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Donna Marie
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I was reading and re-reading the threads from last year about 9th grade. I am currently TRYING to design a plan for my eldests' (twin dds) next school year now...call it pre-nesting. We are expecting in mid to late October so I want to have them really running well before I have to run to the hospital...
As I was reading I had to ask...how did 9th grade go last year for those of you who shared plans? What worked well and not so well?
I have an interesting challenge in that my dds recently overcame (for the most part) some academic challenges they had (problems with spelling and math) so they are rocketing ahead and I want them to keep up a good pace over the next 4 years so they can be properly prepared for College. I know the first order of business is writing. I was very seriously considering IEW for that...
Can you share the things that you and your young teens enjoyed about your 9th grade? How about the things that helped them grow allot even if it wasn't their favorite?
I am all ears!
TIA!
God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 7dc +one more due 10/08!
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God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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Cay Gibson
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I'm not sure if I jumped in on the thread you mentioned, Donna Marie. Garrett was basically an 8th/9th grader this past year.But, for technical reasons, beginning in Fall 2008, he'll be 9th grade. Period.
I figure I have the next 4 years to get him ready for life beyond home. If you don't mind me walking alongside of you down this lane, I'd love to talk awhile. 
Here are my tentative plans for 9th grade:
Math: Algebra I using Teaching Textbooks
Grammar/Composition: Warriner's 3rd Course
Reading: A Combination of MODG 8th grade and 9th grade historical booklist
History: Anne Carroll's Christ and the Americas combined with Reading list above
Religion: Confirmation prep and Fr. Laux series
Science: Concepts and Challenges C
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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TracyQ
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We've had three kids homeschooling, and will have three different high school programs! 
Jake used a very traditional approach with a mixture of texts, living historical fiction and books, and various other programs.
Zach is basically using TRISMS for everything except Apologia for lab science (as his brother did), and Saxon for Math (as his brother did)
Sarah (entering 8th grade) will be using a Charlotte Mason approach to high school using mostly Simply Charlotte Masonas the guide on which to base her curriculum plan.
PRAY! God will lead you too to what's best for your family. He did for each of our unique blessings!
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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SallyT
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We've used a mix of things and had a good, though exhausting, year.
We did a co-op for English (taught by me -- I seem to keep talking about it ad nauseam!), Latin (taught by a priest, and the sleeper hit of the year), and religion (taught by a deacon who's also a homeschooling father, using the first book in the Didache series). All that has been great for my daughter, though the problem we ran into was that co-op work, of which there was a LOT, took over, and other things got pushed to the side. But we've decided that that's kind of okay.
History has been a mix of living books, Teaching Company lectures (Thomas F.X. Noble's Foundations of Western Civilization), and readings and assignments for English which corresponded to ancient history. Our English term paper was on an historical theme (she wrote on the development of the Greek vase).
Science has been . . . unschooled. We participate in a science co-op which has involved a lot of nature study and some dissection; she has been interested in human anatomy and has been working her way through an anatomy coloring book and regaling me with the names of kinds of bones; she has been working off and on in All Creatures Great and Small; she's done some work with the microscope and some independent reading -- anyway, I'm calling all that "Life Science" and moving on to biology next year. Between her prior scientific knowledge and what we've done this year informally, she's certainly prepared to cope with that.
Math is a bit dodgy -- she essentially skipped 8th grade, because she wanted to be in this co-op and graduate the same year as most of her friends, which meant that we did a semester of essentially pre-algebra, and will need to continue algebra through the summer and possibly into the fall. She worked with a tutor (another homeschooling mom, gratefully, who gets "outside the box"), using a Scott-Foresman text and the Key To Algebra series, though I'm thinking of getting Life of Fred just for some comic relief through the summer. Her tutor is suggesting that we keep on with algebra and just get an SAT prep book so that she can begin to get a handle on what's going to be on the SAT before we make it to geometry. All this is kind of frustrating, but taking it slowly is better than not learning it, we all agree.
