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Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2

June 2, 2014 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have homeschool high school the must cover subjects part 2. Also, look at my page How to Homeschool High School.

Planning high school subjects does not have to be a tricky conundrum.

We may think we want a checklist provided by somebody else, when in fact, guidelines may be of more value.

Guidelines for must cover high school subjects are more flexible than a checklist.

I tallows you to take into consideration your family’s goals, your teen’s maturing personality.

(I know, some days it doesn’t seem like it, but I promise they do grow up) and it allows you to adjust your plan, which is very common too.

When I shared Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1, my goal in that post was to be sure you knew to build your high school courses .

For example, I want you to have ar frame with the basics and keep a good balance of the core subjects.

Today, I want to share what I call “glam planning” in high school.

I call these next round of courses you need to decide on glam planning, because they really embellish or add to the goals you have been working on in the younger grades that will now come to fruition in high school.

Chosen Direction Equals High School Course Selection

The direction your teen chooses to take makes all the difference as to which high school courses are selected.

Too, I think part of the confusion in understanding high school courses is realizing how you can break down course selections and how courses generally fall into larger broad categories.

As you can see from my picture above, American Literature falls under English. It is not as specific though as say a study of plants which is a more narrow study of Biology, which falls under the broad category of Science.

Understanding both the direction your teen wants to take and more clearly how to articulate your courses, will help you to glam up your high school course selection.

For example, if your teen was going to enroll in a four year university then a lot of universities like to see a broad range of topics being covered. In other words, was his course selection well-rounded?

If your teen is thinking about taking community college courses and then maybe head to the work field, then you would want to hone in on skills that will help him to accomplish that.

You would want to be more specific in choosing the course of study.

As you can see from the picture above that a plant study would be a great choice for your child if he chooses to become a biologist.

The bottom line is that must cover subjects vary for each person according to what are the end goals. Understanding that you can get a specific as you need to or stay as general as needed will help you to not become stressed by the selection process.

High School Courses 1, 2, 3 Planning

In public schools here in Texas, the high schools have a variety of plans that you can choose to follow.

I think as parents it is wise for us to have a plan and back up plan too because things don’t always go exactly as planned. Look at the 3 plans below.

The plan varies with the goal, but they are all good plans.

College Bound	Recommended	Minimum
Total Credits : 26	24	22

Remember that you don’t have to have everything planned to a “T” when your child enters high school. Planning is good to help you reach goals, but just don’t allow your plans to rule when you need to change or be flexible.

If you will focus on keeping the core subjects balanced just like you have all along, you will have some breathing room as your teen decides on his final direction.

Look at this 9th grade course selection I laid out where I keep all the course descriptions pretty general. Actually, it’s pretty close to what Mr. Senior 2013 did his freshman year.

Subject Area 9th Grade	Credit
English I	1
Mathematics – Algebra 1	1
Science – Biology	1
Social Studies – World Geography	1
Physical Education	1
Fine Arts	1
Total	6 credits

Can you see how easy peazy it is to get 6 credits for their freshman year and I did not add any electives yet or a health credit, which is usually .5 of a credit?

Hint Hint: The rest of the grades follow this same type of layout.

If your teen was doing a foreign language then you would add that to your course study.

As you can see it is not hard to get the required amount of credits that you set up for them in high school.

Key to determining the credits is being sure that you are within the normal range of most high schools.

Using simple multiplication of 6 x 4 (number of years we usually equate with high school), your child can easily attain 24 credits for high school.

I have heard all kinds of numbers through the years, but I feel pretty safe in saying 19 to 26 total credits for high school is what you should aim for.

Some folks think 19 is too low, but then again it depends on your goals.

How to Easily Plan High School Courses

That is not for any person to judge or say, it is your decision alone as a family to make.

Remember, that there is a lot of wiggle room in choosing courses that interests your teen in high school beyond the core subjects.

Just to give you an idea, beyond the core subjects, my son studied foreign languages for a couple of years, fine arts, wood working, ball room dance, public speaking and some volunteer work.

Look at these steps as to where to begin high school courses.

Plan each grade by filling in the core subjects, which are English or Language Arts, Science, Mathematics and Social Studies. Some schools feel that foreign language is part of the basic core subjects. With our world being more connected than ever before and with diverse cultures in each country, I tend to agree with them. These subjects are your framework.
Determine your child’s direction. This are your glam subjects. If your child is college bound, the college is the first place to visit and determine what they think is a well-rounded plan. If you child does not know a direction which is completely fine too, then fill in with courses that interest them and are of importance to your family. For example, if you child for sure is interested in dance or sports, is it really necessary to weigh them down with a lot of extra history courses? If your child knows a direction and is work-minded, then give him skills in high school that will help him hone his work skills like courses on communications and computers.
Be willing to adjust as you go along. There is a huge difference in maturity levels between children that are 14/15 years old and young adults that are 17/18 years old.

