So far the biggest change from previous years has been thinking in terms of credits and a transcript. Most other things have remained the same, with me choosing a variety of resources, and my daughter quickly completing her work with some whining and then moving on to audiobooks, arts and crafts, downtime with her dog, baking and cooking, and sports practice. I have been reminding her that school will take longer this year, but she likes to remind me that I have been telling her that for a couple of years now.
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| I can see tons of flowers outside the window where we work on school together. |
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| The weekend before we started school we were in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and I got talked into cliff jumping! |
Here are the eight classes she is taking, and the resources she will be using:
1. Algebra 1 with Denison Algebra
We tried Algebra 1 last year with her cousins, and she didn't seem ready. I finally realized there was no reason to push. We spent the winter and spring reviewing pre-algebra using Denison Algebra. I liked the curriculum and have heard so many good things about it. Hopefully this is a good fit for my daughter this year.
2. Language Arts with the co-op
Our co-op offers an Intro to Writing class to high schoolers for a complete language arts credit. I also plan to have lots of reading and writing incorporated across the curriculum, but otherwise her language arts will all be through this class at the co-op.
3. Biology with Berean Builders
We have both enjoyed the middle school science courses from Berean Builders we completed the last two years and are looking forward to using "Discovering Design with Biology" for this year's science class. Well, my daughter is not looking forward to dissecting a frog, but otherwise we are excited. This is one of the classes we started, and we've already had some good discussions and extracted DNA from a strawberry!
4. American History with Notgrass
We will be reading "Exploring America". This is a textbook-based course with lots of options for review, projects, literature, original documents, writing, and Bible. Depending on the options chosen, this course could be up to three high school credits. We will just be using it for one American History credit. My daughter will be presenting her weekly projects and reviewing original documents with her cousins.
5. American Sign Language with the co-op
For her foreign language credit, my daughter will be taking ASL with our co-op. I think she will enjoy the kinesthetic experience of ASL, as well as the fact that one of her cousins is studying to be an ASL interpreter and has lots of fun signs to share.
6. Health and PE with Not Consumed Ministries
After doing some research, I decided to go with a straightforward but engaging looking health and PE course from Not Consumed Ministries called "Thrive". The text has three reading assignments a week and room to log athletic and fitness pursuits. My daughter plans to play volleyball and softball this year and continue working on her overall fitness with running and strength training.
7. Art with the co-op
My daughter is always creating art in her spare time. I try to find the right balance between supporting her art with classes and resources and letting her just enjoy her own process of creating. This year at the co-op she is taking three elective courses that should, along with her independent projects, make up a single art credit for her transcript. The three co-op classes are Art Fundamentals and Drawing, Photography, and Cake/Cookie Decorating.
8. Animal Science with me
When my daughter and I were discussing possible electives for high school, she was most interested in taking an animal science course. I wasn't able to find a complete curriculum for this at the high school level. Ultimately I am going to pull together a variety of resources including video lectures from Great Courses and Coursera, adult non-fiction books from the library, field trips, volunteering, and working with her dog. Our focus will be on understanding and caring for livestock and companion animals and what career fields in those areas look like, but we will also spend some time studying the broader animal kingdom. She's already been reading "Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know" by Alexandra Horowitz and keeps telling me lots of interesting information she is learning, such as why dogs kick up grass after going to the bathroom (to further mark the area, making it more likely the next dog stops and smells and learns things about the first dog from its poo).
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| My daughter is a preschooler here and Oliver is a first grader. The hardest part of homeschooling has always been doing it without him. |
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| We got into a habit of taking silly pictures to start the school year. Here is her silly "running away from school" picture as a kindergartener. |
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| A silly picture from her freshman year! |
I am sure we will make lots of changes and tweak things going forward, but that's the plan to get us started! I am looking forward to another year of learning and growing together.
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