Rant: Tired of not finding HS Curr.!!!!

[GothicGyrl]

Rant, just a rant. Not meant to offend, honestly. But it needs to be said because I know I'm not the only one.

 

::rant on::

I am getting tired of not being able to find secular curriculum at the high school level! I don't want magazines, I don't want ancient books. I don't want to have to hunt and peck my way through the interent to find stuff that will cost me to download (and/or print).

I want an honest to goodness secular curriculum for 3 kids at the Junior level that teaches Chemistry or Integrated Science, American History, American Literature, Algebra 2 or Integrated Math. Everything else will happen as I teach it.

I can find nothing that is a full curriculum that will give me a student edition and a teacher's edition and test packets. And, I want it secular!

::rant off::

 

Robinson is too much money and way too old fashioned for me. I'm tired of using public school texts because those are partially inadequate. Calvert (one of my choices) only goes to 8th grade. I've looked at and am considering Teach With Movies (for Lit), but I have nothing in the way of the other courses.

 

Really, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a truly secular curriculum? So that's why this is here, maybe some can help me find it...

 

Maybe there is actually a Little Angel out there who has all of this stuff stored up secretly, ala Snidley Whiplash, and finds her heart enough to share. :) Maybe someone can rescue me with some good stuff.

 

Maybe??? Anyone?? Bueller?

[8filltheheart]

I am not secular, but I do understand your feelings b/c I am Catholic and the vast majority of curricula are so Protestantly skewed/biased that I won't even consider them.

 

Have you looked at Great Books Academy? They offer curricula across all subjects, lesson plans, support, etc. I have used the Socratic discussions which are excellent.

 

http://www.academybookstore.org/GBAStore/StoreFront.bok

[GothicGyrl]

They are secular? Meaning I want my Science and History totally secular. I am checking them out now.. How do you like what you have?

 

And yes, I do understand you. I'm not Catholic (duh!), but I understand the need for something geared towards whatever it is you believe in. What I can't understand is why this need is so prevelant in only one area.

 

Thanks for the link though.

[Claire]

A science curriculum I really liked for high school is Coordinated Science from Cambridge University Press. It is a two-year course and would be suitable for junior high. You can usually find the textbooks used on Amazon. ISBN for level 1 is 0-521-48115-5 and ISBN for level 2 is 0-521-48116-3. These are laid out very differently from the usual U.S. textbooks. They have experiments that you can do or not, as you choose. You can do the subjects in their order, or you can follow "strands" of ideas. They number the lessons and then provide links to other lessons if you want to pursue strands.

 

For history, I think the Teaching Company DVDs could be very good. (My problem is that the lectures put me to sleep. It's awful. Most people don't react this way to televised lectures. I wish I didn't, as I am very interested in some of the subjects.)

[GothicGyrl]

Teaching Company I have... familiar with them and considering them.

 

I'll check the other one out... thanks..

[MicheleinMN]

Is Oak Meadow Secular? I think it is, but maybe someone else knows for sure.

 

HTH,

Michele

[Tamy]

Have you looked at Singapore Science? Just a thought.

 

 

http://www.singaporemath.com/Science_Matters_s/128.htm

 

 

 

Tamy

Growing With Grammar

http://www.GrowingWithGrammar.com

[Tamy]

...that I LOVE your avatar. It IS John Taylor...right? Takes me back to my high school days.

 

 

Tamy

Growing With Grammar

http://www.GrowingWithGrammar.com

[GothicGyrl]

I thought Oak Meadow was not secular, but I'll check it out. And I did have Singapore's 5th grade science at one time, and thought it a bit umm, under the grade level--like it was for a 1st grader, not 5th. But I'll check it out too.

 

And yes, that is the Bass God himself. :)

[Hathersage]

Have you thought of looking into freshman-sophmore level college texts?

I had a decent intergrated science text in college. You could turn a semester length class into a year long high school class?

[GothicGyrl]

Have you thought of looking into freshman-sophmore level college texts?

