Scope and Sequence

Scope and sequence is an educational term that teachers use to describe what and when things will be taught. This ensures that certain subjects won't be over covered and others under. In science, for example, elementary school teachers are famous for spending lots and lots of time on zoology and almost no time on physics, chemistry, magnetism, etc. When you have a different teacher every year, having a scope and sequence makes sense.

I have no scope and sequence for science so far. This is part of freeschooling, the homeschooling model where she is obligated to learn the absolute basics (reading, writing, math) and is allowed free exploration of all the other topics. Mi'ita attends every science workshop we find out about, but hasn't really been interested in pursuing it at home.

History for some reason has become our focus and we've developed a sort of loose scope and sequence for it. Schools tend to radiate from the child outwards. Kindergarten is all about me and my family, first grade about towns and local history, fourth grade is state history, fifth grade is US history, etc.

The classic method of homeschooling turns this on its head and goes chronologically from ancient history forward, simultaneously studying ancient civilizations around the world. Since we started with classic homeschooling, we started with this chronology.

I like the idea of chronological history. US history, I think, makes a lot more sense if you have already studied democracy in Greece, tyrants, monarchies, religious persecution, and so on. What our country is came from this history of Europe.

Where this breaks down, though, is in studying all the civilizations of a time period simultaneously. You get a bite of Egypt in 2000 BCE, jog over to China in 2000 BCE, trot over to the Mayans in 2000 BCE, swing over to the Greeks, etc. Then you do all those folks again in 1500 BCE. Then again in 1000 BCE. Etc. This leaves you with a great sense of what was happening in the world at a certain time, but it fractures the history of one civilization.

I developed a method that I thought would work well. We started with hominids and stone age people. Then we went into the Egyptians, the first civilization in the world. Instead of skipping around to all the first civilizations of each region, we stuck with Egypt until it was conquered by the Romans. This means we learned a little about their Persian and Greek conquests, too. Then we moved into the Greeks, which were the first civilization that conquered Egypt thoroughly (the last eight Pharaohs were Greek.) Then I was going to stick with Greece until they were conquered by Rome, taking a foray into Persia along the way, since the Greeks and Persians very much influenced each other's history. Then I was going to stick with Rome until they were conquered by the Mongols. Then I was going to skip over to the Mongols and China, sticking with Asian history for a while until that came to a natural conclusion. Then I was going to come over to the Americas and learn about their ancient people. After I covered all the ancient people, I was going to work on the middle ages, using the same format.

I liked the idea of sticking with a civilization throughout their reign until they fell to a foreign power. The foreign power then becomes the next focus, starting at their 'beginning', relating that to what we already know about what the previous civilization was doing at that time.

We took a break for Halloween. Halloween's focus for us was historical, too. What are the Greek's beliefs in death? The Egyptians, the Mayans, the Celts? And, to top it all off, how did we come to celebrate Halloween in it's current form here in the US? The people who come to our party will be learning! We're also going to be making jello red blood cells. :-)

After our Halloween party on Saturday, we were going to finish up the Greeks and take our foray off to Persia before heading into Rome.

Then we find out we're going to Tanzania in the spring on Safari. We're switching gears again. We'll finish up Greece, quickly, and then study sub-Saharan African civilizations. There is a ton of info out there on South Africa and apartheid, but not a whole lot about Tanzania. But we'll get there, and maybe now we can work in more science.

Zoology, of course.

Are the Tears Necessary?

This is what I don't understand. My lovely daughter complains bitterly about every assignment I put in front of her. She does them grudgingly and acts like she hates all of it.

My mother called the other day while I was in the shower and asked Mi'ita how school was going. Does she tell my mother that she hates it? No. She tells my mother that everything is good, with enough sincerity to convince her.

On top of that, she has woken me up every day this week and wanted to start school immediately. This morning, with her friend spending the night (with the understanding that school will continue as usual and her friend had to join us--it's still officially summer vacation for the rest of the world and we need to take advantage of that), they woke up at 5 AM wanting to start! I had to send them back to bed until they woke up again at 7:30. Again, they had to start immediately, and immediately started the complaints.

I have to think that Mi'ita's complaining is just part of her personality and she really doesn't hate it. This actually frees me up a bit. I don't enjoy her complaining at all, but now I know that I can blithely ignore it and not take it as a criticism of my teaching, the curriculum, or the texts. I can insist that she do my assignments until she can come up with a better plan herself.

The beauty of homeschooling is that you can tailor your child's education to her interests, skills, and abilities. I've been trying to do that this week, responding to her complaints. Now I know that won't work--she's just a complainer. I can still tailor her curriculum, but I have to be less sensitive and more forceful. Of course she could come up with her own plan that meets my minimum requirements. I do hope that she takes control of her education at some point.

We seem to have developed a schedule that is working, though. First thing in the morning we start (around 7ish), take a breakfast break and then a "recess" break, then done by lunchtime. Whatever we get done by noon seems to be all we're going to get done for the day. PE dog walk is in the afternoon.

In case you're wondering, dog walks won't be her only PE time. She is also going to be starting ballet in a couple weeks, and the local homeschool group has a swim time at the pool that we'll horn in on as soon as it starts up. She'll start up guitar lessons in a couple weeks, too, for music. I'm still figuring out how to add in art. Library is Monday afternoons.

Now how do I get her to stop complaining short of flinging her off the nearest cliff? (That would be bad, I know, and her daddy would be frightfully angry with me.) Other people's homeschooled children are perfectly behaved, I think, and the rest of the world sends their kids to school to torment their teachers.