Homeschooling- from two boys to four

So far it's working out really well. There have been no major snags but there is much room for improvement in my time management. ;) Quite a bit of my efforts have been focused on C this school year. The boys understand we have major work to attend and since they are familiar with our regular schedule, they continue their work independently. While I am *thankful* they are capable of this I need to remember to work one on one with each.

I believe we will also benefit from more group activities. Right now is not a good time but soon. Currently C is a bit bashful of reading aloud. However, he is certainly much less bashful than last week. He is beginning to realize we are not going to poke fun at him. Surely he must have caught at least one major teasing in public school.

We strive to support each other. We are beginning to make a concentrated effort to recognize improvement in each other and offer congratulations. We have been sure to never naysay anyone's abilities or lack thereof. We are really creating the idea caring and nurturing educational environment and it's quite lovely. (Honestly, I expected major testosterone overload but so far so good.)

Lessons with my oldest son, almost 15yo, are designed specifically to match his changing needs. C has been "left behind" in the public school system his entire educational career. His reading and writing levels are quite low. I believe he was taught using the whole word method of reading. He has no concept of phonics rules, base words, suffixes, prefixes, etc...

However, this is all changing and quite suddenly! It's amazing how quickly he is progressing. There have been marked differences from week to week. I've always read the stories of teenaged children suddenly raising their reading level three grades in one year. I believe we have that exact situation on our hands and I am happy it's going so well. :)

I have decided to teach in much the same fashion of Marva Collins. I have applied this to our everyday lessons and all the boys have responded quite positively. For those who haven't read the book (why not?) here is a clip from Marva's website. (Sorry, this will be long but well worth the read.)

Marva N.
Collins
Educational Program and Philosophy
My educational program and
methodology is based on the Socratic Method. Socrates, an Athenian philosopher
and teacher, lived from about 470 – 399 BC. The Socratic method teaches by using
a series of questions and answers by which the logical soundness of a
definition, or a point of view, or the meaning of a concept, is tested. The
Socratic method is based on logical analysis, consequently, it develops superb
reasoning skills in students.

I select reading materials that contain ideas that
are abstract. These ideas may, and will, mean different things to different
students. There may not be one correct answer, but several interpretations are
possible. Socrates asks, in Plato’s Republic, what is “justice?” As Socrates’
queries of his students reveal, “justice” as a concept has several definitions.

The purpose of teaching, I believe, is not just to master factual material, but
also to teach the student how to think, and to encourage him/her to think,
indeed. The ability to reason, to analyze logically, will survive long after the
student’s retention of memorized fact is lost.

Before beginning any reading
selection, I first pre-read the selection (it is folly to attempt to teach what
one does not know) and I extract all of the difficult words. These
“words-to-watch” become the vocabulary words for the class to learn. Every
student must be able to pronounce, spell, and know the meaning of each of these
words prior to starting the reading in class. It makes no sense to delve into
the selection if the students do not understand the words in the material to be
read. Otherwise, the reading will both tedious and meaningless.

Then, I refer to
the title of the reading, and ask, “ What do you think this selection is going
to be about?” This process is gathering information from the title. Other
questions that may be asked, before the reading actually begins, include, “Is
this story going to be about pain?” “A good conscience?” “How do you know?”
Next, identify the purpose for reading the selection. As the reading progresses
– readings must be done aloud, never silently – ask pertinent questions, such as
“What do you think will happen?” Predictions must use logic, reason, evidence,
in order to develop meta-cognitive skills.Students are taught to examine their
line of reasoning. What information from the reading supports your response?
This teaches the student the importance of factual responses as compared to
interpretative answers.

Certainly, students will score higher on standardized
tests when they know how to think critically and analytically. Tests do not want
to know what we think; they measure the correctness of our factual responses.
Thus students are taught to refrain from making wild conjectures. Inquiry
becomes a disciplined process in which students use prior acquired knowledge and
evidence to arrive at new insights and understanding.In the Socratic method the
teacher controls the rate and flow of information. Understanding takes place
during the reading, at each important juncture, not at the end of the selection.
This method encourages participation by all students, thus it alleviates
discipline problems, and eventually eliminates them entirely. When students
misbehave, it indicates that they have not developed the habit of “right”
reasoning. My methodology is designed to teach that choices have consequences. I
use discipline, self-discipline, not punishment to engage the students in
“right” thinking. Ultimately, the teacher should increase reading longer amounts
of text between stopping points. This will increase the students’ ability to
gain meaning from extended reading. Always stop at points in the reading to ask
questions, such as, “Why did you (the student) give the answer you did?” And,
“Can you point to the sentence, or paragraph, in the reading that supports your
conclusion?”Stop-points in oral reading should occur at logical places such as
where the story changes and especially at highly abstract passages. The master
teacher never shies away from difficult reading selections or passages therein.
The class is only as good as its leader! Stopping at abstractions allows for
oral discussion, the refinement of ideas, and the use of vocabulary, and for
guidance by the teacher. Stop points also provide discussion time, increased
verbal and writing skills, and the development of critical thinking.My
educational program does not allow the inane use of independent seatwork, busy
work sheets, and workbooks. These so-called education tools do not connect ideas
into a logical thought process. They do not, and cannot, teach children how to
read, or how to write. They presuppose that the participant is already an
independent reader, and is already imbued with critical and analytical thinking
skills, or that the student is able to grasp, without supervision or guidance,
the relevant points being made by the author. There are more reasons why I do
not use work sheets in my classes, and I do not permit their use by any teacher
in my school.Upon completion of a reading selection, students should write daily
letters to the characters in the selection, or to the author of the material.
Students should write a critical review of the selection. Which character did
they identify with the most? Why? What did this character teach them? What
life-lesson, if any, did they learn from the reading? Why is this life-lesson
important to them? Again, workbooks and worksheets can never accomplish this.
There is a difference between “busy work” and “thought work.”The direct teaching
method reinforces skills learned in every reading selection. The child is taught
to refer to what has been learned previously to support an opinion. References
come from many different sources, from poetry, newspaper editorials, magazines,
great speeches, novels, or any other written material. Everything everywhere
provides potentially excellent material for developing reasoning skills. To
illustrate, a piece of paper represents trees, because wood is processed into
paper. A piece of paper also represents the water that nourishes the tree, the
woodsman who cuts down the tree, or the trucks that take the felled tree to the
processing plant. Direct teaching expands the mind beyond the two covers of a
book and the four walls of the classroom. Textbook word-for-word, lock-step
methods never make good critical thinkers. There is a difference between word
reading and word understanding. And, there is a difference between knowing how
to read, and loving to read.My methodology of teaching has the advantage of
establishing an intellectual environment that promotes the gaining of textual
information, conversational information, vocabulary building, idea building,
idea sharing and expansion, and it demands the attention of all participants. It
alleviates guessing. It teaches abstract thinking. Critical thinking involves a
general attitude of questioning and suspended judgment, the habit of examining
before accepting. The teacher and the student now have a common goal, which is
the gaining of knowledge and information sharing. Direct teaching does require
new behavior by both the teacher and the students, therefore it does require
some degree of behavior modification. In my long teaching career, I have learned
that the benefits are worth the effort. Once teachers try the Socratic Method,
or direct method, of teaching, they will never again return to anything that
cannot produce the “magic.”