My Son's Daybook

I know I promised a post about our house and I'm hoping to get there sometime today but here I am again with another random thought.

Ok so we homeschool right? This post is probably best for my homeschool blog at www.discoverytreelearningcentre.blogspot.com and perhaps I will post it there as well but this can pertain to anyone who has their kids in any school.

We homeschool through a public charter school that lines out our curriculum and lesson plans. That's a whole issue in itself. It has pros and cons. Mostly cons in my ever to be humble opinion at the moment.

Since our school is this format, this post can pertain to anyone in regular school or not since we use regular public school material.

I have never really had to put much thought into the content of my kids' curriculum. I've always been able to choose the curriculum I want and I always chose what I believed to be wholesome and thorough.

What I'm thinking about right now, along with several other areas of quackery based learning, is the dreaded DAYBOOK for 8th and 9th grade.

For the most part, the 9th grader has been able to meander through hers easily enough-she has a teacher that is an English major so she focuses on writing and while it hasn't been a breeze, we've coasted through adequately.

The 8th grader however, is another story. He has done really well this year in developing writing skills. But this book is so stupid even I read the passages and mutter kosher obscenities as I go.

His passage is examining a writers perspective on how death will come. So joyful and triumphant! For an 8th grader? I could see possibly for a philosophy class but for 8th grade English? Analyzing and dissecting a poem on the arrival of death.

Not that death isn't something we all know we will face one day-but in 8th grade?

Truly another mark against being forced into a curriculum that someone else has chosen based on whatever reasoning.

For now, he will plow through this nonsense and get an A in English but I will have it known that this will not happen again!!!!

Reminds me of a funny story regarding the 4th grader. His English passage merely mentioned "witchcraft", and he automatically shut his mind off and said he absolutely could not follow through with reading the passage. These kids are so funny.

I'm so looking forward to getting back in the swing of formulating my own curriculum packages for each student.

I think I need a solo planning retreat to line everything out. Ah yes that sounds amazing.