Teaching Study Skills for Homeschoolers with Mr. D Math
Are your children prepared for the more rigorous workload of high school and college? Have they established good study skills that will help carry them though high school and beyond? Are you looking for a way to help your children become more efficient learners by taking good notes (both from text and lecture), maximizing class time, and learning study tools to help them tackle all the information they need to take in and process? If so, then I have found a class for you!
{Disclosure: I received this product for free and was compensated for my time in writing this review. All my opinions are my own, honest thoughts and I was not required to post a positive review. Your experience may vary. Please see my full Disclosure Policy for more details.}
I was pretty much a straight A student when I was in school. While I prided myself on detailed work, and “studied” a little here and there, everything through high school came fairly easily for me. What I didn’t know was how hard college was going to hit! I jumped in with two feet, right into HUGE lecture all sized class (from my 20-30 students per classroom high school). It was a big shock. But even more than that was how hard I struggled with the material when it wasn’t “spoon fed” to me. I wish I had learned better study skills and habits in high school, while the material was easier to manage, so that I would have been more prepared for the more rigorous courses I faced in college.
Needless to say, after my experience as a teenager, I was not about to repeat that with my children. Luckily for me there are others who have seen a need for such skills and have provided a course for helping our kids become more capable and efficient in things like taking notes, and more effective study strategies! If you have been around here at all you will be familiar with Mr. D Math courses. Don’t let the name fool you though, Mr. D Math offers more than just math courses.
Mr. D Online Classes
Mr. D Math no longer just has math! While Mr. D Math does offer an interactive online classroom experience in High School Math including Pre-Algebra, Algebra I & II, Geometry, Pre-Calc and Consumer Math, he now has things like study skills and economics!
We have used many of the courses in the list below throughout our years of homeschooling. Be sure to check out our reviews noted next to any of the courses we have taken and reviewed.
- Math Test Prep Bootcamps – Including ACT, SAT, and PERT * SAT Bootcamp Review
- College and Career Readiness – Includes things like goal setting, time management, financial literacy, resume writing, college applications, and more. * College and Career Readiness Review
- Study Skills – Includes time management, organization, note taking, and more.
- American English Grammar – an ideal High School English I course.
- ASL – There are three sections of this offered: Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced. * Self-Paced ASL I Review
- Economics – Both Economics for High School as well as Junior Economics * Economics for High School Review
- Music & Dance – Currently being offered are Flamenco dancing and Flamenco guitar
- Technology – Mr. D has even partnered with MYTEK Lab to offer technology courses! * Online Technology Courses with MYTEK Lab Review
->->Click Here to Check out all Mr. D Math has to offer! <-<-
A Study Skills Class for Your Homeschooler
Jenny is the teacher and course cocreator. Together with her cocreator they have been homeschooling their children combined for more than 35 years. They have 10 children between them, 7 of which are Jenny’s. She starts out by saying, “This course will teach you how to learn basically anything.”
Welcome to 8 Steps to Powerful Studying from Mr. D Math! I’m excited to give you a peek inside this 16 week self-paced course. Each week there are videos to watch as well as reading and corresponding printables.
What is covered in this Study Skills course?
- pre-learning for classes and taking effective notes on written text
- notetaking from both text and lecture
- creating master study guides
- processing notes to make the most of them as a study tool
- creating study tools
- memorization tips
- how to maximize study groups
- how to pre-test yourself
- maximizing test performance
- reviewing tests effectively
What Speaks to Me About this Course
1. Starts Right Off with Good Organization!
Right off the bat you are instructed to print off all the syllabus and rubric printables and Jenny walks you through organizing your binder. She uses POST IT TABS and PAGE PROTECTORS!! Can I just say how they speak to this Type-A organizers heart! Having a good organizational system is KEY to keeping all your printables and notes in order so you can easily find everything when making study tools and going over the materials.
2. Lecture Quizzes & Tests
There is a quiz for every lesson that is taken after you finish each lecture. Then there is a mid-term and a final. Why do I like quizzes and tests? Because the quizzes allow your student to keep short accounts of what they are learning. It helps them to know whether they have mastered each section of material before moving on. Then hopefully when multiple section are lumped into a mid-term or final, your student is already prepared because they mastered each smaller section.
3. Teaches our Kids HOW to learn.
“An excellent student understands that they teach themselves. In any classroom there isn’t one teacher. There is an instructor whose job is maybe to inspire you, to guide the class, to lead the class. But if there are 20 students in the class, then actually there are 20 teachers. Because you are the only one who can teach yourself. You can use the information your instructor gives, you can use the information in the textbook, but you have to decide that you’re willing to learn and that you’re willing to teach yourself.”
When people ask me about homeschooling, the whys and how’s and such, one of the things I tell them is that my main goal is to teach my children how to learn. If they have a solid grasp of basic math, along with good reading and comprehension skills, and knowledge of how to find good resources, they can learn pretty much anything. This study skills class takes it a step further, helping our children to really make the most out of the knowledge they are exposed to, and creating good organization and study habits.
4. Uses Real Life to Teach
It encourages students to self-evaluate, and gives real life feedback for their responses. I love that if they have chosen things like “Medium to High Level of Enthusiasm” in the assignment, their grade reflects that. I know it may seem absurd but not only did I chuckle at the truth in it, I respect the real life example of what you get when you put in less than your full effort!
Along the way, students practice taking notes on articles read and TED Talk type lectures they watch. They will build a Master Study Guide (MSG) with this information, and about halfway through the course, they are tested on the information in the MSG. At the end of the course, a final exam is given on this information.
