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MarilynW
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| Posted: Jan 16 2010 at 7:16pm | IP Logged
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Does anyone want to share their 4 year plan of study in outline? I will have mine (hopefully by Monday). We made one last year - but I am trying to make a more coherent one trying to include electives and extra-curriculars. I know plans will change a bit - but I think it is useful to have a "map" in advance. My dd is very proactive and has her plan which we discuss with my dh.
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Jan 16 2010 at 7:44pm | IP Logged
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Very abbreviated version:
4 years of English (lit/grammar/comp/SAT prep)
4 years of Math (Alg. I & II, geometry, pre-calc)
4 years of Science (Earth sci, bio, chem, physics, labs in all but Earth Sci)
4 years of Social Studies (World History I & II, Econ, Government, and U.S. History @ community college)
4 years of Foreign Language (2 each of German and French)
4 years of Religion (most important!)
Credit hours in art (drawing, photography, video production), woodworking, computers, automotive repair, P.E., aviation studies and leadership.
Some of the art credits come from our co-op, as do some of the science labs (physics). My dad taught ds woodworking during summer visits. Leadership comes from high school level Boy Scouting (patrol leader, Eagle project, etc.). Auto repair is taught by my dh. P.E. includes archery, cycling (MS-150), hiking/backpacking (mostly through Scouts) and stuff like that. Aviation studies comes from field trips, air shows and independent study.
That's our last 3.5 years (and the next few months) in a nutshell. Some of the credits come from what most folks would call life experience/extracurriculars - helping Dad fix cars and learning to use Grandpa's Shop Smith - but public schools give credit for work like this, so I do, too.
Next year I will begin to plan for dd - I already know she will want to skip physics in favor of advanced marine biology or zoology. I am going to make her take chemistry so she's ready for organic chem in college. (She wants to major in marine biology.) She may even do five years of science and skip a year of social studies, for all I know. She is not "history people, like the rest of you," as she puts it.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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MarilynW
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| Posted: Jan 16 2010 at 8:29pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Nancy. Your plans look great. I hope you don't mind that I am probably going to be asking you in detail what you used. 
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guitarnan
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We didn't intend at the beginning to do 4 years of everything...but that is how it worked out. Ds loves history and fell in love with Econ as well - in fact, he's reading about econ independently of school, for fun - and we really pushed the math and science on him in case he wanted to study engineering in college.
Our state requires 4 years of English; biology and Algebra I are mandatory. Within a couple of years, all high schoolers in our public schools will be required to take a math class - any class - in their senior year.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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MarilynW
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| Posted: Jan 18 2010 at 10:21am | IP Logged
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Our 4 year skeleton plans - just for starters:
Grade 9 (current)
Algebra I
Seton English 9
Seton Grammar and Composition
World Geography and Cultures
Seton Religion 9
Physical Science and Intro to Chem
Piano, clarinet, dance, cpr class
Grade 10
Geometry
World History
World Literature
Didache or Kolbe theology
Latin
French tbd
Biology with labs tbd
Music, web development, volunteering
Grade 11
Algebra II
American Lit
American History
IEW High School Essay Intensive
Religion - Kolbe or Didache
Latin
French
Physics
Electives -Dave Ramsey's Foundation of Personal Finance Class, music, volunteer work
Grade 12
Pre-Calc
British Lit
Creative Writing
Chemistry
Possibly Latin
French
Didache or Kolbe theology
US Government
Economics
Music
Home Economics
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Angel
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Reading all these topics with great interest.
My ds is 13. His birthday is in October, so he's technically in 7th grade. Although intellectually he is quite capable of hs level work right now, socially he has needed more time to mature, to work on a few learning disability-ish difficulties, etc. But where his work is obviously at a high school level right now, I'm keeping track of the time he spends at it. I am not sure how a " 4 year plan" is going to work for us in practice... we do a lot of interest-led learning around here and we may end up doing the sort of thing where we keep track of hours every year and then sort into categories, until enough hours are collected and then naming the courses somewhat after the fact.
