It’s only the end of July but our local homeschool curriculum fair was held yesterday. I love school supplies and textbooks and videos but they intimidate me at the same time. There are so many high quality products! The first year that I homeschooled, I spent lots and lots of money buying books and curriculums that looked amazing. I only used a small portion of them. The next year, I was a little more restrained. Now, five years later, I only bought 5 biographies for my son and a few specific books for my daughter.
I have already researched and planned what I am going to begin for Daniel’s 10th grade year, have bought a few things on Amazon, DVRed a lot of things for him to watch, and found a lot of free online resources. I’m more focused than I used to be about planning and buying curriculum. I’m not as much of a kid in the candy shop (although everything still looks just as “yummy” as it did the first time). I have a little more shopper’s self-control.
This year, I understand Daniel and his unique learning needs a little more than I did last year. Every year, I learn a little bit more about him and his learning style and He does too. We are going to do a lot of video and audio based learning for U.S. History. He really retains information that he sees or hears vs. what he reads. We also got to go to the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, Texas to learn about JFK, his presidency and his assassination. I hope we can do some awesome field trips for this subject.
Following up on the heels of his successful comedy camp, he is going to participate in ICC (the Institute for Cultural Communicators) and drama at the Theater Center for his drama and public speaking class. I hope that ICC will be really good for his Aspergers-rule-following learning style. ICC teaches ways to communicate clearly and respectfully and ways to respect others and the social situation that you are in at that time. Most importantly, it teaches students to become leaders for Christ and to funnel their speaking and entertaining abilities into a passion for sharing Christ. I explained to him that this group would help him hone his comedy skills and his communication skills so that he could be most effective for Christ and for encouraging others. He was all for it!
Daniel struggles with communicating in writing (he has a disability in written communication) so I am praying about having him work with a tutor (via Skype) for his English class so he can be pushed beyond his limitations in this area and learn to write (or dictate) papers and improve his spelling and written communication as much as possible.
Math will be done online using Khan Academy. It is an awesome step by step, only move on when you’ve got the concept but don’t beat it into the ground, video based website and curriculum. Daniel struggles with memory (number facts, multiplication tables) in math so this should be a rewarding program for him.
Chemistry, personal finance, and Bible will be video and hands on as well.
It takes a little bit of this and a little bit of that so that Daniel can learn well and continue to grow and mature. I hope I am starting out realistically and yet challenging him to be more than he would attempt on his own.
Homeschooling has been a blessing so far for Daniel and for me. I am hoping this year will be the best yet!
~ Brooke
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