| Author | |
Misty
Forum Pro
Joined: May 29 2012
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 197
|
| Posted: Aug 21 2012 at 6:41am | IP Logged
|
 |
|
I am fairly new to this site and my oldest is in 8th grade this year. I am trying to plan for his HS years and though I have put a few topics on this board I don't seem to get responses. Maybe I'm wording things wrong or no one really feels that they have anything to offer? Either way.. I need some guidence on how to do a few subjects that I just really don't know how they should look.
So where did you go to get started on planning your high school years? Did you have a mentor? Did you use special sites?
Any advice would be great. I was really hoping to get my feet moving but they seem to be stuck in quicksand 
I really struggle in English/Grammar, History and Science (the labs part).
Blessings Misty
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Barb.b
Forum All-Star
Joined: June 22 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 748
|
| Posted: Aug 21 2012 at 7:32am | IP Logged
|
|
|
HI Misty!
First I would have an overall plan. Look at some college web sites to see what they require. math: 4 years,Science: 3 lab sciences,English: 4 (I had grammar until they were done with SAT/ACT tests, and Literature/comp all 4 years), Foreign Language: 2 years, History (including Econ/gov't) 3 years.
So, English grammar - I am doing it differently with my DD soon 14 then I did my oldest (Now Sophomore in college). With him I did Seton Grammar for 3 years. With dd I think I am using the older Warriner English texts. For composition - there are so many composition texts out there that you could always go with one, I also make sure they write in other subject like Literature and history. Also it is good to practice occasionally essay writing like in the SAT - timed essays. Literature - I really vary on this! My oldest with did Seton for a while then I did it on my own. There are some companies out there where you can get study guides for literature books. Progeny PRess comes to mind. I like getting a study guide so there are questions for students to answer, suggested essay topics and sometimes tests.
For History I follow the more traditional route of American History, World History and American Governments 1 semester/economics a 2nd. You might want to include Geography. I admit for my oldest I included 1 credit of Geography in his transcript although we didn't have a particular "class" in it. I would include geography things with each subject. THere are some good geography texts out there I think though!
Science - well, this is the one class I do out source most of the time, There happens to be a place that offers excellent home school science near us. That said - I did do physics with my oldest. I got a text and lab book and we did it! 1 year I used saxon, the next apologia. I loved Apologia's because they have a great and doable lab book. Also, search online - there are some companies that offer even high school level science kits. Try Qualitysciencelabs.com , their kits even come with a great manual. COlleges look for Biology, Chemistry and physics.
Truthfully, in high school I ended up needing to read the science book too in order to do it at home (and if we did they other science subjects I would have read that too). GrammarI don't read because I can remember enough when we grade together. By high school most grammar is review for the kids and strictly so they don't forget it in the SAT and ACT. Literature I read separately so when we meet - we can discuss the book!
Really, homeschool high school is doable! It does take time - Mom sometimes as home work too! Reviewing the math text (even doing problems myself), reading the literature book at night and the science. History I didn't alsways read the text too - if I had a good teacher manual that summarized what the chapters were about - I just read that. I don't "lecture" for history - I assign things, give tests and grade assignments with them ( during grading the work is really where any "teaching" comes as that is when I discover what they don't get or need to work on understanding and remembering).
OH, sorry this is so long! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Barb
Added - if you are unsure - it is ALWAYS an option to go straight with one company ("out of the box" as they say) for 9th grade and if you want you may feel comfortable enough to "create" your own by pulling from different companies.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mackfam
Board Moderator
Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 14656
|
| Posted: Aug 21 2012 at 10:23am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Good morning, Misty, and welcome to the board! 
Misty wrote:
| I am trying to plan for his HS years and though I have put a few topics on this board I don't seem to get responses. Maybe I'm wording things wrong or no one really feels that they have anything to offer? |
|
|
Your thread on high school planning received several detailed responses with many links showing examples of how others plan for high school. I'm always so grateful when others take the time to share their examples and resources like that!
Thanks for understanding that this board is composed of a group of moms just like you - managing our time in various ways with the priority being time spent with our families. We all lead full lives - and for each of us, that season of fullness varies! We certainly enjoy contributing here and sharing when we have time!
In seasons when the board seems quiet, it may help you to search the archives here using the search feature. This board has enjoyed conversation and sharing for 7 amazing years now, and chances are there are a few topics in our archives that address some of your concerns. That doesn't mean you shouldn't ask new questions - we enjoy new questions! But there is a great value in searching through past archives on particular topics to gain insight.
