What’s a good high school literature course of study?

We just finished the homeschool journey to college with my oldest. I am happy to report she is on her way to college in a couple of weeks and will be pursuing her dream of working in the field of special education.

Through a God-centered high school experience – where we emphasized a Classical education, coupled with incorporating our daughter’s interests – I feel that she had a beautiful homeschool high school education.

As we begin 9th grade with my son the goal is the same.

Truth. Beauty. Goodness.

Honor God. Honor People. Honor Personal Interests.

Watching: What’s a good high school literature course of study?

This is going to be an exciting four years!

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The Method

So many people get hung up on “the method” for homeschooling our older children.

While we take part in a Classical Conversations Challenge I program each week, I never want to classify myself as a “CC family”.

We are a homeschooling family.

I never want to align our homeschool with one program or method. Every child (and every year!) is different. We are fallible and so are man-made programs and methods.

We love Classical Conversations for the community of AMAZING peers my son has had since the second grade. I am very careful to emphasize I value community over curriculum and I want to retain control of my child’s curriculum.

We will follow most of the Challenge I curriculum. (We did the same thing four years ago with my daughter.) We will also add and subtract as fits my son’s needs.

Essentially, my 9th grader will meet with his Challenge I peers once each week. They are guided by a tutor. During their day together they will go over their assignments for the week and wrestle with big issues and problems.

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The theme for the year is DISCIPLINE BRINGS FREEDOM.

Ultimately, the parent retains control of grading and curriculum choices. We are unaccredited and don’t answer to an authority about what our children should be learning. I like this.

Readmore: The Ultimate Guide To Teaching High School Literature, Teaching High School Literature

On to our choices for this year…

(If you’re looking at the Challenge 1 description, I categorize things a bit differently in this post.)

Math

I recommend looking at where you want your child to be at the end of high school when you think about math. (more on that below…)

We will be using Shormann Math (Algebra 2 with Integrated Geometry) this year. This will be my son’s second year using Shormann.

We made the switch last year from Saxon to Shormann. Why did we change?

Shormann is a recorded lecture format that encourages note taking. My son likes watching someone explain the concepts.

Shormann keeps lesson and quiz grades for me.

God is the focus of Shormann Math – there is scripture presented and God is spoken about often.

Practially speaking – it’s economical.

Shormann has much less spiraling than Saxon.

There are so many choices for math, and I am a firm believer that every child needs something different.

My daughter used Mr. D Math and LOVED it. I recommend Mr. D Math for kids who aren’t extremely math inclined and who need some self confidence in math. My son is a math kid and I feel like Shormann is a bit more rigorous for him. My daughter probably won’t be using higher math in college, so I just wanted to get her through Pre-Calculus and be done.

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Saxon Math is a great program, too. We just needed some accountability as far as grading and teaching were concerned.

Science/Research

This year my son will be doing Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Physical Science.

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I have always loved the structure and predictability of Apologia’s high school texts, as well as the Christian focus.

In looking ahead to subjects like Chemistry, it is comforting to see that Apologia offers online courses as well as recorded lessons for their textbooks. We will definitely be using this resource as we go through high school!

In the second semester Grant will write quite a large research paper on a science topic of his choice. Remember in high school when you learned to use note cards and all that good stuff? Yep – that’s what he’ll be doing.

Categories: literature

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