Please critique my 9th grade year....I think I'm done.

[Murrayshire]

9th Grade is finally finalized..... I still have not put anything in the planner as of yet! I'm so behind this year....my blog is outdated....and I still didn't get enough free time for "me" this summer! So with that, honest criticism but with kindness would be appreciated!

 

Home Classes:

Math: Tablet Class Alg.I (1.0)

 

Grammar/Lit: Fix It Grammar, VHSG Intro to Literature (World Lit, LIVE)

 

Science: OM Environmental Science (1.0)

 

Geography: OM World Geography (activities with siblings using BYL 7) (1.0)

 

Co-op Classes:

Writing: 1^st semester: IEW Theme US History 1; 2^nd semester: Eleg. Essay

They are also going to incorporate Teaching the Classics throughout the whole year.

(So Co-op Writing, Grammar & VHSG Lit will be her English 9: Intro to Literature & Composition) Does this sound okay?

 

Mapping the World by Heart: Co-op (tying this in under her Geography Credit)

 

Immersion Spanish I: Co-op, using Advancemos 1 & fluent speaking tutor/teacher (1.0)

 

Personal Finance: Co-op…taught by an accountant, Dave Ramsey’s Foundations

 

3D Art: Co-op, using DickBlick lesson plans (.5)

 

Outside Classes/Electives/Extracurricular:

High School Fitness Class at YMCA, 1.5 hours/1x week, 32 weeks/health/outside physical activity....biking, yoga, P90X (1 credit or .5)

 

Guitar lessons (1x week; 30 minutes, all year)

Voice lessons (1x week; 30 minutes, all year)

Would like to combine this somehow for credit in music...... I forgot to mention that she is starting to play at a local cafe on Thursday nights. What can I do with this?

 

Drama Performances through community theater (possibly 1-2 performances a year)

 

Volunteer: Farm 1x every other week, 2 hrs. in evening. The Children’s Home & Ronald McDonald House on weekends/summer with family.

Okay, be nice. I’m a high school newbie! When I see it written out like this it looks like a ton. Most of the co-op classes will not be too demanding. (this is our first year in a co-op, wish us luck!)

 

My daughter spends a lot of time practicing music and with lessons….. should I count this as credit or extracurricular? She won’t be continuing with acting lessons but will still audition for plays….so I figured this would count as an extracurricular, right?

 

Also, I feel that her English credit is a bit much but I don’t think the VHSG Lit class will be too difficult or time consuming. She is really wanting to do this class! Can anyone help me think through her schedule here and tell me if it’s overkill. I still need to figure out, since we have a 4 day schedule for home classes, how much to plan each day. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance for holding my hand…..

[Corraleno]

It looks like you're counting that as 8 full credits? But the hours you have listed for PE only add up to 48 hours, which is less than a half credit. I think the Personal Finance and 3D Art courses are also likely to be less than a full credit, unless she'll genuinely be spending more than 120 hours on each of those topics. So, realistically, it looks like:

 

Algebra I (1 credit)

Environmental Science (1 credit)

English 9: Literature & Composition (1 credit)

World Geography (1 credit)

Spanish I (1 credit)

3D Art (0.5 credit)

Personal Finance (0.5 credit)

PE  (0.5 credit, assuming you add at least another 12 hrs in addition to the YMCA class)

 

For a total of 6.5 credits, which is a typical HS load. I would keep the music and drama as extra-curriculars.

 

[Murrayshire]

Thanks for chiming in!

 

For PE, we were planning on adding health to it as well. Should have mentioned that. She stays physically active everyday doing yoga, P90X, and riding her bike. (One out of these, not all in a day) I guess I'll have her keep a fitness time sheet all year, along with YMCA fitness classes, and go from there.

 

Personal Finance teacher says it will be a full credit..... She's using Ramsey high school curriculum and some other things to round it out, plus she'll be required to do homework in there as well.

 

I was thinking more on the lines of half credit for Art, too.

 

I was really hoping dd could have at least a half credit in music since she spends the majority of her free time on it.......everyday. So I'll have to think about that one.

Thank you!

 

Anyone else have any thoughts on our line up? :001_smile:

I edited my original post a bit.....

[DebbS]

I mostly agree with Corraleno on how to count the credits. If the PE and Personal Finance end up taking 120 to 150 hours, then you can make them a full credit. But, at the same time, 7 1/2 credit plus the extra-cirriculars that you listed is a lot for one year. If you do school for 32 weeks, which I think is pretty standard, that's between 28 and 35  hours a week of study.

 

Since PE and Personal Finance aren't really core courses, you could limit the time spent, and make them 1/2 credit courses if the load is too heavy for you child. My kids took the adult Financial Peace University and they didn't spend anywhere near enough time on it to count for 1/2 credit. We just considered it an extra-cirricular instead.

 

Also, I would give some credit for the music if this is something that your daughter spends a lot of time on.

