AL High School - maybe a little out of the box?

[Runningmom80]

I'm a little bit frantic, my DS was originally going to start at a private school in the Fall, but due to Covid, we decided it was better to stay home at least next year, and my instinct says we will probably just go straight through high school. Anyways, I've not done a ton of research into HS. I know my state's requirements, they are pretty standard. I'd love any feedback or advice you have, or any great threads I could read to get some inspiration.

Here's where we are currently at -

DS is 13 (will be 14 in Nov.) We sort of skipped him in the beginning so he's grade 9. He doesn't really have any desire to graduate any earlier at this point. Would it be beneficial for me to map out all of high school? I never plan ahead for him, but I'm wondering if it would be advantageous now. 

DS has been doing Spanish with HSA for 3 years now. He's somewhere in HS Spanish Level 3 - I'm thinking of having him do the AP course through CTY. Do you think it would be better if he finished the HSA courses completely before doing AP? 

History - He's signed up for Online G3 "Modern History through Movies." This is just half a year, so I think we will do a full history class along with it. CTY offers AP US Government & Politics which he is REALLY interested in, but asks for a high school equivalent US history as a pre-req. He hasn't taken US history since we did History of Us in Middle school. How necessary do you think the pre-req is? 

Math - He liked Geometry through DO last year so we are going to continue that for math 

Science -  No idea. Last year he did the Physics class with Athena's, but I believe he's aged out of their classes, and the format wasn't his favorite. I would love recommendations for science. Does anything else like the Big History Project exist? He did that in 7th grade and we both enjoyed it. I'm guessing it doesn't but I thought I would ask. 

English/LA - Also no idea. I think I might be able to find him something at our local CC and pay out of pocket since I missed the boat on our college credit plus funding. I'm also open to a straight up curriculum and grading myself. Any suggestions for English?

 

Electives: He's into computers and music. I'd really love to give him the opportunity to complete some big projects while he completes his school work at home. I have no idea how you award credit for this. 

 

This is ALL over the place. I'm usually planning way before this so I'm kind of freaked out. It will all be fine I know, I'm just having a week already.

 

Should I cross post this on the HS board? I'm not active on that board yet and don't want to be obnoxious. 😂

TIA!

[daijobu]

5 hours ago, Runningmom80 said:

DS is 13 (will be 14 in Nov.) We sort of skipped him in the beginning so he's grade 9. He doesn't really have any desire to graduate any earlier at this point. Would it be beneficial for me to map out all of high school? I never plan ahead for him, but I'm wondering if it would be advantageous now. 

No.  One year at a time, with sketchy plans for the year after.  If he is currently planning to graduate at the usual age (18?), then you can count him as a middle school student who is taking advanced courses.  If he later changes his mind and decides to graduate early, you can use whatever he's studied in his last 4 years before college and call it "high school."

History - He's signed up for Online G3 "Modern History through Movies." This is just half a year, so I think we will do a full history class along with it. CTY offers AP US Government & Politics which he is REALLY interested in, but asks for a high school equivalent US history as a pre-req. He hasn't taken US history since we did History of Us in Middle school. How necessary do you think the pre-req is? 

This question is best asked of the teacher of that class, but there might be some boardies with info.  

Science -  No idea. Last year he did the Physics class with Athena's, but I believe he's aged out of their classes, and the format wasn't his favorite. I would love recommendations for science. Does anything else like the Big History Project exist? He did that in 7th grade and we both enjoyed it. I'm guessing it doesn't but I thought I would ask. 

Is he ready for high school level science classes?  You might consider the WTM biology or chemistry classes.  

This is ALL over the place. I'm usually planning way before this so I'm kind of freaked out. It will all be fine I know, I'm just having a week already.

Agreed, you'll be fine.  Take it one year at a time, and provide appropriate courses for your student's level.  It's still middle school, so things don't really "count" yet as far as college admissions.  You'll be fine.  

