Need Curriculum recommendations for 10th grade ASAP

[hisacorn]

My rising 10th grade son hates school. When I asked him why, he said because it keeps him from doing fun things. {Skateboarding, playing video games -which are monitored by us and not played for hours on end- and hanging out with friends. I have told him multiple times that if he would get his work done by 3pm, he can do those things. That I would take him to skateboard parks an hour away once a week, etc. But he chooses to make himself {and me} miserable. I also asked him what would make school more pleasant for him, and he said, "I don't know."

With that background info, I need help choosing some curriculum. We did Sonlight American History last year using Hakim's History of US and it went pretty well. He is NOT a reader, so we quickly ditched anything but the spine books. The discussions were good, and sometimes he'd even offer up what he learned and found interesting, which I loved! {and told him so.} However, it did take him a long time to get through the reading assignments.

Also, my mom died last November, which really affected our school year. {She was in assisted living close by with Alzheimer's and died in our home on hospice.}

Last year we did:

Saxon Alg 1

Sonlight American History

Literature: Hit and miss. We ended up doing a Progeny Press guide in the end.

Grammar: Easy Grammar {He said he didn't learn anything and it was hard to follow.}

Writing: hit and miss.

Science: Apologia Physical Science

Logic: Fallacy Detective and Teaching Toolbox

 

 

Here is what I have so far for this year:

Apologia Biology

Homeschool Academy Spanish

Saxon Math {He did Alg 1 last year; should he do Alg 2 or Geometry this year?}

Bible: Positive Action for Christ {elective}

 

I would greatly appreciate advice on History and English. Our state {NC} requires American History, World History, and American Econ/Govt. Possibly American History I and II; I'm trying to get info on that now. As far as English, it requires 4 years to include American and British Literature.

I would love to find something that will challenge him but not overwhelm him.

Thank you so much!
Beth

 

[historymatters]

Apologia is very heavy on reading; it's wordy. Maybe take a look at and compare samples to Shepherd's Science Biology. 

With Saxon, Geometry is next.

Personally,  I would put him into an online writing course. He'll be accountable to someone else besides you. Writing ER at Big River Academy would be good (she incorporates grammar); or Intro to Lit. Analysis at BRA or Excelsior. That last one would cover writing and lit. and teach him fundamental skills for analyzing what he's reading. Then, maybe he'd get more out of it. "The Elegant Essay" at Bright Ideas Press Academy for 1 semester. You may want to limit online classes to just one or two subjects, limiting his temptation to play games instead of do his work.

If no lit with writing, Excelsior also has some specialty lit courses which might be of interest. Two in the spring, with a male teacher, which you might consider. 

Otherwise,  you could design a lit course based of off of less-normal selections. What genre would he be more interested in? Fiction? Nonfiction? You could use Teaching the Classics dvds and workbook to teach him to analyze using Socratic methods as part of your lit class. 

Lightening lit is a get-it-done curriculum, but won't make education any more interesting. You have a chance of making something interesting for him to read. 

I'd suggest World Geography instead of a history course. Cultural geography by BJU covers everything,  over a year. You don't need the whole set. Just the main book and TG. Use the section questions as quizzes and chapter questions as the test. Use online geography games to reinforce locations-Seterra or one other (need to look up name). There may be project ideas in the TG.

Are you going to continue Logic? I'd suggest Memoria Press Traditional Logic I instead of Classical Academic Press. CAP is more conversational: MP is straight to the point.

I know others will have more and better ideas than this. 

Edited August 23, 2018 by historymatters

[Pen]

Could he use Great Courses for history? Perhaps audio versions? 

For literature, maybe he can choose 4-6 novels that interest him per year, maybe from different genres or time periods, plus some poetry, short stories, maybe a play, or essays. Perhaps American 10th, British 11th, World lit 12th, or they could be different order or mixed. And write a 3-5 page paper about one of the books, or comparing and contrasting more than one, every 2- 3 months. 

