I was actually going to write about a game we have called Ex Libris, but have zero pictures, and then I started working on our Modern history lessons landing page, but that is a monster of a post, and my brain is fried from a week of working with the kids on Making the Grade. Making the Grade is a book/class on how to study and use your time wisely. Making the Grade is actually intended for college, but I want my kids to work on their habits for high school (this is one of the classes I included on my 9th-grade homeschool curriculum picks).
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Why I bought a course on learning how to study
I’m a horrible student. In high school and college, I was notorious for starting projects at the very last minute or studying the night before. I’d really like to instill in my kids better habits than I had.
When I went to Great Homeschool Conventions last month, I went to the talk by Mark Pruitt, and was fascinated by his 4 Study Steps. Over the course of 45 minutes, he covered his 4 Study Steps with lots of statements of “I expanded on this in the book and the course.” Realistically, you can probably get the big idea just from his talk, HOWEVER, I wanted the kids to really dive into this and get those good habits in place before they got to college.
The Making the Grade book
Making the Grade book is all about his 4 Study Steps:
- Get to your study place after class
- Read through your notes from that class in order
- Do your reading assignments
- Complete your homework
Now obviously, he’s going to go into a lot more detail, and that’s just chapter headings, but it’s got some really good information.
My one downside for the book, it’s got a bit of repetition, but I think that is rather necessary for teens reading the material who need the extra information.
Also, to be completely honest, there were times I wanted to say, “You’re crazy, I would never do that.” That is also probably why I got mid-level B’s in my college and the author of this book got a 4.0.
Just a guess.
The Making the Grade Course
Making the Grade course divides the material of the book into 10 days’ worth of reading, which is easily doable. When my kids were having to re-do the whole thing because they all tried to do it over one day, and didn’t really read it thoroughly, Superman read the book in 2 hours. It’s an easy read.
The key to the course is the worksheets and quizzes. There are a series of 9 worksheets, each about 2 pages, with about 10 questions each, and 9 quizzes with 10 questions each.
They both do a great job of reviewing the material, and at the end, is a very thorough final exam.
What I love best about this course is the teacher edition. Both the worksheets and quizzes have the answers in red with the exact lesson, as well as the page number and line number.
So, when my kids, who rushed through their work, got bad grades, I could just write “Reread lesson 20” in big red frustrated letters. It was awesome.
My week has not been so awesome, as all of my kids have been frustrated with me at one point or another, as I’ve made them redo their work over and over again.
It is, however, teaching them to take their time and not to think they can just rush through their work and get a good grade.
That’s actually been the theme of this week, and reworking what they’ve done.
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