Should I cross post this on the HS board? I'm not active on that board yet and don't want to be obnoxious. 😂

You can ask about AP Spanish on the HS board, and any courses that you think your student is ready for that is at the high school level, like science or English.  

 

[Black-eyed Suzan]

Hi! My oldest is about the same age, but because I wanted to know what I was getting into, I’ve been researching high school on and off for a couple of years.

I’m finding it hard to find out of the box ideas for high school. The box seems quite large and very appealing. 😆  

What I’ve heard is that keeping records of what you did each year (hours spent and details about what the student did, even if it wasn’t planned beforehand 😂) helps immensely for transcripts. Someone even mentioned copying the table of contents for any textbooks so you know what was covered.  (I wish I remembered who so I could give them credit. 🙁)  

Knowing potential college requirements (and any state requirements) to make sure there are no gaps also seems important. Most people seem to create a transcript framework (English, Math, History, Science, foreign language, elective, etc.) and plug classes into that framework for each year.

We don’t use Bravewriter, but I love this series of posts about her philosophy for high schoolers.

This post by Simply Charlotte Mason gives an idea of how to fit non-standard learning into the transcript format.

Another resource for translating projects to transcripts is Lee Binz The HomeScholar. She has Facebook Live presentations about what counts for transcripts.

As for what to do for specific subjects, math is the only one I feel confident about. I’m thinking of tweaking Ambleside Online for Literature/History/Arts. And I have no idea for science. So I’m listening to see if others chime in. ☺️

[Arcadia]

7 hours ago, Runningmom80 said:

DS is 13 (will be 14 in Nov.) We sort of skipped him in the beginning so he's grade 9. He doesn't really have any desire to graduate any earlier at this point. Would it be beneficial for me to map out all of high school? I never plan ahead for him, but I'm wondering if it would be advantageous now. 

My teens are December babies and entered kindergarten when Dec 2nd was the cutoff. DS14 wants me to do all the planning but he is aiming for whatever college he can slack at and is affordable 🙃🤦🏻‍♀️ DS15 planned his four year plan in 7th/8th grade and he is contended to go on autopilot mode now. 

I don’t think it’s beneficial for you to map out all of high school for him. He should be the one to come up with a tentative 9th grade plan and tentative four year plan and discuss with you (since you are in the guidance counselor role as well). Bear in mind that COVID does make it good to have contingency plans for any in-person classes for 2020/21.

[Runningmom80]

2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

My teens are December babies and entered kindergarten when Dec 2nd was the cutoff. DS14 wants me to do all the planning but he is aiming for whatever college he can slack at and is affordable 🙃🤦🏻‍♀️ DS15 planned his four year plan in 7th/8th grade and he is contended to go on autopilot mode now. 

I don’t think it’s beneficial for you to map out all of high school for him. He should be the one to come up with a tentative 9th grade plan and tentative four year plan and discuss with you (since you are in the guidance counselor role as well). Bear in mind that COVID does make it good to have contingency plans for any in-person classes for 2020/21.

The bolded is also my child. I’m waiting to see if the motivation ever kicks in! 
 

I don’t ever plan ahead for him so I’m happy to hear that no one really recommends it!

[Runningmom80]

2 hours ago, Black-eyed Suzan said:

Hi! My oldest is about the same age, but because I wanted to know what I was getting into, I’ve been researching high school on and off for a couple of years.

I’m finding it hard to find out of the box ideas for high school. The box seems quite large and very appealing. 😆  

What I’ve heard is that keeping records of what you did each year (hours spent and details about what the student did, even if it wasn’t planned beforehand 😂) helps immensely for transcripts. Someone even mentioned copying the table of contents for any textbooks so you know what was covered.  (I wish I remembered who so I could give them credit. 🙁)  

Knowing potential college requirements (and any state requirements) to make sure there are no gaps also seems important. Most people seem to create a transcript framework (English, Math, History, Science, foreign language, elective, etc.) and plug classes into that framework for each year.

We don’t use Bravewriter, but I love this series of posts about her philosophy for high schoolers.

This post by Simply Charlotte Mason gives an idea of how to fit non-standard learning into the transcript format.

