10th Grade Curriculum Choices
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This past month has flown by and we’ll be starting back to school in a few short weeks, July 6th to be exact. I wanted to start sooner, but I put off buying school books longer than I had planned. I finally got them ordered last Thursday. When we began this journey 11 years ago, I never thought I’d make it this far. It was our plans for me to return to teaching and Jamie to a high school, but the Lord’s plans were definitely different from what we wanted. I would not change a thing and I’m excited about our 10th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2015-2016.
When I made my High School Plans last year, I knew some of them would probably change, and they did. A couple of examples would be my son requested to not do sign language this year, but to go ahead and focus on German and he choose to not do Driver’s Ed but rather wait to get his learner’s permit at 16 and drive the required amount of hours and then take the driving test in 6 months. I think that was a wise choice on his part and honestly, my husband did not like the idea of solely turning his driving education over to someone else (which is required in MT).
BIBLE – we will be studying Baptist History as part of our Bible time this year. We are using The People Called Baptists by Michael Johnson as a spine along with The Collegiate Baptist History Workbook by James R. Beller. I have seen too many of my friends leave our belief because they did not know why we are Baptist and why we believe the way we do. I don’t Jamie to one day wonder and look elsewhere.
MATH – we will be working on Algebra 2 with Teaching Textbooks.
SCIENCE – This is hard for me this year because Dr. Jay Wile's Exploring Creation through Chemistry by Apologia was on the list. Since the book is no longer in print because of a newer revised edition not written by Wile, I have had problems tracking one down that is not used with a bunch of highlighting and writing in it. Although, Dr. Wile does have a new Chemistry book that is set to ship in August. Jamie's second choice was Advanced Biology - same problem. The third choice is Marine Biology. For this year, we'll be going with the Marine Biology and waiting another year for Chemistry. I’ll be ordering our lab kit 1 and lab kit 2 from Home Science Tools; they have never let me down on their kits and they have the cheapest prices around.
EDITED TO CHANGE:
SOCIAL STUDIES – United States History from Abeka is what we chose to do this year. We sent back our first choice because of some things we did not agree with that was included in the book. While Abeka has been around since the 70's and they are not as independent learning as I want, it is the company I always fall back on when a problem arises.
Language Arts – For Literature, we are using Lightning Literature again. We’ll be using the Early to Mid 19th Century American pack. We loved this curriculum last year and I’m expecting we’ll be just as happy this year. For Vocabulary, we went with Critical Thinking Word Roots 1B. We went with this book because Jamie and I both felt that the other program we used for many years became a “busy work” curriculum and he wasn’t getting anything from it. This year we are taking a break from an actual grammar curriculum and putting our focus on composition. Since grammar makes up writing, it will be covered in the process. We’re also not using a writing program since there is a lot of writing in our Literature, History, and Bible assignments.
Career/Technical – We will be typing up a storm this year with Typing.com. Be sure to sign up as a teacher, so your student can have their own account and you can keep up with their progress. I love that option.
PE/Health – Since we are required to do two years of one or the other, we are focusing on health and will be using ACE Health paces. Jamie is also cutting grass and helping some of the older ladies on our road with whatever they need. During the winter, he’ll be shoveling snow for one of them.
Fine Arts – While Jamie loves oil painting, he has decided to watercolor paint this year since there is LESS clean up and we’ll be using Jerry’s Artarama again. Jamie has also started violin lessons and doing a mighty fine job in the short amount of time that he has been working on this.
Foreign Language – This year we are talking German. We are using Duolingo to get started with. We'll also be implementing some of the Paul Joyce German Course if needed and I’m still wading through the links found at Study.com to see if there are any other free resources for German. We’ve also signed up with italki.com and I'll be working on finding a German tutor to help with our learning when it gets to that level.
Woodworking – Jamie loves working with wood and tools. This is right up my husband’s alley, so he’ll be in charge of all the teaching and creations that will be built. This will be our only elective for the year.
I still can't believe this is our ELEVENTH year of schooling at home! Are you in the planning mode for your school year? I'd love to hear about it.
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When I made my High School Plans last year, I knew some of them would probably change, and they did. A couple of examples would be my son requested to not do sign language this year, but to go ahead and focus on German and he choose to not do Driver’s Ed but rather wait to get his learner’s permit at 16 and drive the required amount of hours and then take the driving test in 6 months. I think that was a wise choice on his part and honestly, my husband did not like the idea of solely turning his driving education over to someone else (which is required in MT).
BIBLE – we will be studying Baptist History as part of our Bible time this year. We are using The People Called Baptists by Michael Johnson as a spine along with The Collegiate Baptist History Workbook by James R. Beller. I have seen too many of my friends leave our belief because they did not know why we are Baptist and why we believe the way we do. I don’t Jamie to one day wonder and look elsewhere.
MATH – we will be working on Algebra 2 with Teaching Textbooks.
SCIENCE – This is hard for me this year because Dr. Jay Wile's Exploring Creation through Chemistry by Apologia was on the list. Since the book is no longer in print because of a newer revised edition not written by Wile, I have had problems tracking one down that is not used with a bunch of highlighting and writing in it. Although, Dr. Wile does have a new Chemistry book that is set to ship in August. Jamie's second choice was Advanced Biology - same problem. The third choice is Marine Biology. For this year, we'll be going with the Marine Biology and waiting another year for Chemistry. I’ll be ordering our lab kit 1 and lab kit 2 from Home Science Tools; they have never let me down on their kits and they have the cheapest prices around.
EDITED TO CHANGE:
SOCIAL STUDIES – United States History from Abeka is what we chose to do this year. We sent back our first choice because of some things we did not agree with that was included in the book. While Abeka has been around since the 70's and they are not as independent learning as I want, it is the company I always fall back on when a problem arises.
Language Arts – For Literature, we are using Lightning Literature again. We’ll be using the Early to Mid 19th Century American pack. We loved this curriculum last year and I’m expecting we’ll be just as happy this year. For Vocabulary, we went with Critical Thinking Word Roots 1B. We went with this book because Jamie and I both felt that the other program we used for many years became a “busy work” curriculum and he wasn’t getting anything from it. This year we are taking a break from an actual grammar curriculum and putting our focus on composition. Since grammar makes up writing, it will be covered in the process. We’re also not using a writing program since there is a lot of writing in our Literature, History, and Bible assignments.
Career/Technical – We will be typing up a storm this year with Typing.com. Be sure to sign up as a teacher, so your student can have their own account and you can keep up with their progress. I love that option.
PE/Health – Since we are required to do two years of one or the other, we are focusing on health and will be using ACE Health paces. Jamie is also cutting grass and helping some of the older ladies on our road with whatever they need. During the winter, he’ll be shoveling snow for one of them.
Fine Arts – While Jamie loves oil painting, he has decided to watercolor paint this year since there is LESS clean up and we’ll be using Jerry’s Artarama again. Jamie has also started violin lessons and doing a mighty fine job in the short amount of time that he has been working on this.
Foreign Language – This year we are talking German. We are using Duolingo to get started with. We'll also be implementing some of the Paul Joyce German Course if needed and I’m still wading through the links found at Study.com to see if there are any other free resources for German. We’ve also signed up with italki.com and I'll be working on finding a German tutor to help with our learning when it gets to that level.
Woodworking – Jamie loves working with wood and tools. This is right up my husband’s alley, so he’ll be in charge of all the teaching and creations that will be built. This will be our only elective for the year.
I still can't believe this is our ELEVENTH year of schooling at home! Are you in the planning mode for your school year? I'd love to hear about it.
