Saturday, February 13, 2016

High school is even more terrifying at 35

Okay. So. This fall, I will have a high schooler that I'm responsible for educating. Yeah. Enter terror here. I've been making myself absolutely bat-shit insane for the last week trying to plot and plan. Curriculum for high school is often extremely expensive and/or religious. I wanted to cobble something together - bits from this, bits from that. But it seems to be a package deal situation in more cases.

Enter me writing an entire ninth grade curriculum from the bottom up. For as little money as possible (in addition to having a high schooler this fall, I will also have a brand new first grader. yes. all three boys will finally be officially in school. gods help me).

So!

Algebra 1 - got it covered. Free online textbook, a $3 textbook from the library's used book store, and I already have 121 days of lessons planned out. No sweat. One of my worst subjects when I was in school (math in general) and somehow I've planned it with nary a bump.

Earth/Space Science (which isn't a thing outside of middle and high school - don't get me started) - This has caused me so much trouble. I've subjected both B and (my good friend) R to so much complaining this past week. Today I settled on a text book. Lessons aren't exactly planned yet, but I've got the bones of this mess figured out.

Programming - Okay, it's not really programming. The Elf will be using GameMaker: Studio (which I always type as "GameMaker: Stupid" if that tells you how much my brain is hating this past week) to learn to create video games. He will also be using RPGMaker..Ace? MV? something. It has a free version. That's what he'd going to use. Got those lessons all planned out.

Art - Drawing. Yeah. Something I don't really have to do anything for. It's a miracle!

Japanese - We're going to use a combination of Genki I and Japanese from Zero. I have high hopes for this. No exact lessons planned. It's going to depend on how we progress, I'm thinking.

History - following the timeline we've been using. We're almost done with the American Revolutionary War. Next "big thing" will be the French Revolution. Working on all those plans in the next few days.

Literature - I'm lost. Seriously. I'm hung up on "but he needs to read all the things!"

This leads me to a plea for help. Homeschoolers, parents, book lovers, opinionated people: help! Do I segregate out literature (America, British, Ancient, etc). Do we just have a "Literature" course in which I (we - sort of) pick whatever the hell I (we - sort of) deem appropriate? I just don't know! And it's stopping me from finishing all this planning!

Also! Ideas for an eighth "credit" for ninth grade? Something not too strenuous as I think it's going to take us both a year to get in the swing of this slightly more serious schooling thing. He may want to graduate a year early, so I want to be prepared for that possibility.

Right. And now I must go play Go Fish with the Beast.

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