"The purpose of education isn't to train for a technical skill, it's to develop the whole person. The more fully a person meets his potential, the better his work will be, no matter what that work is."
Charlotte Mason, volume 6 page 147
"The main challenge is the huge amount of subjects to introduce children to. They have a right to them as human beings, and they need to find out about the things that they're drawn to as people and that they'll spend the rest of their lives pursuing further. The first and the most important is the knowledge of God. This is to be learned most directly from the Bible. "
Charlotte Mason, volume 6 page 254
Knowledge is that which we know, but a person can only know what he expends the effort to learn. Nobody can learn for him, it's something he has to do for himself."
Charlotte Mason, volume 6 page 255
"Instead, just let the student read it and tell it back, and he'll know it."
Charlotte Mason, volume 6 page 262
One huge advantage of homeschooling during the high school years is that you can customize your plans to fit each student. As the child grows and expresses interests and strengths, I think it is our duty to find ways to nurture those interests and strengths (or I might even call them gifts). We are not obligated to complete each year the same way for each of our children. Aren't we glad we can adjust the materials and subjects? Our paths can be as individual and specialized as our growing and developing young men and women.
So what are we doing this year with only one child homeschooling???
- Thinkwell American Government - Online course with biographies and other books to narrate and current events to consider. After he finishes this semester course he will be starting his economics study.
- Tapestry of Grace Year 4 - Used loosely for literature and history with lots of reading and narration both oral and written. I am adding in poetry and Shakespeare AND for the first time an opera! I am open to suggestions for our opera study....considering Carmen or La Traviata. Leave me a comment if you have any ideas!
- Human Anatomy - System by system we will learn about the human body, supplemented with loads of vocabulary and drawing.
- Auto Shop - Dad's required course using the Auto Up-Keep curriculum we used with Mr. A. Mr. B will be driving a lot now that he has his Driver's Permit (my last baby has hit the road).
- Geography - Current events, maps, and notebooking pages
- Writing - IEW's courses: Elegant Essay and Windows to the World. These will be done as they fit our needs and as I see the opportunity to fine-tune Mr. B's writing.
- Art/Music/Violin - Harmony Fine Arts Grade 12 supplemented with some elements from HFA Grade 8.
- Bible Study - Continuation of our chapter by chapter reading and discussion along with memorization.
Mr. B will continue with some of his activities from last year including his baking course and his astronomy course. These both will be very self-driven and will be recorded in Homeschool Tracker as he completes projects. These will be added to his work from last year to finish complete credits in both by the end of the two years. This is something I learned from working with Mr. A and his Aviation course. We kept track of all his activities related to this study, both formal and informal and were able to combine them into one course with a full credit at the end. Nothing says that all the work for a high school course needs to be completed within one school year.
In the end, I have tried to stick to my CM convictions with lots of interesting subjects and ideas to learn about, focusing on the whole person and not filling a transcript. I will be organizing the books and sequence but Mr. B will be doing the actual work of learning without much interference from me. I will still be here available and willing to guide him if he needs it.
Part of me wishes he needed more help....
15 comments:
A wonderfully tailored plan! (I can read through the lines the relaxed tone you have) I've been interested in Thinkwell ever since you posted on it. Now the auto shop. Tagging, saving for future. Thank you.
Hi Barb! You may have said this already somewhere, and I just missed it, but are you planning to do Sketch Tuesday and The Outdoor Hour again this year? I have them scheduled in each week, but can go back and use past assignments if necessary. I was just wondering.
Love your plan and also appreciate the auto shop link! I completely understand the wishing they need more help...my senior and freshman are far more autonomous than my mommy's heart would like, but I am proud of them and thankful for the new discussions throughout our day :)
Nicole,
Sketch Tuesday will be back on September 6th. I am still undecided about the direction of the OHC except that I love the new Newsletter format so much that I might just roll with that since I am still busy rewriting HFA and getting those new plans polished and posted.
I will keep everyone posted.
