Community Question is a category inspired by you. Here and there readers write in with questions that are better served by the varied, experiential knowledge of those who read and contribute in the comments. Please respond to this post in the comments, but if you have a question for the community email it to Heather.
The following question is from Alexis B.
“I am working with a family who just began homeschooling this year for 8th-grade. I develop and deliver the curriculum for her main academic subjects. For their first year, they wanted to stick close to public school curriculum in case the student wanted to go back, and she has completed all the county’s curriculum for 8th- and much of 9th-grade. The family has focused on analysis and critical thinking instead of learning facts and taking tests, and the student’s goal is to go to a music conservatory for college.
My question is, how should we focus our teaching as we move into high school? For subjects like Math and Science, especially, the high school level courses have so much complex information that needs to be mastered–I’m not sure how we could mesh that with the “no facts” approach. The student has pretty limited interests (that she’s willing to share with me) and doesn’t take any ownership for her learning, so she hasn’t verbalized any subjects or projects she’d like to do. I’ve read through the forums here and have seen great ideas! I’m just not sure how to implement them in my situation where we have limited time each day plus the curriculum to follow, so any suggestions would be fantastic!”