Some questions re: last minute course decision making

[Hunter's Moon]

How many credits do you think is adequate for a high school Junior?

 

I have 14 credits all together from my two previous years in Public school, so 7 a year. I felt this was a good goal to make for myself, at least 7 credits a year, but for some reason, I feel the need to add more. I just feel like why am I home schooling if not to better my education and get more credits than they would expect in Public School?

 

Second, I am still having trouble deciding if I should put Grammar as a 1/2 year course along with American Literature on my transcript so I would have 1 1/2 english credits, or if I should just put English III with American Lit. for 1 English credit. As far as I know, here, we don't really learn much Grammar in English, just Literature. We did about a month of Grammar last year in English but they tried to cram everything down our throats all at once so I'm assuming that was meant to be good enough for all four years, even though it was no where near close.

 

Third, is this a decent list of classes?:

 

Chemistry- 1 year (Exploring Creation with Chemistry)

Chem lab- 1/2 year

Pre-calculus- 1 year (Math U See)

American Literature- 1 year (Learning Language Arts Through Literature: Amer. Lit. Gold Book)

Grammar- 1/2 year (or just add with Amer. Lit.?) (Harvey's Revised English Grammar)

U.S. History II- 1 year (All American Series)

Health- 1/2 year (Lifepac)

Italian III- 1 year (Continental Books)

Art History- 1/2 year (Short Lessons in Art History: Artists and their work)

Astronomy- 1 year (College text; Astronomy Today 6th Edition)

 

I wanted to add Old Testament Survey to my list to make the credits total come up to 8 1/2 (or 9 if I count Grammar seperately) but I think even without it 7 1/2 (or 8) credits should be enough. Plus, I can't find a good Old Testament Curriculum, I want the History thrown in along with scripture but can't seem to find any like that, so I figured I could do it Senior Year, or not at all.

 

*If you have any better curriculum suggestions from my list of classes above, those are welcome as well. I'm not changing my mind about Math U See though. I need visual aid but can't afford Chalkdust or other's like it.

[Beth in TN]

I think a max of 7 credit per year is fine for the average high school student. Each credit usually takes one hour per day per class. So any more credits and it might be too much to be able to "have a life". :001_smile:

 

Grammar is usually part of an English class (along with writing, literature, vocuabulary). I would not make a "class" out of grammar. If you feel you need grammar instruction, I would advise adding it to your English work a few days per week.

 

You class list looks good except I would not consider the Chemistry Lab as a separate course even if you do them at a different time. The Apologia Chem text will tell you when to do each lab as part of the regular module work.

 

Again add the grammar into your regular work for English/American Lit. If I remember correctly LLATL has grammar instruction (but only a little bit). You might decide to use Harvey's English for only those concepts for which you need more practice. That will help cut down on doing more work than you necessary.

 

Regarding the Old Testament Survey: you might consider simply reading the Bible slowly throughout the year since you have a full class load. If you really want to study the OT academically considering The Kingdom of God: a Old Testament Survey by Francis Breisch, Jr. (it's sold by CLASS homeschools) or A Popular Survey of the Old Testament by Norman Geisler (my dh used it in his OT Survey course at Liberty University). Both texts come with workbooks and can be 1.0 credit.

 

Good luck!

[Hunter's Moon]

If I put the Chem lab with the Chem, would I put 1 1/2 credits for Chemistry or just 1 because on my transcript from my public school, they put them seperately and I want my transcript to be constant.

[Lori D.]

...is this a decent list of classes?:

 

Chemistry- 1 year (Exploring Creation with Chemistry)

Chem lab- 1/2 year

Pre-calculus- 1 year (Math U See)

American Literature- 1 year (Learning Language Arts Through Literature: Amer. Lit. Gold Book)

Grammar- 1/2 year (or just add with Amer. Lit.?) (Harvey's Revised English Grammar)

U.S. History II- 1 year (All American Series)

Health- 1/2 year (Lifepac)

Italian III- 1 year (Continental Books)

Art History- 1/2 year (Short Lessons in Art History: Artists and their work)

Astronomy- 1 year (College text; Astronomy Today 6th Edition)

 

 

Looks like a fine and full 11th grade schedule. Be prepared for it to be a LONG day, as a rough guide is that 1 credit = 1 hour of work per day, 5 days a week. In addition, you have scheduled *two* full science credits, and science tends to be more time-consuming and mentally rigorous. (BTW: the Chemistry text and Chemistry labs are together consider 1 credit. Because the hands-on nature of the labs, science is usually scheduled for a little more time each week, yet still equals just 1 credit.)

 

I see you have a full 7 credits:

1 credit = English (lit/grammar)

1 credit = Math

1 credit = History

2 credits = Science

1 credit = Foreign Lang.

.5 credit = Art History

.5 credit = Health

 

I don't know how public schools manage to do 7 or 8 credits per year when they only meet for 5-6 hours a day, even assuming 2 hours of homework a night... But I am familiar enough with some of the specific programs you will be doing to know that it your schedule above would certainly take US at least 6 hours a day to complete, as chemistry is time-consuming, and literature and history require reading and then writing of papers (and for the history, additional reading/research for writing papers).

