Teaching Them to Study

Studying may come naturally to some kids, but not the ones in my house.  This is the second time we have reviewed Victus Study Skills System, this time using the Level 3 student level (grades 5/6-10/11) and Level 4 (10/11-college) level.  We were also blessed with their amazing student planner!

Maybe it is just us, but it seems that homeschooling does not lend itself to learning how to study.  Yes, we do have our kids take tests, but it is often treated as simply the next lesson, and we do not have any additional prep for it.  Halfway into my second child's high school career I realized she was lacking in study skills, test taking skills, and quite possibly time management skills.  Sad, but true.  Thankfully we had the opportunity to review Victus Study Skills at that time, and saw huge benefits in the program.  How thankful I am that I have this opportunity again, just as my son is beginning to take college classes.  His younger brother working through the program at the same time has just been a bonus.

The Victus Study Skills System is a series of workbooks at four different levels.  Their goal is simple- to help children learn how to better study.  You choose which level to do based on your child's grade level.  The first two levels for younger children also include teacher guides to help you work through the material with them.  Levels 3 and 4, which we have been using, have a separate Teacher's Guide that can be used with both levels.


In the Teacher's Guide you will find a detailed explanation of the program philosophy, teacher instructions and then lesson overviews.  Each lesson (there are 10 total) states the purpose, preparation and procedure.  If you are being given instructions that correspond with the student workbook, pages are referenced.  Most of the preparation is explanation of instructions, the "whys" of what you are doing, and helping the students fill in some blanks in their workbook.

The Student Workbooks, about 60-70 pages each, are a mix of explanation, motivation, and lessons to be completed.  There are fill-in-the-blanks to be completed, questions to be answered, and charts to be filled out.  As they walk through the lessons, the three Foundational Cornerstones of the program are addressed-

• Where Am I Now?
• Where Do I Want to Be?
• How Do I Get There?

The Where Am I Now? section gets the student to think about their current study habits and to identify their learning strengths.

Where Do I Want to Be? discusses mission by encouraging the student to develop a mission statement for themselves, as well as identify their values and goals.

How Do I Get There? This is the heart of the program, in my opinion.  Here they talk about time management and practice those skills with schedules and calendars.  They also learn about organization, study skills, note taking, and test taking.  There are exercises that teach on these subjects and then allow your child to practice the skill.  For example, they read a paragraph and then take notes on it.

The Appendix is filed with additional information and exercises, enough to make several additional teaching sessions!

How we used this program and what we think-
Because so much of the information presented in the different levels is the same or at least very similar, I decided to run through the lessons with both boys, ages 11 and 17, together.  Honestly that worked for about two lessons.  Then, because of frustration, mostly on the 17 year old's part, we split up and he worked through the Level 4 book on his own.

The frustration with that plan is that I did not get to talk through each lesson with him as he did them independently.  Instead, I had to be very deliberate to assign him a lesson and then engage him in a discussion afterwards.  Here is what I learned-

• Yes!  He is an auditory learner!  No surprise there.
• No, he is not good at taking notes.  But he said the practice here helped and he wished he had read it before he took his college English Comp class.
• Filling out a weekly schedule is much better for him than a monthly calendar.
• Time management is HARD for teens, but so beneficial.

I think that, despite his original hesitation in doing the program, Salem would admit that he picked up a few skills he was lacking.  He has taken ownership of the Student planner and intends to try using it with his next college class that starts next week!  Each week is a double page spread and can be used for six subjects.  It is not dated which allows you to begin using it whenever.

One fun feature is that at the bottom of every page is a "Who Said That?" quote or an "Odd But True" fact.

While the teacher's edition used with the Level 4 workbook offers a lot of good information and explanation, I do think that at upper high school and college levels, they are more than capable of doing the program on their own.

Colby (my 6th grader) did work through the program with me. We spent about 30 minutes on each lesson and covered one a week.  While I think the information is exceptional, he struggled with the "whys" of what we were doing.  When we talked about creating a mission statement, I got a deer-in-the-headlights looks.  It seems that asking my 11 year old where he sees himself in 10 years is more than he can wrap his head around right now.  I think very goal driven kids can benefit from Victus, but right now all my 11 year old wants to plan in advance for is his summer birthday.

The one section he got the most out of was actually one of the very first exercises about learning styles.  We were not surprised that, like his brother, is an auditory learner, but he did enjoy learning about what that actually meant to him in every day terms.  When asked what three things he could do to improve his habits based on that knowledge he was quickly able to choose.  I did find it funny that one of the things he chose was to ask his teacher (that would be me) of he could do a digital or oral report as an alternative assignment.


Since we wrote in pencil, I am going to try to revisit this program with my son in 8th grade.  By then, I hope his maturity level will have caught up with his academic level and he will benefit more from the skills taught.  Regardless, I highly recommend Victus Study Skills System as a way to help improve your child's study skills.

