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What is your high school child(ren) favorite curricula/curriculum and what their has been their least favorite?


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I wouldn't say we've had any "misses" in high school, except for possibly trying single class enrollment for Chinese at the local high school in 9th grade. Working with a tutor was absolutely superior, in addition to being less disruptive to the schedule!

 

Curricula I like and would recommend:  AP Homeschoolers courses, Derek Owens math, Teaching Textbooks math, Write at Home

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We do not use "curricula" for most subjects.

 

We all loved AoPS and most of the TC lectures we were using for history/lit. The kids liked most of the literature selections we chose.

 

Least favorite: any foreign language materials. Not the materials' fault, but simply because homeschooling a foreign language in which the parent is not fluent is rather futile without a fluent teacher (there are exceptions, but those are rare students with extraordinary gift and interest)

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His Favorite: history with Great Courses (we've used different texts with them, but the lectures really make it) &

First Tech Robotics team (not a curriculum, but incredible learning opportunity)

 

My fav: teaching textbooks for math, EIW

 

Least fav: yup, foreign language at home (just decided to put that on hold till he can DE at CC next fall)

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Most Favorite:

- Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings (best for grades 7-9)

- our home-grown "Worldviews in Classic Sci-Fi" literature course

- doing Logic with DH, going through his old college textbook: Practical Logic (Vincent E. Barry)

- our home-grown Fine Arts credits -- drumming lessons for one DS, filmmaking for the other

- ETA: forgot a big favorite: DS#1 LOVED Jacobs Algebra and Geometry (2nd ed.) -- he asked me to keep these for him!

 

Least Favorite:

- Apologia science textbooks (hated the overly-wordy writing style, layout of text on the page, and the formal "textbook-i-ness"; eventually switched to Conceptual Chemistry and Conceptual Physics)

- Put That in Writing I (dropped it twice, and eventually just used a few excerpts to make it workable)

- Spielvogel Human Odyssey textbook (persevered, due to lack of a better alternative available at that time)

Edited by Lori D.
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DS really liked the Human Geography Lectures from TGC.  He's also liking ibooks for both geography and Biology (Macaw).  We'll definitely stick to ibooks for future textbooks.  

 

ETA: Learning ASL with his sister using Lifeprint and ASL Phrase Book.  He's dyslexic (couldn't remember a single word of Spanish after a month) but is having no problems at all with ASL

Edited by foxbridgeacademy
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Ds's favorites: My Father's World AHL and WHL.

 

It was my favorite too because of how much he enjoyed it. He was usually eager to work on it, it was a wonderful transition to independence, and he learned a lot.  Some of the book selections have become his all time favorite books.

 

Least favorites:  I somewhat pieced together history  and lit for the following two years. It was not nearly as successful, and looking back, I regret not sticking with MFW.

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Favorites:

Miller/Levine Biology

Irasshai Japanese

Sonlight Psychology

One Year Adventure Novel

 

Least Favorites:

Using college text books or anything I pieced together (except M/L Biology). We did much better with homeschool curriculum.

Foreign language (loved Irasshai, but ds still started in Japanese 1 DE)

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Favorites:

Movies as Literature

Modern World History with this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-World-History-Students-Focus/dp/0719577136/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449163171&sr=8-1&keywords=gcse+world+history  (I also own a teacher's guide for this that has unique assignments)

 

Biology through WTM Academy

AP English Lit and Comp with Brigid Thompson http://teacherweb.com/USA/BlueTent/Thompson/apt16.aspx

Oak Meadow 9th grade English (The Hero's Journey)

 

 

Edited by lauranc
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High school favorites:

 

Jacobs Algebra

The Human Odyssey series (only 3rd volume is high school level though)

The American Odyssey

Understanding the Universe (Teaching Company)

Ways of the World

Essential Biology

Spectrum Chemistry (so far)

 

ETA:  Forgot about least favorites:

 

Jacobs Geometry 3rd edition

TT Geometry (I thought it was ok, but my son hated it)

Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings

The meteorology lectures from the Teaching Company

 

Edited by EKS
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Favorites:

Movies as Literature

Modern World History with this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-World-History-Students-Focus/dp/0719577136/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449163171&sr=8-1&keywords=gcse+world+history (I also own a teacher's guide for this that has unique assignments)

 

Biology through WTM Academy

AP English Lit and Comp with Brigid Thompson http://teacherweb.com/USA/BlueTent/Thompson/apt16.aspx

Oak Meadow 9th grade English (The Hero's Journey)

Do you have a link or ISBN for the Modern World History Teacher's Guide? We love unique assignments here, and will do Modern World History next year.
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Ana's wasn't curriculum - just books, books, and more books.  She did enjoy Summit's Worldview.

Christian LOVED LLOTL - the in depth Lord of the Rings study when he was a freshman.  WWS was a good mark for him.  He enjoyed Apologia's Chemistry and he is looking forward to Physics.

I think DD#3 is most looking forward to LLOTL next year just because DS loved it so much.

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How does your student like WTM Bio?  DD is enjoying, but it's time-consuming for her.  

 

Very time consuming for him as well.  He is working, working, working all the time on biology.  He's learning quite a bit though, and I feel like it's been a really worthwhile course for him.

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Do you have a link or ISBN for the Modern World History Teacher's Guide? We love unique assignments here, and will do Modern World History next year.

 

My mother-in-law bought this for me (she's in the UK) a number of years ago  when my older son  was working on the course.  Maybe you can find it used?  It is very expensive at Amazon .  Here's the link http://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Focus-Modern-Teachers-Resource/dp/0719577144/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1449234903&sr=8-3&keywords=gcse+world+history+teachers+guide

 

 

**Just adding that there are assignments scattered throughout the world history book itself.  The teacher's guide just offers some help with those and gives the student some easy-to-fill out worksheets and tables. 

Edited by lauranc
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How does your student like WTM Bio?  DD is enjoying, but it's time-consuming for her.  

 

 

Very time consuming for him as well.  He is working, working, working all the time on biology.  He's learning quite a bit though, and I feel like it's been a really worthwhile course for him.

 

I am going to start a new thread about WTMA Biology. I would love to hear from both of you!

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Ana's wasn't curriculum - just books, books, and more books.  She did enjoy Summit's Worldview.

 

Original Poster:

I know you're asking about favorite curricula, but BlsdMama's post reminded me of a few favorite extracurriculars that DSs loved that we were able to count some of the hours towards a credit and some towards extracurricular:

 

Worldview Academy Summer Leadership Camp (counted towards part of the 1.0 credit of Worldviews)

YMCA Youth & Government (counted towards some of the 0.5 credit of Government)

Varsity Tennis Team at public high school (counted towards some of the PE credit)

 

I throw that in there, as high school is a GREAT time for your student to expand their horizons with extracurriculars, and there are a TON of super ones out there -- everything from Math Competitions and Science Fairs, to Speech & Debate, to junior military cadet groups or mock trial and mock legislative groups. Check out some of these past threads for ideas of favorite extracurriculars:

Low income people and extracurriculars

Finding extra-curricular

What extracurricular activities for the high school years?

What kinds of extra activities for high schoolers?

DS is so, so lonely

 

Also, sort-of related to the idea of "favorite curricula" is the idea of enjoyable academics in high school, and there are some great thoughts and suggestions on that topic in this past thread:

"Once your child hits middle school, does this mean all the "fun" stuff stops?"

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I think we are very boring!  My kids favorite high school curricula were:  Saxon for math (they really appreciated the Saxon approach.) A Beka for science (but this was primarily because they took classes in our homeschool community and all the teachers used A Beka,) The Great Courses for history.  We enjoyed Western Civ with Professor Noble and American Identity with Professor Allit.  We also used the Didache series Church History but that is a Catholic program so probably has limited appeal.   For writing we used WriteGuide.com  

 

Those are the only curricula that we consistently used for the 4 older kids.  Still got no. 5 to go.

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