Use Victus Study Skills to Teach Study Skills in Your Homeschool
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Victus Study Skills. I received compensation in exchange for an honest review.
When I heard about Victus Study Skills System, I knew I had to have it to teach study skills in our homeschool. I still remember walking into a little room in some random building on campus and sitting down. There I learned a skill that would prove to be most beneficial throughout my college career and even later in life. Learning study skills and goal setting was key to my success in college, which is why teaching study skills in my homeschool is so important.
About Victus Study Skills System
There are four levels to Victus Study Skills System:
- Level 1: Primary (K-2/3)
- Level 2: Elementary (2/3-4/5)
- Level 3 (5/6-10/11)
- and Level 4 (10/11-College)
Each level focuses on a set of study skills that are age appropriate. No matter what ages you are homeschooling, you can begin to teach valuable study skills using Victus Study Skills System.
The Victus Study Skills System is guided by four concepts:
- Zeal without knowledge is not good, but zeal with knowledge bears fruit.
- Results come from the process.
- Any system with all of its components must have an aim, or purpose.
- A unique and effective system of study has the greatest likelihood of aiding in success.
Using these as their course aim, they strive to help the student answer three important questions:
- Where am I now?
- Where do I want to be?
- How do I get there?
Regardless of what level you are using, each of these three questions is addressed. The workbooks are divided into three sections that help the student answer the related question.
As the levels increase, so does the depth of the material.
If you follow a Classical curriculum the different levels follow the three stages of the Trivium: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric.
The benefit to starting young and moving your child through all the levels is the reinforcement of study skills. This constant reinforcement will build better study skills and habits that will become a part of who they are.
Where am I now?
Students begin their study skills journey by honestly evaluating where they currently feel their skills lie.
For the younger levels, this is accomplished through a checklist and asking them how often they feel they do certain things.
In Level 4, the College level, Victus Study Skills System delves into how the student thinks college will be different from high school before having them fill out a more detailed checklist.
This section also has the students take an assessment to determine their learning style, which is useful when looking for successful study skills strategies.
Again, the activity is adjusted depending on the level of the student.
The Primary guide, for example, focuses more on helping the student realize there are different ways we can learn and asking simple questions about what senses they may use.
My children liked discovering their different learning styles.
They even had their dad and I take an assessment to find out what ours were. We then discussed the differences and similarities within our family. We were also surprised to see that the learning style some of us thought we were turned out to be different than what we actually were.
For my oldest who worked through Level 4, it also opened up conversations on what to expect at college and how it will be different from what she is doing now.
Where do I want to be?
This section focuses on developing a mission statement (for the upper 3 levels) and goal setting (all levels). The inclusion of this section helps students discover what their reason is for wanting to succeed and gives them a purpose to guide their decisions. It causes them to look at the big picture and not just the here and now.
Goal Setting
How to set effective goals was also taught in this section.
For the Primary level, it kept it to very simple steps and had them set a goal and list what steps they would take to get there.
For levels 2 and 3, it had them work on determining what they thought their priorities were and tracking how much time they actually spent on those things. They also set goals in different areas of their life including the steps for how they would achieve them.
The Elementary level also had a practical application problem to practice goal setting.
The College level, in addition to a mission statement and goals, included a section on determining one’s values. It did not have them set school-specific goals, but it did have a page for them to do goal setting.
A Few Differences
The move from Level 3 to Level 4 is also going to come with an increase in maturity.
Where the first three levels were centered mostly on academics, Level 4, while still incorporating how to be successful in college, also shifts to a more in-depth assessment of how you want to live your life.
What principles or values do you aspire to live by that are going to guide your decisions?
This shift was easily seen in the mission statements of my daughters doing Levels 3 and 4. My eighth grader’s mission statement was to “Be a good sister, student, and friend.” My junior’s mission statement was “To love others and help them understand who they are.”
How do I get there?
Once you know where you are and have determined where you want to be, the last step is to figure out how to get there.
This last section in Victus Study Skills covers:
- time management,
- organization and study environment,
- and ways to increase the effectiveness of your study
In the College level, it also includes a sample syllabus. It teaches how to properly read one and how to use it to set goals and properly manage your time to accomplish your assignments. This is a great skill to learn! I am glad they incorporated it since a big step in being successful in college classes is being able to follow a syllabus.
This section would be considered the “practical” section that teaches the skills for how to effectively study. It contains assessments, practical applications, and information to help guide the student to be proficient in studying.
My daughter in eighth grade loves organization and was positively giddy about the new organizational techniques she learned she could apply to her schoolwork.
Likewise, my oldest daughter is a note-taker and was thrilled to learn ways to make her note-taking be more effective.
There is so much useful information here. As students learn to apply and hone those skills they will be setting themselves up for success in the classroom and beyond.
The Victus Study Skills Teacher’s Manual and Student Planner
Included with the student books is the Teacher’s Manual. For the Primary and Elementary grades, it comes with a supplement to help guide you on how to teach the lessons.
I learned a lot about how to study and teach my children to study through lesson preparation.
In the back of the Teacher’s Guide is a place similar to the pages in the student books. They allow you to write your own mission statement and set some goals.
The Student Planner comes with a thicker plastic cover. It is simple in design and I loved it. It also has a place for your mission statement, values, and goals.
I kinda wished they made an adult version.
My Overall Thoughts on Using Victus Study Skills System to Teach Study Skills in Our Homeschool
Victus Study Skills System is a terrific course! All students should take it to teach them skills that will help them past their academic pursuits and throughout life. Regardless of academic background, this course will only prove to increase their efficiency of current skills.
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