Post courses you've used as "electives"

[Miss Marple]

I have been looking for a list of courses typically used as electives. If the usual Math, Science, Social Study, and English courses make up the backbone of your year, what do you add for electives to make up 6-7 credits for the year? I'm not thinking creatively right now and hope you all can provide some unusual, fun, unique, and worthwhile ideas :001_smile: ETA: please specify if your courses can be done at home or if they were done through other venues.

[regentrude]

For DD we are in the process of doing:

Computer: office software, web design, programming, hardware.

History of Architecture

Horsemanship/Equine Studies

German Literature (she takes French for her foreign language requirement)

 

Will design all myself and do at home.

 

Also planned are:

Art history, Music history, Latin

science and math electives beyond the requirements

[Brindee]

Home Ec--home

Shop--home

Speech--home/other venues

Music Lessons--piano teacher, violin teacher, Homeschool Strings

Logic--home

Keyboarding/Typing--home

PE--Variety of places (gymnastics, swimming, soccer, horse-riding lessons, etc.)

Fine Arts (Music & Art History)--Harmony Fine Arts

Intro. to computers--home

Health--Variety. DD may go through MFW

[MamaT]

Some electives we have done in addition to some on the above lists are Philosophy, Ethics, and Church History. We did them at home and I designed the courses myself.

[FaithManor]

DD chose to specialize in science so she took not only four core years of science - biology, chemistry, advanced chem, and physics but also astronomy and anatomy and physiology. In addition she had an art appreciation course, Latin, Logic, Economics, two years of Spanish, Music Theory, and a rather rigorous home designed Home Economics class that included a lot of intensive sewing, some pattern design, and nutritional studies as well as first aid.

 

Ds, who has just begun his 9th grade work, is taking Latin, Practical Drafting, Art History, and both Visual Basic and Introductory Java programming. He'll start German in 10th and have three years of that in addition to his two years of Latin. He will also have Art History each year plus intermediate Java, Advanced Java, and Video Game Design. When he does chemistry, we'll be using the MIT opencourseware Kitchen Chemistry course as a supplement because we expect chemistry to be a challenge for him but he absolutely adores cooking, so chemistry in the kitchen will hopefully intrigue and encourage him. Since he loves history, we will also pick two MIT opencourseware history courses for him. Probably Civil War and something from World War II.

 

Faith

[FloridaLisa]

Electives my dc have done so far:

 

logic (home)

apologetics (co-op)

world religions (co-op)

philosophy (co-op)

physical conditioning (for one who did way over and above)

pilates (CC)

art history (co-op)

pottery (CC)

 

 

Lisa

[AuntPol]

I plan for mine to have 4 years English, Math, Science, and History

 

and then 2 years of Latin, and 1 of PE, Logic, Rhetoric, Economics, Government Studies and Art History or Music plus at least one computer programming course.

[Jane Elliot]

Agriscience and Auto Fundamentals from Christian Light Education (They have many elective courses.)

Foreign Languages

Computer Science (used Visual Basic)

Art: Drawing

PE (used a time log and some internet resources)

Health (used Total Health)

Consumer Economics (I think I should have called it Personal Finance, and I will call it that next time. We used Financial Peace for the Next Generation, Treasure Principle, Larry Burkett materials, and additional materials that aren't coming to mind right now.)

Nutrition (used Univ of OK correspondence)

Psychology

Speech

Macroeconomics

Current Events (used The Economist, et al.)

Modern Philosophies (used thegreatbooks.com Modern and counted it as 2 full year credits -- Modern Philosophies and Modern Literature)

Music Appreciation (used Teaching Company courses, et al.)

 

All of these were done at home except speech.

Edited April 25, 2011 by Luann in ID
added to list

[tex-mex]

The electives we have used thus far for son's freshman year:

 

Music (Guitar lessons) - 0.5 credit

 

Drama (Homeschool Drama Club & final performance) - 0.5 credit

 

Health (AHA First Aid & CPR certifications, human anatomy, human sexuality & reproduction issues, dating, STDs, drugs & alcohol, nutrition, safety, water safety (TX Boating license course), and what to do in an emergency scenarios. I planned the course using a variety of books. Idea from Boy Scout Merit Badge and conference.) - 1 credit

Edited April 26, 2011 by tex-mex

[rieshy]

For my oldest son who was into production/animation he did a computer animation elective and a "distributive education" class- where he got credit for his free-lance production job and for entering film festivals.

 

For my high school junior who's into music, history and languages- lots of extra history courses and language courses beyond the requirements, plus extra performing arts and music theory classes.

 

Who knows for my up-coming kids. It will depend on their interests and career goals. Though I do require 6 years of languages of all my kids- which kills quite a few h.s. extra credit requirements.

[elegantlion]

These are some I'm putting together as options for ds. I have a vague idea how we might approach each of these.

 

Computer programing

Animation Studies

drafting

Game programming

 

Star Trek and its influence

History &/or influence of film

philosophy

 

Shakespearean literature

mythology

 

Archaeology

Anthropology

 

Communications

 

Asian Art

 

Construction skills

 

Whining, moaning, and procrastination for the college-bound :tongue_smilie:

[AnitaMcC]

For Ds it is extra sciences and computers mostly. He will likely have the following elective credits...

 

1 credit Computer Fundamentals,

1/2 credit Life Skills/Safety/Drivers Education

1/2 credit Aerospace Science (done through Civil Air Patrol),

1 credit Advanced Aerospace Science (done through Civil Air Patrol),

1/2 credit Computer Applications (Cyber Patriots),

1/2 credit Geology,

1 credit of Environmental Science,

1+ credits in Computer programming,

2.5 credits PE and health,

2 credits of Foreign Language,

1 credit of Air Force history and leadership (Civil Air Patrol)

 

Most of Dd's electives are in music. She will have...

