Curriculum advise 10yog

[bluedarling]

My daughter was homeschooled up until this year when we placed her in local ps full-time gifted program. (I was warned she would be bored, but was hopeful.) She is requesting to return to homeschool, and since I will be in school myself, its possible so long as the curriculum is fairly independent. Her desire is to accelerate her learning...I have no idea how to do that. (I know how to take a year of curriculum and divide it out across the year....but do I just schedule more work per day to accelerate?  Or skip lessons?  Is it even something I can plan out?  This child tends to progress in rapid bursts i can't keep up with, then stall for awhile.)

 

Math -- she used BA 3 last year (but ps curriculum for 4th...very bored.)  Do I have her do BA 4 (since she hasn't done it), or move on to something else, since she'd have covered many of the topics in ps, though at a lower level of rigor?  Suggestions?  She is very gifted with math, but doesn't love it (at least not yet.) 

 

LA -- (we've yet to find any LA curriculum we like.)  I am considering trying MCT, but am wondering if it will be independent enough?   And placement is a bit confusing....Town? she may be able to handle Voyage?  I'm not really sure, since she's been in ps and I haven't monitored her writing progress.  (Her grammar/spelling/reading are not a concern...just her writing ability.)   She could write a 5 paragraph essay last year, of sorts.  (I really struggle with teaching writing...I'm a computer/math person.)  Looking for other options that would be independent and engaging for a gifted learner (not too much repetition...she hated W&R Fables because it was the same format each time.)

 

Science -- she LOVES science.  She has requested Chemistry, so I'm thinking of combining RS4K Middle School Chemistry along with Ellen McHenry The Elements.  That will likely take half a year?  No idea for the remainder of the year...guess I jump that hurdle mid year, or just see where we are then!  Do you think these could be done independently?

 

Social Studies -- Uncle Sam and You? (to fit with elections).  I don't expect this to be a "love" subject, but just something I'd like to cover.  I think shorter unit studies would hold her attention more, but that is hard to keep independent, and I don't expect to have a lot of planning time!  (She'll have no computer access while I am at school, either, so that limits online studies/research, though she learns really well that way.)

 

For all other subjects I plan to allow her to pick (with guidelines) from art, music, free reading, Latin or Rosetta Stone French, Jump Rope, other PE, etc.  She tends to pursue one thing for awhile wholeheartedly, then lose interest.  So, as long as she is pursuing something along these lines, I'm content.  (I guess these are the subjects I'm willing to unschool!)

 

Thanks for any help you can give!

[SilverMoon]

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Edited May 23, 2023 by SilverMoon

[bluedarling]

Thanks, Silvermoon.  I did see the Guest Hollow schedule, but thought it would be easier to keep independent with just the curriculum, though I'd love for her to use some of the books during free reading.  Her brother used Horizons many many years ago...it was very repetitive at that the level we used (2nd?), though I can see how that would allow for acceleration by just cutting out the repetition!!  Siblings have also used Junior Analytical Grammar (though I don't recall much about it.)  I like your idea of rotating composition, and I'm going to look up STEM to Story (I've never heard of it.)  I am wondering if I should do spelling with her...she's a natural speller, so I didn't the last couple years...she's was given  spelling below her level in ps, though.  I'll have to think on that one!

 

I am also struggling with breadth vs. depth.  Dd wants to accelerate, and an easier program would allow easy acceleration.  However, there's so much to be gained from programs like BA/AOPS that go deeper.  She wants to accelerate, and I want her to have more depth.  I guess we compromise somehow, but I'm not sure exactly what that would look like.  Supplement with harder stuff once a week?  but that might keep her from accelerating?

Edited March 5, 2016 by bluedarling

[SilverMoon]

Perhaps break away from courses with a number on the cover so it's irrelevant? Especially with content subjects like science and history. A skin deep coverage that races ahead isn't really accelerating. BA/AoPS definitely go deeper for math. My DD/10 has a love hate relationship with that AoPS prealg book. LOL She's also on a Math Olympiad team.

 

DD/10's math and language arts are accelerated because she simply goes through material faster. The number on the cover is well ahead of her actual grade, but she is still working in 10yo size bites. By the time she finished Horizons 5 she could do every problem of two complete lessons in thirty minutes tops, for example. On top of that her mind is always busy processing, digesting, comparing, making connections. Her analyzing and connection making are ahead of her years. Occasionally she decides she wants to finish a book faster because she's tired of it and makes me an offer of sorts of how she'd like to accomplish demonstrating mastery (feels like a let's make a deal game show...lol).  For next year she decided out of the blue that she'd really like a history study focused on Ireland, England, and royalty. So we're building a European history course together that's focused on those areas. My goal is a rich, enjoyable year, and keeping the workload developmentally appropriate for her. 

 

 

STEM to Story is written for classroom use, but we've adapted it fine. It has twelve writing projects of various sizes, from engineering paper airplanes to surviving a zombie apocalypse. For the airplanes they had to engineer their own design and write step by step instructions for it. Then they tested their instructions on as many other people as they could, fixed the flaws in their instructions, collected data on how well their plane did vs the planes others made. We dragged that one out for nearly two weeks. Some of them can be done in a few days, and others like the zombies could be fleshed out and last 3-4 weeks. We've really enjoyed it.