Electives: unschooled. She's put herself through any number projects out of Usborne books (art), learned to sew, started a knitting business, expanded her cooking skills, learned budgeting, etc (home ec), participated in a treble choir and continued violin lessons (music). She just keeps an informal log of time spent on independent projects, and then we figure out what subjects they might possibly fall under.
So it's been a busy year, but a good one. We're still learning time management, which has been the greatest challenge. The actual academic work has been stimulating, but not so hard as long as it actually gets DONE in a timely manner, and not all on Tuesday night before co-op on Wednesday. All a work in progress . . . I'm glad we have three more years to polish our staying-on-top-of-it-all-ness before time for college.
Sally
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Bookswithtea
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I've posted in those old threads about what we did for the 07-08 schoolyear. In short, it went *very* well. Yay! Thank you, Lord.
Getting to activities with other kids his age was essential. The beginning of the year was rocky in terms of getting used to a high school schedule, but it worked itself out within about 3 months.
Instead of using a writing curriculum, ds had to write daily in 2 subjects, which worked out to 2-4 summaries a week, all year long in Religion and History. Considering we didn't use a program, I am really pleased with the results and would definitely do this again. Next year the writing will be in history and literature, I think.
Cay, can the C and C books be used for high school? I am in desperate need of a physical science text that is nothing like Apologia, which we hated. I wish MODG would write one designed like their Natural History syllabus. 
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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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MacBeth
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Here's the link to my 9th grade literature/English plan. It went really well with Libby, so I'll be repeating the same with Annika this fall. We will also be using Jacobs' Algebra, books from my biology page, Deutsch Actuelle III (outside class), as well as living books, tapes, videos and travel for history/geography. And of course there's music and our Shakespeare troupe. 
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog 
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: May 15 2008 at 7:12pm | IP Logged
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| Cay, can the C and C books be used for high school? |
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Tea,
We started with C & C late and my ds loves them. My boys have comprehension issues and these science texts have worked wonders for him.
This will be our last year with C & C. Rats! 
Not sure what I'll use for 10th,11th,12th grade but for 9th it'll be the final C & C text with a continuation of our Epidemiology study. There's still so many famous people and disease we haven't discovered.
When Kayleigh was in 9th grade, we flitted through the link MacBeth provided above, but I think Garrett would prefer epidemiology over fairy tales.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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Tina P.
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Cay Gibson wrote:
Here are my tentative plans for 9th grade:
Math: Algebra I using Teaching Textbooks
Grammar/Composition: Warriner's 3rd Course
Reading: A Combination of MODG 8th grade and 9th grade historical booklist
History: Anne Carroll's Christ and the Americas combined with Reading list above
Religion: Confirmation prep and Fr. Laux series
Science: Concepts and Challenges C |
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My plans sound *very* similar to yours, Cay. The only differences are that we're deep into and will continue our Ancient History using History Links. And our kids did *not* care for Concepts and Challenges at all so *my* challenge is to drum up a plan for science. Here are some more areas I want to get a firm handle on. Sometimes it seems we get into the "let's finish this stuff" mode in spring and lose focus on the joy of school.
This summer, our focus will be Shakespeare loosely using MODG, Ancient Egypt, nature study and maybe a kit or two focusing on other areas of science that we missed this year, and continuing math lessons maybe three days per week for two reasons:- so we don't fall behind later in the year when my kids are struggling with a concept, and
- so we don't have to do a whole lot of review in September.
I'd like eventually to have math lessons only 3 or 4 days per week all YEAR and then supplement with living math books. But it never seems to work.
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
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Donna Marie
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| Posted: May 19 2008 at 10:05pm | IP Logged
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I am thinking of using many of the things suggested above!
here is the thing...
I have a baby coming in October and I have no
idea how my health will be...it has been touch and go
with that a lot lately... so I want to be prepared ahead of time. I have a small budget and would rather spend that money on books instead of overdue fines so...I want to have my list ready ahead of time...all lined up on the shelves for the kids to grab whenever the spirit or my syllabus hits them...lol
my pregnant brain is whirling with all of the
choices. I do want my twin dds to go to a great
CATHOLIC college in 4 years (God willing) and I want
them to be prepared and I know they need a lot of
polish...I have to stack the odds in their favor...
they will have to go on scholarship or pay their own
way it looks like. I want to help prepare them all I
can.
