I'm HIP to IHIP

What is an IHIP, you say?

It's an Individualized Home Instruction Plan, and it must be submitted to your school district, or New York State, shortly after withdrawing your child and starting to homeschool.

The IHIP offers the district the dates when you will file quarterly reports (sounds scarier than it is), and your curriculum for the year.

One thing is for sure: I do not want Bing to fall behind. I plan to put him back in school in a couple of years or so, and I want to make sure that I am following all of the learning standards chosen by the State.

So I checked around: with other homeschooling moms, who generously let me see their lesson plans; online (the HSLDA has a great example of a blank sheet); and by asking teachers at Bing's school who were more than willing to help.

So Bing's sixth grade syllabus goes something like this.

In Language Arts (what we used to call English), Bing will learn (or already has learned): Silent and oral reading, summarizing, grammar, short stories, chapter reading, books, poetry, plays, increasing dictionary skills, cursive handwriting, simple outlining, spelling and vocabulary, sentence structure, Latin and Greek roots, writing book reports, oral book reports, creative writing, developing skills in locating information, Increasing indexing skills, developing encyclopedia skills, and utilizing parts of a newspaper, and state simulation testing

Books we will read this year:
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (He's reading the third one, so I figured I might as well throw it in!)
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Westing Game by Ellen Baskin
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Candyfreak by Steve Almond
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Westing Game and Holes both have teacher packets, chock full of questions to ask and tests to give on the books that I can -- get this! -- download right onto my Kindle.

Candyfreak chronicles the true adventures of a confection-obsessed writer who visits the great (or no longer great) candy factories of the nation. It is a love letter to the candies of our youth, and Bing -- who vows he will someday be a candy-maker -- is enjoying being read to from this book every night.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is simply one of my "desert island" books. Again, non-fiction, but so engrossing, and who doesn't love the way Bill Bryson writes? It is The Wonder Years come to life, and I recommend it for anyone, young and old. Warning, there are a few "F" bombs thrown in the mix.

Bing asked if we could finish Huck Finn. We started it a few months ago and got derailed. Another read-aloud choice, after we finish the Steve Almond book. Needless to say, there are tons of teaching materials out there to go along with Mark Twain's work.

Besides the books, all of the other scary looking items listed ("I could never teach those! I wouldn't know where to start!") are things Bing accomplishes on Time4Learning, his online program.

Will write about the other subjects next. Stay tuned.