A Day in the Life: It's Okay to Skip

My oldest doesn't like being told what to create, so I never made her do the coloring sheets in history, science, or language arts. Buy my other child loves to do those same sheets. The amount of flexibility varies based on whether they seem to understand the concepts. Sometimes I have them do more if they have buzzed through a lesson or if they have had a hard time understanding the concept. But other times, if one of my children is having a hard time, we actually do less because we have both had enough.

I have also found that in some lessons K12 has designed more material than in others. If we feel overwhelmed by activities or worksheets, we skip some of them if the objectives have been met. Other times, the lessons are easy to get through without skipping, or the activities are cool so we do them all!

It also depends on the specific day. If things are going well, we do more activities. If we get hung up on a subject, or the children are dawdling through their lessons, or it's a day of many distractions then we do fewer activities.

Sometimes we may skip an activity, sometimes we may do the optional activity (either in addition to, or instead of the activity), or sometimes I may adapt an activity to meet my child’s individual needs.

Sometimes the optional lessons serve as enrichment activities. We use these when my child has the previous concepts mastered and wants to take it further. We sometimes use the optional lessons as practice when my child hasn’t quite understood the objectives. Generally, we don’t spend time practicing a concept if my child fully understands it. Also, within many lessons there is room for both enrichment and more practice activities.

Here are some examples of how I sometimes adapt activities to fit my own children’s needs:

• I skip activities that I know my child already knows and needs no further practice with.
• I skip activities that are "extras," like coloring a page in History, if I don't think they will enjoy or learn from it.
• I sometimes do odds or evens in math if there are enough practice problems to see if she thoroughly understands the concept. Every now and then I even call an assessment 100% correct if she did the assignment without help, got 100% correct, and the assessment does not include anything not already covered.
• I lessen the writing assignments in Literature (we discuss it orally) if she has composition that day.
• I often reward excellent work with shorter assignments. This motivates my children to do a great job on the part assigned. If they don't do the assignment within my expectations, I have them complete the rest.

My daughter's favorite subject is Literature and she doesn't like to have to stop in the middle of a story (when there are two sessions) so I let her read them both in one day, then pick and choose the most important writing assignments that go with the story.