I look over those concepts and circle the ones I want to focus on with this particular book. I’m just jotting down all the concepts that show up. To plan a new Boomerang, I grab a sheet of notebook paper and read through the entire guide, jotting down the different concepts covered over the whole thing.

2 pencils because I’m about to get wordy. It helps me see (in my mind) the information I’m working with, and then I can play around and adapt plans for my kids.īelow is my Boomerang planning process. Symbolism? Figurative language? Plot? Character analysis? I want an overall “outline” before starting. The details are in the Boomerang guide, but I want to know where I’m going before I dive in. I like knowing the Big Picture, but I also like a more detailed road map of how to get there.

An English program after both my heart and my waistline.Įven though the English curriculum stars finally aligned, I admit I still struggled my first year with how to teach efficiently with Boomerangs. Not to mention Brave Writer encourages eating brownies in your school day. It had the variety I was looking for, it’s nonsectarian, and its approach to English just felt right. There are too many wonderful books out there to limit our exposure to one genre. While I’m all about some classics, I’m not about all classics. Even if I considered secularizing a religious-based curriculum, many of the literature programs were heavy on the classics. We’re secular homeschoolers so that alone shortened our list of potential homeschool curriculum programs.

I floundered for a while, trying to find a literature program that fit. Sure, it worked great for growing a love of books, but what about the new mission of preparing them for Lit 101 in college? Took years of practice!īut as my boys approached high school, I naturally began to feel pressure to do more than Let’s Just Read. It’s where you find books you’re interested in and you read them. When my boys were younger, my approach to literature was tied to a complex pedagogy called Let’s Just Read.

Using brave writer in small groups