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The Best Ninth Grade Homeschool Curriculum | Tips And Recommendations

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Let’s look at some of the best ninth grade homeschool curriculum to help make this year your best one yet. Also, you’ll love my page Homeschool Curriculum for more ideas and grade level curriculum and my page How to Homeschool High School.

Ninth grade aka freshman year is the kickoff to the high school years.

And it is a pretty big jump from middle school, but is also filled with exciting milestones like getting a driver’s license.

The Best Ninth Grade Homeschool Curriculum | Tips And Recommendations

Technology will likely play a big part in your child’s education by this time from using online calculators to classes, music appreciation, language apps, and more.

It is a time of growing independence and branching out into more electives or at least learning more adult life skills.

If they are not mostly independent in their daily work already, they will be able to take on more of their own work load whether their school takes place online, in books, or even in the woods.

Homeschool 9th Grade Tips and Recommendations

College and Career-This is the optimal time to start thinking about a career track for your student, leaning heavily into extra classes, maybe even dual enrollment to be sure that they have all the things that they need.

That is not to say college is the only, or even the best option for your child. They may intend to go into cosmetology, guess what?

They can start learning that skill now through online tutorials, friends, and even on the job training.

 Do you have a Marine Biologist on your hands? Be sure to load up on science classes and incorporate field trips that teach and feed that interest.

Flexible Scheduling-If your child has a job now make sure that you adjust their school schedule to accommodate work hours. Flexible doesn’t have to mean you cut way back on schooling at all, it might just mean that they do math in the evening instead of the morning or double up biology on the weekend.

Field Trips-As new interests will be developing at this level, long standing ones might increase or fade away all together.

Field trips, while they will look different than that early visit to a local farm, they are a wonderful way to support their interests and possible career choices.

Additionally, field trips can be a visit to a location for their career field of choice like the state capital building, behind the scenes at a hair salon or law office.

The Best Ninth Grade Homeschool Curriculum | Tips And Recommendations

You could visit a local pottery studio or glass blowing studio, watch a Broadway theater performance, or they could be in the form of take your child to work day in the office.

More Ninth Grade Homeschool Curriculum Tips

Best Homeschool Curriculum For All Grades

9th Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Lastly, look at some recommendations and tips.

9th Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Add these fun curriculum recommendations to your 9th grader's homeschool day.

7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Fun geometry hands-on activities for high school can mean the difference in just getting by and really getting engaged in lessons. Also, look at my page How to Homeschool High School for more ideas.

Just because your child is in high school does not mean that they’ve set aside their love for Lego.

A fantastic way to incorporate Lego into lessons is to use them to create examples and identify angles.

7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

We have done Lego math in the past. But you can even use it for high school manipulatives for learning geometry.

First let’s talk about what geometry is.

Geometry is the part of mathematics that we use for calculating the distance around a circle, the angles that make up a triangle, or the amount of room inside of a cube.

We use it daily in art, navigation, in construction, sports, and even simple household tasks like measuring a surface area for wallpaper.

So, you can see why it is a necessary skill for your teen to learn.

7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

Next, look at some of these activities.

These activities are a wonderful way to create a break in the typical textbook, worksheet lesson of high school geometry and can help make complicated lessons more understandable.

  1. Look at this LEGO for geometry idea Pythagorean Theorem Lego Proof.
  2. This Geometry Roller Coaster Project is a large scale lesson in engineering and problem solving. Although it’s written for a classroom, it can be used for one or two students.
  3. Using Hands-On Inquiry in High School Geometry gives you ideas for creating some hands-on geometry lessons that include their observations and geometry tools.
  4. Play the Simplyfun Shape Whiz game for an enjoyable lesson to reinforce some basic geometry shape information.
  5. Bonus, this one post includes 5 Geometry Projects for Middle and High School that are fun while
  6. Grab your deck of uno cards and try Using Uno as an Intro to Teaching Proofs for an advanced geometry lesson.
  7. While Geometric Art For Kids is geared to younger kids I still really think it has value and appeal for the high school bunch as well.
7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

Also, look at my post Ancient Greece Unit Study Play Stomachion Like Archimedes {Explore Geometry} to add a math element to your favorite unit study.

The resource Everything You Need to Ace Geometry in One Big Fat Notebook is a fantastic supplement to any curriculum.

In addition, it can be used for independent study and worked well to use with my LEGO activity I have for you today.

Teaching Geometry With LEGO Activities For High School

You will need:

  • LEGO
  • LEGO Baseplate
  • cardstock
  • Pen
7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

Single row, long LEGO bricks work best for these activities.