Another resource for translating projects to transcripts is Lee Binz The HomeScholar. She has Facebook Live presentations about what counts for transcripts.

As for what to do for specific subjects, math is the only one I feel confident about. I’m thinking of tweaking Ambleside Online for Literature/History/Arts. And I have no idea for science. So I’m listening to see if others chime in. ☺️

 Thank you! I used to listen to all of Julie’s pods and watch her videos when they were periscopes! Lol. I’ll have to go back and check all

of those out. If I remember she talked about BHAG, the “big hairy audacious goal” for high schoolers. 

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, Runningmom80 said:

The bolded is also my child. I’m waiting to see if the motivation ever kicks in! 

DS14 has always been more “passive” but his motivation dipped even more when shelter in place started and all in-person classes/activities were switched to Zoom online or cancelled. Now that his tennis lessons restarted, his passivity is back to his “normal”. DS15 is motivated to finish high school requirements in 3 years 😏 which means he can study whatever he wish for senior year. 

For music and computers, you could look at music technology and audio engineering syllabuses for ideas. Though frankly it might be more fun for him to do his big projects as an extracurricular/hobby unless he already have too many extracurricular activities. 
 

For example, one of my public library has this facility for teens https://www.sjpl.org/teenhq-record

[Arcadia]

My teens use this UC guide as a starting point to make an individualized four year plan. Else my teens would forget about doing any humanities for credit.

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/My_Academic_Planner-EAOP.pdf

[gstharr]

21 hours ago, Runningmom80 said:

I'History - He's signed up for Online G3 "Modern History through Movies." This is just half a year, so I think we will do a full history class along with it. CTY offers AP US Government & Politics which he is REALLY interested in, but asks for a high school equivalent US history as a pre-req. He hasn't taken US history since we did History of Us in Middle school. How necessary do you think the pre-req is? 

If you are targeting highly selective colleges, you will need more traditional history classes.  Classes with titles like "Modern History through Movies" and " History of Us" are red flags for slacker classes to the admission committee regardless of course content.

 

[Runningmom80]

6 minutes ago, gstharr said:

 

 

History of Us was in 5th grade so won't be on his transcript. He plans on taking AP History and AP Govt, I'm hoping that helps them over look a "slacker" class he is super excited to take. 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Runningmom80

[Runningmom80]

9 hours ago, Arcadia said:

My teens use this UC guide as a starting point to make an individualized four year plan. Else my teens would forget about doing any humanities for credit.

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/My_Academic_Planner-EAOP.pdf

 

Thank you! This is helpful. 

[EKS]

Would it be beneficial for me to map out all of high school? I never plan ahead for him, but I'm wondering if it would be advantageous now. 

Yes, I would map out high school, and include an optional fifth year if he and you decide that an extra year would be beneficial.  You don't have to figure out resources yet, but it is always good to have an idea of the big picture.  Also, you're not locked into whatever you come up with.  The plan will surely evolve, but that's the beauty of homeschooling.

Any suggestions for English?

Most people think of English as studying some sort of body of literature and then writing about it.  But after many years of thinking that myself, I've come to see English as an opportunity to do interdisciplinary work that you won't find in a standard high school sequence.  One way I do this is to come up with an overarching concept to explore and then find texts that look at that concept from different angles.  I then teach academic writing skills alongside.  I'm currently developing a unit on monstrosity that will dovetail with a units on empathy, truth, and justice for my bonus students.

Edited July 3, 2020 by EKS

[Runningmom80]

1 hour ago, EKS said:

Would it be beneficial for me to map out all of high school? I never plan ahead for him, but I'm wondering if it would be advantageous now. 

Yes, I would map out high school, and include an optional fifth year if he and you decide that an extra year would be beneficial.  You don't have to figure out resources yet, but it is always good to have an idea of the big picture.  Also, you're not locked into whatever you come up with.  The plan will surely evolve, but that's the beauty of homeschooling.

Any suggestions for English?

