As a supervising teacher of home school students in Iowa for the past six years, I have noticed many of the same questions being asked repeatedly by home school parents. This will be a forum where you can ask me your home school questions, and I will provide a creative and practical solution. I'm looking forward to serving you!

Q: Every day is a constant struggle just to get the basics done. My kids want me to sit right next to them and help with every page. What can I do to motivate my kids to get more of their work done on their own?

A: Here are some things to try to aid students in developing independent work habits:
1. Determine which things he/she "should" be able to do on his/her own after going over the directions together, then determine a reasonable amount of time for completion. Make sure that you aren't expecting too much, as far as difficulty or amount of work to be completed.
2. Be sure you've prepared a daily assignment checklist for each child to use. Have each child track assignment completion. Give rewards for completion, and consequences for failure to complete assignments.
3. Give each child a pre-determined number of "question cards" (question marks drawn on index cards). He/she has to give up a card in order to get your help. When they're gone, they're gone.
4. Set a timer. Give rewards for work completed before the timer goes off, work completed with 90%+ accuracy, and for left-over question cards.
5. Increase the number of independent assignments each week using this method, and hopefully the "hand-holding" will decrease, and you will feel some measure of sanity returning.

Happy Home Schooling!
Mrs. Sherry