High School Courses

I will share more on this subject as I plod along too in my blogging, but I wanted to give you an easy starting point.

Plan high school just as you have planned the previous grades.

In the most basic form, high school really is just a continuation of what you have been doing all along. Keep on doing it and besides you’ll love “glam planning”.

Hugs and hang in there. High school truly is fun!

I also found one book particularly helpful when planning:

Home School, High School, and Beyond

You’ll love these other powerful and practical helps from my over 20+ years of how-tos:

3 Homeschooling Myths Debunked

May 28, 2014 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Homeschooling Myths Debunked

Myth: “Familiarity Breeds Contempt.”

My experience: What a bunch of malarkey! Time spent with each other is priceless, precious and quickly passes when your children finish homeschool. My sons and I, including my husband, have only drawn closer to each other through our intimate time together.

Oh sure, if a person indulges their children in selfish behavior, allows siblings to talk to each other in a derogatory way and gives more respect to other people outside their home than their own family, I wouldn’t want to live in a home like that either.

It is true that homeschooling is at times more about parenting than it is actual academics. Homeschooling too is more stressful than any homeschool parent will admit at times. But we need to, because it is okay to be stressed and not feel that you have it all together each day. I certainly have had plenty of days like that.

Day to day living in a large household can be trying to say the least, but you have stress even if you lived alone. At home is where family members should receive warmth, comfort and love. When we stop parenting and accept negative behavior from any family member as normal, our home ceases to be a peaceful haven.

I have never been dogmatic about my choice to homeschool because I do feel it is a personal choice for each family. It is one thing to not have the circumstances at the moment to homeschool, but it’s another thing to stand behind homeschooling myths as an excuse to return to public school.

Learning how to get along with others in the outside world begins at home and not public school.

Sending your children away only mitigates any gaping hole in their personality that should be addressed immediately by the parent instead of waiting until their preteen or teen years. By that time it’s almost too late because the separation for some children gives them a feeling of abandonment.

Thoughtless words or words full of grace is your choice alone to model at home.

In my home, we always have room to improve listening to each other, sharing and giving, but I wouldn’t trade a moment away from each other for the closeness developed throughout the years.

Myth: “My child takes instruction from somebody else better.”

My experience: Ouch! This one hurts because sometimes the message a parent is sending is not clear. For example, is a parent saying that their child can’t be instructed?

What I normally find is that as children grow they need to be validated by sources outside of their family. This is perfectly normal because children need to learn how to be accepted by others. It could also be that a child is clamoring because of not having enough friends. Yes, this can happen in the homeschool world. Some children thrive and learn with plenty of people around while others learn better within a small group.

Finding the root cause of why you feel that somebody else will instruct your child better is key to finding the solution. Try to discern the true needs of your child instead of just taking as truth what they are saying. Children are uncertain at times as to what they need and feel overwhelmed too.

Not taking this as a personal affront, hard as it is, helps to clearly identify a solution that will keep you homeschooling.

When a parent totally turns over the teaching reins to somebody else because a child has been hard to teach, I find it sometimes is a parenting issue instead of a homeschool issue. Also, children can resent parents because they may not appreciate your protection.

Problems that a parent thinks will be addressed when the child is away only diminishes at the moment to return later as a more serious problem.

Myth: “How do you know what they are learning unless you test them?”

My experience: Especially for new homeschoolers, this is the hardest question to give assurance for because it requires a leap of faith—well almost. Unlike the ’70s or ’80s when our world was less digitally connected, it was harder to find stories of homeschool success. Oh stories of success existed because homeschooling trails were blazed by pioneers, but there were not easily found.

Today, you will find many stories from homeschooling parents who do not test to find out what their children are learning.

Homeschooling has been compared to rigorous, successful, private tutoring and rightly so. This too has been my same experience.

The few seasoned veterans I knew at the time I began to homeschool passionately protested that day to day teaching my sons would expose me to concepts that my sons both struggled with and mastered. I am forever grateful they had more confidence in my ability to teach my children than I did.

Teaching is not easy and it is an acquired art. Important qualifications to teaching are not just conferred by a degree, but life experiences, preparation and time spent learning on the job.

Time spent intimately day after day with your children sets you apart as as a tutor who knows exactly what her children are learning. Correcting immediately anything that my sons didn’t understand and expanding to great lengths when I needed to, I didn’t have to test to know their grade, or if they were passing or failing. My failures were immediately apparent, but so were my successes.

Why reduce the breadth of a child’s knowledge to a thirty question multiple choice test when I know right then whether they are getting it or not?

