I asked the 9yo this week what his favorite subject is to study. He said history. While not all together surprising, it was the first time I actually heard him articulate this. American history has been a long, thick, continuous thread through our first year of homeschooling, but it came about quite by accident. I didn't exactly set out to give my son this foundation, but I saw him drawn to it, I fed it, and together we've devoured it at every opportunity. Reading, listening to audio books and podcasts, boardgames, a broadway play, documentaries, movies and at trip to DC have made our learning rich and memorable. We haven't followed any Common Core coursework/curriculum since day one, and we have not practiced any writing in a couple months. Math is still a sore subject. But I'm not worried at this point because my son left the public school system ahead of his grade level and so I feel we have a good year of cushion to study whatever the heck he wants. History, science, engineering, mechanical arts - who's to say this isn't meaningful learning?
The painting that hangs in our dining room/classroom is one entitled Martha George Washington by local artist, Julie Sutherland. It's Martha's facial features on George's presidential portrait. I fell in love with it and brought it home six months before our dining room was converted to a place of learning, half a year before my son discovered a passion for our first president. I like to think of it as an early indicator of the change coming to our family. We brought the learning home and couldn't help but fall in love with our country's history.