What extras or electives do you do with your kids besides the typical subjects recommended for their age? What age or grade were(are) they? sign language, foreign language, musical instruments, public speaking, etc... God bless!
Yes! Rachael, 16, is taking Driver's Ed this year. French, Piano, Logic Faythe, 14, does horseback riding and art Phillip, 11, does First Lego League...which should count as something, but I'm not sure what yet.
Both kids - logic, Spanish, piano, 4-H (public speaking) they have done these pretty much since we started hsing when they were in K and 2nd grade. SK-13 Drama and tennis RG-11 Art and rock climbing Jackie- Lego League = Problem solving? Science? Art?
We do Spanish informally from PreK on, informally at first and when ever the student asks, I begin them on more formal lessons. Everyone does little league (soccer, football, and now tee-ball) when it is in season. We'd love to add more, but right now its all plans. We may give Gymnastics another try this summer.
Carl says Lego League would also be considered Technology. There's SO MUCH involved in it! If he keeps at it until he's older, I'd give him a credit for "pre-engineering" or something like that!
Well we don't do Lego league as no one is offering it locally. I did start a lego club here at home. And the kids are in red cross homeschool swimming. Next fall my daughter wants to join our homeschool ballet class that is offered at a local studio. And as to the other electives I am waiting for the new Conservatory to offer voice lessons so my daughter can do that. She loves to sing. And my son who loves robotics is going to be joining or next elective creation which I will teach on robotics. Lol no I am not a rocket scientist just a determined woman who wants to make sure kids get the opportunities they deserve to enrich their educations. So that's about all outside of the home. I do art studies and french at home along with our other courses. My kids are 7 and 5
Ems: choir, piano, art. In a couple of weeks Ems is going to begin handling her dog in dog agility training.
My guy is 5. Most 5 year olds do reading, math, handwriting, and possibly science and/or social studies. We're also doing Latin, a teeny bit of creative writing (just started this), grammar, bowling, and occasionally, soccer. Aside from our usual home science, we're also doing a science class at the science center that happens once a month and has a different topic each time. (Wait... does blog count as an elective? He does that, too, but it's a private one.) We'll be doing typing and piano soon.
ds ~ spanish, typing, consumer science (cooking class), speech dd ~ spanish, consumer science (cooking class), speech, piano
Not sure what is typical, but we do a bunch of electives. 1st grader -foreign languages (Arabic, Mandarin, French, and Koine Greek), Bible, literature read alouds, life skills, music appreciation, drama, art appreciation, art, PE, game time, word and logic puzzles, and geography 3rd grader - foreign languages (Arabic, Mandarin, French, and Koine Greek), Bible, literature read alouds, life skills, music appreciation, drama, art appreciation, guitar lessons, PE, game time, word and logic puzzles, and geography They will be starting swim lessons soon that will be part of their PE.
By electives, I'm assuming you mean things that I would count as school, but not the core four (math, social studies, Language Arts, science). So, over the years, things we've done that would fall into that category would be Music, Art, Theater, Health, Current Events, Spanish, Phys Ed. Extracurriculars I don't count as a class but are equally as important: tennis, band, theater, dance, book club, scouts, choir
Amyethyst, many of those "extracurriculars" I consider as "electives". Tennis is gym, band and choir are music, theater is considered performing arts, dance could be under arts AND gym, book club goes under reading. Scouts...well, that's hard to classify. It could be government (citizenship), gym (archery, shooting sports), nature studies/science (astronomy), math/geography (orienteering). You'll learn that hs'ers are pretty creative when it comes to classes!
Jackie, yes, I agree. I absolutely consider most of these things to go under both categories. (In fact, this winter, sorry to say, dance is just about the only PE my girls are getting.) I wasn't sure if the original poster was interested in course names or ideas for activities for her children.
Lol, I don't think Rachael has ANY fine arts class! Oh, well! I really think she'll survive into her adult life without it!
Wow Thanks for all the feed back. I was just curious as to whether I over achieve for my DDs. Want to encourage but not be pushy. Aside from norm of HS subjects, bible, math, science, history, reading, spelling, vocab, etc... We focus on many aspects of Home Ec (sewing, all things kitchen,(including canning & freezing from garden) organizing, ironing, crochet, managing finances, gardening, etc..) Agriculture (farm related issues from milking cows to planting crops & everything in between), logic & reasoning, archery (starting our own Homeschool National Archery in the Schools Program chapter), bicycling, playing ball of all sorts, 4-H, HEALTH, early, @ home version of driver's ed.; etc.. I aspire to do more like sign language, foreign language, public speaking mastery. I am just looking for avenues to explore outside our little box here on this farm. Suggestions welcomed & desired. God bless!
Do you over achieve? I think that depends on your daughters and your family. Some people have personalities that love to be busy doing all the time. They take joy in seeing how many things they can conquer. Others need more down time. That's what great about homeschooling, you can custom fit it to your family. If your girls enjoy learning lots of new things, go for it. If they seem stressed by the load, then just do what you can handle. Homeschooling is about teaching how to learn more that teaching them everything.
This is hard to answer since I had three and they are all out of school now. The ones I remember best are: Drama about 2nd grade on Speech about 2nd grade on Homemaking about 2nd grade on Music Foreign language - middle to high school Shop/woodworking - middle school Most we did pretty much every year buy by varying methods depending upon availability and age. For example, drama and speech we did mostly through 4-H until High School when we actually did a curriculum on it. The same with Home-Ec and Shop and Music. As available and affordable, the kids took music and riding lessons for music and phy-ed. Other times we learned new sports, studied "period" games, etc for other phy-eds. Or improved our skill in a sport via swim lessons or summer baseball programs. Foreign language we did in middle or high school, but with gs I am starting it now and we are going to "grow" with it. We don't do it every day, but we do it occasionally and are gradually building our Spanish skills. (I must have done something OK, cuz my oldest had a Spanish major...lol). A lot of my extra-curricular subjects in grades 7 through 12 came out of ideas in "Senior High - a Home Designed Form-U-La". This, along with learning how to do credits and transcripts are some of the many things I learned from that book. This is an interesting thread! Looking forward to some new ideas for gs!
I agree it really depends on how much you can do and your kids can stand. We are a more relaxed family and my kids need down time. I often wonder how some of the other families with more children manage to actually get to school with all the other electives outside of the home. Fortunately for us we are rather good at taking the time to do alot of what may be considered electives as just living life.
