Chime in on 9th grade so far...

[Nscribe]

We entered this year (9th grade) with more planning detail than any previous year of homeschooling. No regrets, but we have encountered challenges in execution. Classes scheduled to be outsourced cancelled by providers, an injury requiring treatment/short period of immobility, respiratory system infections requiring down time/doctor and several last minute time munchers have made things generally more challenging.

 

I always tend to forget in planning just how choppy and "full" the time between the beginning of September and New Years can be.

 

Along the way it has felt off, but looking at progress through goals we are only really about two weeks behind in a couple of content areas. We haven't had to ditch any planned content (yet...), but did have to postpone a trip to take a first look at a couple of college campuses. We will need to chop about three days off our Christmas break to catch up.

 

I can already see that next year I want to have less daily/incremental work and more discussion time. It just feels a bit too dry and routine this year.

 

How about everyone else taking on the first year of high school? Wisdom from those who have been there done/that? Anyone have something they found really working or really not working?

[elegantlion]

We just finished our first 12 week term. It's gone pretty well. We started with a daily schedule, which has modified itself into a weekly schedule because some subjects are simply taking longer.

 

Ds has really increased his ability to work on task this year. He's also a little more opinionated about the tasks he doesn't want to do (not surprisingly). He truly has little interest in history, but we're about through the text portion of history and will be getting into Great Books. I think he'll find those more interesting. However, his lack of desire to delve deeper into history has solidified my plans to keep our history studies basic in the future.

 

We are behind in a couple of subjects and we are starting our science next week (we're on break this week). I've decided to drop our formal vocabulary for the winter (probably pick it back up in the spring).

 

We're using the Theory of Knowledge book for philosophy and that has created some great conversations. He's very philosophical, so it nice to have someone who cares about talking about those types of things.

 

He's had some setbacks in math, but he told me he knows he needs to work through the struggles because most of his career interests involve higher math.

 

His organizational and study skills need a lot of work. He's still at that stage where he thinks he can remember everything without review or feigns indifference to a bad grade. He "owns" his approach without regret, however. :lol: I'm working on helping him see the long-term results of creating good habits. I've found a few reasons to help him shoot for a higher goal lately.

 

On his own he's been working on programming. He wrote a little program that reminds me of dos. It has a calculator and a text editor. I used the calculator to figure his grades, which was kind of cool.

 

I'm not as stressed as I thought I would be. I have a lot to do this week to plan the next 6 weeks. I've been putting more responsibility on him and that's the hardest balance. When to push, but not push too much.

[Elinor Everywhere]

We're in week 12.

 

After I already had our year planned, which was a bit academically heavy, but still workable, my dd enrolled in band/choir at our local ps. This has added 25 hours a week (minimum) to her schedule, mostly because of marching band. Accordingly, I've had to modify her school load a bit.

 

We dropped French, except she still Skypes once a week with her tutor in France.

 

We scaled back Physics, not doing every single problem or performing 3-4 labs a week as originally called for.

 

I've moved math to 4 times a week (instead of 5). She is midway through Algebra I with Saxon, and will finish by Feb. She'll start the next book then, although we won't finish it.

 

For history, I'm using TOG Rhetoric. I don't love Year 1 because it is mostly biblical reading, and I want more straight history like in the other years. So, I changed history and we are now using SWB's History of the Ancient World.

 

We are still using most of TOG's literature, but I've removed some things and added ones that are important to me (full readings of Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid for example, plus Teaching Company lectures).

 

She still has a full schedule, especially due to Latin with Lukeion and AP Psych, but it's much more balanced now and she has enough hours in the day to finish her work and enjoy band/choir, too.

 

She also takes Speech & Debate through the high school, and while there is homework for it, it's not as bad as I feared.

 

The whole thing is ending after this year, though, as she has decided to attend the ps full-time starting next year (her Sophomore year). I'm sad, because homeschooling is all I've done for 13 years, but I knew once she attended the school for band she'd love it and want to go full time (I pushed her into marching band because I loved it and this child is a lot like me, so I knew she'd love it, too). I actually asked her if she wanted to attend full-time her Freshman year (this year), but she thought school had too much wasted time, and she wanted to keep her academics home. That lasted about a month. :tongue_smilie:

[bobbeym]

We're starting Week 11.

