A Timely Nudge...

Read this post: Usher in Your Life, by my friend Jessica, before you finish reading mine.

So I've been writing posts like this one, this one, and this one, all agonizing over what exactly to do for seventh and ninth grades. I worried endlessly, made notes and plans, came up with new ideas and threw away older ones... or as Jessica put it:

I wasted an entire summer collecting resources to which someone else had assigned educational value.

Then, I read her post (linked above), and I stopped.

I watched my children. I talked to them, not about "do you want to do this curriculum, or this one?" but more along the lines of "what really interests you right now?" and "how did you like x in the past?" Then, I watched them some more, just living, and exploring the world around them. I listened when they told me what they're working on and why it was/is exciting.

So, to make a long story short, I am not planning science, history, art, geography...though I am still considering a semi-organized-interest-led approach, as I detailed here. Math and writing? Yes, we'll continue with those. Afternoon basket? Yes, the kids have asked for that to be reinstated. Other than that, they have many, many interests to explore...

The Boy will shortly be taking two classes at the local junior college. He's teaching himself Anglo-Saxon runes, which has led to an interest in the Middle Ages. He's intrigued by astronomy and geology. He's still building in Blender (computer animation program), and is learning to write code. He works on soft body physics, draws, makes lists of conversions and car models, reads voraciously.



The Girl creates in Minecraft, makes clay sculptures and dresses for her dolls, helps me cook. She loves old fairy tales and is passionate about studying animals. She writes little stories, and draws complimentary illustrations for them. She's fascinated by Queen Elizabeth I, and American pioneers. She reads Gary Larson, and shares the ones she finds the most funny.


Why on earth do I keep wanting to interfere with all that learning?

In the meantime, here's what we've been up to...

Lazy park days with friends

Bodyboarding at a local beach

Watching movies that range from classics to action/adventure sorts

Playing board and card games

Planning a better and beautiful backyard

Watching birds and insects

Spent a gorgeous day at a park with my mom for her birthday, in which we ate delicious food, explored a creek and some fallen trees, climbed redwood tree stumps, spotted birds and flowers, and enjoyed being occasionally silly

Coastal Day...

Yesterday we headed out to China Camp State Park, to celebrate the twelfth birthday of The Girl's friend. It was a gorgeous day... sunny, very warm, just right for a day at the coast. We saw fascinating rock formations; fantasized about an intriguing, albeit tiny, island just offshore; lokked at beautiful oaks; explored a very shallow bay perfect for swimming; and stuck out tongues turned blue with awesome Dr. Who themed cupcakes (they even had blue chocolate Tardises on top!!).

Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo...

Wow, choosing a focal point for The Girl's history and lit studies next year is HARD! She doesn't really have any historical interests that have come to light, so I'm just throwing some options together.

Current thoughts... I have two three four main ideas at the moment as to what she could do. Maybe some reader feedback could help a bit?

image courtesy of deviantart.com

Option A... The Fairytale Project:
A comparative study of major fairy tale forms (Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella,etc.), using the The Classic Fairy Tales: A Norton Critical Edition, along with various versions of each fairy tale, including movies. Poetry, and even some Shakespeare (Midsummer Night's Dream) would be easy to work into this. I can see working in some world cultures too, as there are variations on the fairy tales throughout the world. This would also allow for bringing in more modern novels/fairy tales, such as The Sisters Grimm series, and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

I know this isn't "history", but rather more strictly a literature study, but then she is only going into the seventh grade, has studied a fair amount of history already, and will be tackling it again in high school.

The Pioneer, by Robert T. Barrett

Option B... Pioneer Times:
I'd use books like the Little House books, Abraham Lincoln's World, Pioneer Girl: A True Story of Growing Up on the Prairie, Caddie Woodlawn, and some Native American resources as well (Birchbark House?). She could do hands-on projects -- making butter, quilting, and so forth. And there are plenty of movies and documentaries that could flesh this out. I'm kind of taking notes from The Prairie Primer, but that resource on the whole is too religious for me, thus the piecing it together myself.

I could see her going one of two ways with this... either really enjoying it, or really being bored by it by the end. And I don't know which is more likely, though if she enjoyed it, something fun to follow it up might be a homemade study based on Where the Brook and the River Meet (which features the Anne of Green Gables series, but again is too religious).

From Matilda, by Roald Dahl

Option C... Picture Perfect:
We would use selections from A Picture Perfect Childhood, which contains fantastic monthly lists of [picture] books related to famous people, historical events, the arts, Shakespeare, and more. Before you say "picture books are too young", consider this passage from the book:

There were times when I was dealing with my own teenagers that I found a picture book could better simplify things that were mournfully drawn-out and completely over a child's head in a dry text book. Sometimes a picture book made them care about a subject or a historical person whom they had not cared about before. Many times, a picture book condensed into a nutshell what I had spent the last hour trying to tell them. In history, a world and time zones that reach far and wide, I have found that a picture book can prove to be a capsule-size time machine which can be swallowed more easily than trying to climb and ride the whole elephant. 

And, Jim Trealease writes, in The Read Aloud Handbook: "A good story is a good story. Beautiful and stirring pictures can move fifteen-year-olds as well as five-year-olds. A picture(s) book should be someplace on the reading list of every class at every level."

image courtesy of kidlitfrenzy.com

And Option 4... Science with More:
My other thought was to pair up the Scientists in the Field series with either biographies or works of literature, depending on the exact book. For example, perhaps Digging for Bird Dinosaurs with The Dragon in the Cliff; Wild Horse Scientists with Misty of Chincoteague; Gorilla Doctors with either something on Diane Fosse, or My Life with the Chimpanzees; and perhaps The Frog Scientist with The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. 

I'm sure I will figure this out, or The Girl will help me figure it out, before September... I hope.

A Job Shadow Day...

This week, The Boy got to tag along for a day with a family friend to the San Francisco Opera House. The friend runs the projection for the SF Opera, and was happy to have The Boy follow in his footsteps for a day, which by the way was about 13 hours including transportation time, and about 7 miles in walking during the course of the day! He got to meet people who worked with stage weaponry, lighting, pyrotechnics, robotic cameras, and more... he said it was an amazing day, and he had so much fun! I was thankful that the friend that took him also kept me updated with pictures throughout the day!

I've now decided to "officially" make job shadowing a part of high school for both my kids, and I am looking forward to setting up other opportunities!