On paper, that is, on the papers I am giving to the school district, Bullar (11) and Vishap (13) will be in seventh and eighth grade.
(I start out all my kids as six-year-old kindergarteners. I skipped Bullar a grade twice because he is very speedy and I needed to prove to various entities that he should be considered to be at the level he was actually working.)
In reality, we're calling this year ninth grade for Vishap so he can start recording hours for his transcript. And I long ago gave up trying to think in terms of grade levels for Bullar.
I've talked elsewhere about how we are going to try approaching high school. Junior high, or grades seven and eight, have their own set of subject requirements in the homeschool regulations of New York State. I have to teach English (two units); history and geography (two units); science (two units); mathematics (two units); physical education (on a regular basis); health education (on a regular basis); art (one-half unit); music (one-half unit); practical arts (on a regular basis) and library skills (on a regular basis). The units required herein are cumulative requirements for both grades seven and eight. For purposes of this subdivision, a unit means six thousand four hundred eighty (6,480) minutes of instruction per school year.
I sweat over that every year with Vishap and Scultone, as you can see in my previous post. But somehow given how fast-moving and independent Bullar is, I can't bring myself to worry. I have no chance of ever giving him a square 6,480 minutes of instruction in English this year; he will accidentally go too far in his book, take it to bed and finish it, find every third chapter ridiculously easy, etc., and I just can't keep track because he slips out of the chaos that is our home life to do it all by himself. If anyone questions whether he is being well-educated, a conversation with him will put their worries to rest. (Not to brag; every kid has gifts and he has faults too.)
This year, I'm going to let him have what he's been begging for -- a checklist of things to do by himself, in times and places of his own choosing. He's proven this past year that he works well under his own guidance, so even though he's such a humorous and kind and helpful presence at our dining room table in the morning, I think it's time to let him fly a little.
(I start out all my kids as six-year-old kindergarteners. I skipped Bullar a grade twice because he is very speedy and I needed to prove to various entities that he should be considered to be at the level he was actually working.)
In reality, we're calling this year ninth grade for Vishap so he can start recording hours for his transcript. And I long ago gave up trying to think in terms of grade levels for Bullar.
I've talked elsewhere about how we are going to try approaching high school. Junior high, or grades seven and eight, have their own set of subject requirements in the homeschool regulations of New York State. I have to teach English (two units); history and geography (two units); science (two units); mathematics (two units); physical education (on a regular basis); health education (on a regular basis); art (one-half unit); music (one-half unit); practical arts (on a regular basis) and library skills (on a regular basis). The units required herein are cumulative requirements for both grades seven and eight. For purposes of this subdivision, a unit means six thousand four hundred eighty (6,480) minutes of instruction per school year.
I sweat over that every year with Vishap and Scultone, as you can see in my previous post. But somehow given how fast-moving and independent Bullar is, I can't bring myself to worry. I have no chance of ever giving him a square 6,480 minutes of instruction in English this year; he will accidentally go too far in his book, take it to bed and finish it, find every third chapter ridiculously easy, etc., and I just can't keep track because he slips out of the chaos that is our home life to do it all by himself. If anyone questions whether he is being well-educated, a conversation with him will put their worries to rest. (Not to brag; every kid has gifts and he has faults too.)
This year, I'm going to let him have what he's been begging for -- a checklist of things to do by himself, in times and places of his own choosing. He's proven this past year that he works well under his own guidance, so even though he's such a humorous and kind and helpful presence at our dining room table in the morning, I think it's time to let him fly a little.
I started by making an estimate of how much time each day he should do in each subject to complete those required minutes, and a list of subjects, and roughly blocking that out in a weekly format. I entered what I was sure of. I had my fun with fonts and images then too. (That's him in the corner, making troll faces.)
With that information in hand, I spent a couple of days sorting through our shelves, the kiddo's own opinions about various subjects, my sense of what should be next for him, and the wisdom banks that are my online homeschooling friends. I brewed up some chai, ordered Chinese take-out, loaded in the Downton Abbey, and plugged into those time slots assignments that would take a normal kid about that much time. As you can see from the final version below, my sense of how the week would go had to change as I looked at what I really wanted him to do in each subject area. When I was all done finalizing the boy's week, I removed the minute guidelines. He will go at his own speed.
I'll fill in all the details for each week, print the weeks out and bind them into a booklet, then hand it over to Bullar for completion.
Any bets on what month he'll have it all done?