We are back to rotating through Unit Studies (after trying SL for a year). SL was great, but I can't afford curriculum this year. So, back to the library we go! This is my 2nd high school junior. Here are the unit studies/course for the year: Mathusee Algebra 2 Fantasy Literature Home Economics (no one teaches this anymore, I realize) P.E. Native American History Contemporary Native American Literature (from several different genres) Psychology Anatomy and Physiology German III SAT Prep Guitar And, of course, track & field, track club and he plays competitive high school football (ugh). 1-2 more college visits and we've made our choice, too. He plans to go into nursing.

Don't quote...I'm going to come back and delete this in a couple of days. I graduated from the Presidio (DLI) as an Arabic linguist. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. My WTM account hasn't been working very well the last couple of weeks, so...doing my best to log back on here.

I need to put that in our Netflix queue.

So far, we are planning for MUS Algebra 2, German III (teaching this myself), continuing guitar and a variety of unit studies using living books/activities: Anatomy & Physiology...Contemporary Native American Literature...possibly Native American History (still trying to figure out how to put this together)...Home Economics...P.E. We will probably fit more units in our year - just not sure what they are yet. He will spend the year studying for the SAT, too. I will probably put together a college-prep writing course for ds and dd.

Anybody use this? Thoughts? Reviews? Thanks in advance!

I don't know anything about those outsourced classes, we do almost all of ours at home (dd17 and dd13 do take a class at an enrichment center). But, I wanted to say "good to 'see' you again!" (I haven't seen you on the forums in a while and we have dds the same age.) I think if she was able to get through a BJU science course, she's probably pretty good at science? I've looked at those books at the homeschool store. They're huge.

I really think it would be fine if you put it together yourself. Some of the textbooks say you need Biology first - like the Apologia anatomy

DD17 is now unschooling. Next fall, I'll also have an 11th grader and a 9th grader and they're switching to unit studies. I'm putting them together myself (again *sigh*). I know for sure they are doing Human Anatomy and Chemistry.

Four of mine are teenagers or almost teenagers. We are out of the house constantly. I have 2 in Track & Field, 1 that plays competitive high school football, 3 in ballet, 2 in a small dance company, 2 in Confirmation classes, 1 that takes Theater classes, 1 that takes outsourced science at an enrichment center, 1 that volunteers with an animal rescue and 4 that spend one morning a week working at an equestrian therapy center...oh, and one does that preschool story time thing at the library... Ugh... The way I've been coping (besides coffee and eating too many sugary things): We combine activity trips with school tasks...driving to activities = driver's ed. Library trips while waiting for kids to get out of a sport. Park time while waiting for a kid to get out of a class. Younger kids also bring backpacks with their schoolwork in them when we go to an older kid's activity. Our family philosophy: Don't stress if we don't finish everything...we can work on it a little over the weekend when we're not as busy. We almost always have schoolwork from the previous week that we end up finishing on Saturday or Sunday evening. Don't over schedule. I generally do not schedule anything for Fridays other than music and SAT prep. This gives everyone a buffer. Something new we are trying....this is going to sound really weird. My teens are making fun of me, but I think it's going to help. We just bought Bento boxes for each family member for Monday-Thursday. In the morning, I am going to pack lunches, put them in the fridge and they can pull their lunches out at noon and eat. No more stopping *everything* to make lunch, have them eat and then clean up a big mess or worse yet, *insert scary music* going through the McDonalds drive-thru in desperation. They can just pull out their lunchboxes and eat on their own. I'm estimating this will save me an hour in the middle of the day. I get up early and start my day. I used to get up around 5am, but I've pushed it to 6 (I'm a slacker). I make up a checklist for each kid per week. When they do something, they cross it off. I've got 2 dry erase boards going showing exactly what's happening each day + a big homeschool planner. The kids always know what to expect and get themselves ready. And the only reason I was able to sit down and type this is, because I have the flu. Lol. And am trapped in the house. Hope something out of there helps!

Oh, you guys sound like us. We were always very literature-heavy. We usually have 4-5 books going at once per kid. We've read most of those books in the SL catalog, as well as a bunch from TWTM booklists. It's paid off, though. My oldest is doing SAT prep right now and she is doing very well in the English section. Oldest has also been studying Latin for about 2 and a half years. I'm trying to talk my 6th grader into trying Latin, because I think she would really like it. Yeah, two of mine are history-weak, too. They just don't like it. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all! 😁 Good luck with your planning!

It has symptoms that go on for a long time. We caught it a couple of days after Christmas and some of us are still coughing, vomiting from coughing, etc. We're in North Texas and they said it is really going around here. When we go out, we can hear other people with that same stupid cough at the store. It seems like everyone has it. And my kid who had the flu shot had the worst symptoms of everyone. It was so bad one morning, that we got scared and put her in the car in her pajamas and drove her to urgent care. Tamiflu helped a ton. She went from not being able to walk to playing Mariocart with ds3 the next morning. And the flu shot was worthless this time. I hope all of you feel better soon!