And if you need a good basic set of LEGO because you don’t already have them lying around the house this is a fantastic option.

Two ways we discovered to practice basic geometry are through learning terms and identifying examples of them as well as identifying different angles.

The first way I have to practice geometry is a way to introduce or reinforce geometry terms.

Geometry Vocabulary

  • Point- Indicates a location.
  • Line-a straight path that extends infinitely in both directions.
  • Line segment –Part of a line with two endpoints.
  • Ray- Part of a line that starts at a point and extends infinitely in one direction.
  • Vertex  –The point of intersection of two or more line segments.
  • Triangle – A shape with 3 sides and 3 vertices.
  • Angle- is formed of two rays with the same endpoint, vertex.
  • Parallel lines- Two lines in the same plane that are at equal distance from each other and never meet.
  • Perpendicular lines– Lines that intersect at a 90 degrees angle.

Write each of these terms onto cardstock and cut them into small strips to create labels.

7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

You can carry out the activity in one of two ways, either create examples of the terms using various LEGO pieces or lay down the terms onto the base plate and have your highschooler create an example by building it with LEGO bricks.

7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

Get creative with using single row bricks to create the examples, use single studs for your points, and make arrows at the end of rays with smaller pieces.

7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

In the same way, create labels for acute, right, and obtuse angles and make examples for your student to match or let them create an example of each using random LEGO pieces.

7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

Because LEGOs are meant to snap together at right angles and not obtuse or acute you will need a little help. Place your long skinny bricks on single studs to lift them above the base plate

7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

You will then be able to swing them around freely to create different angles.

7 Fun Geometry Hands On Activities For High School

22 Homeschool Geography Go To Resources

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I have some fun homeschool geography resources today. Too, look at my page Homeschool Geography for hands-on and simple ideas and tips.

We’ve used many homeschool geography resources through the years because geography is not about coloring boring maps.

I needed to round up our homeschool geography resources that we already had on hand and in the upper grades I needed something more laid out.

22 Homeschool Geography Go To Resources

For example, in the upper grades we used geography curriculum that we got from Bright Ideas Press.

Homeschool Geography Go To Resources

I did manage to round up these atlases and books that I have had to show you some of what I use. 

Homeschool Geography Resources

Too, I have taken some screen shots to show you our brand new WonderMaps because I will be using WonderMaps with North Star Geography.

homeschool geography resources

Today, I wanted to show you my growing geography resources that I know we will be using with North Star Geography.

I am sure you can study geography on probably a lot less than we have, but we can’t.

Our geography habit needs to be fed each year, so we have added resources slowly.

Too, as the boys got older they have wanted their own books and resources.  As the budget allowed, I added them in regularly.

So below I have listed resources that I think are must-haves or basic.

Again, it doesn’t mean you need all of them, but helping to know which ones are more useful or helpful makes it easier to decide. 

The other resources pictured above but not listed below,  I add in as enrichment and I just wanted you to see them.

Homeschool Geogrpahy Go To Resources Linked Up

22 Homeschool Geography Go To Resources & Gift Ideas

Add some of these fun books and resources to your learning day if you're wanting to study geography with multiple ages. Maybe you want to hook your child on geography with a gift or two.

Resources For Kids Learning Geography

  • 1. The inexpensive geography mats we actually picked up at Wal-mart a few years back.  One side has a world map and the other mat has the U.S. and then the flip side on both mats is blank.  We did and still do quick geography quizzes with them.  We will study a region, then quickly flip on the back side and try to fill in with a dry erase markers as many rivers, boundaries and countries that we could get.  Me too, I was included in the race to see how many I could label in a short time.

  • 2 National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World You know anything by National Geographic is top notch.  I always said I would never buy anything this big because of the problem of storing it.  That didn’t last long because once you take a look at how breath taking the solar system looks in it and how they compare geography facts like comparing two continents, it looks so much better in a large book.  Too, it is easier as the kids get bigger to gather around a bigger book.  (Tip: Always check to see that you are buy the most current edition.)

  • 3. DK is another favorite publisher. Complete Atlas of the World, 2nd Edition I actually got this one because it had some facts like population growth, global climate and border conflicts that I want my boys aware of.  The physical world maps are more in depth though not as vivid as the National Geographic.

