Monday, September 3, 2012

Doing it a second time around!

I have talked about homeschooling high school HERE in an earlier post, but now that we are five weeks into our school year I wanted to share some pictures and a few more details.

Roo is our second daughter in high school, and while it is technically her freshman year, she did complete 3 classes last year that count towards her high school transcript.  If they are doing high school level classes, even in 8th grade, IT COUNTS!


Here is our goal for a transcript:
4 English/Literature
  Classics of Literature
  American Literature
  20th Century Literature
  British Literature
3-4 Science
  Physical Science
  Biology with lab
  Chemistry
  Human Anatomy or Marine Biology (her choice)
3 History
  American History
  World History
  Civics/American Government
4 Math
 Algebra 1
  Geometry
  Algebra 2
  Consumer Math/Stewardship
Bible (4 years)
Physical Education (2 years)
Spanish (3 years)
1/2 year Art Appreciation

1/2 year Music Appreciation
Home Economics
Electives (her choice)

And these are the books that are required... for just this year!



 

With our first born, we allowed her to dual credit her senior year.  In reality, she did not need any of the classes she took for her high school transcript.  They simply allowed her to complete her freshman year at home, on-line.  Lesson learned, with Roo we will begin on-line classes in her Junior year and truly allow her to take classes she needs to graduate as well as count for any general education college classes.  (ie. British Lit)  Hey, one less class for me to teach- works for me.



As a side note, remember that online classes are less expensive and many colleges offer up to a 50% discount to high school dual-crediting students.  You simply cannot beat the savings!

Yes, it is the Sonlight IG!

A real quick rambling- This year I allowed my daughter to make her own decisions about her writing program.  She did a great job!  With the encouragement of a few friends and fellow Sonlighters, she chose to try The One Year Adventure Novel.  It is, by far, her favorite part of the day.  Yes, Roo likes to write, but this guides her step by step in the writing process, with a full length novel being the goal at the end of the year.  No humdrum, boring instruction and time wasting activities.  I encourage you to take a look at this program, and NO, it does not help me out in any way.  Just passing on a tip to a friend!

Overwhelmed. Me too! If I think long term. But friends, I encourage you to not think long term daily. Yes, you must look ahead and have a general plan of action, but for each day- enjoy! Spend time together, talk about the work your child is doing, interact and learn together. Don't waste a precious minute...it goes by quickly!

Homeschooling high school is no greater challenge than homeschooling Kindergarten or 5th grade, it just requires a few more hours and much bigger books! ;) There is plenty of help out there if you need it and plenty of fellow moms and dads in the trenches doing the same thing you are. Seek out like minded people and encourage each other.  Together, we can make these some of the best years of their lives!

Happy Homeschooling!



This post is part of our Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog Cruise!  Come back on Tuesday and click here to read what other CREW members have to say about home schooling the highschool year!


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3 comments:

  1. Great information! I want to look into the writing program for S. Madison, do you think 7th grade is too young for it or should we wait until High School?

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    1. J- it is pretty time intensive...I would wait until high school, I think! The first half of the year is video learning and exercises, the second half is writing the novel. There is online stuff to access as well. I have the info DVD on it if you want to borrow it. It helped us make our decision.

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  2. Terrific post Michele! I love the transcript goal!! That tends to make a lot of homeschoolers nervous, but your layout takes the stress out of it. My daughter used OYAN last year. I agree, it's a great alternative to traditional language arts textbooks. And the end result is something they are proud of. I'm praying you have a fantastic school year!!

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