Well, it's August now, and that means full-swing planning. As I am wont to do, I'm using this post as a sort of sounding board for this preliminary planning. Every single year we end up tweaking things as we go along, and I'm sure this year will be no exception.
Before I get into the actual planning for grade 9, I want to do a little bit of catching up...
Last year was a bit of a crap shoot, I'm not gonna lie! We had started the year in full lockdown mode, which really took a lot of wind out of our sails because in previous years, we had taken classes and done activities outside of the home at least twice a week (for most "typical" weeks). Last year, like many people we did absolutely no in-person classes or indoor activities with others. This was really hard on all of us, but my kids were real troopers. They adjusted to online classes and activities fairly well, although they missed being in-person with their friends terribly.
Last year was also a year of hardcore house-hunting for our family. That meant lots of drive-by visits of homes as well as inside touring of homes. We lost count of how many homes we looked at. It had been 3 long years of looking, and then finally we had to face a tough reality: maybe our experiment of moving to NH was not panning out quite as we had hoped. My husband had a really, really rough year being on the front lines. I know we aren't alone, but wowza was it rough. At the end of the day, he was stuck in a bit of rut of 60+ hours each week of SUPER high stress, swing shifts, and of course then there was the pandemic. It took an emotional toll on all of us, and when he looked forward to where he might be in the next couple of years, he realized that vertical movement really wasn't going to be possible in the way he could feel good about, and since the house search had gone so abysmally, we decided as a family to try our luck back in Maine.
As it turned out, he had been contacted by one of his previous employers who knew he'd moved up into management. They informed him of a couple of open positions within the organization. He applied for one and got the job. The next hurdle, of course, was then finding a place to live in the area. After 3 years of failed house-hunting, I was pretty terrified that we might end up physically living in NH another year while my poor husband commuted back and forth. As it turned out, we purchased a home after only looking at 4 places! Clearly the Universe was telling us that we were making the right decision.
Our new home is on 10+ acres, is backed by a brook, has an in-ground pool, several outbuildings, a 2-car garage, and is really lovely and special on the inside as well. We have great neighbors, a lovely little town, and we are close to both my husband's work as well as nearby shopping, as well as close to family and friends. OK, so enough about our move (but I should mention that it definitely made sticking to a homeschool plan practically impossible for a couple of months!).
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So, now on to DS14's "freshman year". Because he's on a college track, we sat down with him and hammered out some basic goals he'd like to reach over the next 4 years. We decided to take the advice of some friends of ours, and we're starting out by frontloading a lot of the items he'll eventually need. What that means is that he's been accelerating in math these past few years, and now he'll already be taking Geometry as a freshman. That means he can take Algebra II as a sophomore, and technically he could stop there if he wanted to.
We've done Every Science Every Year for the past couple of years, which means he's already been introduced to Biology, Earth Science, Physics, and Chemistry. We've already touched on some Health topics, Language Arts (naturally), Maine Studies, Computer Literacy, and History of various different time periods. He's taken some introductory Spanish, done some Coding, and lots of interdisciplinary STEM activities and classes. He's done both music and art every year (to one degree or another), along with Library Skills. He's participated in a play (Peter Pan) as well.
So, what does that mean going forward?
Here's the (rough) plan:
Freshman Year: Language Arts (including more in-depth Literature and Writing), Spanish I (full course - his last exposure was only a 5-week intro), Geometry, Chemistry I/Lab (with a goal of trying his hand at a sample Chemistry CLEP exam at the end of the year), Art (drawing, painting, charcoal, pastels, water colors, and other crafts) and Art History (we'll focus on 8 of the great classic artists in history, Music (a 4-week unit to refresh him on the basics of reading music and playing a song on a recorder), US History, Geography, STEM units, a short unit on Cooking & Nutrition, Swim Lessons, and of course any electives he chooses as the year goes along.
Sophomore Year: Language arts (including Literature, Writing, and Grammar) - possibly in the form of a Community College Dual-Enrollment course, Algebra II, Biology/Lab (Semester I), Physics (Semester II), Art (to be determined), Music History (1 semester learning about many great composers, World History, STEM units, Domestic Arts (1 semester), Swim Lessons, and any electives he chooses
Junior Year: Community College Dual Enrollment Classes - If he didn't do English 101 as a Sophomore, then he would want to do it now as a Junior. He could also do College Algebra 101. Another class he might be interested in might be a college-level History course, as well as a college-level science of some kind (if he doesn't CLEP Chemistry, then that might be a good choice as a class. Biology would be another good option). Other subjects he'll want to cover as a Junior will be chosen based on 1.) his interests and 2.) whatever is still left to take after he's signed up for college classes.
Senior Year: He'll likely be leaning hard into Community College classes by now. By the time he finishes his Senior year, he should be at least halfway towards an Associate's Degree (if not further, especially if he takes any classes in the summer). Because his college classes MORE than cover any "requirements" for "high school", it really shouldn't be necessary at this point to worry too much about anything he's "missed". He should (by now) have covered the 4 r's (as it were) each year, along with all of the other fiddly bits that public schools often require for graduation. Because he'll have taken college level classes already, he'll be a great candidate for transferring into full-time college at that point (if he so chooses).
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So, one thing I decided to do was to download a free transcript template online. I filled in all of the subjects he should be covering over the next 4 years. Then, I started a Course Description section. Because so many of the courses he takes these days are online, I can just copy/paste the course descriptions and course goals right into the document. Anything he does that is NOT online (such as his math - we use Teaching Textbooks CD Roms), I can easily go right to the website and copy/paste their course descriptions as well. Anything that might be more miscellaneous (or that we've crafted ourselves using a more "unschooling" or free-form kind of student-led approach), we simply keep track of things as it goes along, and then we create a "course description" as a retrospective. It's always amazing how when we do that, we somehow manage to hit all of our "goals" 🤣🤣🤣
It is definitely nice to keep this Course Description section updated every time he takes a course. It should help save a lot of time when he starts signing up for college classes that have pre-requisites. We'll have all of the topics covered in each class right there at our finger tips for a college professor to peruse to determine if he's got enough background knowledge to succeed in their class.
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I know this can all seem a bit dry, but I figured that if I put it all down like this, it might help someone else down the road who might be trying to figure out how to plan their child's high school years.
This isn't all written in stone, but rather is a rough guestimate of the path we're likely to take through our son's high school years. I hope it might be helpful to someone some day, even if only to let that person know that it might seem like a lot, but if you break it down into manageable chunks, you can totally homeschool your high schooler! Just start with the basic requirements in your state for public schoolers, and use that as a sort of jumping off point and guide. The great thing about homeschooling is that we AREN'T required to follow a specific script (at least not in Maine, anyway). Our path is mainly being chosen on the basis of answer the question "What will a Community College or University want to see that he's taken?". Not every child will want college as their ultimate goal, and so their path may look very different!
You can do this!
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