PM’ed you!

My first 9th grader, too! We're starting our third week and slowly ramping up, adding in work little by little. He's an aspie who loves checklists and getting things done, so, so far, so good. Math: MUS Algebra I English: CW Homer, LLftLotR, Wordly Wise 3000 History/Social Studies: BJU Geography Science: MPOA Biology Foreign Language: BJU French PE: sailing Elective: he's interested in animals and natural history museums. I've picked out some books, both biographical and scientific, about curating a natural history museum. Not sure what to call the course: Intro to Natural History Museum Curating? Ha! I figure I have a little time to come up with a name.

Thanks so much for the helpful replies!!! It feels freeing to make the actual writing the goal, not the grade (which I know as a long-time homeschooler, but which I still freak out about as a first-time high school homeschooler!) I think I am going to seek out some rubrics (thanks, Farrar and Lori D.!) to guide me this time around and help me gain confidence in teaching high school level writing. Starting with a middle school grading rubric is a great idea, Lori D. By focusing on the writing itself, the content naturally gets mastered, right? I do care about the actual content but do not want to use tests to check content mastery. I am hoping the last paper, a research-y one, will require ds to use all his new-found geography knowledge and skills to put it together. Ds is an amazing artist; he spends hours drawing realistic details on hundreds of animals. His first Mapping the World drawing was done in a snap and looks better than I could've done in hours! Thanks for the reminder about the videos and the info about McHenry's other books. I think ds would enjoy doing one every year!

My oldest is a 9th grader, and I have never graded work. How do you grade writing assignments? He is doing BJU Geography 9. For the first few chapters, I assigned him to read a section, then answer the questions in the "section quizzes." The next few chapters, I'm asking him to pick one thing he learned and write a paragraph about it, with three supporting details. After he gets comfortable with that, he will write two paragraphs about two new things; eventually, he'd get to writing three paragraphs with three supporting details for each new fact. This would be for each section, one section per day. He will be writing three papers throughout the course, as well. Two will be short papers using just the textbook (What is geography? and then Describe the geography of the United States, including physical, cultural, etc.) and one will be a research paper on a country of his choosing at the end of the year. I want grammar to be part of the grade; how much of it should it be? How much of the grade should be content? Any tips on grading writing? I'm also welcome to (gentle) feedback about the plan itself. He's doing Mapping the World with Art two times a week, reading the short chapter the first day (no written output) and doing the drawing the second day. So with three days of BJU and two days of Mapping the World, he has five days of work, taking about 30-45 min. each day. Is this enough for a history/social studies/geo credit? Thank you!!!

Thank you for this! I downloaded it and am going to keep it for whenever I get there!

Thanks ? I was under another username when I first joined, and I posted maybe 100 times max under that one! I'm such a lurker! Oops, my ds 14 is a 9th grader. We are just getting a handle on grading homework and attending online courses. I can't imagine getting ready for college!!!! I joined the middle grades challenges group under Year Round Mom. I can't get into that account; should I rejoin under this new one? And I agree!!! Common Core looks like RS and CW to me!

We're using MUS for our aspie and it's going well so far!

We love RS here! If your DD uses counting to explain how, you can validate it, then ask for another way to solve the problem. The best thing about RS is that math is presented as flexible (all those strategies you're teaching her). There are many ways to solve any given problem. Counting is valid (though discouraged, obviously!) but if counting gets her to the right answer, then she might feel more secure exploring other ways, from the safety of already having the right answer. If that makes sense.

When Life Is Still in the Midst of a Fallow Season Oops, I'm not good at posting things. Here is the link, I think.

I'm an old lurker from 2006-ish and just re-registered because I forgot my old email address (yahoo? hotmail?). I don't think I've logged in since the newest board change, though I still read every day! I lost all my old posts, because I changed my email address and had to change my board name by taking out the spaces of my old one, Year Round Mom. No one would remember me anyways. So, hi! We're a military family and have homeschooled from the beginning. My aspie son is a freshman this year! YIKES! My DDs are 12, 11, and 6. So we've got a busy day, week, and year ahead of us! When asked what curriculum we use, I mention WTM, RightStart Math (I am a die-hard fan of RS), and Classical Writing (does anyone still use this? We like it!) I'm logging in to share my friend's guest post on Ann Voskamp's blog. This post is especially good for someone coming out of a tough, fiery season. I hope you are as blessed by this post as I was! http://annvoskamp.com/2018/08/when-life-is-still-in-the-midst-of-a-fallow-season/ I always hope to log in more and participate. Maybe this time around I will!