Here is my true confession of a homeschooling mom that others my think is perfect.
I enjoy homeschooling my children. I love teaching them, reading to them, seeing the lighbulbs go off in their heads when they finally "get" something. I even love planning lessons (that's the OCD in me).
But I have a confession to make. There's one aspect of homeschooling at which I fail miserably.
Checking schoolwork.
Now don't get me wrong; I do eventually check all their work, but I don't do it on a consistent basis. In my perfect world, I would get all of their daily work checked by the end of the day…but that rarely happens. By the time they've finished their work, I'm teaching piano lessons or we're out the door at an evening activity, and I just don't get to it.
The part that makes me feel the worst is that by not checking their work right away — the same day they do the work — I pass up the opportunity to review it with my kids when the information is fresh in their minds.
I hope my confession of a not so perfect homeschooling mom may encourage others to share with me their secrets to my plight.
So this is my struggle. How do I find the time to check their schoolwork before the end of the day? Surely I'm not the only one who struggles with this aspect of homeschooling. And I know there has to be a solution. I just don't know it. Any suggestions?
We're supposed to check their work??
Seriously Joy, I'd love to share my solution with you, but I haven't even finished checking all of Isabelle's work from last year yet! I'm looking forward to reading others' suggestions though!
.-= Kate´s last blog ..Teaching Our Kids To Read =-.
Joy, I definitely agree that checking their work is a challenge to stay on top of. And, it should be one of those great "perks" of homeschooling, if you do it. Immediate response, praise, and reteaching if necessary. I have tried different things that work for a time . . . scheduling a checking time at the close of each school day, checking on the weekend and one night a week, etc.
Right now what seems to be working for us is checking it together at the start of the subject time. I do English/Math individually and we start with checking the previous day's work. I sometimes need to lengthen the time to cover this, but it keeps us current, and has worked so far. Still looking for that perfect solution . . .
~Erin
Year before last, I checked all the kids schoolwork at the end of the week. Last year, I started trying to check it at the end of every day. I thought it'd be miserable trying to keep up with it daily, but it was MUCH better than trying to do it all at once. It seems to go so much more quickly after having done the "end of the week" thing. It doesn't always happen, but most days it does.
When I asked this same basic question of my homeschool group two years ago, one of the suggestions I got was: let the kids check each others' work. That may or may not be an option, but it's something to think about. Maybe you could let your oldest earn some spending money by checking the younger kids' work or let the younger kids swap papers and check the answers against the answer sheet. We used to do that in school and it was always fun.
That idea didn't really work for me, given my kids' ages, but I thought I'd toss it out there in case it might work for you. Checking schoolwork on a busy night is one reason I'm still up at nearly 1:00 AM. 😉
.-= Kris @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers´s last blog ..Works for Me Wednesday: Kids and Sugar =-.
Oh my–What an answer to prayer to find this. I've been working on the same thing, and I will be watching the responses, too!
.-= Melissa´s last blog ..Wanchai Ferry Entrees – Review and Giveaway =-.
I tend to check it as they finish or at the end of the day. I'm not particularly happy with that system though because I feel pulled in all directions.
.-= Kristen´s last blog ..Sharing e-mail on multiple computers =-.
If I don't finish at night, then I do it first thing in the morning usually. 😀
.-= Sherry´s last blog ..Learning with your children = checking math homework =-.
I am glad to know other struggle with this as well. I have not found a good solution. If I have not had time to correct during the week I usually end up taking time on the weekend to correct everyone's work. On days where I don't have a lot of time to do everything I usually end up just correcting math.
.-= Lynn´s last blog ..Raspberry Limeade Cake =-.
This is definitely one of my biggest struggles too! There are just so many thing to get in each day! 🙂 I tell my kids that they should bring their work to me when they finish so I can check it but they don't always do that and I'm busy doing other things so I forget! ugh! Eventually it does all get checked though – that's the good part. 🙂
.-= momlovesbeingathome´s last blog ..I feel a little silly for this but… =-.
Grading has been a struggle for me too. I stayed on top of it fine when my 2 girls were little, then almost 2 years ago, I got new glasses and no longer can see to read well – add that to a very active then 2 year old! My mom was helping grade things – until she suddenly passed away.
I now have my oldest daughter, 14, grading most of her own schoolwork – she learns well this way, reports and records all of her own grades, asks questions if she doesn't know why her answer was wrong, and corrects herself as she goes along.
My younger daughter, 12, though is cut from a different mold and can't copy a word from her spelling book to her paper without making a mistake – so self grading is out of the question. She has moderate dylexia – which runs in our family. We do much of her work orally, so I get a feel for what she knows and what she is just making mistakes and what she is completely confused about.
Joel is only 4, so I'm still doing everything with him one on one. He absorbs everything like a sponge.
Marriana turned 3 today, she likes to copy everything Joel is doing.
Then my best friend bring her kids twice a week for preschool and kindergarten – she has an 11 year old that I help answer math and English questions, and sometimes other questions. She has an almost 7 year old with learning disabilities, and a 4 year old who loves to challenge Joel.
We stay busy!
.-= Rachel R´s last blog ..Reading =-.
A great option if you want to homeschool your children, but don't always get around to checking the work is using a homeschooling program like TTUISD. They have instructors to grade work, and parents act more like a mentor to help them learn. If you're interested, visit http://www.k12.ttu.edu.
My children are still quite young so I do not have the level of "checking" that you do I'm sure….but what has worked for us is I usually "skim" check daily work, immediately following the lesson….only checking very studiously if the child was having trouble grasping the concept during the lesson. Then of course I check any tests thoroughly and again, immediately following the lesson. This sometimes puts off other things but I think I make it all balance with some "skim" checking thrown in.