One of the benefits of homeschooling is that we can customize the curriculum and lesson plans to our individual child. If your child is more hands on, you can find curriculum to work for him; if he's a typical textbook learner, there are plenty of options available for that, too.
But let's take that a step further: What if your child has decided on what they want to be when they graduate and it's not directly applied to your current curriculum? We teach the basics of math, reading, writing, science and history but what if your child wants to be an engineer or a mechanic or a chef? Public schools now offer many great electives to choose from but it seemed harder to make that work in a home school.
It requires a bit of extra time and research on the parent/teacher's part, but you can create your own curriculum to introduce your child to the career of their choice. For starters, you can search the topic on-line and not only read about it but also see if there are any on-line courses available that your child can take. My son was interested in theme-park engineering and we not only found many wonderful books on the subject but an on-line course as well!
You can visit local businesses and see if there is anyone that would be willing to talk with your child about their chosen profession and maybe lead you in the direction that you need to go and what resources would be helpful. You can go on field trips that may be nothing more than a trip to the local Jiffy Lube, caterer or salon!
Don't limit yourself to only studying the basics that come in your curriculum kit and think that you have to wait until high school when you can dual-enroll your child in a local college for them to start customizing their education. You can start whenever you want! As long as you are covering the basics, you can choose all of the extra-curricular/electives that you like to make your child a well-rounded individual and keep them excited about their education.
Comments