I have mentioned before that tests are just tools. If a tool becomes dull, it can become dangerous to use. If it is sharp, it can be used for a good purpose.

Tests have their value in high school whether your teen is applying for colleges or for a job. Too, a test may have a practical value in preventing reading problems. Using tests as a diagnostic tool can be of more value than using it as a measuring tool of what our child actually knows.

Throughout the years and without any prompting from me, my sons took the end of the unit tests in our curriculum. They always enjoyed using them as a review and to increase memory retention.

Now that my oldest son is doing college level work, no doubts are lingering as to the lack of my testing him in the early years. I knew what he was learning each day because I knew that I was teaching him each day.

3 Homeschooling Myths Debunked

Taking time to debunk popular homeschooling myths helps to avoid mommy guilt. Confronting head-on homeschooling myths that I have both encountered and that I hear from homeschoolers that I’ve helped through my New Bee program also deepens my dedication to homeschooling. It gives me a chance to ponder, because I know there is always room for improvement in both my parenting and homeschooling skills.

Look at some of these other empowering tips!

Also, you know I love ya, so check out my homeschool helps!

Have you encountered some of these same homeschooling myths?

Hugs and love ya,

Science e-camp enrollment 3 Days Only– FREE Science Curriculum – HURRY!

May 27, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Supercharged Science is giving away a BRAND NEW collection of new science activities for FREE.

You know I told you that I use Supercharged Science for our science curriculum and did a review about supercharged science last year and why I love them.

The other thing I really love is that I always have something to giveaway for free. I love generous curriculum providers and am always proud to represent them and especially with something I luv.

These are actually a pre-release from their e-camp online science camp that will happen in June. But right now, this is the ONLY place you can get them.

Click on the picture below to grab your free “Science Activity Manual & Video Collection, Vol. 7.”and be sure to get it now, because it may not be available for long. (By the way, if your kids think lasers are cool, you’ll LOVE these).

Pssst!! Be sure to share and tell your friends so they don’t miss out either!

Hugs and love ya,

How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History

May 22, 2014 | 5 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If asked about 15 years ago if I would still be using the same history curriculum today that I started off with undoubtedly I would have answered yes. Laughable uh? Truth of it is, I had no idea what a history spine was {it sounded kind of painful to be honest} let alone how to use a history spine to build my study of history.

Having a passion for keeping history an action packed story in my home, I have used many history spines and am excited about giving you a comparison between them coming up in some summer posts.

{Heads Up: I plan to blog as long as I can before I have to stop to move. Realizing that moving overseas may interrupt my summer, I will share my posts about comparing history spines at my first opportunity. I’m giving you the heads up now.}

What I want to focus on today is to explain what is a history spine and how to use one to create a study for your homeschool

.Too, I want to share a few resources that I use and are timeless spanning any number of years that you homeschool.

What is a history spine?

A simple definition would be that it would be an outline of a topic.

The flexible thing about any type of outline is that it can be comprehensive with very specific details and cover a broad scope.

On the other hand, they also can be very narrow with limited details and more in line like a scope and sequence.

Beyond being an outline about history, a spine can be about any event in history or even about a person.

Other than that, you have a whole host of options to choose from.

Look at my list of what a history spine can be:

History curriculum {an easy one}
Living Book
Biography
A primary resource
Textbook {you know not my favorite, but sometimes you need laid out}
Reference book
A unit study either providing just information or one laid out day by day
A history movie
Magazines

Right away you can see that some resources will be easier to use than others. Something like The Story of the World which has a very helpful question and answer format along with activities makes learning about history fun.

Whereas something like a history magazine will only have information presented and then you have to decide how to divide that up into manageable teaching lessons each day.

One of my very favorite resources to use over the years by far other than reference books has been a Guide to History Plus.

I put a picture here above so that you can see some of the information it contains. Though it has not been updated in a while, the references to the topics are timeless.

For example, under American History: Westward Expansion 1750-1860 it gives ideas for artists, authors, expansion, frontiersmen, immigration, inventors, preachers and unorthodox religious movements.

Ideas and topics for studying about a time period do not go out of date. You can see that Guides to History Plus is more like an outline than it is laying out each lesson day by day.

Then there is much more to consider too. Some history curriculum like The Story of the World is light on Bible content.

Some may see that as a negative because they may want Bible history folded in for them as they go along. For others, it is a positive because they prefer to tie in their own Bible resources.

Just me personally, I always preferred to tie in my own Bible studies and pick/choose which activities I wanted to study deeper on too instead of having it done for me. So, I enjoyed The Story of the World when the boys were little.

Then at the very tip top of the list for history spines when using living books and ones we have read over again and still keep are all the books by Genevieve Foster.

