It's August, Here's the Official 2021-2022 High School Curriculum

 This is my 9th grader and 11th grader's curriculum for the next year.  This is most likely the 11th grader's last year as a high schooler.  She wants to skip senior year and start college.

English

• Reader (literature selection they read and we discuss, based on interest)
• Read-aloud (literature selection I read to everyone)
• Creative writing
• Online spelling bee 
• Weekly SAT/ACT English question

Math

• Finish Algebra 1 (9th grader) and begin Geometry
• Mathusee Stewardship (11th grader) + weekly SAT/ACT Math test prep

Bible

• Continue Bible reading
• Saint Study (continue our study of the 12 Apostles)
• Missionary read-aloud (currently Gladys Aylward)

German

• Komm Mit 1 (9th grader)
• Komm Mit 3 (11th grader)

World Geography (continuing)

• Trail Guide to World Geography
• Mapping the World with Art
• Literature selections with geography themes

Chemistry

• Masterbooks Chemistry
• Happy Atoms (molecule kit that works with your iPad)

Physics

• Focus on 1 physics concept per week (using Conceptual Physics for reference)
• Video or Mythbusters episode about the concept
• Lab or demonstration lab
• Cover 1 famous physicist or chemist per week

Coding

• MIT's Scratch
• Python Coding via projects 

Physical Education (P.E.)

• 1x per week - together as a family - focusing on sports skills

Outsourced Classes

• Shakespearean Theater (11th grader)
• Reader's Theater (9th grader)
• Theater Comedy Club (they are auditioning for)
• Gymnastics - they are helping teach Intermediate Gymnastics
• Private Vocal Lessons (11th grader)

Russian Ballet (all 3 kids)

Homeschool Week 7/26-7/29: Reading Week

 Because the 16 year-old has a 5-hour long vocal intensive every day this week, we are having a Reading Week.  

Our books:

• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• The Wave (finishing on Thursday and then watching the German movie version)
• Born Free (for geography - about a lion in Africa)
• Hatchet (also for geography - about a boy whose plane crashes in the wilderness of northern Canada)

We have very much enjoyed The Wave to the point where we are going to read Animal Farm next.

Hatchet is also very good.  We're listening to the audiobook version, which is a nice change.  We've already listened to about a fourth of the book in two days, because we keep turning it on during lunch, etc.  I'm going include more audiobooks in the future.  It's a nice way to hone listening skills and it's nice not to hear my own voice.

13 year-old is really enjoying Born Free.

Homeschool Day 7/21

 1st Grader - VBS, so no school

9th Grader

• Bible reading
• Creative writing - short story writing
• Online spelling bee
• The Wave
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• Covering questions in the guide on Europe
• Finished A Long Walk to Water

11th Grader

• Bible reading
• Online spelling bee
• Creative writing - short story writing
• Algebra 2
• The Wave
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• Covering questions in the guide on Europe

Homeschool Day 7/20

1st Grader - VBS, no school 

9th Grader

• Bible reading (Genesis)
• Language Lessons
• She read Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• I read The Wave
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• The guide (we started the continent of Europe)
• Mapwork from the guide
• A Long Walk to Water
• Mapping the World with Art - I forgot what they did

11th Grader

• Bible reading (Kings)
• Algebra 2 - she watched the video on word problems (only a lesson or two left of the course)
• Finished A Long Walk to Water and wrote a narration about the book
• She read Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• I read The Wave
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• The guide (we started the continent of Europe)
• Mapwork from the guide
• Mapping the World with Art - I forgot what they did

Homeschool Day 7/19

 All kids have VBS this week, so the 1st grader won't do school.  It would be too much for him.  Last week was a five-hour long ballet intensive every day/all week, so no one was able to do school last week.

9th Grader

• Bible reading (Genesis)
• Language Lessons (quotation marks)
• I read The Wave
• She read Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• the activities in the guide (South America)
• A Long Walk to Water
• Mapping the World with Art (France)

11th Grader

• Algebra 2
• Bible reading (Kings)
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• I read The Wave
• She read Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• the activities in the guide (South America)
• A Long Walk to Water
• Mapping the World with Art (France)

Getting ready for our next round of books for World Geography: Hatchet (Canada) and Born Free (Africa).  Hatchet is an audio book, so that will be a nice break.  I also want to listen to it!  Born Free is an excellent book - my oldest read it in high school and very much enjoyed it.  It's about a female lion in Africa who spends a big portion of her life with people.

Next literature selection will most likely be Animal Farm by George Orwell.  I would like to include another book that includes Communism in its setting/theme.  

I picked up a number of picture books about the Saints from the library for the 1st grader.