 

1 credit Music Fundamentals I-III

1/2 credit Music Applications I (music lessons,

1 cedit Applied Music (music lessons and band practice),

1 credit Music Appreciation/History,

1 credit of World Music,

1 credit of Counter Point (music composition),

1/2 credit Life Skills/Safety/Drivers Education,

2,5 credits PE and Health

1 credit of Kung Fu/Chinese History

2 credits of Chinese

Edited April 25, 2011 by AnitaMcC

[swimmermom3]

Jackie (Corraleno) designed a wonderful Intro. to Cultural Anthropology course for my dd who is a senior. The materials are engaging and it is just the right amount of work. I am doing it alongside her.

[Jane in NC]

My son had English, History, Mathematics, a Science class, and Latin on his schedule for every year of high school. In some years, he was taking courses at the CC. Thus he finished high school with more than four credits in several of these areas. For example, he had five credits in science: Conceptual Physics, AP Biology, two semesters of chemistry at the CC and Microbiology at the CC.

 

He also studied two and a half years of French in high school in addition to four years of Latin. Frankly, he did not have a lot of time for other electives. He earned a half credit for PE/health as a 9th grader, a quarter credit for a Climate Change project that he did in 10th and a half credit for his senior project in Archaeology. There is a part of me that is thinking this seems sort of sad, but it does occur to me that The Boy also finished high school with 5 credits of history--which is not every student's cup of tea. I suppose that things like additional history, microbiology and French define who my kid is.

 

Electives can come in these academic flavors or be something more hands on. This really depends on the student.

[AngieW in Texas]

for my oldest:

 

fine arts - Drawing I and Drawing II at cc

foreign language - Japanese I, II, III at cc

general - Digital Imaging I at cc, Psychology at cc, Health at home, Personal Finance at home

 

 

for my middle dd so far:

fine arts - one year of piano instruction

foreign language - Spanish I at home, will take Spanish I and II and possibly III at cc

general - Health at home, Philosophy of Mind at home, will take Psychology at cc this summer

[SharoninTennessee]

Each year my daughter has some passion that she obsesses with and so our electives tend to reflect her interest for that year. We've done HTML applications and web design, historic costume construction, graphic design, filmmaking, historic filmmaking, apologetics, and American Civil War. These have all been home-based courses and most have involved participation in related contests such as National history day, Civil War Challenge, and film contests. We've also done drama, art, psychology, and journalism via tutorials.

 

She wants to double major in history and political science so next year she'll be doing Constitutional Law and Confronting Liberal Bias in the Study of History with Potter's School. Potter's School has some amazing sounding electives.

 

This summer she's spending a week at 1861 Girls School where they dress and live like it's 1861, so we've spent this year studying the period in depth. Not sure whether we'll call it a class or an extra-curricular. Oh, and since she has dyslexia, she's looking at doing a speed reading course this summer.

 

Sharon

[creekland]

Every year my guys have a language (Spanish and/or French) and PE/Health (state requirement). One year out of the 4 we do a formal health program (Abeka). The rest we use Nutrition Action and writing assignments. These are two credits (for all, not each).

 

Then, we've had:

 

Wood Shop

Art History

Great Composers in Music History

Microbio (at cc)

Public Speaking (at cc)

Economics

Personal Finance

[Wendi]

My son will start high school in the fall. So far, what I am planning is this:

 

Math 4 credits

English 4 credits

Social Studies 4 credits (1 of which will count as an elective)

Science 3 credits

Japanese 2 credits

Art history 1 credit

Music history 1 credit

Logic .5 credit

Bible 4 credits

 

Other electives will likely include things like graphic design, computer animation, computer programming, cinema survey, theatre survey, etc.

 

Wendi

[Angel]

My 11th grade dd has these electives so far...

 

Photography (at home)

Sewing (at co-op)

Advanced Sewing - Regency Costume (at co-op)

Photoshop (at home)

Yearbook (at co-op)

Choir (at church)

Drama (at church)

Jane Austen Literature Study (at home, includes keeping a blog http://theaustensisterstogether.blogspot.com/)

Shakespeare Lit Study (next year at home)

Equine Studies (away from home) - not sure what this will end up with as a name

 

That's all I can think of for now.

[Greta Lea]

My son is trying to loose 15lbs. He's reading labels like crazy, measuring food to see what a *real* serving is, adding up the calories he's burning in a workout (on a machine that counts that), then seeing how many calories he ate that day and burned off, etc... I'm planning to have him wear a podameter for a week to see how many steps he takes in an average week. Then the next week, I'll have him wear it again, but do stuff like park way out when we go to Walmart or somewhere with a large parking lot, drop him off at the road at church instead of right at the door, etc...to see how many extra steps he can get in during a typical week by doing these small things.

 

Next year he'll read "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" by Paul Brand (AO book suggestion) to round out that Health credit.

 

For Bible I will give him a 1/2 credit for 9th grade, but this year I will give him a full credit for reading the bible daily, reading a devotional type book once a week all year (AO books for year 11) and orally discussing with me or writing about what he's read.

 

Next year, he'll read some church history books (AO suggestions again) and orally discuss and do some writing assignments, so I will give him a 1/2 credit for Church History.

[southcarolinamom]

The electives we have used are:

 

Bible (using BJUP materials)

Culinary Arts (using 2 of Alton Brown's books - I'm Just Here for the Food (cooking) and I'm Here for More Food (baking) **

Health (Using Switched on Schoolhouse health)

Computer Science (part keyboard, part web design)

Personal Finance (Dave Ramsey's Personal Finance for High schoolers)

Art History (Using Barry Stebbing's God and the History of Art text plus painting projects)

 

Plus Piano and Studio Art from local teachers)