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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: May 17 2008 at 11:52am | IP Logged
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Tea,
Maybe if you tell us more about what ds wants/needs to cover for 10th grade? My ds is a "just the facts" kind of kid, so I can totally relate to that. Does that mean he wants to read something and answer the questions/fill in the blanks as opposed to writing? Are you going to cover every subject at home or are you going to use outside classes for anything?
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~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: May 17 2008 at 11:54am | IP Logged
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Willa-
I'm not familiar with googledocs. Do you think there is enough interest to start a yahoo group specifically for this purpose? That's at least something I know how to use.  Maybe there is some way to set up the yahoo list so that everyone who is a member has the ability to upload files?
Thoughts, anyone???
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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time4tea
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| Posted: May 17 2008 at 1:58pm | IP Logged
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Books,
We are wanting to do American History, Science (probably Biology - I currently own All Creatures Great and Small), Math (which will definitely be Teaching Textbooks, that much I know), Religion, and some kind of English (Grammar? Lit? Lit and Grammar?). I am NOT good at organizing or making up extensive lesson plans. I know that many of you are, but I find it truly overwhelming. Also, I want a definite Catholic emphasis. We are the only Catholics in both families (everyone else is either Protestant or quite secular humanist in their beliefs, so the kids already get PLENTY of both perspectives).
Yes, he is not really into wanting to do a lot of writing, although he has gotten better in this area this year.
Does this help any?
Tea
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~Tea
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time4tea
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| Posted: May 17 2008 at 2:01pm | IP Logged
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I just lost my entire post! I will try again.....
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~Tea
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ALmom
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My children often found MODG syllabi too open ended. They wanted specific assignments and things broken out day by day with a pretty clear idea of what the expectations were and the start point and end point. I found it helpful to put my discussion point questions right into the lesson plan with the book as both a timesaver for me and a heads up for them. They appreciated having time to formulate and organize their own thoughts before being on the spot so to speak. I also put in the plan to come get me to discuss ... whatever. Without that little note, discussion never seemed to happen. Since I work so rarely one on one, I try to make it a point to give the other dc an outside break or something when the highschooler comes for discussion. It doesn't happen too often to make this a problem.
I essentially design my own but use Kolbe, MODG, my own ideas, some SETON or other materials to put it together. I'm not sure if I'd be really good for you as I probably look more schoolish. It is doable. Did your son tell you exactly what bothers him about MODG. Is it all the reading and inferences to be made from literature? Does he want more specific sciences? Does he want a clearer outline of history and historical periods as opposed to the plethora of historical fiction? Are the paper topics too broad or open ended or lean too much in the creative writing venue rather than essay/report writing? I think you get a better idea if you find out from your children specifically what they didn't like and if there was anything they did like.
My dd expressed to me that she found the audio set from Kolbe very helpful and gets bogged down timewise with so much reading for coursework. Mind you, this is a child that reads like the dickons in areas of interest so it isn't reading ability as much as her desire to go very deeply into whatever she is doing and to bog down timewise when it is more of a read and be tested kind of thing. We will modify for next year and I'm planning to try and find a lot of the historical primary sources (the ones that are lengthy and old and harder to bog through) on tape for her and then focus on going deeply into the literature we do where she will do the reading and writing, etc.
Just an idea to help you narrow down what might actually work well with your son.
Janet
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time4tea
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| Posted: May 17 2008 at 4:45pm | IP Logged
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Yes, I also find MODG Syllabi too open-ended. Ds prefers things "schoolish," btw. He had attended ps through early elementary, so that is what he is used to and he likes it. Every time I have tried to be more eclectic, he is the first one to balk.
I like the idea of lesson plans with everything laid out for him, because otherwise, he quickly gets off track, and sometimes it becomes nearly impossible to get him back on track. He is mildly dyslexic, and at one point, I thought of Seton Special Services, but #1 it is really expensive and #2, I don't see why a student should be labelled "Special Services" simply because they want to use an alternate text, for example, or take a course out of order from the normal Seton timetable. Then, I get to thinking if I am wanting to use different texts and do the courses in a different order, what on earth would I be paying Seton all that money for anyway?!
I was actually wondering too about CHC's High School of Your Dreams. What attracts me to it is that it would possibly give me a framework within which I could plug in what I want. It would also be nice to have the different text, internet, and other curricular suggestions at my fingertips. Is that how it's supposed to work with HSOYD, or what do the rest of you think?
One more thing - we are the only Catholics in both sides of the family. Everyone else is either Protestant or secular humanist in their views. The kids hear a lot of Catholic bashing from the relatives, and really need to know their Faith and how to answer those kinds of attacks. For this reason, and also because bringing the Faith home and being able to really integrate it into our coursework is one of the main if not the main reason we homeschool, both ds and I want Catholic materials/worldview as mush as possible. This is not to say that we do not use any non-Catholic materials, but they are ore the exception than the rule here.
Does this help?
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~Tea
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time4tea
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Sorry for the very similar posts - I am trying to get acquainted with our new MacBook and there is a bit of a learning curve going on here 
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: May 17 2008 at 6:31pm | IP Logged
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re the dyslexia...does this mean he has a hard time reading materials or is it ok for a program to be reading intensive as long as its not writing intensive?
I'm planning a syllabus right now for 10th gr. religion that is focused on apologetics and catechism type subjects, but without any texts. Its not going to be writing intensive since we are going to write more in lit and history this year. I'm happy to send it to you when its finished. It will be laid out as a daily schedule for about 30 weeks. Right now, I know it will have Welborn's Here. Now., Kreeft's Catholic Christianity, A Phil. Catholic..., and Surprised By Truth. I'm still working on choosing some audiotapes and some scripture memorization.
