We recently switched around the organization in our homeschooling again. We are trying out something new - breaking our studies into six week "sessions", with four subjects each session, each subject being given 30 minutes per school day. The Kid and I agree that Spanish will always be one of her subjects. I choose one subject each session. The Kid chooses two subjects per session. (If she is feeling less schooly, she can choose less than two. The joy of being five years old!)
We've found before that no structure ends with The Kid frustrated, and too much structure ends with The Kid frustrated. A few years ago, I assumed that I would unschool until she was 7 or 8, but that doesn't quite fit her. We were doing daily core subjects and switching between science, history, art, music, grammar, poetry, and maybe some other stuff - it was exhausting to keep track of and plan! I wanted an option that blended heavily child-led with enough structure to keep us both happy. So far, so good!
We recently wrapped our first session, and it went great. We are now in the midst of a five week trip, so this session is all Spanish, all the time. But we've already chosen our subjects for the next session, and are excited to get underway again!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteDiscovered your blog. How did this schedule work out? I will start HS in Sept with my 5 year old. I was thinking a 4 day school week for Core subjects and your ideas seems interesting.
So far, it's been perfect for us. We just started our fourth six-week session this week. I do think if The Kid hadn't already been a very strong reader, we would have had to have reading as an "every day" subject. Keeping my control limited to one class at a time has really made me examine what I think is important in her education, and The Kid has come up with some amazing ideas for what to learn - typing, the periodic table, and how things fly, for examples. The six week time period means that even when she really doesn't like a subject (one of my picks was handwriting), there is a light at the end of the six week tunnel.
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