Independence Is Best; Encouraging Young Children to be Independent in their Studies

While we were finally planning on not having a day trip today I am hosting a party at my house tonight for a ladies night out, which I find I need more than ever now that I'm home with the kids all the time.

However, having been out all week I haven't had much time to clean or prepare any foods so I was already trying to figure out how to have an actual day of learning and still get everything done on my list.

I'm still trying to figure that out.

Little by little I am trying to encourage them to be more independent with their schoolwork.

We headed out bright and early to the supermarket and Evan asked if he could please do two worksheets today.

I once again pulled out a dot- to- dot/ maze sheet for him to work on in the car (he asked if he could do another one once we were home; of course I said yes!).

Alec and Ian choose to read.

Alec continued reading the Jungle Book while Ian choose a Curious George book to read.  I was a bit disappointed it was what I would consider below grade level for him but it was a new book we hadn't yet read and he wanted to read it, so I let him.
    

On the way home they once again spotted a few new licence plates-- we were lucky enough in the last few days to add Alaska, Missouri, Minnesota.  They were comparing how many they'd found and how many they had left to find.  They each have around 19/20 left (it's funny that they each have different ones crossed off though!).  While they still might not know much about each state or even where to find it on the map they are quickly learning that the pictures on the plates usually mean something to that corresponding state and they are getting quite familiar with all the names of the 50 states.  We've even had to talk about the difference between a state and U.S territory. 
    
Once home as I was putting the groceries away I asked the boys to work on some math.

• Ian used his book and worked on lesson 8; it was a review of adding 3 digit numbers.  
• Since Alec needs more practice with his addition facts I handed him a deck of cards that I had removed the A, 1, 2, 3, and face cards from.  I asked him to flip two cards over; read them out loud in a number sentence and tell me the sum.  I explained that talking out loud helps him to learn even better because he gets to see it, think it, speak it and hear it.  

Once math was over Alec and Evan played candy land and Ian played with the K'nex again.

 I mentioned to Ian that he hadn't finished his remote control science project from the other night.  The robot had turned out to be too hard for him and I pointed out that the book had 10 projects and they were in fact ordered from least to most difficult (Ian had of course picked out the 10th project).

I encouraged him to try again and maybe put the car together instead.  Next thing I knew Alec was helping out too and they had a remote control car racing around my living room!

I certainly could've helped them and read the step by step instructions to them making sure they were following them but I was so glad and so proud that they were able to do this independently!

After lunch the boys watched an episode of Dirty Jobs (on DVR); Mike Rowe was in Australia with the Aborigines.  They watched them catch and eat turtle eggs, sting rays, sharks, and learned a bit about the culture of the indigenous Australian people.  

They all pitched in and helped me clean the entire downstairs.  They all wiped, washed, vacuumed, and scrubbed.  We had little to no complaining either.