[Mom22ns]

Personal Finance teacher says it will be a full credit..... She's using Ramsey high school curriculum and some other things to round it out, plus she'll be required to do homework in there as well.

 

Dave Ramsey's Personal finance is an extremely light .5 credit. She will have to be more than doubling what is there to make it a credit. I would be hesitant to count this as a full credit until you see the actually amount of time required.

 

I like DR and used the course twice, so I'm not bashing, just warning :)

[SilverMoon]

 

 

Quote

 

 

 

 

Quote

 

 

Edited September 5 by SilverMoon

[clementine]

I think having 8 credits in freshman year is a bit much, too.  It might look like you're padding it a little - fleshing out subjects that maybe don't need fleshing out - just call a class .5 credit & it will be more realistic?

 

I know there are people who have done 8 credits a year (maybe more), but you don't need to have that many the first year - if you continued at that rate you'd have 32 credits.  

 

We did:

 

English 1 credit

Algebra I 1 credit

Biology 1 credit

ASL I 1 credit

American History 1 credit

Health/PE 1 credit

Computer Skills .5 credit

Art Appreciation .5 credit

[texasmama]

I have two 9th graders next year, and here is their plan, for comparison:

 

Geometry - Jann in Texas online class for one son and finishing up Algebra 1 and starting Geometry self-paced AoPS for the other son

Biology at co op 

Landry Academy Spanish online class

History – SWB History of the Ancient World and Study Guide – plus Teaching Company lectures

Literature/Writing- Windows to the World with Teaching with the Classics co op class taught by me and Grammar – Daily Grams for review (no credit for grammar - rolled in with Language Arts)

PE – competitive basketball league – season runs from October 1 – March 15

 

I wanted my guys to adjust to high school level work.  They will be doing the geography work in HotAW, and they will track their hours spent to determine if they get an addition half credit for this work in addition to the credit for history.  Each subject is a one hour credit.  They volunteer at our church food bank for 4-5 hours twice a month.

[SilverMoon]

I know nothing about that finance course, but you might also want to wait until 11th or 12th for that one. My 9th graders couldn't have given a hoot about such matters. My 11th grader on the other hand, has started seeing the wisdom of understanding some of that adult stuff.

[Pen]

The co-op parts look like maybe too much to me, especially if co-op is a new thing for you.  Maybe just Spanish and one other co-op class?  And I would give some credit to her for music.

[Corraleno]

I'd be wary of trying to make everything she does "count for credit," because it can make the transcript look padded and make the ECs seem weak in comparison. Keep in mind that a typical PS student who took guitar & voice lessons and played in a local cafe would be doing that outside of school and counting it as an EC. Lots of students spend lots of hours every week on ECs like sports, clubs, music, dance, etc., without counting it for "school credit" — colleges are looking for strong ECs, too, not just lots of class credits. (My son spends 20 hrs/wk x 48-50 wks/yr on his sport, and I don't give any PE credit for it; it's an EC.)

 

If you have full credits in the 5 "core" courses, and then you're adding a full credit for Personal Finance and a full credit for Personal Health & Fitness and a full credit for Music and another half-credit for Art, that's 8.5 credits for a 9th grader. And if she continues with that level of involvement in music and fitness, are you going to award a full credit each year, so she ends up with 4 credits of music and 4 credits of Health/PE? Then her only EC is a couple of drama productions each year and some volunteer work.

 

Personally I would count the YMCA class, plus whatever you do for Health, as a half-credit in Health & Fitness, and at most count the music for a half credit, so you can still count the other hours as ECs. 

[J-rap]

I think it's okay of you use the music toward a credit (afterall, students take band and choir in school), but I wouldn't worry about getting it all done in a year.  Just let her keep doing it as is, and maybe two years' music lessons will equal one credit, or something like that.

 

I actually did the same with gym.  We rarely did a gym-type class every day for a year, though spread out over a couple years, it easily made a credit.  We did .5 credit of health separately, in a different year. 

 

I, too, question personal finance as a freshman.  At our local high school, Economics is taught as a one semester course in the senior year.  It includes (in fact, is mostly) personal finance, and I think that's a good age to have it (or possibly a year earlier).  I think one credit might be overdoing it for high school.

 

I'd recommend something like this:

 

Math:  (1.0)

 

English 9:  (1.0)

 

Science:  (1.0)

 

Geography:  (1.0)

 

Spanish I:  (1.0)

 

3D Art:   (.5)

 

Gym:   (.5)

 

Music:   (.5)

 

That gives you 6.5 credits, which would make me feel more comfortable because the English 9 sounds like it could be heavy, as well as the Geography.

