Lesson 2: Work Choice!

16 Mar Lesson 2: Work Choice!

Ok, families, you made it through day 1. Maybe. It was a close call there for us. Also I read the news halfway through the day and that really blew the whole thing up. New plan: no news. Someone text me if the world ends.

So what is lesson 2? Work choice!

Work choice is basically setting your kid up with a question, task, or idea to work on for the next five- ten days. Again, I can only handle thinking about this in those size increments, and probably so can you. If you made a schedule with your kiddo yesterday, awesome! Today you are going to set up a plan for work choice.

Skills: 

Literacy: writing, spelling, research

Math: depends on the project, but its in there

Other: Agency, ,planning, goal setting,

Ages: All ages

Materials: Depends on the project

Process:

1. Say, “What do you think you want to learn about or get good at for a project over these next 5-10 days?”
2. Brainstorm a list of possibilities: could be things like “make a cake”, “learn to knit”, “build a rocket”, “find out what lives in the hole in the backyard”
3. Help your child choose one.
4. Plan the materials. You can use this planning sheet, or make your own on a calendar
5. Plan for an end of project reveal: will you make a book about it? A sign? Will you teach someone else about the hole?
6. Set goals for each day (observe the hole in the backyard, put some food outside the hole and watch what happens, research what lives in holes)
7. At work choice on your co-created schedule, set your child up to go explore and learn.

A few notes:

• all you need to do is check in with your child at the beginning and end of this time every day Remember “making potions” as a kid- like dumping everything from the sink into a dixie cup? Now imagine that was not only sanctioned, but encouraged. Maybe you even got a pad of paper to record your experiments and the color things turned. And then at the end you made a book called “My potion book” That’s the vibe we want here. You may have to set them up with some research, or prompt them to do some writing about what happened, or clarify the plan, but the discovery and experimentation vibe is key.
• If your child is feeling very anxious, this is a time to help them feel more powerful. You can help them think of projects that help people.
• Please, please, please send pictures of these projects and planning sheets to me.