Work sheets....

 
I felt compelled to write this post in response to a common complaint on some home schooling pages- work sheets.

"What have they been doing all year?"

The situations usually goes like this. A child is being pulled out of school for what could be a variety of reasons. The parents go to the school to collect their books, and on looking at their workbooks are horrified that there are SSSOOO few works sheets. A post to Facebook usually goes up about "what have they been doing all year" because there's no worksheets to see in their books. And usually the 'me too- slack teacher" comments follow.

Applying knowledge is important

I strongly encourage anyone who has the passion and the drive to home school their kids, and I think anyone can teach their kids. However, this 'why are there no worksheets' complaint clearly separates those who have studied teaching philosophies and those who haven't. Students learn the best through being engaged in their lessons and using their knowledge in real life experiences. The over use of work sheets often creates students who can do the sums and equations with 100% accuracy, but can't apply it. I'm talking about students who could get top marks on a test filled with equations, but couldn't tell you how much change they should get from their lunch order. Being able to do the sums means nothing if you can't apply it.

As a teacher, if I went into a colleague's classroom and saw a book filled with worksheets I would "rate them" low as a teacher. I pride myself on NOT having worksheets. I love it when parents ask their child 'what did you do today' and the student says 'we did no school work at all." This means that the learning is so integrated into their day that it doesn't feel like work. Worldwide "best practise" standards for teaching refers to the use of rich, open-ended and engaging learning opportunities for students. Nowhere does it mention worksheets as a good source of engagement.



Learning by doing

To answer the 'what have they been doing' question- here it is. Instead of completing a worksheet they may have been playing games to learn their times tables, they may have been cooking to learn about fractions and measurement. They may have been creating a budget on how to spend the money they raised at the last fundraiser. They may have been writing letters to the local council making suggestions about how to reduce rubbish in their area. They may have been working out how much material they would need to make new cushions for their reading corner. They could have been working out which seeds they should plant in the veggie patch and how much it would cost. They may be writing to the local nursery negotiating free seeds to plant in their veggie patch in exchange for free advertising in the school newsletter. They could have been learning about strategy and forward thinking by playing chess. The list could go on and on... literally.... So before parents ask the question on Facebook (which is always asked as rhetorical question) maybe they should actually ask the question to the only person who can accurately answer it.... the teacher. I can assure you they haven't been sitting around watching cat videos all day.



Is this how you want your child to spend their day?
Fill in the gap- where the answer is already given to you?
 

So what's so bad about worksheets? Where do I start? To begin with they are often very closed in their nature. The focus is usually on the answer rather than the process. Worksheets don't often allow for application of skills in a real setting. They are often boring. There is limited opportunity for differentiation. As a teacher I see worksheets as lazy teaching. LA-ZEE! If you haven't worked out by now- I loath worksheets.




"My student has completed two books worth of worksheets in their first two weeks of home schooling and can now say their time tables." I highly doubt that the improvement was as a result of doing work sheet after work sheet. Maybe it was the one on one ratio. Maybe it was improved concentration in a quieter setting. Maybe it was due to not having to worry about the class bully. And a question- can they apply their new found knowledge? For new home schoolers I'm sure work sheets are a good way to start and this may be great for some kids in the long term but before you bag teachers out for not having a book stuffed full of worksheets, legitimately ask "what HAVE they been doing instead of book work?' You may get some good ideas for future lessons.

Some parents are bound to say 'hey, how can you say that work sheets are bad.... my kids love them!' Great, I'm glad to hear your kids love them, however do they love them because that is all they know? If they have been to school before starting home schooling there is a chance that they are 'used'  to work sheets and know no different. They have said they enjoy them, but do they know any other type of learning? Have they said that they enjoy them even after being exposed to other types of learning? A good education isn't reliant on the use of work sheets.

By all means use worksheets if that is what works for your kids, but please don't bag teachers who choose more engaging means of education for their students.

I hope you have found this post valuable. Please feel free to share, like and comment. Please message me with any typos or edits.

