Next year

It's that time if year when typical homeschoolers start planning for next year and comparing notes.  I don't typically pay close attention to the school-year calendar, but we do have a pretty distinct "summer break" this year on account of Iago's summer arrival.  As a result, I got a kick out of reading people's replies to the question on a homeschool board "If you have a sixth grader, what are your plans for next year?"  Most folks posted a bullet list of subjects and curricula/programs they were purchasing to use for each subject.  But we're taking a different tack (gee, go figure!).  Here's a cut and paste of where I see us going with Sly, or rather where I see Sly going, over the next year or so.  After re-reading it, I was pretty confident that it's gonna be a "best school year yet" for him/us, and I feel SO good about the direction we're heading!


My 6th grader is increasingly unschooling, but this is what I can currently foresee happening in "subject form:"

math: finish Key to Algebra
science, PE, leadership, etc: Civil Air Patrol
more science: a cool homeschool group is doing some neat science stuff this summer+
tech stuff: computer programming and CAD stuff 
language arts: CAP correspondence as necessary (forms, email for events, etc), reading books he's interested in, misc read alouds we choose together plus associated discussion
history: a blend of current events and discussion plus learning/researching related history and/or philosophies, including reading aloud and discussing related literature
lifeskills: ds is "man of the house" while dh is stationed on a ship in another state, so he's doing all sorts of "lifeskills" (everything from lawn care to minor repairs to housework to child & baby care)
arts: continuing guitar lessons and asking to start fiddle lessons
Bible/religion: reading together and discussing, plus discussing sermons (perhaps to include relistening to them online), plus following one or two chosen missionaries/missionary groups, including related politics and comparing other religions, plus giving (ds earns $ with a lawn business plus other occasional opportunities)
other stuff: legos, nerf war zone (homeschool group thing), some stop action movies, maybe electronics, plus learning dh's job to the extent allowed (from both conversations/teaching and field trips, including not only the job but related geography, politics, leadership, and sciences), plus he's currently talking about writing a short story (I'm curious to see if this happens and where it leads to, maybe a Lego movie or a game/program/digital film, which he's getting into)

I know that sounds kind of crazy and haphazard, but since we've been moving this direction (more unschooling and especially pushing the "man of the house" angle, ds has really been stepping up to the challenge and I'm feeling more and more comfortable with dropping "curriculum" and really customizing his education. We'll still finish some/most of the few (Sonlight) core 5 readers/read alouds we have left. I don't know that I'm getting Core 6 (we already have SOTW), and if we do, it'll be for the lit. I also have A Patriot's History of the US that I was considering reading, but it may wait for another year or two (baby due in 5 weeks, so we'll play that by ear).

Oh, fwiw, ds will be 13 in July, so he's an "old" 6th grader now. We're taking advantage of that and working more on "Man Building" while resting confident in the fact that he has the three R's down, and can now begin to use those three R's for beginning his "real" education.


So, that's the "plan," keeping in mind of course that in our house a "plan" is merely "something from which to deviate."