Follow the Directions! (Grades 3-6): 180 Daily Exercises That Help Kids Learn to Follow Written Directions . . . Independently!

The edition I purchased was labeled for grades 3 - 6. I had heard from a friend that her use of this book with her elementary aged boy had helped him with listening and following directions. Though my own son was in eight grade, I chose to buy it because practice ALWAYS helps, and he'd not had this specific type of teaching concerning directions. Being home schooled he was more self-taught. The book is set up so that the children actually can read the instructions and carry them with them to their desks. My son could already do this quite well on his own, so I decided to change up the assignments slightly by giving them orally and not allowing him to read them unless it was necessary for him to see it. The challenge for him then became to be able to listen to a series of instructions given and visualize them in his head to perform when the instructions were finished being read. This was quite challenging for him at first, but the book is set up to go from easy to progressively more complicated so he quickly got into the 'groove' and his mind was trained for this within a couple of weeks. Because the instructions at the beginning are so easy, we typically do three a day, rather than the one time a day which this book is set up for. Using it once daily would give you an entire year's worth of activities. We will finish it in a couple of months. The end may go more slowly if they prove to be more complex in nature, and doing three might possibly produce frustration. Or we may break it up instead of doing them in rapid succession. If he does not perform the oral instructions correctly, we simply put the incorrect effort in the trash, reread it from the beginning of the instructions, and allow him to try again until he accomplishes them as they are written. There is no grade, we are training a part of the mind that has not had a lot of practice. This is all part of a focus we are doing this year on training his mind to think, rather than to merely soak up information. I would have liked to focus more on classical education for him, now that I am doing this. We are also doing logic, reasoning, and fallacy studies, as well as Latin roots. In just a few months there has been a noticeable change in the way he approaches things when he thinks about it. He is also gaining more of a confidence in his ability to use his intellect. This book has been a valuable part of that and I recommend it, even for older children who might need some practice visualizing things that are said to them.

This is a great product that is very helpful in teaching students how to follow directions!