I had a decent intergrated science text in college. You could turn a semester length class into a year long high school class?

Those are kind of expensive, and without a TE, I'd be clueless. :) I do have one I'm looking at, but I think it may just be a spine, not an actual course.

[dragons in the flower bed]

Oak Meadow, Keystone, American and Great Books Academy are what come to mind first as completely secular options for high school which plan your coursework for you. There might be one I'm not remembering . . . hm . . . not enough time to search my bookmarks right now but I'll post again if I remember or get a chance to look stuff up.

 

In the early nineties when I was a high school hs'er, Clonlara (a totally inclusive program) included, as part of my high school enrollment package, a guide to making our own courses which included book and project ideas for a whole slew of courses within each subject. Deciding what to do and how to do it was major fun.

[GothicGyrl]

Googling my dirty fingers now.. :)

 

Thanks

[Sylvia in CA]

I haven't heard of this in a long time but I think Laurel Springs is an option. It offers many options through high school if my memory serves me right.

 

Oh, what about Division of Independent Study, North Dakota?

 

hth

[Laura Corin]

Singapore Science? The lower levels are very simple, because Singapore starts science late, but they ramp up fast and should be good by high school. We are using a British programme at that level for biology.

 

Laura

[KAR120C]

I want an honest to goodness secular curriculum for 3 kids at the Junior level that teaches Chemistry or Integrated Science, American History, American Literature, Algebra 2 or Integrated Math. Everything else will happen as I teach it.

We use Singapore for math and science (the early grades do have a young "look" but if you use them they aren't as simple as they appear at first glance.. and middle and upper grades don't look so young). For Literature I'm using Hewitt's Lightning Lit, which although from a Christian company does not appear to have any Christian content unless you do their semester on British Christian authors... We're using LL&C 7 (middle school) but I also have their Shakespeare Tragedies guide (high school) and haven't seen anything religious there... and the woman who edits the guides has specifically said they're not religious except for the one.

 

History we're still doing Story of the World, but I thought Pandia Press' History Odyssey was secular... and it looks pretty good! And for American History, you could use History of US with the Oxford teaching guides for discussion questions, essay prompts and whatnot. I think I've heard there are tests too, but I've not looked into it myself. There's also Critical Thinking in US History - completely secular, but not a whole course unto itself... more like a supplement (but really great!)

 

Hope this helps!

[Linda in NM]

and we're Episcopalian, so <gasp>...

[Myrtle]

We use Singapore math and science. 7th and 8th grade science is general science and then in the 9th and 10th grades you have the option of biology, physics, or chemistry. The Singbox site also sells exams at these levels as well as well as A-level curricula (I think this is something like the British version of an AP course) but the Singaporemath site does not. After that the kids can do dual enrollment at cc.

 

I don't know what you mean by "old fashioned" math. We have found that the highest quality of math texts were published in the 1960s, not before, not after. In fact, we just did a massive review of a 1960s pre-calc math text that's on my blog right now. No drill and kill, it's all "conceptual" done rigorously, and the used copies of these texts are less than $10 a piece.

 

For general literature we plan on doing Greek and Roman classics in translation, I don't know if that counts as "secular" since it's pagan (??) and I haven't considered what to do about American lit, I could just check out the what books are required by public universities in their courses on American lit, or use their anthologies. For history, how about Boorstin? Another idea is to get on the list serves of the various AP courses and find out what the high school teachers are assigning in AP English, AP bio, etc. Perhaps your kids aren't ready for a full monty AP course, but you could use the same materials.

 

We do philosophy and have in mind to read many of the recommendations in WTM such as Kant, Hume, and Plato...

Wheelocks for Latin, Athenaze for Greek, not to mention there are tons of options for foreign language.

 

Now if you want atheist, rather than secular, one idea is to contact the Randian homeschoolers and find out what they use.

[GothicGyrl]

In some circles, secular equals pagan which makes it baaaad. :)

 

I just don't want religious of any kind. And I don't consider Greek/Roman classics to fall under religious.

