Year 2017-2018 Grade 10 Plans

The New School Year 2017-2018 : Grade 10: Plans
Dd is 15 years old, to be 16 in the spring, hs'd from day 1

In Process

September is here, which makes me want to share our upcoming school year plans.  It is always fun to see at the end of the year which plans stuck and which plans fell by the wayside.  We are over scheduled, but I do feel like, at this point, I can let things go without feeling like it will be a big deal.  

For 10th grade we will continue with Sonlight (SL), we've followed Sonlight since Kindergarten and it works for us, especially because I tweak it to fit our pace by adding as many weeks as needed to complete one of SL's weeks.  SL has 36 weeks in each of their cores, but I go: Week 1 "A," Week 1 "B," Week 1 "C"....until we've completed all their tasks and the one's I've put in too.  I think Core G was our record for stretching out a 36-week program to around 72 weeks!!!  I added so much in! Core H is intended for 12-14-year-olds, 7-9th graders, so we are on the end of the spectrum that this core was designed for, and I'm not going to add much at this point, trying to get to the finish line but not in a hurry.

We are on Week 25 of 36, of Core H, as I type this.  Core H is part two or year two of a two year program on World History.  Next will be Core 100, which is on American History in detail.  Here is a link to Sonlight's website for a short description of "Core H."
https://www.sonlight.com/HC5.html

BiblioPlan Companion:
http://www.biblioplan.net/p/welcome-to-biblioplan.html
We will continue to add this in as we can.  It just really is a wonderful program, though a bit dry.  I love how it incorporates church history and geography and cultural bits in with all the history.  It does that forever to make it through a chapter, and there is SO much information that I know we don't memorize---it would be impossible!  Regardless, it is a great program.  We are reading Early Modern Companion and will move into the next set after this.

History Readers and Read Alouds:

Sonlight schedules a heavy load of both R's and RA's for each core.  I will continue to add some of my personal choice materials too.  Like I did this summer when we read Great Expectations and are now currently reading Les Miserables, though not in SL's line-up.  There are quite a few other significant books that I want Dd to read during high school that isn't in SL's cores, but I will squeeze into our schedule.

Continue BiblioPlan and Foster's Abraham Lincoln's World History Readers to finish up Core H.  I've linked to GoodReads website for book information:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104297.Abraham_Lincoln_s_World?from_search=true
Dd loved George Washington's World and is loving Abraham Lincoln's World by Foster instead of the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia that SL assigned.  I'm happy with our exchange and think Dd will retain more information with our switches.

Math:

We have struggled with math since 8th grade, so this year I am paying for Dd to take a homeschool co-op class in Grand Rapids.  The  group is called: Grace HS Academy and they actually meet in the same building (the "Home School Building") that our band and orchestra classes occur in.  I've signed her up for Geometry.  We had tried to do Algebra with Math-U-See, go, back up, go, back up, go, back up for about a year, then I bought another brand new Algebra program from Teaching Textbooks, and we tried that for 6 months until Dd kept getting stuck.  Then we re-started our Math U See Algebra again, from the first lessons, and she kept getting stuck.  So, I decided to go ahead and try Geometry b/c when I was in high school I remember how hard Algebra was, but when I got into Geometry it seemed so much easier for me.  I figured that might be the same with Dd.  So she got to Lesson 15 without too much trouble but got stuck with lesson 16, so I had her back up and start the program over again, starting with lesson 1.  I worked with her and we got back to lesson 16 and found the workbook was asking us to find the surface area of shapes that he didn't cover in the video.  Even though I looked online, I was still having trouble explaining this to her and thought I'd think about the Grace math classes.  Dd's two dear friends both have taken their math classes there and I've only heard good things about the teacher.  So, I've signed her up!  Her two friends are also in the same class, and I think there are only six students altogether so they will be getting lots of help.  I hope it goes well, b/c I hate that we will have to drive to Grand Rapids not once per week, like last year, but THREE times per week!  Yikes!  I prefer homeschooling when we are actually at home!  But, I have bought Math U See Algebra, Math U See Geometry, Teaching Textbooks Algebra, and using Khan Academy math throughout and she still hasn't finished a whole program in over two years.  It is time that I try having her learn math outside of our home programs.  I had to buy a whole new program for next year's math: Saxon Geometry.  I've heard so many of our friends using Saxon--like the "L" family in Indy, that is their curriculum for math, and many say it just works.  I think it will be costing us almost a thousand dollars to pay for all the failed programs and this new one through Grace; perhaps more!  I don't even want to add it all up together--I might cry!  So, math will be out of the home this year!