Curriculum Change (1st Grade)

 After sitting down and flipping through my Trail Guide to World Geography, several volumes of Five in a Row and my KONOS vol. 1, I decided to drop Trail Guide for the 1st grader and go back to Konos.  

I'm dropping Trail Guide, because he would get so much more out of it if he were older.  I'm going to put it away until he's about 4th-5th grade.

I'm not going to use Five in a Row with him, because we "rowed" several FIAR books earlier this year and he was ok with it, but he very much loved the hands-on activities in Konos.  Five in a Row spends a lot of time on art and relationships.  The book selection is also very relationship-oriented.  My 6 year-old boy will choose following animal tracks and making a frontiersman's possible bag any day over learning about relationships.  (sigh, boys)

So, back we are with Konos.  I'm going to restart the Frontiersman/Trapping/Tracking Unit in Attentiveness.  I ordered books about Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Texas history, Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  Maybe, since he's a little older now, he'll be able to get more out of it than before.

One major complaint about Konos: it needs serious updating.  It is so outdated that it's very difficult to use, which is one reason I stopped using it after a couple of the units.  None of the books are available from the booklist.  They're all out of print.  I'm going to need to find my own books and then pick activities that he's capable of doing.

Picture Books about the Saints

 I wanted to compile some links to good booklists of picture books about the Saints.  I'm going to use these lists for future reference as I plan our Friday hymn and saint studies.  

Picture Books About the Saints (Goodreads) (a lot of these are actually at our library)

Ultimate List of Picture Books for Catholic Families

The Motherload List of Excellent Catholic Picture Books

Saints Books for Children (these looked like mostly older books)

Saint & Hymn Study

 Continuing our study of the 12 Apostles...

James the Elder, son of Zebedee

• We read the sections on James in three books
• The Twelve Apostles (Marianna Mayer)
• The Twelve Outlaws (T.S. Dobson)
• Rose Book of Charts, Maps and Timelines
• We also looked at Jesus' Genealogy and the sections on Herod's Palace in Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps and Timelines

Lutheran Hymn: Salvation Unto Us Has Come

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBXooSlKmB8

https://www.whatdoesthismean.org/lifted-voice--brian-hamer/hymns-of-the-reformation-salvation-unto-us-has-come

The Song of Francis (Tomie de Paola) - read-aloud for the 1st grader

Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps and Timelines

This is really an incredible book.  Today was the first time we've officially used it for school, but I am so glad I bought it.  The chart of the 12 Apostles was useful. We also looked at the cross-sections of Herod's Palace and the fold-out chart of Jesus' genealogy.

Frustrated with a few of our curriculum selections

 Trail Guide to World Geography

I absolutely love this unit study for high school. My high schoolers are really enjoying it, too.  I'm actually learning a ton.  But it says K-12 on the description and I'm trying to use it with my 1st grader.  He really likes what we've done so far (he's on Week 4), but 99% of it is very much over his head.  I think I need to set up a geography unit study for him on his level.  He obviously likes geography, but he won't like it if it's too overwhelming/difficult.  

I'm thinking of either buying Beautiful Feet's Around the World with Picture Books   , Guest Hollow's Jr. Geography Curriculum, or just setting up my own unit study.  Either way, I need to sit down with it and come up with a plan.

Government & Economics

I feel like a serious failure in this department.  The 11th grader has read a number of living books about government and economics, including reading original source documents like the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, etc, and watching a Senate hearing's live broadcast.  But, I really feel like our coverage of these two subjects is pretty abysmal.  I don't like government and economics and it's hard to creatively and lovingly put together wonderful unit studies on a topic you absolutely hate (and think is boring).  At this point, I'm so burned out from even hearing about politics and government, that I don't actually want to teach it.  Ever.

I'm thinking of using this as a springboard for economics https://mru.org/teacher-resources/courses/high-school-economics , but I think I might be too dumb even for these videos.  

I'm thinking of going through Notgrass Economics together with the high schoolers (I already own it).

