Non Christian curriculum for high school

[TracyR]

Hello all . I have a friend who is deciding to homeschool her son this year and he will be a 7th -8th grader ( she isn't sure yet ,, they had a bad year ) . Anyways she came to me for curriculum advice and well , my girls aren't high schoolers :D . Plus I use Christian Curriculum when I possibly can . What non Christian Curriculum do you all suggest for :

Math? ( well I know Saxon , anything else ? )

Grammar ??? I don't think GWG is up that high yet .

HIstory ??


Science ???

Any of the other subjects I'm forgetting right now .She just wants somewhere to start and things to look at . She isn't sure what method or anything at the moment because he is finishing out the school year .

[Jenny in Atl]

Here is a thread with some ideas...
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30564

Also..
Math: Singapore, Jacobs, Lial's, PH
History: SOTW, History Odyssey, History at Out House (http://www.historyatourhouse.com/), Susan Strauss Art's bks, and Galore Park.
Science: Singapore, Galore Park, Prentice Hall, and Tops
Grammar: AG, Warriner's, and Harvey's. (writing... Classical writing, Write Shop, Wordsmith)

Hope this is a start.

[Liza Q]

We are Christians but we use/will use/have used a lot of secular things -

Teaching Textbooks
Lial's

Literature a la WTM
Lightning Literature (Hewitt is a Christian Company but we have used 3 LLs and have not seen any Christian content)
Spark Notes
Analytical Grammar
Stewart English
The Lively Art of Writing
Most of the books they read

History a la WTM
Spielvogel
The History of the American People
Timetables of History
Most of the books they read

Great Source Government

Economics in One Lesson

Lingua Latina

I can't recommend any secular science yet - maybe next year!

[Myra]

I always recommend new home schoolers to go to the Rainbow Resources online and order their free catalog -it's over 1,000 pages thick! First, their prices are excellent. Secondly, when I started home schooling I would just sit and "browse" the catalog as they offer a range of curriculums/texts/products but best of all they give a good paragraph description of each product...pros and cons....that I found helpful. Thirdly, they are very responsive when you have questions about the suitablitiy of the product. Each time that I've e-mailed them with a question they have always responded promptly with great insight!

Myra

[TracyR]

THanks so much ladies . This has helped me alot .

[asta]

If your friend is uncomfortable about building her own program (some people are), there are programs like Trisms (http://www.trisms.com), which is completely secular, and includes all history and literature (but one has to add lab science and mathematics) or Kolbe (http://www.kolbe.com), which includes everything, but isn't secular per se (it has a religion course, but the religion isn't woven throughout the curriculum at the HS level), but allows for "substitutions" within their program.

In a program such as Trisms, a new homeschooler would be responsible for finding a math program, a lab science, and seeking out additional texts (any readings needed for the lessons are included in the package) as well as doing paperwork.

In a program such as Kolbe, the same person would need to find a suitable substitute for the religion component (eg: instead of the Catholic magisterium Kolbe offers, the person would need to offer their child philosophy books or "religions of the world" books) to make up the hours. Other wise, the paperwork, etc. would be taken care of.

IIRC correctly, Sonlight is adaptable from 10th grade on, but their 9th grade curriculum is completely religious.

I mention these because, in my experience, first time homeschoolers (especially high school) are usually fearful of straying too far from "the box". Your friend, of course, may be much more adventuresome.


asta


ETA: I just saw that you said 7-8th -- I thought you said 9th. Eh. Maybe some of the info is helpful anyway.

[Kathy in MD]

Math: video courses - Chalk Dust, Video Text, Teaching Text Books, Lial's has video courses but I wasn't impressed by the teaching on the sample I saw.

History: I find TWTM method easy and inexpensive with a good library.

Science: CPO middle school, ds and I like this much better than Prentice Hall Science Explorer series

Writing: Sentence Composing, IEW (Christian, but minor inserts from what I've seen of the middle ages program and teachers' tapes)

Vocabulary: Wordly Wise

Grammar & writing combined: Voyages in English

Lit: ????

[Kareni]

Lit: ????

As Liza Q mentions, the vast majority of Hewitt's Lightning Literature programs do not contain Christian content. A few do but they are marked as such in the catalog. See: http://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/book/blight.asp

Other possibilities include Mosdos Literature (see: http://www.mosdospress.com/) as well as the individual book studies put out by Garlic Press (love their name!, see: http://www.garlicpress.com/cgi-bin/shop_gp.cgi?product=LITERATURE).

Also have your friend request a copy of the EPS catalog (see: http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/customer_service/request_a_catalog/)
which has a variety of secular resources.

J Weston Walch has some secular grammar programs. See: http://www.walch.com/search.php?catid=1&subcatid=4&query=grammar&sorttype=pr&sdisp=gr&spack=0&per_page=12

If she needs a spelling program, there is AVKO's Sequential Spellling. See: http://www.avko.org/sequentialspelling.html

Regards,
Kareni