So what's the plan?

Nothing is ever boring in the land of academic homeschooling and this year is no different. Just when it seemed that we had hit our stride, entering our third year and the dreaded middle school age with a sense of calm, I threw a giant wrinkle into the plan. As the new principal of our K-8 charter homeschooling program and still planning on homeschooling the kid, the 13-14 school year will be a roller coaster ride for sure. We think we've figured out a plan, but like all well laid plans, who knows if they'll actually come together!

In homeschooling, I get a lot of questions about what curriculum we're using or how he does his work. I wrote about what curriculum we were going to use, back in May and much of that is staying the same. I am pretty impressed that our May curriculum plan is actually holding up! I've laid out lesson plans loosely through the end of September, with some flexibility to adjust to our new routine factored into the weeks. 

The kid has chosen his electives with some serious coaxing from me. Since I'll be working, he needed to pick classes that fit not only his interests, but my work schedule. He's settled on beginning guitar, Spanish lit and film, musical theater dance an online class from the lovely Headmistress Athena at Athena's Academy, drama and Minecraft Club. He'll continue fencing lessons twice weekly and also Math Olympiad twice a month.

You'll notice none of that actually includes our regular core academics. In our three hours of morning quiet time before I need to be at work, we'll be covering our usual math, science, history, language arts, grammar and writing. I'm enthusiastically diving in to the Bravewriter lifestyle and have blocked special time for poetry tea that will be uninterrupted each week.  We'll put aside everything in November for NaNoWriMo and again in February for the school Science Fair. If I thought it would work long-term, we'd simply do one subject a month and go as fast or deep as we wanted. That doesn't work so well for math, unfortunately!

The good news is that the kid has become more self-sufficient over the past year and likely will be able to finish his work on his own. 

At least, that is the plan... and you know what they say about plans...