Would you ever consider dropping almost everything to create your dc's ideal plan?

[Kfamily]

I'm not really sure I would really do this, but I've been considering the idea....lol:)

 

Would you ever consider dropping a lot of plans (not all) to create the "'perfect" and "desired" plan for your dc?

 

I'm not meaning that you should stop teaching math, grammar, etc. but that everything else you teach is designed with your dc's wishes (such as which period to study in history...even if it doesn't fit the sequence) in mind. I also mean that once the topics and books are decided this will be the end of dc's input. IOW, you set up the lessons and plans (still keeping their wishes and educational needs in mind) but they get to choose the topics and books for the most part.

 

Just curious??

 

:)

[....]

I've been doing this for a couple of years. We choose math and english together (based on what programs work for them). They choose everything else. I have been choosing alot of read-alouds that go along with SOTW, though. But, I don't think they would know what's out there and I can tell when they're going to like something or not. We're reading the graphic novel version of Pilgrim's Progress (it's called The Dangerous Journey - in case anyone's looking for it). My son is very visual and loves comic-style drawings. I knew he would find that book interesting (but he wouldn't know about it on his own).

 

I have to say that every time my kids choose something, it ends up being on a higher level and more challenging than something I would choose for them.

 

So, here's my plan for this fall (you can tell we're going off the deep end the longer we homeschool). :tongue_smilie:

 

My 11 yro and 10 yro are going to do R&S English and Math. After that, they are free to choose anything they want. And it doesn't have to be a curriculum. My son is already asking for a set of 4 Military History encyclopedias. He also wants to read about biology and do some dissections. He wants to read The Lord of the Rings books. My daughter received the Anne of Green Gables books for Christmas (so she is wanting to read that series). My daughter also wants to learn Greek, so I am trying to figure out "what kind of Greek" and "how the heck do we teach ourselves Greek?". They've been asking for textbook-type things lately. So, we are looking at Shepherd's Biology, etc. I'm not going to make them request an entire semester of books at once. We're just going to fly by the seat of our pants.

 

My 7 yro (she would be 8 this fall) is going to do Math, continue with AAS, a cursive workbook and finish Writing with Ease 2. I am planning lots of read-alouds for this kid. She wants to read the Little House series and I think she might like the H.C. Holling series (you know Seabird, Paddle-to-the-Sea, etc). I would like to do more field trips this fall - museums and they have an aquarium here also.

 

My 5 yro is the Workbook Queen, so we just may have to keep making trips to the homeschool store and let her pick some stuff out. We bought her a letter workbook the other day and within an hour, she was halfway thru it. We have to tell her, "Pace Yourself!!!" :glare: I'm going to continue OPGTR with her and see if she can read some easy readers on her own. We may do a handwriting book (like Getty-Dubay - she would like that anyway - LOL).

 

Sorry for rambling. That's how we do interest-led homeschooling (for now). The hardest part of that is record-keeping. And, I'm wondering how that would work on a high school level if we continue on that path. My biggest goals for 2013 are Working with the Youngest Ones First and Let's Take More Field Trips! Last weekend, we visited an army fort from the late 1800s. We got to tour the hospital and everything. That's what I'm talking about! :D

[Melissa B]

Not in K-6. I tend to choose most everything in those grades. But then, I've never really had children that love bunny trails or going deep into academic subjects. :tongue_smilie: In 7th and 8th I let them pick their own electives though. And high school will basically be student led, but parent approved.

[elegantlion]

I'm not really sure I would really do this, but I've been considering the idea....lol:)

 

Would you ever consider dropping a lot of plans (not all) to create the "'perfect" and "desired" plan for your dc?

 

I'm not meaning that you should stop teaching math, grammar, etc. but that everything else you teach is designed with your dc's wishes (such as which period to study in history...even if it doesn't fit the sequence) in mind. I also mean that once the topics and books are decided this will be the end of dc's input. IOW, you set up the lessons and plans (still keeping their wishes and educational needs in mind) but they get to choose the topics and books for the most part.

 

Just curious??

 

:)

 

 

Oh yes, we did that and it has made a world of difference. We did Abeka in 1st-3rd (not a good choice for ds), eclectic in 4th (I picked too much), LCC in 5th and 6th (a breath of fresh air), 7th - he started to have more input, 8th a lot of his input, 9th is a meshing of my requirements and his interests. Personally, I had envisioned high school much differently. *I* would have loved to study school like you have lined out on your blog. Ds is so different with different strengths and interests. Our year looks very much like him, even our current plans for next year are with a lot of his input.

 

With this child, it became about his ownership of his education. We're not unschooling, I still do lesson plans, plan the assignments, but he is engaged with the material instead of doing it because I say so - which has removed a lot of the angst and defiance.