 

Perhaps as you get into your material you may find you want to save one or both of the .5 credit courses (or the Astronomy) to do over the summer to ease your schedule -- especially if you are interested in working a part time job; going through driver's ed/getting a driver's license; or wanting to participate in any extracurricular activities (homeschool group, high school sports or after-school program, community group, volunteer/community service hours, etc.). Colleges and employers really like to see those extracurriculars to know that you are a well-rounded person. And extracurriculars are a great way to discover/nuture interests you never knew you had, or to meet and make friends with similar interests.

 

That is the beauty of homeschooling -- you can make adjustments as you need to! :)

 

 

 

I am still having trouble deciding if I should put Grammar as a 1/2 year course along with American Literature on my transcript so I would have 1 1/2 english credits, or if I should just put English III with American Lit. for 1 English credit.

 

 

Grammar is usually scheduled as part of the English credit (an English credit typically consists of literature, grammar, writing composition, and vocabulary).

 

Learning Language Arts Through Literature: Gold: American Lit. (LLATL) is a 1-semester course (but that's a great idea to spread it out over 1 year), so together your grammar and literature make up 1 credit.

 

Two questions about the writing portion of the English credit:

1.) Will you need any writing composition instruction?

2.) And if not, how will you have the writing portion of your English credit (research papers, essays, etc.) assessed? Can you have that done locally? Through an online service? A community college in Writing 101 that could also apply towards your college general education requirements? Writing is the one thing that really does require an objective outside person to "grade".

 

 

 

I wanted to add Old Testament Survey to my list to make the credits total come up to 8 1/2 (or 9 if I count Grammar seperately) but I think even without it 7 1/2 (or 8) credits should be enough. Plus, I can't find a good Old Testament Curriculum, I want the History thrown in along with scripture...

 

 

Well, it's not Old Testament, so it's not exactly what you're looking for, but the Notgrass American History program "Exploring America" is a 1-credit history program which includes Scripture and Bible lessons -- plus a literature list which could add to your American Lit, or read as supplement. Notgrass also has quite a few writing assignment ideas for research papers and essays, which would help fill out the writing portion of your English credit. (LLATL does have some essay and creative writing assignment ideas, but no research paper ideas.)

 

Notgrass American History

 

 

BEST of luck in your homeschooling high school adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[AngieW in Texas]

Oak Meadow separates their science courses and labs and calls the course 1 credit and the lab 1/2 credit, but I am still recording them as a single credit together because that is the standard way to do it:

Chemistry with lab 1.0

 

English is generally considered grammar and writing and literature together for a single credit.

 

This is the way that I'd record what you have listed:

1.0 Chemistry with lab (Exploring Creation with Chemistry)

1.0 Pre-calculus- 1 year (Math U See)

1.0 English - American Literature

1.0 U.S. History II- (All American Series)

0.5 Health- (Lifepac)

1.0 Italian III- (Continental Books)

0.5 Art History- (Short Lessons in Art History: Artists and their work)

1.0 Astronomy- (College text; Astronomy Today 6th Edition)

 

That makes a total of 7 credits. If you'd like to add anything else, I'd consider doing it over the summer.

[Hunter's Moon]

I decided to drop Astronomy, because everyone is right, 2 science credits is a lot. I wanted to do half year Art History, half year Native American Studies, but without Astronomy, that would only be 6 1/2 credits. I wanted at least 7. Is 6 1/2 okay?

[AngieW in Texas]

oldest

9th grade - history, English, math, science, p.e., health - 5.5 credits

10th grade - history, English, math, science, p.e., personal finance, psychology (cc course) - 6.0 credits

11th grade - history, English, math, science, Japanese I-II (cc courses, 1 credit each), Drawing I-II (cc courses, 1/2 credit each) - 7.0 credits

12th grade - history, English (cc courses, 1/2 credit each), math, science, Japanese III-IV (cc courses, 1 credit each), Digital Imaging I (cc course, 1/2 credit) - 6.5 credits (next year, math and science maybe cc courses also)

 

middle dd so far

9th grade - history, English, math, science, p.e., health, philosophy - 6 credits

10th grade - history, English, math, science, p.e., python programming, personal finance - 6 credits (next year)

[Beth in TN]

I decided to drop Astronomy, because everyone is right, 2 science credits is a lot. I wanted to do half year Art History, half year Native American Studies, but without Astronomy, that would only be 6 1/2 credits. I wanted at least 7. Is 6 1/2 okay?

 

Since this will be your first year homeschooling and you don't really have experience with scheduling and time management in a homeschool environment (which sometimes can be tough ;)), I think dropping Astronomy is a good idea.

 

There is nothing wrong with having only 6 1/2 credits. Some schools only do 5 or 6 per year. It really depends on how many (and what kind) you need to graduation and for college admission.

 

My main advice is to start slowly with a few classes, then build up until you are doing all of them (the 6 1/2 credits), IF you can handle another course then do so, but not before seeing if you can manage just the basic classes.