you put in a science tape (maybe learning some facts to music) or a history tape, or even a math drill song tape they will be absorbing a lot. Without any effort by yourself.

Pop that tape in the car player and your trips will ensure that learning continues for the captive audience. Doesn't matter if the trip is long or short. Let the tape start and stop with the car.

IT DOESN"T EVEN MATTER IF THEY DON"T LOOK LIKE THEY ARE LISTENING!!!! Let it flow over them, you'll repeat it more than once.

Another good cassette moment is bedtime. That is when you can put the heavier classics on. They sleep or learn, or both.

Listening to you (you did realize you can tape yourself reading to them didn't you?) or the narrator also has another benefit.

ATTENTION SPAN will increase when kids are read to. AND they learn to make the pictures in their heads. TV prevents that vital thinking skill but listening to stories helps develop that part of their brain.

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 06:11 PM

LOL use that dishpan for better purposes!

Like corralling a child's learning mess.

OR making a unit study.

Here's the thing-- your little learner needs to keep pens, scissors, glue, pencils, workbooks or notepaper all together.

When you use a dishpan per kid, it's like a mobile desk. You haul it out to the kitchen table, work like little beavers, then lunch and hey presto, the mess is shoveled away out of sight.

End of the day and you can put those pans away out of sight and out of mind for the day. Let the kids go play stress free. School is DONE for the day.

You can even do what I did and take the kids to the park or the lakeside for the day to do their work. Or less fun, the orthodontist. It's easy to haul their dishpan around in the van.

A variation on the dishpan is flylady's office in a bag which is simply a cloth covered 3 ring binder with handles and a zipper to keep it all contained. Buy it from flylady or from your local office supply store. You can use those page protectors, and use a hole punch with a ziplock bag for pens, scissors etc.

**Early Bird** · 07-26-2005, 07:16 PM

Margery, How did you handle scheduled activities? Like piano lessons, swim lessons, chorus, scouts, etc ...

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 07:18 PM

I found that having book fronts FACE THE ROOM is important to draw the learner in.

You do this by setting a few books on a subject (below grade level in reading ability remember? and LOTS OF PICTURES and sidebars for interest) in a pan, facing the room.

The books stay contained and your learner can find the whole unit when he or she is assigned some reading (or gives in to curiosity).

Along with this is an idea I saw years after homeschooling, which I'd probably have used to prop books up in likely places. It's cheap, it's easy and it's readily available at the home hardware or home depot.

RAIN GUTTER BOOK RACKS!

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/r...ml#rain-gutter

Go there for pictures and instructions. I agree with this idea whole heartedly.

This type of display is what the library and the lower grades use to draw little learners into the books.

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 07:22 PM

scheduled activities?

first off, I didn't schedule too many.

One sport/music/language/violin/etc,

plus one social activity per kid per week is plenty.

Less even if you have homeschool events such as science day once a week or once a month.

You have 12 years, in that time they can take french one year, or violin or soccer but not all three every year.

And when your schooling is done early (worst first) then on a day when you are driving them a lot, use the tapes for teaching, in the car, pack along a dishpan unit of books for the others, and use that time but

DON'T try to do a heavily scheduled teaching day PLUS a heavily scheduled kid. Recipe for stress for mum and kid.

Relax, go slow, dump the extras till you find the balance. If you are doing it for social reasons, call it play and don't let it get too stressful.

Homeschooolers usually stress way too much about the social stuff and add far too many extras in.

Double up, try and get all the kids or at least 2 into each "class" or program so that driving is kept to a minimum.

Learn to see what each activity will demand from you and from your kid. That will be prep time, travel time, the actual sport or lesson, mum making costumes, fundraising, working with the group etc.

it adds up.

Most people could and should focus just on homeschooling plus some social event stuff, THEN add things in, being ready to cut back if it starts impacting the kids lives negatively.

Too many things is stressful for the child and the parent. And each dance teacher/soccer coach fondly believes that their activity is the ONLY one you have to bother with so of COURSE you have the time to fundraise, bake cookies, make costumes, drive the team.

Watch out for those extras.

**canadian gardener** · 07-26-2005, 07:48 PM

OK here's the easiest way to do a unit.

Figure on a subject. Don't try and combine Social studies AND science. Pick one.

Now narrow it down. You did science last unit so maybe social studies this unit.

Ancient Egypt. OK

Go to the library and pick out some fiction to read aloud. Eloise Jarvis McGraw's Daughter of the Nile, or her other book are great. Suspense filled drama.

Get Usbornes Illustrated Guide to Ancient Egypt and while you are in that section of the CHILDREN's HISTORY (not the grownups even for teens!) you look around and spot some other good richly illustrated books.

Maybe a book on Egyptian hieroglyphics. (the kids can write their name in ancient heiratic)

Go to the adult dept now, and pick out a good book with a timeline in it and photocopy the time line.

Now get going.

Bedtime read alouds (or in the day) read from the fiction. Remember to stop at a crazy making suspense filled moment and put a marker in.)

With any luck the kids will sneak the book and read breathlessly on their own tomorrow.

Make a time line with the kids, hang it on the wall and mark when the hero and heroine lived.

On your wall map make a little flag to mark where in Egypt the hero and heroine had their adventures.

In the bathroom make sure you keep a dishpan with the Usborne book and others. Kingfisher makes good ones too. And the Illustrated Atlas of World History is great.

Put a National Geo or other Egypt map up on the bathroom wall.

Make some Egyptian styled art copied from the books.

Show how they mummified people and animals. NOPE don't DIY your own real dead mummies, but take something such as an apple or a zucchini and dry it in salt (natron), and when it quits leaking fluids, and is drying nicely wrap it in strips of gauze and make a paper mache sarcophagus.

Set the kids to writing a story of their own, maybe their adventure when the time machine took them and set them down in an ancient Egyptian town.

Tired yet? Well remember this is OVER A PERIOD OF 6 Weeks!

AND IT REPLACES conventional textbooks.

So you don't do units AND still try to keep up the pace with workbooks, textbooks or other curriculum in history, geography or writing since ALL of those are covered in the unit.

You adjust the projects for grade level but teach all grades at once.

Getting the hang of it all?
\How to Homeschool: A Practical Approach
by Gayle Graham, Graham
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1880892405/qid=1122420639/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0229076-6752719?v=glance&s=books&n=507846"]Amazon.com: How to Homeschool: A Practical Approach (9781880892404): Gayle Graham: Books[/ame]

and
Valerie Bendt's unit study book. http://www.valeriebendt.com/unit_studies_made_easy.asp

I think she combined all her unit study books into this one. I highly recommend her.

Pre packaged units are a lot of work, but the homemade ones use the books that are IN your library (don't need ordering in) and are ON your own shelf and tailored to your time, energy and children's interests.