Homeschooling for us has changed. Where I started with a box curriculum, we have had to evolve to how my son learns. Fractions were easier to teach with halving or doubling a recipe. Spelling was tossed out as he learned to spell all on his own, and frankly he is a better speller than I will ever be. Math has come easy until this year and we have needed a little extra outside help.
Current events are a big deal and do a lot of our teaching for us. Like when “New Horizons” passed Pluto and its moon, my son was curious. We talked about space exploration. We watched the Science Channel special. We talked about moons and gravity and how it all works together. Just last night my son asked if he could learn more about black holes.
Political season, we watch all the debates, talk about candidates, and all sides of the issues. We want our child to make up his mind about what he believes. This teaches him critical thinking and gives him the opportunity to think about how others see the same issues. We debate as a family with my husband and I often playing devil's advocate so that he can think his position through.
Science is an everyday lesson, from the wonders of cooking to the amazing things you can find in your yard. The life cycle of plants, growing food from seeds and how to best nurture your garden for maximum yield.
Currently, my son is learning to be a webmaster. That teaches critical thinking, programming and working with a client. I want him to start blogging as well to document his process; there is writing skills and language arts.
Reading is modeled in this household as he has parents who devour books like a man at a buffet who has not eaten in weeks. He is given access to and encouraged to read more and more challenging material. I think he might have been given a copy of “A Brief History of Time” to read as of last night.
This is just us… There are as many ways to homeschool as there are homeschoolers, but as someone who used to be neurotic that I would screw it up, I am proud to say my son wants to learn and is now directing more and more of his education. At 13 he is a smart young man and I am super excited to see how the next four years of high school unfolds for us.
