Sometimes I accuse Max of trying to reinvent the wheel. He does a lot of computer programming for work and rarely will use software that already exists or try to improve what is already in practice in his lab. He likes to start from scratch. I can't fault him because his end result, is always better. His fingers race over the keyboard, hour after exhausting hour until he his finished, pleased, proud and breathing again.
Not a single text or workbook is published by a homeschool company. Everything is meant for actual teachers in actual classrooms. (I realized I just diminished my own home classroom by saying that. Sorry.) I chose not to buy actual homeschool materials for our curriculum. Why? I don't know. It would have been the smart thing to do. Maybe I also feel a need to reinvent the wheel in my life.
Our curriculum has been more successful in some areas more than others. Here's the run-down:
Biology: The textbook I picked up at a homeschool used book sale. It is pretty good. I learned that a local high school uses it and I've found a lot of online resources that coordinate with it. I've enjoyed creating projects as we've read. Sometimes Gabby and I have struggled with the content, but that should be expected since it is advanced for her and has been along time since I studied these topics.
Math: Here there has been ups and downs. My husband is teaching. I've been worried recently that it is not working, but yesterday, I heard a deep and bold, "yeah!" come from the kitchen table where Abigail was factoring polynomials. A few seconds later, "I did it!" So maybe things are on the up, now.
Social Studies: I chose to have Gabby do an intensive geography curriculum this year. That would be great if I had any background in geography at all!
Language Arts/Literature: I have been using Utopia by the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary. There is a lot of group discussion and group projects which, obviously, is hard to do with a class of one. There is also a lot of educational theory in the teachers guide that is over my head. The amount of work itself is staggering. However, I'm not sure if that is because, in a classroom, teachers tend to pick and choose what they do, rather than complete the everything. Do the authors expect me to use the whole book, assign every assignment? It's meant for grades 7-9 -- does that mean it should take me 3 years to complete it or is it meant just for one? Maybe seventh graders would take longer and end up completing less from the book than 9th graders... These I things I would ask the authors, if I could.
We've been plugging along, taking breaks here and there for my own curriculum ideas. Some parts of it I love. I love that Gabby is learning about the concept of utopia and reading great works of fiction. I love the vocabulary webs. These are worksheets that replace the traditional vocabulary list. The student finds the word in the text, writes her own sentence, finds the definition, synonyms, antonyms, root words, derivation, word families... It's great. What a way to expand your vocabulary and actually remember the words you're learning!
I also love the literature webs. These are worksheets the student fills out for reading selections. They include symbols, feelings, ideas, structure.
Here are some examples:
We recently completed a unit on Animal Farm by George Orwell. At first I was overwhelmed with the amount of writing, projects, and worksheets for one, rather short novel. But by the end, when Gabby wrote her final essay, I was saw that she could use as resources all these projects and worksheets, so writing the essay felt like a natural conclusion rather than this overwhelming, all-consuming assignment. She was very well-prepared by the work she had done leading up to it. That impressed me.
Our first unit on Little Women wasn't part of Utopia. Neither is A Christmas Carol. We are just finishing that up. I also read to Gabby and Bri every night. This fall we read A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett. It is only a few days until Christmas but we are just starting our holiday story -- The Bird's Chritsmas Carol. In January we'll start up with Utopia again. That means, over the Christmas break, I'll have a lot of reading and preparing to do. And I hope, not too many wheels to invent.
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