It looks like the average science/math sequence that most college-bound public schoolers follow. Just remember not to stress if your kids throw wrenches into your plan and it ends up looking completely different (that's why I refuse to plan anymore beyond the current school year - my high schoolers trashed my original plans). Also, we really liked AOPS prealgebra and Beast Academy, but I didn't like the looks of the AOPS high school books. They are very, very wordy. Also, stories of people spending two hours a day on math deterred me from buying it after prealgebra. We like math, but not *that* much. I mean, I want time for great literature, writing, art projects, musical instruments, the kids to have free time, etc. And my kids #1,2, and 4 are wanting to go into medicine, too. The oldest two (age 17 and almost 16) decided they want to go into nursing (after spending several years wanting to be doctors - lol). #4 insists she wants to be an orthodontist. Do you wanna see dd17's science sequence, just for fun? 6th grade-8th grade: interest-led science and unit studies 9th grade: Astronomy/Earth Science 10th grade: Biology with Lab Also 10th: Forensic Science with Lab *outsourced 11th grade: Chemistry Also 11th: Genetics & Development *outsourced - was told this is actually AP Bio Plans for 12th: Botany and possibly another outsourced science class (she really likes this one teacher and will just take whatever courses she teaches) I know we're supposed to have Physics, but dd17 absolutely refuses (she says she will be miserable and not remember anything), so I'm letting it go. It's her transcript. What do the rest of your plans look like? Do you follow TWTM? Or something else?

My plans after homeschooling 5 kids...BBQs...lots and lots of BBQs. lol.

Yep. where's the "I agree" emoji? And I have 3 high schoolers (oldest is 17). Homeschooling high school is a lot of fun! My kids are a little...ummm...unusual and they weren't thriving in a public school environment (oldest two went to ps briefly). Mine definitely wouldn't be ok in an IB environment. Mine need a LOT of free time. My oldest is heavily involved in a local charity (and I mean heavily involved - as in, she'll be running it one day). Four of mine work with special needs adults at an equestrian therapy center. Two of my kids play several musical instruments. One does Musical Theater. Two of the girls are in a small ballet company. My son plays competitive high school football where they travel all over the place to compete (sigh). Two in Track & Field, three in ballet. If I told them they wouldn't have time for all that, because they'll be doing homework every night after school, there would be an absolute mutiny.

We used 3 levels of AO one year. I'm actually a big fan of the CM method (I even read some of her series) and that year turned out great. We basically left AO (and the CM method) out of fear. My oldest was starting high school. After that, some of my kids used MFW and some used SL. I can't keep affording MFW and SL, so this year, we are back to putting it all together ourselves. *sigh* So, keeping in mind that my kids are older than yours...I was having the High School Freakout. I was very worried that all these little components were going to be impossible to translate onto a transcript. Also, there seemed to be NO ONE out there in the universe who used the CM method with high schoolers. Somewhere on here, there is an old thread of mine about using the CM method in high school and there was basically one person who posted that they followed CM in hs. No blogs...no BTDT... The AO forum actually had the most support for high school, but even there - most of the posters had younger kids. Also, another thing that was worrying/frustrating was science. I actually like Integrated Science, but that also worried me at the high school level. No one does that. And it kept me scrambling for labs. Another fear at the higher levels - writing. Yep, I worried it wasn't enough writing. On the blog someone above linked (Charlotte Mason Help), she actually has a great post about CM writing at the high school level (and is it enough, etc). If that lady would've continued blogging and working on her curriculum, I probably would've stuck with the CM method. She has a lot of great info on her website and her blog posts were pretty encouraging. And her book selection is different from AO's. If I remember correctly, she spends an entire year studying the Eastern Hemisphere. AO - some of the books are very, very good. A handful of the books are strange. The picture/composer studies are awesome. The "Lite" option in the higher grades is awesome. The books were easy to find. There is a huge focus on England in the upper levels (the entire program is very England/US - focused, IMO). There is very little writing guidance in the upper levels. Like I said, I was scrambling for labs. I probably wasn't very encouraging, but I hope something out of there helps.

Do you have extra curriculum you're not using that you can sell to pay for MFW? Then, you're clearing off shelves and getting something new. Last year and the year before, they had GREAT sales. I bought MFW two years in a row. But, this year, I keep checking and they aren't having much of a sale. Bummer. So, we won't be able to use it this year. It's out of our price range.

Yes, my oldest two are planning to go to nursing school together (I have a girl and a boy 13 months apart). She wants to do something like Doctors without Borders (eventually) and he wants to be an emergency flight nurse. lol I really like MUS at this point. I regret not trying it earlier. It's been easy to teach, the kids seem to have a good understanding of it, it's easy to accelerate, etc. I was afraid to try it, because reviews said it wasn't rigorous, but my kids are not going to be engineers. The highest math they take for nursing school is college algebra. I would rather spend the time working with them on stuff like science and English.