 

I'm making notes now.. thanks ladies..

[Mama Lynx]

Oak Meadow is secular.

 

Also, while I, too, thought the early years of Singapore Science a bit young, Interactive Science and the high-school level materials are *not*. They are excellent, and secular.

 

So Oak Meadow, Singapore Science and Galore Park as another possibility for science, and English, are my recommendations.

 

History? Argh. What about History Odyssey?

[GothicGyrl]

Mama, some of these you all are mentioning, I've not heard of. So I'm just taking notes and mad googling right now.

 

I really wish Calvert went up to high school because I loved their younger grade levels.

 

Really, keep them coming because I've never heard of some of these and I love googling them. :)

[NCMom]

We use AO & HEO but I have used mostly secular materials for History and Science in high school (Apologia in Jr High). I can usually find teacher's editions on ebay or amazon pretty easily. Except for Algebra I for next year... lol

 

I have known a couple people who used these two package deals...

This is the 9th grade sample page. It seems pricey to me but I think you can specify secular options,

Core Curriculum

 

This one too. Paradigm Accelerated At least they told me it was secular, lol.

 

I think they may sell both of those here - Homeschool Super Center

 

People on the HS board have recommend these - Pass

 

And randomly, Lial's, Foerster, and Dolciani are highly recommended and are all secular math programs. Key to Press does secular programs for high school/Jr.High, I think. I think Hewitt's LL stuff is awesome and easy to teach. Another idea is to buy directly from the PS publishers - maybe pricey but you can usually get the TMs or buy sets easily.

 

hth,

Georgia

[GothicGyrl]

Actually, I can speak on Paradigm, I've used it and it's wonderful for middle school!! :) It's neither Christian nor Secular, it uses quotes from famous people--umm, like oh what are those called--the chinese proverbs?

 

And yes, I do have Homeschool Super Center,Core Curriculum and Pass on speed dial :)

[KidsHappen]

Science: Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum's (PAC) Integrated Physics and Chemistry, also Biology, Singapore's Upper level Sciences, So You Really Want to Learn Science (middle school level science), RS4K Level 2 Chemistry.

 

History: PAC's American History (middle school level), History Odyssey.

 

Math: Chalkdust, Video Text Algebra, Lial's, Foerster's Algebra 2, Key Press's Discovering Algebra 2.

 

English: Perfection Learning's BK English, Analytical Grammar or Jensen's Grammar and Puntuation.

 

I also have a huge list of textbooks most of which can be had pretty cheaply from either Amazon or Ebay.

[GothicGyrl]

Well, like I said, I did PAC.. finished it. :) However, the integrated Physics/Chemistry we hadn't covered.

Oh, and Videotext algebra is done as well (just finished it actually)....

 

The rest, I'm taking notes on. :)

[susie in tx]

Actually, I can speak on Paradigm, I've used it and it's wonderful for middle school!! :) It's neither Christian nor Secular, it uses quotes from famous people--umm, like oh what are those called--the chinese proverbs?

 

 

Would you care to share more about this program? I cannot tell much about it from the website. Does it have experiment recommendations? How about student activity pages?

 

Thanks.

[GothicGyrl]

Let me see how much I can remember:

English is LOADED. LOTS of writing (as in many problems writing, not paragraph writing), solid and stock. No fluff.

 

Math is Perfect and spot on. Teaches nothing but.

 

History is a LOT of reading. But a good amount of filling in the blanks. It will require them to have solid reading comprehension (but they help out a lot too).

 

Science, I can't remember any experiments, but it is just as solid.

 

They will get a workbook and textbook for each subject except Math (IIRC). You will get teacher's editions for everything and then some. :)

 

It truly is a very solid program. As I said, it is neither Christian nor secular--sort of Unitarian in thinking--very proverbish, general manner teachings, how to treat others, etc. But not preachy. It does have some Bible quotes scattered throughout, but nothing offensive and nothing I found a problem. I really did enjoy it when we did it.

