Would you take a look at this 10th grade plan?

[JennifersLost]

Here's what I'm doing with my tenth grader. Even though we live in Canada, we're Americans and he plans to go to college in the US, so we're trying to meet general US requirements.

Math: we're using the same 10th grade math text they use in the local schools. He got used to it and likes it; he'll take the BC provincial grade 10 exam at the end of the year.

Social Studies: WTM grade 10 - Middle ages/early renaissance. We have two Teaching Company lecture sets, a textbook, and will read about half the WTM list of books that go with this year.

English: The history-linked books, he's finishing the second half of a comprehensive grammar book, working on SAT grammar, and he'll be learning to do the kind of essay found on the SAT. He also blogs about home renovating. He'll be writing up science labs. I feel a little weak here.

Science: Biology using the Exploring Life textbook. We'll do 23 labs including two dissections and writing them up formally. Is there some test he could take at the end to prove he's learned it? Or is the work (questions, labs, online work, quizzes) enough?

Latin: We'll complete Oxford Latin book 2

Music: he takes violin and piano lessons and will be in at least two orchestras, maybe more.

What are we missing that would normally happen in Grade 10? Should he have "electives"?

I'm really nervous about this year.

[Lori D.]

Your schedule looks good to me! Latin generally can count for foreign language, so you're getting that requirement covered. And your 2 instruments can each count for 1 full credit of elective, so you've got 2 electives in there. You don't need any end of year test for Biology -- but if you really *want* one, perhaps compile your own from the quiz questions?

The only requirement I can think of that you don't have listed is some sort of PE. You usually need 1-2 credits worth (150-300 hours) of PE over the course of 4 years of high school. Does he do any sport? Or can you just have him log his hours of activities (hiking, pick-up game of basketball with friends, skateboarding, skiing, weightlifting, running, etc. etc.) over the course of the year and call that PE?

You mentioned you felt weak in the English area; perhaps add something for SAT vocabulary? Perhaps have him write several longer papers -- maybe one every 4-6 weeks -- on history and/or WTM books? Be sure to practice citing sources. Try different types of papers: compare/contrast; a "position" paper; a research paper; etc. Or, outsource the writing as an online writing course?


Not that you asked for it (lol), but I'm so proud to have my 10th grader's schedule *finally* ready (we start Monday!) I'll share mine with you below. : ) BEST of luck, and hope both of our 10th grade years go well! Warmest regards, Lori D.


MATH = 1 credit
- Abeka Consumer Math
- NEM 2 (skim it for Algebra/Geometry review)


SCIENCE = .5 credit
- Apologia Biology (finish)
- Anatomy (short unit to learn the body systems)


HEALTH = .5 credit
- Total Health


SOCIAL STUDIES = 1 credit

History = 20th Century World:
- Spielvogel Human Odyssey (last 450 pages, on modern history)
- 3-4 other books (parts as needed as non-fiction supplements)
- 8 historical fiction books at or below reading level (4 with 1-2 page book reviews)
- 10-12 "decade reports" (a 3 page paper once every 3-4 weeks)
- 20 time line entries per decade (done once every 3 weeks)

Geography = 20th Century Europe
- mapping;
- earn European countries/capitals
- overview of food/culture/history of 9 European countries (1 per month)

Art/Music/Film = 20th Century World
- once a month, listen to/discuss a 20th century piece of music, or read out of Sister Wendy's art book (20th century) or watch an hour of her PBS art series from the library, or watch/discuss a film as it relates to 20th century culture


ENGLISH = 1 credit

Writing = Wordsmith Craftsman/Jensen's Format Writing (as needed)

Spelling/Vocabulary = from reading/from Greek & Latin roots

Literature = "Worldviews in Science Fiction and Horror"
(designing our own lit. portion of English by reading/writing ala WTM about the following:)
- Frankenstein (Shelley)
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Stevenson)
- Animal Farm (Orwell)
- Farenheit 451 (Bradbury)
- Brave New World (Huxley)
- The Giver (Lowry)
- several short stories from Cosmi Comics (Calvino)
- A Canticle for Leibowitz
- The Invisible Man (Wells)