My son read A Clockwork Orange, 21 chapter version last year. It seemed like a good book for disengaged teen boy. In which regard my Ds sounds similar to yours. I gave up homeschooling because I didn’t wish to be miserable. 

[hisacorn]

Thank you for your replies! I'm looking into your suggestions!

 

[PeterPan]

On August 23, 2018 at 2:32 PM, hisacorn said:

Also, my mom died last November, which really affected our school year. {She was in assisted living close by with Alzheimer's and died in our home on hospice.}

My MIL passed right before Thanksgiving just shy of two years ago, and that was really hard. It took us over a year just to begin to move on. You all may still being the effects of it. It's HARD. death is hard. He may need some counseling to deal with what he saw. 

He may also just be a teen boy, lol. I'm just used to my go-getter girl that the teen boy (19) that visited this weekend is blowing my mind. I love him, but WOW a different species entirely. 

I'd definitely keep going with hard work and work ethic. This is the time to be forming that and pushing that. I'd even be less worried about overwhelming him, in the sense that getting pushed will push him to be open to new tools and organization strategies to try harder and accomplish more. This is the time to do that, to help him make the leap from little kid to organized man. You want him to be beginning to do enough that he needs to use a planner and organize and use reminders on his phone and really PLAN his time and plan work. 

Does he have any co-op or social activities or work? He might be ready to start learning a skill and be mentored. We work in construction and have had future neurosurgeons, architects, all kinds of people work for us in the summer. Work is GOOD for a young man. It will help create that pinch so he has to push and be organized and can't just let it roll and give you grief. If he's depressed or the whole house is still de-energized, that's different. But even then, bringing in that outside energy can be good. It's accountability and touch points to know he needs to get ready.

Ok, I'm looking at your list there, and for neither year am I seeing enough credits. You need to be hitting 6 faithfully, every semester, and I'm seeing 4 1/2 credits freshman year, 4 credits. I know you're not done planning, but you're not there. All those separate things you did (lit, grammar, writing) are still just 1 credit of english. If you look at the time spent, it sounds like 1 unit. Carnegie units (for his transcript) are time spent. Lee Binz has great stuff on this and she does tons of free webinars, etc. If you sign up and get on her mailing list, you can do them. Then you'll be all enthused on getting his transcript starting and working with the end in mind. 

When you say what the state requires, are you saying for when they issue a diploma? Or you mean they require those things of homeschoolers? Just in general, a homeschooler can do anything they want. You could get the book Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, 2-6 and bolster it with some other books on the history of comics, the making of comics, etc. and have a semester or year of english that might engage him. I actually did a semester on comics with my dd for high school. We used some other books and I don't have the links handy. I can find them if you were to get interested. It's a totally legit field of study. Also, Storygirl has some amazing posts on LC about the english her ds (also a struggling reader) is doing in his ps high school english classes this year. Those posts might give you some practical ideas and a sense of what could be reasonable to require. Here see if this link works. https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/677694-hs-but-delayedneed-help-with-la-and-science/?do=findComment&comment=8178664

Does he have anything he's into that you could use to create more credits/units of study? Something vocational, something he wants to explore or a skill he wants to learn? 

math

social studies

LA

science

foreign language

electives

So your 4X4 is the big four done every year for four years. So that's how I got 4 1/2 credits for your freshman year. 

I have a suggestion for your english. https://rise.serpmedia.org/index.html  This is new to me, but it's well-respected in speech/intervention circles. I think it's only about $7 to run, and it will kick out numbers on decoding and tell you what areas to target. If you think at all there's a decoding issue, this might be a way to find it, and there are charts for a threshold where you can say if his scores are below this point that's why he's not enjoying reading (because the decoding would be so hard it's affecting his comprehension). It's just one of those things to check/consider/eliminate. My dd needed VT, so glasses and VT can also be something. 

