Drill, Mastery, and Doing the Next Thing
When considering the broadview of Education, the Educator understands the likeness of education to walking: that one walks by alternately lifting and then planting securely each foot at a regular pace. That is, confidence and stability precedes advancement.
Education could truly be defined as the journey from What You Do Not Know to What You Know. While that journey may be a guided one (as during the time of formal education), it should be the goal of every educator to prepare his students to walk the road alone— or even better, to choose new guides for the adventure.
To continue with these metaphors and similes, a child should only walk forward provided his foot is placed on solid ground. This concept seems to make sense. Think of children crossing frozen puddles glazed with ice. There is no careful progress when his foot slips out from underneath him, only rejection.
In your home school, then, there is not (necessarily) first, second, third, fourth grades. There is only Where You Are and Where You Are Going. There is only Introductions, Drill, Mastery, and Doing the Next Thing.
Let us keep these examples simple.
It is Tuesday and your young child is learning subtraction. Addition was covered yesterday in lesson 12 and so today, lesson 13 covers subtraction. The only hiccup is, your son or daughter does not possess mastery in addition. She seems to mostly, kinda get it. I mean, she definitely has some right answers. . . Do you move on? I mean, it is Tuesday after all. And Tuesday is the day we learn subtraction.
Do you move on?
No, no you do not. You sit there every day for your allotted math time with your attention focused on addition. If math receives 10-20 minutes every day, Monday through Friday, then for 10-20 minutes every day Monday through Friday you both work on addition. And you work with Confidence and Joy. Your purpose here is clear: Joyful Mastery.
And why should not math be joyful? Our God is a God of order. He numbers our world and has arranged our lives therein mathematically. It is our joy to discover the God of Number at work in nature.
What is it, then, that steals our confidence as we approach addition again, and then again? Is not the thief of our joy is comparison? Yes, comparing our child to another is what robs us (and then the child) of the thrill of mathematical discovery and thwarts our intended purpose: joyful mastery.
And I would propose here that mastery is twofold. It is both complete comprehension and near-perfect execution. And how you do you perfect execution? Repetition.
Worksheets. Flashcards. Recitation.
Repetition.
Masterful completion.
And then?