"Interesting," I thought unpacking the box with a Victus Study Skills System Teacher Edition, Student Workbook, Student Workbook Elementary, and Student Workbook College from Victus Study Skills System. "Oh, wow! They included a Student Planner, a Student Workbook Primary Grades, Teacher Supplement Elementary, and Teacher Supplement Primary. There is so much here!" As I leafed through all the material from Victus Study Skills System, I realized that it all dove-tailed perfectly so that all ages could learn the same things at the same time! I love that! These study skills workbooks and lessons are perfect for those who want their children to grow in test taking, organization, scheduling, and other good learning habits. Knowing that, I thought of a family that I have been mentoring. Each of the children are very smart, but struggle to complete schoolwork, wake up early, and do well on tests. The family likes to stay up late and everyone gets easily distracted. I have shared many of the things in this system, but never in a systemic way. And I hadn't shared all of it. I showed the parents the materials I had received and asked if they would like to explore the first and second lesson with me. They have children ranging from 10 years old in elementary to a college student. It took awhile to juggle all of our schedules, but we finally met for our first session to cover Lesson one and two. I used the Teachers Edition to teach and handed out the various workbooks to appropriate family members. I also made a copy of the learning styles assessment for each of the seven family members. When they arrived, we sat down in the family room and started by talking about where we are and where we want to be in five years. Everyone shared. Then I explained, directly from the Teachers edition that each scenario needed the "study skills" in this system. After all these are more than study skills, they are life skills that will be used in the future by homemakers, grad students, and in any career where a person wants to advance. Next, we did the study habits checklist. I asked each question about current study skills and the family members raised their hands for "Never", "Sometimes", or "Often". After we finished the assessment, I commended everyone for the good study habits they had and asked if anyone had discovered that they were weak in some study skills. Everyone acknowledged this! Finally, each family member took the Learning Style Assessment. Many were surprised at what kind of learner they were. Martha thought she was an auditory learner, but discovered she was visual and kinesthetic. We talked about ways to strengthen our understanding, remembering, and memorizing using tips for the Learning Style chart. Then I snapped a photo of the chart and texted it to every family member with a phone. All of this took only one hour and everyone stayed focused and interested. At the end, while we were eating ice cream, each person came up and thanked me for taking the time to go over the material with them. They felt encouraged to discover what they did right and motivated to grow more. We are setting up another time to go over the next two sections. I am thrilled with Victus Study Skills System. It is practical and based on principles I see in the Bible of hard work with excellence and training. I enjoyed the layout where each lesson was concise and helpful with the next lesson building on the former's foundation. My favorite thing was how all the ages learned the same material because I love teaching all ages together! Though the material was the same in essence, the elementary material was directed to younger children and their needs and the college was directed to college students' needs. I highly recommend this to every homeschooling family. Those who struggle with study habits will benefit greatly, yet those who have good study habits will learn to study smarter. I love that the book quoted from Dorothy Sayers essay The Lost Tools of Learning because I agree with Dorothy and Victus Study Skills System: the best thing we can teach our children is how to learn effectively. You can check out Victus Study Skills System on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. Read more reviews from TOS Review Crew about Victus Study Skills System here. Read More Reviews from TOS CrewYou can read more reviews from the Review Crew here about all kinds of materials available for homeschooling families to use and I strongly urge you to do so. This team blogs about all kinds of curriculum, books, Dvds, and more! You'll enjoy learning what other homeschooling moms think about different products out there!
Until next time, Happy Homeschooling! Meredith Curtis
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorsMeredith Curtis Archives
February 2020
Categories
All
|