We're Homeschooling!

• Dec. 17, 2005 - Making a new curriculum

I'm in the middle of making a year long "plan" for S. I guess you could call it a curriculum. It is hard work. So far I've gotten through biology. I have her working through three more books and then she'll be doing nature studies once she moves on to chemistry. Right now I'm operating on the thought of giving her one animal per week in nature studies. At the end of each week she can write a short paper (a page or two long) on it.

I'm glad for this time off. S will get a break from school which is nice and also, I can do more planning. S doesn't really know what she wants to do with her life so I'm doing a kind of college prep high school with her. But I also want to make sure that she knows how to live in life. So I'll teach her life skills along with basic country skills. Hopefully at the end of all this she will be well prepared whatever path she chooses to take.

I already have a curriculum that I made up when I first started hsing S but I'm just redoing the whole thing. As I'm learning more about S's learning style the old curriculum is becoming obsolete.

You know something I'm wondering about? How do you make room for more classes? For instance, S has Religion for one of her "electives". Now, that is not something that I see her dropping. The same goes for other classes, so how do you make room for more? I guess after a little while I'll cut down on the time for certain classes and add another. Of course, the ones that are replaceable with the next step up are easy. And once she works her way through all the steps she'll have more room for more electives. Right now she has

Biology

English

Spanish

Religion

Choir

Independent Living

P.E. (dance)

W. History

W. Geography

Algebra

ASL

Art

So, that's a lot of classes. Anyway, I've got to get back to planning.

• Dec. 17, 2005 - You’re right, that’s a lot of subjects!

Posted by WingsAsEagles

Our new year starts in January, we're planning too!

Here are a few “out sider looking in” thoughts:

English
Algebra
Religion
*Yes, probably everyday studying here.

Spanish/ASL
*Does she have to take 2 foreign languages? (If not, I’m Mexican who’s knows ASL, and I vote ASL – there are enough Spanish speakers in the world!

Choir
Independent Living
P.E. (dance)
Art
*Does she study each of these daily? Could she do one on Monday, the other on Tuesday, etc?

W. History/W. Geography
*Can these be combined?

Biology
*Can you do 1 semester of science and 1 semester of history/geography?

It’s a lot to juggle – I’ve got a similar subject load for my younger girls. But that’s one of the beauties of homeschooling. We can trial and error until we strike that perfect balance.

You’ll get there!
Mrs. L

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• Dec. 22, 2005 - I wish you lived next door... :-)

Posted by flapjacks

Hi, I just came across your blog when I picked one at random.
I am in a very similar situation to you so I've been reading in some depth, and I hope you don't mind if I dip back in later and add a shorter comment or two to previous entries. (DS is waiting for the computer and I really ought to get a move on elsewhere.)
I'm in England, SAHM with three children. The oldest and youngest, both boys, are happy at school. DD, aged 12, wasn't, so she left at the end of October and we've been HSing since. I think I have it easy because the idea came from DD (I don't think I've ever said to her it was something I've always wanted to do, but she may have picked it up.) Anyway, because she was so determined, it has made it a lot easier.
It sounds to me as though your daughter is older and was unhappy with the school itself, whereas DD was unhappy because of tensions between her friends. (Long story, it might get into my blog one day.)
In the town where we live we have a three-tier school system, which unusual for the UK. DD wants to go back either next year or the year after, when she'll be at a different school, so I'm using the English KS3 curriculum as a basis for work. I have listed tons of resource books on my blog - they come in very useful though on my strongest subjects I'm free wheeling.
DD is great about sitting down and working alongside me, but not great about initiating things, so it's quite labour-intensive for me, and I'm trying to wean her off that. I want her to have good study skills. BTW I noticed a good short article about study skills in teens, on the home page here, with helpful links. There are one or two ideas I am working on.
DD's reading lacked confidence and she certainly wasn't ready for what I would have read at her age so I've put in a chapter a day of a book of her choice (atm Jacqueline Wilson or MaryKate and Ashley) but over the last couple of months she's turned into the sort of person who sits up late reading because she's loving it. If that's all we acheive I will still be delighted about it. I'm doing some classic poetry with her and next term am going to move on to some Shakespeare as well. It's expanding her vocabulary.
The KS3 curriculum has cell biology and digestion in her year so I am combining this with food tech and learning about food groups and cookery - there is a website with quite detailed suggestions for school teachers as to curriculum, so I'm leaning on that.
We didn't take time to unschool either - I'm slowly seeing a change as DD gets more relaxed about whether she should actually be sitting with me as teacher, and realising she can study other things if she wants. She has started in a small way on Italian and Economics, neither of which I've done. It will be interesting to see if she takes them further.
Languages - she had done a year and a bit of German, which I've never done, so she's been using the BBC languages website to keep her hand in while I try to catch up. I've also started her on French, which she couldn't do at school. It's going okay.
We did the same as you with PE, but DD is a mad-keen sportswoman so I got her a pass to the Leisure Centre and now she goes most days. They have some good activites and she meets up with friends, so it's very sociable.
I too am using the holidays to get ahead...I found I was staying up late with school work and it was counter-productive. It's been really helpful to sit down and overview what we've done, compare with the curriculum and use that as a basis for next term.
I agree with you about life skills. I also feel that as a young woman DD needs an adult mentor to guide her through all the changes of the next few years. Being mentored by your peer group, which is what happens to most teenagers, is a recipe for stress and misinformation.

> You know something I'm wondering about? How do you make room for more classes?

We came up against this one. We are trying having alternating weeks for certain subjects. One week we do History and French, the other we do Geography and German.
Our lessons are: English language (which I combine with other subjects as I want her to have good essay-writing skills), English Literature, German, French, Food Tech, Textiles, Maths, Science, PE, RE, Music, Reading, Art... I think that's all. We do some more than others.
ICT should come in there somewhere but so far we haven't found room for it, apart from spreadsheets.
I really ought to let DS onto the computer now - sorry to have gone on at such length! I'll drop in again and see how things are going, as our situations have quite a lot in common.
Have a good holiday and make sure you recharge your own batteries as well as letting S recharge hers!
Alice

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• Dec. 22, 2005 - Me again! (Briefly)

Posted by flapjacks

Hi,
I had a look at your other blog and worked out who's who - I'm interested that you're HSing your sister. I could see that might have unique advantages as well as problems. Is there much difference in your ages? I hope it's going well.
I do Flylady too - though right now you would never guess from the state of my house!
Alice
And BTW thanks for the link to the pre-school languages site - I know we're not pre-school but it might get used regardless!

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