Realistically, that's just not going to happen. Our world is not ideal; it's imperfect. Down right awful sometimes. Life has a way of happening and intruding on our personal Utopias, and sometimes parents who've been homeschooling find they need to change direction and send the kids to school.
That's the crossroad we found ourselves at this past spring. After dealing with the loss of a pre-born baby one year, a high-risk pregnancy the next, and my husband's cancer diagnosis 3 weeks after our baby's birth, we felt like our lives had been pretty churned up. I'd lost my motivation to teach my kids -- frankly, I'd lost my motivation for almost everything. Our new baby was a joy (still is), but I'd been put through the ringer, and I was tired.
But God has created seasons, hasn't He? Not just in nature, but in our lives, as well. Just as the world we live in is resilient, moving from summer to fall to winter to spring and back again, He's made us the same way. We have our ups and downs, and thankfully, our souls seem to have a natural bouyancy as, in the midst of the worst circumstances, we find ourselves searching for hope and a better way.
My 15 year-old son decided, and might I say, he decided it pretty decidedly, this past spring that he wanted to go to high school. I won't go into all the reasons here, but his desire for change was well-justified. I was humbled, and looked into a few options for the coming school year: an alternative school founded by homeschoolers, another homeschool-oriented alternative school, and a highly-recommended homeschooling co-op. None of them seemed right, and regarding the co-op, the door fairly slammed shut because the classes he needed to be in were full.
One night as I sat reading in bed, I whispered to the Lord in desperation. "What do I do? Show me the way." I believe right then He gave me the answer as the words child-led learning popped into my head.
Wow, I thought. Okay, then, what is he interested in? The first thing that popped into my head was rock music, Christian rock music in particular.
I grabbed my notebook and pen and began writing furiously as my brainstorm roared on. We would have a great year! He wants to either be in a band someday or manage one, so one of the first courses on the list was business math.
Here's my list as I wrote it out, with a few extra notes to explain some things. I'm still working on it, and have quite a few books to order still, but it's shaping up quite nicely:
Joel, 2007-2008 School Year
Language Arts
- Winston Grammar
- Written reports on favorite bands, and how to manage a band (cumulative research paper)
- Writing copy for web page content (see below)
- Spelling Power
Mathematics
- Geometry, perhaps Algebra 1 (he wants a break from Algebra this year)
- Business math overview
- Paper trading (stock market, using the book Rule #1 by Phil Town)
Electives
- Drivers Ed
- Web page design -- build own web page based on rock music (with me as a very strict overseer)
Foreign Language
- Spanish (we'll try this again -- won't be the first time)
Social Studies/History
- What U.S. and world events occurred when certain rock-n-roll bands or cultural/Christian icons were born, at the heights of their careers/ministries, and deaths?
- People to study (from the last 100 years): Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, Elvis, Johnny Cash, etc.
Some of you may reel at this approach to my son's 10th grade school year. I'm excited about it. I still get to teach my son at home, and he's happy about getting to study something he's actually interested in.
I'll let you know how it goes.
All of this is just to say, if you're at the crossroads of do-we-continue-this-or-not, pray about it. Brainstorm about it. Keep an open mind. Where there's a will, there really is a way. Just because one door may close on you doesn't mean there isn't another open door that you're just not seeing.
You can do it! I'm sure going to try.
Sally
http://www.homeschoolinganyway.com/
www.homeschoolblogger.com/justgivemestarbucks
1 comment:
Your plan looks much like one recommended by a book I got from the Moore Foundation... only the plan in that book was focused on motorcycles.
I have a friend whose child is into dinosaurs. He is autistic so when I say into, I mean really, really into. His teachers have decided that he cannot do anything on this subject because, "This is unhealthy." Other kids think he is weird. Anyway, I tried to tell her... go with him. He shouldn't have to act non-autistic when he is ~ but I don't think the public schools get child-led learning.
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