Misty wrote:
So where did you go to get started on planning your high school years? Did you have a mentor? Did you use special sites?
Any advice would be great. I was really hoping to get my feet moving but they seem to be stuck in quicksand
I really struggle in English/Grammar, History and Science (the labs part).
Blessings Misty |
|
|
(1) It helps to look a little bit at your state's requirements for high school graduation. Find out what your state requires on an academic high school transcript. Edited to add....You could also start looking at college requirements, but in 8th grade most students don't have a clue where they're headed, so having a general idea of your state's high school graduation requirements can be a really good place to start!
(2) With your state's requirements in hand, you know what your high schooler needs to have on a transcript at the end of high school (Math, science, history, etc.). It's up to you and your high schooler to determine how you would get there in terms of HOW those courses would look.
(3) It is very helpful to see other's recommendations on books and ideas - which is where this forum can be so helpful! Are you researching high school biology? Search here and you will find an enormous amount of resources, recommendations, and shared experiences on the topic.
(4) Planning for science, history, and english/grammar for all four years of high school seems OMINOUS. Having a big picture in mind for high school is good, but you don't need to plan all four years worth of subjects out right now. For planning, break it down to one subject, and then one topic at a time. For example, you don't need to plan out 4 years of detailed high school science this year!!!!! Are you going to cover Biology in 9th grade? Then you just need to start researching some fantastic books on Biology. Finding do-able, workable labs for home based science courses is easier than ever with many companies catering to home educators. One of my favorite resources is Home Science Tools.
(5) How do I plan?
With my family in mind. With my season of life in mind. Joyfully. With our family educational philosophy in mind. I plan for the child. I do not allow myself to become paralyzed by fear of planning things wrong or incorrectly: I'm going to make mistakes, and that's ok. I'm also going to do my best, and I'll make changes when I need to. And in the end, the goal is a child that is equipped with the tools for learning: they can fill in any gaps.
High school is a fantastic time in home education! And planning in high school is a matter of filling in blanks with fantastic, worthy books and experiences and learning alongside.
------------------------------------------
I'm listing all I've written on planning and high school for you, Misty:
Planning: A Beginning (with multiple links at the bottom of that post to other planning posts)
All the high school posts
A Considered Booklist - detailed instructions for building a yearly booklist as a Charlotte Mason educator, along with multiple resource links and a variety of lesson plans.
Charlotte Mason and Unrolling a Panorama in High School
9th grade plans
All of my high school booklists (9th - 11th grade so far) which cover book choices for every subject are here
High school lesson plans which correspond to those booklists are here.
------------------------------------------
Now surely, at this point, there can be no doubt whatsoever in how *I* plan in high school. 
For the future (as in very near future - the first carnival is in September), do watch for the Homeschooling High School Blog Carnival. This fantastic effort is being coordinated by one of our own member/moderators, Erin. Just look at all the topics that are planned!
In the end, Misty, all of this is information. Sharing. Just like in your other thread, we can share examples, samples, ideas, resources, but in the end, you will need to consider how YOU plan, how YOU intuitively like to see information and booklists recorded, and just get started! ** Get your hands dirty.
** Make a mess of it, and then make some changes.
** Work with a format that comes naturally TO YOU!!!
** Pray a lot.
** Make a few more changes.
** Seek some resources and examples.
** Avoid the fear of failing. It snuffs out the possibility of living a plan joyfully.
** Avoid overcomplicating. And as an aside - avoid all advice that convinces you that high school planning has to be super complicated! It most certainly does not!
** Avoid a tendency to perfectionism - be happy and content with your best!
** Live your plans and be prepared to make a few more changes as you live them! You can read over these shared articles, find some ideas, consider your family, your rising high schooler...and then you're just going to have to start putting a few things on paper. Get some ideas out in formats you like - lists? tables? spreadsheets? yellow pads of paper? Talk with your high schooler - it's their job at this point to own this plan and live it! Starting now, while your oldest is in 8th grade, you have some time to research ideas and courses and allow things to evolve before beginning in a year.
Good luck to you!
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SallyT
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 08 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2489
|
| Posted: Aug 21 2012 at 11:53am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I'll just reiterate that in my own initial planning, I started with the outline of course requirements at the link I provided in your previous thread. Honestly, this kind of framework is HUGELY helpful, because you can see at a glance what areas you *have* to cover in those four years. I began with core requirements: how many English credits? How many maths? How many history/social studies? How many units of science (and how many of them have to be "big gun" sciences like bio/chem/physics)? How many foreign-language? These tend to be fairly standard from state to state, though many states (including NC, where I live) now recommend four years of math instead of three.
