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Just curious what you do for at home learning...

He is almost 9 and a newly identified 2e kid. We have been working on learning to type and it seems to be going okay. We are reading some Life of Fred books and this also seems to be going well.

Today I gave him a book from the library on Greek Mythology to read in the car for an hour long car ride - he ate it up. He has read 13 stories (about third of the book) of different Greek Gods and Myths.... I am sure it will be the first thing he asks for in the morning, he was excited to leave a birthday party today to get back in the car to read more!!

My question is how do I channel this excitement and enthusiasm? Should I just let him discover it on his own and leave it at that? Should we work on small projects, what kinds? Do a bit of research? Let him pick a couple of "Gods" and learn more about them? I absolutely love that he loves to learn about so much stuff, should I let him hold the cards and decide what he would like to do?

I don't want to turn him off by making it too "school like".

I have posted this here because you all have such great input and I like it here!!! ...and he has a very low processing speed and doing any written work will met with resistance (too school like) as written output is a huge hurdle for him. Though he does love to tell stories... hmmm maybe I should get him to tell (and I will scribe) his own made up myth and maybe even create his own "God" - that seems like a something that would be up his alley for sure.... then maybe I will get him to type the story?

How do you guys handle this kind of thing? I just don't know how "structured" I should make this? What works for you? How much "learning" do you do over the summer? How much time is spent on it and is it an everyday thing, weekends only or very structured like everyday between 6:00 and 8:00 learning is done?

Any and all input is greatly appreciated!!!

Hello! I have an almost 9yo as well. I'm not sure if you plan to homeschool full time or are only asking about learning at home during the summer. I guess you could very well let him hold the cards as it sounds as if you're doing a great job at it and he's enjoying himself.

That's a great idea about creating his own Greek God. Wish I'd thought of it! If he is very interested, there's a National Mythology Exam that he could try. The book used to prepare for it is the D'Aulaires Greek Myths available in most libraries.
http://www.etclassics.org/nme.html
http://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Greek-Myths-Ingri-dAulaire/dp/0440406943/
Reading the book should prep him enough but there's also an online course available from Athena's Advanced Academy. The benefit of using A3 would be that he could learn together in an online class environment and the instructor makes it rather fun.
http://www.athenasacademy.com/

One of the things my son did with Greek Myths was to illustrate a notebook and also a family tree of the gods. My son doesn't like to write so illustrating was a fun option. The Percy Jackson series (if he hasn't read it already) may also be a nice spinoff. And we took him to places that had statues of Greek gods and he had fun identifying them.

We homeschool year round and follow a "whatever-works" strategy be it for resources or scheduling. But if you're afterschooling or doing it during the summer, I don't know, maybe you'd need a schedule if you want to accomplish something specific? Hopefully others will have better answers for you!

All the best!

For a full homeschooling curriculum that follows state standards, you might want to check out:
www.time4learning.com

It is affordable, interactive, fun and you track their progress and can print reports for the district, if needed.

In addition, you can skip up & down grades depending on your needs.

We use is for supplemental work.

I am a whole "in the car curriculum" that can be useful to slip some learning in: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/classical-education/in-the-car-curriculum/

Another fun game to play is Magic Word: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/2011/03/03/magic-word/

This summer my son is also working on Right Start level D for math:http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/2011/07/12/right-start-level-d/

Good luck to you!

We are only doing this through the summer though we will likely continue with some enrichment whenever possible once school is back in - I wish we could homeschool but we just aren't in a position to right now

I love the idea of the family tree!! The links you gave me look great, I will definitely look into some of that for him.

We have seen one of the Percy Jackson movies and it was a huge hit (with me too!), so the books are totally something I will try and pick up from the library.
I only thought of it as I was writing the original posts - it feels good to bounce ideas off of people!!! Thanks

Great advice!!! Thank you Master of none - this may become my mantra!!

Thanks laura0896 for your link I will check it out.

jenbrdsly - we spend a fair amount of time in the car as we live 30 minutes from pretty much anything (grocery store, library, swimming lessons etc.) this will be a great thing to peruse - it sure beats having kids fight with each other in the backseat!!

I like to follow my children's lead. If they express an interest in something. I might get a book or two from the library and leave it on the book table. It's totally up to them to pick it up or not. This puts the child in charge of the learning. Here's another example, My DD was enjoying learning about space at school. I noticed the library had a program and asked if she was interested? I go to garage sales and get books for 50 cents and put them on a home book shelf. I keep a variety of fiction and reference book. One way to encourage an interest is to start doing something like an art project. If my children have an interest they can join in and do their own. I can't take credit for all this, as this forum has helped me with these tips that can be applied to any subject.