Who Chooses the Studies in Your Homeschool?

This afternoon I took my middle daughter out to lunch and on a shopping trip. Every year before school starts, I take each child by themselves to lunch and shopping. This gives me an opportunity to visit with them alone and see where we are headed in the coming year. I knew my 15 yo was interested in sports so we went to 3 used book stores in the area. The last one had several sports books she wanted to read, so I bought them for her. When school starts, she will have time to read and write about each one. In the back of my mind, I’d like her to write a paper on what makes a great athlete, based on her readings. She may want to study sports all year and that is okay. If she studies sports for 2 hours each day, she will come across math, history, science, literature, and so forth in her studies. I will use her interest to form her school work.

I tell my kids that they will need to pick a subject area to study, in addition to their basic studies. I expect their basic studies to take 2-3 hours and we will have 1-2 hours in the afternoon for their chosen studies. Their basic subjects are history (usually done together as a family), writing, and literature. For my youngest, I will still assign him math and a little grammar/vocab, too. But, I know he will learn and remember more of what he “wants” to study than what I assign. Believe me this is far from my personality. I like to make those assignments and let them work, but that is not what is best for them as they learn how to be a leader.

Let your kids make some decisions about what they want to study, even if it is motorcycling, biking, or sewing. Let them choose and begin to be a leader in their own studies.

Kerry