I begin with these, because they are the non-negotiables on a high-school transcript, the core curriculum. (well, I also add religion as a core subject, but from most colleges' point of view, that's an elective).
So then you take each subject area and break it down. Again, I think I provided a link to some very useful information about what would constitute, say, a creditable ninth-grade English class. My own view (as a former high-school English teacher) is that each year's English course should have three components: literature, composition, and grammar. So first I decide in broad terms what literature each of the four years should cover (and as I think I've said before -- we've also had this conversation on the Mater Amabilis list, I do literature and history as an integrated study). Having decided, as I do, that 9th is ancient/classical/early Church, 10th is medieval and Renaissance, 11th is post-Renaissance/American, and 12th is kind of up for grabs, with various "seminar" studies, I then come up with a booklist for the year , which I eventually break down into weekly reading. I follow Jensen's Format Writing for composition and Jensen's Grammar for grammar, assigning one lesson and exercise from each per week (JG will last us most of high school; once we finish JFW, I just assign essays in various subjects. CHC's High School of Your Dreams is a great resource in terms of providing essay/research projects when I can't think of them, for any subject you can think of).
Our history and literature cycles go hand-in-hand, chronologically. This makes total sense to me; it might not to anyone else! So with literature, I also have much of my history reading planned, and I just provide a "spine" text/set of Teaching Company lectures to keep us organized and provide historical context.
I continue with whatever math program we've been using. My current college student did math through algebra 2; now the expectation in many places is that students will pursue at least one more year beyond that. My current 9th grader did alg. 1 in 8th and is doing alg. 2 now. After geometry (mostly covered by the Saxon texts we're using, though he's been doing Teaching Textbooks geometry in the summer for proofs), he'll keep going at least through pre-calc.
From here I look at what I should expect to be expected of my student otherwise. It is a VERY good idea for you and your 8th grader to start imagining where he would like to be after high school -- even if that's totally going to change over the course of four years. I did this with my first child as a 7th grader, and it was a tremendously valuable exercise, even though her vision did change a lot. If he's interested in colleges, and I'd just start with the assumption that he is, start researching -- what kind of college would he like to go to? Where would he like to see himself? Doing what? Start looking at college websites, especially at admissions requirements. What is he going to have to do to get where he'd like to be? This will help you determine how many/what maths, what sciences, and so on. Most colleges require a minimum of two foreign-language credits, so you decide what language and how you're going to accomplish that: a curriculum? a tutor? a co-op class? What other subjects do his desired colleges want to see on a transcript? Where will you find resources for those?
(and most colleges' requirements are more or less the same . . . give or take here and there. Obviously a very science/math/engineering-oriented school is going to be looking for more hard science and advanced math than a very liberal-artsy school.)
So, all of this is my thought process and how I plan. I've done one high-schooler all the way through and am on my second, so it's all a lot more intuitive now than it was the first time. What Jen says is true -- while it's important to get an idea of the big picture, you don't have to plan every course for every year on the front end. I'd just qualify that by saying that on the other hand, you should have at least a general idea of what's going to come next, so that at the end of 9th grade you're not just trying to make 10th grade up out of thin air.
I'd also think about ensuring that your student will be ready to take standardized tests. This doesn't necessarily mean signing up for a test-prep course, though it could. It does mean looking at what kinds of things a student is expected to know for the SAT/ACT and considering how you'll cover them. It may also mean planning to take tests more than once. I really left this late for my first child, who was not a particularly good standardized-test-taker -- she would go in and get freaked out, especially by the math. More practice would really have helped her, I think. Many colleges award at least some scholarship/financial aid based on test scores, so although nobody wants to have their lives run by standardized testing, it is worth factoring this into your high-school planning, so that you're not going, "Oh no! It's senior year and we haven't taken the SAT!" Belmont Abbey College, where my husband teaches, offers some very generous scholarships whose application deadlines are in the fall of senior year -- if your son is, or you think he might conceivably be, interested in applying for special scholarships, you want to be sure to have test scores in hand by that fall.
So these are all things that enter into the mix, which you'll want to plan for in at least a general way.
I agree with Jen that at the end of the day, you just have to start putting stuff on paper. I find the forms at DonnaYoung.org to be hugely helpful, in that I can visualize better if I'm working with some kind of grid where I can map it all out. Talk to your son, and start together mapping out the big picture: required courses for each year, plus anything he would like to do for electives. Check out the ACT, PSAT, and SAT online and (though I'm not sure how far into the future they provide exact test dates) also map out when, at least generally, he might plan to take whichever of these tests you want him to take.
