A Curriculum that allows for personal responsibility?

[bethanyclaire]

My DS, age 7, started homeschooling this year, which would have been his 2nd grade year if he had remained in public school. Homeschooling was a solution we arrived at together after a rocky year last year with a move to a new school district and a really nasty new teacher. I guess I should probably say that DS is an advanced 7 year old with excellent communication, reasoning and logic skills and well as a strong sense of personal responsibility. He is the kind of kid that resents being controlled and can't wait to grow up... just like I was when I was a child. He is emotional velcro but likes his own learning space... lol!

So, these have been our first few months homeschooling and, while I spent all summer researching and reading everything I could get my hands on, I am still very much a homeschooling rookie. I decided to go with an eclectic schooling approach so that we could figure out what worked for us. I put together my own curriculum, with both kids' input, and then used Saxon for math. He tested as "gifted" last year, particularly in reading and language arts so I really wanted to see what he was capable of before I invested in something boxed.

A few months in, I am finding that DS wants more personal responsibility in his schooling. He likes knowing what to complete and being able to do it on his own. He loves when I read to him but also likes to have plenty of time to read on his own and do his own work. He also gets VERY frustrated if asked to review something he already knows how to do. Saxon math has been a disaster for him because the constant review drives him crazy (it did, however, work wonderfully for my daughter who thrives on repetition). Once he grasps a concept he wants to move on immediately. For example, I taught him addition with regrouping last week. I showed him how to do it and gave him a few examples. In 5 or 6 minutes he had mastered the concept and asked for the hardest problem I could think of. He got it correct and was thrilled but had no interest in doing more problems. Fine with me, but that doesn't seem to be the case with most curriculums.

So, are there curriculums that tend more towards that direction? I'm considering the secular use of Sonlight (we are not Christian) but I'm afraid it won't give him enough freedom. Can we adapt it by providing him with the IG? He would prefer something where he can teach himself a bit more and rely less on me. I'm ready to invest in something that does more of the planning for me. I hate feeling like we have big holes in his education and I know my pieced-together curriculum is doing just that. Also, he loves money and real world problems and has little interest in the abstract so I'd love a program that focuses on some of those things.

If you managed to read this far, thanks for hanging in there! :)

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by bethanyclaire 

Once he grasps a concept he wants to move on immediately. For example, I taught him addition with regrouping last week. I showed him how to do it and gave him a few examples. In 5 or 6 minutes he had mastered the concept and asked for the hardest problem I could think of. He got it correct and was thrilled but had no interest in doing more problems.

We don't use a boxed curriculum, so I can't help you there. But on the math front I would have predicted that Saxon would be a disaster for a kid like yours. My 7-year-old has had a lot of success with Singapore Math because there is very little repetition. She has been able to self-teach all the way through, occasionally coming to me for clarification but essentially doing it on her own, until very recently. She's now at the 5th/6th grade level and is finding some of the new concepts require a little bit of explanation, but she still loves it. My older kids also thrived in Singapore Math.

My 7-year-old is also very autonomy-seeking. All I've done is cobbled together some good workbook series and other resources, and she just picks two things (it's her choice to do any of this) to work on each day. Usually she wants to do math and one other thing: music theory, science, handwriting, touch-typing, Japanese, grammar. She tends to get a lot done in whatever the chosen activity is for the day, so two a day is plenty. If she doesn't touch on something for a few weeks or whatever, I might give her a little reminder, but really a bit of temporary neglect hasn't been a problem. She always comes back to things, and often her skills and understanding have improved during the "holiday." She reads a lot, does music and sports and handicrafts and art and such, so we're pretty much unschoolers. 

Miranda

[kgianforti]

Originally Posted by bethanyclaire 

He also gets VERY frustrated if asked to review something he already knows how to do. Saxon math has been a disaster for him because the constant review drives him crazy (it did, however, work wonderfully for my daughter who thrives on repetition). Once he grasps a concept he wants to move on immediately. For example, I taught him addition with regrouping last week. I showed him how to do it and gave him a few examples. In 5 or 6 minutes he had mastered the concept and asked for the hardest problem I could think of. He got it correct and was thrilled but had no interest in doing more problems. Fine with me, but that doesn't seem to be the case with most curriculums.

So, are there curriculums that tend more towards that direction?

 

Wow....that describes my big girl to a T.

I second the Singapore Math recommendation and definitely would ditch the Saxon. One thing you can do with a bright math kiddo is use the textbook and the Intensive Practice (IP) book instead of the workbook. The IP leaves out all of the "lead up" exercises and hits right at the heart of the lesson. Then it takes it a step further and adds some extra challenging problems. Another thing to look into is the Challenging Word Problem (CWP) books.

There is a nice placement test on the Sonlight website:

http://www.sonlight.com/singapore-placement-tests.html

Also, I've heard that Sonlight is easy to use secularly. There is a Yahoo group of secular SL users.

[atreyyena]

I'd also add moving beyond the page, they are designed for gifted kids, one who are excellent at reading and want to be able to do their own thing.

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by bethanyclaire 

So, are there curriculums that tend more towards that direction? I'm considering the secular use of Sonlight (we are not Christian) but I'm afraid it won't give him enough freedom. Can we adapt it by providing him with the IG? He would prefer something where he can teach himself a bit more and rely less on me. I'm ready to invest in something that does more of the planning for me. I hate feeling like we have big holes in his education and I know my pieced-together curriculum is doing just that. Also, he loves money and real world problems and has little interest in the abstract so I'd love a program that focuses on some of those things.

I don't see why you couldn't use the Sonlight instructor's guide as a jumping off point - easy for him to check things off, and you can just put a special star or something on the items he needs your help with or that you need to supervise.  However, you may just need to come up with your own IG pages so to speak if you want to leave off the Bible part (it's at the top of the page, so you can't even put a half sheet on top or something!), especially if you want to add other things like math or science or LA on there for him to check off as he finishes - just copy over the parts you like from the SL guide, omit what you don't, and add the other neat stuff.  If that makes sense.  I *really* do like how the core is a nice backbone to other stuff we're doing, or it ends up bringing about some fairly interesting discussions. 
I'm totally now one of their goofy poster parents who gets sucked into the books myself.  I know the book _Sarah Bishop_ isn't for another core or two, but I was curious and checked it out from the library.  I read it in one evening - it totally sucked me in.  Same with Strawberry Girl, and something else.  And my 7yo isn't even all that cerebral - he's the one bouncing off the walls that I can only sometimes take to the grocery store.  :D