Tonight I started the homeschool year with my 14-year-old son, Aaron. First we did a review sheet listing things he's done in the past. I copied it from this book:
The Homeschooler's Guide to Portfolios and Transcripts by Loretta Heuer, M.Ed.. Tomorrow we will do a companion sheet called "Who I am".

Then we talked about what hours he wants to do his work. He chooses to do the academic work in the evenings which for him makes sense because during the days he's busy working on bikes and visiting friends and occasionally, landscaping. (The more active aspects of his curriculum.)

Next we went over the California state law on what courses should be offered to teenagers (Education Code section 51220). I explained that I have an obligation to offer these subjects to him but I was asking him to tell me what topics interested him most. I was pleased that he chose something from every section. Here's what our plan for the year includes:

(a) English: literature, language, composition, reading, listening, speaking
(b) Social Sciences: geography, political science, US Government, California government, American legal system, criminal and civil law, "the study of the inhumanity of genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust" (that's a quote from the law)... and contemporary issues.
(c) Foreign language: Spanish.
(d) Physical education: Concentrating on bicycles of course. We will be reading The Bicycle Touring Manual: Using the Bicycle for Touring and Camping ...and possibly other bicycle books.
(e) Science: the process of scientific investigation, physics.
(f) Mathematics: Key to Measurement. If we finish that we'll go on to Key to Geometry.
(g) Performing arts: movie making - short clips to be put on a website showing whatever Aaron chooses to show of his life.
(h) Applied arts: Bike crafting, possibly a two-person bike creation for the parades, to advertise the business he's forming with his friend (another homeschooler here in town), other possibilities include building a motorized bike and building a pedal generator to use during our power outages (happens just about every winter when it snows here - we're in such a remote area the power is out for days at a time).
(i) Career technical education: welding, possible apprenticeships (we will have to ask around to see who might want his help a few hours per week). Job applications.
(j) Automobile driver's education: we'll be studying the driver's handbook and he will be answering CA driver's test questions.

That's the plan.

We started tonight by reading a biography of George Orwell, author of 1984. This led to a good political science discussion and we looked up words in the dictionary - words like "totalitarianism", "communism" and "socialism" and "socialize". A good discussion ensued. We then read the first few pages in 1984 and discussed them.

  ¶ 11:03 AM  

  My daughter started her school year. I'm disappointed that after I went to the trouble of creating a very nice transcript for her documenting what she's done during the last year, they still went ahead and put her in freshman classes though she's supposed to be a sophomore. I feel like she's being discriminated against because she attended a private school last year (our homeschool).

I'm planning to go to the school board meeting to ask what the plan is in case the president declares a Red Alert. As you probably know during a Red Alert all citizens are to stay indoors while the school children are transported to an unknown location. Naturally I'm uncomfortable with the thought that our government will kidnap our children en masse and not tell us where they are. Since I live in a very small community it makes no sense to me. There's not much likelihood that our part of the country would be chosen for an attack.

I'll let you know how the school district responds to my question.

My daughter is very much against the draft and one of our projects this last year was to create a website about this issue. Draft Protest.

I was happy to hear she's spreading the word at school. In her weblog she wrote that in Freshman Social Studies the teacher was telling the class that when they are 18 they should be registered for Selective Services and get ready to be drafted to "go out and kill people" for us. My daughter was outraged and spoke up then and there to say, "That's stupid." Yes, she disrupted class but I was proud of her for speaking out against the teacher's "kill people" comment.

My daughter recognizes that the other kids are sheep-brained from all their years of public education training. None of them thought to protest the teacher's brainwashing that "killing is good - we do it for the government". Well, maybe she can help the other kids learn something about what's really going on in this country.

  ¶ 1:58 AM