For instance, I've been keeping track the time my ds spends working on paleontology and also Old English. Right now he has almost enough hours to have a half credit in paleontology, but he decided he didn't want to spend a full year doing a course called "paleontology". Since it is an abiding interest, however, I'm sure he'll come back around to it later. If he doesn't, I can always attach the paleontology hours to other earth science topics to make earth science, but "Earth Science" is not really in the tentative hs plan yet.
I also think that what will happen is that hs stretches out 5 years for him: 8th - 12th grades.
Anyway, I'm using The University of Dallas' recommendations for a course of study as a basis for our planning, with the addition of a 3rd year of a foreign language because I have seen that some colleges want that.
What we are aiming for is:
4 years of Math
3 years of one foreign language (probably Latin) and hopefully a credit or two in another language (a modern language)
4 years of English (linked to historical studies)
4 years of "social studies" -- we do chronological history, so the course names may be a little different than the typical World/American, etc. Included here would be Government and Econ.
I'm pretty sure that he'll end up with at least 4 Science credits, with at least biology, chemistry, and physics, hopefully all lab. (He may want to pursue a career in the sciences, so I want to make sure these are hands-on.)
Electives -- well, we'll have to see, but I doubt there's much music, probably quite a bit of art, hopefully he'll stick with Scouts, he'll need some kind of PE which may involve archery, also hopefully some kind of boy version of Practical Arts... and who knows what other interests he'll develop in the next 5 years or so. 
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MarilynW
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Angela - ours may stretch out to more than 4 years, But for transcript and planning purposes we will classify into the four grade levels. (I was told the transcript will show Grade 9, Grade 10 etc - even if each grade takes more than one year)
I have a question about the 4 years of English - Seton makes you do this plus lit and in Grade 9 plus Grammar and Comp. I think it is too much. We are doing English (which includes lit, book analysis, research report etc) plus detailed grammar and composition this year and it take a long time. This is one of the reasons we do not want to continue with Seton. eg in Grade 10 if we do World Lit - does this count as English - I hope so?
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Angel
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Marilyn,
It's my understanding that all lit classes count as English credits, just like all writing classes would count as English, and I'm pretty sure Journalism?
I can't see my ds doing grammar for all 4 years, so I think most of his credits will end up being a combo of lit/writing.
I'm still not sure if I understand transcripts. I mean, if you put dates down (as I've seen in many samples), it's going to be clear if a class was completed in 8th grade. But do you lump all the classes completed early with 9th grade? I have also seen at least on transcript that just lists courses completed by subject without dates listed. And another transcript divided by calendar year that made it clear a few classes were completed in 7th grade. (Then again, this girl was a National Merit Finalist, so maybe colleges would believe she could do upper level work in 7th grade.)
Or do you end up calling every college that's being applied to and asking them exactly what format they want, I wonder?
Ave Maria has a homeschool trascript form which tells you exactly what they want. I appreciate that very much because it helps me to set things up from the very beginning. I wish more schools would post that sort of specific information...
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: Jan 18 2010 at 2:56pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, Angel! I just added your link to another topic on transcripts.
Love,
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Thanks Angela for making me think about dates on the transcript. The only thing is it is making me a little anxious - if my dd graduates in 4 years she will be just under 17 years old which is really young - I was hoping I would be able to "pad out" high school.
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guitarnan
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Angela, your plans look great!
Marilyn, when I went to high school we did a combo of grammar, comp and lit in 9th and 10th grade, then could choose from among various lit courses (that included writing, of course), for 11th and 12th. This list included American lit, British lit, journalism, poetry, etc.
My understanding of my county's English requirements is that they do something very similar to this. I don't think any college would require two English courses (one grammar and one literature) per year during any of the high school years...not in my state, and not at any military academies.
