Posted by Stephanie Z on 21:18 Jan 9
In Reply to: What do you do when they're finished... posted by Nita
a benefit of my no-lesson-plan approach to schooling is that there is always a next thing. Each child finishes various levels/books all the time. We just start the next one next. I keep an eye on progress and tweak the amount of time we put into a subject if they seem to be dawdling in something or moving faster than I'd prefer, but that's easy to do on the fly.
Rememeber, the definition of IQ is related to rate of learning, so a kid with a 133 IQ will learn 33% faster than a kid with average (100) IQ. That means finishing a 8/9 mo school year's worth of stuff in more like 6 mos. I think it makes sense to plan for that when dealing with smart kids. Either by simply moving on in subjects where there's no harm in zooming (what I do with math or history or whatever) or by slowing things down by doing a topic 3-4 times a week or whatever instead of 5 (what we do with grammar). If you want to slow things down, you can go deeper (enrich, create, write, experiment, read more. . .) or you can do the topic less often by adding more subjects to your schooling days (what we do a lot of) or ofcourse play/sew/cook/do art/etc more.
For me, I do a bit of all the above and in general it's so much simpler to simply go on to what's next for each child whenever they're ready. I don't worry about the school year at all. It is what it is. (We do school year round except for the month of October and various holiday breaks, so I can see this is more of a concern for families that take a LONG summer break that would disrupt things more.)
If I want to slow things down in a subject, like when a very young child is approaching algebra topics, I have added in periods of time between levels where we use an alternate curriculum, enrichment, etc.
It's a great time to add a unit study of a bunch of science experiments (TOPS kits?) or study a period/topic of history/geography that is particularly interesting/personally relevant (or something like state history that may not be planned into your yearly studies.)
FWIW, we celebrate each completion of a topic/year's worth of books in a formalized fun way -- the child gets to choose any celebration within various parameters . . . movie night, bowling night, mini-golf, pool trip, etc., big outrageous dessert. . . or up to $20 for any toy/item. These celebrations are great fun and can be very motivational. With all the subjects and kids, we're celebrating something every couple weeks!