Nice--I especially appreciated the great quotes from Miss Mason. Back-to-school is a "sigh" for me--we had great plans for this year until... Oh well, we're making the best of it and trying to work around it all. I hope you have a great final year! Will there be a farewell tour?? lol...You deserve a traditional European Grand Tour for all you exceptional hard work.
Hopewell,
What an awesome idea! Wouldn't that be great? We can always dream can't we?
Thanks for the idea.
We did an opera study 2 or 3 yrs ago. We did a different opera each month of the summer, I believe. Carmen was one of them -- which the kids loved! We did not get to La Traviata. Along with Carmen, we did The Barber of Seville and the "sequel", The Marriage of Figaro, and also The Magic Flute.
I approached it kind of like we do Shakespeare. Our library still had a book that I remembered from my childhood (same library, same actual book!) by Clyde Bulla called "Stories of the Opera" and a second one of "More Stories of the Opera". This was kind of like using Leon Garfield's Shakespeare stories. We read the narrative of the opera, in order to get familiar with the story and characters. Then I have a cd called something like Opera for Children (Sonlight sold it), that has famous music from a number of operas, done in English, along with a printed insert (I can't find the cd to give the title -- one of the kids must have it upstairs) -- to give an idea of what the popular "song" of the particular opera may have been.
Then I would get a dvd from Netflix and we would watch it over the course of several days, with the English subtitles turned on (many operas are very long -- because people would make an "event" of going. I would tell the kids historical background in the course of all of this -- Mozart as the superstar of his day, people playing cards and going to see and be seen at the operas, the evolution into operettas and modern musicals. Carmen is highly dramatic, and was quite unusual and considered very scandalous at the time. Bullfights, outlaws, jealousy, fights and very recognizable music!
I got interested in learning more about opera after reading a historical mystery by Barbara Hambly called "To Die upon a Kiss". It takes place in 1830's New Orleans and the characters are involved in a production of The Marriage of Figaro and Gluck's Orpheus.
Hope this helps! I should have blogged this myself and just linked you, ha ha.
Thanks Diana for all the tips! I am sort of thinking of doing the same sort of study of an opera that you outlined but we only are going to fit in one this year and one next year. The best would be to go to a live production of the opera we study after we are done but I don't know if that will happen. :)
Thanks for sharing your experiences with me.
What beautiful pictures!
I love that your son has Auto class, too!
Here a movie theater shows live simulcasts of some of the NY Metropolitan Opera productions. My sister (who goes to the Met at least once a year and is an opera afficionado) says she actually likes the simulcasts better -- great view of the stage and you get to see all the backstage interviews they do for the public radio broadcasts (which you don't get to if you are actually AT the Met). I think if you go to the public radio site for that opera show (Toll Brothers World of Opera) you could see if there is a movie theater near that shows these. Of course an actual LIVE perf. would be fun -- we have an opera company in Memphis, but we've never been (I keep waiting for Carmen or Marriage of Figaro).
Another great tip! We live near enough to San Francisco that we could actually go there for a performance if we found one we were interested in seeing....we have been to the symphony and the ballet but never to an opera. :)
I've always thought Ballet and Opera should be in Amblesideonline somewhere, but it's not. I've added some resources for it (really suitable for any age, but they are aimed at children) on my "other" blog
http://21stcenturycharlotte.wordpress.com/composer-study-ballet-and-opera/
This will be our - closest to resembling - a CM approach. I am excited for the year - excited for the direction. The years of training, research, discipline - I am hoping - will reveal themselves these next few years. Anticipation!
Barb, I loved this post. The CM quotes are wonderful - I'm going to note them down in my planner and what Hodge Podge Mom said rings true - I can sense your relaxed tone. Thanks for a great post.
Blessings
Shirley Ann
"Part of me wishes he needed more help" I so agree with this! My oldest is only in Year 4, and I'm letting her do a number of readings on her own. But I find myself wanting to do them with her because I so want to read these books! But there are three others needing my attention, so I must let her grow up. Maybe I"ll get to the readings at some point.
Post a Comment