[FairProspects]

I've definitely considered it, and I'd say we are about halfway there, but I don't know if I'm brave enough to drop everything and try it 100%.

[jenL]

I am revamping everything right now, trying to get to more of an interest-led place. I think that will be so beneficial to my son, but I am so afraid of it. What if I miss something & create gaps? But then my brain logically says that if I focus on the 3 R's, then everything is is going to fall into place. I'm just a schedule follower, and I love the 4yr sequence of history/science. Like FairProspects said, it's a matter of bravery for me. I know that sounds silly, and it would make some parents cringe, but I would love for school to have a more organic flow & because of ds's personality, I think our days would be less stressful.

[momto2Cs]

I do this, to a degree. While I am reading aloud from K12's Human Odyssey once a week (and I have a little historical fiction lined up to go with it), during the rest of the week, we pursue the kids' interests, which for ds11 is ancient Greece & mythology, and for dd9 is American Girls historical fiction (I add in some nonfiction stuff too). Same with science - we are studying biology at my request, but we spend more time on the parts that interest them, and I support them in pursuing other scientific interests as well.

 

While they do help choose language arts and math programs, doing the basics is non-negotiable.

 

It does seem to keep them more engaged when they have a vested interest in what we are learning!

[Chrysalis Academy]

In content areas, absolutely I would do this. In skill areas, not a chance. It's my job to know what skills she needs to master and to make sure and provide the opportunities & resources for her to master the appropriate skills at each level.

 

What that looks like practically for us is that math & writing are daily, non-negotiable topics, although I'm open to input about materials and assignments. For example, when dd got to week 19 of wws, and was supposed to write an biographical sketch on Daniel Boone, she was having trouble getting started. Turned out she just wasn't that interested in Daniel Boone - she had trouble finding anything about the fact list on him that engaged her. She could have done the assignment, grinning and bearing it, but instead I offered her the choice to do the same assignment, but on Sacajawea. This involved more work on her part, as she had to find and read resources and make her own fact list, but she did it gladly, because she's really interested in Sacajawea.

 

So I got what I wanted - she practiced the skill of writing a biographical sketch - and she got what she wanted, to write about something that interested her. Would I have let her skip the assignment? No way, she needed to learn to do this type of writing. But I'm happy to be flexible about content.

 

Right now, in 5th grade, dd is pretty happy to trust me to lay out a path in front of her - what she needs to learn and study to become educated. But she has a lot of ideas about content that is and is not interesting to her, and I am very open to adding, focusing, or even skipping so that we can spend the most time on the content that engages her, within the structure of the skills I know she needs to learn. My hope is that as she gets older, she will take more and more responsibility and have more and more choices in her education, so that eventually it is handed over to her, she will be a self-educating young adult. But how that process looks and how long it takes? That we make up as we go along.

 

Inspiring words from Angela in Ohio's siggy:

 

The ability to learn on one’s own is normally the result of a good education, not the cause of it.

~Classical Education & the HomeschoolTru

 

True dat.

[laughing lioness]

It would depend on the kid, the age, the maturity level. I had one kid in particular that really wanted things the way they wanted them and it ended up catering to their own laziness.

My ds 18- we just totally revamped so he could do more of what he wants.

[Laura Corin]

I'd be a bit concerned about this. When I've tried to follow the children's wishes but codified it (Oh, you want to study Classical Civilisation? I've found this great course....) it has not worked out well. The child was expecting to study precisely what he wanted; I was expecting the child to be excited by what I offered.

 

Now, if I had the personality to be child-led minute-by-minute - following rabbit trails in a very free way - I'm sure it could work.

 

Laura

[Dana]

We're going to try it next year.

Ds is going to repeat 5th grade so he'll have an extra year at home. (Cut-off here is Sept. 1. His birthday is Aug. 29. I didn't know about redshirting in Kindergarten, so we just started. I want him to have another year before college - in particular due to severe food allergies - another year so he can be a stronger advocate sounds good too.)

 

So right now the plan is one day a week is mine. The other 4 he can basically study what he wants. I'm sure I'll still be doing some planning & leading, but if he wants to study calculus, I'll be seeing what approaches I can do at his level (for instance). We may spend days watching science or history videos. There may be days or weeks of just reading fiction. I'm really going to try and relax and see where he leads us.

 

Ask me how it's working next Christmas :) (Or watch me have a nervous breakdown... There was a Signals t-shirt I liked that had the saying "Does anal retentive have a hyphen". It'll be interesting to see if I can let go!)

[elegantlion]

We're going to try it next year.