What kind of things will help to prepare them better? How can I challenge without frustrating them?
I do want quite a lot of living books in there...they learn sooo well that way! I need recommendations at that level...I am looking hard at the DYOCC list as well as looking at Kolbe...my head hurts!
Here is what I got so far...
Math I will polish their skills using Right Start (they had retention problems before and we need to go over strategies now that they seem to finally have a handle on it) and then right into Teaching Textbooks
Religion Didache with lots of other books...like CS Lewis, Kreeft, Hahn and others (some of the great books from Elizabeth's list for Confirmation that we didn't get to yet)
History I think will be American as we never really
covered it in any great depth before...we have read a
lot about a lot of things with rabbit trails but no
formal study to go deeper so I think this may be a
good time for that...I am looking for lots of living
books at this age level to line up on the shelves (got
to get ready for that with the baby coming) I have a
small budget and would rather spend that on actual
books and not on overdue fees...lol
Writing...IEW (Institute for the Excellence in Writing
Structure and Style)
We tried Latin about 4 times and life kept
interrupting...but no longer. I don't know whether to
start them in Latina Christiana or just move right to
Henle
I was wondering about Literature and Logic and
English... Science (hmm...maybe natural science as we
are doing a bit of nature study and botany right now)
I want to challenge but not frustrate
Any advice?
God love you,
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 7dc + one more due 10/08!
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God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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Leonie
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Donna Marie, we are unschooly but my advice is to set priorites - what you think are the most important areas to cover and which can go if need be or which are covered by your life or your outside activites or your kids' interests. Then plan your resources and their independent study, with their help.
I found Cafi Cohen's article to be helpful...
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Leonie in Sydney
Living Without School
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 10:21pm | IP Logged
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MacBeth wrote:
| Here's the link to my 9th grade literature/English plan. It went really well with Libby, so I'll be repeating the same with Annika this fall. |
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Hey, MacBeth -- did the yahoo group for this ever work out? I've been meaning to ask for a while since I'll have a ninth grader next year and would love to have some direction! (Literature/english are *not* my strong areas)
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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MacBeth
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Janette, I looked on Yahoo and don't see the group. I vaguely recall starting it, but I don't recall at all what happened next.
I'd be open to having a discussion on 9th grade lit, using my booklist, or any other booklist, or no booklist .
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog
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Cay Gibson
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I'd love to have a discussion! 
I might have to go solo because I doubt my 9th grade son will join in. He loves LOTR/Indiana Jones/Narnia type tales, I'm sure he'll  his eyes at fairytales.
Though, on second thought, he did enjoy "The Odyssey" and "Midsummer Night's Dream" and he probably should read "Beowulf" because Kayleigh read it this year and could cover that with him rather than me and he might like Lewis' "Space Trilogy" (though I haven't read it and haven't a clue , but I know MacBeth loves "Space Trilogy" so that's good enough for me) .
Yes, on second thought I think a boy could sit in on this discussion.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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cathhomeschool
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We haven't read the Space Trilogy either, but I have been looking forward to it based on MacBeth's recommendation.
My 9th grader and I will join in. 
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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catholicmomma
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Cay said:
I might have to go solo because I doubt my 9th grade son will join in. He loves LOTR/Indiana Jones/Narnia type tales, I'm sure he'll [roll] his eyes at fairytales.
********
I thought the same, until I read From Homer to Harry Potter: A Handbook on Myth and Fantasy last year. I found all kinds of quotes from Tolkein and Lewis, explaining how much of their inspiration came from "faerie" and mythology. It was the perfect hook to get my 8-10th grade co-op students "into" reading fairy tales and myths so that they also could write like their heroes.
They went on to analyze a modern fairy tale picture book based on Grimm or Anderson, compare it to the original, and then write their own version.
It's a good read, and worth using to at least get older students interested in reading "faerie."
-Lisa B in OH
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: 9th Grade
