Aside from the main subjects, what do you teach? Once a week each, we do:

• art
• cooking lessons
• creative writing

Ambleside Online provides for plenty of "extras" as well. The things we learn which differ from standard curriculum, but are not considered "extras" in the sense that they are part of the meat of the curriculum, are:

• French daily
• Latin daily
• weekly art and music appreciation
• daily singing
• weekly musical instrument practice (formal lesson) and daily at home

Also, to spice things up a little, twice a week we spend some time on our Unit Study of the Month. Some that we have planned for this school year include apples, dinosaurs, our community, Christmas, Easter, the ocean, space, and community service.

We also do the cooking lessons, but this year we added in computers, graphic design and digital photography.  My kids who are elementary and Jr. High are mesmerized by all the technology so I figured it couldn't hurt to get them started.

That sounds like fun, Stacey. Are you good at those computer arts? I tried, once. I'm awful at it. LOL

I guess we teach mainly extras, and everything falls into place through those.  We do writing and math every day though.

Latin, Japanese and Spanish.  Right now Actionscript and Maya 3-D.  Folklore and herbology.  This week we made solid perfumes.  Lots and lots of art everywhere.  Astronomy.  Lots of cooking together, and we like to watch Alton Brown and then try his recipes together...we're all over the place but life is pretty good.

For instance, yesterday we did a class on paper and plastics. (Ecology)  Today we'll look at paper under the microscope and start making our own.

The closer we move to unschooling, the more 'schooling' we end up doing.

On saw someone say they were doing music appreciation - www.classicsforkids.com is a great link for classical music learning.  We check that out every week. They have one show a week and it is kid-friendly.

My son would do only extras if it was up to him.  We are doing art, music theory and history of composers, PE (a college book I found on how to teach PE to elementary kids), and Spanish. 

My son loves Alton Brown! I so do not like to cook, so I told him to keep watching, because when he turns 13, the kitchen is his.  Not sure my hubby would go for that though :)

<<Aside from the main subjects, what do you teach? >>

We do the following:

• Language Arts (literature, composition, vocabulary, analgoies, public speaking, grammar/usage/mechanics)
• Math (Algebra I)
• Physcial Science
• History (currently in a four-year cycle of world history)
• Art (history, skills, artists, architecture, and more)
• Music (solfege and Kodaly)
• Bible studies
• Spanish
• Latin
• Computer Skills (Office programs, programming)
• Economic Skills
• Cooking
• ...and too much more to list!

My son:

• attends bible club twice a month
• participates in Cub Scouting
• attends a HS co-op, which is three classes on Friday
• runs indoor and outdoor track, and cross-country
• studies solar physics
• participates in Contig tournaments
• studies Creationism
• spends time on Cosmeo (http://www.cosmeo.com), Brain Pop (http://www.brainpop.com), Explore Learning (http://www.explorelearning.com) and other learning sites
• tests on a team with the Online Academic League (http://www.academicleagues.com/default.asp)
• volunteers for missionary friends doing office work
• participates with Davidson Young Scholars (http://www.ditdservices.org/Articles.aspx?ArticleID=147&NavID=0_0)
• attends local classes at museums
• ...and anything else that strikes him!

What is Contig?

I teach

Latin
Personal Habits (home maintenance, sewing, cooking)

Hubby teaches

Yard & outdoor activities
Car Maintenance
Building/Construction of wood items

Contig Turnaments are math bees

Contig is a math game played with dice.  It's great for fast recall of math facts.  We have local and state tournaments.  The game varies by grade level.

Here are some links:

http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Div/Winchester/jhhs/math/lessons/algebra/contig.html

http://hometown.aol.com/contigforwindows/contigforwindows.htm

Ooh, that is somehting I can see my daughter getting into! She loves math. See? I learn something new every day!

Hey Kristi,

I found a very cool experiement for science with paper and it might fit for what you are doing!  You make paper out of dryer lint!  I'm just getting my stuff together, but if you're interested let me know and I can send you the info!

Oh and Michelle when I said "we" I should have said my DH he has all the computer smarts, that's why I figured the kids better get started early!!  :0 )

Stacey

We are in a co-op this year where my son takes:

drawing

vocals

piano

At home other subjects include:

The Easy Spanish

the Ambleside artist study

lots of literature

When I taught my girls one of our extras was sign language.  We had a deaf girl in our town and her husband and her would come over and give all 3 girls private lessons for $5 a week.

In addition to the usual subjects, my son also learns:

• Spanish
• Cooking (his current favorite "subject!")
• Art
• Guitar lessons
• Gymnastics team
• Taekwondo
• various other sports, depending on the season
• Church youth group
• Children's choir
• Hip hop dance classes
• Computer science (taught by my DH, because I'm just clueless!)
• Aeronotical studies (again, taught by my DH, because I'm horribly clueless!)