Little Adventures

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Pete's Summer Office

When he was 8 or so, I instituted summer "office hours" for my son Pete. These continued for many summers thereafter, until he was 13. These days spent in his office were often suspended as the summer progressed due to vacations and special events, but if he was home on a weekday, Pete always knew where he would spend his mornings.

My reasons for instituting these office hours were:
- to maintain Pete’s math and reading skills over the summer  
- to encourage him in activities that I felt were important but ignored or mishandled in school  
- to teach him the habit of independent work  
- to drive home the fact that amazing things can be accomplished by doing one step at a time  
- to teach him to be critical of his work, and to deal with the criticism of others.

I set up his office in an upstairs room of our house away from his normal play areas. His equipment consisted of a desk, many books from which I could choose tasks, paper, pencils, pens, a ruler, a compass, a set of 30 artist markers, and kitchen timer. Our home computer was in the same room, and this was equipped with many sorts of educational programs.

In addition to the above, Pete had a bound art book in which to do his sketches and drawings, and a notebook where I wrote down his assignments. I wrote the assignments every evening after he had gone to bed, so that the day’s list would be ready and waiting come morning.

Office hours were from 10 am until 12:30 pm every weekday. Some activities took him away from his office, but he would always return before office hours were over.

During his office hours, he worked alone. If he had a question, or needed help, the rule was to "do the best you can" and see if that was good enough when the office day ended.

At 12:30 each day, I would review the work he had accomplished. He would show me his drawings or constructions, and describe his progress in matters that produced a mental result. I would occasionally verify that things were as he said by having him demonstrate his typing or reading briefly.

These review sessions only lasted about 10 minutes each day, and followed the form of my listening and looking while he showed me his stuff. Only at the very end did I say what I thought of his performance. Mostly, this last took the form of a "critical sandwich". First, I would say what I liked, then I pointed out the areas where he needed to do better, and then I closed with the one thing that I liked best in the work he had done that day.

As to the lists of things I had him do, here is a typical list for a single day:            
- read your book - 30 minutes *
- do Mouse Math addition 1+1 to 9+9 for 15 minutes *
- make a Dacta model of a drill - 1 hour
- select any panel from a TinTin book and reproduce it in your art book (45 min)
- draw a good picture of a cow in your art book (20 min) *
- do a treasure hunt. The first clue is under Mom's pillow. (15 min)

Pete would look at such a list and decide which items he wanted to do and in what order. Starred items were required, and he quickly learned that it was not a good idea to skip these as I would give him much trouble if he did.

He had his pick of the other items, as long as he was still working when office hours ended. Items that he did not pick tended to show up again the next day, and to eventually get a star next to them.

Tasks that were not completed in time were put aside until the next time they appeared on the list. That Dacta drill above might have taken three sessions to complete. If he was really stuck, after office hours I would let him watch as I buildt the drill (no you can't help) and then tear it apart. Then he would have another try during his next office hours.

Tasks that were not done well reappeared with a star. He might for instance have to draw that cow up to three times before I was satisfied — or sometimes I just gave up on a task that was beyond him. Pete was allowed to request items be put on the list, and sometimes I would do this, though not always right away.

Each morning he would come charging in at office time to see the list, and then as often as not, would groan. But office hours were not meant to be fun, just interesting and educational.