I began texting in 1975 and used it very effectively in my homeschool. In fact, I would have to say that texting was a major contributor to our success and soon became my new best friend. No, it was not the kind of texting that kids do using their big thumbs on teeny tiny keyboards that send weirdly coded messages to itty bitty screens. It was the kind of texting that saved us many hours and made our school day much more efficient.
Our kind of texting involved textbooks. Because we used accredited courses for all grade levels and enrolled each child separately, every child had his own brand new set of textbooks. Since these books were not going to be handed down to subsequent students, I had an opportunity to utilize all texts as if they were consumables.
Those of us who attended public schools were thoroughly indoctrinated to believe that marking in a textbook was akin to committing a crime. Of course, the thinking was that if these books were defaced they would not be suitable for use by subsequent students. However, when you homeschool and are going to purchase new books for each student, that “logic” is no longer logical. My rule is this: The books are made to serve you; you are not made to serve the books.
A student can spend hours copying sentences to underline the subject once and the verb twice. Why? When you own the books, all you have to do is instruct your student to underline the subject once and the verb twice right in the book. An exercise that would have taken half an hour can be completed in five minutes. The best part is that all of the benefits of the grammar lesson still apply. Absolutely nothing is lost to the student by not spending time copying material.
Likewise, when my students learned their spelling words for their weekly tests, I quizzed them orally and had them spell the words aloud. Since each student had a different spelling list, nothing could be accomplished by having them write the words. I kept track of any words they missed and had them restudy to be quizzed on those missed words the following day.
When students were instructed to compile a list of words and their definitions from their lessons in geography, science, etc., I told them to highlight those words and their definitions in their textbooks and to study from the texts rather than writing them on a separate sheet of paper.
Math books can also be used as consumables. Addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems can frequently be worked directly in the book. Of course, as math becomes more advanced, that is no longer possible, but whenever it makes sense, have your students work directly in their texts.
By eliminating hours spent copying material from their textbooks, your students will finish their work much earlier and will be less tired and better prepared to tackle their other assignments.
Next week: my final blog on time management: A Woman’s Work is Never Done
Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.
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