PE = .5 credit
- tennis
- swim laps


ELECTIVES:

- Bible = .5 credit
- Filmmaking = .5 credit = Apple Computer free curriculum
- Logic = 1 credit = Practical Logic (he'll do DH's college text with DH)


"SUMMER SCHOOL" in 2009:

Worldviews = .25 credit
- Worldview Academy 1 week summer camp (25+ hours instruction)
- read 2 books
- listen to WVA podcasts throughout the year

[Catherine]

I have the child who cant' say no to anything and he wants to take *everything*, right now. One year of public school has done that...
So what he wants:

CC chemistry, one semester course, Physics with Mom in spring
Lial's precalculus, supplemented with Schaum's Outlines and Thinkwell
Computer Science, one semester at CC
Online Classical Writing course-thank you to the person who recommended this!
English-see above, plus VCR, and another course, maybe Literary Lessons from LOTR?
Chinese-beginning
Spanish-level 2
self-designed linguistics course-???? he hasn't worked on this much yet
AP American history-still trying to put this together. I'll use several texts, Teaching Company, History of US, and primary sources
violin\orchestra
swimming, squash, karate

Can one person do this?? I am trying to urge him to curtail his ambitions and delve deeper rather than dabbling in too many things at once. He only decided to homeschool 3 weeks ago so I am scrambling a bit.

I think both of your plans look much more sensible and focused.

[JennifersLost]

Well, I'm trying to stay sensible and focused, but what I haven't mentioned is that ds would like to do two years of work in one year. I figure I don't have to worry too much about that. I won't undercut his aspirations, but if he isn't finished with all this 10th grade stuff by the end of the first semester, we won't move on to 11th grade. I think as soon as the reality of all this work kicks in he'll revise his own plan.

Thanks for mentioning PE, and I think I'll tell ds that he should stick in some art either this year or next at some point. He did get some in 9th grade.

My next hurdle is going to be getting him to nail down a schedule for getting the work done. He's been resisting scheduling, but there's no way all of this will get done if we don't schedule it out.

Lori - if I'm reading your schedule right it looks like you're doing 6.5 credits this year? Is that typical?

And I also noticed you included health. Do I need that at some point?

Thanks so much!

[kate in seattle]

Jennifer,

I think you have a very solid and reasonable schedule there.

Most US high schools require "health" (usually 1 semester class) to graduate. However, few (if any) of the colleges I have looked at seem to require it. You can choose to use a Health textbook - or perhaps replace it with some real-life learning. a first-aid class, discussing food choices, etc.

If you were in the states, i would suggest that taking a SAT II (subject) test in Biology would be a good thing to do. I think the SAT II tests should be taken after the subject is studied, rather than waiting till the senior year. I don't know if you have that option in Canada. Another option would be to take the CLEP test; again, I don't know how easy that is to do in Canada.

A lot depends on where he wants to go to college, and what he wants to study, but I am sure hundrends, if not thousands, of home schooled students have been admitted to college with a simple Biology listed on the transcript.

May you both have a very successful year!
Kate in Seattle

[Lori D.]

>>>
- 1 credit = CC chemistry*
- .5 credit = Physics with Mom in spring
- 1 credit = Lial's precalculus, supplemented with Schaum's Outlines and Thinkwell
- 1 credit = Computer Science, one semester at CC*
- .5 credit = Online Classical Writing course-thank you to the person who recommended this!
- . 5 credit = English-see above, plus VCR, and another course, maybe Literary Lessons from LOTR?
- 1 credit = Chinese-beginning
- 1 credit = Spanish-level 2
- .25 to .5 credit (?) = self-designed linguistics course-????
- 1 credit = AP American history-still trying to put this together. I'll use several texts, Teaching Company, History of US, and primary sources
- 1 credit = violin\orchestra
- .25 to .5 credit = swimming, squash, karate

* = 1 semester CC course = 2 semesters of a high school course, which = 1 credit <<<



Wow! Looks to me like you're in for 9 to 9.5 credits this year -- and 1 credit roughly translates to 1 hour per day of work. At 9 to 9.5 hours of schooling a day, that's a LONG day! I'd guess that 6 to 6.5 credits a year is average, though a lot of students who are really committed to outside-of-home interests such as an instrument/band/orchestra, theater, volunteer work, etc. typically manage 7 to 7.5 credits in a year.

