Home-Schooling Outside The Box

My 12 year old son is creative and intelligent. He canmajor in history). My father-in-law makes use of his
compose artistic and written works at a level beyondlibrary of books and tapes and records
that of many his age. So why can he be so difficulthistory specials for the boys to watch. Now, my
to teach? When using standard curriculum, it can beboys and I sit down together at night to watch the
like pulling teeth to get him to do anything more thanevening news - this I believe, is a result of their
the absolute minimum. He races through the lessons,grandfather discussing current events with them.
obtaining grades far lower than he is capable ofThere is no comparing either of my sons' current
getting, or he easily gets distracted and drags hisenthusiasm for history with the drudgery of plowing
feet, taking hours to complete what should takethrough a traditional school history text the way we
minutes. Read on to see how I confronted theseused to do.In addition to completing lessons in english
problems.When I took over home schooling my thenand grammar from a traditional school text, I
10 year old son, I used the traditional curriculum thatencourage my son to do some creative writing. He
he had been using previously with his mother. Somestarted writing his own kids novel which he has now
of the curriculum worked fine (we still use the Saxonnearly finished. He is writing some pretty silly stuff
math series) but other traditional home schoolwhich would not be standard fare for any of the
curriculum just seemed to bring out the worst in myenglish curricula I have seen. But he is writing. In fact
child. He would easily get bored. He would lose focushe is writing a lot! In 3 months from the time he
and often get distracted. After half a year, I startedstarted writing this novel I have noticed a marked
searching for alternatives. When I found newimprovement in his writing. When my son's book is
materials, I included my son on the decision makingcompleted, I will publish it online and also have a
process. He seemed to take a lot more ownership asfriend that owns book binding equipment bind up
a result, even though I still had the final say in whatsome copies for our family and friends.In summary,
what curriculum we finally used. Some of the thingsdon't let yourself become boxed in with traditional
we do are listed below.We use a sciencehome school curriculum. There are educational
encyclopedia purchased at Sam's Club for science.resources all around us if we look hard enough. You
Why? Of all the books we looked at it was the bestdon't have to use a "school" text. Look on your book
text in terms of explaining concepts and relatingshelves or go to a local second-hand book store to
them to real world phenomena (even though itfind books that might serve as good texts. Involve
wasn't meant to be a school text). We sit downyour child in the decision making process. Borrow
together and read several pages of this sciencesome materials from your home schooling friends and
encyclopedia on a concept. Then, I have my sonreview the books with your child. Use what will work
write a 100 word report. He then edits the reportfor both you and your child. Utilize any and all available
and we work on sentence composition. At the endresources and above all, have fun as you and your
of the term, we print out all the articles to make achild learn!Michael Sakowski works full time and
15 page report. In addition to the reports, we dohomeschools his son on the days he is able to work
related science experiments together and some offrom home. He also has a website,
the younger siblings join in. My son loves science!Mythat showcases some of the resources he uses
son and his younger brother are taught history bywhen home schooling.
my retired father-in-law (who happens to have a