For many school is well underway! I realized I never posted about our plans for this year. So here is a run down of our plans for this year. This year I have a 10th grade and a hybrid 11/12 grader. Why hybrid 11/12, because technically he should be graduating next Spring, but I am extending his high school 1/2 to 1 year longer to get in all those credits needed. As has been the case for the last few years, our main curriculum will be Tapestry of Grace (TOG) with an online co-op. These are the subjects we will be covering: History year 3 - The Nineteenth Century - From Napoleon to Teddy Roosevelt Literature Writing Philosophy Church History I put together an art elective from the Fine Art strand of TOG year 2 and year 3 with a couple units from the Lifepac Arts elective. I call it: Art from the Southern Renaissance to the end of the Nineteenth Century Science : we are trying the new Masterbooks Biology curriculum Math : we are continuing with Lifepac Math. Zach has been doing Geom
In my previous posts about Middle School I have shared about how I have been blessed with quite independent kids. I had promised a post about how I went about to encourage independence in my children. Here it is finally! First off I have to say that some kids are naturally independent, and in this case it is quite easier to cultivate that. With others, it is a bit more difficult and requires intentionality and being more aggressive about it. When you have kids who have learned to be independent and to own their learning, they end up being kids that do their school work, even if mom forgot to write a subject on the list of to do for that day. Here are a few steps I took in developing independence in the boys. Give them freedom - the first step is to gradually give them freedom in how they want the school day to go. Involve them in the decision making of what subjects to do each day and in the order as well. Build trust - the kids need to know that you trust them and expec