Family Style vs. Individualized; Special Needs, too

Are you meeting each child where he/she is at as an individual, not by age or grade? For your 13 year old daughter, allow her some independence. With history, you will read aloud any family books to all of your children, then assign the appropriate grade level books to be read independently by your older daughter and maybe your 10 year olds. Your older daughter could do a written narration on the family read aloud, while you listen to oral narrations from the others. You will probably need to read the grade level books to your older son. If the grade level books for his age are not being comprehended by him, then drop down to a lower grade level. Likewise, if your older daughter needs to be challenged more, feel free to choose books from a higher grade level for her to read.

There are different ways to keep oral narration from being a competition. One way is to have each child narrating only tell part of what was read, then the next child picks up where the first child left off. The second child tells the next part, then the third child finishes.

Another way is to ask each child a different narration question. Maybe the first child is asked, “What did you learn about George Washington in our reading today?” The next child is asked, “Tell what you know about the capturing of the fort.” And the third child is asked, “Pretend you are a soldier. Tell about your experience capturing the fort.” There are endless possibilities to vary the questions.

Education is all about teaching the child, not the curriculum. Don’t let the curriculum, someone’s expectations, or a child’s age be your master. If your child is progressing in his schoolwork and finds the lessons enjoyable, then you are providing a good education for him. You will also be developing a life-long learner who enjoys learning for learning’s sake.

It sounds like you have a good plan!

For science, I would stick with Apologia’s Young Explorer Series Human A & P. If your daughter would like to do it independently from the rest of the family, go ahead and assign it to her. When you finish that course you should consider having her do a middle school or high school level course, separate from the rest of the family. Apologia’s Physical Science, 2nd edition by Dr. Jay Wile (You will have to buy it used.) is a middle school level science that is a good transition from an elementary course to a high school level course. Of course, feel free to choose something else if you like. 🙂

I like your plan for your son. If he does better at written narrations than oral narrations, let him write them. You can use the rubrics in the Teacher’s Guide for Using Language Well to guide him in his written narrations. Feel free to modify the rubrics to fit him if he needs to move slower with what he is held accountable for in his writing. It is more important that he gets his thoughts on paper than that he has the mechanics of grammar and sentence structure perfect. Grammar and sentence structure will come with time. If you have not already read it, I encourage you to read Know and Tell: The Art of Narration by Karen Glass. Karen Glass does a fantastic job of explaining what narration is and how to do it from beginners to high school and beyond. There is even a chapter on narration with special needs students.