rutamattatt Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Next year I will have my first HSing 9th grader. With this being "transcript" year, it being my first year HSing a 9th grader, and with him wanting to attend college, the stressing over curricula has begun extra early. Bleeding ulcer, thy name is "FRESHMAN". How does this look for next year? Bible/History/LA - Notgrass World History. (Supplemented with Easy Grammar for LA and Dig Deeper for Bible study skills) Math - Algebra I outsourced Science - He is taking Biology I intensive this summer and I am thinking of spending next semester (or more) doing Either High School Biology Review or Biology Super Review to be sure he learns it and retains. (Plus to get in enough credit hours.) German 1- still working on nailing down a curriculum. My sister has a Master's in Germanic Lit and Languages, so she is going to advise me on this. ;) Art/Music - Baroque Art, Architecture, and Music PE - He does basketball and 4 day a week strength and agility training sessions. Elective - Intro to Braille at Hadley.edu. (Plus it helps that my niece is fluent in Braille and sister is VI assistant in her district.) Will rent or buy a Braille writer. How does this look? Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Mertz Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Do you have anything planned for Composition and Literature? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutamattatt Posted March 26, 2016 Author Share Posted March 26, 2016 I guess I need to be more specific with my questions… 1. Have I missed anything major as far as required credits for a college interested transcript? 2. Would you add another elective in to the year? 3. What other things are/did your 9th graders study? 4. Does this seem in the ballpark for a "typical" 9th grade year? I feel OK about the curriculum we are thinking of using, but still not feeling confident about quantity. I keep second guessing myself - am I planning enough? But it's been my tendency in the past to have big plans for a lot more than we end up logistically being able to tackle WELL. I'm trying to figure out the balance of planning enough without it feeling overwhelming. (Although fairly whelming is fine with me.) :001_smile: I also wrestle with the fear that if we don't tackle enough now, he will be the guy taking 8 gazillion classes as a senior. Maybe I just need talked down… This high school thing feels intense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutamattatt Posted March 26, 2016 Author Share Posted March 26, 2016 Do you have anything planned for Composition and Literature? We are going to do the Literature books that go with the Notgrass History, although I am thinking of buying supplemental guides to go with each book. Composition will (hopefully?) come from assignments with the Notgrass as well. At least that is my understanding… Thanks for the reply! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowbeltmom Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 (edited) I am not familiar with Notgrass World History. Does this program incorporate literature and composition? If not, I would add that as Easy Grammar would not be enough for an English credit. Good luck with your planning! ETA: Never mind - I was typing while you were posting! Edited March 26, 2016 by snowbeltmom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Mertz Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 We are going to do the Literature books that go with the Notgrass History, although I am thinking of buying supplemental guides to go with each book. Composition will (hopefully?) come from assignments with the Notgrass as well. At least that is my understanding… Thanks for the reply! Ah! I'm not familiar with the Notgrass. Hopefully, you'll get some other replies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AggieMama Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Would there be any way to bulk up your Biology during the school year to an AP credit or go deeper to maybe make it an honors biology? I agree with the previous post that the Literature/Composition aspect looks a little weak. FWIW, when I taught freshman English we wrote at least 6 papers through the entire writing process, a research paper, read a major play and at least two novels as well as lots of short stories over the course for year, and daily writing. If I were planning to combine English and History I might call it Humanities. You of course know your child the best and know what they can handle. Good luck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebbS Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 (edited) You'll have 5 credits of core basics that any college is going to want to see plus some electives. History - 1 Literature/Composition - 1 Math - 1 Biology - 1 Foreign Language/German - 1 Electives: Braille, Bible, Art and maybe PE 6 credits per year is pretty standard though some kids can do more. Your core courses look fine, but once you add the electives it may be a heavy schedule depending on whether you are going for .5 or 1 credit for each of these this year. You could give PE credit this year for weight & agility training but only if there is more to it, for example learning proper methods, than going to the gym. And even then, you should only give .5 credits and only do this once - after that, it's an extra-curricular. Extra-curricular sports/activities are more helpful on a transcript than giving credit for every year of participation. During the 4 years of highschool, depending on the college that your student wants to attend, you're going to need to cover the following: 3 - 4 credits math 3 - 4 credits lab science 4 credits English including composition and literature 4 credits social science including World History, US history, US Government & Economics 2 - 3 credits foreign language 1 credit in the arts 20 - 24 total credits depending on state requirements. It looks to me like you're off to a good start. Edited March 27, 2016 by DebbS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 On the Notgrass website, it states that completing Exploring World History provides one credit in each of history, Bible, and English. It definitely looks like the literature portion is sufficient. It doesn't really give any information on what the composition portion entails, so you would have to gauge that on your own. If the writing is small daily assignments with no large writing projects/research papers, or if it doesn't cover the main types of writing (narrative, persuasive, descriptive, and expository), then I would say it's not sufficient for composition and therefore not sufficient for an overall English credit. Other than that possible caution, I think you have a fine plan. You have five core college courses and four electives. I'm assuming that the art and the PE are .5 credits each, and Bible is a full credit. I don't know how intensive the Braille is, but I think it's an interesting elective. So, you have 7 credits + whatever Braille gives you. It's definitely a full schedule, but if your son manages his time well I think it's doable. If you wanted to, you could definitely shift the art and/or the PE to another year if you find that you're trying to accomplish too much. My kids play competitive hockey; their freshman years they will get PE credit for the time they spend on hockey, and the rest of the years it will just be an extra-curricular. So, they get a "free" 1/2 credit that doesn't require anything extra on their part. I'm doing the same with my dd's programming and robotics/engineering. She does it anyway for fun, and she'll get a credit out of it. Your son's Braille and PE may be the same ... things he does anyway for fun that happen to qualify for a credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Notgrass is credit in history,, Bible and English. There are numerous composition assignment options, and they recommend that the student complete at least 6. The student review book also contains lit. analysis. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Looks good! What are your plans for the art and music? Sounds nice, but very vague. Does this include playing an instrument, learning to read music, other music theory? Is it art history and/or hands-on projects and learning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGrief Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 I'm not sure how the Notgrass curric works, but I'd make sure he is getting solid writing instruction. It's such an important skill to develop at that point in high school. Also, on your transcript, make sure that the Language Arts credit is clear and differentiated from the history credit. My experience, having done one more creative high school plan for one child, and a more simple/traditional one for the other, is that the colleges seem to prefer what they can understand. This is particularly true of schools that are processing large numbers of applications, and that don't have the time to discuss the finer points of your transcript with you. They need to be able to look at it and compare apples to apples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.