For your Grammar/Lit, I like Easy Grammar Plus...It was *totally* doable and easy to schedule and grade. For Lit, I love Kolbe's Jr. High Lit. program. Do the poetry in 1 quarter as scheduled, the Short Stories in one quarter as scheduled, then pick 3 novels that are high school level that you think will interest him and follow the syllabus. No scheduling and really, a great program.
I'm going to be away from the computer for a while, but I'll back as soon as I can. In the meantime, hope this helps?
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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time4tea
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| Posted: May 17 2008 at 7:37pm | IP Logged
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Books,
Yes! This helps a lot! Mostly, it is writing that has been the biggest issue for him, although he is making great strides in that area. That said, it does remain a challenge, and is one of the goals I have for him for high school - learning to write a nice, concise essay and short (5 page) research report by the time he graduates.
Easy Grammar Plus was what I was thinking, too. Grammar is something that he enjoys.
The Religion syllabus that you are developing sounds wonderful  It sounds like something I would enjoy doing along with him! Yes, I would love to use it with him!
Math will be Algebra 1 (again). He really struggled with it this year, and it's partly my fault. I have been so busy with our new baby born at the beginning of the school year, I couldn't stay on top of it with him like I should have...
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~Tea
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SallyT
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Willa, I'd love to see your religion plan, too. We used the first Didache book this year (in a co-op class), and my daughter loved it and wants to do the second, but I'd like to add some more varied reading into her schedule. She loved the Prove It! books when she was 12, and I'm sure she'd like reading more of Amy Welborn. And I love Peter Kreeft!
So if you don't mind sharing, I'd love to see it.
Sally
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Leonie
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| Posted: May 20 2008 at 12:35am | IP Logged
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Bookswithtea wrote:
Willa-
I'm not familiar with googledocs. Do you think there is enough interest to start a yahoo group specifically for this purpose? That's at least something I know how to use. Maybe there is some way to set up the yahoo list so that everyone who is a member has the ability to upload files?
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Great discussion everyone - I'm not sharing what my year 9/10 kids do, as we are very relaxed. More Latin Centred Curriculum meets unschoolers meets CM meets every day life and whatever works.
But I think this thread is helping a lot of people and if you want to set up a list with files, a blog, googledocs, I am happy to help in any way..
keep up the discussion!
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Leonie in Sydney
Living Without School
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Willa
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| Posted: May 20 2008 at 1:16am | IP Logged
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Bookswithtea wrote:
Do you think there is enough interest to start a yahoo group specifically for this purpose? That's at least something I know how to use. Maybe there is some way to set up the yahoo list so that everyone who is a member has the ability to upload files?
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Well, if you know how to set up yahoo groups, it seems worth a try to me! Are you thinking mostly for these high school plans that we are discussing here, or more generally?
I am pretty sure you can set up a yahoo group so that all members can upload files.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Tina P.
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Listening with both ears. We have the strangest history and science background because we moved to different countries when we were supposed to study America. Even I was not thrilled to study American history while we lived in and experienced German and English culture and history. I feel a bit lost at sea ... if I look at MODG or Sonlight, it looks like my up-and-coming highschooler is either behind by three years or ahead by one.
Writing intensive curriculums scare me because that same high schooler is the most put off by writing of all of my kids. I'm not sure how to make him comfortable about writing ...
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: May 27 2008 at 11:25am | IP Logged
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Willa wrote:
Well, if you know how to set up yahoo groups, it seems worth a try to me! Are you thinking mostly for these high school plans that we are discussing here, or more generally?
I am pretty sure you can set up a yahoo group so that all members can upload files.
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Sorry I'm so late to reply. I was away from my computer for a week. Yes, I am imagining a site where we can upload and share our syllabi. Q and A regarding syllabi could always be carried out there as well, but I wouldn't want to replace this forum.
Willa, would it be possible to sticky to this forum the address for the yahoo group?
I don't want to do something if its not going to be used. If most people are sharing via their blogs, then it may not be worth it.
Thoughts?
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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hereinantwerp
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I did something rather similar in making a weekly checklist w/specific reading assignments (page numbers) and writing assignments for my older son. Then I made DAD accountable for going over it with him a few times a week--they did this at night while I put little ones to bed. Teen boys can be "oppositional" and I got the idea of making DAD the one he would be answerable to from older and more experienced friends. It worked pretty well for us and took some of the emotional pressure off of me and off of my daily relationship with that son.
I used Ambleside Online as the basis for forming his weekly lists (replacing some of the books he had already read with books I chose, it was pretty easy to do this). AO has weekly lists with the reading assignments already portioned out, I just added my own writing/drawing/etc. assignments, Bible and also we added "The Fallacy Detective", a word-roots study book, and a French workbook. I put a chapter a week from these for each week. Once the work was done it was DONE, which felt nice later. It did not allow for flexibility but that son likes high-structure.
AO is written by protestants, mostly made up of "simply classic" books, neither Catholic nor Protestant, but a few books, especially a certain series of biographies they use, are not Catholic friendly. However, a book or two is very easy to replace. You could also just look at their weekly plans as a simple example of how to make your own. Mater Amabalis is similar to AO but Catholic, but I do not see that they have the weekly plans, and for me, that is what I wanted.
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Angela Nelson
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: Pls. help me design 10th grade!
