New to high school

[joannqn]

I've been searching the forum, lurking, and very occasionally posting to the forum.

 

I'll have my first official high schooler next year. Additionally, DS11 will be taking most of the same courses as they are pretty even in most areas. She's better at literature and writing. He's better in math, science, history, and analyzing sentences for grammar.

 

I feel like a beginner homeschooler. When I first started homeschooling, the only curriculum I was aware of was Sonlight. Now that I'm starting high school, I'm unfamiliar with many of the curricula I see mentioned here. Some areas are easier to decide what to do, while I'm still at a complete lost for others. I'm concerned with not doing enough, doing too much, not making good choices, etc. I see the mistakes I've made so far and worry about them affecting their ability to do high school well. On the other hand, their test scores show them well above average. I'm good and second-guessing myself and worrying.

 

My tentative plans are as follows. Do you have any suggestions for me?

 

English: Magic Lens 1, Word Within Word 1, Poetry and Humanity, something for writing, something for literature. I've really liked MCT and would like to complete the program. I did not like MCT's writing at the lower levels. We read the first two books as a supplement but didn't do the assignments. They were too open-ended. I needed something more structured because DD can complete a writing assignment in three sentences if it is left too open to interpretation. I also don't feel confident in grading; it's too subjective for me. So, we used IEW, and both can write a decent 5 paragraph essay with resources. With literature, I usually choose historical fiction set in the era we are studying in history (ie. I'd assign Grapes of Wrath while using non-fiction library books to read about the Great Depression). However, I haven't done well getting other genres in there, and none of us have any interest in the ancient texts. I've considered LLLOTR or Movies as Literature (we like watching the corresponding movies/plays when available) and just skipping the ancients.

 

Math: DD will use MUS Algebra. DS will use AoPS Algebra. These curricula work well for each student.

 

Science: I'm expecting to use Apologia Biology and Explore Evolution: The Arguments For and Against Neo-Darwinism. A Christian or Christian friendly curriculum is my goal. DS used Astronomy: A Self-Study Guide last year and it hurt his faith; he's still too impressionable to be immersed in texts unfriendly to our faith.

 

History: I have no clue. On one hand, I would like to continue a four year rotation so it would be ancients. On another hand, I see the advantage of sticking with the typical World/US/Government routine. I'd like to continue tying our literature and history together; it works well for us. Historical fiction really helps to bring history alive, helps us to understand what it might have been like.

 

Foreign Language: DS goes to Korean language classes at a local church and is taught by native speakers. We'll stay with that. It ties in nicely with his TKD. DD has finished the first two levels of Rosetta Stone Spanish, is doing nothing this year, and is not interested in any language.

 

Fine Arts: DD wants to do photography. I found something on astrophotography online that I might be able to turn into a course for DS; it would go well with his interest in astronomy.

 

I have found the advice and information from these forums to be indispensable so far. Most of what we've used for the last four years have been things I first heard about here. Thank you if you read through all of this and have ideas for me to consider.

[Maureen]

I, too, am making plans for high school with my 3 girls next fall. I am also wavering between the standard high school history sequence and repeating the four year cycle. I'd love to hear the pros and cons from those of you that are further down the road.

 

I like the flexibility of homeschooling to combine history and literature by reading bios and historical fiction about our historical time period. I also leave room to throw in a great classic or a more fun novel along the way. A lot of their writing is on the historical topics being covered so as to not muddy the waters with extra assignments. I haven't found a literature or writing program that I've been able to stick with faithfully because I haven't been able to stomach some of the (IMHO) frivilous or silly assignments. I do like some of the WTM recommendations for short write ups about books and plan to require more at the HS level. I also really like the format of Literary Summaries outlined in the Introduction to Literature sold by IEW. I've used many of her suggestions in the Int. to Lit. ebook and just apply them to my own list of books. Book discussions are great with my girls too as long as I make time to read the books as well.

 

After looking through several literature/writing programs, I think that whatever we read and do is going to be plenty. When my son was in PS for 9th, he only read one novel per semester. I can obviously do better than that. I am currently looking for a good list of short stories as well since they are so good for literary analysis.

 

Looking forward to more posts on this thread.

[SailorMom]

JoAnn, based on what you wrote about English/Lit, kids doing work together, and possibly want to stick with the 4 year rotation - I'd say Trisms would be a really good fit. The first year of high school Trisms is Discovering the Ancient World and is very easily adapted to anywhere from 6th through 12th grade (it even comes with the suggestions of how to adapt for different grade levels).

Trisms utilizes IEW for language arts, highly encourages historical fiction esp. for book reports, and also comes with excerpts of literature and other writings to analyze.

Logic is included, as is geography, music and art history (including architecture), and historical science. You'd need to add math and a lab science, and probably a foreign language. There are great ideas for ways to include other interests as electives.

[joannqn]

I'm definitely intrigued by Trisms now. I've spent a couple of hours looking at the demo, reading reviews, and reading through past threads about it. I've never clunked that much money down on a curriculum before, but it does appear to fit us well. I can see how I can use it, how it could help fill some gaps that we have.

 

The big question is if it would leave enough time for the other things I'd want to continue:

 

MCT: We'd still do grammar, vocabulary, and poetry because I really want to finish all levels of MCT (can you tell I like the program...I won't give it up). I'd probably use the writing as a just read through it and reference. I could reduce the Trisms writing to make more time for MCT.

 

Literature: I'd need some hand-holding to make sure we cover literary terms (we've done some) and analysis. I'm thinking maybe just using a list of terms and covering what they are and keeping an eye out for them in the literature. For discussion, maybe using the questions in WEM.

 

Math: Our planned programs

 

Science: Biology and doing only a minimal amount of Trisms science for filling in gaps about scientists and science history

 

Foreign Language: DS's Korean classes and whatever we decide to do for DD.

 

Electives: DD is interested in photography.

 

Do you think that is too much?

[SailorMom]

I think that is totally do-able :) Also - look for it all used! You can find it on Ebay, on here on the sale boards, etc.