We are excited to be revamping the homeschool blog this year! We started out strong last year but the blog ended up taking a backseat towards the latter part of the year as things got busier and more routine. Both Zoey and I agree however that we appreciate sharing on the blog as it not only is a way for us to stay organized and reflect on what it is that we're doing (and why) but also serves as a way to keep us on track throughout the year. At the end of the year it's also fun to look back and see all that we've accomplished.
We are all set with Zoey's curriculum selections for her 10th grade year and she's excited to get started, asking if we can start early even! Here's what we've got planned...
For English we'll be using
Oak Meadow's Literature & Composition II coursebook and selections. She loves Oak Meadow for English and Language Arts. It's a thorough and comprehensive program which is perfect for Zoey since her strengths are reading and writing.
English/1 Credit
We are trying something new this year for History (a subject that we've yet been able to find something that we are in love with!). We're trying out
Beautiful Feet's Medieval Times for Senior High. This is meant to be a History and Literature course in one so we will be able to award multiple credits for this course.
British Literature/1 Credit and Old World History/1 Credit
Science is something that Zoey is always usually pretty excited about. This year is no exception! This year we will be using Guest Hollow's Chemistry in the Kitchen in conjunction with Ellen McHenry's Introduction to Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry as well as utilizing this
Thames and Kosmo Chemistry set and lab manual that my mom and step-dad so awesomely gifted to us!
Chemistry/1 Credit and Culinary Arts/0.5 Credit
This will be Zoey's second year of Spanish. Last year she used an online program for Spanish but she and I both weren't that pleased with it. This year she will be using Abeka for Spanish and looking through it Zoey seems to like the layout of it better so we're hoping this is a better fit.
Spanish/1 Credit
Math will again be Math-U-See from Demme Learning. We've been so happy using Math-U-See. Math is one of Zoey's more challenging subjects and I'm so thankful that right off the bat in our homeschooling journey we lucked out with selecting this curriculum. It's been amazing to see her go through these books! We initially had backed up a bit so she would have the opportunity to have a stronger foundation in math moving forward and it's been amazing to see the progress that she's made. In three years time she's gone through 4 1/2 years/books of this math program. I can't say enough good things about Math-U-See and Mr. Demme!
Math/1 Credit
For health this year we will be piecing materials together to create our own health/mental health and mindfulness course. I'm excited about this. Some of the resources for this will be books/written material, videos (TedTalks, Yoga with Adrienne, Meditation videos) and learning about nutritional and holistic approaches to health and mental health. We will be doing this throughout the whole year incorporating physical activity in with the study as well.
Health/0.5 Credit Physical Education/0.5
Zoey's got a pretty heavy course load with the above listed courses so our electives are still a bit up in the air until we get a feel for how things will actually look throughout the week and how much time the courses will actually take. That said, we have Art on the list as one elective that's for sure. We are pulling project ideas and will be learning about different uses of materials and techniques when it comes to both drawing and painting using both the
Drawing Lab and
Paint Lab books. I like how the author shares about different artists too and attaches samples of their work throughout when it applies to different methods or techniques that are being taught. I am still working on getting all the art supplies needed for this course as those supplies tend to be somewhat expensive! Depending on whether we do this for a full year or half a year it will either be a full credit course and a half a credit.
Art/0.5 or 1 Credit
This brings us to a total of 8 or 8.5 Credits for her Sophomore year.
Her extra-curricular activities include the following:
Classical Guitar Lessons
Ballet
Drama Club (Theatre and Musical)
North State Mycological Club (late summer/fall)
This is what we have so far...and as always, things are bound to change or be somewhat tweaked here and there. It always seems too that fun opportunities often present themselves as the year goes on. That's the beauty of homeschooling!