Edited March 5, 2016 by SilverMoon

[mommy2ella]

 

 

I am also struggling with breadth vs. depth.  Dd wants to accelerate, and an easier program would allow easy acceleration.  However, there's so much to be gained from programs like BA/AOPS that go deeper.  She wants to accelerate, and I want her to have more depth.  I guess we compromise somehow, but I'm not sure exactly what that would look like.  Supplement with harder stuff once a week?  but that might keep her from accelerating?

 

 

My DD wanted to accelerate, too, so what I did was let her accelerate through her MUS books, but I'm still following up with things that go at the concepts from a different angle, like LOF, BA, and, in a little while, AoPS.  So she's starting Pre-Algebra in MUS now, but I'm thinking we'll start AoPS Pre-Algebra in a year or so, once we've finished BA and gotten up to/through Pre-Algebra in LOF, as well.  It doesn't seem too repetitive to her because of the different angle, and also because she's liking the story aspect of the math so much.

[bluedarling]

 

By the time she finished Horizons 5 she could do every problem of two complete lessons in thirty minutes tops, for example.

Yeah, my daughter finishes her school homework in a couple minutes.  MUS was nearly as fast when we did that before...but she wasn't exactly asking for "more".  I guess I could require time spent studying, perhaps.  In which case having two math programs might work!  PS does about 1.5 hours of math, and about 2-2.5 hours of LA each day.   When we homeschooled previously, I never came anywhere near those time requirements!!  I assigned a lesson, and if she finished in 5 minutes she was done!

 

Occasionally she decides she wants to finish a book faster because she's tired of it and makes me an offer of sorts of how she'd like to accomplish demonstrating mastery (feels like a let's make a deal game show...lol).

Yes, I've had those deals, too, lol.  Unlike my other kiddos, she seems better able to communicate her needs...able to tell me something isn't working for her, why, and make suggestions.  (However, if I ask what she did at ps, I just get, "Stuff.")  However, in the request to return to homeschooling, her and her sister presented quite detailed reasons of why it wasn't working, along with a plan for how homeschooling could work even if I'm not home all day to school them.  I was impressed!

 

STEM to Story is written for classroom use, but we've adapted it fine. It has twelve writing projects of various sizes, from engineering paper airplanes to surviving a zombie apocalypse. For the airplanes they had to engineer their own design and write step by step instructions for it. Then they tested their instructions on as many other people as they could, fixed the flaws in their instructions, collected data on how well their plane did vs the planes others made. We dragged that one out for nearly two weeks. Some of them can be done in a few days, and others like the zombies could be fleshed out and last 3-4 weeks. We've really enjoyed it.

It looks wonderful!  However, it doesn't seem terribly independent?  I think we'll keep this in mind if we need a change of pace, maybe during college breaks??

 

[bluedarling]

My DD wanted to accelerate, too, so what I did was let her accelerate through her MUS books, but I'm still following up with things that go at the concepts from a different angle, like LOF, BA, and, in a little while, AoPS.  So she's starting Pre-Algebra in MUS now, but I'm thinking we'll start AoPS Pre-Algebra in a year or so, once we've finished BA and gotten up to/through Pre-Algebra in LOF, as well.  It doesn't seem too repetitive to her because of the different angle, and also because she's liking the story aspect of the math so much.

 

I still have all our MUS books!  She didn't like them because they were really repetitive, but I wonder if I presented it as a way to accelerate her learning if she'd bite! (I'd like to use what I have, and save my money for my college expenses!)  She was in Delta last year, but I don't know where she'd be now....with ps.  MUS would be good for running through 'til we find where she is at!  So, how do you accelerate it?  Let her just do 2 days per lesson, then test?  I think that was what I was doing, but it was still 3 days on a topic, and she was balking at it.    With the BA/AOPS, do you assign that every day on top of the MUS?

[mommy2ella]

I still have all our MUS books!  She didn't like them because they were really repetitive, but I wonder if I presented it as a way to accelerate her learning if she'd bite! (I'd like to use what I have, and save my money for my college expenses!)  She was in Delta last year, but I don't know where she'd be now....with ps.  MUS would be good for running through 'til we find where she is at!  So, how do you accelerate it?  Let her just do 2 days per lesson, then test?  I think that was what I was doing, but it was still 3 days on a topic, and she was balking at it.    With the BA/AOPS, do you assign that every day on top of the MUS?

 

Honestly, I let her pick when she's ready for the test.  While she likes accelerating, she also likes to feel 100% confident.  Sometimes she does 1 day per lesson (one new and one review page) and is ready for the test.  Some lessons she wants to do another day before she's confident.  Occasionally she'll want 3 days before a test.  I save whatever sheets she doesn't use in case she ever needs review on the subject.  If the lesson is full of long, drawn-out problems I'll let her work on 2 lessons at once so she doesn't burn out on one type of problem, too.

 

With the BA or Life of Fred, we usually do that a few times a week, as we have time, later in the afternoon.  If it's been a long day, we'll skip it.  

Edited March 6, 2016 by mommy2ella

[SilverMoon]

For MUS I'd use the chapter tests to see which sections you can just skip.

 

STEM to Story is not independent. It's written to the teacher of a classroom. There is no scripting or sections to read aloud. I read it ahead of time and present the lesson.