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Martha
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| Posted: Jan 19 2010 at 9:15am | IP Logged
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Quote:
| I have a question about the 4 years of English - Seton makes you do this plus lit and in Grade 9 plus Grammar and Comp. I think it is too much. We are doing English (which includes lit, book analysis, research report etc) plus detailed grammar and composition this year and it take a long time. This is one of the reasons we do not want to continue with Seton. |
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You are doing a similiar plan to my 9th grader this year. I have to be fair to Seton and point out that 9th grade is unusually LIGHT in courses for 9th grade. If you are fully enrolled, they only have you doing 5 courses:
literature
grammar/comp
science
math
religion
and if that was all we did, the english/lit thing probably would be so hard. I'm thinking they probably do this to shore up any lacking skills at the beginning of high school and to make this an easier transition year. I know when I enrolled, they really tried to discourage me from doing more than those 5 courses.
BUT we are home schoolers! So of course I didn't listen! I went above and beyond into insanity land. 
In addition to that, we are doing spanish and vocab via seton, greek history and lit via Kolbe, some other stuff.
Anyhow, I just wanted people to be reminded that Seton really wants 9th grade to be a core focus and transition year.
That said, I have a four year plan. Well can I call it a plan if I'm constantly changing it?
I will have 4 years math, language arts, science, history/gov't, and science.
I know I'll stick with Seton english/lit. It is HARD, but very sound and very well laid out, so it works for us.
Math will be alg 1 and geometry. I'll evaluate at that point what to do next. Math is his most difficult subject, so I'm fairly certain he won't do much of it after beyond algebra and geometry after high school as a career. Absolutely a finance course. Maybe Jacobs Human Endeavors.
Science very hands on biology and chemistry, plus others of his choice to be determined at that point.
History, doing greek this year. He will need american, world, and then gov't which will pretty much take care of that subject.
He is into electronics, so I plan to count that in there some how.
I'm trying to have a balance between my minimum requirement to feel I am giving a solid excellent education and and also feel he is able to pursue his individual interests and goals.
We do not currently plan on taking the traditional route to college. That is just not even remotely within our means. I've been doing a lot of research on alternatives to getting a valid, accreditied degree (bc I personally think it IS a neccessity to a decent wage) and the options are very encouraging so far.
I'm loving these discussions! Up until now, I've had to get info everywhere else on the net bc it just seems high school wasn't all that much of a hot topic here. I'm thrilled to get some catholic perspectives, and a few moms of many perspectives too!
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Martha
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guitarnan
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Martha, be sure to check some colleges' math requirements - some want Algebra II or an equivalent. I love the idea of a business math course, because I taught all the math classes when I was a substitute teacher (pre-kids) and found out then just how useful the business math curriculum was. (Plus, if you want to study finance, accounting, etc. in college, you have an advantage if you've taken business math.)
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Martha
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guitarnan wrote:
| Martha, be sure to check some colleges' math requirements - some want Algebra II or an equivalent. |
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Absolutely! Which brings up a big point in making 4 year plans.
Many espouse looking at what the school require to graduate high school to determine what you should require of home school students.
I want to strongly caustion that those are MINIMUM requirements and many colleges want a LOT more than that. And with rare exception it is cheaper to take it in high school than to have to take it in college.
For example, my ds really wants to go to UofD at some point. And they certainly want more than our local high schools.
Our current plan is to get through geometry and at that point we should have a firmer idea of what math he needs to take next. right now if I start talking alg2 and calculus my poor ds will implode. He has informed me of that is what will happen rather strongly and fervently bc he just can't handle thinking about it right now. 
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MarilynW
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Martha wrote:
We do not currently plan on taking the traditional route to college. That is just not even remotely within our means. I've been doing a lot of research on alternatives to getting a valid, accreditied degree (bc I personally think it IS a neccessity to a decent wage) and the options are very encouraging so far.
I'm loving these discussions! Up until now, I've had to get info everywhere else on the net bc it just seems high school wasn't all that much of a hot topic here. I'm thrilled to get some catholic perspectives, and a few moms of many perspectives too! |
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Martha - I would love it if you would share your alternatives and options. The only one we are looking at is 2 year community college and 2 year local college (living at home) I agree that although a degree from Harvard is not necessary, in the US a degree in the US is an essential to being able to earn a decent wage. (unless your child is very entrepreneurial!) Another option is part-time enrollment and working while studying?
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MarilynW
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Martha - are you enrolling Seton for the whole 4 years?