 

Actually I just saw that this is nearly the same as what Corraleno said.  :)

 

 

 

[DebbS]

Concerning the music credit - it depends how serious your daughter is about music. My daughter plans to major in voice in college and spends hours every day either practicing, doing theory or studying/observing other singers to understand their techniques. I give her credit for that. My son, on the other hand, played around with music as a pass time and even composed a bit, but I did not give him credit because he wasn't disciplined in his approach. My daughter prioritizes  music above doing most other things while my son dabbled in music when he had the time.

[Guest2]

I think your plan sounds great. I'd keep the geography, it is much more fun to learn that in a class and was the first thing to be dropped when things got busy here. The nice thing is that you can keep your transcript in pencil and decide at the end of the year or at the end of subsequent years the amount of credits to be awarded. Here, it would not look good to have more than 1 PE credit for total for four years, but that probably isn't the case everywhere. When I was in high school,they gave us a credit each year for PE that meet once a week at the bowling alley. My PE teacher liked to bowl. I mostly think it is important that you record what you do for yourself and your own ease of record keeping. Colleges look at the amount of credits, but I think mainly they are looking at the hard core accademic credits and then how your student spent the rest of their time. Take lots of pictures and have fun.

[RootAnn]

I still have not put anything in the planner as of yet!  I'm so behind this year....my blog is outdated....and I still didn't get enough free time for "me" this summer!  

 

I feel this! I'm a newbie homeschooling (eta:  high school) mom, too, and know I've overscheduled my dd#1. We'll adjust as we go through.

 

I'd not worry about credits at this point, as someone else pointed out, since you can figure that out at the end of the year. Play it by ear on everything else. You might find that you'll have to tweak things here & there as you both adjust to high school & the new co-op.

 

On the Personal Finance class in 9th grade topic:  I think this is heavily dependent on the kid & his/her personality & maturity. My dd#1 loves discussing and finding out more about current events and their historical basis and future impact possibilities. She also wants to discuss politics, but isn't mature enough to understand there isn't a black & white answer to everything. She'd probably also enjoy & get a lot out of a personal finance class, but it definitely won't fit into her schedule for awhile.

[Murrayshire]

I know nothing about that finance course, but you might also want to wait until 11th or 12th for that one. My 9th graders couldn't have given a hoot about such matters. My 11th grader on the other hand, has started seeing the wisdom of understanding some of that adult stuff.

SilverMoon, I greatly appreciate your responses.... as well as everyone else's..... But if I drop Personal Finance, Co-op English, and Mapping?..... That would leave her with Art & Spanish at co-op. 😕

 

I am learning to scale back and add other stuff slowly and/or take away subjects, but she is looking forward to a classroom setting with co-op. Art & Mapping are going to be low key and fun.....

 

I think you all are right about 1/2 credit for PE/Health, Art, and Personal Finance. Extracurricular with music/drama/voice. We'll see how her hours add up there at the end of the year.

[Murrayshire]

Concerning the music credit - it depends how serious your daughter is about music. My daughter plans to major in voice in college and spends hours every day either practicing, doing theory or studying/observing other singers to understand their techniques. I give her credit for that. My son, on the other hand, played around with music as a pass time and even composed a bit, but I did not give him credit because he wasn't disciplined in his approach. My daughter prioritizes music above doing most other things while my son dabbled in music when he had the time.

My daughter is serious about voice/music/theatrical performance..... We also have one of the top School of the Arts college in my town that she is seriously wanting to attend for her last two years of high school! So, yeah, a bit more serious than just strumming her guitar here and there.😉

[Murrayshire]

Thanks RootAnn and Silver Brook for putting me at ease.

 

I will talk to dd about Personal Finance to see if we could hold off for another year. I do worry about her study load and that may help alleviate that issue.

 

We may drop Fix It Grammar even though she was looking forward to that. I believe her IEW Writing at co-op will have a bit of grammar & vocab thrown in.

 

If I remember correctly, SilverMoon mentioned that it seems as though we are doing two literature programs.

I thought TTC was more short stories and poems...... Not actual books.

VHSG Lit Class seems more of what a high school Lit class would be. It's only a book a month and mainly reading and discussion. Co-op English class, imo, is mainly writing, I wish it incorporated literature in there but too many teens have not gone through a thorough essay program yet. I don't know. We'll see. No use of making myself crazy about it. We can always drop VHSG Lit if life gets too hairy, right? The class is free, too!

 

Thanks y'all!😉

[Murrayshire]

We talked about Personal Finance with dd today. Wrote everything out for her to see on paper and she agreed to wait until later in high school.😉

 

English 9: Literature & Composition (1)

Algebra I (1)

World Geography (1)

Environmental Science (1)

Spanish 1 (1)

PE at YMCA and home(.5)

Music (.5)

3D Art (.5)

 

Extracurricular : Volunteer/Babysitting, Drama/Musical Theater performance, (Study Skills?) OR move Music down here and Study Skills up for .5 credit. She'd probably spend more time on music than study skills. ( SS is one thing we didn't get to this year that I wish we had).