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In my weekly schedule I have something called individual meetings with each child. These over the last year or two have really helped us all keep on track. The original idea came from just a sentence or two I heard at a convention and my imagination kind of filled in the blanks to form what we do.
As I kept adding kids to the schedule and our work became more intense I found a need to keep track of and mentor/encourage each child. Knowing myself, I need to be real intentional with this or it won’t get done. As they get older my desire is also for them to be more responsible for their own work. The first year I started with just the older children with more of responsibility focus but have now found all the kids want to be included and it’s a time where I can give individual mentoring.
Once a week we set in the schedule a time to meet with each child and go over their assignments and progress. These meetings generally last about 15 minutes per child but can be shorter or longer depending on our needs that week. Each of my children bring their binder so I can look at all their work from the previous week. I check each section to make sure they have completed what they were supposed to and that it’s stored away.
This is my time to see mistakes they are making and read over daily writing assignments. It’s also a time to make sure they are keeping organized. Yes, this is a skill some of mine need to be taught, two in particular. They usually do the assignments but whether they can ever find what they did with it after it was complete is another question. This is how I keep them accountable. If it’s not in the binder they must either find it or re-do the assignment. If I see mistakes they are making, or work that isn’t neat, this is where we talk about it. I may assign some things to be re-written or go over things they missed.
From this I will write out what we discussed and specifically what assignments or corrections I requested by the next meeting. I keep this in my binder. There have been times in the past where I even have the child sign that they will complete “such and such” so there is no question as to what was assigned and when it’s due.
Also, during these meetings I try to find something I really liked that they did that week. So often I think I (maybe you to?) are always having to harp on what they did wrong and we don’t give enough encouragement. I especially like to encourage their writing. I’ll say, “wow, I really like that word you used” or handwriting is another area I like to encourage so I’ll say, “that page looked almost perfect, I love that!”. The smiles beam on their faces!
We also try to brainstorm solutions to problems at this time. Yes, I think we need to teach and model problem solving. If they are having trouble getting a certain subject done we’ll discuss why they think that’s happening. Once we’ve decided on something else to try I’ll write that on my sheet and we’ll talk again the next week on how that change went. Now, sometimes I already know, but it’s good for them to learn to identify it and voice it themselves.
It takes about an hour a week but it helps me keep on track with my goals and helps the kids become more independent and accountable. It helps me give the individual attention and encouragement that I want to but might get neglected if I don’t make intentional time and it keeps me checking their work on a regular basis. Now I don’t sit there with an answer key checking every answer (unless I feel they really are missing the boat.) I spot check and discuss. Most of their work is done by notepage, or paragraphs so I quickly read through and do little correction unless there are obvious things they missed.
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