Ds is going to repeat 5th grade so he'll have an extra year at home. (Cut-off here is Sept. 1. His birthday is Aug. 29. I didn't know about redshirting in Kindergarten, so we just started. I want him to have another year before college - in particular due to severe food allergies - another year so he can be a stronger advocate sounds good too.)

 

So right now the plan is one day a week is mine. The other 4 he can basically study what he wants. I'm sure I'll still be doing some planning & leading, but if he wants to study calculus, I'll be seeing what approaches I can do at his level (for instance). We may spend days watching science or history videos. There may be days or weeks of just reading fiction. I'm really going to try and relax and see where he leads us.

 

Ask me how it's working next Christmas :) (Or watch me have a nervous breakdown... There was a Signals t-shirt I liked that had the saying "Does anal retentive have a hyphen". It'll be interesting to see if I can let go!)

 

 

Here you go, Calculus without tears, for 4th grade and up. http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Without-Tears-Learning-Students/dp/0976413809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357689124&sr=8-1&keywords=calculus+without+tears

 

I haven't seen it, but it intrigued me a few years ago.

[Dana]

 

Here you go, Calculus without tears, for 4th grade and up. http://www.amazon.co...s without tears

 

I haven't seen it, but it intrigued me a few years ago.

 

 

Thanks. I've looked at that some before.

I figure we'll have an interesting time. He's getting excited about it, so that's cool.

[Kfamily]

I can see both sides of this. I do think that some interests are most exciting to my girls when I stay completely out of it. :) My younger dd said almost as much yesterday. We were having our quarterly conference (and no, I don't really plan this out by quarters:) but it does seem to happen about 3 or 4 times per year). After discussing what we're are learning in school, I then usually ask her if she has any specific desires to learn anything else or if anything is too easy for her (she is my hard-to-keep-up-with student). This doesn't mean that I'll drop everything we're in the middle of to accommodate her new interests, but it does mean that I may keep it in mind for later. Sometimes it may fit with something we're just beginnning or have in plan but haven't started yet, and I can add this to it.

 

My younger dd has enough interests in subjects such as art, history, literature, writing and science that I could easily teach all that she would like to learn (and there's enough for next year too) but this often clashes with our timeline of history and what I think we should cover. It does give me pause to wonder if maybe this next year or two would be a good year to just follow her interests. I would never let her give up the skills she needs for grammar, writing, math and French. She could negotiate with me on Latin, because I know the programs we're using now are not overly exciting for her. But, she said she doesn't mind and I agreed that after these two programs (Latina Christiana and Our Roman Roots.....we use two because Our Roman Roots adds some fun to it.) we could move on to First Form. She doesn't mind that we keep Latin for now but likes to keep it light.

 

All in all, she is fine with what we are doing, but I was concerned because her attitude was different. She seems to lack the enthusiasm I'm used to seeing in her. Perhaps its just part of becoming a more advanced student. I ask and continue to ask more of her this year. I'm already meeting many of her interest needs, but I'm not letting up in requirement. (This is not too hard for her....I've asked.) She's reached a level that is not light anymore. I'm thinking that this is part of it. She's young for what she's doing in some subjects, but intellectually she needs it.

 

It is still tempting to let loose in topics for a year or two.

[AimeeM]

That is pretty much what we are doing this next year.

We'll use my choices for maths and language arts. We'll use her choice for history, science, art, and religion (must be Catholic). My only requirements for those "choice subjects" are that they be rigorous and not just "safe"; it must be something that involves output IN THE BOOK (i.e. a history program with a study guide, a science program that contains homeschool friendly experiments and review questions - things that do not require a ton of extra time for ME to plan).

[Farrar]

Yes, I would. We're in 3rd grade now and I choose most things, but I get their input and I take their individual needs into consideration. I'm hoping that it will work out to begin letting them make more of the decisions over the next couple of years and then by 7th gradeish for them to be much more in the reigns and me be there to ensure that it's rigorous enough and well-rounded enough.

[airforcefamily]

Honestly? No, personally I wouldn't in my current family situation. I can't even fathom keeping up with all the kids plus having to 'conference' with the older ones about what they want to learn then putting together materials for them. I think it sounds great for someone who is ok with devoting most of their time to it and/or has one child but it's not something I would consider.

[PentecostalMom]

I actually have done this with oldest ds. Boy, did I learn A LOT about nearly every sport there is! I would love to do this more with all of my younger dc, especially my 6yo right now. She does love her SL Core, but I think I have too much in the skills area. You have inspired me to pull both LCC 1 and LCC 2 off of the shelf tomorrow and revisit that. I ned to let go a bit and see where she leads. I think she'd do great with minor limitations. Thanks for the breath of fresh air!