Then once you have your big map, start breaking it down into years. You have this year to work on Grade 9 in detail (that's how I use my summers!), but with the big map, you have some idea how Grade 9 is going to flow into Grade 10. And so on.
I agree with Jen also that you'll enjoy the monthly carnivals of high-school homeschooling! I can't wait myself!
Sally
__________________
Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Misty
Forum Pro
Joined: May 29 2012
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 197
|
| Posted: Aug 21 2012 at 12:18pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thank you so much for these very well thought out ideas on how to plan. WOW.. it's so much to think about but yet you say it's not that hard.
Hoping to put something together and be able to work with it.
Can't wait to look through all these great links and sites.
Blessings and thanks
msity
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
JodieLyn
Forum Moderator
Joined: Sept 06 2006
Location: Oregon
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 12234
|
| Posted: Aug 21 2012 at 12:18pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
You don't have to make it complicated. A simple list of what they need to do and what they want to do.. these lists can overlap.. then we pick the stuff we're going to do for the coming year and find what we want to use for those classes. At that point it becomes easier for me to look for what's recommended for a particular class.. book lists for literature, math programs (we're going with teaching textbooks), etc.
By not worrying about picking out particular classes for any given year it allows for changes in interest and even direction in more core classes. Each year is a new oportunity to look at what we have and what we need and what we want and adapt.
__________________
Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SallyT
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 08 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2489
|
| Posted: Aug 21 2012 at 10:35pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Misty, you might also look at Rebecca Rupp's Home Learning Year by Year, which I was just flipping through today. There is a high school section which maps out a basic outline for high school, then fills it in with suggestions for resources. I was looking for something else but that section made me think of you.
Sally
__________________
Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Angie Mc
Board Moderator
Joined: Jan 31 2005
Location: Arizona
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 11400
|
| Posted: Aug 22 2012 at 4:21pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Misty wrote:
I don't seem to get responses. Maybe I'm wording things wrong or no one really feels that they have anything to offer? Either way.. I need some guidence on how to do a few subjects that I just really don't know how they should look.
|
|
|
Hey, Misty, welcome to the wonderful wild ride of homeschooling high school!!!!
My best guess is that there is no problem with your wording and we all have TONS to offer - If I do say so myself  . What I love about this particular forum is that most of us have EARNED OUR CONFIDENCE to include feeling free to come and go here in a very relaxed manner because we have weathered a lot of homeschooling and a lot of life!
My oldest will graduate from college in the spring, my next is a junior in high school so I'm enjoying this time , their company, this lifestyle, and big life issues more than class subject content. I'm not apathetic at all! The opposite, really! But things outside of planning & paper trails light my homeschooling fire right now.
Hope that helps and my very best to you & yours  . Happy to get to know you  .
Love,
__________________
Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
About Me
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Angel
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 22 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2293
|
| Posted: Aug 22 2012 at 4:38pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Misty wrote:
Thank you so much for these very well thought out ideas on how to plan. WOW.. it's so much to think about but yet you say it's not that hard.
|
|
|
Well, it's intimidating before you get into it, the way that jumping off a diving board is intimidating (for most people) the first time you try it. But then you suck up your courage and close your eyes maybe and just do it, and then you realize it's not so bad.
__________________
Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Misty
Forum Pro
Joined: May 29 2012
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 197
|
| Posted: Aug 22 2012 at 7:49pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thanks for the confidence, I need it. But going forward with eyes wide open.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
4 lads mom
Forum All-Star
Joined: Sept 26 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1944
|
| Posted: Aug 22 2012 at 7:52pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Misty, welcome to this wonderful band of amazing women. I don’t have a whole lot at the moment, I am in the thick of busy-ness....my first starts college tomorrow and my little was in the ER all day yesterday....but....I will leave you with a quote that came to mind I have been pondering a lot lately from St. Francis of Assisi.
"Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
Can I hear an “Amen!"
__________________
Mom of four brave lads and one sweet lassie
Scenes From This and That
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Misty
Forum Pro
Joined: May 29 2012
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 197
|
| Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 6:49am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Amen! Congrats on the college bound and praying for the ER child.
Yes start simple with what I know.. religion, math, and some of the extras that I understand. Add in history, science, and then tackle the big one for me grammar. Slow and easy that's the key.. thanks
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: How did you plan?
