Typical 4 year schedule?

[TXMary2]

I have graduated my oldest already. He didn't begin homeschooling until 9th grade. He was already a textbook kid and didn't want to veer off that. He followed the same course schedule as the local ISD which was:

9th World Geography
10th World History
11th American History
12th American Govt/Economics

My middle son is doing 8th grade this year and my youngest is doing Kindergarten. I want to keep these two on the same history subject for my middle son's remaining years simply because that would be most convenient for us as a family. My little guy just tags along right now and since history is our most time consuming subject I want to keep them together.

I really want to do American History with them next year. I saw someone mention in another thread that as long as they all get done it doesn't matter when/what order. I really want to believe that! My oldest went straight to the work force and may continue the Community College he did as a dual enrollment student, but my middle son is 4 year university bound and I want to make sure it isn't going to matter what order he did the history topics.

Also, how much math do they REALLY have to have before college? My middle son is NOT math oriented. He is currently doing TT Math 7 and barely making a B and he works hard at it. Because of the math issue we don't intend on going past Chemistry for high school either.

Does this tentative plan look OK? What should I add besides electives? Anything?

9th
U.S. History 1400-1860
U.S. Geography
Physical Science
Pre Algebra
Literature Analysis

10th
U.S. History 1860-present
Government (1 semester)
American Literature
Biology
Algebra 1

11th
World History 1
World Geography
World Literature
Advanced Biology
Algebra 2

12th
World History 2
Economics (1 semester)
British Literature
Chemistry
Geometry

Electives: 2 years of foreign language, Health, Consumer Math, sports (baseball) and roping and riding. Plus he has a goal to make Eagle Scout.

Opinions? Advice?

[kiana]

I have graduated my oldest already. He didn't begin homeschooling until 9th grade. He was already a textbook kid and didn't want to veer off that. He followed the same course schedule as the local ISD which was:

9th World Geography
10th World History
11th American History
12th American Govt/Economics

My middle son is doing 8th grade this year and my youngest is doing Kindergarten. I want to keep these two on the same history subject for my middle son's remaining years simply because that would be most convenient for us as a family. My little guy just tags along right now and since history is our most time consuming subject I want to keep them together.

I really want to do American History with them next year. I saw someone mention in another thread that as long as they all get done it doesn't matter when/what order. I really want to believe that! My oldest went straight to the work force and may continue the Community College he did as a dual enrollment student, but my middle son is 4 year university bound and I want to make sure it isn't going to matter what order he did the history topics.

Also, how much math do they REALLY have to have before college? My middle son is NOT math oriented. He is currently doing TT Math 7 and barely making a B and he works hard at it. Because of the math issue we don't intend on going past Chemistry for high school either.

Does this tentative plan look OK? What should I add besides electives? Anything?

9th
U.S. History 1400-1860
U.S. Geography
Physical Science
Pre Algebra
Literature Analysis

10th
U.S. History 1860-present
Government (1 semester)
American Literature
Biology
Algebra 1

11th
World History 1
World Geography
World Literature
Advanced Biology
Algebra 2

12th
World History 2
Economics (1 semester)
British Literature
Chemistry
Geometry

Electives: 2 years of foreign language, Health, Consumer Math, sports (baseball) and roping and riding. Plus he has a goal to make Eagle Scout.

Opinions? Advice?

Only commenting on math/science.

If he's 4 yr university bound, you may wish to consider geometry before algebra 2. If he's taking geometry as a senior, he'll be taking those big tests when he's only halfway through, and this may hurt.

I'm not sure what you're using for adv. bio, but I'd check first to make sure that it didn't include significant chemistry content. Many do.

[Corraleno]

If he's 4 yr university bound, you may wish to consider geometry before algebra 2. If he's taking geometry as a senior, he'll be taking those big tests when he's only halfway through, and this may hurt.

I'm not sure what you're using for adv. bio, but I'd check first to make sure that it didn't include significant chemistry content. Many do.

:iagree:
I'd do Alg I /Geometry/Alg II for the reason mentioned above, and I would do Biology/Chemistry/Advanced Biology because I'd want him to have a fair amount of chem before tackling Honors/AP level biology.

For a relatively "math-lite" Physical Science course I'd recommend Hewitt, Suchoki & Hewitt's Conceptual Physical Science Explorations. It's a high school level text that covers physics, chemistry, earth science and a bit of astronomy, with an emphasis on conceptual understanding rather than equations and formulae. For a gentle high school level Intro Bio course I'd recommend Campbell's Biology: Exploring Life; for Honors level bio you could use Campbell's Biology: Concepts & Connections (or Campbell's Biology for college/AP-level).

The history sequence looks fine; I also plan to do US History in 9th. Most colleges just want to make sure you covered it, it doesn't matter which year.

One suggestion I would make regarding your "English" courses would be to perhaps substitute an English Grammar & Composition course for the Literary Analysis in 9th, rather than showing 4 Literature courses and no Composition. Most colleges will want to see a Comp course (or at least see courses that incorporate composition, like English I, English II, etc).

Jackie

[jibaker103]

I have the exact same issues with my ds and math!! We started out with TT Pre-Algebra last spring but it is pretty apparent he needs to drop back to TT 7. Although he has gone from 4th grade to 6th grade in one year when testing him he still struggles with his basics. I'm waiting for it to come in the mail now.

I would try for 3 years of a foreign language. I would also check with the univ/cc what they will accept...some take Latin and Sign Language and some don't.

For 9th grade English I would combine grammar, vocabulary, writing, and literary analysis together and call it "English I" or "English 9." I don't know if you thought about what type of curriculum to cover all of this but I would check out IEW's The Elegant Essay (writing 1 semester), Windows to the World (literary analysis 1 semester), and Fix-It! (grammar and vocabulary up to 4 years).

[Kareni]

Do you already have an idea of what type of college/university he will go to? If so, I'd highly recommend that you check what their requirements are. Many of the colleges to which my daughter applied were looking for precalculus or even a higher level of math. If you find this is the case for colleges that your son is considering, you might wish to do math year-round in order to get him through a higher level. Statistics is a course that could be taken after Algebra II if he chooses not to go the precalculus route.

Regards,
Kareni

[TXMary2]

Thank you. I guess I should say when we do literature we also do writing, vocabulary, grammar and we still do spelling with Spelling Power. I was just indicating what the literature focus each year would be. :) I plan on calling them all English 9, 10, 11, 12. I plan on having a section on the transcript which gives more details of what each entailed.

For Advanced Biology we will use Apologia, either Human Body or Marine Biology. I will let ds choose when the time comes.

Thanks for the Geometry reminder. I *knew* that Geometry goes between the two in PS because of the SAT, but I just forgot.

One local University that he has the potential to attend doesn't require Calculus or Trig in high school. I haven't looked in to other schools yet, but honestly I don't think my son will want to "go away" to school so he will likely attend the local one.

Thanks!