Setting up Choice Time

So, to recap from the previous post: Choice Time at our house is based on the concept of freedom within limits.  My job, as the facilitator of learning around here, is to provide limits that are flexible enough to provide freedom, but strong enough to provide a sheltering structure should the kids need one. 

Now, here I'm talking about my school-aged kids, because -- in spite of my Montessori roots -- I don't really do "school", as such, with my four year old or my two year olds.  Because they're a part of this family, Farmerboy, Pip, and Pop do often participate at Choice Time using Montessori activities geared to their ages, or joining in on art or craft projects.  I try to have things for them to do because otherwise, they get bored, and boredom = trouble around here. But if the little kids want to grab their swords and a few plastic containers for helmets (a popular pastime), then they're free to go.  Next fall when Farmerboy begins kindergarten, he'll have his own Choice Time that I'll require of him, and I hope to start easing him toward the idea starting next month, when he turns five.  (He, of course, will not be able to use the whiteboard, being a non-reader.  I'm not exactly sure what his kindergarten is going to look like yet.)  For now, he and the twins move pretty fluidly in and out of our space.  Even so, I do spend most of my time with them, and not with the big kids.

The main fixture of Choice Time, then, is our whiteboard. In the past, I've tried just having activities out on shelves, Montessori-style, which for some reason the kids tend to ignore; and I've also thought about using index cards in this fashion, but Gareth pointed out the fate of index cards in this house: they get lost.  Anyway, a whiteboard takes up less space, which is a consideration for us.

Our whiteboard hangs on the door that divides the dining room from the entryway.  This door is actually never shut -- meaning that you can't really see the board unless you're going looking for it -- but it was a convenient place to put it.  In a perfect world, I would write down all the choices on the whiteboard on Sunday night to prepare for Monday, but all too often I'm either writing choices down on Monday morning -- or I'm telling the kids my ideas for choices on Monday, and updating the board on Tuesday.  The board usually takes a little updating every day to replace choices that have been chosen and aren't the sorts of things that are ongoing.  But I will leave some choices up all week, or into the next week... until I'm pretty sure that the kids really have no interest in doing them.

It's important to note that what I put on the whiteboard is not a checklist.  The kids don't have to do all the activities listed on the board.  In fact, if they're already involved in a project of their own devising, or they already have an idea of what they want to do that day, or maybe they're just interested in a really good book, it's fine for them to do those things during choice time... although I have had to keep narrowing down the rules about books for Gareth.  And the projects have to be within my comfor level for "school" -- that is, using a UFO stamp to simulate a space battle complete with sound effects should really be done on one's own time.  The choices I put on the whiteboard are usually project-based, and they're always activities I think that the kids can handle independently and will also enjoy.  Sometimes they all relate to one theme -- most often if it's a holiday or a major feast day -- but just as often they're clustered according to a few themes or academic subjects.  The seasons also inspire our choices quite often.

For instance, at the moment we're reading about World War II, we're making maple syrup, it's time to start seeds indoors, and with the seeds coming in the mail, Gareth and Katydid have remembered their interest in growing a Three Sisters garden this summer.  So last week I offered these choices:

• Read one of our books about World War II
• Read/browse The Maple Syrup Book (which is linked on the sidebar; I had put it out on the table.)
• Dissect a lily flower, sketch and label the parts
• Draw the seeds you started in the window; keep track of them as they grow
• Look up seeds in our nature or science encyclopedias
• Make a booklet of how a seed develops
• Make a booklet of the parts of a flower
• Start the mushroom kit
• Finish your invented culture drawings (I didn't assign these; this was a kid-initiated idea while I read aloud; the cultures were Native American-inspired)
• Write about your invented culture: where do they live?  What do they eat?  What do they wear?  What kinds of houses do they live in?  What ideas or things do they value most?

I didn't write all these down on the same day.  In fact, I didn't have anything written down until Thursday; on Tuesday and Wednesday, I just told the kids what my ideas were -- or, in the case of the mushrooms, the box had been sitting there for a week already and they really wanted to get it started.  Monday we were recovering from Easter, so we didn't have Choice Time at all.

These are the activities the kids chose to do:

• Maple Syrup book (Katydid)
• Dissect a flower (Gareth, Katydid, and Farmerboy)
• Draw your seeds (Gareth and Katydid)
• Start the mushroom kit (Gareth, Katydid, Farmerboy)
• Read about seeds and flowers (Gareth, who read quite a lot about plants last week)
• Invented culture drawings (Gareth and Katydid; Gareth's required him to do a lot of research for the background he wanted)
• Write about the invented culture (Gareth -- again, he had to do quite a bit of research)

The kids also did these things which were not listed on the whiteboard:

• Katydid drew a cover for a new story she wanted to write.
• Katydid played the xylophone in a "band" she and the little boys got up.  (This one actually degenerated at some points into a lot of "dudes", and "Let's rock and roll!" and "Raise your goblet of rock!"  Yeah, School of Rock.)
• Gareth looked through The Encyclopedia of the Ancient Americas for an activity and chose to make a codex for the culture he'd invented.  He'd been using this book all week for his art and writing research.

You'll have noticed that no one made any of the booklets I'd suggested or read a book about World War II.  That was okay because we were reading aloud The Winged Watchman in the mornings.  Sometimes I will also add choices for faith formation, but I didn't have any this week.  We were also reading the gospel every morning.  You'll also notice there's a lot of drawing involved here.  That's because my kids love to draw, and they love art in general.  Gareth in particular is much more willing to practice any kind of basic skill when presented in an imaginative or creative context.  I try to keep that in mind when I'm writing choices on the whiteboard.

Having a set of specific choices rather than a bunch of open-ended ones works fairly well for us.  As I've said, the kids don't always choose off the board, but it's always the first thing they look at.  They like to be surprised.   And they like having the structure and routine.  They like having the expectations right up front like that. 

Next up: troubleshooting in Choice Time and what does Mom do?

Comments

[Meredith]

Wonderful! This looks very much like how things work at our house, minus the twins that is :))) Keep sharing honey, you're on a roll!

[mrs darling]

I really like this idea. I think Im going to make use of this. It might be just what we need.

[Andrea]

Thank you so much for sharing- I am planning to try to have "choice time" with my kiddos for the next school year. I think they would love it- I'm just afraid I won't be able to come up with ideas. I'm thinking of making some sort of master list (perhaps monthly) with ideas to dole out weekly.