Having history come alive through a story, Genevieve Foster folds in other key events and key characters about a time period.

Fleshing out your history curriculum to study about those other topics makes history like the story it is and not a dry presentation of events.

Some years, I have used only reference books like The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, 3rd edition which was just updated in 2012. I have the previous version and it is just fine too.

Below is the picture for the newer version.

Too, when looking for reference books after you have added a general reference book about world history like The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, 3rd edition or even the The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History, then there are an abundance of other wonderful helps that help you to hone in on certain time periods too.

For Mr. Senior 2013 to feed his love of history and because I needed something about the history of Britain, I found a wonderful help by DK called History of Britain & Ireland that honed in on the different eras.

Some simple tips to building your own study of history is to think about these things,

How much hand holding do I want? Do I want my lesson plans laid out daily or do I want more of a scope and sequence?
Is it a must to cover Bible history? If it is then the next question is do I want Bible history laid out in my curriculum or do I want to lay out my own Bible study course?
Do I feel comfortable adding in my hands-on activities or do I need some presented? Do my kids even care about hands on activities?
Does the history spine cover multiple ages of children? In choosing a history spine, aim to satisfy the needs of the oldest or more advanced learner because it is easier to simplify information for your youngest child at times than it is to find meatier reference for your middle or high school children.

As I mentioned coming up during the summer, I will be sharing different history spines I have used and comparing them to each other. Hopefully, they will help to narrow down some of what you want to use for this next year.

Other Resources and Books for History

Hugs and love ya,

Look at some of these other posts:

4 Signs You May Need to Attend a Homeschool Convention

May 20, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If burnout starts as a ripple in early January then by May it can be a full blown tidal wave of weariness. So by sharing 4 signs that you may need to attend a homeschool convention, I hope to motivate you to make plans to set aside time for yourself.

Look at a few symptoms of burnout.

1. Your curriculum has lost that loving feeling. When compliments about your curriculum that you had in the beginning of the year turn to criticism you know then it may be time to switch your curriculum.

2. You rise up early in the morning only to see if the little yellow school bus still comes down your road. Better yet, you have a teen that drives now and he could easily drop the kids off at public school and you wouldn’t even have to get out of bed.

3. Your list of reasons why you are homeschooling is buried way down in the bottom of a drawer someplace. And that is where you want to keep it.

4. You want to send your kids away to summer camp – for the year.

Guess what? I have those kinds of years days too though I think it gets easier to conquer burnout because now I can see it coming.

Homeschool Conventions – Refuel, Recharge & Recover

Stress is not all together bad either because it means that you have set high standards for you and your kids during the year. But now your energy level may be low and its time for you to be energized.

The spirit at a homeschool convention is contagious and uplifting. Just something about being in a place where you don’t feel you have to slay every negative idea about the path you have decided to take is fortifying. Oh sure, you have all kinds of people that attend homeschool conventions from persons that are very conservative to secular homeschoolers, but somehow you still feel that is where you belong.

Regularly throughout my homeschool journey, I have taken time out to attend a homeschool convention.

I can’t imagine not attending one. I don’t know if it’s the smell of new books, so many chatty and friendly homeschool moms or the very knowledgeable and thorough speakers that draws me in each year. It’s all of it!

Great Homeschool Conventions has the last convention of the year coming up June 12-14 in Ontario, California.

Do you think they left sunny California for last so that we can pine over wanting to go to such a beautiful state?
This is a sponsored post and I am proud that Great Homeschool Convention chose to partner with me this year this year because I LOVE their convention philosophy and because their conventions are well – GREAT!

Here are some details about the California homeschool convention next month June 12-14 in Ontario, California.

Location: Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California. The California Homeschool Convention will offer the largest Homeschool Curriculum Exhibit Hall in California, boasting 100’s of homeschoolers favorite companies.

Recordings: Hundreds of encouraging and informational workshops on many parenting and homeschooling hot topics will be offered. Because you can’t always be at all of the sessions you want to, audio CDs will be offered for sale at the Convention only.

Where to stay? Discounted hotel rates available thanks to partnering hotels in the area. Rooms for $89 and $99 are available. You know this is a big deal especially for California because everything tends to be a bit more expensive.

Whether you choose to enjoy the peace of the day and go by yourself or go with a couple of girlfriends, make it a romantic vacation with your sweetie or family vacation, be sure you get to the convention.

You don’t want to miss this last Great Homeschool Convention in California!

Guess what? If you are like me and love long term planning, then pencil in the dates for 2015 too!

Will you be going?

Hugs and love ya,

Begin building your free 7 Step Homeschool Planner below. You’ll never go back to downloading one planner that may fit your needs this year, but not the next.