suggestions for very independant 6 year old

[miasandhadleysmom]

I am pulling my daughter out of first grade and am a little nervous. I have researched a lot about homeschooling but wanted to know if anyone has any good ideas for homeschooling a child who really likes to be in control. My daughter loves to create her own games, lessons, etc... and sometimes gets very frustrated at being taught anything. I am not ready to unschool just because I haven't done this before but I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas of how to teach reading or writing or math in a way that lets her really feel in control of the situation? Thanks!!!

[Nature]

The only suggestion I had was, unschooling!

[simple living mama]

Me too.:

[~member~]

Originally Posted by miasandhadleysmom

wanted to know if anyone has any good ideas for homeschooling a child who really likes to be in control. My daughter loves to create her own games, lessons, etc... and sometimes gets very frustrated at being taught anything.

The first thought that popped into my mind was photography or videography! Or both!

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by simple living mama

Me too.:

Me three! - Lillian

[HilMama]

Miquon math is great for creative kids! Your daughter can go at her own pace. Be sure to get the Lab Sheet Annotations as well as the consumable books (Orange Book, etc.) and the cuisenaire rods. Also, invest in a set of base 10 blocks.

You can use many household items as counters and manipulatives. And it's easy to make games--there are lots of ideas on the net. We added various other manipulative gradually (like pattern blocks).

For writing, there are so many COOL things you can do with your daughter--writing lists, notes, letters; spying around the neighborhood with a clipboard and pencil; dictating or writing stories . . .

For writing and reading, you'll find tons of ideas on the web and at your library/bookstore. I just ran across a neat book, How to Get Your Child to Love Reading: For Ravenous and Reluctant Readers Alike (by Esme Raji Codell), which is brimming with cool reading activity ideas. That's just one of many fun books.

You and your daughter will have lots of fun exploring together! Good luck!

[miasandhadleysmom]

Thank you all so much!!!

[Lillian J]

I just remembered that you're about to pull her out of school. The first order of business is to make sure you're allowing for plenty of decompression/deschooling time. And that time will be a big help to you too. Below are links to some articles on that.

And here's a good book to read:
The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child
Here's an excerpt from it: Top 10 Gems - "What I wish someone would have told me during my first year of homeschooling."

Transitions To and From Homeschoolilng:
http://www.hsc.org/professionals/transitions.php

What is Deschooling?
http://www.nhen.org/newhser/default.asp?id=233

Decompression (also has section on spelling):
http://homeedmag.com/HEM/186/ndqanda.html

Deschooling for Parents
http://sandradodd.com/deschooling

Deschooling
http://sandradodd.com/pattiedeschooling

Institutionalization and Deschooling: The Death and Resurrection of the Self
http://www.education-reform.net/inst...nalization.htm

What is Deschooling?
http://www.livingjoyfully.ca/unschoo...eschooling.htm

Deschooling: taking the school out of homeschool
http://www.culturekitchen.com/archives/000009.html

Have fun! - Lillian

[frogguruami]

My son is a control freak!

I let him create his own schedule. Post it and then he has to follow it. We went through each subject and I told him such and such needed to be done X number of days each week. And he filled in the chart himself. Most days he is pretty willing to complete everything.

[chaos_pie]

When we started hs, after 1.5 years of public school, we started with conversations. I would talk to him about what he liked to do in school (math), I would ask him what he would like to work on (nothing!). So I would give my input (well, I notice that writing is frustrating, maybe there are some things we can work on to help you with that). I also spent time before these conversations thinking about really what my goals in education were (things I thought important, and how to break that down to where my ds was).

And from those conversations, we had an agreement of things we would work on. Each day, I would give him the control-- what should we work on today (math) and sometimes I would add ("I have noticed we haven't worked on writing for a while, let's work on that"). Usually my ds would say ok, sometimes he would say no, and then I would respond "ok, can we agree to work on that tomorrow?"

I have found that after following that type of agreement and conversation, we manage to both get work done that meets my need for "curriculum" and meet ds needs for having control. After doing it this way for the past 9 months, ds has made his own schedule and he does some curriculum type work each day (not much, but enough to meet my need for curriculum).

[annethcz]

We're not unschoolers, but my 6yo DS likes to be in control. So while I do require that he does about a half hour of 'lessons' and a half hour of listening to me read books each day, I also give him choices. I usually ask him to do one page of phonics workbook, one page of math workbook, and one line of copywork each day. For phonics, DS doesn't get much choice (but he doesn't usually complain about it, either). For math, we use Miquon, and DS is free to pick whichever page he wants to complete. For his copywork, DS picks a poem or bible verse- I write it out for him on the top line, he copies directly below. For read-alouds (I read to DS), he picks what order we read the books in. As for readers (DS reading to me), he picks out his own readers at the library.

I also plan on a half hour of computer time for each of my kids during our morning. Allowing DS to decide if he wants to do computer time, workbook time, or reading time first also helps DS to feel more in control of his day.