Curricula, Unit Studies, and Syllabi! Oh, My!

It's that time of year again.

I got the letter from the school board today - although a response isn't due until August 15th. The letter requests that I verify my credentials, my daughter's progress, and - most importantly - submit my curriculum for next year.

There is no autopilot setting for homeschool education. You don't get a report card passing your child up the line to the next grade and then focus on reservations for summer camp.

No.

This is the time when homeschooling parents are scouring the internet for the best deals and most appropriate approaches for teaching our kids. Decisions have to be made in the next couple of months: where, how, and with what will we be educating our children? We have to think about content, too. How closely will we follow a set curriculum? How much will we supplement? Where are we going to get the money for all this?

These are the questions that come in late spring and early summer, along with the "for sale" notices on the materials we used last year.

It's one huge, educational swap meet!

So, what are the options?

There is "school in a box." Complete sets of materials, heavy on the computer work and on worksheets. These are often organized along traditional content area classes and focus on mastering reading, writing, and arithmetic in the early grades.

Then there are the looser, more flexible curricula that are designed to facilitate tailoring to the child's needs. While these still tend to center on the traditional content classes, they also work at integrating them. Boundaries blur and skills are applied across the curriculum.

Then there are unit studies. Themes are used to explore a variety of skills. Planning an imaginary trip out to California in a covered wagon can involve math, science, art, history, and literature.

Finally there is the choice to "unschool." Teaching as topics come up, and as the child shows interest. The parent acts as a facilitator, resource, guide, and cheerleader rather than as a traditional teacher.

Which approach is best for you? Most likely it will be a combination.Certainly, I've used elements of all of them this year.

I'm going to be looking at each of them in a bit more depth over the next few postings as I look to how we will be structuring our homeschool time next year. The Girl's self motivation will have to be encouraged as it is likely that I will be working nearly full time and it will be Grandma taking her to the library and looking over the first drafts of her papers.

Who said we get a break for summer?

Oh, right - NO ONE.

Taking the Plunge

In my last post, I mentioned that I got a shock at the beginning of my daughter's second grade. I'm sure it was something that has happened to a lot of parents, but I couldn't believe it was happening to me. After all, I always reviewed The Girl's work and report cards, I went in for conferences when the teacher asked me to - which wasn't all that often. I helped my daughter with her homework (spelling words and math). I thought I knew about my daughter's school work and education.

Apparently, I was wrong.

My daughter's new teacher, Mrs. C, called me in shortly after school had started and explained that my daughter was almost a full year behind in her reading.

A full year.

Her reading level in first grade had hardly progressed at all - and I hadn't realized it. I found out later that her first grade teacher hadn't realized it either. The Girl is very smart and good at compensating. She didn't need to be able to read to get by in class. She had us all fooled.

That was when I started seriously considering homeschooling. Not because the school was falling down on the job - although I was pretty unhappy with things at that moment - but because I had fallen down on the job. I had abdicated the responsibility for my daughter's education to an institution, and now she was paying for it.

Luckily, Mrs. C was wonderful, and we all worked hard to make up for lost time. Eventually we discovered The Girl had a rather serious vision problem. The eye doctor was seen, glasses were bought, and The Girl began gaining ground quickly.

But I spent second grade living in her teacher's pocket, and The Girl was spending an average of two hours a night on homework - sometimes three - and she was in second grade.

There had to be a better way.

I started researching, talking to people I knew who were already homeschooling, and looking for curriculum. I didn't want to jump in unprepared, so I decided to wait a year. After all, I there was the chance my research would convince me it wasn't practical. More importantly, there was the chance that The Girl would have a strong opinion against leaving school.

Well, in just four days school lets out for the summer, and for the first time my daughter won't be saying 'see you next year' to her classmates and teachers.

Weird.

She's not leaving because she had a bad year - third grade has been wonderful. She's not leaving because she hasn't made progress - she's ahead in math and finally caught up to grade level in reading.

She's leaving because there are so many things she wants to do that she can't do if she stays in public school. (She is planning on starting Japanese in the fall, and is trying to convince me that she can do Spanish at the same time.) Turns out she does have a strong opinion about homeschooling - and is all in favor of it.

And I'm taking her out because I've figured out a schedule that will let me be in charge of her education. I want to do something more integrated, and with greater flexibility, and I think I have found the curriculum that will let me do that.

Most of all, I want to feel like I know exactly where she is at.

And so we are off! Stay tuned (and maybe wish us luck)!

Tipping the Scales

About the time The Girl entered school, I made friends with a woman that was homeschooling her two children. Let's call her D. At the same time, my brother and his wife were also homeschooling their two elementary aged children. Suddenly, homeschooling was very much on my radar.

You would think that talking about homeschooling would get me interested in pursuing the possibility for my daughter, but all it did was make me more certain that homeschooling was not for me.

D. and her kids are unschoolers, and while I admired how well it worked for them, I didn't feel like I could do it and provide all the skills and information my daughter needed. Unschooling is child led, and it seemed to me that parents had to be ready with all kinds of references and information for whatever happened to come up.

In short, I was intimidated beyond words.

My brother and his wife were using a curriculum that was more of a school-in-a-box. It worked for them, but as a single parent I didn't think I could earn a living and have a school at home.

On top of that, I had the classic "what about socialization?" fear. I did okay when she was home, helping her with homework and taking her on the occasional play date, but I was trying to build a business. How was I going to get anything done if she was home all day? I had visions of her sitting in front of the TV morning to evening while I typed. Not good.

Thus, it was decided. School was the best place for her to learn, no matter how intrigued I was by the idea of homeschooling.

I found out at the beginning of second grade that pretty much all my preconceptions were wrong. I look back on it now, and all I can say is... Oops.

Next time... More on throwing out preconceptions and looking for curriculums.

Decisions, Decisions

It seems appropriate for a first post to discuss the decision that led me to take up homeschooling. Of course, I say that, and then immediately realize that it wasn't just one decision, but a domino chain of choices made by both my daughter and myself that has finally brought us here.

I was not someone who wanted to stay at home with my child and homeschool her from infancy through to her first Nobel Prize. I was afraid I didn't have the patience to do it, and I knew I didn't have the kind of money that would allow it. So it was with great relief that I put The Girl into daycare just short of her first birthday. She loved it. She had great teachers in a pre-school that was underwritten by a local ecumenical organiztion. The affordability and exceptional staff made it the perfect solution for us.

At that time I had left education and was working in the IT field. The hours got longer as I moved up the ladder, and eventually I found that The Girl was spending almost 50 hours a week in daycare. I decided that was a bit too much of a good thing.

In order to spend more time at home with my daughter, and to escape the stress of the IT industry, I moved to the country and started my own business, eventually combining the business with teaching part-time at the local elementary school.

While I was happy to be home with The Girl more, I still did not seriously contemplate homeschooling. I didn't feel up to the task, and I wasn't sure where I would find the time. The local elementary school was good. I liked the building, the teachers, and generally I liked the curriculum. It never entered my head that I might look for other options.

But now, here I am choosing a curriculum. More on how I got to this point in the next post...