moonlight Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 What sorts of different/unusual/out of the box classes have you done with your high schoolers? I'd love to hear about them! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Not completely different/unusual, but maybe if I get the thread started someone else will chime in. :) This year I did a 20th century America class with ds14. We did one decade a month (more or less). Next year we will be doing early American history and integrating family history stories into it. We're also doing Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends, and Myths as a half-credit English course. Next year we'll be doing a Music Appreciation course. Other classes I am working on creating -- although I haven't gotten any takers on them yet ;) -- Philosophy, Nutrition, Basic Home Maintenance, Literary Criticism with Newbery Books, Mystery and Detective Literature 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 We're trying to do history classes that tie in with the place we're living. This year my middle son did Mexican history and is creating a website about all the pyramids we've visited and next year he's doing a year-long Washington DC history class with lots and lots of field trips and hopefully some volunteering/internships. I haven't figured out year what he'll do in Saudi Arabia his last two years. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtnTeaching Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 My Ds was a very traditional student. He did not veer much from the traditional classes. My Dd is a bit more of the creative type. Not sure if they are considered "out of the box", but Dd has taken a semester each of Photoshop and Illustrator. This year, she will be taking Advanced Photoshop and Graphic Design. She will be done with her three "required" sciences in two years for her senior year and has requested to take "Crime Scene Investigation" as her science elective. For her history elective, she wants to take a semester of British History (if I can figure out how to put this class together). She is absolutely enthralled with Britain. She takes American Sign Language as her foreign Language. She takes Musical Theater each year (she was just Golde in the classes' production of Fiddler on the Roof). Next year, along with the Theater classes, her public school enrichment school is offering a separate Technical Theater class where She will learn how to handle all of the background things that go into theater like sound, mics, lighting, staging, directing, music, etc. She will be taking a year to write a novel, as well as, continuing her regular English class. We will be doing a year long Homesteading class together. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomOfABunch Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 I'm in the planning stages of an Intro to Homesteading class. I just posted about it yesterday, in fact! Gardening, small animal care, beekeeping, alternative sources of energy, canning and dehydrating, etc. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdj2027 Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Glass Art. Our local museum has a glass studio and offers classes as well as private lessons and rental space. My son is covering kiln, flame torch and blowing as well as stained glass work and mosaic. It is a lot of fun and he discovered that not all art is evil. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Glass Art. Our local museum has a glass studio and offers classes as well as private lessons and rental space. My son is covering kiln, flame torch and blowing as well as stained glass work and mosaic. It is a lot of fun and he discovered that not all art is evil. oooh. The local craft center does glass art classes. I've been eyeing them, but recently they've not offered any of the beginners' classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlestina Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 "Skilled Trade Studies" for apprenticing to a general contractor, helping to remodel houses, learning carpentry, plumbing, etc. "Chinese Language and Culture" for coming with mom on a business trip to China for a month, studying Chinese, visiting/learning about a range of historical and cultural landmarks in China 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Most of my kids' courses with the exception of math and science probably fall under this category. We don't follow any typical course sequences. For example, this past yr for 10th my dd studied Russian history and communism in the 20th century each as 1 semester courses. For lit, the first semester she did a sci-fi/fantasy study and for the second semester she read War and Peace. We just decided that for part of the yr next yr she is going to do an indepth fairy tale study. We were going to do it a couple of yrs ago, but I decided that she wasn't quite ready for the content. So that is a go. She is also going to do a linguistics study. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Most of my kids' courses with the exception of math and science probably fall under this category. We don't follow any typical course sequences. For example, this past yr for 10th my dd studied Russian history and communism in the 20th century each as 1 semester courses. For lit, the first semester she did a sci-fi/fantasy study and for the second semester she read War and Peace. We just decided that for part of the yr next yr she is going to do an indepth fairy tale study. We were going to do it a couple of yrs ago, but I decided that she wasn't quite ready for the content. So that is a go. She is also going to do a linguistics study. I would love to know some of the readings you are planning for the fairy tale study :) ... Our most custom class is Scandinavian Geography. Physical: volcanoes, glaciers, climate change, moving sand dunes, etc. Human / Cultural: Native cultures and colonization (Sami, Greenland, Faroe islands), Norse myths and sagas, immigration and asylum issues (very current ), etc. Economics: EU, oli industry, wind energy, etc. The hardest part is trimming down the options. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 I would love to know some of the readings you are planning for the fairy tale study :). I will be designing the course over the summer. Here are some of the key resources I will be using to create the course http://www.amazon.com/The-Owl-Raven-Dove-Religious-ebook/dp/B000R3KEQ0 http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Brothers-Grimm-Bicentennial/dp/0393088863/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1433587013&sr=1-1&keywords=annotated+grimm http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Hans-Christian-Andersen-Books/dp/0393060810/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8 http://www.amazon.com/The-Annotated-Classic-Fairy-Tales/dp/0393051633/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8 http://www.amazon.com/The-Arabian-Nights-Complete-Annotated-ebook/dp/B008LMCQ7E/ref=pd_cp_351_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1AZE3AYMG261KAE746G7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest2 Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 This is probably pretty standard, but I did put together a Psychology course. We used some traditional elements as the Meyers ex http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-David-G-Myers/dp/0716764288/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1433725958&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=Meye+pyscologytextbook. Most if the course was working through different stress management techniques...biofeedback, guided relaxation, ect... We used a workbook similar to what i had in college in one oy my psyc classes ( Pyschology of Stress Management). . It was fun, and only a .5 credit. I had envisioned adding in other practical books such as http://www.amazon.com/Never-Lied-Again-Conversation-Situation/dp/0312204280/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1433726043&sr=8-4&keywords=how+to+tell+if+someone+is+lying and other Liberman books. My dd1 is much more interested, so we will do this and then add some child psychology. Love this thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lllll Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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