I’ve written before about how I manage my little boy’s learning “routine.” It’s not really a routine, but I’m not sure what else to call it. Many months ago I was ambitiously trying to track detailed lists of topics, possible tasks, and so forth. After a lot of trial and error, I have settled on something that has worked extremely well for me for the last month. It’s a lot simpler, and probably more effective than the more ambitious method.
This might be more useful if you don’t have an agreeable angel of a baby, who does whatever you want. If, like our boy, he has a mind of his own and you’ve decided, as I have, not to insist on anything but only make suggestions, then the following might be helpful.
Call it the Recorder-Diary-Grid method.
(1) As we go through the day (I work from home, so we do small educational activities throughout the day), I have a voice recorder in my pocket. When we do something educational, or when I notice my boy reading or otherwise doing something educational like with his Mama, then I make a quick voice record of it.
(2) At night, I transfer the voice records into a written diary (it helps that I type fast). At the same time, I make a few remarks about things I’ve observed, how he seems to be improving or having trouble in some area, or whatever.
(3) As I write diary items, I fill in the day’s column in a grid. The grid is set up like this. Across the top are dates. Along the side is a list of general topic areas that I’d like us to be studying. (This changes frequently, but some examples are: Chapter Books; Shorter Stories; Poetry; History; Physical World; Biology; Math; etc.) Then in each square, I put down an “o†for a lot of work (that day); “x†for some; and “-†for a little. So if we read two or more chapters of a chapter book, or one long chapter, I’d put down an “o†across from “Chapter Books.†If we read a couple medium-length poems, I would put down “x†across from “Poetry.†If we did one aborted game of “War,†I might put down “-†across from “Math.†Just as a reminder to myself, with the study grid I also write down the names of long books we’re working through, and goals to remember. I don’t look at those things too much though; mostly I look at the grid.
(4) The grid gives me an instant “overview†of where we’re at with regard to all the different subjects I’d like us o be studying. I might notice, for instance, that we haven’t practiced writing letters or numbers (that’s one of the categories) in five days. So then I leave myself a voice message for the next day (you could just as easily just write this down), simply listing the subjects that we haven’t studied much. Then the next day those are the things that I suggest we do.
This has worked very well so far. When it’s been a long time since we’ve done some subject or skill, I find he’s usually game for it. And when I see he’s done a certain thing a lot recently, I know not to push that, or not worry if he hasn’t done it. The result is that, though we don’t follow any specific plan or schedule, we still manage to cover everything I could expect, in roughly the proportions I can reasonably shoot for. If I worry that we haven’t done anything from one of his previous favorite subjects lately, I can see that we’re learning a lot about other things, so it all works out.
So far, keeping the diary has been more fun than a chore, and it’s best to think of it as a diary/journal/log, not anything more formal. At the end of many days I’m surprised at how much we’ve done. This helps motivate me. Several times I’ve noticed that I made a subject/skill, but we’ve basically never practiced it. Then I decide to either drop it or consolidate it with some other one. (So there’s no “Physiology†subject, that’s included with “Biology†now.)
Well, I hope this helps someone.