The Daily Quest

Posted by HeatherW | 0 comments

When we first brought my oldest home from school midway through his first grade year (back in January, 2005), I used to do a Question of the Day with him. Our only goal for him at the time was to restore his love of learning which had been efficiently squelched out of him in his brief public school experience.

My son loved the challenge of reading for information and bringing it back to me so we could talk about it. We kept the questions in a wooden canister that he painted for the task. A few weeks ago I decided it would be fun to bring it back to our homeschool (which has come a long way since those early days) and purposed to get a new box made. I retooled the name too calling it – The Daily Quest.

So, how does it work? Each day I put a set of questions in the box that the kids have to work on together. Usually it is related to our topic of study at the moment or sometimes it is meant as an introduction to a new topic.

The maiden voyage quest was about hurricanes. The kids had to work as a team to come up with the answers. What is a hurricane? What are two other names for hurricanes and where are they used? What is the difference between a tropical depression and a tropical storm? The next day they had to find out what made Hurricane Agnes a particularly harsh hurricane and where the most damage was sustained. They were able to uncover some pretty interesting facts to discuss at the dinner table.

I have some guidelines in place to facilitate the team building process.

They must:

Answer the questions together using reference books and websites.

Try to avoid just Googling the answer. Use websites such as National Geographic for Kids.

Write down the answer.

Work together without arguing or hogging. Work as a team.

Everyone must have a turn being the “recorder” – so it’s not the same person each day.

Everyone will contribute to the answer at dinner time. Make sure you include everyone.

Discuss where you can find the answers and give assignments according to age and ability.

On the Quest sheet at the top of the page I put The Daily Quest title with the date and then I have those rules in a box at the top followed by the day’s Quest. I make a document just for ease.

In practice, I have found it difficult for everyone to have the same level of involvement all the time. So, some days they have separate Quests. For my 7yo I like to have him search out the answer to a Quest in some easy readers related to the topic. We have a learning display in our dining room which is set up with seasonal items and our current unit study. This is an easily defined space for a young researcher. We also have a reference shelf in our school room for just such occasions.

This is not something I put a time limit on. So, the Quest is given during our Morning Gathering Time and the kids can work on it throughout the day as long as they follow the guidelines and they are ready by dinner time to discuss the Quest. It might work better if it was put in our “routine”, but I like the idea that the kids have ownership of when the Quest is sought after. In the same manner, they learn how to manage small tasks on their own without as much structure. Developing this skill is very important as they get older.

So, what adventures will your family embark on daily? Perhaps there is room in your school for a Daily Quest.

Heather Woodie is a homeschooling mom of four kids ages 10, 8, 6, 3 and wife to a handsome chemical engineer for 13 years. Before raising a family, she taught middle school science and has a masters degree in curriculum and instruction secondary education. Now teaching at home means the chance to provide the extraordinary for her children. Between family and homeschooling time, she is working as volunteer staff for MOPS International as an Area Coordinator for NY State. She’s been homeschooling four years and you can read about those adventures on her blog, Blog She Wrote.