X post - designing a tailor made curriculum

[mumto3girls]

When and how do you start designing a tailor made curriculum for your children?

 

My eldest (12yo) is very linguistically minded, loves reading, writing, learning foreign languages, speech and drama. Ambleside Online seems to be a perfect fit for her. At this stage, she wants to complete a Bachelor in English Literature and English Writing. She has a few ideas of what career path she might want to pursue, but she is really drawn to this particular degree to begin with. So I am thinking that AO7-12 will be great in getting her there.

 

I had just thought that my younger two would follow the same primary and secondary education, as I have all the books and understand how they work together. However, they are two very different learners with very different interests and they aren't as keen as big sis in some of the subjects. For instance, my 8yo does not enjoy the history suggested by AO as 'they all fight and get killed' (her words). I have pulled that from her day, and instead realised that I need to spend more time with her on the mechanics of reading and writing. She is not as interested in reading independently as her older two sisters were at that age/level, but she really gets maths and is very smart. For a few years now she has talked about being a surgeon or a pilot. 

 

My 10yo loves to work quietly and independently and often teaches herself her maths lesson. She too has always understood math! Her interests have always been with horses, and recently asked me if she could go to uni to learn about horses. Her dream for the past few years has been to teach children how to ride horses. She has never shown any interest in any other occupation, so it wouldn't surprise me if she did choose something to do with horses. She could earn a bachelor of equine science, which she would need a high level of maths and science.

 

So both of my younger two will most likely benefit from a strong maths and science path. From my understanding, AO is not very strong in maths or science. I wonder if they would be better with a different science program and not so heavy literature curriculum. I know they are so young still and could change their minds several times between now and adulthood, and I also understand they really need to be exposed to all sorts of topics. A friend had given me Abeka Science textbooks for grades 7, 8 and 9. As well as Apologia Biology. Would these be a better option? I do also have Abeka science from grades 3-5 as well. I had previously dropped them though as I found them rather 'textbooky' and I would much rather living books, but maybe I need to drop my ideals here for science??

 

I understand their choices may differ from their interests now, but I want to set them up as well as I can for whatever career path they choose.

What long term plan would you consider for each of my girls, considering their interests and current levels?

[8filltheheart]

I create unique plans for my kids almost every single yr, regardless of age. I wouldn't create a shift in focus on any subject at the expense of any other until late high school, and even then only with a solid balance. For example, my current college student took multiple sciences every yr, but maintained history, lit, etc. My rising college freshman took multiple languages every yr, but still graduated with math through cal and also took stats.

 

Fwiw, I do not use science textbooks until high school level science, and even then I have not always used textbooks. I have designed an ecology course and multiple astronomy/physics courses.