 

Based off my original planning efforts, DS is 2 weeks behind in science but he catches up quickly b/c it's an easy course. He called for an update a little while I ago and I told him to do as much science as he can whenever he's not working on anything else.

 

Algebra I was originally supposed to be done back in July, but he's goofed off and messed around, and then spent another 3-4 weeks refusing to do any corrections on his daily lessons. It's finally coming together and I 'graded' his final exam review earlier today - 45%. *sigh* Almost all the errors were in the later chapters he struggled and rushed his way through. I'm positive that we'll start Algebra II sometime before Christmas though!

 

English is going well. I ditched the textbook and put together my own thing instead. Right now his NaNo word count is 1 day ahead of his daily goal and he's working on a much neglected grammar book today. He's almost 2 chapters + a test behind on grammar so I'll have to stay on him to get caught up on that.

 

We ditched our world history textbook back in late September and haven't replaced it yet. I'll be ordering BJU World History and something to supplement geography next week when it goes on sale at the co-op website.

 

I don't know where he's at in spanish, music theory, or programming. Those are all self-paced courses and I don't consider any of them to be priority right now.

 

All things considered, I think we're doing well overall. I'd like to be doing better but it's hard when I'm at work all day and DH isn't feeling well b/c of our flaky weather. We'll get there though.

[Sisyphus]

Starting week 11, and still on schedule- yay me!:lol:

 

Almost done with algebra 1 ( overdue because of a big messy move, and general math hatred!), starting geometry after Christmas.

 

Half way through science via keystone (!) so future science needs to be something else. This a joke, and my kid is not sciencey. Any tips? Cc is not an option due to age, don't want old earth, would like self teaching/online if possible.

 

English is going well, halfway through an online creative writing course via keystone (he loves it!) and in lesson 7 of windows to the world iew. Planning a unit on dystopian fiction and one on Shakespeare for when creative writing is done.

 

History is...dunno. SL core 100 was a total fail for anything but a schedule of readings in the history of us books.:glare: I mostly have been pulling resources from hippocampus, the neh website and my own brain for this. Still waffling on having him take the us history ap test (I don't know if he could be ready, I think he's just too young yet for that sort of writing) or the sat 2 history test. Any advice?

 

Ps classes in foreign language and music theory are going well, which is good since I'm not musical and don't speak Russian! He's on his own there, so he better keep up.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Starting week 11, and still on schedule- yay me!:lol:

 

Almost done with algebra 1 ( overdue because of a big messy move, and general math hatred!), starting geometry after Christmas.

 

Half way through science via keystone (!) so future science needs to be something else. This a joke, and my kid is not sciencey. Any tips? Cc is not an option due to age, don't want old earth, would like self teaching/online if possible.

 

English is going well, halfway through an online creative writing course via keystone (he loves it!) and in lesson 7 of windows to the world iew. Planning a unit on dystopian fiction and one on Shakespeare for when creative writing is done.

 

History is...dunno. SL core 100 was a total fail for anything but a schedule of readings in the history of us books.:glare: I mostly have been pulling resources from hippocampus, the neh website and my own brain for this. Still waffling on having him take the us history ap test (I don't know if he could be ready, I think he's just too young yet for that sort of writing) or the sat 2 history test. Any advice?

 

Ps classes in foreign language and music theory are going well, which is good since I'm not musical and don't speak Russian! He's on his own there, so he better keep up.

 

My hesitation with starting AP tests with APUSH is that if a student is only going to take a couple AP courses, US history is often one of them. And US History is traditionally a course given junior year. I worrried that not only were my kids not yet prepped for the essays and level of detail of the exam, but that their essays would be graded against the standard of older students' writing.

[TheApprentice]

Ds just finished Week 13 (we are break this week). He has found his groove over the past 4-5 weeks. I printed out syllabi for all of his classes, and he makes his weekly schedule from those. At the beginning, it was a bit challenging, but he's figured out just how much work he can do each day without overtaxing himself. Surprising, we are still on schedule.

