If I've ever been glad to be a homeschooling family, this is the year! When covid 19 hit in the spring, not much changed for us. Now that it's time to start a new school year it's business as usual. This marks our 24th year of homeschooling and we have a senior and a sophomore. The end is truly in sight. While their high school curriculum still resembles that of their siblings that came before them, there are a few differences this year that we're excited about!
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Planning Out my High School Curriculum
As a refresher for anyone new here (or to homeschooling), this is how I came up with my original high school curriculum plan.
When I began to think about high school curriculum, I weighed all my options at the time and decided that I wanted to continue on with the tradition of putting together my own curriculum. Why change what was working, right?
I began by looking at some of the curriculum providers like Seton and Mother Of Divine Grace to see what they did for high school. Next, I looked at a few colleges to see what they were looking for in their applicants. Finally I looked to our state to see if they had any specific requirements.
Once the research was done, I took that information and laid out what I thought was a pretty good four year plan.
Planning Out Each Year
Every time a new student gets ready to start high school, I look to my plan and decide which of the classes they are going to take. This decision is based on a few factors:
- Is there a parent volunteering to teach a class like Biology or Literature? If so, this will definitely influence my decision to put my student in there.
- Is there a sibling that is also ready to take a class that my other student could do at the same time? If so, I will have them both do it during the same year, although they'll rarely work together. High schoolers. Ugh.
Some of the classes on my plan have set years that don't move, no matter what. For example, Freshman year is dedicated to composition and the Didache book "Introduction to Catholicism". Senior year is definitely "Introduction to Morality". The rest are available to be moved around.
We love Homeschool Connections, so I've added some of their classes into the mix, too. What a great tool this is for homeschooling high school!
Based on what I've seen as my options for this coming school year, here is what we'll be doing.
My Sophomore's Curriculum
A few years ago, a good friend of mine taught an awesome World Lit class. My son enjoyed it so much that I talked her into teaching a comparable American Lit class for my last two students. I know it will be just as awesome!
My son wants to go into engineering so he needs a lot of math and science courses. Since he took biology and physical science already, and wasn't ready for physics or chemistry, so he decided to tackle two math classes this year.
Here is what his year will look like:
- American Literature, taught by my friend, using IEW's "American Literature" and the books:
- 1. Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
2. Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
3. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Algebra 2 Teaching Textbooks followed by Geometry Teaching Textbooks
- Apologetics courses via Homeschool Connections' recorded classes
- Latin 1 via a live class through Homeschool Connections
- American History using the book "Christ and the Americas" by Anne W. Carroll and youTube videos in AP American History by JD Lenaburg.
My Senior's Curriculum
I can't believe my youngest daughter is entering her senior year! Yikes, where has the time gone. She's still discerning junior college vs going away, so we're kind of planning for both options.
Here's what her year will look like:
- She will also be taking the American Lit class
- Algebra 2 with Teaching Textbooks
- Anatomy and Physiology via a live class through Homeschool Connections
- "Moral Theology" using the Didache book
- Intro to Psychology via a Homeschool Connections recorded course
- American Government using the same book through Abeka Books that all her siblings have used. She might also throw in some Economics.
So that's it! It looks like it will be a good year for all of us. They have a little bit to do on their own, some to do online, and someone else to be accountable to so I think it will be a good mix.
Here's to a fun, fruitful and extremely blessed year of homeschooling for all of us!