Category: Homeschooling Highschool

9th Grade Curriculum for 2015/2016

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Here is my choices for my oldest going into 9th grade this year.

  • History-Sonlight Core 100
  • Science-Apologia Biology
  • English-IEW US History Writing Lessons, Vocabulary-Word Up!, IEW Fix It! Grammar, Sonlight Core 100 U.S. History Lit. Books
  • Latin I-Latin Road to Grammar
  • Math-BJU Press-Pre-Alegbra, Life with Fred-Pre-Algebra
  • Spanish 2- Taken at a co-op…Homeschool Connections.
  • Geography-BJU Northstar Geography
  • Fine Arts- Piano

I will be blogging some reviews on the different curriculum choices as I use them.  I think its going to be a fun start to our high school year.  Unknown

God’s World News

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I want my kids to be aware of current events.  I think its important for them to be able to discuss what is happening in our world and how to see it through a biblical perspective.  God’s World News is an excellent resource for current events.  Its a magazine that is geared towards your child’s age that gets sent to you through the mail every couple of months.  The magazine’s that are available range from preschool age to post high school.  What I like about GWN magazines is how they are written from a biblical perspective.  The kids look forward to getting them in the mail and want to read them right away.

For my older children, I need more current events than what GWN’s magazine can provide.  I still use GWN  but I add on other sources for current events.  Another source that I found was dogonews.com.  This is a website that has set up current events for kids in various categories.  Dogonews.com does not represent a biblical perspective with its news articles but because it is geared towards kids, I have not found objectionable content.  This is another great resource for my older kids to do more current event reports during the week.

Fine Arts Credit Anyone?

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In Washington State there is a resource that is a great way for kids to get their Fine Arts credits.  We are the type of family, so far, that will have an abundance of Fine Art credits because our 3 older kids love music, drama and other various art classes.  Our younger 2 kids are too young to know what direction they will go.  I know there are parents that have kids, like mine, who will have no problem fulfilling their Fine Arts credit in homeschooling high school.  I know there are other homeschool parents out there that cringe at the thought of how to fulfill that same Fine Arts credit.  This resource is an easy way to start contributing hours to that credit.

Its called Teentix.org.  This is a website that offers $5 dollar tickets to teens for most of the theatre, symphony and other performing arts productions in Washington.  The way it works is that any teenager ages 13-19 gets a Teentix pass.  You can get this on their website.  This pass allows your teenager to purchase same day tickets for $5.  The tickets are not purchased online but at the box office or some performances will let you pay over the phone.  No credit or debit can be used for purchase, you must use cash.  Also, some performances are sold out so there are not any Teentix tickets available.  To make sure that there are tickets available, you can call the Box Office number on the Teentix website. You must have your Teentix pass with you and a student ID or Driver’s License to purchase your ticket. They also have specials on certain performances that allow your teen to purchase a 2nd ticket for $10 for a friend of any age to go with them. Even if your student has an abundance of Fine Art credits, this resource is still an awesome way for your teen to enjoy the Arts.

Highschool Social Studies/Study Skills

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I have been researching more about homeschooling high school.  I recently took a webinar class about homeschooling high school that had some new information for me. Interesting information that I didn’t know with regards to Social Studies.  Colleges are looking for 4 different types of Social Studies on your students transcripts.  These are U.S. History, World History, Economics and Government.  If you student loves Social Studies, then they can definitely do more than this but these are the classes that colleges look for on a transcript when looking for your Social Studies credits.

Another interesting tidbit of information was on teaching your child Study Skills.  Institute of Excellence of Writing gives a class called, “Advanced Communications Series” which teaches you note taking and other communication skills.  The homeschool mom then had the creative idea of using the teaching company courses which are college level lectures to allow her children to practice their note taking skills.  Awesome idea!  This would help them not be freaked out when they get into a real college situation.

The webinar class I took was “Keys to Highschool Success” by Lee Binz.  Worth your time and money to check it out.  It had some interesting insights and facts that I did not know for homeschooling high school.  The webinar class is found at thehomescholar.com.

Will a College accept a Homeschooler?

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The answer is Yes!  85% of colleges nation wide are now accepting homeschoolers.  The percentage maybe even higher now. You can go on the different websites of colleges and many of them will have a list of requirements for homeschoolers.  This is helpful when you are planning out your high school years.  I went on the website of our local University to get an idea of what to plan for the next 4 years of my son’s high school years.  Even if he ended up going to a different university or in a different direction, we have a plan that could fit in a number of colleges or universities just by changing it a bit.

The transcript that you create for your child is just as valid as any public or private school.  If you need help creating a transcript, I want to recommend Lee Binz again.  She has webinars that walk you through how to do a transcript that a very helpful.  Your child will also need to take the SAT or ACT to go along with their transcript. There may be other requirements from a university that are unique to that university.  That is why its helpful to go on their different websites and look to see what they require.

I recently found out through my quest in researching homeschooling high school that it is more ideal to homeschool high school all the way.  If you start homeschooling high school and decide to put them back in school, the public or private schools do not have to accept your transcript.  They can count some credits and not count others.  Colleges accept homeschoolers transcripts but public or private high schools sometimes have a harder time just taking them at face value.

Some Colleges are actively looking for homeschoolers because they have seen how well homeschoolers can do in college.  The nature of homeschooling helps our students become great independent learners which is essential in college.  Homeschoolers also have more opportunity to show their unique talents or interests to different universities because of the freedom of their schedule.  For example, my oldest son it passionate about the piano.  He want to practice quite a bit and compete in competitions with piano.  Homeschooling allows me to give him time for his piano so he can pursue what he loves.  This part of his life will be a unique part of his high school journey that I can add to his transcript.