Self-directed learning + the high school years

I am a little hyper focused on my oldest at the moment, probably because she is entering what would be her high school years. I might be worried that letting her be self-directed could totally screw up the rest of her adult life! Trying to ease my fears I have been taking notes on everything Olivia has been spending time on during the month of August. 

My notes are simple and very basic. I use sticky notes and a spiral notebook. Yep, that's all I use. I title a page with what might be a standard high school topic like English. Anything that Olivia does relating to the subject of English is written on a sticky note and stuck to the English page. Once the page is full I start another page. This has been helpful in a couple of ways. First, I stand back looking at her accomplishments and realize that my fears on self-directed learning have been just that my fears. Also, these little sticky notes allowed me to do some research on further material that I thought might interest Olivia. 

Here is a peek at what Olivia has requested to learn.

Last year Olivia read and enjoyed Writing Magic and Spilling Ink. She has informed me that she enjoys Seize the Story more. She does not like the writing prompts in this book, but prefers the overall information more and incorporates the information with the 30 day writing challenge she is doing. 

Olivia has used One Year Adventure Novel program. It sparked more of her passion, but didn't help generate ideas, a sense of individual writing style within her. She did love the outlining framework of the program, but feels she needs more as she continues writing her novel. We are hopeful this title will assist, we haven't read it yet, but it has strong reviews.

Olivia is excited to have this reference book sitting on her desk and bed as she writes. 

Through our discussions about what Olivia wants to learn, do, and become it became clear that she desires some guidance and insight on the business of writing. She is excited to dive into Stein on Writing. This is a book we previewed from the library and decided we needed it on our shelves.

Olivia has enjoyed her writing books so much, that when I brought the title Writing Irresistible Kidlit to her attention she jumped at the chance to bring it home. We haven't used it yet, but it again has some strong reviews and we will update how the material in this book works for her. 

Now that Olivia has chosen books that she is interested, and I can physically look at her plan,  my fears have dissipated. We have decided to call this self-directed course English 9 - Novel Writing and Literature. An official title for the start of our home made transcripts if she needs them.

I want to learn from the books she has pulled together.