First Two Days of High School

I can't really believe that my youngest is now in high school. We started our school year yesterday and so far things have gone well. Things are completely different this year than in previous years so it's taking some getting used to. For one, we're using a different curriculum for the majority of our studies. I'm also taking a greater role in her schoolwork and actually sitting down with her and doing most things side-by-side. It's definitely nice to discuss things as they come up and this gives me greater flexibility to determine what needs to be written out compared to answered orally.

Yesterday we started at 10:30am to take advantage of the cooler morning for yard work, but were done by 2:30pm. Today we got started around 8am because it was raining, but were done by 12pm. That included a break to take the horses out since the rain abated for a bit. I know it's too early to tell for certain, but I think this year is going to be nice.

I'm now making bread for hubby's lunch and will make Sweet Zucchini Biscuits as a thank-you to the neighbor for taking care of the horses Saturday so we could go out as a family.

Upcoming School Year

I decided to make a few changes for this school year. We've used Tapestry of Grace for the past six years and have loved it. I think it was more me, but I've been amazed at the nuggets of history that Samantha has remembered. Since we just bought a farm and will be learning how to garden, preserve our harvest, keep chickens, own horses and possibly keep a cow, I decided to do something different and hopefully more in line with our new lifestyle. The most important focus for next year, however, is character training and everything else will take a backseat as necessary.

I searched around and found a unit study on Anne of Green Gables called Where the Brook and River Meet. The same publisher, Cadron Creek, puts out an elementary unit study on Little House on the Prairie and a middle school one on the Narnia series. The curriculum covers history (from a Canadian perspective), Bible, literature, writing, fine arts, occupational education, physical education, health and economics. I'm supplementing with several books throughout the year for history, literature and Bible and we'll use the methods presented in Teaching the Classics to discuss them.

I also bit the bullet and purchased Teaching Writing: Structure and Style and Student Writing Intensive Level C from IEW. I've been looking at IEW for several years, but have been very intimidated by it. I haven't been able to find another writing curriculum that I actually liked, so I figured I'd go for it. It seems easy enough once I actually got it and looked through it. Samantha didn't do too well with algebra last year so we're starting over with Video Text. We'll use Apologia Biology for science and Analytical Grammar for grammar.


I'm trying to get a service-oriented group for middle and high school students started through one of the local Christian homeschooling groups. We'll partially model it after the concepts in Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris. I'm hoping we'll get enough interest and can really make an impact not only in the community, but in the lives of our teenagers.


And to round out our year, Samantha will be joining the IEA team this fall for competitive horse riding. This is a group in which the kids are ranked by levels and then are given a horse at random on competition day. They're given a certain amount of time to work with the horse, but must then ride to the best of their ability. This helps separate the truly good riders from the riders who just have rich parents and fancy horses.

The Secret Garden Movie Review

Horse Girl and I just finished reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Let me clarify by saying that I finished the book, but Horse Girl did not. Even though she had over three weeks to read it, she still has several chapters to finish. Oi, what to do with her? I told her this would be reflected in her discussion grade as she will not be able to discuss several points with me.

I thought it would be a great idea to watch the movie once we were finished reading and ordered the 1993 version from Netflix. I did that previously with Around the World in Eighty Days and it wasn't quite so bad. It was still off, but not as much. I didn't realize it when I ordered The Secret Garden movie, but it stars Maggie Smith as Mrs. Medlock, the housekeeper. She plays Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter. This turned out to be a bad thing, however, as Horse Girl could not get over the change in character. (Horse Girl much prefers her in Harry Potter!)

Overall, the movie was a poor adaptation of the book. So many things were changed! It was frustrating to watch because we kept pointing out all of the discrepancies. It wasn't just the scenes, either, but the behaviors of the characters that were off. Mrs. Medlock was portrayed as mean, but in the book she's more stern with a kind soul running beneath. Dickon was thoughtful and wise in the book, but is portrayed as somewhat silly and rambunctious in the movie. It could have been a good movie if they had stuck closer to the book.

Helpful Websites

I recently discovered www.quizlet.com. It's a really neat site that allows you to make flashcards for anything you can think of. I've made several sets so far for our 1st year Latin course and have been pleased with how easy they are to make and how quickly I learned the Latin words once I started studying them.

I also really like the Glencoe Literature Library for their wonderful study guides. I've used several of their study guides for school purposes and also for my ladies' book club. Another good site for literature study guides is Penguin Classics.

Winding Down Summer Break

I just realized two days ago that our school year starts in 1 1/2 weeks. I've been so busy planning everything out, writing lesson plans, entering work into HST+ and organizing books that I failed to realize the actual start date was quickly approaching. ARGH!

I ordered TallBoy's health/science book last night and will get that planned out when it arrives. I ended up saving $5 in shipping by ordering from the company via Amazon compared to their website. Hopefully it arrives quickly. Amazon is normally pretty quick with shipping.

