We have been using Moving Beyond the Page for the past three and a half weeks and are finishing up our first units in both social studies/science and literature. I've intended to post my thoughts on this curriculum, but haven't had enough time at the computer to compose them. Today, however, I typed off a long email to my education specialist as for her thoughts. In the process, I articulated my own feelings fairly completely. For that reason, I've decided to post substance of that email.
Hi there,
I wanted to give you some things to think over before out next
meeting.
I guess you could say my problem is a wealth of riches. The
Moving Beyond the Page materials are absolutely fantastic. The
boys seem to enjoy their lessons. Landry, who is used to
my cobbled curriculum, says that he likes these materials much
better, although he will be the first to tell you that he
would prefer to do neither.
I don't think anything in MBtP is beyond the boys' abilities.
I take some dictation from and do some reading to Kipp, but
the concepts and activities are generally not beyond their
comprehension. That said, the number of activities in any
given lesson requires me to just keep pushing them through
the day to keep going. Yes, I think my boys work hard at
escaping work, but I'm feeling like a drill sergeant.
This is resulting in two problems:
(1) I'm not enjoying this much. I'm constantly worried
that we are falling behind in the materials and wont
finish by the end of the year. I think that affects the
boys' view of learning. At the same time, I find it
difficult to cut activities because they all seem to
have some value, if only as fun. And I question if
I'm failing as a homeschooler if I start letting
things slide.
(2) More importantly, I have a genuine concern that the
boys are not retaining the material. I know they get it
at the point they see it, but they are seeing such a
quantity of great material with no real opportunities
to review that I don't see how they could have long term
retention.
To add to this, we are about to start losing one day per
week to outside lessons. On Mondays, we will go to martial
arts, piano and engineering (Kipp). Add in the
Expeditionary Learning crew meetings and field work at the
charter, and I don't see how we can keep up the pace.
So, I guess what I'm asking is how would you, as a teacher,
prioritize? What would you do?
Thanks.
Annie
I would be very interested in hearing what the teacher suggests as a remedy.
I am still struggling with how to take what we get from Calvert and find the materials with value, with enough repetition but not too much. It seems to change from lesson to lesson for my boys and that makes it even harder. I need to recognize when they are in need of extra practice AND have the resources ready, not being afraid to toss aside that extra stuff if I find we don't really need it. After doing the prep work, that is sometimes hard to swallow.
BTW, glad to see you posting again. :-)
Annie- I'm wondering how you are doing with MBP these days. I've been using it about the same length of time - we're using the 8-10 program. My struggle is that the Social Studies portion (or science) seems to take my daughter so long to do. She started drawing the Cherokee Village during winter yesterday and has worked on it for hours. And yet, she's including so much detail that I'm sure she'll retain this image in her mind. Two days ago she knew nothing about the Cherokee and now she can draw so much of their daily life. Should I cut out other excercises so we can move on with the schedule or just let it take us forever to get through?! Thanks for your thoughts.
Nancy
ps I think we all feel like drill sergeants, regardless of the task at hand!!
Hi Nancy,
I sent you an email which I hope you have received by now. However, just in case it went into a spam folder or if others are interested, I'll post here as well.
We've decided to ignore the company's lesson plan and are happier for it. Our ES questioned the boys at our last meeting, and we were both struck by the depth of their comprehension and their enthusiasm. I'm not going to jeopardize that by pushing them through the materials. At the same time, I find most of the activities have value. Only once in a while do I skip one because I'm certain the boys already know the concept, but it is rare.
It sounds like your daughter is having a similar experience: really enjoying her work and learning deeply. I'm no expert, but I think I'd probably go at her pace as long as she is not simply dawdling, but involving herself in her studies.
I suspect what is happening is that rather than lightly touching on all of the material, our children are probably getting a more complex understanding of the parts they are covering. Is the former necessarily better than the latter? I'm not so sure.
Please drop me a line to let me know how things are going, because comparing notes is very useful to me.