Homeschool World Forum

[miilkywayme]

I am in 10th grade and I have gotten my parents interested in the benefits of homeschooling. We're looking into it right now. I live in the state of Texas, which I'm sure you all already know is very lenient to homeschooling. I am college-bound and would hope to go to University of Texas.

In 9th grade I completed: English 9, Algebra 1, Biology, World Geography, Debate 1 and French 1.

For English, I figured I could just read a lot of literature, work on extending my vocabulary, work of creative and technical writing, and just kind of analyze the texts I read. As for world history, which I am to take this year, well my family loves history. Or my dad, brother, and sister do. I could go to them for questions, and besides that, just read up on information from the time periods, read biographies, read books written in those times, etc. Will these ideas suffice?

Now where we face a dilemma is in math, science and foreign language. I'm quite good in math and science, I just wouldn't know how to go about learning it. Should we just buy CD programs for those two subjects (I will be taking Geometry and Chemistry this year) since I don't really like textbooks? How else would we supplement this learning?
And are there any french programs which don't cost an arm and a leg?

As for electives I will be taking when I home school... well I figured some kind of arts, which would be incredibly easy, coming from such a creative family. I also thought of a home-economics type course would be good, and a nice excuse for my mother to make me clean and cook.

Does this seem good for a curriculum? Is there anything else I need to add? Sorry for the length, I just wanted to give enough information. Thanks!

[homeschooling911]

It sounds like you have a real handle on what you want to study and how to get it done. As a home-schooling veteran of 20 years (and I have graduated two of my kids from high school AND college so far) - I am impressed with your initiative.

First of all, since you are college-bound you will want to check with the colleges you are thinking of attending and see what they require for high school. From what you are proposing it sounds like you will have everything covered, but just check to make sure. You can also check your state's requirements to make sure you are getting enough math and science, etc.

Last year my middle son was in 10th grade and I did much of what you propose however, I do use Saxon Math for high school math. If you decided to use Saxon, go with their Algebra 2 program, which integrates Geometry so you do not need to take a separate geometry program. For science I used Apologia's General Science and a DVD program on Anatomy and Physiology.

I assigned him books for history to give him a thorough overview of American history, since up until now we have been using Greenleaf Press and had not studied American history.

For English, I used "Write With the Best" (you can find a review of this on my website) and I assigned him a research paper. You must know how to do a research paper for college.

That leads me to another recommendation: my son is in eleventh grade this year and his whole year will be covered by his attendance in the dual-enrollment program at the community college. So his ninth and tenth grade years were actually college prep and he is now taking college classes. You might want to look into this type of track for high school.

Any more questions, let me know!

P.S. I recommend you look into "Transcript Pro" to create a professional home-school transcript.
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http://homeschooling911.com/blog/
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[hscoach]

For Geometry, I highly recommend a curriculum called Teaching Textbooks. It is a little expensive, but well worth it. We've been using it for years and we love it. It comes with solutions cds so if you miss a question, you can always find out why. Here is the link.

http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/

For Chemistry, I highly recommend Apologia. Here is the link. We have the full course on cd rom.

http://apologia.spinweb.net/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5&PHPSESSID=063e207e32de00176e52951832ec14f8

My oldest son is in 11th grade and he is using both of these curriculums this year.

For French, you could google "free online French course". Here is one.
(but I think there are many more)

http://www.frenchassistant.com/

The rest of your plan sounds good. Best wishes.
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Laura L. Barth
http://www.freehomeschooladvice.com