Most people think of English as studying some sort of body of literature and then writing about it.  But after many years of thinking that myself, I've come to see English as an opportunity to do interdisciplinary work that you won't find in a standard high school sequence.  One way I do this is to come up with an overarching concept to explore and then find texts that look at that concept from different angles.  I then teach academic writing skills alongside.  I'm currently developing a unit on monstrosity that will dovetail with a units on empathy and justice for my bonus students.

 

Wow! That sounds amazing. I love this idea. I'll have to try to figure this out. I think it would be really awesome to study a theme in this way as opposed to "Modern British Literature," or something of the sort.

[EKS]

13 minutes ago, Runningmom80 said:

Wow! That sounds amazing. I love this idea. I'll have to try to figure this out. I think it would be really awesome to study a theme in this way as opposed to "Modern British Literature," or something of the sort.

Doing it this way definitely kicked our homeschool experience up a notch or two!  It's very freeing.  

And you can still do some traditional literature.  For example, for the monstrosity unit, I'm currently planning to use Beowulf, Frankenstein, and Never Let Me Go.  I just think that using chronology as the main organizing principle for literature study is limiting.

[Guest]

I don't know how serious it is, but my DD is planning to take the teen focused Physics class at G3 this Fall. Like you, we ended up going into a bit of a spin due to COVID because the college classes she wants to take are ones that would not work well online, and that one looked interesting. Having said that, she also is in the place of having finished all high school requirements, so she didn't need a lab science or a "real" physics. 

DD did the teen focus US Government and politics at G3 as well with the writing supplement,  and it was a very good class. We chose to have her do that one at G3 because it seemed like it might be frustrating to be a younger teen in a room of adults who can vote for that one.  She ended up not doing the APUG exam due to the change in format this Spring (and she just plain doesn't need the credits), but she would have been ready for it after the class with some specific review. 

On Spanish, my DD actually did college Spanish and then went back to HSA to work on conversation. It's simply a different type of course in a lot of ways (as DD said, after four semesters of college Spanish, she could read, write and knew grammar, but struggled to order a taco). After a couple of years at HSA, she is carrying on conversations pretty fluently (and, in fact, I added a lot of sessions over the summer mostly so she has someone regular to talk to. As near as I can tell, she and her tutor spend a lot of time complaining to each other about how much COVID stinks). My guess is that AP will be a lot more like the college Spanish DD did initially.

 

[Runningmom80]

5 hours ago, dmmetler said:

I don't know how serious it is, but my DD is planning to take the teen focused Physics class at G3 this Fall. Like you, we ended up going into a bit of a spin due to COVID because the college classes she wants to take are ones that would not work well online, and that one looked interesting. Having said that, she also is in the place of having finished all high school requirements, so she didn't need a lab science or a "real" physics. 

DD did the teen focus US Government and politics at G3 as well with the writing supplement,  and it was a very good class. We chose to have her do that one at G3 because it seemed like it might be frustrating to be a younger teen in a room of adults who can vote for that one.  She ended up not doing the APUG exam due to the change in format this Spring (and she just plain doesn't need the credits), but she would have been ready for it after the class with some specific review. 

On Spanish, my DD actually did college Spanish and then went back to HSA to work on conversation. It's simply a different type of course in a lot of ways (as DD said, after four semesters of college Spanish, she could read, write and knew grammar, but struggled to order a taco). After a couple of years at HSA, she is carrying on conversations pretty fluently (and, in fact, I added a lot of sessions over the summer mostly so she has someone regular to talk to. As near as I can tell, she and her tutor spend a lot of time complaining to each other about how much COVID stinks). My guess is that AP will be a lot more like the college Spanish DD did initially.

 

 

This is all very helpful, thank you! 

RE: Online G3, I'm happy to hear that. He really loves those classes and he's 13 so I'm not ready to push him completely into straight rigor. We are tip toeing in due to his lagging executive functioning skills, as well as his anxiety. He's totally open to taking two history classes this year so that may be an option anyways. 

