Apr. 20, 2009 - Mapping out high school courses
I have been mapping out a plan for high school in hopes that we will be able to continue to home school in spite of the difficulties economically. In our area, the students are required to earn 40 credits to graduate. That is one credit per semester, with 5 courses each semester. I am using the requirements from our state DOE as a guideline.
Here is what I have so far:
English (8 credits)
Freshman year:
- Easy Grammar Plus (Mine is the older version, but I am linking you to the current version) and Easy Writing (found at a home school sale for $2 each)
- Wordly Wise (I am linking you to the cheapest place I found it.)
- Fallacy Detective
- Writing Strands
- For literature: Use Total Language Plus study guides. DD has picked these books to read: The Hiding Place, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Anne of Green Gables, and The Incredible Journey (We are using Total Language Plus because they have these books marked as for middle school through 9th grade. If Progeny Press had them, they were listed for only middle school.)
Sophomore year:
- Writing Strands, Wordly Wise
- Movies as Literature (The local library has all but one of the movies required for this course.)
Junior and Senior years:
Continue with more literature and composition classes. I may incorporate the literature section from the Notgrass American History for the sophomore year and save the Movies as Literature course until the junior year.
Speech
Math (6 credits)
Freshman year:
Sophomore year:
Junior year:
Either Algebra II or Business Math
Senior year: Not sure
Science (6 credits)
Freshman year:
Biology 101 (I am linking you to a site that offers free shipping on this.)
Sophomore year:
You might have noticed that I put biology before physical science when that is not the usual progression for science. Apologia is a bit advanced. I also discovered that School of Tomorrow does the courses in the order I listed. I asked about this on a home school board and the consensus was that it doesn't matter which comes first.
Junior year:
?? (I'm hoping Jesus comes back before we have to tackle this one!) 
History (6 credits)
Freshman year:
I plan to use a hodge-podge of stuff for this course.
- Around the World in 180 Days
- Challenging World Geography
- World History paces from School of Tomorrow (I am linking you to the cheapest place I found them online.)
Sophomore year:
Exploring America by Notgrass This course includes enough for 3 credits: history, literature, and Bible. I emailed Mr. Notgrass to ask if it was possible to use this course but skip the books needed for the literature portion. His answer was yes.
Junior year:
Government by Notgrass
Economics - I will likely go with School of Tomorrow for this course.
Directed electives (Requires 5 credits in foreign language, fine arts, or career/technical)
Freshman year:
Clogging (fine arts - 2 credits) Along with attending her clogging practice and performances, my daughter will have to write a composition on the history of clogging, as well as watch one performance by River Dance.
Spanish - This will link you to several foreign language courses that are 50% off through April 27. My daughter can earn 8 credits with this course if she desires to study it every year.
American Sign Language (I bought this course for only $10 at a used curriculum sale.) I may end up offering to teach this course to a group.
Health (one credit)
A Beka
PE (two credits - requires 4 semesters)
We will either use the Y if we keep our membership there or we will do different things here (walking, playing basketball at the park across the street, riding bikes, exercise DVDs, use Pilate ball, etc.)
Electives (6 credits)
Computer Science Pure & Simple (2 credits)
Interpersonal Relationships: This is a course I designed myself, using books that I felt are a must-read by everyone. This will be a one-semester course unless I find a fourth book to use, then it will be a 2-semester course.
The books include the following:
- The Five Love Languages
- Wired That Way (includes a book, workbook, and personality profile)
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens (includes a book and workbook)
Life Prep for Teens and Get a Grip on Your Money (This link will show you the student and teacher books on the same page; just tab down a bit for the teacher's book.)
At some point, we will probably include accounting, as well as a few other courses that we still need to determine, based on what my daughter chooses as her future career.
Come see my Ebay stuff! I have middle school stuff listed: Apologia and A Beka. http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/proverbsmama
Comments
Apr. 19, 2009 - Sounds good, Stacy!
Posted by ThreeLittleLadies
Can you double the Clogging for PE credits too? That makes more sense than having to do that and another thing... I don't know if it works that way... Looks like you've been putting a lot of thought and energy into this!
As for junior year science...I really enjoyed Biology 2 and Human Anatomy and Physiology... course I was a science addict! Chemistry is useful in many ways too. If your teen isn't college bound, maybe you could do something like chemistry for the kitchen...
Carol
Apr. 21, 2009 - High School
Posted by AnnieKate
I do hope you'll be able to do high school at home! There are so many benefits! It's very impressive that you have it all worked out already.
I'm thinking out loud on my blog on the same topic every Thursday, until it's figured out for the next year.... I'm not quite as efficient as you! :)
Blessings
Annie Kate
