Truth and Beauty Homeschool Collaborative

     Just a few thoughts to help guide you at home as far as reading Science and History content type subjects. Progress might look like: 1. Sitting with parent and siblings listening to the reading for the day (How much depends on attention span since you want to reinforce the habit of attention.). 2. Next the student might alternate reading aloud  paragraphs or portions with a parent of other siblings. 3. Reading an appropriate portion by themselves  and working through their narrations (see below) themselves. If you have kids reading separately, to make it family subject and help them form connections, I’d recommend a discussion over a meal, when the whole family is present if possible.. 

   I am pleased with our class’s progress in that most of the kids are doing very well bringing written narrations for History and Science each week.  It surely helps our class discussions to prompt their memory. Remember we are looking for a challenge, not a frustration, so  written narrations might progress something like this: 1.The student dictates the narration in response to a question like “What do you think is important about (topic)?” and parent writes it. Then the student copies it hopefully in cursive!. 2.  The student can write their own narration (might need to copy words, phrases or sentences from the book) choosing important and interesting info that is on topic. 3. The student can write a bit longer narration in their own words since we all know that copying, though important to start, is plagiarism when they get older, and will cause problems. 4. Perhaps around age 12, the student can use the chapter title to write a topic sentence and follow with several detail sentences for practice writing paragraph narrations. 5. Possibly age 14, a student can write a narration bringing in other information he already knows and/or connecting it with other learning (chapters before) or even researching more to add to his understanding and cite sources.

   Remember progress is your key. Don’t let it be too easy, and don’t let it be too hard. Aim for a challenge, and when it’s not challenging, take the next step and do more. With the Holy Spirit’s help, our goal is self control–>self governing–> self educating.  We also pray we can all work with a persevering spirit and thankful attitude, which is a lifelong lesson. This is such a better way to learn and actually grow in godly wisdom and things that have eternal value. It’s  important work so our brain muscles and godly character need regular workouts in the form of short, impactful lessons and consistent habit training.