 

I am considering it for some subjects and do have it in the back of my mind (for the higher grades). You DO want to order the full set program, not individual subjects. It IS cheaper this way.

[Sue G in PA]

It's a bit pricey, but they are secular and thorough. Not sure about high school b/c it's rather new, but check it out. I might be a good fit.

[GothicGyrl]

yes, and k12 is off the list. It works with FLVS here, which means I would be registering my kids as public schoolers. :(

 

It's not as good as it sounds. Read the fine print. :(

[susie in tx]

I am considering it for some subjects and do have it in the back of my mind (for the higher grades). You DO want to order the full set program, not individual subjects. It IS cheaper this way.

 

Thanks. I hadn't heard of this before and am hunting for something for my 12 yo to do for science. She's had very little formal science up until this point, and I'm feeling like I need to do something a bit more formal at this point.

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

I just love Prentice Hall and will use BYU online for Highschool for some subjects. I am also using a lot of teaching company. For what it is worth;)

[Testimony]

I thought that Singapore Science is secular. Funny, but I feel the opposite is true. I use books from the library to teach my children science. My children are in 2nd and 4th. The books in the library are wordly. I have seen my library has very good college level science books also.

 

For American literature, how about the books that we read in High School? I am thinking of Chocolate War, A Brave New World, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, The Red Badge of Courage, The Old Man and the Sea, another book by Hemmingway that I had to read I thought it was stupid because they were always getting "tight" and the famous banned book that I don't remember the name, but I remember it was about a boy who was trying to help his sister. Her name was Zoey and his name was Frankie.

[Night Elf]

yes, and k12 is off the list. It works with FLVS here, which means I would be registering my kids as public schoolers. :(

 

It's not as good as it sounds. Read the fine print. :(

 

There is an option to be a direct consumer. That's what I'm doing. Our state has a charter school that uses K12 but I didn't want to register my kids as public schoolers either, so we pay for K12 out of pocket. They do have a high school component that I've looked at briefly but it's expensive. I don't know what I'm going to do for high school. In Georgia, I cannot give my kids a high school diploma. If I want them to have a real diploma, we'll have to use an accredited program. On my list so far is K12, American High School, Keystone National High School, and Indiana University. Otherwise, my children will have to take the GED and I really don't want them to have to do that. I think the connotation is bad.

 

The weird thing is that in Georgia you have to have a high school diploma to homeschool your kids. But homeschoolers cannot award diplomas to their graduates. So unless homeschoolers use an accredited program with teachers, homeschoolers can't homeschool their own children. Egads!

[GothicGyrl]

Where are you ladies finding Prentice Hall Materials cheaply enough? I do love their books but they are expensive for just one book. Amazon?

 

I am taking more notes, so thank you all. As for k12, unfortunately, I have to go through FLVS which means I can't use the direct option. They won't let Florida do that. And I can't do anything online, 3 kids one computer. :)

[naturalmom]

then you could use any number of textbooks written for schools. They are really expensive new, but if you choose an older edition (from the long ago era of 5 years ago), then you should be able to find used copies of both student and teacher's edition. I just bought a student edition and solutions manual for Lial's Algebra for $20, which included $8 shipping from Amazon marketplace. I got the Foerster's algebra book for $12.

 

If you are specifically wanting a text written for homeschoolers, then I would agree - most of it is religious. But in terms of the entire textbook market, the religious books are the minority.

[GothicGyrl]

Naturalmom--it's finding those texts that is hard, kwim? I've got 3 kids I've got to teach, which means 3 of everything, plus TE and extras. I've got a nice large list of stuff to check out from these ladies, so I'll be hitting those sites up, requesting catalogs, etc. :)

 

Busy busy....

[GothicGyrl]

Ok, how about a good French Curriculum that 3 kids can use? Rosetta Stone is PC, so I'd have to sit them by the computer, but what else is out there that will teach it to them?