Homeschool Day 7/8

1st Grader

• Handwriting without Tears - letter C
• Math - we played Dominos (Mexican Train).  The first round upset him and he started crying.  Mexican Train takes some strategy and logic when you're 6.  He kept going and was fine after that.
•  Reading - I used plastic letters to spell out a bunch of CVC words from All About Spelling level 1. He CAN read, but he just has such a short attention span that we can only read a few words at a time.  It's frustrating
• World Geography
• Read about North America in DK Children's Encyclopedia
• Put together a puzzle of the United States (each piece was a state)
• Summer's Lab Science
• We read the section on Clouds from DK Children's Encyclopedia

9th Grader

• Dragonbox Algebra
• Creative Writing - she continued her short story.  It's a mystery/suspense.  She had excellent use of paragraphs, great descriptive writing, etc.  
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• Mapping the World with Art - the Iberian Peninsula
• A Long Walk to Water
• The Wave

11th Grader

• Creative writing - she finished her short story.  Let me just say that she's the next Ray Bradbury.
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• Mapping the World with Art - the Iberian Peninsula
• A Long Walk to Water
• The Wave
• Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

College Freshman

• Ended the first summer session with a 98% average.  Started the second session on Monday.  GIANT learning curve with the apps and tech he needed to successfully submit his work.  He spent most of Monday through Wednesday frustrated and asking for help with the programs/app.  By today, he seemed to have figured everything out.
• When the kids start a new semester, I now expect the first week to be mass hysteria as the kids figure out how to navigate their new classes.

Homeschool Day 7/7

 1st Grader

• Well, he made up for yesterday.  He was loving school today.
• Beginner's Bible
• We read Flat Stanley
• Math
• www.educationunboxed.com has a game called "What's in the Box?"  We played 'what's under the cup.'  It's an addition game.  You take two cuisinaire rods and place them in an addition sentence using notecards.  You place the "answer" cuisinaire rod in a box (or under a cup).  The kid has to find the cuisinaire rod that's the answer and then compare his answer to the one under the cup: http://www.educationunboxed.com/whats-in-the-box-part-one/ He loved this game so much that he got mad when I said it was time to stop.  😬
• Summer's Lab Science - we started the unit on clouds.  We looked outside and identified the clouds in the sky.
• Trail Guide to World Geography - he really likes geography, but I'm starting to feel like this is just way over his head.  I want to keep doing geography with him, but I might have to start from scratch and put it together myself.

9th Grader

• Bible (Genesis)
• Dragonbox Algebra
• Online Spelling Bee
• Read-aloud The Wave
• The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• The Long Walk to Water
• Guide - South America, including discussions of earthquakes in Chile, volcanoes, map work, Machu Picchu

11th Grader

• Bible (2 Kings)
• Algebra 2
• Online Spelling Bee
• Read-aloud The Wave
• The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• The Long Walk to Water
• Guide - South America, including discussions of earthquakes in Chile, volcanoes, map work, Machu Picchu

Homeschool Day 7/6

 1st Grader

• Yeah, this was a terrible, non-productive day for him.  He mostly wanted to play with his toy dragons.  I did what I could and then just let him go
• Handwriting without Tears
• Wild Math
• We counted by 5s and 10s
• He used the Montessori number chart to fill in the 5's and 10's in order
• We used plastic farm animals to go over even and odds
• He did a few addition problems
• He read a few words from his reader and that just went south quickly.  It was not very productive.  
• We read Flat Stanley

9th Grader

• Bible (Genesis)
• Algebra 1- we worked some review problems together that she missed in the workbook
• Language Lessons - book titles
• The Wave
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• World Geography
• Trail Guide to World Geography (South America) - did some great note-taking in their notebooks on special geographic features in South America
• The Long Walk to Water
• Mapping the World with Art - I think they drew the Ukraine
• We watched The Joy Luck Club (with some censoring) 

11th Grader

• Bible (2 Kings)
• Algebra 2 - she started the section on those coin word problems and consecutive number word problems
• Language Lessons for the High School Student - expository writing
• The Wave
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• World Geography
• Trail Guide to World Geography (South America) - did some great note-taking in their notebooks on special geographic features in South America
• The Long Walk to Water
• Mapping the World with Art - I think they drew the Ukraine
• We watched The Joy Luck Club (with some censoring)

Homeschool Day 7/5

 

• More catfishing.  We did catch a rather large catfish - had to use the net to bring it in.  
• Read The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• I read aloud The Wave and Gladys Aylward: Christian Heroes Then and Now
• The girls read The Long Walk to Water
• I'm pretty sure everyone did their Bible reading

Homeschool Days 7/1-7/2

 

7/1

• Creek fishing in the morning.  We caught about ten bluegill, but no other kind of fish.
• High Schoolers read The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) and A Long Walk to Water.  I read aloud The Wave.  We decided that our next read-aloud will be Animal Farm, because The Wave and Anne Frank are spurring all kinds of interesting discussions.  We're also going to find the German movie version of The Wave.
• 1st Grader read Flat Stanley with me.
• 11th Grader is learning a complicated piano piece from Chopin.

7/2

• I took the kids rollerskating.  We ate lunch at a hamburger place and then went to the library.