RE: Spanish, that's interesting! DS does seem way more conversational than the average high schooler, and I generally think their format is very effective. Maybe I'll have him take one more year and do AP or CC Spanish next year. 

 

( this reminds me, I need to look up the threads on the AP vs CC debate because I'm not sure which is the better way to go in general for him.)

[Runningmom80]

Ok, I think we have a tentative plan. I'd love to hear any thoughts on this schedule as far as rigor and college readiness. (In general. I do realize it's only 9th grade.)

 

AP US History through CTY

Clover Honors Chemistry Parent led

Algebra II through DO   I switched this to Mr D. It seems less rigorous and will keep him on a schedule. 

Lightening Lit British Novels

Online G3 Linguistics

HSA Highschool Spanish 3

Piano lessons and possibly some music theory

crossing our fingers the environmental club is a go in the fall (It's outdoors)

 

Thanks again for the help everyone! 

 

Edited July 4, 2020 by Runningmom80

[Black-eyed Suzan]

Looks good! Tell me more about the environmental club - it sounds interesting. 🙂

[8filltheheart]

On 6/30/2020 at 9:04 AM, Runningmom80 said:

Ok, I think we have a tentative plan. I'd love to hear any thoughts on this schedule as far as rigor and college readiness. (In general. I do realize it's only 9th grade.)

 

AP US History through CTY

Clover Honors Chemistry Parent led

Algebra II through DO

Lightening Lit British Novels

Online G3 Linguistics

HSA Highschool Spanish 3

Piano lessons and possibly some music theory

crossing our fingers the environmental club is a go in the fall (It's outdoors)

 

Thanks again for the help everyone! 

 

It is really going to depend on the 9th grader.  Some of my 9th graders could have handled that load.  Some couldn't.  Connie's honors chemistry class is a big time commitment.  I am assuming the AP history class will be, too.  Do you have any estimate for the time commitment for the linguistics course?  

It is an aggressive schedule for a 9th grader, so it is definitely rigorous and college prep.    I would ask yourself how many hrs you want him to spend on school daily and then work backward from your schedule to see if your time expectations and course expectations match.  

[Runningmom80]

2 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

It is really going to depend on the 9th grader.  Some of my 9th graders could have handled that load.  Some couldn't.  Connie's honors chemistry class is a big time commitment.  I am assuming the AP history class will be, too.  Do you have any estimate for the time commitment for the linguistics course?  

It is an aggressive schedule for a 9th grader, so it is definitely rigorous and college prep.    I would ask yourself how many hrs you want him to spend on school daily and then work backward from your schedule to see if your time expectations and course expectations match.  

Thank you for the input! I had no idea about clover chem so maybe we will switch that up to something less rigorous. I don’t want him to be overwhelmed. 
thanks again!

 

eta: 8, would you happen to know how “regular” chem compares? Just wondering if that would be better for him.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Runningmom80

[Runningmom80]

3 hours ago, Black-eyed Suzan said:

Looks good! Tell me more about the environmental club - it sounds interesting. 🙂

It’s very cool! It’s a two year commitment with a local university, the kids study a water way, have access to a lab, report findings and learn advocate with local leaders.

 

ETA: I forgot that this is technically a lab! I could probably count this as biology 

Edited July 3, 2020 by Runningmom80

[8filltheheart]

7 hours ago, Runningmom80 said:

Thank you for the input! I had no idea about clover chem so maybe we will switch that up to something less rigorous. I don’t want him to be overwhelmed. 
thanks again!

 

eta: 8, would you happen to know how “regular” chem compares? Just wondering if that would be better for him.

I think Farrar's kids took the regular chem class. I would ask her or even just ask Connie. She is very forthright about honors being a bigger time commitment than honors.

FWIW, there is a lot of maturing during high school. My 9th graders are nothing like my srs. Going from middle school to high school shouldn't be a drastic shift. It really should be a simple forward progression. So, it really depends on the student as to what is a good fit. But if you think about how much he changed between 4th grade and 8th, the shift you'll see between 9th and 12ths will be equal compared to his 8th grade self. That growth doesnt all have to happen between 8th grade summer and 9th grade. 🙂

[Runningmom80]

2 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

I think Farrar's kids took the regular chem class. I would ask her or even just ask Connie. She is very forthright about honors being a bigger time commitment than honors.

