Writing out our plans - 9th Grade

[alysee]

We have looked at Oak Meadow, Bookshark and Build Your Library. She is leaning towards Build Your Library 8 because she wants to do Story of Science. She doesn't love science and much prefers to read so I hope it's a good fit. Hoping to add in Encounter Canada Geography. I don't want to overwhelm her so I suggested Art and Home Ec as two electives that she would find enjoyable and "easy" to do and she seems fine with that. She may want to videography instead of Art but I think the bulk of her credits will be through Build Your Library. 

Edited March 26 by alysee
Typo

[Lori D.]

You will likely want to be also thinking about an overall plan for high school (written in pencil so you can flex and adjust all through the 4 years as needed 😉 ), as it helps you make sure you accomplish any courses you really want to be sure to do during high school, as well as making sure you do all of the potentially "required" credits (if your state has homeschool high school graduation requirements, and/or if you are planning on college after high school, colleges usually have a set of credits required for admission).

A typical 9th grade line up of classes includes:
1 credit = English 
1 credit = Math 
1 credit = Science
1 credit = Social Studies
possibly: 1 credit = Foreign Language
possibly: 0.5 to 1 credit = Fine Arts
possibly: 0.5 to 1 or 2 credits Elective(s)

So far, from your list, I see:
1 credit = English: ______?_____  (potentially BYL 8's Lit.; does it "dig deeper" & present lit. topics? and what about writing?)
1 credit = Math: ______?______  (note: the BYL 8's Math would not work as a high school credit)
1 credit = Science: General Science  (BYL Story of Science)
1 (?) credit = Social Studies: Geography  (Encounter Canada)
1 (?) credit = Fine Arts: Art or Videography
1 (?) credit = Elective: Home Ec.

Overall for high school, if you are wanting to complete a college prep list of credits (for US colleges):
4 credits = English 
4 credit = Math  (most US colleges want Alg. 1, Geometry, Alg. 2, + a 4th math often above Alg. 2)
3-4 credits = Science  (most US colleges want at least 2, sometimes 3 of the Sciences to have labs)
2-4 credits = Social Studies  (most US colleges want 1 credit each Amer. Hist. & World Hist. and/or Geography; some want 0.5 credit each Econ. + Gov't)
2-4 credits = Foreign Language  (of the same language; all US colleges accept Latin, most US colleges accept ASL)
1 credit = Fine Arts
4-8+ credits Electives  (examples: Computer, Logic, Bible/Religious Studies, Home Ec, PE, Health, Driver's Ed, Career-Technical Ed., Vocational-Tech courses, courses in personal interests, additional Fine Arts credits, "Academic Electives" - additional credits beyond the required for the above 5 academic subjects, etc.)

Edited March 27 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

Not that you were asking for feedback 😉 , but I'll just throw out the following:

You look like you've got a good start on planning credits and courses. 😄 

Your resource choice of BYL 8 is a bit light for typical 9th grade level of work, but I don't know your student and her working level, nor your future plans. You might consider mixing and matching -- so if something like Story of Science is a better fit for 9th grade science for this student, then go with that, but then consider going with something beefier for English and Math if your student is at that higher level for those subjects. That's the beauty of homeschooling -- you can tailor fit resources for each subject area. 😉

[SilverMoon]

I've used that level. For 9th grade I'd break it up like this. 

English: I'd add literature guides for a handful of the lit titles. Only basic comprehension questions and a list of vocab words are included; no analysis work at all. It has report style writing assignments but no actual writing instructions and I don't remember any essays. (High school English is generally half literature and half writing.) 

Social studies: western civ history of science

Science: general or physical science if you add better labs

Math: nothing, that math book is just a fun history supplement and doesn't require any calculations 

 

Fwiw BYL 9 is also a general science year but a little more mature.