HorseGirl almost threw a fit when I told her we were starting so soon. She quickly calmed down when I explained it was only for this year since we are moving mid-year. She also found out that her best friend started this week, making our start-date look even better. Her lease days for the horse just changed and she now has two weekdays and one weekend day. This will alleviate one weekday so she isn't out of the house four days each week. She previously rode Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and had co-op on Thursday. She ended doing most of her schoolwork in the afternoons and evenings.

The biggest change/challenge for this upcoming year is for me to be more involved in TallBoy's schooling. He simply is not able to take his assignment sheet and go off on his own. He is easily distracted and does not take pride in his work. He would be perfectly content to do the bare minimum on assignments and take whatever grade is given. Most of history, science/health, math, and writing will be done together.

I made up my own version of a school planner for him. I made a two-page blank monthly calendar to be printed for each month, followed by weekly two-page spreads for assignments. Each day has 12 lines to write assignment details. I printed out all of the pages going through the end of August. It's nothing fancy, but hopefully by following it, he will learn time management. I plan to sit down with him each Monday morning to fill it out. HorseGirl prefers to have HST+ open on her computer and go off of that.

More School Planning

Ok, I'm probably going about this the wrong way, but I've decided to reorder all of TallBoy's schoolwork for the upcoming year. He only has one more year until he turns 18 and I can pretty much guarantee he will be moving out and not looking back. So, we have one year to work on maturity, responsibility, real-life living skills and whatever schoolwork I think he needs to survive in life. Oh, my!

For the past five years, he's done TOG with his sister and that took a huge weight off of my shoulders as far as planning went. When it came time for discussions, though, it was a nightmare. He simply does not care about doing the work or getting a decent grade or keeping my blood pressure in check.

For history I searched my shelves to see what I could come up with and found a ton of books and a DVD. Last year at some point I ordered (for FREE) America: The Story of Us, the 12-part DVD from the History Channel. I'm combining it with Joy Hakim's Freedom: A History of US and lesson plans from PBS. The PBS lesson plans coincide with a series they did on the book, but unfortunately their DVD is $200! I think I've spent four pretty solid days so far cutting and pasting text, questions and lesson activities into a Word document to use as a lesson plan. But, that covers roughly half the year, so I'm pretty happy. I have lesson plans starting with the Pilgrims and will eventually cover present-day. We should be able to accomplish this all in one year.

For science, I'm still debating. We have Physical Science (he's already attempted it twice) and Biology, both from Apologia. Physical Science bores him and Biology is over his head. I again headed to the internet to do some searching. I found some mapping lesson plans from USGS which will cover about 2-4 weeks. I haven't looked closely at them since printing them out to determine a time-frame. I was thinking, though, of ordering Nutrition 101: Choose Life. I can use this as science and health and was going to use it with HorseGirl next year anyway. It covers the brain and nervous system, digestion and elimination, respiration and olfactory, muscular and skeletal systems, cardiovascular and immune systems and the endocrine system and emotions. It has a ton of information in it, including recipes in each chapter to strengthen whichever system you've just studied.

I think it is very important for TallBoy to be knowledgeable about his body and how everything works. He has recently been putting nothing but junk into his body, sugared cereals, Toaster Strudels, cookies, ice cream, juice, soda, etc. I know, a lot of this is partly my fault for buying all of the junk, which is why I'm going to stop. My husband just gave me permission to stop buying all the sugared snacks. I've also been insisting TallBoy eat a fruit or vegetable as at least one of his snacks each day.

HorseGirl will be doing Latin in the Christian Trivium I next year, so I will have TallBoy do it as well. It won't hurt him to know the meanings of words and may actually benefit him at some point. If nothing else, it will serve to expand his vocabulary.

For math, well, that's something I haven't quite figured out yet. I bought VideoText Algebra for HorseGirl and was going to have him use it as well, but I think he may be better served by learning real-life math. He needs to know how to make and keep a budget, and how loans are structured and how to avoid being ripped off (ie. payday loans and Rent-A-Center). I'm sure there are other math skills he will need, such as measurements that we should cover. I posted a query on one of my Yahoo groups and got a couple of recommendations for curriculum. I don't want to spend a lot of money, though.

For writing, we will be using Paradigm Online Writing Assistant at the beginning of the year to work on writing in general and how to write different kinds of essays and then will start National Novel Writing Month. We will begin that in October in preparation for the actual writing in November. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. There are lesson plans in the Educators section that go over character, plot, setting, etc.

For literature, I'm planning to use Teaching the Classics by IEW and will choose literature based on what we're studying in history. I have several classics and other good books already chosen based on the time period. Even though we're studying American history I plan to include authors from all over the world.

School Planning & Summer Break

I am pretty much done with school planning for next year, but I still find myself drawn to the computer and curriculum books looking for ways to streamline and organize things for next year. Since we will be starting the bulk of our schooling mid-July, I want to make sure everything is as planned as possible. I typically plan things out and then find myself falling apart several weeks into the school year. My problem is that I like to research things to the extreme, but lack the follow through to put my plans and research into action. This year I'm going to try a few new ideas for staying organized.

