Homeschooling: Curriculum Evolution

I would say my education philosophy hovers somewhere between straight unschooling and eclectic homeschooling. So while I never gave myself ulcers trying to keep up on every jot of the curriculum I outlined for us last Fall, it was still too structured and not very exciting for #1 son.

DH and I put our brains to work and tried to figure out a way to not only make “lessons” more fun for #1 son, but also make it easier for me to implement.

It’s interesting because last year, the curriculum I found worked fairly well. This year, with the few tweaks added, not so much. I accept that sometimes, you have switch things up.

We do school three days a week, dedicating about an hour to each subject, one in the morning and one in the afternoon: math, science, reading, social studies, art and handwriting. That hour will usually include some worksheets and an activity/project.

Photo by CB

The materials we’re trying out are:

Photo by CB

Worksheets for math, science, reading, writing, spelling
Photo by CB

Tangram game for math
Photo by CB

About 50 books with lessons/activities
Photo by CB

For a lot of activities, I just browse the web for stuff I think #1 son will like. My DH and I also tag team: we each take three subjects to plan for. And, because we are both perceivers, we only plan about a month out.

This past Wednesday was the first day using this approach and it worked well (really well, considering DH was home sick and the night before, #2 son was sick and up for a few early morning hours).

I measure success by #1 son’s acceptance or rejection. If it ever seems like things are forced or he is getting bored, we will certainly change things up again.