I don’t use printables (and you shouldn’t either)

There’s an unspoken rule in the schooling world that the more written work a student produces, the more he has learned.  I just don’t agree.

Granted, kids in a traditional public school setting might have reams of completed worksheets.  When a teacher sits down with parents for a conference, they need evidence of “learning” and work that has been completed by the student.  And if students are to be quiet and productive for 6 hours a day in a classroom, the most logical method for a teacher to assess the learning of twenty kids at a time is written work.

This mindset has mistakenly made its way into many homeschools.  This is not to say that all written work is negative, or that your students should never complete a worksheet.  But is it the best method for learning or assessing learning in a home environment?

Here’s the truth:  homeschooling provides the most effective learning available, which is a one-on-one tutoring approach.

This is the method that public schools try to replicate when they assign aides to students with IEP’s.  These students do need the extra attention of an adult throughout their school day.  But public school teachers are not humanly capable of meeting the one-on-one needs of every single student in their classroom.  I know, I used to be a public school teacher.  We do the best we can.

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(In this post, I am using the terms printable and worksheet interchangeably.)

So what’s a homeschool mom to do?  Printables serve the purpose of keeping kids busy, adding fodder to the dreaded homeschool portfolio, and basically proving to your mother-in-law that, yes, the kids are “doing school.”  And they’re essential for assessing whether or not your kids know their stuff.  Or are they?

There are other ways to assess your students’ progress without relying on worksheets.  Here are just a few.

10 strategies to use that work much better than printables

Living Books

I confess that I used too many printables in some of our early homeschool years for certain subjects.  I purchased an elementary geography “curriculum” from a homeschool blogger and was impressed with the volume of worksheets.  Surely my boys would be experts in world geography when we were done.  Wrong!  I should have grabbed a globe and snuggled on the couch with them while we read tales of far-away lands, stopping to check the location.

Notebooking

Notebooking can be as simple as grabbing a spiral notebook and having your kids artfully, creatively, thoughtfully, and personally interacting with the subject matter.  Are you studying birds?  Maybe your child will research (depending on their age) the local birds and make lists of information, then add a sketch.  If you’re studying world history, your kids might draw some maps showing the region being studied, then add pertinent dates and names and stories in the margins.  Notebooking really becomes a personal learning journal.

Lapbooks

Lapbooks can have a similar flavour to notebooking, but are usually smaller in scope.  You could use one spiral notebook for a whole year of science studies, while a lap book might last for just one unit.  We have used lap books in the lower elementary years when reading certain books out loud, like The Chronicles of Narnia.  We have also done lap books for subjects in science and history.  You can use them for anything – even to keep track of parts of speech in a fun and memorable way.  Are you familiar with lap books made from manilla file folders?  Here’s a great post about getting started with lapbooks.

Reading

Reading is always a better option than filling out worksheets or printables.  Sure, your child could do a crossword puzzle about George Washington, but won’t he remember much more if you read a book together about his life?  Resist the urge to fill out worksheets and head to the library to get piles of interesting books for the whole family to binge on.

Student-produced stories

Instead of filling in a book report printable, or a template with the basics of plot structure, why not have your child compose his own story to show what he knows?  Or instead of another boring science worksheet, have her write a make-believe journey through the respiratory system.  There’s a reason that the Magic Schoolbus is so popular.  Mrs. Frizzle takes the kids on adventures.  You never see her class filling in blanks on printables, do you?

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Student-produced outlines or fact sheets

If you feel like you must get some cold hard facts in writing, have your kids do the work.  They will retain much more when they are doing the thinking!  It doesn’t take much effort to fill in the blanks of a worksheet.  But, if they need to read about the science topic and decide which information is important, they are using higher level thinking skills as they analyze, synthesize, and create their own notes.

Student-produced collages of information

Kids love to show what they know.  Give your child a topic, and instead of giving them a mindless printable to fill out, give them a big piece of empty poster board.  They can study the topic, read about it, research it, cut out or create illustrations, and assemble a great showcase of learning.  This is a fun activity!

Narration

This just might be the simplest yet most profound assessment technique – narration.  After your child has read or studied a topic, have them tell back to you what they have learned in complete sentences.  This requires them to analyze and synthesize information as they decide what to tell you and in what order.  Is there cause and effect?  Even five year olds can be taught this technique.  I learned about narration from The Well-Trained Mind.  You can read Susan Wise Bauer’s tips for narration here.

Discussion

Discussion can sound a bit like narration, but instead of a retelling, it can be a back and forth between two or more people.  This is a fun way to assess whether or not your children understand their history or science topic.  Play the devil’s advocate and push them a bit to see how much they know.  You just might be surprised.

Oral questions and answers

Some worksheets are essentially written questions demanding a droll answer.  When you take this assessment to an oral presentation, you are helping your student to think on his feet and formulate complete thoughts.  This is similar to narration and discussion, but once again, you can go deeper into a topic based on the answers you receive and the student gets immediate feedback.

Printables cause more busy work than actual work.  And they cause mom a whole lot of effort with printing, organizing, grading, and storing.  Who has time for that?  Instead, grab a book, head outside on a nature walk, learn about history by reading a biography and visiting a historical site.  Talk together.  Have conversations with your kids about what they are learning.

Every once in a while, a worksheet might be needed.  But for most of the time, take the authentic relational approach to education that homeschooling was made for!  It can’t be replicated in a public school.  So embrace that one-on-one approach and leave the printables behind.  You’ll be glad you did.