When determining you childs curriculum, the first instinct is to want to duplicate what schools do.
Take a deep breath and stop.. remember now that you are homeschooling now, you can now TAYLOR your child's curriculum to what works best SPECIFICALLY for them.
(Btw, If you need help doing this, we are happy to mentor and help hold your hand through the process - but mostly be ready to do a LOT of listening to your children)
But ok lets look at the core basics taught in school: 1)math, 2)science, 3)"english", 4)language, 5)P.E. (ie physical education) 6)arts 7)history
I put "English" in quotes bc i want you to rethink what is taught in English classes. Traditionally what is taught is : Grammer, spelling, reading comprehension, vocabulary
Ok, so why teach these things... so you can be able to communicate effectively or to become better communicators!!! And yet, despite 12 years of "English" taught in schools, massive conflicts at home, at work, in your relationships, and just in your daily life often occur bc of poor communication skills..
Did you know in colleges, they have a TOTALLY separate degree for communication that is different the "English"? (I rememeber when i found this out and sat in on a friends class i was astounded, startled, and even shocked to realize that there was an entirely different way of looking at words)..
And then i was startled to find out that there is even another field studying the evolution of language.
On top of all that, there is a whole study about the communication that occurs oustide of words that covers your a range of senses from the visual physical body language, to smells (or pheromes), to auditory nuances and tones.
Oh and lets not even get started on the commuication area of emotional intelligence!
The point is... true communication skills are FAR MORE COMPLEX then the "simple" English classes which barely even scratch the surface, and which in my own personal opinion often dont at all, though i have had quite a few English major buddies and acquaintances who will argue to the death with me about that concept.. (okay, fine, its sometimes scratches the surface), but still there is a LOT about communication that basic English classes totally miss out on.
So when I started homeschooling kiddo was just about when I started learning about the concept of emotional intelligence, needs based communication, compassionate based forms of communication, the concept of conflict transformation, and became aware of just how little i knew or could even comprehend about communication. All of these were skills i lacked and i was beginning to realize how much better my life would be if i had actually learned any of these concepts at an earlier time in my life.. hopefully i can still slowly learn now. But as I learned more, i realized that for me, it was far more important to me that kiddo be exposed to all of these new and important concpets about communication that I had been missing all the many years then learn about diagramming a sentence. Oh every now and then we would glance at that stuff but what i very quickly realized and found out early one was that even though it was years before he learned about verbs, pronouns, etc, that from all the reading he was doing, that it turned out that instinctively he had a far deeper better grasp of "correct" grammer then I often did...and he would come up behind me while i was writing an email and "correct" my grammer. It got annoying after awhile, but for awhile there i actually had more understandable emails.. if you are reading one of the early drafts of this, as you can probably tell, he stopped.
Now i am back to noncaptilized letters, run on sentences, stream of consciousness writing that goes off on many tangents, etc... ( plus i have an ocd quirk that likes keeping all the mistakes there and has to slowly wait till time passes before i can fix any of the gazillion typos so if you are reading anything i write ( before someone else comes in and fixes it) chances are you probably wont be able to tell that i actually know anything about communication whatsoever.
Esp if i am rambling stream of consciousness style..
BUT KIDDO, on the other hand, that kid learned vocabulary, grammar, all that stuff just from reading and listening and be exposed to tons of superb musuem and college lectures and documentaries from an early age, allllll on his very own.
(((Though it probably helped that he shares a love for learning about the intricaies of language.. and actually enjoys documentaries and audibles and youtube videos about the evolution of langauges.)))
The point to this whole long detour was that as long as everyday both you and your child are learning something new about communication and language each day/week, you dont need to worry so much about having then specifically spend an hour on the english subject each day like they would in school. Well that is if you are homeschooling in a state that doesnt require testing. . If you are in place that requires testing, then your kiddo should probably learrn test taking skills.
If test taking skills are more important to you then a joy of learning, then by all means keep doing what the tradition public schools do. Though frankly i would discourage making "testing skills" such a high priority.. bc i cant tell you how many kids we have encountered that have had the love of learning beaten out of them bc of the whole testing process. It always breaks kiddos heart when he encounters other kids who stopped enjoying learning simply for the fun and joy of learning. We also cant tell you how many teachers who wish testing wasnt so dam emphasized in school systems and wish learning and fun of learning was more emphasized.
So, next topic..
So, Now in a traditional school, you supposedly attend to each 'subject' for roughly an hour and then do homework later in the day to either prep for the next class or to review what was already learned.
But realistically, how much actual learning goes on each hour. One teacher broke it down for me once and determined that she was lucky if the kids got 15 to 20 mins of learning done each day on any particular subject.
I have also heard from an assortment of misc researchers on the subject that short bursts of intense learning can actually be far more effective then hours...that as time passes after the 20/30 min mark that you efficiency at learning actually decreases and that its better to take breaks..
Studies have also shown that people learn better from both applied learning rather then just listening to a lecture and by being exposed to the material is a fun intrigueng way
Lets put this into the concept of a youtube video since the avg teaching youtube video is anywhere between 3 to 5 mins to an hour long.. and so many out there are often designed to be engaging and fun to watch.
So based off all that, i would like you to consider this idea for a curriculum..
Everyday require at least 15 mins worth of input or exposure on each subject regardless of whether its via a video format, a book format, an audible or audio book on tape format, a phone app, direct tutor, something anything as long as its 15 mins focused attention on each subject plus later that day at least ten minutes of them telling you what they learned and or teaching you soemthing interesting the learned on each subject..
That way each subject is at least covered.
So lol, i just remembered why i started this post..
It was to write down a list:.
One video, book, app etc on each of these below:
1)Video on listening skills, conflict transformation, emotional intelligence or on evolution of your language .. basically something analyzing communication
2) learning a different language
3) something about body mechanics , whether it is on somantics, mechanics of an exercise, a danxing technique, tai chi, qi gong, martial arts, some new thing about some form of body movement
4)something about anatomy/physiology/herbal medicine effects/ food effects
5) something about the food that you eat, whether its gardening or chemical aspects
6)something about math
7) something about chemistry/geology/earth sciences
8) something about physics
9) something about history -- any history at all!!!
10) list to be continued. ...
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