Not that you asked for advice, but... (lol)... Some suggestions for cutting back:
- drop Physics; you'll get a full year of science in 1 semester thru CC Chemistry
- choose Chinese OR Spanish -- only tackle 1 language in a year; or, do one semester of each for .5 credit of each
- save computer science as a summer school course
- save linguistics for a future year, when you have it more clearly defined

That would get you down to 6.75 to 7 credits in one school year, while still getting in the requirements, and still having 1 elective during the year, plus the option of another elective as a summer school course...


I can't say enough good things about Mary Schofield and her homeschool convention presentations on planning out high school classes and credits. She repeatedly stresses: "You CAN'T do it all. You only have so much time; so choose WISELY, and do the coursework that is most important to you and your student in preparing them for life."

She shows how to figure out hours and credits: a typical public high school class is 50 minutes long; 10-15 minutes of that is usually lost to paper-pushing, classroom disruptions, etc., so a teacher typically only gets 35-40 minutes of real instruction/learning time. Add back in homework time (reading books, writing papers/lab reports, making projects, studying for tests/quizzes, doing exercises for foreign language or other classes, practicing an instrument, etc), and that brings you back up to about 50-60 minutes per day per class. The typical high school year is 180 days. So this equals out to approximately:

- 1 credit = 50-60 min. per day x 180 days = 150-180 hours
- .5 credit = 50-60 min. per day x 90 days = 75-90 hours
(or, 25-30 min. per day x 180 days)
- .25 credit = 50-60 min. per day x 45 days = 37.5-45 hours
(or, 25-50 min. per day x 90 days)

(She has all this and lots more in her book: The High School Handbook; available at Amazon or at the Book Peddler: http://www.bookpeddler.us/catalog/home-education/p_3373.html)

The upshot of this is that when you hit 150-180 hours (or a 1 semester community college course) you now have completed 1 credit's worth of work -- so plan out what you want to cover wisely!

She says she often sees homeschoolers trying to jam 200-300 hours of work into 1 credit; or, trying to take so many courses that the child has to school for 8-9 hours a day. That's why she says it's SO important to plan ahead, so you can accomplish what YOU and your student feel are the MOST important things. (Mostly lecturing myself, LOL!, as I have struggled all summer to get our schedule down to 6.5 credits. I still have all the materials lined up for another .5 credit of a "Great Books" course, but am really going to try and restrain myself until I see how our schedule goes this year!)


Hope something here is of help to you! BEST of luck to you and your son as you plan out your year! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Lori D.]

Yes, what Kate said so eloquently! : ) And re: your question on credits -- I believe 6 credits is typical; 7 credits if the student is heavily doing sports or an instrument or theater. You look like you have 7 credits to me, what with 2 instruments! BEST wishes for a terrific 10th grade! Warmly, Lori

[JennifersLost]

Lori, I wanted to give you more rep, but I can't. Those are some very helpful posts! Thank you so much.

[Catherine]

I do know aobut the time requirements for credit, though our school only requires 120 hours. Still, we will probably use the 160 hour definition, just to fit subjects in.

I am going to encourage him to start Chinese in the spring when Chemistry is done. I agree that one science is probably. Computer scienc in the summer is what we will do, too. He wants to work or volunteer, so I want to keep s little time for that during the year, then if he chooses a summer course, he won't miss out totallyon w rok or volunteer experience.

I didn't mean to make it sound as if he's never been homeschooled. He was for 7th and 8th grade. He knows now that the social experience of high school was definitely not all it was cracked up to be-LOL.

Thanks again for your help.