Art:

Although I got my Master's degree in Art, I don't seem to have enough time to really teach Dd art!  I always think we can get to that after we complete our "core" subjects, and we are always behind!  Since Dd is going to Grand Rapids, Grace Academy for math, we will let her take two art classes there to make our drive worth it.  She has always wanted a proper art class, now she'll have two!  The first one is a Painting Studio and the second is a Botany art class--learning about and drawing Michigan's wild plants and flowers.  Plus, she is always doing her art projects and tinkering things at home too.  I always buy lots of material at the thrift store for her to sew, plus I keep lots of art supplies on hand for drawing, painting, building... lots of art to go around for grade 10.

Science:

Dd is trying to finish up Apologia's Physical Science and then we will start Biology!!!  I'm super excited to work with her on that one.  I'm letting her do Physical Science alone, since she says she goes faster without me and most of the info she is learning she has already learned about and so this book is mostly a refresher course for her.  I've been buying the stuff for Biology and can't wait to dig in!

Foreign Language:

DuoLingo German will continue, only now she has asked me to start learning it too.  So, I've got to find a little bit of time to start that, probably after gardening and canning finishes up.

Writing:

I bough the next set with IEW Continuation Course B?  I think?  It was expensive! Yikes!  But, it is suppose to have writing lessons for two years, so that should keep us busy.  We'll start that up pretty soon, once summer chores are wrapped up.

Grand Rapids Community College: English Composition- spring 2018

I'm planning on enrolling Dd in this dual enrollment class in the spring.  GRCC is offering this class at a satellite branch in our local town!  I think this should be a good class to start off college with.

Grammar and Latin:

I want to keep working (albeit slowly) on building with these subjects.  She has been doing well with the Easy Grammar, Plus program and still has 1/2 the book to do for grade 10.  "Word Roots" teaches Latin, and she still has 1/2 of that book to complete too.  Plus, when we start Biology I have a great Latin biology program to do with it---called "Science Roots: Latin and Greek for Biology and Life Science."

Bible:

We will continue to do the Bible assignments through SL as well as our own study of the New Testament.  We spent three years on the Old Testament and I want her to know the NT as well as she learned the OT.

Church:

Dd is very active with our church.  Sunday she has church; then Sunday School in the mornings, then Youth Program at night.  Wednesday night she volunteers to co-lead the Games part of the Olympians program.  Thursday she attends the Strings Group at church, playing the ukulele.

Physical Education:

Wanting to fit more DVD workouts with Dd into our year.  

Khan Academy:

Continue to advance in the math program.

Continue to do the SAT prep program.

Geography:

Advanced Maps with BiblioPlan

SL's mapping with our cores.

Poetry:

The Harp and Laurel Leaf will be our spine for Poetry this year.

Weekly Music classes: 3 of 5 classes on Wednesday's

Piano: Wednesday's

Wednesday's with  Mrs. Wendy: 30 min lesson

Viola/Violin: at Meyer Music: Monday's

30 min lessons with Christie

Intermediate Band with Mrs. Wendy: Wednesday's 

1:30 hour class - Alto Sax

Intermediate Orchestra: Wednesday's

1:30 hour class with Mrs. Sooy - violin

Strings Group at church: Thursday's
Ukulele 1:30 hours

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