Making Homeschooling Work for Us: Skills Work

After posting about our Morning Time routine here and here, a few people asked if that was all the school work we did for the day. My short answer is, no... but sometimes.

I can truly say that if Morning Time is all that I am able to accomplish on any given day, I still feel like a world class educator because I am confident that my children are learning far more than any of my students were when I taught in a "highly recognized" public school classroom. [more on that at a later date]

So, what do we do in addition to Morning Time? We do skills work. I'm pretty sure the teachers of yesteryear simply called this the 3 'R's: Reading, wRiting, and 'Rithmetic. I love that my children are feasting on things that are true, good, and beautiful every morning. This is truly the foundation of their education. Reading them short stories by Kipling and poetry by Dickinson will likely develop in them a desire to read beautiful words and a reason to write them, but, let's be honest; it doesn't actually teach them to decode text or to form letters correctly. Those are skills that must be worked on; thus, skills work. This is less important to me than Morning Time, which may sound bizarre, but hear me out. What good is being able to read if all you pick up is trash and what good is learning the mechanics of writing if you have nothing of substance to say? If you're wondering, that's a reality. I have taught hundreds of 13-16 year olds and the majority of them haven't read a book on their own initiative (or under compulsion, for that matter) since early elementary school, and they struggle to form a complete, coherent sentence on a meaningful topic (thank you, text messaging). This is to be expected when you are 5; this is grievous when you are 15.

This means that while Morning Time happens 5 days a week, my goal is to fit in at least 3 days a week for skills work. For us, the best time is after lunch when one or both of my younger daughters are down for their afternoon nap. It requires 30 minutes for my 5 year old and 45-60 minutes for my 7 year old.

It takes very little time because the student/teacher ratio is 1:1. When I am teaching my 5 year old to correctly form the letter "D", I am not having to watch a classroom full of 20 students at their desks to catch if any of them are reversing the letter, forming it from the bottom up rather than the top down, mistakenly writing a lower case "d" for the uppercase "D", or forming a curved line to make an "O" rather than a straight line to make a "D." All that I have to do is sit next to my one little buddy and say, "One long line going down like this, and big curve around like this." Done. No errors or bad habits to correct later. No roaming the classroom looking for those who might need my help or who might be fossilizing an error that will take weeks to correct and retrain. I'm just done. I watch him complete a row of picture perfect "D"s, and then we move on. He doesn't write the letter 35 times. I don't need busy work while the other kids are getting my help. He writes it 7 times, and he writes it as perfectly as he can (which is infinitely better than writing it 70 times incorrectly or sloppily).

Skillswork looks like this:

5 year old:
Handwriting - 5 minutes
Phonics/Reading - 10 minutes
Read-Aloud/Narration - 10 minutes
Speech - 5 minutes (this is particular to this child because he struggles with certain later developing speech sounds)

7 year old:
Handwriting - 10 minutes
Language Arts/Grammar- 5 minutes
Math - 15 minutes
Reading Practice - 15 minutes

Handwriting: Both boys use "Handwriting Without Tears," my absolute favorite curriculum for handwriting. It's super affordable, and it does a great job of helping teachers by showing them how to prevent errors before they are made. It is not the most beautiful form of handwriting; its focus is on readability not on beauty. With each of my two boys, this has been the 'write' curriculum choice because of this focus (I know, I'm so punny).

Math: We don't do formal math at age 5. It's more than enough to memorize our math facts through our Morning Time and to experience real-life math during our normal routines (cooking, shopping, etc). For our 7 year old, we use Math-U-See. It's a pricier curriculum that we don't mind spending the money on (or the time to find used) because we really appreciate its use of block manipulatives that carries through all the elementary years. This appeals to our son who adores building blocks (he can make forts out of the blocks when he is done).

Language Arts/Grammar: This is something we waited to start until age 7. We use a book that's adapted from a 100 year old gem! It's something our great grandparents might have used! It's a simple, gentle introduction to the elements of grammar and composition.

Phonics/Reading:  Right now, with our 5 year old, we are using "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" a well-loved book that's over 3 decades old (check out the 1000+ five star reviews on Amazon). We used this same book with our 7 year old when he was 5, but it wasn't the best fit for him. We switched to a similar curriculum "The Reading Lesson" that had a less-cluttered format, waited over 6 months to resume phonics instruction, and he thrived. Again, because the student/teacher ratio is 1:1, I have the freedom to purchase or design a curriculum that is perfectly suited for my individual child. I can even put that subject on hold while he matures (in this case, while his vision problems were addressed and corrected). This is not a freedom that a teacher overseeing reading instruction for 25 students has.

Speech: I'm not a speech pathologist, but I did take my 5 year old to our school district to find out if their speech pathologist thought that he needed to be evaluated for speech services. After observing him, she said that we could proceed with the full evaluation, but he very likely wouldn't qualify because all of the sounds that he struggles to make are the last to develop (they sometimes don't solidify until 6 or 7).  My husband, however, asked me to spend a few minutes each day working with him on those particular phonemes. We do! It's great fun. We sing songs and play speech games that are easily looked up on YouTube and suggested by qualified speech pathologists.

Ideally, Morning Time and Skills Work are complimentary. The goal of phonics instruction isn't that they can decode words. It isn't even that they will be able to pick up a technical manual and follow a set of instructions in sequential order. The goal of our phonics work is that they will be able to engage in the great conversation that has been taking place throughout history. I'm not teaching them to read so they'll pick up The Cat in the Hat; I'm teaching them to read so they'll pick up Augustine. I'm not teaching them to write because I want them to be able to sign their name on Christmas cards; I'm teaching them to write because I want them to be able to clearly articulate the reason for the hope that is within them. It just so happens that The Cat in the Hat and Christmas cards may be what get us there.