All right, let’s do this.
We’re basically finished with “school.” Such as it is. I’m sitting here with the red notebook that I’ve kept all year, readying myself to make a transcript. I’ll let you in on the process, especially since a few of you are either homeschoolers, have accidentally schooled from home the past few weeks or might even be seriously considering homeschooling after what this debacle has revealed about education.
Reminder of where we’re at and where we’re coming from. My more substantive homeschooling post are here, which, cumulatively recount how and why we got to this point. Shortest version: School became a waste of time and money, education for us is done more efficiently and holistically at home, so why not? I wish there were other options around here – because I know, around the country, they exist – some of my friends and acquaintances send their kids to them or work in them – but nothing that fits that bill here.
I would also not mind sending him off to another place every day so I would have more time to pursue my own interests, but that’s not what parenthood is. You accept the little life into yours, it’s all about sacrifice from that point on. Cheerfully accepted, I might add. Making a sacrifice and then reminding everyone every day about the sacrifice really misses the point.
Adult life, lived according to the Gospel, isn’t about finding what brings you joy and chasing it down. It’s fundamentally about accepting the duties of the moment, bringing Christ into your response to those duties, and finding joy and peace in that.
And you just never know where it will take you..
Alabama has very loose homeschooling regulations. No required curricula or testing. No grade reporting. Just report attendance to your district and turn in a high school transcript at the end if you want them to have a diploma. (This is done under “cover schools.” )
Am not a fan of online classes. Just putting that out there. The only thing even close to a recorded course are the Great Courses lectures.
I/we also don’t plan as much as record. We have a general sense of “we’ll read the Odyssey now” – but no schedule for doing so. So I have a general idea notebook, but more important is the notebook in which, every day (hah), I jot down what he studied/did/what we discussed that day.
So, let’s thumb through the notebook- which, oddly enough peters out around March…. and see what happened this year:
Math: Two courses, both from the Art of Problem Solving.When I say “courses,” I don’t mean he did the online courses – he/we worked through the books: Introduction to Counting and Probability and Geometry.
Science: Biology, taught through this Catholic co-op by a Ph.D. microbiologist from a local university. I think he knew what he was doing.
Literature: He read the Iliad in the fall and the Odyssey this spring. Vastly preferred the latter, and I agree. Also 1984, Hamlet and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
That’s the “school” reading. He reads a great deal on his own. He’scurrently finishing this series – about dragons and the Napoleonic wars? I don’t know. And he has the brick of Clavell’s Shogun sitting waiting for him. He really wants to read it – we’ll see what he thinks. It’s not my genre (although I think I did read Uris’ Exodus as a teen), so I have nothing to contribute.
He’s not done much writing. I had him do a bit at the beginning, made the judgment, “Yeah, he can write” and decided that was enough. I looked into a couple of online creative writing classes, but by the time I had settled on one, Pandemic had struck and I figured they might be overwhelmed. So..next fall.
Latin: Latin 1, using Latin for the New Millenium. Mostly done with me, with monthly visits with a local tutor. These videos were extremely helpful.I’m very grateful that this teacher put them online. There are others – like these – but the first set are based on this curriculum, so they’re the best for us.
We also used these stories as an additional resource.
He took the National Latin Exam for Latin 1 in March and missed 1 – made “gold” or summa cum laude or whatever.
Spanish: He does Spanish mostly on his own, using the Great Courses Spanish II(taught, incidentally, by a fellow from the U of Alabama). Then there was the week intensive in Honduras last November. We’d hoped to do something similar this spring either in Guatemala or Mexico, but obviously that’s not happening.
He watches a lot of videos. I mean. A Lot. If you have a kid learning Spanish who also loves animals, look into these:
They’re kind of crazy, and the narrator’s intonation at the beginning of each is very funny.
Incidentally – that’s not a bad idea. If your kid (or you) are learning a language, of course there is no dearth of video and audio resources to help you – including materials in that other language specifically related to other subjects in which there’s interest – animals, food, cars, politics, whatever.