50 other amazing Crew reviewers had the opportunity to review the different levels of Victus Study Skills System.  You can see their reviews by clicking on the banner below.

   

Victus Study Guide- TOS Crew Review

As part of the TOS Review Crew we were recently introduced to the company Victus Study Skills System that publishes- what else- the Victus Study Skills System.  This system was the direct result of tutors that saw that kids did not need help to learn as much as they needed help in learning HOW to learn.


For review purpose we received the Victus Study Skills System Student Workbook and the Victus Study Skills System Teacher Edition.

The Victus Study Skills System is recommended for 5th through 12th graders, but can be used for younger children with more parental supervision.  For this review I used it with my 6th and 10th grader and purchased an additional workbook to use. 

The Victus premise is about study skills.  But it is so much more.  It is about knowing your learning style and then using it to maximize your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses.
The three foundational cornerstones are-

• Where are you now?
• Where Do you Want to Be?
• How do you get there?

In 10 relatively short chapters, one of which is a review, Victus Study Skills System will take you on a journey to discover for yourself those things.

Chapters 1 and 2 explore the Where Are You aspect.  After filling out a study habits checklist, your child answers some short questions and tally their score to see exactly what type of learner they are- auditory, visual or kinesthetic.  Then there is a chart that gives you helpful tips on techniques that will help you learn more effectively.

Chapters 3  covers Where Do You Want to Be.  This section helps your child think about and plan out their goals.

Chapters 4-9 teach how do you get there-specific techniques that will help you get to where you want to go- not only in studying and in learning, but also in life.  Areas included are time management, organizing and study environment, the PQRST technique, listening skills, note taking, and test taking.

The final chapter is a review of all that has been taught. 

Each chapter has a fill in the blank section for the concept being taught, as well as activities pertaining to that concept.  For example, a calendar for creating a schedule or a goals worksheet to fill out.

Victus recommends doing two lessons a day for a week, but can be done one lesson a day for two weeks for younger students or ones who need a slightly slower pace.  Each lesson takes about 1/2 hour.

There is an appendix at the end of the student workbook with additional resources that can either be used while going through the lessons or afterwards as a review and additional exercises.

The teacher's guide contains all of the fill in the blank answers as well as examples as well as teaching prompts for you, the teacher.  Each chapter covers the purpose, the preparation (discussion points) and procedure (or activity) to be done.

How did we use this?

My son and daughter and I decided to do this study together.  While an older child could probably go through it by themselves, I think there is a lot of value added by the back and forth discussion that comes with "teaching" it to your child.  We did the first two sections in one sitting, the next two together and then finished the rest in one sitting since we were on a roll.  We are saving the review chapter and appendix supplements for this summer, because I want the kids to be able to see if they have retained not only the knowledge they learned but also the habit of the new techniques as well.

One of the few things I think my kids as homeschoolers especially miss out on sometimes is learning how to study.  They do a lot of reading and such, but not nearly as much testing as they would in a public school setting.  How to study is just not something I think about teaching.  That is why I love this concept and this book.  

We really enjoyed working through this book together, had a lot of good conversations and learned some new things.  The kids already knew what their learning styles were as that is something we talk a lot about around here, but they learned some new techniques for those particular styles. They also learned some great techniques for studying  that were new to us as well.  One is particular was the PQRST, in which kids are taught to study by Preview, Question, Read, State and Test.  

One of my favorite parts of the book was an activity that had the kids plan out how they would schedule the steps for completing an assignment on a calendar.  The assignment was explained with the parts that had to be accomplished and a start date and due date were given.  It was a great exercise to let them see how they actually needed to plan out the steps for gathering information, doing a rough draft, meeting with a teacher for approval and then turning in a final paper.  It was an eye opener to them both I think, but especially my 6th grader who has not had to write that in depth of a paper yet. Another fun activity presented is in the note taking section where they listen to a paragraph and take notes.  Then they can be tested to see how well their notes served them.  There is also a 168 hour exercise in the appendix that allows you to see just where you spend your time and how many flexible hours you have in your day.  An eye opener for us all I would say!

What did we think? 

 I would highly recommend the Victus Study Skills System!  For such an easy to use, fairly short program, I think both of my kids walked away with a better understanding of themselves and more tools in their tool belt to help them do well in college and the future.  While the teacher's manual has a great explanation of the Victus purpose and  is well organized,  I do wish it was a little clearer in how to actually teach the system.  For the fill in the blank sections, the answers are just provided with no script for teaching it.  It does however have some good examples to give your student as well as questions to discuss.  I loved using it with my two kids, but it could easily be used for a classroom as well.

You can purchase both the Student Workbook ($20.00) and the Teachers Workbook ($40.00) as well as additional resources from Victus Study Skills System.

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