Geography Resources For Kids

  • 4.  National Geographic Family Reference Atlas of the World, Third Edition is another beauty by National Geographic.  I purchased this one because of key information like tables, charts, biodiversity, education.  It truly is a family reference.  I guess if you had to make a choice for your middle to high school kids, this would be in the top running.
  • 5.   Junior Classroom Atlas This is one of our first ones because it is suited for elementary aged children and we still refer to it when the other atlases are teeming with overwhelming information.  Sometimes you can have too much information and it helps to break it down to the general sweeping facts.
  • 6.  CLASSROOM ATLAS-REVISED 2012 This is geared toward about middle school and can be used for elementary ages too.  It has been updated and it is one I will probably be adding soon.  Even though stats change, I feel some atlases are timeless.  Not so much changes (physical earth wise) that you can’t use an older atlas.  Sure, stats will change, but if your kids are young, they are not interested in that kind of stuff right now anyway.

Geography Books Kids

  • 7.   Historical Atlas of the World 1st (first) edition Text Only An historical map is one that you will need when studying ancient history because it shows the boundaries or empires as they were then.  It really helps your kids to get a foot hold on ancient history.  You can see this one is out date, but then again it’s ancient history and how much updating can you possibly do.  So I don’t always fall for having to have the most up to date.
  • 8.  Historical Atlas of the World  Now what I do fall for is when another kid needs their own copy.  So I have purchased the updated copy of the historical atlas simply because I had two older middle school kids and we needed more than one.  I won’t go into the fights over having their own copies.
  • 9.  Free geography vocabulary words I made and put them on a O ring.  These are good for your kids to study later too.
  • 10.  National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers, Third Edition
    I got this one because it we could read about things like the animals for the website links they gave us and each continent had basic facts.  Like it says more about the exploring aspect of geography and we love this one.  It is especially good for a child that is geography phobic so they can see  geography is about so much more than finding the prime meridian.  It is about exploring and going to far away places.
  • 11.  A Child’s Introduction to the World: Geography, Cultures, and People – From the Grand Canyon to the Great Wall of China  This is a really sweet book.  It includes a pop-up paper globe and stickers.  I like it because though its geared toward younger learners, it can still stand up for older kids too because of the information in it.  It is another keeper for multiple ages of children.

Homeschool Geography For Kids

  • 12.  The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World Geography With Complete World Atlas (Geography Encyclopedias) Again, another one of my very first purchases.  I always made sure I didn’t just buy curriculum but had enough back in my budget for references that would stand the test of time.  A great reference book that we just love.

  • 13.   What is geography without games? And,  Professor Noggin’s History & Geography Card Games: Set of 6 is one of our favorite series.  We have a lot of them.
22 Homeschool Geography Go To Resources

More Geography Go To Resources

Also, I’ve update our geography go to resources.

The other two we have that didn’t make the picture because Mr. Senior had them someplace are Geography: A Visual Encyclopedia which is absolutely stunning which is why I can’t find it right now and has a lot of different things like gemstones, earthquakes and weather.  

And the other one is Atlas of World Geography which is a highschool level book that gets lost around here frequently too.  It is the one I will be using on North Star Geography, well at least for Mr. Awesome.

22 Homeschool Geography Go To Resources

Then of course my newest tool that makes studying geography absolutely a breeze is WonderMaps. You can print black or white maps or color maps.

Geography Wonder Maps

Take off boundaries or leave them on ALL with a click of your mouse. It truly is going to make studying geography so much more than finding boundaries or locating countries.

Homeschool Geography Go To Resources

Though we love all of our resources and we add to them as we plod along during the years, those above are keepers and I feel are basic to any library.

Do you have any geography go to resources that your family luvs?

Homeschool High School Graduation Menu and Party Venue Day 4 of 10 Days

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today is Day 4 homeschool high school graduation menu and party venue ideas for the updated 10 days series for planning a homeschool graduation. Also, look at more ideas on my how to homeschool high school page.

As I learned, choosing a menu goes hand in hand with choosing a venue.

We knew we were wanting to host a graduation with a sit down dinner and not just serve light refreshments.

Homeschool High School Graduation Menu and Party Venue Day 4 of 10 Days

I feel there are a handful of occasions that come around in life that deserve more attention than normal; graduating high school is one of them.

We chose to serve a dinner for our guests. Keeping it small keeps it affordable too.

At first, Mr. Senior 2013 decided he wanted Italian food. We love Italian food.

However, I feel when serving to a larger crowd and because not everybody has the same taste palate, a more diverse menu was in order.

10 Days of Planning a Homeschool High School Graduation: Menu and Venue (Day 4). As I learned, choosing a menu goes hand in hand with choosing a venue. We knew we were wanting to host a graduation with a sit down dinner and not just serve light refreshments. I feel there are a handful of occasions that come around in life that deserve more attention than normal; graduating high school is one of them. We chose to serve a dinner for our guests. CLICK here to learn how we celebrated!