FWIW, there is a lot of maturing during high school. My 9th graders are nothing like my srs. Going from middle school to high school shouldn't be a drastic shift. It really should be a simple forward progression. So, it really depends on the student as to what is a good fit. But if you think about how much he changed between 4th grade and 8th, the shift you'll see between 9th and 12ths will be equal compared to his 8th grade self. That growth doesnt all have to happen between 8th grade summer and 9th grade. 🙂

 

Yes that is my concern. We ramped up significantly last year but the addition of the AP is going to be another big jump. I *think* he can handle it, but I also do not want to overwhelm him with other subjects.

I may need to rethink Linguistics. 

Science I'm also wondering how horrible it is to save the 3 credits for 10-12 grades and not do science this year. (Or use the environmental club as Bio.)

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, Runningmom80 said:

We ramped up significantly last year but the addition of the AP is going to be another big jump. I *think* he can handle it, but I also do not want to overwhelm him with other subjects.

DS14 who does things slowly and not interested in languages did:

English 9

US history 

AP Environmental Science 

Photography

AP Macroeconomics & AP Microeconomics (summer)

AP Calculus BC (Summer)

German (enrichment, not for credit, switched to Zoom during COVID so we saved 1hr traveling time but kids missed being in a classroom)

Tennis (part of PE, stopped during COVID shelter in place so that’s four hours “saved”)

English and History were the time suckers. He is finishing history over summer.  He was just lethargic during COVID shelter in place and wasn’t in the mood to do anything. He’ll do Japanese at community college from 10th grade just like DS15. 

DS15 did not do science in 9th, his 3 sciences are physics, chemistry and environmental science. He is likely to do physics or astronomy at community college for his 4th science. He had a “messed up” 9th grade and “less choice” 10th grade due to my medical treatments.  

[8filltheheart]

3 hours ago, Runningmom80 said:

 

Yes that is my concern. We ramped up significantly last year but the addition of the AP is going to be another big jump. I *think* he can handle it, but I also do not want to overwhelm him with other subjects.

I may need to rethink Linguistics. 

Science I'm also wondering how horrible it is to save the 3 credits for 10-12 grades and not do science this year. (Or use the environmental club as Bio.)

I would recommend having 4 yrs of science for most Us, but they do not all need to be traditional sequence high school science courses.  If he is doing the environmental club, you could easily create an environmental science course.  2 of my kids have had an ecological biodiversity course as a high school science.   They read about difference ecosystems and the biodiversity within the various systems.  They read about ecological threats, protective measures, etc.  They watched documentaries.  (By far, it was one of my dd's favorite science classes in high school.)

[Runningmom80]

1 hour ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

I would recommend having 4 yrs of science for most Us, but they do not all need to be traditional sequence high school science courses.  If he is doing the environmental club, you could easily create an environmental science course.  2 of my kids have had an ecological biodiversity course as a high school science.   They read about difference ecosystems and the biodiversity within the various systems.  They read about ecological threats, protective measures, etc.  They watched documentaries.  (By far, it was one of my dd's favorite science classes in high school.)

Thank you! I think this is the way to go for us. 🙂

[Clemsondana]

My oldest is also going into 9th so I don't have a lot of experience yet, but I've taught high schoolers for 8 years so I've hopefully absorbed something from talking to them and their families.  🙂  I would suggest having a tentative overall plan because, depending on your state requirements (if there are any) or college requirements (which seem to vary a lot, depending on what you are looking at) there could be things that you wouldn't think of (or, alternatively, that you might be filling through some activity that you hadn't considered counting as a credit). 

