What was going poorly was easiest to identify. Last year we were doing too much. Her schedule was overwhelming. But I was unwilling to cut academic classes and she was unwilling to give up her electives. So we had settled with the block scheduling. I resolved to not give her such a heavy schedule this next year.
I also realized she was getting bored with her classes. They were requirements that she didn’t have much say in. So this year I gave her a say. Over spring break I made a list of possible classes. Some were required for graduation, so I italicized those. Some were my preference for teaching, I bolded those. And most were simply classes she could take, if she wanted.
Next was the hard part, I gave her the list and let her choose. She only picked one of my bolded classes (Latin online), she only picked one of the graduation required classes (the other three will have to be done next year), and she definitely showed interests.
Do what does Merry’s junior year schedule look like? Much to my surprise she chose two science electives, marine biology and astronomy. We will be using Apologia for both of those. In that science vibe, she also chose Sci-Fi literature. I was unable to find a curriculum for that so I’ve spent my summer putting one together for her. And she is taking computer programming again this year from CompuScholars. Along with her STEM heavy choices are her required classes, world history and foreign language. We will be using Notgrass for history again this year, and Latin will be with an online class again.
Notably lacking from her list is math. She had finished the required levels and I decided making her take calculus would not benefit either of us. Besides there is always next year.
We start next week! And I’m excited to see how the year turns out!
