Highschool Homeschool Curriculum – Freshman

The last few years, we’ve gone through middleschool and highschool homeschool choices and curriculum for our new school year based on up-and-coming individual interests of each of our children. I scour and read many other homeschool blog roundups, catalogs, as well as reviews. I gain ALOT of information on where and how to most wisely spend our hard earned homeschool budget. Here are a few tips I have learned followed by this year’s family homeschool choices that we will be using.

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Tips before you purchase your homeschool choices and curriculum

• Wait! Just wait. Take a pause. I know that seems counter-intuitive since you need to get the “show on the road” so to speak. What I am referring to: many of us use part of tax-returns for the coming school year budget. That happens in May for us. I would usually get hot on the trail for the fall line up immediately. This is great for organization and pre-planning. The summer can be spent planning out supplies listed and new books. BUT, I have learned that much can change during the summer. The kids grow, their attention can go in a different direction. Now that most of our budget has been tied up trying to preplan in the late springg, it doesn’t leave much room for change. Wait closer to mid-August if you plan to start somewhere in September.
• Plan electives by the semester or unit, not a full year! Some books and curriculum can last you all year. That’s great! Bonuses: you only need to buy once, plan once. Cons: if you have been homeschooling for any length of time, you will know what I am talking about. Come January, we sort of lose steam with the same subject. Allowing yourself semesters or units, will give you the choice of continuing in the same vein or have a breath of fresh air and choose something new. If you want the freedom to choose something new–again, WAIT! Buy for fall semester and WAIT for November or December to look at Spring semester supplies. Hard to do in the middle of holidays but your budget will thank you!
• All these subjects listed and homeschool choices below seem like ALOT to do! Just remember that many things are done in little spurts, some together, some naturally because they are delight directed, some rotated. You can read about loop scheduling to help you keep it simple.

A Note on Online Classes

Most online course venues offer huge sale discounts. Check out Udemy or Domestika for steep discount sales during parts of the year. We purchased normally expensive classes for just under $10 a piece! Be aware that many Domestika classes are in a different language so pay attention that it’s in the language you need. We also were able to get a year subscription to CTC math for a huge half off discount that allows access for both my kids to any class.

The Most Important Tip for Planning Homeschool Choices and curriculum

Most importantly: listen to the Holy Spirit. God may want you to go in a direction that you hadn’t planned. Allow Him to work in you and your children and then reflect that in your planning choices. So PRAY first!

English Grammar Composition

Since my children are meeting in the middle for this subject, we do it together. I have one speedy middle school child and one reluctant writer highschooler. So it works perfectly to use a book with bite-sized projects. Our opinion writing papers are usually on a book we have just read or a topic they can choose to write about and are applicable topics to each child. For example: The Hobbit and Paramedic as topics don’t usually jive but they work if each child can write from personally interesting subjects while we go through this together. For literature, we read together and the focus this year was on true biographies to coincide with cultures and geography or other adventure/ dystopian tales.

Jump In by Sharon Watson

Easy steps to opinion, cause and effect, and persausion paper writing. She also includes research paper, newspaper article writing, and a section on the most common type of poetry structures. We really have liked the simple structure and breakdown of how to do the opinon and persuasion papers and the poetry section.

Easy Cozy Grammar Course by Marie Hackham

I had found a dvd set of her basic grammer course and really like the clear and concise simple directions she gives. Her lessons are short and to the point but what really makes this stand out for us is the setting she is standing in during the lessons. Filmed at her home on the coast, she is walking around and showing the beautiful surroundings as she is motioning through the sentences. My kids have never been into fast talking, quick scene changing, or over the top sounds. Her relaxed and gentle presentation are just their speed. This course is suitable for 6th grade and up.

Phonetic Zoo by IEW

Since we have a dyslexic child who has perfect auditory recall, this year we have chosen to review spelling through Phonetic Zoo to brush up on the spelling struggle. As always, my struggling speller relies on the Franklin spell checker for his personal writing in his room without a phone or computer in there.

Literature Picks This Year

Math Homeschool Choices and curriculum

For my highschooler, we made the switch from Life of Fred math series (which we have loved, by the way) to Teaching Textbooks for Algebra 1. Life of Fred was wonderful for my auditory learner but with higher math and our conflicting communication style, we need a go between to teach in this subject for less frustration and clearer math steps.

For my middleschooler, who would immediately burst into tears if I tried to use Life of Fred with her, we finished up using Teaching Textbooks in an adapted way. We used parts of TT by going over new concepts and chosen problems in a cheap spiral notebook together. I had high-hopes at first trying Teaching Textbooks with the cd’s and independantly for this year. But, alas, that was not to be. We chose Mathantics and Teaching Textbooks as the best options for my “get it done” hands on girl this year.

For both teens, we watch the cd lesson on Teaching Textbooks and they work through the workbook problems in a spiral notebook. We choose not to do the online questions. It seems to work out better for both of them to handwrite their work.