Oh, and from the myriad of Spanish videos out there – these usually rise to the top. I’d heartily recommend them – Dreaming Spanish.
History: All on his own. His focus has been ancient history and the World Wars this year. He reads books and magazines, watches videos. Follows rabbit trails.
Religion: Old Testament has been the focus, working our way through chunks of it, using this book as a support.
And of course, this is a kid who has also been playing organ for two Masses a week since October, so he’s obviously learned about the structure of the Mass and gets his dose of formation from listening to preaching a couple of times a weekend – sometimes three, when he’d do his volunteer work with the developmentally disabled Saturday morning, part of which was a celebration of Mass.
Also, this Catholic organization – which meets weekly (up until March, that is) and has various other activities.
Music: Jazz lessons up until early spring. Intermittent organ lessons. Regular piano lessons, by video at a distance up to March, and then in-person as his teacher has returned from his shut-down graduate school up north. We’ve gone all-in since then, with lessons twice a week most weeks. He’s participating in an online competition with four components: Performance of three pieces (the first movement of this Haydn Sonata,this Brahms Scherzo and Prokofiev’s A Diabolical Suggestion), a theory test, a technique test and a paper on one of his pieces (see…he will write this year!)
We’re calling that a course in “Music Literature and Analysis” for the transcript.
He also has a guitar which he is learning to play on his own.
Service: As mentioned, a Saturday morning program in which teens serve as catechists for developmentally disabled children and youth. That met weekly until March.
Serving dinner at a local shelter for women and children every six weeks or so.
Occasionally – when his music schedule permits –serving Mass and Benediction at this local convent for their retreats.
Performing Arts:
Obviously, nothing since March. But over the course of the year before that:
Hamlet (Alabama Shakespeare Company)
Harpsichord recital (local)
Peer Gynt Suite and other pieces (Alabama Symphony Orchestra)
You Can’t Take it With You (local production)
Porgy and Bess (local production)
All of which is accompanied by tediously Teachable Moments with me – setting context/historical background, etc.
Obviously, there was a lot more we’d hoped to do and see, but…maybe next year.
Travel:
Same caveats as above, but:
August: South Dakota, Mount Rushmore, Badlands
October: Charleston (a frequent destination because of family), including the USS Yorktown ship.
I should also add that there was a bit of education about medicine, American hospital care, emergency room procedures, orthopedics, and the anatomy of the elbow over the past few weeks.
Ahem.
2020-21
What about next year? Well, of course, specifics outside the house will depend on the state of the world in the fall. Will we be able to travel? Will there be live performing arts? Will his piano teacher be able to return up north? Who knows!
But for now:
Math: Algebra II with a tutor. Already lined it up, the tutor was his 8th grade algebra teacher in school, she’s excellent, and we’ll be starting in a couple of weeks. I wanted to get rolling this summer in a not-intense way, because if life is sort of back to normal by late summer, I want to be able to take a trip somewhere after Brother goes back to college in mid-August and before the homeschool co-op starts in mid-September.
So, Algebra II, and then statistics, I’m thinking.
I’m mostly hugely relieved that my days of “teaching” math seem to be over.
Science: Chemistry with the co-op
Latin: Continue with Latin II, take the NLE in March.
Probably add Greek at some point.
Spanish: Hopefully, we’ll get another immersion week in. I’d like to go to Antigua, Guatemala for this one.
Everything else will be as ad hoc as usual.
He’ll take the ACT at some point – one of the testing opportunities in which you can get the test and answers back and see what you’ve gotten wrong. Just to see how he’s doing.
He has a sense of what he wants to study in college and afterwards (not music, by the way…) and where he wants to go. Next summer (2021) hopefully all will be back to normal and he can participate in an excellent summer program offered by said college and see if his sense that this very unique program is a good fit for him is correct. Both of us are convinced that it is – but he does need to experience it in person to make sure.
It has been a weird year. His brother returned from college in March – to stay – and that is just fine, and very nice, but still the whole situation of uncertainty and lockdown has ripped apart our focus, except with music.
Onward!
Charlotte was Both 