Making Homeschool Lifetime Memories NOW

He agreed and in the end we kept to our southern roots and added in something special, like the prime rib.

Here is our menu for the night

  • chicken friend chicken with smothered cream gravy
  • prime rib
  • garlic mashed potatoes
  • southern style green beans (no half cooked crispy green beans)
  • salad/trimmings
  • homemade bread sticks

Having hosted many parties where I both prepared the food and brought it, I didn’t want to do that this time.

I wanted to enjoy the out of town guests and family instead of running around serving/preparing food.

Look at these tips I learned when ordering the food through a catering service that saved us some money.

  • Choose a time of the week when it’s not as busy. Saturday is more like a peak time, so having our party on Friday, it was a better price break.
  • I chose entrees and sides separately instead of paying by the plate. In other words think like you are picking up the food with 40 servings instead of telling them they are catering.
  • By serving the food ourselves, we didn’t have the extra charge for set up, serving and tips for servers.
  • For us, the venue was right down the road, so the caterer only charged an extra $25.00 for delivery. If the place is further away, having somebody responsible with a huge van works too. For me, having the chef deliver the food worked out better since he had rolling carts and brought his hired help.
    • Cake and Food - Homeschool Graduation @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

At this time, I ordered the cake too. Being the guy that he is, Mr. Senior 2013 only had a few things he wanted.

One thing was he didn’t want it to look like a wedding cake or “too girly”.

I think if you have a daughter, she will probably have a lot to say on this.

Homeschool High School Graduation – Party Time!

I think it’s hard for cakes to look anything other than plain pretty.

I ended up having it made and chose an ombre (graduated color) blue design.

Keeping the table simple with candles, flowers and a white cake stand, kept it pretty, simple, and elegant.

Homeschool Venue @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusWelcoming Lobby Homeschool Graduation @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
homeschool graduation location @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusKitchen matters Homeschool Graduation @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

As far as the venue, we have a lot of places around us to choose from.

I have lived in places where you only have a handful of places that are nice. But, if you have a choice, look for these things.

  • Is there a fee for set up or cleaning?
  • Do you have to clean? Can you pay for somebody to clean it afterwards? We got the place clean and so all we had to do was pitch in at the end and clean up. Our homeschool kids are use to doing this because of how many field trips we have had hosted.
  • We ended up going with a community center that has a nice kitchen so I could keep the food warm when it was delivered. There was plenty of parking and it was easy to find so I didn’t have to send out instructions with the invitations. The lobby was warm and inviting.

But, I think the best tips of all are the money savings tips because why not take advantage of them. Who wants to pay full price when we can get a deal?

Remembering that some managers gave me a discount for places we have rented for our homeschool co-ops during the week, my hubby asked them for renting the place on FRIDAY and not a peak time like Saturday night.

They were delighted because hardly anybody rents a room or building on a Friday.

We cut our cost significantly, about 40% by renting it on Friday.

Our homeschool friends are pretty flexible and as long as they knew ahead of time, they can arrange their schedules.

Choosing to do some of the serving and cleaning ourselves, the party was fast becoming a part diy party.

But that is not the only diy thing we did. You know homeschoolers become true do it yourself people the longer we homeschool. It’s true.

Next post, I will share some more things we did to prepare for the decorations and yep, it included getting the Mr. to help us out too.

If you missed the other posts in this series, you can catch up below:

Homeschool High School Graduation Menu and Party Venue Day 4 of 10 Days

    More Homeschool High School Graduation Planning Resources

    10 days of Planning A Homeschool High School Graduation: Day 1 Start the Planning

    Day 2 Senior Portraits/Cap & Gown. 10 days of Planning A Homeschool High School Graduation

    Day 3 Homeschool Graduation Invitations Which Words Matter Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus thum Day 3 Homeschool Graduation Invitations–Which Words Matter. 10 days of Planning A Homeschool High School Graduation

    High School Homeschool Graduation Invitations Day 3 of 10 Days Planning a Graduation

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    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

    Today is Day 3 high school homeschool graduation invitations for the updated 10 days series for planning a homeschool graduation. Also, look at more ideas on my how to homeschool high school page.

    You would think it would be easy.

    Pick out some homeschool graduation invitations and have them printed or ordered online. What could possibly be hard about that?

    High School Homeschool Graduation Invitations Day 3 of 10 Days Planning a Graduation

    When it got close to the time of having to pick them out, the do-it-yourself homeschooler in me kicked in. 

