I decided to let my 14-year-old daughter unschool this year. She's learned all the basics. I told her I wanted her to come up with her own education plan - that I believe she's mature enough to decide for herself what she wants to study.

For the first month she didn't do much. This was deschooling in action. (She attended public school last year at her own insistence, and quit after 2 days this year.) Rather than do what I suggested (keep a journal) she got on a teen website and started an online weblog, and entered into message board discussions.

Now she's decided she wants more structure. She wants assignments but I wanted her to decide what interests her. I've read her all the laws about required subjects for secondary students in our state. Based on that she's made some great choices about what to do this year.

For math we're using a 1957 8th grade math textbook for now, and will at some point switch to using the "Key to" series, probably starting with the four fractions workbooks. She's done the measurement books in the past, before her year in public school.

She's decided to study both Spanish and French. We're starting with Spanish because I happen to have a beginner level text book here, and because I'm pretty good at that language myself. I've noted there's lessons on tape for French at our public library, but we probably won't get into that until next year at the earliest. Her assignment today is to write down a conversation in Spanish in her notebook, and to start a vocabulary list.

For social studies she wants to study current events. I assigned her chapter nine in Reviving Ophelia (about teen-girl weight obsessions) and asked her to write an essay giving her opinions on the topic.


Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

I also gave her an article about tea in the current issue of Prevention Magazine

I hope this satisfies her desire for structure. I believe she also wants the ongoing attention and challenge of completing assignments.


  ¶ 2:44 PM