I absolutely adore how we are free as homeschoolers to tailor our studies to the kids' interests. Some kids are going to find certain things more enthralling than others ... and that's totally fine in my opinion. Yes, we need some breadth to our knowledge base, but life gets a lot more interesting when we have some depth in places too.
We had started studying colonial and revolutionary history here (this year I take sabbatical at work and I plan on taking the kids to Boston for about a month - a great chance to see all this history on the ground!), and then I saw the hook for my boy: Ben Franklin. Oh, how he loves inventors and inventions (and he's studying electricity in physics right now so that's a good tie-in!) My daughter is interested in him too, but more for his stories, sayings, and charisma that still gets conveyed through his writing, all these years later.
So we will be stopping here, indefinitely, until we feel well and truly done with the subject. On our own time.
If we were tied into a learning plan, a scope and sequence, or (ack!) pushed to study for a particular test, we wouldn't have time for these sidetracks. But we aren't tied into any of that - we are learning how we please.
Just another thing I love about homeschooling.
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