Wow, amazing, this miracle grows within us and now they’re here and pure and perfect and ready to learn about the human experience! And we finally figured out that we can start teaching ASAP … great … so we’re doing it … and they’re soaking it in … colors, check; animals, check; shapes, check; numbers/letters/reading/math, yes/yes/yes/yes … oh boy - there’s still another 15+ years to go!! what’s the big picture? what’s the plan? when will we have ‘arrived’? what does ‘success’ look like? we’ve advanced them beyond their peers (not because their peers couldn’t, but just because they were products of a system that believed they couldn’t) and so we are now forced into homeschooling (even if it’s before/after/weekend-schooling) to aid this path of progression that we’ve set them on. so, what’s your plan?? i’ve been brainstorming this on and off quite a bit, so i’m putting ‘pen to paper’ here, and will more than likely update as time progresses (if not here, then at least in my blog, since i’ll probably copy, paste and edit this as a post there later).
here goes my rough outline and in no particular order
BY SKILLS:
- stage presence (gift of gab, performance and persuasion!)
- (quantum) speed reading
- mental math
- photo recall / wonderful memory
- musical ability - sight read and play by ear (i’ve already started them with piano and voice and am planning on later introducing violin, guitar, drums. as they get older they will choose their preference for musical expression)
- artistic ability (it’s a free for all right now, but in several years, maybe they’ll narrow it down from painting, drawing, sculpting - can you think of another medium?)
- flight lessons and manual driving @ 13, assuming they show the proper desire and discipline
- gross motor coordination - dance, sports, yoga
- construction/mechanics - ability to assemble and disassemble buildings/houses, cars/planes/trains/boats/motorcycles, computers/electronics (hardware and programming), meals (including understanding, appreciating, and respecting the process of how each of its components made it’s way to their body and how this benefits them), and the body (human and animal - pig, frog, squid, etc) if that’s their thing (as in for good, not in a psycho killer kinda way - too much csi/criminal minds, etc lol)
- multi-lingualism - english, asl, spanish, french, japanese, chinese, german, russian (italian and portuguese will probably come naturally as a result of the spanish and french) fyi: our son already does eng, asl, fren & span fluently, and is picking up japanese and chinese now. my aunt is german, so i’m hoping for them to spend some quality time together, and russian, well, that’s just one more) latin basics to decode words more easily, but not to actually speak it (if they do, it’s on them, and yes, i’ll encourage it if that’s what they show interest in doing)
- logic & strategy
- humor, joy, peace, motivation, confidence, leadership (there’s an interesting balance to take into account between contentment vs complacency and drive vs dissatisfaction) … do you consider these skills? since they are things that you have to work on to develop, i say, yes. again, this isn’t the whole list of traits/skills, but just some i’m thinking up now.
- self-reflection/introspection - yoga, prayer/meditation, journaling, solo time, etc (again, another one that takes practice, so i’m calling it a skill)
BY FOCUS (all of these can be simplified and introduced in some scope to infants/toddlers/preschoolers):
Periodic Table (eventually this goes pretty deep into chemistry and calculus, biology, etc, as they all become related)
Biology: Bones/Organs/Muscles of the Body
Classical Conversations’ History Timeline (I may alter this as I dedicate more time to learning it and what I want them to learn)
US Constitution (Preamble & Amendments, especially)
Certain great quotes from various sources, including the Bible
Music/Art Pieces in LarrySanger’s YouTube video (as well as popular plays, ballets, musicals)
Nations/Countries of the World (Culture/History, Famous Architecture/Sites)
Universe/Constellations (as well as the ancient stories and philosophers)
i’m sure there’s plenty more, but this is it for now.
it’s a long road, but i’m excited for when they reach their ‘ah ha!’ moments … when things start coming together and they realize that they’ve really been learning pieces of an elaborate and beautiful puzzle that is our life within this universe. i’m excited for when they start to understand and fulfill their path and purpose and start to internalize and understand how they impact others around them.
hope you share some of your ‘grand curriculum’ ‘master plan’ too thanks!