For us, I haven't planned what we're doing for history every year, but there is a requirement for gov/econ, world history, and US history so I'll make sure that there is something that I'm comfortable counting to fill each of those.  There are non-complicated requirements like personal finance and health that we are sticking in over summers, when we have a light semester, or at co-op where they can be taken with friends.  For one kid, I'll have to think about what to count as extracurricular vs a credit in fine arts because there is plenty of performance (choir and an instrument), while for the other I'll be doing that for PE (sports plus conditioning workouts) while trying to figure out how to get a fine arts credit that will be both useful and enjoyable. 

It's not so much that I've laid out 4 years worth of classes, but I've got a general list of what we need/want to do over 4 years and then we're putting together a plan that does around 1/4 of it this year, making sure to balance very challenging classes with some that will be less difficult.  There are also classes like PE that are mostly about tracking hours of activity, so they could be classes that you take care of in the course of normal activity and you can just think about when you're likely to do it (for instance, a ski trip, training for a sport, a couple of hours each week spent hitting golf balls at the driving range) and then record the credit then.  I think that my concern was that I'd get to the senior year and then have to go back and try to figure out credits that we needed that I had missed, so by having a loose plan of filling in a history, science, English, and math every year, plus 2-3 of language in 9th-10th or 11th,, 1-2 various oddball requirement half-credits, and 1-2 elective half credits each year we both have a good framework that relieved a lot of stress.  When I get to a particular year, I may decide to combine or create a class in some interesting way or fulfill a requirement with an unusual class, but I'll have in mind what I need to do.  

[Runningmom80]

21 hours ago, ClemsonDana said:

My oldest is also going into 9th so I don't have a lot of experience yet, but I've taught high schoolers for 8 years so I've hopefully absorbed something from talking to them and their families.  🙂  I would suggest having a tentative overall plan because, depending on your state requirements (if there are any) or college requirements (which seem to vary a lot, depending on what you are looking at) there could be things that you wouldn't think of (or, alternatively, that you might be filling through some activity that you hadn't considered counting as a credit). 

For us, I haven't planned what we're doing for history every year, but there is a requirement for gov/econ, world history, and US history so I'll make sure that there is something that I'm comfortable counting to fill each of those.  There are non-complicated requirements like personal finance and health that we are sticking in over summers, when we have a light semester, or at co-op where they can be taken with friends.  For one kid, I'll have to think about what to count as extracurricular vs a credit in fine arts because there is plenty of performance (choir and an instrument), while for the other I'll be doing that for PE (sports plus conditioning workouts) while trying to figure out how to get a fine arts credit that will be both useful and enjoyable. 

It's not so much that I've laid out 4 years worth of classes, but I've got a general list of what we need/want to do over 4 years and then we're putting together a plan that does around 1/4 of it this year, making sure to balance very challenging classes with some that will be less difficult.  There are also classes like PE that are mostly about tracking hours of activity, so they could be classes that you take care of in the course of normal activity and you can just think about when you're likely to do it (for instance, a ski trip, training for a sport, a couple of hours each week spent hitting golf balls at the driving range) and then record the credit then.  I think that my concern was that I'd get to the senior year and then have to go back and try to figure out credits that we needed that I had missed, so by having a loose plan of filling in a history, science, English, and math every year, plus 2-3 of language in 9th-10th or 11th,, 1-2 various oddball requirement half-credits, and 1-2 elective half credits each year we both have a good framework that relieved a lot of stress.  When I get to a particular year, I may decide to combine or create a class in some interesting way or fulfill a requirement with an unusual class, but I'll have in mind what I need to do.  

 

Yes, we are going to have this issue too. I think I'm going to have mine do Theory as his fine art and then let lessons continue as extra (although he's only continuing with them to appease me, so perhaps I should count those.)

 

I ended up choosing Mr D math. From what I read on the HS board it's less rigorous than DO. I think for this year while we are adding in that AP, that's for the best. I also had his portfolio review and the reviewer reminded me that he's already completed some credits prior to HS so I can comfortably take out linguistics and we will try "regular chemistry" through clover if he doesn't do the environmental club (long story. has to do with him being a teenager.)