Philosophy Change

So, we're having a philosophy change.

I've been working on the lesson plan idea of (for example):

We need to persuasive writing
therefore
I'll teach what it is
then 
I'll get Nicky to write a persuasive text (on whatever relevant subject, or even a subject out of the blue).

This type of plan isn't working.  Our collective disabilities are getting in the way of this type of structure, and quite frankly, it's boring as batshit.

Thus, I'm going to try this approach:

Me: What subject do you want to learn about today?
Nicky: Space
therefore
We learn about space - iPad games, internet, books, telescope, etc.  As we're learning, I'll be talking about what type of text we're reading - is it trying to persuade us? (etc).
then 
I'll get Nicky to write a persuasive text in relation to space.

The main philosophy will be "Learning to love learning".

I will keep looking at the Australian Curriculum throughout the year in order to know which direction to nudge our learning.  At the end of the year, I'll sit down with our records of what we have done, and tick off the AC as appropriate, and use the next couple of months to go over anything that we may have missed.

Basically, I am going to relax about the whole thing.  For his sake, and for mine.  This is the best way too, I think, of catering for his giftedness.  Already, I have noticed that once I stopped him because "we were done for the day for that subject, and we had other subjects yet to cover".  That is not a habit I want to get into.  That is actually one of the reasons we left the school environment.  We will never know how far he can go if we stop him according to some regimented timetable, that quite frankly, I have set up only to appease others concerns that I cannot educate my child.

I should have given myself time at the beginning, to wrap my head around how best to approach homeschooling.  Instead, I feared judgement, and wanted to "prove" from the start that I was capable.  The thing is - keeping to the same education "formula" as formal schooling defeats the purpose.  And the people around me who are going to judge, will judge anyway.  So I'm going to let them, if it pleases them to do so.  In the meantime, I am going to teach my son - I am going to teach him how to have fun learning for the sake of learning.