September 29, 2010 8:59 PM
10th grade homeschool curriculum ideas needed
Thought you all would be the best place for Lou Ann to get started with ideas:
Hello Barbara, Forgive me if this is on your website somewhere, but I was wondering if you have any high school curriculum program that you prefer for home schooling teens? My daughter is in 10th grade in public school and miserable and getting seriously depressed and I need to do something. I have no idea where to begin and don't even know if this is the right answer! Thanks so much and God blessings to you and your family. You must be so proud of Maddie! All the best, LouAnn Edwards
Hi LouAnn -Yay for you for responding to the call. My homeschool recommendations are a jumble under Barbara's Picks - not arranged by grade.
I have homeschool contacts though and can put you in touch with one. Or I can run your post at my site (anonymous if you like) and ask for recommendations.
Also, don't worry about the gap while you figure it out. Maddy asked me to homeschool her in 7th grade and I must confess I did pretty much nothing other than give her some reading to do and go on field trips to DC. My writing took too much time. The next year she said she wanted to return to school and I was so worried that it would be obvious that I had done so little. But she went back and her grades were higher than ever.
God will make up the difference.
praying for you
love,
barbara
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Comments
I love everything that Classical Conversations does. If you go the www.ClassicalConversations.com and look at their Challenge section, you will be inspired. Even if you don't participate in a Challenge class, their literature and philosophy will give you something to think about.
Posted by: Julia | September 30, 2010 7:15 AM
I think the best way to approach this transition would be to start by finding a support group in your area. These groups are full of moms who have been at it for years. Many have put several children through High School. This is also a great place to find activities and social outlets for your daughter that will allow her to have friends that also homeschool. As for curriculum, there are so many options out there that it does require a bit of research. You can get books on the different teaching styles and after you have decided the way you want to go, you can find entire catalogs devoted to materials that work well for that style. It's best if you can actually look through the books, and your daughter may want to as well. Hopefully you can find someone in your area that can show you some of their materials, or you can go to a bookstore and look through the different options. Just a few ideas, I'm sure that there will be many more from Barbara's readers.
Posted by: Jennifer Merkel | September 30, 2010 9:07 AM
Barbara is correct in saying God will take care of things...Trust Him. :-)
This is my 16th year to homeschool. I'm down to my last child...a daughter who is in 10th grade. She is a brilliant problem solver with a heart as big as Alaska, but she does have some reading difficulties and she is behind in math. Until Christmas we are concentrating on reading and math. We are using Keys to Algebra which takes it very slow and gives tons of practice. For reading we are currently reading together "The Little Professor of Piney Woods School". We take turns reading and pull vocabulary words from the material. Later we will use Apologia's Biology (I LOVE Apologia's materials) and Mystery of History Volume 2. (There are five of those books, so do a search. I love it too!) I also have my daughter write about various things...usually what's going on in her life. She has a blog. I think that can be very motivating. God bless!
Posted by: Drewe Llyn Jeffcoat | September 30, 2010 9:37 AM
I also have a daughter in 10th grade. We have used various curricula in the past and this year, since I'm due to have my 3rd baby in 3 years, I decided I needed something that she could do more independently, but was still easy for me to be involved, track, and guide her. I chose Sonlight. They have packaged curricula by grade and so far I have been very satisfied. It is literature-based, so there's a lot of reading, but each day is planned out in advance for you. All she has to do is the assigned reading and activities.
Posted by: Jennifer | September 30, 2010 10:07 AM
There are some complete curricula that can be purchased. I've used Seton in the past for a 1st grader and have heard lots of good things about Abeka. There are others too. The website Freely Educate has lots of homeschool materials and even points you to free complete curricula i believe.
Posted by: Sherry C. | September 30, 2010 11:16 AM
this year I did something I thought I would never do...I opted for a regular curriculum, instead of just putting together something on the fly...
I am very happy with the results. I have been using Bob Jones curriculum this year, and even though it is pretty rigorous, my kids have been doing very well with it. I know i've read that in the past they were very anti-Catholic, but frankly, everything I've seen seems pretty much normally Protestant. I use a different Math curriculum because the 2 older boys requested something we'd already used, but my daughter is using BJ. I have set up a reward system- if they get all their work done for the week, they receive their allowance. If they average over 93% for the month, they receive an extra $10. If they average a B, then it's $5. An 'A' average for 3 months nets you an extra $20. I have charts for each of them and write down their scores for tests, quizzes, etc. so they can see how they're doing.
I tried doing mostly dvd's and online learning, but they all disliked it (these are kids who love computer-who figured?). They prefer the workbooks and knowing exactly what's expected. It DOES take me quite a bit of time every 2 weeks to write out all their assignments- I have to be very specific. But I am very pleased with how it's worked out.
I've been homeschooling now for over 20 years (have 3 older kids who were all homeschooled)- have tried EVERYTHING, including doing basically nothing. This seems to work for us.
Mary E
Posted by: Mary Eckstein | September 30, 2010 11:25 AM
This is a great resource:
“100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculumâ€.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F100-Top-Picks-Homeschool-Curriculum%2Fdp%2F0805431381%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1268502382%26sr%3D8-1&h=fd3dcnOqoCTzbmDdv-NEAFv6s5Q
I also highly recommend getting involved with a co-op if you can. You'll be able to bounce ideas off of other parents who have already tried and discovered what worked and what didn't for their child: http://www.firstclasshomeschool.org/pages/
Posted by: Rachel | September 30, 2010 6:31 PM
I, too, am homeschooling a daughter in Grade 10 (my youngest of five, all home schooled.) I think the big lesson is to let God into your home school and trust in Him. There is so much pressure to offer a similar or better calibre of schooling than can be found in the local public school. But, Catholic homeschoolers do not have to copy public school methods. We are raising saints and scholars, not merely scholars! Find something that motivates your daughter, and work from there. Does she like art....make art the spine of your subjects. Is she a real reader...get fantastic books that will inspire her. Find a local support group, for the sake of your daughter and yourself. It is not an easy task, but a wonderfully enriching one.
Posted by: Kathie | September 30, 2010 7:09 PM