Honestly, it looks like Louisiana might be the winner. 😀

My oldest is unschooling her last year and a half of high school... I'm just having her keep a notebook and record everything that she reads, projects she does, etc. I don't have any earth-shattering advice - we're new to unschooling, too. My oldest (who was identified as gifted- scored like in the 99th percentile- in the brief time she went to ps) is basically unteachable at home now. Not sure of any other way to put it. I should've prepped her to start college early like I did (I started at 16). Instead, I'm trapped in this house with a 17 year-old who knows more than I do, is staying up until 3am sculpting and designing saltwater aquariums and does not want to start college early. It's ridiculous. *rolling my eyes* Why me???! *shaking my fist at the sky* Anyway, have you seen the unschooling blog https://www.storiesofanunschoolingfamily.com ? You may never go back to traditional homeschooling after reading her blog. Lol. She's got a ton of great advice on there. She has Podcasts, too. And she has an incredible system for recording their learning. Good luck with your planning!

Yes, seriously. There are so many other math programs out there. I have two kids who use/like Saxon and I found the high school Saxon very hard to teach to the point where I really don't feel like using it with any of my younger kids. Even directly working with my daughter, it took F O R E V E R to get through Saxon Algebra 1 and 2. She should've made it to calculus by graduation, but she won't now, thanks to how long it took us. I'm using Mathusee's high school courses with the younger group. It's a gazillion times easier to teach. It doesn't jump randomly from one topic to another and each lesson doesn't contain 500 practice problems. You can also quickly accelerate through a topic if they have a good understanding of it. You can also double up on MUS algebra + geometry if you get behind. My son is doing that right now. He's working on two years of MUS at once. Sorry, Saxon! (and my youngest dd loves and still uses Saxon, so arrrgh! I'm still trapped teaching it.)

Can you find a copy at the library? DD13 just finished SL 100, so she read through the Hakim series. We borrowed the entire series at the library (I can't afford to buy it). She learned a LOT. We were just chatting at dinner the other day and she answered someone's off-the-wall question about Lincoln. I was surprised. She knows her stuff. Yeah, it does look like a magazine - Lol. My daughter liked it, though.

We are in TX, but we are calendar-year homeschoolers. So, we are getting ready to start a new school year in a couple of weeks. Preschooler (turning 4): Letter of the Week (the program that's free online), The Preschooler's Bible 11 year-old: Finish Saxon 6, start Saxon 7 Bravewriter Literature guides with writing projects Journaling with Time Capsule Homeschooling with Horses unit study continue Story of the World series continue Violin 13 year-old (who is a little ahead, but officially starting high school): finish Mathusee Algebra 1, start Mathusee Geometry continue Violin continue German I, move to German II slowly doing some Bravewriter literature guides throughout the year Rotating 8-week courses throughout the year. The first course is Short Stories & Creative Writing. (We haven't planned the 2nd course yet) 15 year-old (turning 16): German III Guitar and Piano Mathusee Algebra 2 Finish Driver's Ed Taking the PSAT in the fall (studying for it over the summer) Rotating 8-week courses throughout the year. The first course is Contemporary Native American Literature and Native American History (don't have next course planned yet) 17 year-old: German III Drums Mathusee Precalculus Finish Driver's Ed Take the SAT in May Unschooling everything else (plans to study psychology, botany, studio art - sculpting and fluid art, probably going to read our NA Lit selection with us)

I don't plan anyone's high school anymore beyond the current year they're working on. If he's really interested in astronomy, I would just do it now, because he might not be interested in it later. And it sounds like he's excited. When dd17 was in middle school, I had her high school entirely worked out and the final results are so different from my plans, I stopped planning. I also originally planned Astronomy/Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics. It turns out she will not take physics at all. Anyway, here's a list of her real high school sciences (what she actually did - each is 1 credit): Astronomy/Earth Science (she loved this year) Biology with Lab Forensic Science Chemistry Genetics and Development Botany (her senior year) She may actually take one more science class, so she would have 7 credits in science. She takes a class every year at an enrichment center and if her current teacher offers another science course she's interested in next year, I'll put her in it. Here's ds16's science sequence: Paleobiology with Lab Biology with Lab Intro to Robotics Chemistry He will probably add another science course at the end. He was talking about Anatomy & Physiology. I might try to encourage him to do physics also. He tends to be more of a literature/music kinda guy, whereas she was born a scientist. FWIW, they both plan to go to nursing school at this point.

Yeah, we just spontaneously start everything one day, too. Dive back in. My kids all know the when the first day of school is.

I did it and was imagining some big melting pot of ethnicities and percentages in my results. I was so excited. When I got the results, I couldn't stop staring at the screen. 90% German. Huh??? What, were my ancestors living in an underground cave for the last 300 years? And a little French and Swedish. How did that get in there? Did my ancestors encounter a couple of French and Swedish fur trappers outside the cave when they were hunting? And it theorized almost all of my DNA came from the Alsace region. *sigh* The good thing about all this genealogy research I've been doing the last year, I now understand why we have a laundry list of health problems. I found out that my family was very isolated geographically and they were marrying 1st cousins (eww! That explains it! lol). This stopped at my great-great grandparents, but it seemed like it was enough to cause problems. I have mild color-blindness and my grandfather had severe color-blindness. We also have a fatal heart defect in our family plus RA (I have at least 3 close family members with RA - that has to be something genetic). Genealogy is so interesting...and sometimes strange... 🙄