Science

Both of my kids are very interested in botany. My highschooler is interested in astronomy with absolutely no interest in taking Biology. That is ok with me so we used books by Eric Sloane on weather and stopped into an online course on meteorology. We used only part of the Masterbook Astronomy set last year and adapted it to fit our style without relying on the kit teacher/ student workbook. For botany, Botany in a Day with the associated storybook and playing cards are helpful while we watch the The Botanist’s Eye by The Great Courses. (Yes, we got it in a sale and would never pay the full price for it)

My middleschooler is into all things medical. Since she is not in high school yet, we are focusing on a Udemy first aid course as well as a patient evaluation kit from Home Science Tools Catalog. We initially perused the IV kit from the Home Science Tools Catalog but just watching the sample video make me want to pass out so we will wait on that one. Haha! The First Aid Class from Udemy is also an option we have started.

History

For history, we are taking a departure from chronological history timeline to look at cultures and geography. We love the living literature base of the Charlotte Mason style that we have so far used so will pick cultural literature for morning reading aloud time.

Why we still do read alouds together:

Yes, we still do read-aloud time around the breakfast circle even though my kids are older.

• It is invaluable for the start of our day
• greatly enjoyed by all
• is a much better scenario for my auditory learner
• neatly fits with the togetherness profile of our “schooling”
• The stories just get more mature and way more adventurous in my opinion

For other cultural ideas, videos, recipes, etc. we used the spine calendar Guest Hollow Highschool Geography. We used the adventure reading options with some reading picks from Sonlight and Heart of Dakota. There are a few Guest Hollow book choices that we did not use. I like to focus on a more positive few of the world with a Christian hero flavor. It is a smorgasbord of options out there.

*A note: the first book in the Guest Hollow reading focuses definitely on the macabre in that it looks at how cultures bury or deal with their dead as well as religious practices. Reasonings for this choice are mentioned in the beginning of the Guest Hollow outline but note that this is definitely for older children and not a “multi-aged with littles” read. (Note: now that we have read most of it, I have censored some scenes and don’t show all drawings. We skipped over the North Carolina chapter as well as some scenes from Frida Kahlo’s life. The Day of the Dead was very informative and useful since we live in an area where this is a large part of the community. ) It was an incredibly fascinating book in the chapters we chose to read but I can say we are happy to move on. On one of the days, we looked up the Londa burial caves of Indonesia. Let me say, they will always know where Indonesia is from now on!

One of the literature choices we used in this history section was The Girl With Seven Names. I did skip over Chapter 15 and edited out a few of the wordings but I must say, this will be a book that will stick in our minds for a very long time. This book should be required reading for all high schoolers and college aged people of this country. It may change their entire political view and increase the appreciation of the country they are in.

Here are a few of the books we used from the list of those suggested:

Fine Arts Highschool Homeschool Choices and Curriculum

This year was a combination of piano lessons and art. For piano, both are taking private classical piano lessons. Since we had to wait to meet in person for lessons, my middleschooler learned chords and how to play as fast as possible by using a chord learning class from Udemy. It really ended up speeding up her learning when we were able to meet in person for formal piano lessons.

Drawing

For art, we finished up Barry Stebbings Nature Journaling. We have loved his Beginning and Intermediate Drawing DVD’s in the past and continued with this last DVD. We set up portable couch trays (AKA–TV trays) and drawing tools and all do the DVD’s together. Barry Stebbings’ art dvd series have been the most enjoyed art we have done so far. His dvd’s can be found form his own website How Great Thou Art. Following this dvd, we moved on to the Architectural watercolor class from Domestika. We loved the Domestika class also. Following this we are now using Drawing From the Righ Side of the Brain.

My highschooler is very interested and talented in photography and film editing, so he continues to focus on learning the principles of photography and enjoying art photography walks.

Physical Education

This subject has no formal books. We are a very active family so this subject naturally occurs throughout the year with walks, bike rides, rowing, paddleboarding, swimming, and sailing lessons. We also go over hygiene and good grooming for health and wellness.

Elective: Raspberry Pi Electronics and Python Coding

This year, the delight directed focus shifted to electronics and Python for my highschooler. We used the Intro to Robotics Module A from 42electronics to get started. As well as a Python coding projects course from Udemy. For my middleschooler, she is welcome to delve into a variety of delight driven topics as she chooses and we will get various supplies that she needs along the way. She is very interested in handiworks, beading/ jewelry making, animal care, and entrepreneurshiph.

Bible

Each year, we have a wide variety of Bible topics and memory verses that we cover. This year, we will be involved in an in-depth study of the book of Romans as well as world religions to go with the cultural studies. We absolutely love the Word of Promise Audio Bible! This is our night time devotional listening each night. They have a tablet app or a stand alone cd option. We were blown away by the information in Eternity in Their Hearts!

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