 

Math - He's working with Saxon's Alg. 2, doing every lesson and every problem in every lesson. This is his most time consuming course.

 

Physics - He's doing Derek Owen's class and I've set up the syllabus where that he will be finished with this class in February. He's excited about that.

 

World Geography - He's stated that this is his favorite course. That's a surprise. It's going well and we are using Oak Meadows. He's also reading Material World for this course and writing about personal views regarding each country.

 

Literature - We are using EIL and this is the only one that I've had to tweak a bit. Completing all the writing assignments all the time really weren't necessary. He still does quite a bit and he reads both the focus book and the honor's book selection.

 

American Government is his least favorite and it's basically a get it done course. But he's chugging along.

 

He has extra writing because he also is using Fairview's Guide to Composition.

 

He is doing Easy Grammar Ultimate Series 9th grade daily lessons.

 

And he is doing an art class now which he really enjoys. And basketball began this week, so that will be one more thing on his list.

 

I'm very proud of the way he maturing and staying focused. And I seem to be less of a wreck. So far, it's not so bad.

[AngieW in Texas]

math

I had originally intended for us to review algebra with Key to, but my dd hated it. She is reviewing algebra I with Straightforward Math Algebra I book 1. She is also working through MUS Geometry. The geometry course is coming along quite well. I was pretty sure that geometry would be good for her since algebra was a challenge.

 

science

Hewitt's Conceptual Physics is coming along pretty well, but chapter 8 was really difficult for my dd and my other student. I ended up spreading that one over two weeks and they still struggled with it. They both had a really easy time with chapter 9 this week.

 

English

I decided to use Movies as Literature this year. It is going okay so far, although we haven't done a whole lot with it. My dd has been watching the Lizzie Bennet diaries and asked to watch Pride and Prejudice, so we watched the 5-hour version that Colin Firth was in (EXCELLENT!). For the month of november, she is doing NaNoWriMo as her only English work. We're probably going to need to work on editing for all of December. We'll pick back up with Movies as Literature in January.

 

History

Using the history videos on Hippocampus is going surprisingly well. My dd actually kind of enjoys the videos. I wish they had a world history too.

 

Sign Language

We were going to try to do sign language, but there just isn't time this year. Maybe next year. It's also quite possible that we will end up just having her do it at the cc.

 

She is continuing with guitar and banjo and voice lessons.

[goldberry]

Half way through science via keystone (!) so future science needs to be something else. This a joke, and my kid is not sciencey. Any tips? Cc is not an option due to age, don't want old earth, would like self teaching/online if possible.

 

.

 

Was that Keystone Biology? We were thinking of using that next year.

 

We're doing well, but I think will end up with about 1/2 to 1 credit less than I expected.

 

I expected her to have 1 credit for her ASL, but she is not able to put enough time into it. I think we will end up with 1/2. Same thing with PE, although I hope she can make it up in the summer.

 

Our biggest shakeup was science. We started with an online Biology (E2020) which DD hated and for which the online grading kept getting messed up. About the same time, she decided to participate in Science Olympiad. She is not very academic and I wanted to encourage her interest. That has ended up taking so much time, I decided to let her drop the Biology and I will try to get the Science Olympiad stuff together in some format to make up a science credit. We will start Biology next year. Still don't know what program.

 

Math: TT Algebra - going great!

History: History of US with Hewitt syllabus (we both hate History and made that purposely light)

Science: Science Olympiad research and studying

English: Bravewriter writing, Daily Grams, 1100 Words You Need to Know, plus literature units

ASL: American Sign Language 1 weekly tutoring session plus other practice and vocabulary work

PE: has ended up totally random and catch as can

 

I will note that abandoning the Biology after 3 weeks was the bravest and best decision made! I kept thinking, "I can't just quit after three weeks!" Then thought, "Why not?" :-) It was the first time I felt really confident as a homeschool mom!

Edited November 7, 2012 by coloradoperkins

[Mommyfaithe]

We had a very slow start....but, we are finally hitting our groove.

We haven't had to ditch any of our planned materials except using Movies As Literature because we never sit Nd watch movies....we are all too antsy to sit for 2 whole hours:001_huh:

 

Anyway, I went back to tried and true WTM/Ambleside lists and put together a medieval literature program. We will not be doing any serious analyzing or lit studies....more reading and enjoying the books...talking about them and maybe some character study....not sure....but, this kid needs to see reading is fun.

