New Territory Next Year!

As some of you already know, we have decided to homeschool next year. Phoebe has repeatedly asked to try this--more so this year than in the past. There is no issue with bullies or mistreatment at school--though she does have an arch-nemesis that she has to deal with on a fairly regular basis, but it is not impacting her desire to go to school. Our reasons are primarily financial and academic.

This has opened up potential courses for Phoebe, and she is running with it. Since she is not limited to "regular" school classes, she has asked for Anthropology, Mandarin Chinese, and Latin (this will be over the summer) in addition to US History, French, Algebra I, Physical Science, and English. We suggested adding World Religions and Humanities, and she is enthusiastic to try those as well.

The upside is that we can pace things to fit her needs. She is currently in advanced math, and she is doing well, but it is still "work" for her--it doesn't come easy. So, we talked about it, and there will only be a short break before continuing into Algebra over the summer. This way, she can spend more time on areas that she finds challenging, and there won't be any knowledge loss by not working on anything over the summer. We have always done at least some school-like things over the summer, so this won't really be anything new.

She asked to do Latin over the summer so it won't conflict with French, which will continue in the Fall. She did really well in French this year, and she is eager to continue. US History will pick up where she left off this year, which is the end of the nineteenth century. That we will also start early--sometime in August--because there is so much we can incorporate for World War II, like books and movies, we don't want to rush and not be able to include things.

English and Literature can finally be at a level that will truly challenge her, and that will be wonderful. Plus there are so many great books to read! She will read her first Shakespeare play and lots of new and old classics. We will be able to utilize college libraries to help her with research skills, which she is also excited about. Her plan is to choose something new to explore in more depth every couple of weeks. She can pull things from her classes or simply out of the ether, do the research, and put together a PowerPoint, which will also aide her tech skills.

Right now, it is just working out the details. What we have to do, what we want to do, and how to make it all happen. She is also connecting with other kids who homeschool, so she is building some new friendships along the way.