    The words mattered to me because we have traveled a different road for almost our whole journey.  

    Why should I end up with something normal when it matters the most now?

    I admit it, tears came with mulling over and searching to find the right words of how I felt deep down. You know not the surface wording we are suppose to say on an invitation.

    But words you keep tucked away low down, because if they surface people may think you have lost it.

    Planning Homeschool High School Graduation: Invitations – Which Words Matter (Day 3). You would think it would be easy. Pick out some graduation invitations and have them printed or ordered online. What could possibly be hard about that? When it got close to the time of having to pick them out, the do it yourself homeschooler in me kicked in. Why should I end up with something normal when it matters the most now? Click here to get ideas for wording for your homeschool graduate's invitation!

    I wanted to express how grateful his father and I were that we had the privilege to homeschool Mr. Senior 2013. I wanted to thank the Creator for the blessing of having him in our life.

    Heart Felt Words Meaningful to Your Family

    Tears streamed as my hands typed.

    Knowing the quiet, dignified demeanor of my son (he doesn’t take after me, must be his father) I knew right away he would be, to say the least uncomfortable by what I had already drafted.

    Remember, what I said earlier about this not being just your party? It’s true. Mr. Senior 2013 cared about the details of the party including the invitation wording.

    I had always thought because he was a boy, he might leave some of that up to me, but he didn’t.

    I think that it is one of the privileges of homeschooling – teaching kids to care and being responsible even about little things.

    Front Side of Mr Senior 2013 Homeschool Graduation Invitation | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    So after realizing that much of my wording was way too sentimental for an invitation and that it wasn’t a Thank the Lord invitation for his life, I was able to pick out words that expressed how we felt without scaring away my guests.

    Too, by this point you will have decided if you will do a group graduation, which we decided not to. 

    We really wanted something private where we dictated the events for the evening.

    More Homeschool High School Graduation Planning Resources

    Look at some of these ideas for wording for both individual and group graduations.

    Homeschool Graduation Invitations

    • “Join us as we celebrate the homeschool graduation…..”
    • “The Class of 20__ proudly announces the homeschool graduation from (use the name of your school).”
    • “We have accomplished our God-given assignment and proudly announce the homeschool graduation of…”
    • “Mr. & Mrs. You are proud to announce the graduation of …….from their homeschool education.”
    • “With thanks to God for his guidance, the parents of ….. announce the homeschool high school graduation of……”
    • “…….will be receiving his high school diploma from (name your school) Homeschool Program.”
    • “As our final years come to an end, we pause to reflect on the joy and memories. Please join us as _____ celebrates his homeschool high school graduation.”
    • ‘We celebrate the blessing of our homeschool journey by announcing the high school graduation of……”
    • “Please join us in honor of ____’s graduation from (your school name)”
    • “It is with great pride that we announce the graduation of our son………..from ………”
    homeschool graduation invitation back side @ Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    Do Save the Date Text or Email

    Deciding to do a double-sided card also allowed room for more wording on the back which was important to us.

    We were able to express our thankfulness for Mr. Senior 2013 and keep his dignity. Looking above I was able to get in all the details on the card.

    Just as a side point to remember, I did send out a save the date email/text way early to my guests.

    Especially if you plan a graduation in the summer, you will want to do this way ahead of time even if you don’t have all the details worked out.

    I know our friends appreciated the save the date email/text so they could make vacation plans.

    Homeschool High School Graduation Invitation Wording

    Though saving money was not the main driving point for me preparing his invitation, it was a nice side advantage.

    Two ways I have saved money so far, but felt like we were still having a unique experience are:

    • I had 2 photographers. One was not quite so professional where I had more time to devote to the photo shoot. The second one I knew exactly how long I would have him and had a list of photos for him too which I will tell you about in an upcoming post.
    • I designed my own invitations and only paid for printing/envelopes. Even if you don’t have the skill set for creating graphics, a lot of homeschoolers do. It is possible among your local group that you may find a homeschool teen or parent that can do this.

    In the end, choosing invitations mattered more than I realized, and I didn’t want to leave the words that mattered most up to a stranger.

    High School Homeschool Graduation Invitations Day 3 of 10 Days Planning a Graduation

    Whether you homeschool the whole time or a few short years, it is is a treasured time and there is no substitute for expressing your heart.

    The other words that I have for my son as his mom stayed where they should be and that is with him.

    But those are not the only ways I unexpectedly saved money.

    The venue or location to have our graduation was equally important and by accident I stumbled across another way to save money on this part of the planning too.

    In my next post on this series, I will give you some tips on how we chose a venue.

    More High School Help