Homeschool Curriculum Choices for 2015-2016
Homeschool Curriculum Choices for Middle School
I have to admit, friends, that homeschooling a middle schooler is not for the feint of heart. The growing pains, snark, attitude, lack of motivation, and general noncompliance is exhausting. My son is a good kid. He’s a super-smart kid. He also lacks motivation, and while I can speak on and write about the topic of motivation in gifted kids… getting strategies to work on my own kid is a different story sometimes.
Last year, we worked hard to give him lots of say in his curriculum. In some ways that worked really well. But because he isn’t completely self-motivated, we’ve had to take back the reins in some areas, while letting him keep them in other.
He’ll be working through some of the same memory work themes, and will use our lifetime membership to NotebookingPages.com to research some of the history, science, and geography topics further.
While he’ll join us for memory work, field trips, co-ops, and outside classes, he’ll be stepping up the rigor – and independence – in his schooling this year.
I am SO excited about the math that Trevor will be taking. He’ll be using VideoText Algebra – a Complete Course Algebra I & II (Modules A-F) this year with Brian in the evenings. Our plan is that he and his dad will watch and discuss the video lessons together in the evenings after the littles are in bed, then he’ll complete the lessons the following morning, checking in with Dad again in the evening. Trevor will have access to the DVD player, and can replay the lesson if he needs a refresher.
Brian and I were both so impressed talking to the creator of this program. It’s so intuitive and complete. It just makes sense. He’ll essentially be completing Pre-Algebra (the review portion in the beginning of the course), and two years of high school math – all in a year (if he does 5 lessons a week) or a year and a half (3 lessons a week through the summer, too).
Since Trevor loves to learn through documentaries, shows, and media in any form, he’ll also be completing several courses from Compass Classroom in the living room using the big screen TV.
We love Word Up! The Vocab Game Show, and Trevor will continue on with the episodes, the review games that are available on Quizlet, and by notebooking the roots and words he learns.
Because Trevor loves Dwane so much, he wants to take Visual Latin, too. While the girls use a different program, he’ll work independently through the DVDs and downloadable worksheets included in the Visual Latin program.
Trevor and his grandfather talk about American history all the time when they get together, and he’s been wanting to learn more. So, this year, while he’ll do the memory work associated with Classically Catholic Memory through our co-op, he will be working on his own through Dave Raymond’s American History course from Compass Classroom.
Finally, Trevor will also take an IEW writing course (level C) through co-op at the same time Molly will take hers.
Both the history and math courses are worth high school credit, so we’ll {gulp} start keeping track for high school transcripts this year. I love that homeschooling allows us to embrace his asynchrony – high school math and history, interest-based science, on-level writing, 8th grade grammar (he’ll be finishing the Paradigm Accelerated English Grammar Skills program from last year), and co-ops, classes, and play dates with his friends and siblings.
He’ll have the right mix of accelerated curriculum, fun projects (to be unveiled as we come up with them), and time to be a kid.
Homeschooling is such a great fit for all of the kids, and I’m so happy to be able to stay home with my crazy, fun, asynchronous, and bright kiddos. What curriculum choices are you making for your kids this year?
Do you need more inspiration as you plan your homeschool curriculum choices for the coming year? Check out some of the other posts linked up to the iHomeschool Network’s annual Not Back to School Hop. And, if you have questions about any of the resources I’ve shared, please let me know. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or email me directly. Happy homeschooling!
