Monday, June 20, 2016

Finding Your Kids' Interests

As I now have a child halfway through highschool, and Tigger and Pooh are starting junior high this fall, I thought I might change the direction of this blog. I know. I haven't been that good about keeping it up anyway, so might as well change course.

This fall, my oldest (Rabbit) will be doing My Father's World U.S. History to 1877. I've read through it, and it looks like a good, challenging year. It also looks like it is going to take a good deal more of my time - especially teaching Thinking Like a Christian. It looks like great material, but with our weekly co-op, we may have to do the parent-led teaching on Saturdays. She is also doing Spanish 3 and Apologia's Anatomy and Physiology for science. We're going to try VideoText for math. I think she needs to relearn those foundational algebra concepts. 

Tigger and Pooh will be doing My Father's World Explorers to 1850. The last time through the boys were second graders, and only did the second grade supplement. It will be interesting to see how they like it. They are also doing Apologia's General Science (they will be doing the labs at our co-op), Saxon 8/7 for math, and My Father's World seventh grade English recommendations. We have already started Saxon 8/7 this summer, to get a head start.

One of the things about heading into junior high and high school is to start focusing your kids on their interests. Seeing where God might be leading them. Rabbit is pretty easy. She loves dance and music and teaching. She is thinking about perhaps a Music Education degree, some how tied into dance. We'll figure it out. 

Pooh is pretty easy. He's very much the engineer. So, we have gotten him Mindstorm Lego kits and he's learned to build cars and program the remote control. I also plan on adding in some programming somewhere. (Finding the time is the challenge.) His dream is to eventually run a car company - he wants to design and build cars. 

Tigger has been more challenging. He can build things with Legos, but it's not his number one favorite. Mostly, he has been into sports - baseball, flag football, hip hop, and basketball. But, he is also very small, and though he wants to be a professional basketball player, i'm not sure he will be big enough. Two things about Tigger caught my attention: one is that he likes doing things that get other people's attention - dressing super nice, cool hair cut, asks if he can get his ears pierced; the other is he perseveres. I also noticed he was writing lyrics to "rap" songs and other things. Then, he wrote up an "article" on a NBA team, on his own. So, I set up a blog for him. This allows him to write, and when people read it, he gets the attention. It's all about his thoughts on the NBA. I also saw an ad in our newspaper for a "Journalism Day" - they learn how to interview, photograph, etc. So, I've signed him up for that. The nice thing is, if he does this one day camp, he may decide he loves it or hates it. If he hates it, we can move on to something else. But, I'm thinking we're on the right track for his future.

Let me just say this: I'm not really worried about their futures. God has a plan for their lives. He will guide them, and use their experiences (or lack thereof) for their futures. I will give them the best foundation I can, but God's got this. 

So,that's where we're heading this next school year. I'll try to keep posting about different things. How our days are going, our co-op, and then maybe thoughts on more "general" homeschooling topics.