The fourth grade curriculum

Putting your life on a grid is so exciting.

With the help of Evernote and this archaic device known as a notebook (and pen), Reo and I constructed an outline of his curriculum for his fourth grade year. Suffice it to say, I am always impressed by this boy's openness to adventure.

That's it.

I had to borrow from fifth grade standards to pull together a full curriculum that will give him everything he wants to know about Ancient Civilizations this year and we were more than supplied for material and directions in the core subjects, as well as "electives" like Art, Music, P.E., Health, and Animal Studies.

The year writes itself.

Animal Studies

Reo's choice for Animal Studies, which was a course he independently added to his curriculum, was to focus on animals featured in vanilla Minecraft. He has research and reporting requirements for each animal, as well as lessons for how they fit into the Ancient Civilizations in his scholastic theme. His introduction of Minecraft into his curriculum gave me a big gift in inviting him to create ancient cities in Minecraft, appreciating the architecture and great accomplishments of the people in their time.

Physical Education

Instead of imposing some almost seemingly arbitrary set of exercises without any explanation as to why we are doing them, I allowed Reo to choose his fitness goals for the year. He set very realistic goals and phrased them in such a way that success is possible. To accomplish his goals, he will learn the best way to move his muscles, eat, drink, and exercise. He will be allowed room to figure out what works. For example, can he eat some potato chips and soda at lunch and still run the same as if he'd eaten all fruit and protein?

It would have been easier for me to have registered him for recreation soccer in the local club, but Reo does not really want to play soccer. Reo's sister is an amazing goalkeeper for the local club's competitive team, so he sees her success and would like to duplicate it but it's not in his heart to want to play for himself. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. He has to choose what is best for him. The goals he has set will allow him to better know his body and give him the confidence to perform in a team sport. Then he can decide if he wants to join soccer or baseball or something else entirely.

Homeschool Portfolio

KIDS IN BINDERS!

For a portfolio, I will be using a combination of a hardcopy binder and Evernote's beloved syncing system, which I swear I am not going to pay $45/year for but I can use the freeware stuff to suit my needs.

In addition, Reo will still be using notebooks to compile projects and information. He will have full use of the internet and be able to pull together information in Google Drive, as well as write documents, but piecing together binders and notebooks full of tidbits of information and tactile items for review and explanation is interesting. At the very least, it'll serve as an added bonus to the portfolio during the annual review and Reo's kids will get a kick out of all this 20+ years from now. Always thinking of the potential grandbabies.

How do ya like them apples?

I chose Christian Liberty Academy Satellite School homeschool program for Reo last year based on two bits of information. The first was that I had personal experience with CLASS. I had completed two grades in one school year, got placed ahead in school when I returned, and remember the curriculum as an excellent source of factual information. The second was that I believed CLASS' services to grade tests and provide transcripts would make my life easier during the annual evaluations.

I was wrong on both counts.

CLASS has now changed their curriculum, weaving religious influence into every single ever-loving subject. The science course was corrupt to the point where it was unteachable. The history had overt racism. The nature book taught us that even ants worship God. CLASS has also made it next to impossible to get proper records and transcripts from them. While it was easier in the respect that I did not have to create a curriculum since they just delivered the school year in a box on my doorstep, I already found that giving Reo the decision on what he wants to learn and then shaping an entire core curriculum around that scholastic theme hasn't exactly been difficult. In fact, it only took a couple days to figure out how to make his desires a reality while meeting fourth and fifth grade standards, put it all on the time grid, and call it done. 

Fourth Grade

Third grade was an awkward beginning to our homeschool adventure, but it provided many opportunities to understand homeschooling and gain confidence in both Reo's ability to learn and my ability to teach. The blogging became too absorbed in how ridiculous the curriculum from Christian Liberty Academy Satellite School [CLASS] was that, naturally, when we went into "just get through it" mode, I stopped blogging. CLASS' fundamental christian and anti-science curriculum did push me into going off-textbook a lot to make sure my son was learning Science and would continue to be above grade level.

Hey, you can't use omnipotent deities to cheat!

I have said time and time again that our local school district rocks. If it weren't for the budget cuts that massacred the wonderful programs that enriched children's lives in elementary school, I would have kept Reo in public school. The teachers and administration at his former school are still awesome. The homeschool office at the district has been fantastic and cooperative with me as I struggled with the difficult CLASS administration to get documents I needed - the "convenience" of those documents was why I chose CLASS in the first place, ironically - for Reo's annual evaluation. Now, Reo is ready to begin on September 1.

Fourth grade is exciting for both of us. We are venturing into unschooling territory, which will allow us to explore the world without sitting for hours pouring over workbooks. I will be blogging more about this year, from start to finish, as well as getting to maintain my first homeschool portfolio. The next post will be Reo's academic goals for his fourth grade year, my academic goals for his fourth grade year, and what our first week's lesson plans look like.

Spoiler Alert: It's all Adventure Class now

Our school year begins on Labor Day, which is a holiday and no school day for the public and private school kids in America. Over thirty years ago, I was younger than Reo, and I asked my father what the point of Labor Day was. He explained that Labor Day is the day we honor the people who made sacrifices to establish unions to protect American workers. He went into age-appropriate detail about the tragedies that happened at the expense of workers whose companies didn't care about their lives and the unfairness of pay for the work that people did. That day, I learned why we celebrate Labor Day and that my workaholic father was very smart and I could learn a lot from him. For both of those reasons, and the added fact that unschooling is a continuous, neverending experience, Labor Day is a perfect day to begin.