I'm Susan and in this blog, you'll get to hear about my adventures in homeschooling my high school daughter, Claire.

Claire is identified as gifted, but was also the poster child for the underachieving child. Learning wasn't hard, but I didn't realize that school itself had become unbearable until we got a terrifying wake-up call one morning.

My husband and I were compelled to find a new way for Claire to do school, so here we are.

It's been a week since our decision. Claire is officially unenrolled from her high school where she was a struggling freshman. When I told her that she wouldn't have to go back, I think she started to heal.

So far, we're taking it easy. This week has actually been chock-full of errands and chores and housework and neither of us have had much time to draw breath. But the best news is that my child is suddenly very different. She's not hiding in her room, she's responsive, she's very present with our family.

She seems to want to work on something academic, so I let her choose which subject she wanted to keep going with. She chose English. After some brainstorming, we put together a list of eight semesters worth of 'concentrations' that should cover everything she needs for a college-prep course of literature.

Poetry
Plays
Shakespeare
Genre studies: Mystery
Genre studies: Sci-fi
Fairytales/Folklore/Mythology
Gothic Lit
World Lit

We're starting with Poetry and I decided to use the Total Language Plus: American Lit - Poetry curriculum. It contains about a quarter's worth of material including writing assignments, so I still need to plan another quarter of lessons, but I really wanted to use a curriculum for this first time out. I've read really great things about TLP and it seems like it'll work with her learning style.

We're using Daily Grammar for grammar studies. Since we're keeping it low key, two lessons a day will take about 10 minutes and it'll last for two years!

TLP contains a vocabulary study, but we're also going to go over a long list of roots and prefixes that will help if and when Claire decides to take some AP level classes.

That's where we're starting. Nothing overwhelming, just one subject.

Welcome to our homeschooling journey!