 

Other than that, we are behind our school year, but making progress....and the materials I chose for dd seem to fit her learning style nicely.

 

Faithe

[Sisyphus]

My hesitation with starting AP tests with APUSH is that if a student is only going to take a couple AP courses, US history is often one of them. And US History is traditionally a course given junior year. I worrried that not only were my kids not yet prepped for the essays and level of detail of the exam, but that their essays would be graded against the standard of older students' writing.

 

Yes, me too! He is a decent writer, not stellar, but I fear this sort writing is just beyond him right now, maturity wise. I keep giving him doc based question essays, we work through them together sometimes, but I am really leaning towards not taking the ap test. I'd like some outside verification of his work though- what is the sat ii like? These weren't around when I was in high school, they are totally new to me.

 

Coloado, it is Life Science, supposed to be a year long course, and he is half way or a bit more through it now.:confused: I planned to use keystone for biology next year, too, but...I don't know. If its like this, he wont actually learn anything! And the ap biology might be too much (I'm serious about the not sciencey thing, lol).

[shanvan]

printed out syllabi for all of his classes, and he makes his weekly schedule from those. At the beginning, it was a bit challenging, but he's figured out just how much work he can do each day without overtaxing himself. Surprising, we are still on schedule.

 

This is what I did too. Ds has not quite figured out how much work to do each day. Extracurriculars and life in general have been getting in the way at times, and I think he is having a little trouble adjusting to high school work (longer schooldays with more work). I'm having a little trouble adjusting to the idea that he is not often with Dd and I for lessons. I'm also adjusting to the fact that there are many times where he can't just up and take a nice walk in one of the nearby parks on a beautiful day b/c of his workload.

 

I think the materials we've chosen are working very well, but he is behind schedule and working to catch up in Geometry and Science.

 

Lukeion Latin he loves, loves, loves, but Latin is taking up quite a bit of time. His desire to do well in that class causes him to push other work aside. He is doing very well though.

 

DIVE Biology he also likes. I'm a little miffed with Home Training tools for not including a couple of necessary items in their kit, which kind of baffled us and has stalled labs until the new order comes--but that is not the fault of DIVE, and they were very helpful and apologetic about the situation.

 

TOG history is also a bit behind b/c of other subjects, but Ds is finding it fairly easy. We should be caught up by Thanksgiving.

 

TOG Literature he is actually ahead in. We are using Windows to the World alongside and finding it just so-so.

 

Writing is going well. I'm using a crazy combination of Lost Tools of Writing, some TOG assignments, some guides I have on the shelf, and Elegant Essay.

 

Grammar is a book I got to complement Latin and basically review.

 

Next semester he's adding Public Speaking.

 

HEalth and a course on leadership we are fitting in here and there.

 

PE will be one of the activities he chooses--maybe a swimming class next semester, maybe his weekly ice skating lessons/practice---depends on if he decides to count skating as an extracurricular.

 

He's doing great in extracurriculars. He is close to having an agility title and rally obedience title with his dog and is getting 1sts, 2nds, and 3rds when he goes to trials. Thankfully we are taking some time off from dogs this winter with the exceptions of a class once a week and 4H meetings.

 

You know, I was feeling down about being behind in some subjects, but now that I've typed it, I feel better about how it's going. I see he has a lot on his plate, and he'll eventually get in a groove. I'm assisting him with improving his daily/weekly schedule, and that should help.

 

[kewb]

We had a slow start but the beginning of October we hit a good groove. Then Sandy happened. Total breakdown, reigning chaos. Trying to get back on track.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[Sisyphus]

:grouphug:

[3kidswild]

My 9th grade Aspie is doing well academically. Knock on wood. We're on schedule. Just a few areas we are reconsidering.

 

TT - pre-alg. He's doing awesome in! We have to finish up by end of Jan. and start Alg 1 so by start of 10th grade in the fall of 2013 he'll be on Geo like the rest of his peers.

 

Biology - CK-12 - He gets it. I love all the videos (links) they include.

