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time4tea
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Our oldest is inching towards high school, and since our budget is tight (and because it always takes me forever to really make up my mind about school related things, esp. curriculum  ) I was wondering if those of you who already have a high schooler could share what you have been doing with your dc and how it is going. I am thinking I would like some kind of lesson plans to use as a guideline, even if we do not enroll and submit work to the school/program, and would like a Catholic emphasis. We are already in an umbrella here, so a diploma from a correspondence school isn't too much of a concern for me. Along those lines, I have thought of Seton, but am a bit intimadated by some of the horror stories I have heard about their high school program (no offense intended here!). The only other Catholic high school programs I know of that offer lessons plans are OLVS, MODG and Kolbe, which has redone a lot of their program, I think.
Thank you all in advance for sharing your experiences!
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Blessings to you!
~Tea
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Willa
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We have used Kolbe and MODG as a spine and then flexed. MODG sells its syllabi separately from enrollment and Kolbe does too now, though it looks like they are more expensive than MODG's (but Kolbe's are free with enrollment).
The people at Kolbe are redoing their high school plans to include more support for the parent/teacher. From what I have seen they look nice.
I have two high school graduates and one junior in high school. With my daughter, the junior, we aren't sticking very closely to the official course plans partly because she has her own ideas and partly because it gets a leetle more comfortable the third time through.
I have heard good things about individual Seton high school courses, like their English and I think Latin? They seem to offer a lot more online support for the student than the other Catholic programs.
I just got to look at High School of Your Dreams recently and it looks nice particularly if you have a child who is a bit more unconventional and doesn't flourish with the typical college prep curriculum.
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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Leonie
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We haven't used a program per se but like parts of different things - for example, one year we read through the Sonlight Year 8 booklist and followed up on some of the discussion questions in our (used) curriculum manual.
I also like a lot of Cafi Cohen's ideas on tailoring curriculum to suit a child -
The teenage years and beyond
I know this is not specifically what you are looking for, but I hope it helps in some way. 
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Leonie in Sydney
Living Without School
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stefoodie
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i don't know if this will help you any, but just in case:
our 15-yo's '06-'07 curriculum
she started on the "how to read a book" a few months ago, but has now slowed down and is finding it too heavy, so what i'm doing is reading it for her and every few pages or so i make an "abridged list" of things she can try -- i post this list on our wall and change it weekly or so.
so far so good...
in addition to the things listed there her current reading list includes Perelandra and some of Father Shamon's books. Then it's on to several living books for Ancient Egypt.
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stef
mom to five
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TracyQ
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Stef,
You sound so much like us!  I guess I'm extremely eclectic! There is no one perfect curriculum, so I pick and choose from the best, and make my own that works best for us. I'm happy to see someone else's plan for a change. People sometimes look at me like I have two heads when I tell them all we use!
Tea,
Our second high schooler (just starting 9th grade last week) is using Trisms, Discovering the Ancient World for his 9th grade year. If it works well, we'll continue on with it. If not, it's easy to change course for him. But for him, this seems like it will be a great fit for him. This year, he's using:
History- Trisms, DAW, Teaching Company World History
(will use this over two years)
Science- Apologia Biology w/lab, Trisms
English 9 - Trisms (uses IEW as well), Wordsmith
Apprentice, The Complete Idiot's Guide to
Critical Reading, various novels, whatever
else I think is necessary
Math- Saxon Algebra 1 w/DIVE CD Rom
Religion- together as family....Beginnings Apologetics
series, Compendium to the Catholic Faith,
the Bible, various other resources
Phys Ed- playing flag football, etc. etc.
Spanish- Barron's Spanish Now level 1
Music Performance and History- participate in adult
choir at church, Beautiful Feet's A History
of Classical Music, participation in home
school ensemble with harmonica and practice)
There are other credits that will come out of using Trisms that are spelled out in the curriculum, some whole credits, and some half. That's what I love about Trisms, it guides and directs me as to what I can count, and how many credits, etc.
For our oldest, 11th grader, we use a very eclectic mix. Here's his plan this year:
American History- Teaching Company videos and guide
w/note taking, Joy Hakim's books, other
resources I've found including historical
fiction, movies, etc.
Science- Apologia Chemistry w/lab
English 11(American Literature)- creative writing (he's
writing another book, The Complete Idiot's
Guide to American Literature (as guide), plus
various novels and pieces of writing,
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Critical
Reading, SAT Prep, Language Exercises (Steck
Vaughn)
Advanced Math- 1/2 year
SAT Math Prep- 1/2 year (both continued from last year)
Phys Ed- little league baseball, flag football,
basketball, etc. etc.
Religion- see Zach's above
Music Performance and History- see Zach's above (minus
the ensemble and harmonica)
Computer- Visual Basic and Visual Basic Gaming - two
books we found from bookstore.
Wowsa! It sounds like a lot, doesn't it??? But we're managing so far. They have really done very well, and I'm proud of them.
__________________
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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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: High School Curriculum suggestions
