My 12 year old son is creative and smart. He can compose artistic and written works at a higher level than many his age. So why can it be so hard to teach? When using a standard curriculum, it can be like pulling teeth to get you to do more than the absolute minimum. He rushes through the lessons, getting much lower grades than he is capable of, or is easily distracted and drags his feet, taking hours to complete what should take minutes. Read on to see how I dealt with these issues.
When I homeschooled my 10-year-old son, I used the traditional curriculum that he had previously been using with his mother. Some of the curriculum worked well (we still use the Saxon math series), but other traditional homeschool curriculum seemed to bring out the worst in my son. He would easily get bored. He would lose concentration and often get distracted. After half a year, I started looking for alternatives. When I found new materials, I included my son in the decision-making process. As a result, he seemed to take much more ownership, even though I still had the final say on the curriculum we ultimately used. Some of the things we do are listed below.
We use a science encyclopedia purchased at Sam’s Club for science. Why? Of all the books we looked at, it was the best text in terms of explaining concepts and relating them to real-world phenomena (although it wasn’t meant to be a school text). We sit together and read several pages of this scientific encyclopedia about a concept. Then I ask my son to write a 100 word report. Then he edits the report and we work on sentence composition. At the end of the quarter, we print all the articles to make a 15-page report. In addition to reports, we do related science experiments together and some of the younger brothers join in. My son loves science!
My son and his younger brother are taught history by my retired father-in-law (who has a history major). My father in law makes use of his library of books and tapes and records
story specials for the kids to watch. Now my kids and I sit together at night to watch the evening news; this, I believe, is the result of their grandfather discussing current events with them. You can’t compare my kids’ current enthusiasm for history to the drudgery of reading a traditional school history text the way we used to.
In addition to completing English and grammar lessons from a traditional school textbook, I encourage my son to do some creative writing. He started writing his own children’s novel which is now almost finished. He’s writing some pretty silly stuff that wouldn’t be standard for any English syllabi I’ve seen. But he is writing. In fact, he is writing a lot! In the 3 months since he started writing this novel I have noticed a remarkable improvement in his writing. When my son’s book is finished I will post it online and also ask a friend who owns binding equipment to bind a few copies for our family and friends.
In short, don’t get boxed into the traditional homeschool curriculum. There are educational resources all around us if we look hard enough. You don’t have to use a “school” text. Browse your book shelves or go to a local used bookstore to find books that might make good texts. Involve your child in the decision-making process. Borrow some materials from your homeschool friends and review the books with your child. Use what will work for both you and your child. Please use any and all available resources and most of all, have fun while you and your child learn!