Monday, August 17, 2015

Five things to try in your homeschool- part 5!

(This is the conclusion of a series of things to try in your homeschool. Check out part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4 if you missed them!)

We made it! We've added and tinkered with four things to try in your homeschool, from gamification to choice reading, to online resources and learning to code. That's a lot of new things to try in one summer of planning!

I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted after all that thinking and revising. So what do we do now? Wouldn't it be nice to hand over one of those subjects to someone else? Yes!

The fifth and final thing is to outsource. Find one subject or area you can completely outsource to someone else. This might be through a co-op, a homeschool charter or a provider of homeschool classes in your area. It might even be through grandma, grandpa, aunt, neighbor or the non-primary teacher at home! The best option though, far and away for outsourcing is your own children.

The kid is an only child, so I'm short on options to find other siblings. However, one of the best things we've done is to hand one subject entirely to him to find his own resources and teach himself. Admittedly, this works better with a slightly older child. A chatty five year old can handle it though- with a little help and a few rides for interviewing the librarian/policeman/fireman etc.

In the past, we've outsourced PE (through fencing), writing (through OnlineG3) and extracurriculars like dance and drama. We've outsourced math this year through EMF, but our very best outsourcing has been letting the kid take over one subject. This year, he begged to finish his history curriculum, The Story of Science: Einstein Adds a New Dimension. It wasn't my plan, as 8th grade is typically US history. But his passionate pleas led me to dump our other plan and to hand over history to him. When he finishes up, perhaps I'll take it back, but in the meantime, he's doing fabulously on his own!

Another homeschooling family we know has also outsourced history to their 3rd grader. He's obsessed with WWII and spends hours each week at the library, combing through new resources. He figures out what comes next, what part to study and when he's done with the subject. That's homeschooling at it's finest- where the child takes over and you can just smile and trust the process.

Don't forget to report back and let us know how your five things are working out!

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