Can you fill homeschooling hours with any subjects you want once the child has learned everything else?

Question

When homeschooling in PA, do the 900 hours/180 days need to be filled with only the subjects given by the state or school? Or am I allowed to use that time to teach other subjects that the schools don't offer? This is my first year doing this. My daughter is extremely smart and she is going through things so fast that we will be done with the 1st grade materials that the school gave us by Christmas. So what am I supposed to do for the rest of the school year? I can't make her go through the first grade material again because she is already so bored by how easy it is. I don't know if I should/could move on to 2nd grade materials. Or am I allowed to make up my own subjects for her and fill the rest of the 900 hours with cooking and sewing and a foreign language or whatever she wants to learn? Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

You might not be counting a lot of hours that are educational, but not doing "work." Like trips to the library, time you spend reading to her. Trips to the grocery store, you can talk about the different vegetables and fruits.

If you are part of a program you should ask them. Are you doing too much in one day just to fill the hours? You shouldn't. Home schooled students often finish sooner than the hours the classrooms take. Unless the law says the hours must be on core subjects then you can do whatever you want. If she loves the materials, why not keep going.

What are you using?

Answer 2

You can keep moving along onto second grade work if she's ready, and if she's bored, she's ready!You can certainly slow her down by going wider or deeper. For example, supplementing with living maths books (google that and you'll find a great website) and mathsy games. Or you can do another maths curriculum for the extra practice and different way of working out a problem. And there are about a trillion different maths programs. CSMP and MEP are both free online and have yahoo groups for support. The CSMP one is new, only started yesterday, so no archives to read yet, but you could get questions answered.



You can certainly add other subjects if you want to. Homeschooling isn't about doing exactly what the school does. Is it their business if you want to learn to cook, sew, garden, speak Farsi, read Braille and learn to sign? The library is full of books and documentaries, all waiting for you!





If the school won't give you 2nd grade work yet, go freelance :P There are lots of forums online for different styles and products. I hang about on the Well Trained Mind board most, but read plenty of other lists.

Answer 3

I would suggest supplementing & expanding on the subjects she is already doing.



An example:

If she enjoys a particular story in her reading book, expand on that theme. If the story featured a dog, go to the library and get more reading-level fiction books about dogs. Get some non-fiction books about dogs, too. Let her write & illustrate her own story using the characters from her reading book. Take a field trip to the local animal shelter or vet.

It may only take 15 minutes to read the original assignment, but you can fill hours with related supplemental activities.



The same works for other subjects.



After you have covered the core subjects you are free to add any add'l subjects to your homeschool curriculum.

Answer 4

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