 

History - out of Civil War & Reconstruction and moving foward!

 

LA - Movies as Literature is going really well. Exposing him to themes, hidden meanings, etc. Being an Aspie, he takes things literally. So this is a really good course. We're doing Grammar & Vocab. Not his fave. And working on writing. So far he's really understanding and following the lessons from Essentials in Writing. Can't ask for more.

 

Electives - our struggle. Japanese became too difficult. He doesn't want to give it up because he likes Mangas (Japanese animated books.) I need to find a different teaching style. Same thing with Computer Skills. We were trying Code Adademy but he got stuck and I have no idea how to help. So on the hunt for a different curriculm. And it will probably cost too. He likes the Fallacy Detective lessons. Again, exposing his Aspie mind to logic. All good.

[goldberry]

Biology - CK-12 - He gets it. I love all the videos (links) they include.

 

.

 

Can you tell me more about CK12? I googled it, but I'm not sure I get what it is. Is it a textbook plus videos? Videos/Links only? We need a Biology source. I was leaning towards Dive but not convinced.

 

Sorry OT! Maybe you can PM me?

[ThisIsTheDay]

...

[ThisIsTheDay]

9th grade = disaster. Need I say more? :crying:

 

:grouphug::grouphug: Shari :grouphug::grouphug:

 

Can we do anything to offer encouragement? This age, especially for boys, can be so challenging to parent. Is it school, or something else? Often academics need to take a back seat to whatever they are dealing with emotionally/hormonally, etc. I'm sure any of us could be in the same boat that you're in right now.

 

:grouphug:

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[abbeyej]

So far, so good. It's a challenging academic year for ds and his ballet schedule is pretty intense, but we're still basically on track and I'm mostly happy with the work that's being done...

 

Things that are going great:

Honors Pre-Calculus with Derek Owens -- our 3rd year with Derek and I love him and ds is doing well

Ancient and Medieval History and Lit -- using SWB's History of the Ancient World (will finish by Christmas and move on to Medieval World), good lit (Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, and Lord of the Flies -- yes, one of these things is not like the others -- so far), and Teaching Company lectures (Elizabeth Vandiver is wonderful)

The Bible and Its Influence

Gardner's Art Through the Ages (ds doesn't love it, but he's learning a lot)

MP's Rhetoric (I'm surprised at how well it's going)

 

Things that are a little less great:

Chemistry -- ThinkWell... Not enough on its own. We're doubling back a bit and spending more time with Zumdahl. I think it will work out in the end, but I wish we had something that was working as well as Derek Owens' Physics class did for us last year

French -- GAVS online course. It's covered by state funds, and that's good -- I'd be frustrated if we were paying for it. But ds has learned a *little* French, and he's learned a lot about making iMovie films. Sigh.

Latin -- New tutor. She's never worked with high school students before and is having a little trouble adjusting to students doing the level of work in some of her college classes but needing a little more direction. It's not bad, but the transition hasn't been as smooth as we had all hoped.

 

Fitting everything in with the radically increased ballet schedule (15-20 hours a week) is a bit of a challenge. But it's going okay.

[bugs]

Hmmm...well it seemed that ds started the year out great; he was focused and deliberate with his work. I'm not sure that's the case right now. He takes forever to his work, esp. math (I see him staring into space but he says he's thinking). I dunno...is it me or is it possible to get most of one's school work in the horizontal position? Would I be terribly mean by demanding that he sit at the table all day?

[caroljenn]

A little behind but nothing that we can't handle. A couple of weeks behind in MFW history, but definitely doable. I like the idea of deleting things dd has already done or I don't think is important, so we are pretty on track with that.

 

We had a rough start with Foerster's Alg 2, so tossed it and went back to PH School. Got a tutor to teach it once a week, so we are rolling well with that now! Yay! She also tutors Spanish, so I feel much much better about both of those subjects now.

 

Signed dd up for ALEKS to seal up any holes in math, and she likes the computer thing so much I added Wordly Wise Vocab, SOS Spanish and SOS English 9 (just for the basic grammar review). Dd has already read and analyzed the Epic of Gilgamesh, and Cat of Bubastes for MFW English, and we are on to mythology and learning the Greek alphabet.