Fwiw, my ds doesn't read books at all, so it's not like I'm criticizing, sigh, as I'm living it. Storygirl's lists were pretty practical, and I think it's better to use audiobooks and push upward and expose than not to expose due to saying it must be eye-read. Ear reading is a totally appropriate alternative to eye reading for certain situations. My ds ear reads extensively and seldom/never chooses to eye read. I think you could consider an ambitious ear reading plan for the year, mainly because it would bump his vocabulary and hence his writing and reading. Vocabulary, especially disciplinary vocabulary (the vocabulary he needs to understand what he's reading or to write about it) is HUGE. So if you focus on audiobooks for a year and work on writing, it wouldn't be such a bad plan. Pudewa actually suggests that in his talks btw, doing a whole year of nothing but reading.

Then, if you do that, maybe sneak in oral composition (or written) via something like debate prompts. You need more electives, so that would be a way. I used 50 Debate Prompts with my dd, and right now you can find it on the cheap. https://shop.scholastic.com/teachers-ecommerce/teacher/books/50-debate-prompts-for-kids-9780545179027.html  It's only $7, a great deal. You could do 1-2 a week and do oral composition or write short essays. 

You could also sneak writing into his social studies time by creating weekly structured response assignments to go with whatever you're doing. For instance, I required my dd some terms to subscribe to news sources and do write-ups of one news item a week. 

Has he done some kind of fine arts yet? PE? He should be getting those done this year, and the PE might be good for getting some of that angst out. Maybe he'd like to take up track or biking to up his stamina for his skateboarding.  Schools and states vary, but something like 1/2 credit of health and 1/2 or 1 credit of PE is pretty normal. 1 credit of fine arts is pretty normal too. This is the year to get those done. If you just add those in, I think you're gonna get up to your goal of 6-7 a year. I'd probably push for 7, frankly, given that he was low last year. (Or did you do them and just not list them?)

Ok, this is just my two cents, but I wouldn't be really stick in the mud about the brit lit and all that either. Like personally, I'd take that suggestion to do brit lit and figure out what he'll ENGAGE with. He might like Shakespeare and Sherlock and Dr. Who, so you're gonna read older and modern brit lit spin-offs, then watch the movies, write compare/contrast essays, call it done. And he'll be like cool now Dr. Who is school... 

Edited August 25, 2018 by PeterPan

[Laurel-in-CA]

Do you have dual enrollment options available nearby or online? This was huge for my 16yo....accountable to somebody besides mom.

Other ideas: consistent community service with an adult mentor/aimed at his interests -- my dd got credit for hours spent in 4H leadership and community service. Again, this can mean answering to somebody other than mom and can be in an area of passion if you both get creative. Or Venture Crew (scouts, co-ed) as PE?

Another suggestion: We're using Essentials in Literature and Writing for our credit in English this year. Level 10 focuses on essay writing (dd's needs shoring up) and the literature list is not too extensive.

We did a year of world geography with the Oak Meadow syllabus and it was not too demanding; dd found it pretty interesting. YMMV, as always.

[Pen]

On 8/23/2018 at 5:36 PM, Pen said:

 

My son read A Clockwork Orange, 21 chapter version last year. It seemed like a good book for disengaged teen boy. In which regard my Ds sounds similar to yours. I gave up homeschooling because I didn’t wish to be miserable. 

 

Adding: used audio recording to help since book main character narrates in a made up slang that may be easier to understand as audio. 

You should look first since it could be objectionable to you but the 21st chapter is about redemption and joining ordinary human living. 

[Pen]

5 hours ago, PeterPan said:

Does he have any co-op or social activities or work? He might be ready to start learning a skill and be mentored. We work in construction and have had future neurosurgeons, architects, all kinds of people work for us in the summer. Work is GOOD for a young man. It will help create that pinch so he has to push and be organized and can't just let it roll and give you grief. If he's depressed or the whole house is still de-energized, that's different. But even then, bringing in that outside energy can be good. It's accountability and touch points to know he needs to get ready.