1)I made a list of supplies for science labs and will purchase everything I need for the first quarter at one time and put it all in a bin. Lack of supplies will no longer be an excuse to get out doing labs. Luckily, physical science does not require things like bananas and lima beans.

2)I've already done through every course and made a syllabus, writing down every book to read, map to fill in, chart to complete, etc. I then entered everything into HST+ so I can quickly transfer it to assignment sheets. I also made sure to give a Points Possible value for all graded assignments so I will know at a glance what needs to be graded.

3)We use Tapestry of Grace for history, geography, and some literature and writing. I went through next year's curriculum and cut and pasted all of the General Information pages, Accountability and Thinking Questions for both history and geography and all the Reading Assignments I'm planning on having the kids read. Everything is gathered together in one Word document, ready to be printed out. In the next few weeks, I'm going to print the information out for each week and put it chronologically in a folder, ready to be pulled out each Monday.

4)I've gone through every book we own and have organized them according to subject. My shelves were already organized by subject, but I cleared out space on another shelf in order to organize specifically for next year. The kids and I should be able to see at a glance where each subject is and whether the required resource is available.

5)I have a used-book sale to attend this weekend where I hope to pick up a good quantity of my history and literature books. After that, I'm going to add a reminder to my Google calendar for each week that I need to reserve books from the library. This past year I was constantly forgetting to reserve books in time.

If you have any additional tips, I would greatly appreciate hearing about them.

Just Discovered HST+

I kept hearing the ladies on one of my TOG Yahoo groups talking about this great home school planning software, but never checked it out. I thought I found what they were talking about several ago online, but it turns out I was looking at a completely different product. I did some research this weekend and finally found HST+.

I was looking for something that would be easy to track my lesson plans and organize my grading. I previously was just using an Excel document for my assignment sheet, Word documents for my syllabi's and another Excel document for grading.

So far, HST+ is amazing. I have managed to input all of history, science and part of English for next year. I have everything broken down into activities so I can assign a different weight for grading purposes. For instance, reading is not graded, geography is 20%, discussions and exams are 45%, charts are 15% and history writing is 20%.

Horse Girl can log in on her computer, see what she needs to accomplish on any given day or week and then check it as completed when she finishes. She can even go in and add notes if necessary or fill in the assignment if it was something that was open-ended. I then go in behind her and input the grade for anything she completed. If it's a multi-day assignment, such as reading, it will stay on her agenda until the due-date I assigned. The program tallies everything up on its own and even keeps track of attendance. I have it set up to count each day that we accomplish four hours or more of school as one school day. When you block out holidays and off-days it will not assign school work on those days.

Right now I'm just using the 30-day trial, but will more than likely purchase it when my 30 days are over. The program is only $49, and it's a one-time purchase. You then receive free updates whenever they come out. If you're interested in ordering, let me know and I will give you a code to use. My girlfriend receives $5 for every purchase made with her code. I will eventually sign up for my own code, though.

Conference Thoughts

We went to our local home school conference this past weekend and it was such a blessing. I came away feeling refreshed, invigorated, inspired and renewed. I learned so much from the wonderful array of speakers and vendors.

I went into the conference pretty much knowing which curriculum I want to use next year, so I didn't purchase too much that I hadn't planned for. Horse Girl was able to find a "Little House on the Prairie" book that she's been looking for. She wanted a specific cover to match the rest of the set she's accumulated and she found the exact one for $2!

I went to a workshop by Susan Wise Bauer on preparing for college that was wonderful. She spoke about academics, emotions and life-skills. I also went to a workshop by Barb Cash titled " She Senses the Worth of her Work...". She talked about discontentment and how it breeds resentment, finding joy in the simple things and remembering that my job is a privilege from God. Another workshop I really enjoyed was "Parenting the Strong-Willed Teenager" by John Rosemond. He spoke about the fact that mothers fail to move from season 1 in their child's life in which they orbit around the child and serve them and protect them, into season 2 in which they teach leadership and the respect of authority. They then have problems in the teen years, in which their children should be in season 3, but are in actuality still in season 1. He writes a book called "Teen-Proofing" and it was the only non-planned purchase I made.

Horse Girl already knows she wants to go to college and knows what she wants to do for a career (we still need to figure out exactly what major that equates to). Because of this, I have been able to go to the college's website and look at their admission requirements and home school course recommendations. I put together a four-year high school plan that also includes the 8th grade as dd will be taking some high school level courses next year. For next year, my plan is as follows:

Math: VideoText Algebra

English: Analytical Grammar & Teaching the Essay & Introduction to Literature I

Science: Apologia Physical Science

History: Tapestry of Grace Year 2

Latin: Latin in the Christian Trivium I

Bible/Character: books by Elizabeth George like "A Young Woman's Walk with God", etc.

Economics: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy & Economics: A Free Market Reader

PE: Horse Riding