Its that time of year again. I'm thinking of curriculum and homeschool methods and you probably are too - if you're a homeschooling parent.

This year my 15-year-old daughter will be attending public school. She's been very lonely this last year. She had two friends at the beginning of last year. One moved to Georgia and the other was snatched by CPS and yanked out of our small community. That left my daughter without friends though she met a few online buddies and now has an active virtual social life. Still, she is desperate to meet more teenagers and be with other people. After a year of seeing her isolate herself in her bedroom, and dealing with her misery, I am grateful she'll be enrolling in the public school. There are no private schools here. I still would prefer there were no public schools (I've signed the Proclamation for the Separation of School and State) but until that happens we will have this problem of isolated unhappy homeschooled teenagers. Not that all homeschooled teens are unhappy, but my daughter certainly has been.

My son is 14 now and still loves homeschooling, but his lifestyle is much different than my daughter's. He is Mr. Popular and has friends calling here vying for his attention almost every day. It is very rare for him to stay home - he's almost always out visiting friends. Earlier this summer he met another homeschooled boy about his age and they have become close friends. Of all the kids he knows, this is the one that shares his ambition to start business relationships in the community to make some money. The main difference I guess is that the boy is enrolled in a charter school and we are not. We're independent homeschoolers - and here in CA that means filing a Private School Affidavit. We receive no government financial backing for our homeschooling endeavor - but I wouldn't have it any other way.

My son's curriculum will be simple this year. We will be studying futurist books like 1984 by George Orwell. I'd like to get through that plus several others: Brave New World, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, etc... don't know if I'll get that far though. We'll also be working on filling out job applications and getting ready for a driving test. Math will be The Key To Measurement again as it is the most practical type of math - and something he needs to be proficient at for construction trades, something he may decide to pursue in his adult life since he has such an interest in it now.

PE will be his BMX biking. We've found a wonderful skate and BMX park in Oregon so as long as we can get over the pass through the mountain wilderness (until it snows)... we'll be going over there often. I offered to take his homeschooling friend with us - he's another BMX'er.
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