homeschooling high school tips/advice

[Relynn]

Hi,

I am planning my son's 9th grade curriculum this fall. I would love to hear what others have done for high school. I'm leaning towards following the Well Trained Mind or buying Oak Meadow's 9th grade.

We have always homeschooled.

I emailed a local college about their requirements for homeschoolers. He responded and also added his opinion on homeschoolers and math/science.

Here is what he said:

"My experience with home-schooled applicants is that  their Verbal areas (English and Composition Skills) are quite good; however, their math and lab science areas are weak. It seems that most homeschool instructors do not have the teaching skills in these areas."

I went to college. I took all the required courses in high school to go to college. I don't want to cause my child to be "weak" in these areas, so please tell me what you would suggest for high school science and math.

Thanks!!

Rebecca

[phathui5]

What our homeschooled babysitter did when she was high school age was take science classes at community college.

Saxon Math is supposed to be solid for the upper grades.

[Relynn]

Thanks.

I see Ambelside online has high school lessons.

I am almost certain I will use the suggestions from The Well Trained Mind.

I have never used Saxon before. We are using Calvert 8th grade math right now.

more ideas appreciated,

Rebecca

[LuxPerpetua]

Misspoke ... I was about to recommend looking into Oak Meadow when I re-read.  Carry on.

[imogenlily]

I did Calvert math, and ended up ahead when I got to college.

[mom2ponygirl]

For a mathy kid you can't beat Art of Problem Solving texts and/or classes for high school math.  Any kid who goes through them will be well ahead of the curve entering college level math.  www.artofproblemsolving.com

Singapore math has a very good secondary math program  www.singaporemath.com

Thinkwell has video lectures and problem sets, solid secondary math, as well as high school science - www.thinkwell.com

Kinetic books has pre-algebra thru algebra II, and great physics options www.kineticbooks.com

Lots of great free courses at MIT ocw or academic earth, some more complete than others. http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/    www.academicearth.org

www.courserepository.org and www.hippocampus.org have free high school courses in math and science

www.labpaq.com has lots of lab packages for at home science labs as does www.hometrainingtools.com

www.chemadvantage.com - great chemistry classes

http://www.derekowens.com/1011/index.php great math and science courses

www.pahomeschoolers.com has AP classes online

www.govhs.org has online classes

http://www.math.temple.edu/~cow/ precalculus on up

Community college classes

homeschool co-ops with a parent teacher or a hired instructor

There are a ton of options out there.  We are doing a lot of project based learning rather than a curriculum, but I have no worries about being behind in math or science.  I have a strong background, but I think it is doable for most.  If you don't want to construct your own, there are online or local options.  :-)  

[Relynn]

Thank you SO MUCH!

This is the type of stuff I'm looking for. I love to hear how others approach homeschooling high school

Happy Earth Day!

[dandelionmom]

My daughter used Oak Meadow for 9th and part of 10th and loved it. She just passed entrance into the local community college, which we will be using along with Winter Promise (you should check out that one too...looks awesome!) Oak Meadow uses other texts for math, which my daughter is not tops in. I would highly recommend Saxon. We use Saxon with our youngest daughter and I think it is very thorough and complete. Saxon also offers DVDs that go along with the work text, which I find helpful because I dislike math and do not teach it well. If you have a community college in your town you may want to check it out as well to see if they have a dual enrollment program. Community college classes are about the same level as high school classes, but give college credit.

[moominmamma]

We've used a bunch of eclectic resources for my unschoolers-with-a-penchant-for-structured-academics (now aged 12, 14 and 17). For math my favourites have been Singapore New Math Counts and Art of Problem Solving. These are both robust math programs that promote "mathematical thinking" rather than simply the execution of memorized algorithms and approaches. (AoPS did not work so well prior to age 12 for us, but it would be fine for a 9th grader I think.) Both are quite challenging. We are also enjoying using www.khanacademy.org for supplementation and review. 

For science and history we've enjoying using DVDs to spark interest and fill in gaps. Documentaries (eg. from Netflix or similar), including series like Planet Earth, Connections, Empire, 7Up, Life and others. The Teaching Company has some wonderful lecture series intended as intro college or high school overview courses; we've particularly liked "The Joy of Science," "How to Listen to and Understand Great Music," "Biology: the Science of Life" and "Physics in Your Life." 

For science my kids have used the science courses offered as independent study through our local high school. Which I suppose is no help to you. 

We've had none of the reported "weaknesses in math and science" that the community college official mentioned to you. My kids have entered the school system with no difficulty attaining top marks in courses a year or more ahead of their age-grade.

miranda

[Relynn]

Hi,

thanks for all of the suggestins.

I bought the Moore Formula back when my almost-9th-grader was in Kindy!

It goes all the way through high school and has a nice layout of to plan high school. So, I will utilize it, along with Ambelside and Well Trained Mind. I'm going to check out winter promise now...

Thanks

Rebecca

[Relynn]

OK, I have decided to go with the Well Trained Mind for 9th grade. I will plan out the 9th grade year and assign credits to the courses and prepare a transcript in case he wants it in the future. I am going to try saxon algebra 1. If anyone wants to see my subjects/book selections/etc, let me know! I bought several biology books and biology experiment books.

I think I am going to try the art of problem solving, also.

Thanks for the input!

Rebecca