From Our House to Yours
Why homeschool? You can enjoy self-paced instruction and self-paced learning!
In this From Our House to Yours series, we are exploring reasons why you should homeschool. One of the many reasons we enjoy homeschooling is we can take advantage of self-paced instruction, while our children can take advantage of self-paced learning. Self-paced instruction is any kind of instruction that proceeds based on learner response. There are many different settings where self-paced instruction is employed. It may take place in curriculum, in corporate level training, in technical tutorials, and in a variety of other settings. With self-paced learning, your student can make his own decisions and instead of working within a certain amount of time, he can work with the time that is needed for him to complete his best work.
How I would have loved self-paced instruction and self-paced learning, especially in high school!
I would have loved self-paced instruction and self-paced learning in high school! Let me explain. I used to love high school math class. It was just something I enjoyed and understood well. However, when I finished early, I felt like I was just killing time until the bell rang. It would have been so nice if I could have just moved on to the next math concept! Or, maybe better still, just moved onto my next subject – a natural reward for finishing early.
I also used to love creative writing class. In contrast though, I never felt I had enough time. I would just be on to a new and exciting idea, in my own happy world of choosing just the right words, and then the dreaded bell would ring.
Chemistry posed yet another pacing problem. I needed more time – period. With more time, I could have possibly understood the concepts better, or at least not been in such a rush to finish by the bell that I lit the wooden table on fire with my bunsen burner! How about you? When you think back to your own education, how could have self-paced instruction or self-paced learning positively impacted you and your education?
Ways Heart of Dakota Encourages Self-Paced Instruction
With Heart of Dakota, each guide is complete and has an easy boxed format of plans. This empowers me to spread out the different boxes as time allows throughout my day. Furthermore, I can do the boxes in any order. For example, I never want to rush through Bible Study or devotionals when homeschooling. So, I have always chosen to do Bible first thing in the morning, at a leisurely pace, so I can allow ample time for reading and discussion. Additionally, beginning with Creation to Christ and continuing through U.S. History II high school, plans are just 4 days a week. They are not connected to any seasons, holidays, months, or days of the week. So, I have always chosen to homeschool 5 days a week in the winter and take 2 weeks off at Christmas. These are efficient practical ways I take advantage of pacing my instruction with Heart of Dakota.
Ways Heart of Dakota Encourages Self-Paced Learning
With Heart of Dakota, each guide has a range of ages with multiple levels of language arts and math. This allows me to place my children in the guide that fits them best, so not all my children at age 10, for example, were doing the same guide. For one of my sons who was a more advanced reader and writer, I placed him in Resurrection to Reformation at 10 years old. I placed another son in Creation to Christ at 10 years old because that fit him best. Likewise, subjects like reading, spelling/dictation, math, and grammar have plans for multiple levels in each guide. Two of my sons did Drawn into the Heart of Reading Student Book Level 4/5 their 6th grade year with 5/6 Boy Interest Books. One of my sons did Drawn into the Heart of Reading Student Book Level 6/7/8 his sixth grade year with 6/7 Level books. Similarly, they were all in different places in their dictation passages, math levels, and grammar levels.
It is a blessing to enjoy self-paced instruction and self-paced learning now by homeschooling my own children!
Each one of our children has natural God-given abilities and interests. In homeschooling, we can recognize and celebrate that! It is such a blessing to enjoy self-paced instruction and self-paced learning. With self-paced instruction and self-paced learning, each individual can make the best use of his or her time in order to meet his or her learning objectives. Teachers of large groups in typical schools must aim the pacing of instruction at the middle third of the students, which means it is not uncommon for a large portion of the group to be either under challenged or over challenged. Likewise, there are just too many students and too few teachers to offer self-paced learning. Homeschooling with Heart of Dakota gives you the opportunity to embrace both of these efficient and inspiring ways of teaching and learning! This is just one more reason why you should homeschool!
In Christ,
Julie