Happy homeschooling.
Love Alexis XOXOXO

Socialisation in the home schooling community

 

I think about socialisation a lot, probably more than I should. Whenever people find out we are home schooling their first response is always 'what about their socialisation?' I have yet to have a different response from anyone who doesn't home school their own kids. I think it's something that home schoolers are going to get asked about more than anything else- so it's probably best to think of what you're going to say before people ask those questions.

For these people who ask the socialisation question the problem seems to be two fold. Firstly, their perception of how home schoolers go about their day and the amount and quality of the social interactions home schoolers have. Then there is the issue of what they see as being 'well socialised.'

Home schooling classroom?

Before I started our journey into home schooling my perception of what a typical home schooler did throughout the day was limited to say the least. I have a feeling that many people think that home schoolers stay at home most of the day in their 'learning space' and complete worksheet after worksheet- not seeing the light of day until the work is complete and correct. Home schooling is quite the opposite. For some people completing worksheets is the way they have chosen to teach their kids, but for many the world is their classroom! They are learning by doing, they are learning by interacting with others and they are having fun while doing it! I know of many home schooling families, particularly new comers, who try to overcompensate the socialisation their children will miss in schools by having playdates and activities every day. In a few weeks or months they've burnt themselves out socialising. So, the perception that home schoolers are sheltered from the world and have no interactions with others, is far from accurate.

 

I have seen a lot of discussions on Facebook pages and home schooling websites from concerned parents about their kids getting enough contact with other kids. Their main worry is 'will they have enough social interactions?'  and 'will they have enough friends?" John Holt, who was a world renown author and educator, strongly believed that children needed "two or three good friends, half a dozen at the most." For those parents worried about whether their children will be getting enough social interaction, I say that it is completely up to them. Even after we decided to home school I had visions of us having to travel far and wide to find suitable friends for the boys. I thought it may have been limited due to there being so few home schoolers out there. How wrong I was! Just in walking distance to our house there are three home schooling families with kids around the same age as our boys. Brilliant. In our suburb and surrounding areas there are hundreds of home schooling families willing to meet up. There are always more than enough sewing, art, sport, music, language lessons available for kids to participate in. The more you want to put into their social outings, the more you can do. Having said that we do live in a capital city. More rural areas may not have as many options. For those people living in rural areas camps could be a good way to network with children with similar interests, and then they can Skype when they aren't at camp...

Then there's the problem of people's concept of what constitutes 'socialisation.' For many people it means spending time with children their own age. This is what you call "Horizontal Socialisation." It is where children hang out and are influenced by children their own age. For me socialisation is a lot broader. When we home school we will be exposing them to social situations which will included different ages. This is "Vertical Socialisation." For me the benefits of vertical socialisation are huge-especially when we compare it to horizontal socialisation. As Simon says horizontal socialisation can be seen as "the blind leading the blind." I understand what he means. If all of the kids in a group are the same age who do they look to for good role models? How will they know how to act in certain situations if there is nobody older, or more experienced than them?

I was out with the boys just today with another home schooler at a park. All of our children were playing in a park when from across the other side of the play equipment I hear Nate screaming because he couldn't reach the flying fox. I get up to go and help him when I see an older child pick him up so he could reach and carried him while Nate was holding onto the bar. It was awesome to see.

 

Maybe... maybe not...

It is sometimes hard to know what to say when people question you about socialisation. The other day an elderly neighbour was voicing the concerns she had for our boys- in particularly the concern 'where are they going to get friends.' My answer was simple. "The same places you've met your friends." Okay, so I'm not going to be taking them to the local bowling green or to the weekly bingo tournament. What I meant by this statement is ' through life.' Then I asked her how many of her friends were school friends. She admitted that none of the friends she has now were ones she met at school. So then where did she meet them if she didn't meet them at school? The answer is simply she met them through living her life. Life is where our kids will meet their friends. And the beauty of meeting friends through your life is you are meeting friends from a wide range of backgrounds and ages. This is what I think is real socialisation, not socialisation en mass with children their own age. I think many people confuse the forced association we see in school with good socialisation. We generally emulate the people you spend the most time with. The question is, who do you want them to be like?

 

There is always going to be more to write on socialisation, so look out for a future post on the same topic...

 

Please feel free to share, like and comment. Please feel free to message me with edits or typos.

 

Happy home schooling!

 

Love Alexis