Taking the Scenic Route

One exciting thing first:  Zane ate a few bites of carrot.  Willingly.  He has not eaten a single vegetable since he was a toddler.  He used to be a human garbage disposal until the food adversions started around 2ish.  It was a carrot shaving made after taking off the peel that he put on top of the salad he made.  (he wanted to make a salad with spinach and wanted carrots on it).  He wouldn’t eat the salad under it, but the fact that he wanted to make one gives us hope that he might give it a try in the near future.

The rest of life is just playing with kids, getting the next semester’s therapy sessions in order, and figuring out the lesson plans for homeschool. 

We start a more structured homeschool on Monday.  I got a new curriculum this week and am going through it to get it laid out and ready.  It is called Moving Beyond the Page and is basically a series of unit studies that includes all the subjects together on the same themes.  It is exactly what I wanted…flexible, easy to expand on topics he is interested in, and covers all the basics in a comprehensive way.  It is a particular challenge for me to try and remember what needs to be included because he doesn’t just pick up on things in his environment the way most kids do.  He has to be specifically introduced to subjects, and having been on the earth a while longer, I overlook the obvious too easily.  I was having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to do it on my own, but I knew I wanted more than math, writing, and phonics/reading.  I love the unschooling philosophy and am very willing to be flexible, but in it’s purest form it was not really working for us.  Strewing interesting things around to spark interests doesn’t work as well when your child is somewhat oblivious to it and can’t actually ask questions. 

I am supplementing the material with the math we have been doing since he likes that, and continuing the Headsprout Phonics program, and some bible stories.  Add to that, the different exercises and things from his therapies and Reading Explorer’s group and I think it will be plenty.

Being Christian, I am sure people are wondering why didn’t I choose a curriculum that already has the bible stuff integrated, since that is actually the norm.  The main reason why is that, as far as I can tell, almost all the curriculum come from the most conservative end of the spectrum and I interpret Jesus’ message very differently than the conservative extremists.  I don’t want to see anything about literal creationism (I believe God created everything, evolution was the method…and the time line in the bible is metaphorical, not literal), abortion, no recognition of religious differences, or homosexuality.   I don’t think there is a place for teaching hatred to children.  When they are older, we can explore some of the stickier issues, but at this age, kids should only hear messages of love and acceptance, since that is the central message from Jesus.  I can’t trust the “Christian” curricula to stick to that since I can’t actually see any of the curriculums and just have to go off of descriptions.  My experience says that many are so blind to the fact that other Christians don’t have the same interpretations, that I doubt they would be able to recognize the propaganda anyway, so it is sort of pointless to even ask, unless you know the person well and know where they are coming from.

I have also been working out how to make some better visual schedules for some of the routines.  It is a lot more complicated than it looks like it should be on the surface.  You have to think about all the different variations life can throw at you and try and predict how the routine would work in different situations and adjust accordingly to avoid as many potential land mines as possible.  Once a routine is set, it is hard to move around without a lot of painful adjustments, so it is better to wait and get it as close to right as possible the first time out.

My beef stew is tempting me away from the computer, so I must go now.  Yummy.