Homeschooling High School, Part 1
Homeschooling High School, Part 2: The Plan

I wrote yesterday about the plan I came up with for high school for my second child. We’re a rather academically inclined family, so the plan is a college preparatory sort of plan. I can see how other families, if not constrained by state regulations, might come up with different sort of plan for the high school years. However, I set out to require the same sorts of classes that the public high schools require, for the most part.

Bible: My young adults have done variety of studies to fulfill this requirement. One of them is taking a class with a twenty-something homeschool graduate at our church. The class includes Bible, English grammar, literature, and history studied together. Eldest Daughter went to one of Summit Ministries’ summer conferences for young people. She received one Bible credit for that conference. Computer Guru Son has taken two years of co-op classes based on the worldview materials from Summit Ministries; he’s getting Bible credit for those classes. For other Bible credits, I purchased a New Testament or Old Testament survey course at the bookstore and had a student complete it.

English: There’s the class at church that I mentioned. Two of the urchins took a grammar and composition class at Potter’s School (online) that I’ve been very pleased with. I’ve taught British literature and American literature for our homeschool co-op and had my students as part of the class. (If you’re interested in the syllabus for those classes, email me or leave a comment, and I’ll be happy to share.) I also taught Greenleaf Press’s Guide to Ancient Literature by Cindy Shearer one year, but for some reason they don’t seem to carry that title anymore. Too bad, I thought it was well-written.

Math: We do Saxon. I give three high school credits for completion of Saxon Algebra 1 and Algebra 2: one for Algebra 1, one for Algebra 2, and one for geometry. We have done some supplementary work in geometry just to make sure it sticks, but it’s really all there scattered through the Saxon Algebra books. Some of my young adults have gone on to do some or most of the Saxon Advanced Math book, and I gave another trigonmetry or advanced math credit for completing at least half of that book. We may try something other than Saxon with Organizer Daughter; she’s not getting the math in the Saxon books as well as I’d like. Any suggestions?

History: I’m teaching AP US History this next year at co-op, and Dancer Daughter will be taking the class. My two graduates have already completed AP US history and taken the AP test. Both of them did well on that test. Computer Guru Son took government at the local junior college this year as a dual credit class, and he enjoyed that.

Science: We’ve been able to do all our science labs at co-op and then do the book work and the tests at home. We use Apologia at co-op and at home for science.

Foreign Language: Eldest Daughter taught herself French and then took an AP French class through Pennsylvania Homeschoolers online her senior year. I speak Spanish, so I taught Computer Guru Son Spanish. The results of that experiment were not so good mostly because of my inconsistency. Dancer Daughter took French at Potter’s School. Organizer Daughter will be taking Spanish next year with a lady at church, and I’ll be assisting the teacher with planning and grading papers.

PE: We’ve been really lax in this area. I’m not very athletic, nor am I good at setting an example of regular exercise and physical fitness. Dancer Daughter is very active and has received PE credit for her dance which is very physically strenuous. The others have started exercise programs in which they kept track of the amount of time they exercised each day or week—with mixed success. What have you all done to stay fit or encourage exercise or to award credit for PE?

Electives: Here we shine. We have more electives than we can say grace over, including (not all for the same child) interior design, choir, ensemble, dance, guitar, computer science, computer web design, computer graphics, music theory, drama, journalism, homemaking, art, driver’s ed, extra foreign language credits and probably some other stuff that I’m not remembering.

Both of my graduates have more than the 27 credits I told them they were required to have to graduate. Neither of them really completed four years worth of PE. However, I couldn’t keep them from graduating because they didn’t complete their PE requirements.

I guess I’m just a softie, after all.