It’s that time of year! Nancy and I are working ferociously on boat projects and work to save up for this fall’s travels. Meanwhile, Olivia is gearing up…no, starting homeschool/boatschool today. It’s our third year of homeschooling on our sailboat, and we thought we’d share a few updates since the last time we wrote about how to homeschool on a sailboat.
If Olivia were in “normal” school – whatever that is – she’d be in 8th grade.
However, we aren’t pacing and limiting her learning based on her age. So she’s in a blend of 8th-, 9th-, and 10th-grade classes.
Here’s her schedule.
Homeschool Schedule, Fall 2022
We’ve decided to do a creative schedule for this semester (August – December). It includes a mini-mester of three classes in August. Then a traditional load of 7 classes/subjects September through December.
| Course | Time | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Typing | 2 Hours/Day | Life skills |
| High School European History | 2 Hours/Day | Academic / College Prep |
| Personal Finance | 2 Hours/Day | Life skills / College Prep |
The purpose of the minimester is to capitalize on the back-to-school motivation, which allows a student to focus on a topic for an in-depth period of time. In our case, 2 hours per course.
Also, it’s a short period of one month, so we can have three quick wins early in this school year!
The rest of the semester looks like this:
| Course | Time: 50m/Day | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| World History | 2 Semesters | Academic / Cultural Awareness |
| High School Physics | 2 Semesters | Academic / How the World Works |
| Geometry | 1 Semester | Academic / This is the next math after H.S. Algebra, plus, she’s tired of Algebra after 2 years of it. |
| High School Spanish | 1 Semester | Cultural Awareness / We’re heading to Spanish-speaking countries. |
| Basic Graphic Design | 1 Semester | Business / High-interest area for her and the first of her business classes. |
| Microsoft Excel Certification | 51 Semester | Business / Life skills |
| English Grammar & SAT Writing Prep | 1 Semester | Academic / This is the last of her grammar classes and should get her writing ready for college-level work. |
How We Form A Plan for Learning
We believe education should be geared toward the individual, not some standardized list dictated by a committee of strangers.
More so, we focus on building strengths, not targeting weaknesses.
Olivia has strengths in arts and academics. That’s the reason we push college prep. We don’t believe everyone shares the same strengths or interests, and if her strengths were different, we’d design her schedule accordingly.
Also, we believe education should prep for the real world, not some fiction from an ivory tower.
She’s highly interested in business, so we combine her strengths and her interests to form a plan for learning.
I hope you found this blog post helpful or interesting. If I left a question unanswered, or if you have a thought to share, please drop it in the comments below!
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