Independent as far as learning and studying goes?? I give Lyndsey the computer to do her work on Time4Learning.. She does it and I check her progress and she has grades like 17% on a basic skill like compare and ordering numbers:shock: So I pull the lesson back up and when we do it together she gets 100!! The lessons explain everything.. So I don't understand what the deal is.. Any insight??
It just may not be her area of strength to test on the computer. I have one child that can do the work on paper but seems to meltdown and guess like mad on multiple choice style questions on the computer.
This is a good point. I have a child who has done some very impressive projects on the computer, but let him take a spelling test on there, and it's like he never heard the language before, much less the list of words. That's not to say it's not a skill we won't work on. It's more that I have to treat it that way, as its own skill to be learned, and work the computer testing skill separate from the assessment of other skills.
We have been using MobyMax a little bit and I have noticed the kids aren't doing well with it, but the thing is I notice the voice is sometimes hard to understand. I also learned really quick, that for like TT math, Rylee has got to watch the video then do the work in the workbook, we have tried to just have her write out the problems and do them on notebook paper as she goes through the disk each day and it doesn't work so well. I have a sneaking suspicion that what they do on the computer is equal to a game in their minds and is hard to relate into knowledge.
We kind of just fell into that. For several years, I was on staff at our church and had to attend staff meetings. My kids were about 5, 8 and 9 when this started. I would give them assignments and set them up in the Sunday School room. By the end of Staff Meeting (about two hours long), I would expect them to be done. Of course, there was time when they didn't understand something or I had given them too much, but you know what I mean! They simply COULD NOT interrupt unless it was an emergency. As a result, they learned to work independently. And I'm SO GLAD it worked out that way; I doubt I would have known to do something like that on my own. But right now, my aunt is being moved from Skilled Nursing to Assisted Living. So we've been visiting different facilities, etc., and meeting with her and her brother (about a half-hour away). I was telling Carl just yesterday after spending several hours at her place how thankful I was I could just give my kids their assignments and know they would get them done!
We started DGS (who is now 8) on independence with schoolwork by just telling him to work the next few while I answer someone else's question for a minute. I didn't move and he didn't move, I just turned my attention for a few while he kept working. We started that in first grade. Somewhere during second, those "moments" got longer and longer, until we got to "I think you can get started on that while I look at ___'s work." and then "I think you can take this to your desk instead of sitting right by me, so that ___ can discuss (something longer) with me." Now it's "Can I take this to my desk, grandma? I can do this." or sometimes it's not even a question, he just starts on something on his own. We don't do any work on computer, though, only books/workbooks. But this year he's learning to answer questions from a textbook in a notebook. I "fix his page" for him so far (write the new words with space for him to put in the definitions, put numbers for him to put answers to questions), but soon he'll get the idea and I'll tell him to "just do it like I did it" while I do something else.
It's coming naturally here too, with four kids wanting my attention they can't all have me at once. My oldest is finally at a point of doing very well with his independent work, he has an occassional question and comes and asks me for clarification but he is otherwise able to do his math, grammar, and calendar independently. They can each do something of their school work mostly independently which is really helpful because then I can kinda sit amongst them to answer the question that comes up here or there. We don't do anything on the computer though so I'm not help with that.