 Ok, I'm looking at your list there, and for neither year am I seeing enough credits. You need to be hitting 6 faithfully, every semester, and I'm seeing 4 1/2 credits freshman year, 4

 

@hisacorn These are good points.

Some sort of Careers or Technical credits could help a lot as well as PE and health.  Careers is a required class for my Ds at his bm school for 10th, and I am hopeful that it will be well done and truly a help to him.  

A PE at start of day might get blood moving. Or in middle might help break up seat work. 

 

Last year Ds made a skateboard and graphic art designed it as one art class project. 

Edited August 25, 2018 by Pen

[Pen]

Did his Saxon math incorporate geometry as part of algebra?  If so you move on to Algebra 2, if not go to geometry. Saxon is a very boring math program. Might he do better with another?

 

[hisacorn]

Gosh, y'all! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

I'm counting 5 credits for 9th grade: Math, Science, History, English, and Logic.  {still low, I now realize}

For 10th grade I have: Math, Science, History, English, Spanish, and Bible.

He is also doing an elective, Metal Design, with a metal artist from church. {I'm just waiting to hear if he can do this this year.} This would be considered "art".

If he can do metal design this year, that would be 7 credits for 10th grade. If he can't, then I can add in Health/PE.

He is involved in youth group at church, and he goes to life group {church related} once a week during the school year.

I already told him he HAS to have a planner. Just to keep up with chores! LOL! But also to create that habit, ya know?

Tomorrow and Monday I'll look into every suggestion.

THANK YOU AGAIN!!!

Beht

 

[PeterPan]

You should go ahead and get that health/PE done if possible. That would bump him up to 7 credits plus a hobby that he tries to get some credits for. As far as logic, I was looking at the books you used. Guess it depends on how much time you spent. Every day for a school year is one unit. 2-3 days a week for a school year is a 1/2. Those books are thin, so you must have expanded them with something. I gave my dd a full credit for logic, but she did the James Madison course, which is HUGE, thick, and literally took her a full year working 5 days a week.

It's not to his benefit to fudge it. Like I'm not meaning to be picky, but you said you wanted to push him more this year. So you say wow, I was doing the math and here's where we're really at and what we REALLY HAVE TO DO. And I don't think adding on PE/health on top of those other things is too much either. It's normal to get them done in 9th/10th, because it leaves him room to do more interest-driven things in 11th. Have you looked into options for health? It's usually pretty straightforward, like read a book, do a couple little projects, boom done. For PE, same deal, accumulate some hours, boom done. 

You may need to set the planner up for him and teach him to use it. Do you type up checklists for him for the week? He's going to get more done with some structure, and you may have to provide it at first and then wean back as you teach him to take over. So at first, you'll have him bring his books and YOU will fill in the checklist or planner for the week. Then, as things get rolling, you'll begin to fade it over to him. Lots of supervision, lots of support. 

[mschickie]

Which version of Saxon 1 did you do?  if it was 2nd or 3rd you would move on to Algebra 2 if it was the 4th edition you need to add in the Geometry.

For literature you might just look at doing several literature guides with him.  Novel Units and Progeny Press are both very good literature guides.  You will find more a selection with Novel Units.  The nice thing about doing the Lit Guides is you can allow him to choose the books or choose books that you think will interest him.  October Sky is one we did with sd (Novel Units) and then we watched the movie.  Another option for English might be Movies as Literature.  We did that for sd's senior year and it was a lot of fun.  

[merylvdm]

If he likes being on the computer - have you consider Programming as an elective? It looks like you got lots of good suggestions so my only other one is to present him with some choices (you work through them and find what you think are the best options) and let him make the final selection. I did that with my boys and getting their "buy in" helped a lot. 

[Junie]

Apologia has audiobooks of all of their textbooks.  That might help him with some of the reading load.