Bigger HFHG question on Independent work

[LHayes723]

I have an 8 yr old daughter going through Bigger HFHG this year. She is a very motivated child. She wants to do school and was wanting me to let her do more independent work. I am thinking this is a good thing, but also not sure if I should "be there" more. So today we tried and I let her do the Reading About History, Poetry, Bible Study, Corresponding Music and read the book from the DIHOR all without me today. I did ask her to give me a summary of History and I was again happily surprised that she wrote me an 8 sentence summary full of great details she read. I am thinking wow this is nice. It gives me more time for the other 2 guide I am taking my 6yr old through LHFHG and my 4 yr old through LHTH. My QUESTION is this guide not written for any independent work, so I didn't know if there was a reason for this? Or if you think this is ok? I was kinda wondering maybe I should have had her in the next guide up but at the beginning of the year we were still finishing up the emerging readers and then around Nov its like reading has taken off and she is reading everything. I hope this doesn't seem like a duh question. She is my oldest so this is all new to me. Any thoughts I would love. Thank you.

[my3sons]

Well, you have a little go-getter on your hands, which is wonderful! Thanks for describing the ways your daughter is trying to take on independence! This drive can be harnessed in a good way, but certain things shouldn't be handed over as learning/assessment of learning is lost. For BHFHG, from what you shared, DITHOR is meant to be read independently by the student, save for 3-4 pages of reading aloud to practice oral reading skills. I think you can cut that to 1-2 pages if she's a good oral reader, but oral practice is still important, as are the discussion questions, teacher-led activities, etc. Poetry copywork is independent, but the rest of the poetry lesson is to be taught, and it only takes 5-10 minutes, so I'd do that. Corresponding music is totally fine for her to do independently. For Bible Study, she can definitely study her verse and add her actions independently, but the rest should be taught as discussion and interaction is intended. I would read Reading about History aloud to her, even if she is a good reader. So, the mixed bag of answers here is that she can do the portions I described independently without sacrificing the learning, but she shouldn't be doing these completely independently because you need to interact with her to 'check' her work and to teach her portions of these subjects. This is the very reason you are feeling the need to ask her additional questions and write additional assignments to show what she has learned, which is actually still you having to interact with her and correct things. One thing you can do that becomes more and more independent is help her know the routine of the rotating boxes (i.e. vocabulary, timeline, etc.). She can eventually do timeline independently, just discuss the context of each word for vocab. with you and do the rest of the cards independently leaving them out for you to check, for geography she can prepare for you by finding things on the globe ahead of time and showing you when you come, etc. She can also get everything out (i.e. books, supplies, etc.) for experiments, notebooking, art projects, history activities by reading through the plans and being ready for you. Then, you can go through what she has to do with her, making sure she is doing it right, doing any teaching parts you need to, and walk away while she does the work, just checking it at the end. I hope this helps!!! You are doing a super job with your little sweetie, but retaining those teaching parts I mentioned will help her be adequately assessed this year and well prepared for next year in PHFHG!

In Christ,
Julie