 

Chemistry is on track because its through a co-op! Haha! Ditto for Applied Rocketry and Drawing.

 

We've barely started Latin, need to spend more time on that. The thing that really gets to me though is that we are 4-5 weeks behind in Bible! The most important subject and we are behind...sigh... :tongue_smilie:

[Kareni]

Can you tell me more about CK12? I googled it, but I'm not sure I get what it is. Is it a textbook plus videos? Videos/Links only? We need a Biology source.

 

We've not used any CK-12 materials, but here is a link to the free Biology materials.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[WishboneDawn]

Going okay. We've had some family health issues that have put up some obstacles but we're streamlining and steaming ahead.

 

Math - Foerster's Alg 1 is fantastic. It's perfectly suits Catherine who, for math, likes dry, straight-forward texts with lots of practice questions for her to have fun with.

 

Writing - LAoW has been good. It was going to be a one semester thing but I'm stretching it for the whole year so we can really work on the skills. Jensen's Grammar may still happen but as a grammar review near the end of the year.

 

Latin - Completely Catherine's thing at this point. She loves Lingua Latina and is far beyond my help.

 

History - We started out doing it a la WTM but it did not go well. She's simply reading now. She loves SWB's HoAW. We'll also be listening to some TTC lectures.

 

Science - Good. I'm learning to adjust this too and am satisfied, right now with all that's on my plate, to have her read her chapters and then discuss with me.

 

Great Books - Ugh. She's read Gilgamesh and parts of the OT and is now reading The Iliad. Slower then I thought but I fell into the trap of thinking more is more and we'll be slowing down and going through less Great books but in more depth. I'm parting ways with SWB a bit on what is "good", "better" and "best" when it comes to reading the Great Books.

 

Programming - She's working through this on her own and enjoying it.

[mazakaal]

9th grade is going well for us so far. We've made a big switch this year and enrolled ds with American School, and I've been pleasantly surprised. Ds is plugging along through the books on his own. English is fairly easy because a lot is a review of what he's already studied. I had tried to get the people at AS to switch Psychology for a different social studies, but they wouldn't let me, and it has turned out to be ds's favorite subject. He's just taken his 5th out of 6 tests for the course, so is nearly finished. Physiology is more difficult, but not bad at all. AS doesn't send all their books at once, so he's only recently started Intro to Computers, which seems very basic, and Larson Algebra. I tried to have him do algebra last year with Lial's and he just wasn't ready, but so far (only 1 test in) he seems to be doing fine with Larson.

 

I'm also doing Introductory Logic, Spanish I, and Inductive Bible Study with him. Logic is going quite well; Bible Study is a bit more challenging, but not too bad. Spanish has been the only subject that I've had to adjust. Breaking the Barrier just wasn't providing enough practice, so I bought several Practice Makes Perfect books and supplementing with them, and I'm going to spread Breaking the Barrier I and II over three years. Hopefully that will give him the time and practice to master the material.

 

Everything seems to be going on schedule. My only concern is with the Algebra because we got the materials so late. I hope he can get it all done by July. Other than that, everything seems to be ticking along just fine.

 

I know AS isn't the most challenging program, but I think it was just what we needed to get ds working on his own and taking ownership of his work. I'm hoping that we can maybe switch to something a bit more challenging in the future, but for now, I think we're right where we need to be.:001_smile:

[kroe1]

Thank you for posting this. It is extremely helpful to read everyone's experiences.

 

DS12 is doing A Beka boxed curriculum for 9th (her choice). We're in week 9. I would say the curriculum is going well, the child just so so. Mainly we're having attitude issues along with a busy life.

 

The attitude issues are more related to her frustrations if she doesn't make a perfect score on tests/quizzes. She then becomes very passive aggressive which drives me crazy.

 

Then, DD is rehearsing for a main stage show which runs the entire month of December. That means every night she's out until 10pm. Then there's the 9 hours of dance class, piano lessons, voice training, and theater troupe. Her schedule added to my work schedule is causing a lot of stress right now. But we're surviving. I'm consuming more than my fair share of petroleum, however.

 

:)