First time with ninth grade here... this is for my ds14, UPDATED VERSION! (updates in blue) Writing: Writing With a Thesis, some BraveWriter's Help for High School stuff, writing across the curriculum Literature: a variation of The Roots of Steampunk study OR maybe a run through some classics by era He decided on dystopian lit and sci fi this year, plus listening to family read-alouds TBD Math: Life of Fred's Beginning Algebra, and then we'll move into Advanced Algebra if he finishes Beginning Alg early Art: He'll be starting his first class at the local jc this fall too, in art (drawing & composition). Everything else: will be interest-led/unschooled. He likes online courses through edX, Coursera, etc., so he'll likely continue with computer science, animation, and so forth. He does fencing for P.E. He's also interested in German. We'll keep up with our Afternoon Basket for a variety of topics (broad exposure).

I'm wondering now about combining both kids in biology. Maybe use Exploring the Way Life Works? Dd loves biology, and ds hasn't really studied much of it. I am wondering if he could handle that on top of some Joy of Science lectures tied in with the Big History Project, or if that would just be too much? I like the looks of that book very much, and think it might not be too heavy for a survey course on top of the other science, but I'm just not sure at this point.

What a great resource! Wish they had German though, as that is ds's foreign language of choice.

Of course I'll share! I was originally inspired by this gorgeous chart, which links YA versions of books together... I also have The Classic Fairy Tales: Norton Critical Edition, which includes variations on several themes in fairy tales, as well as criticism, to use as a jumping off point. The Norton book focuses on six different types of fairy tales, which I plan to approach as block studies, to which we can add in various versions, movies, etc. We've decided to skip the "Bluebeard" section, and substitute in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream", or doing a focus on The Little Mermaid/Hans Christian Andersen. What I've come up with so far is to read a beautifully illustrated classic version, then explore other versions (both will be mainly read on her own), including longer [YA] versions of each (read aloud).

I am really looking forward to working through the Big History project with ds. We're adding in complimentary science, and I think it will be a great start to his high school years! My only trouble is following that up the next year with American history -- I'll have to come up with something good! I am also pretty jazzed about the Big Fairy Tale Project I am putting together for dd (she's not interested at this point in sharing her brother's studies). Other things I am looking forward to: Brave Writer's Help for High School for ds I think Faltering Ownership (Brave Writer) will be a good fit for my dd Continuing Life of Fred What are you looking forward to in the next year?

:bigear:

I really want to use this with ds, but he's a little reluctant to move through do much history so quickly. I've been toying with the idea of adding some supplementation to stretch it out a bit while keeping it as a full history credit, but am not sure if this could, or should, be done.

I think (could be wrong) that the accountability threads have somewhat/somehow taken the place of weekly reviews. I too miss reading what everyone did with their week. Maybe we should start it back up!

Yes, and I plan to continue reading aloud to both my kids for as long as possible. In addition to their personal reading, we do a family lit study most years (that I put together, not prepackaged), and we read aloud nonfiction from our Afternoon Basket. The Afternoon Basket is a lot like Morning Baskets around here, but I am not home in the mornings, so there you go!

Beautiful Feet's Science curriculum The Story of Science, by Joy Hakim You could use sections from Science: The Definitive Visual Guide. It is ordered chronologically, and is quite appealing.

Yep. Figure out too, if you can, an approximate time it will take to read each one... number of pages per day, or a chapter per day, etc. And that's pretty much it!

Thank you!

Ds wants to do a year of dystopian lit, followed by a year of the Roots of Steampunk. Who knows what he'll want after that?

I am looking for possible project resources for a 9th grader studying medieval through Renaissance/Age of Exploration history. I like the looks of some of the projects listed in Oak Meadow's high school world history syllabus, but it seems a bit pricey to buy just for those. I would ideally love to see variation in the projects that include: writing, and/or hands-on, and/or research. Any ideas? Books? Websites? Thanks!

Simple spiral notebooks. Really. I was inspired by this post over at Amongst Lovely Things.

We've done exactly this off and on for years, and it works very well. The kids got interested in all sorts of things I don't know that they would have had the time/interest to pursue if we had a "full" workload of non-skills studies. They have a good familiarity with much of history now, and both have a lot of scientific interests/knowledge. We very much enjoy living books, ineterest-led, etc.

Don't forget, Cattus Petasatus: The Cat in the Hat in Latin

No. ETA: Ds plans to take placement tests at the local jc, so he will be studying/prepping for those over the next school year. We've never done standardized testing though, since leaving the charter school when ds was in 3rd grade, so he's had one standardized test, and dd has had none.

Our local jc waives enrollment fees for DE students, up to 11 units a semester. I can't wait!

Exactly this. For compacted studies, we're doing "surveys" of world and American history, with various resources (maybe the history book suggested above for part of it?). I am not worried about government, as both kids plan on getting their undergrad work done at the local cc, part of it as dual enrollment, and they have to take a semester of Political Science at some point with that plan. This upcoming year appears that it will be a year of British history and literature, due to immense interest from my rising 9th grader, and some interest from my rising 7th grader. They've also mentioned a possible study of Asia/South Asia at some point, and dd has always been interested in Africa, so I am storing away ideas from this thread for that.

:bigear:

My dd is very intrigued by Exploring the Way Life Works (Hoagland), and I would love to find physics and chemistry suggestions along the same lines, as we are planning a year or so of integrated sciences. Any recommendations?

My dd is very intrigued by Exploring the Way Life Works (Hoagland), and I would love to find physics and chemistry suggestions along the same lines, as we are planning a year or so of integrated sciences. Any recommendations?

We've done brief chronological overviews (a la Mrs Twain), but spent the bulk of our time exploring. Both kids want to at least start with British history in the fall, so that's where we'll go! They have also talked about Asian/Soth Asian history being of interest. I can see British history leading nicely into American history as well, so it will be interesting to see where we go. We also like to fit in multiple resources that approach different angles of history, which gives us a bigger picture (the "weaving a tapestry" 8Fill was talking about up-post). I had originally planned to do the four year cycles, but as others have mentioned, it wasn't easy to keep them "on track" with that, as there were so many interests that popped up along the way, and I really did not want to squelch their enthusiasm. I do not have any regrets approaching it this way -- both my children have developed a pretty good awareness of history as a whole, and a deep interest in it. I know that every child will have gaps somewhere, so I do not worry myself about strictly chronological history!

Have you looked at The Imaginists? I know they have theater programs for a variety of ages, but am not sure of the cost. I have a friend whose dd really loved her recent project/class there. We initially tried a lot of what we've done through our city's Parks & Recreation, because the classes were very inexpensive, with no long term commitment. Ds tried soccer, Aikido, and fencing, while dd tried ballet, gymnastics, and tap. Eventually, ds wanted "real" fencing lessons, so we moved to the studio the teacher runs 3.5 years ago, and ds has been happy there ever since. I have some friends in roller derby, and they mentioned that there was a program for 7 and up. I knew dd loved roller skating, so she tried it out, and has been at it for about 3 years now!