[danielle]

For French I have 4 suggestions: my book, which is geared to middle school but is very easy to teach. http://www.memoriapress.com/descriptions/first-start-french.html

Both volumes (Book II is coming, this year) would equal about 1 year of high school French.

Another idea is French in Action, which imho is the creme de la creme for high schoolers. The videos are available online at www.learner.org, but buying the full program (audio, texts) is going to cost you a good buck. but a lot is available used.

 

Third suggestion is to get a copy of French the Easy Way (Barron's) and combine it with Pimsleur tapes. Unfortunately, modern languages can be expensive because you need audio, at least a little to get the prononciation right.

 

Finally, Living Languages puts out a pretty good kit called Ultimate French that is geared to adults. With careful study, this can work well--it's just not very heavy on the exercises.

 

For science & math, have you looked at Thinkwell? Advantages: good quality, lectures, self instructional. Disadvantage: on the computer.

 

Be sure to browse the Annenberg/CPB site. They have a great American History series--Biography of America, and a good Am Literature one--American Passages (which syncs to the Norton Anthologies, always available used). What you save by using these instead of Teaching Company might buy you another computer! This site is just a treasure trove, and I'm not sure why it's not more well known among homeschoolers.

 

My personal favorite for math: Life of Fred. All textbook, no computer, dd loves it.

Danielle

[danielle]

http://www.memoriapress.com/descriptions/first-start-french.html The link is looking weird from my computer, but I think it will work

Danielle

[danielle]

When I read your post, I must not have had as much caffeine as I need. I thought I was on the high school board, and read "HS" as high school, not homeschool.

 

Thinkwell and French in Action are definitely for high school or highly accelerated kids. Life of Fred begins pre algebra. Check out the Annenberg stuff, tho. We used Bio of America in 7th grade.

 

Final idea: would your kids be interested in a natural science, outdoors oriented curriculum? Google the Kamana Wilderness Awareness program. It does have some Native American philosophy in it, but otherwise secular. BTW, my book for Memoria is secular except for some prayers included at the end--pages easily ripped out.

Danielle

[Lisawa]

Hello forum friend... I have not read through the 3 pages of adivce and resources you have so far! *Ü* If this is a repeat... please forgive me.

 

American school is a fully accredited school with secular curriculum. You might want to look into it.

 

American School

 

Also, Narhs is also another accredited school, but the reason I want to share, just in case is because they allow you to use what ever it is you want ( as long as they approve, they have huges lists so dont worry) to educate your child. They even help you pull it together if you need it.

 

NARHS- North Atlanitc Regional Schools

 

But what I want to share most is a resource they have. You can create your won course of study with it. It might take some work on your part, but it might be something to look into.

 

Its called:

 

First great book of High School course descriptions

 

 

Hoping you find something that will help you!! How frustrating!!!

[GothicGyrl]

I am checking these out, thanks Danielle.

[GothicGyrl]

Lisa, if you go to your User CP and click on "edit options", you can select the number of posts per page, thus reducing the number of pages you have to view. :)

 

And I do have those on my list, but thank you for the links because I was having a hard time googling them.

[Claire]

Where are you ladies finding Prentice Hall Materials cheaply enough? I do love their books but they are expensive for just one book. Amazon?

 

Have you checked eBay, Amazon used books, and half.com? When I was looking for Prentice-Hall books, I was able to find many of them on eBay. If you can find the ISBN of the book(s) you want, that makes it much faster to search. I also used bestbookbuys.com but, in general, I think eBay was my best resource for Prentice-Hall.

[AngieW in Texas]

Thanks for posting about changing number of posts/page. That was driving me crazy. I didn't realize that was something that I could change.

[Guest]

Oak Meadow is secular. Finding any age level secular history (before SOTW for grammar age was around) and science is like looking for a DNA strand without a microscope. I have the same problem.

[PG4WOODS]

Check out Iu high school. You can just take courses if your not seeking a diploma through IU.

 

http://scs.indiana.edu/hs/highschooldiploma.html

[LadyAberlin]

Have you looked at paradigm accelerated curriculum?