Instead of posting our upcoming curriculum, I decided to do a year-in-review post. Delight Directed Learning is still a bit of a mysterious method of homeschooling, and I want to try and give it some roots and leaves.
Foundation Education
Our brand of delight directed homeschooling is balanced between student choices and a foundation education which includes reading, writing, and math.
Math
Language Arts
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Institute for Excellence in Writing Student Writing Intensive Level B
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Progeny Press Lit Study: Redwall
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Progeny Press Lit Study: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
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Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization
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7th Grade Reading List
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Read Alouds
Elijah would often join in when I was reading to Simon. It is SUPER hard to resist The Nanny Piggins Series, Toys Go Out Trilogy and other fun books.
Other
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Bible Memory
- Keyboard Classroom
Elijah's Choices
Elijah's choices are what compromises his delight directed learning. He has large chunks of time each day to explore his own interests. These were his choices for 2014-2015.
- Free Reading
In addition to his 7th grade required reading list, Elijah also spent 2+ hours each day reading and re-reading whatever he wanted. He read four or five books about sensory processing disorder as he considers Occupational Therapy as a future career.
- Rosetta Stone Spanish
Elijah has been working through Rosetta Stone for a few years, and he enjoys it. After spending six weeks in Ecuador, he cemented his learning and hopes to continue with Spanish throughout high school.
- Sporty’s Academy Private Pilot Ground School
Elijah joined EEA Young Eagles and received this computer software for free. He worked each day on videos and quizzes until he earned his first flight lesson.
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Exploring the World of Biology by John Hudson Tiner
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Exploring Planet Earth by John Hudson Tiner
- Community School of the Arts: Pottery Class
Homeschool Co-op Class Choices
- Digital Photography
Here are a few of the photos from Elijah's Final Portfolio. If your student is interested in Digital Photography, check out Amanda Bennett's Digital Photography Unit Study.
- Worldview Class
This class used Thinking Like a Christian: Understanding and Living a Biblical Worldview from Summit Ministries. Elijah has Part II coming up this fall, and he is ready for it.
- Mixed Media Art Class
For one of his projects Elijah carved one of his photos (dead trees in a lake) onto a piece of linoleum and then used the carving for ink prints.
- Creative Writing
He loves to read, and he loves to write. Here are a few of the poems he produced while in Creative Writing.
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Thanks for the list! Bug is going into 7th grade, so I'm always curious what a delight-directed middle school year looks like! I'm trying to give him as much freedom as possible, but he prefers to be given curriculum to do!
I was reading your Cultivating Curiosity posts from a few years ago, does the daily schedule still look about the same? 60 minutes or so of 'foundation education' and then a few hours of delight-directed studies?
Also, are there any co-op topics he took that you would require at home as part of his foundation education had he not taken them at co-op? Or do you consider co-op to be fun delight-directed choices?
HI Diana!
I would not require art at home had he not chosen it at co-op. I consider those delight-directed things since he got to choose. The creative writing was definitely a delight-directed choice. Elijah enjoys 3-D art, especially. Together we determined that he would continue with the pottery class this year, too. We are counting it for high school credit. He loves the teacher and the art form.
The worldview class would be different because I didn’t give him a choice; I would probably have found something similar as part of his foundation education. For me, that is really important. The good news is that he actually appreciates the class and what he has learned in it.
Foundation Education takes Elijah longer now. Simon is still probably at about 60 minutes/day. I hope to go back and do some other years in review as well. I could easily go back and do Simon’s 2nd grade year (last year) in review. That wouldn’t help you much, but it may help others. 🙂
Please let me know if you have any other questions. Good to see you here! 🙂 Ami
As we move closer to high school, I am going to add some kind of study skills prep to 8th grade as part of his foundation education. I am not sure what that will look like yet, but I think it is vital.