Calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory.

Admiral Piett:   “Lord Vader, our ships have completed their scan of the
     area and found nothing. If the Millennium Falcon went into light-speed, 
     it’ll be on the other side of the galaxy by now.”
Darth Vader:    ”Alert all commands. Calculate every possible destination
     along their last known trajectory.”
Admiral Piett:  ”Yes, my Lord. We’ll find them.”
Darth Vader:   “Don’t fail me again, Admiral.”
                Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

VanderKitten took me up on my offer and asked about homeschooling Padawan Learner, especially as it concerns the more advanced courses he’ll be taking in the next couple of years.

“Aren’t you scared to teach Calculus? Physics? Chemistry? Those were my worst classes in school (actually, I wimped out and didn’t even take Physics) so I would be terrified to have to teach it. Do you anticipate sharing any of those classes with other home school parents, who might have those strengths? Or if math and science are your strengths, do you have other areas you are “afraid” to teach?”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past 6 years of homeschooling, it’s that I don’t have to do it all alone. I don’t have to “calculate every possible destination along [our homeschooling] trajectory.” If you’d told me a year ago that Padawan Learner would be learning Latin, I would have thought you were projecting your own needs or wishes onto PL.  Things change, opportunities present themselves. Conundrums rise and subside. So no, I’m not afraid about my own educational or academic weaknesses. I know a wide variety of people that have more in-depth knowledge than I do about certain things, and I have no compunction about calling on them for help as we need it. You picked some easy examples for me. Fellow homeschooler, M-T’s Mom is married to a Physics and Mathematics teacher at East. Uncle D is – as you know – a Chemistry wunderkind. Ta da. Fear abated.

But seriously, yes, I will use outside classes in areas that I don’t think we can cover adequately or for subjects that we can’t find good materials, but my preferred provider would probably be the local community college as opposed to a homeschooler specific class. Once Padawan Learner is 16, he can take up to two classes a semester at the community college for dual enrollment credit. I’m already planning to use that for Chemistry, so that he can have a formal lab experience. The fundamentalist and creationist religious bent of our community really permeates the classes offered at our local homeschool resource center, which isn’t a good fit for heathens like us. I don’t think we’ll need outside help for Biology but, if we did, the last thing I would want is a class where evolution isn’t considered the backbone of the science – where it’s actively ridiculed. I’ve seen a few homeschooling co-op classes, taught by homeschooling parents with a specialty in one area or another, but I haven’t been moved to enroll PL in them. He did take a homeschool co-op gym class for a couple of years, but he got tired of it (same ol’, same ol’) and keeps plenty active on his own.

Currently, we use a DVD program for Latin, but I also know someone who’s husband teaches Latin and Greek on the side, so we might move to that when PL needs more advanced instruction. Dutch is a combination of my day-to-day instruction (basic grammar, vocabulary building, reading and listening materials, etc) and a weekly lesson with a native Dutch speaker (and Dutch-as-a-Second-Language teacher) for pronunciation and the more difficult grammar questions. Piano is taught by a music teacher at her house. And Padawan Learner takes a trampoline and tumbling class for homeschooled kids (aka, it’s held during school hours) at a local gymnastics center.

That said, PL is a kid that still enjoys learning most things for the hey, that’s cool  factor alone, so he’s self-motivated to really understand what he’s learning. He might ask a few clarifying questions after reading something, but for the most part he doesn’t need a lot of hand-holding. Since he isn’t bombarded with the drama of high stakes testing, he’s avoided picking up the attitude that only grades or test scores matter. He has no reason or incentive to cram.cram.cram.forget.  So far, I haven’t run into anything basic that I couldn’t handle, but I also keep pretty busy learning right alongside Padawan Learner. I’m always reading ahead, working the same problems, figuring out new ways to explain things. A lot of what I read about is as a foundation for ideas and materials that I plan to use as he gets older.

Does that answer your question? I think I got a bit rambling there.

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