Self-Study Curriculum 1

This is just an example of a studying plan for one year. It's mine. I'm planning on learning this stuff myself, and it's adjusted to how I learn and how much I can absorb in a given time period. Was gonna keep it to myself but I want you to see how to put one of these together so you're not just diving in and hoping you absorb information by osmosis as alas, it doesn't work like that. Chances are excellent that your workload will not need to be as nutso as this one. Also, given personal constraints (i.e. you might actually be in school of some sort or need to set up a homeschool curriculum in a state with strict standards and ways of testing to ensure those standards are met) yours will be way less vague.

TortillaTortilla's Learning Plan for 2023

Important note: can and will be adjusted to match unexpected circumstances. It may look completely different after half a year.

Overall goals: Fill the gaps in my public K-12 education as much as possible. Become more familiar with and comfortable with the following subjects: Math, Science, Physics, English, Chemistry, Biology, Earth Science, Astronomy, History, Home Economics, P.E., Health and Mental Health, Social Studies, Art, and Indoor/Outdoor Recreation (Recess). Ready self to learn more involved topics in all of these subjects by building a strong foundation.

Plan to make this as pleasant and painless as possible:

• Learn to care even less about what other people think
• Study in public as often as able, such as in 24-hour diners
• Keep window curtains open so it's not like a prison
• Reward self with new cheap perfume once each quarter
• Keep an effective daily self-care routine going
• Ignore temptation to overload schedule with even more shit, remember to take as much time off and rest time as possible, also remember that adulting and work is in the mix too therefore seriously don't overload schedule
• Cultivate ability to have fun and enjoy self and have real hobbies and a life outside of all this to balance it all out

Materials I'd like to gather:

• McGraw-Hill Must Know High School books; plan is to get through one per month. This will depend on what's available at the library and also what I can afford.
• One classic novel per month; also depends on the library.
• The Cartoon Guide To series by Larry Gonick: plan is to get through them all, probably in half a year as they're not hard to decipher, but I'll see
• The Art of Problem Solving, Volume 1
• Folders, plastic file boxes, binders, bookshelves, typical office/school supplies, desk, and overall secretary-type setup to keep all my mad scientist setup in some semblance of order instead of piles
• Donation boxes for all these books that have already been read, and other knicknacks that need to be donated

Materials already gathered

• A really excellent planner, specifically the Ivory Paper Co. Twenty Twenty-Three planner
• An ass ton of pens
• A whole lot of notebooks
• Steady internet connection
• Computer with which to take notes and create files for keeping information I actually want to remember for the rest of my life, since my memory is terrible
• Flash drive as backup
• Email account as secondary backup for files; may need to actually purchase something like Dropbox at some point
• Insanity
• An interest in and passion for actually learning this stuff

FIRST QUARTER: January - March 2023

Progress update 1/2/23 Have finished several library books, and really enjoyed Make Mead Like A Viking by Jereme Zimmerman. My local library has at last debugged its Overdrive software so I can now read stuff on an internet browser without having it decide to deny me access by logging me out due to "inactivity" (aka reading the thing without jiggling the mouse), or download a garbled Epub text or some Overdrive thing for online access that has like half of it missing, or take five minutes to load the next page (true story). Looks like in terms of ebooks that are internet access it stocked up its romance novels and classics section but is pretty garbage in terms of nonfiction. Still, progress is progress, and being able to read library books for real with few tech issues and without having to re-log in every 20 minutes is a miracle. Am also trying audiobooks to see if they kill off some of the horrible monotony that is crocheting things. I am attempting to read Pride and Prejudice. It's boring. It's so boring!!! Got derailed by The Oatmeal's Horrible Therapist thingy

2/2/23 Forgot to mention I'm also trying out Kindle Unlimited. It's basically as good as local library ebook selection online, if you have around five times as much time to search. But it's got - somehow - even MORE trash you have to sift through to find good books. For some reason it's filled with antivax and anti-science bullshit also, plus some of the most horrendously outrageous romance novels (and their covers). Worse, their profit model encourages authors to churn out as much trash as possible because they give you a deal: "maybe" you will get paid per page read, but at our discretion. So I can't decide if I want to recommend it to anyone and am leaning towards a heavy "no." Hopefully some online library competitors show up that pay authors a fair wage too with a better profit model. That way maybe folks can pay like $50 a year for access to unlimited books on an online library and we don't have to deal with the cesspit that is Kindle Unlimited.

3/12/23 Oh yep, I am behind. Might have bitten off more than I can chew. Hmmm.

• Finish or at least get started on The Art of Problem Solving, Volume 1
• Finish The Handy Science Book of Answers
• Finish The Art of Science by Joseph J. Carr
• Finish 3 1 classic novel, any
• Finish 3 McGraw-Hill Must Know High School books - FINISHED ONE
• Finish 1 interesting book, any - DONE
• Tackle The Cartoon Guide To series and see how far I get
• Keep trying to find good materials for learning things at the library and elsewhere - DONE

SECOND QUARTER: April - June 2023

• 4/22/23 Have definitely bitten off more than I can chew. Now scaling back workload. All strikethrough text is stuff I'm editing the plan with today. Think I'll spend the rest of the year tackling the backlog.
• Finish 3 1 classic novel, any
• Finish 3 McGraw-Hill Must Know High School books Can't afford, and library doesn't have the ones that I need right now.
• Finish 1 interesting book, any - DONE
• Tackle The Cartoon Guide To series and see how far I get
• Keep trying to find good materials for learning things at the library and elsewhere - DONE

THIRD QUARTER: July - September 2023

• Finish 3 1 classic novel, any
• Finish 3 McGraw-Hill Must Know High School books
• Finish 1 interesting book, any
• Tackle The Cartoon Guide To series and see how far I get
• Keep trying to find good materials for learning things at the library and elsewhere

FOURTH QUARTER: October - December 2023

• Finish 3 1 classic novel, any
• Finish 3 McGraw-Hill Must Know High School books
• Finish 1 interesting book, any
• Tackle The Cartoon Guide To series and see how far I get
• Keep trying to find good materials for learning things at the library and elsewhere

From Big Brain Time

Home