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Angie Mc
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Martha wrote:
| Up until now, I've had to get info everywhere else on the net bc it just seems high school wasn't all that much of a hot topic here. I'm thrilled to get some catholic perspectives, and a few moms of many perspectives too! |
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I look forward to the High School Years being a hot topic, too! I'm especially interested in sharing support between those who design their own curriculum, do things outside of the norm, and trust in the process without too much undo worry. Not that there isn't room for all different conversations about High School in general - love 'em!...it's just that the general expectation and pressure is on producing students who are highly skilled academics who are prepared for rigorous study based upon standard academic practices. My IRL community was so stressed about this that I pretty much needed to protect our decision to home educate in our unique way by steering clear of all nay-sayers and worry warts! It was very lonely up front...but those lonely times taught us a bunch. Mainly, to make good decisions between parents, student, and God and then protect those decisions. If we want to avoid a boxed curriculum and doing school at home - then that's what we need to do! But it took getting our first graduate through our process for my confidence to grow to the point where I'm more comfortable sharing our experience - if that makes sense. Now mind you, I'm not confident in *me*...I'm confident in God's plan for each of my children.
Love,
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Angel
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Marilyn,
My dh and I both worked through our 4 years of undergrad. We went to a state school with a decent in-state tuition (University of Tennessee, Knoxville). I had a scholarship that paid half my tuition, but it was given on a rolling basis *after* the year started (if I remember correctly; something about it was funny, so after my parents paid the half tuition for the first year, after that I would save what I got after I'd already used what I had saved from the semester before (which they had paid me after tuition was actually due) to pay the rest of my tuition. With that taken care of, I had a variety of jobs through school, the best of which was as a tutor at a Sylvan Learning Center, where I would work 20ish hours a week. My parents gave me a minimal monthly stipend, which really basically only covered my rent (apartments off campus are much cheaper than dorms), and I was responsible for pretty much everything else.
My dh had no scholarships and his parents were barely staying afloat. I have no idea how they managed to scrounge enough money to pay his tuition every year, but he was basically on his own for everything else. He started out working 30 hours as a week installing tires and working on brakes at Pep Boys (turning his high school hobby -- working on cars -- into money in college) and then got a job at a CPA firm as a junior accounting major. We both went to school full time and ate a lot of 25 cent generic macaroni and cheese and Ramen noodles. Mostly we worked, went to class, and studied. At the time I was a bit grumpy about it, but I think we ended up with a far more realistic attitude toward finances and work than the people I knew whose parents paid for everything.
Anyway, the point is... when the time comes, I think that everybody does what they have to do. Our focus is on providing for our kids, but my dh and I make it a point even now to let our kids know that probably the only way they will be able to go to college without racking up lots of debt is to do their best work at whatever they do in high school; spend a lot of time and energy looking for and applying for scholarships; try to get some college credits in high school; and expecting to work. Maybe a lot, depending on how much money *we* are able to put away for everybody. And the more money they can save before they leave home, the better.
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MarilynW
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Dear Angela - thanks for writing. My dh and I had a similar way through college.
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there's many things you can do during high school to help them on the road to college degrees too though.
dual enrollment
CLEP/dantes credit
online college courses while in high school (and YES some of them are great and not to be scoffed at!!)
basicly we plan on buying our scholarship by doing what we can in high school. Yes it will still cost, but far less than it will in college later. We consider the difference our "scholarship". For that matter, it's far less than many high school coops!
I don't know if I'll continue full enrollment with Seton or not. I love their english/lit program. It's certainly rigorous enough. I like doing Catholic history, which can be rather hard to dig info up on on my own. The science is lacking imho bc my son is very hands on. Watching a dissection of a frog over the internet is just not the same as actually doing it! The religion is rather dry altho it is thorough. I'd love, love, love to have the funds for Didache. Maybe that will happen.
The Saxon math makes me want to run screaming asap out of the room.
So far this year is a tough adjustment, but it's a good tough.
Next year, I have those constantly changing plans to worry about when we get there.
gotta go for now! today is the 15th bday of boy in question! 
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: 4 year plans
