2017 - 2018 Curricular Plans

Drumroll...

This is it.

My last curricular planning post.

The 2017-2018 school year will be my last year as an official homeschool mom.

In reality, my retirement will probably be gradual, but this will be the last year that I get to pick the books, and isn't that really why any of us become homeschool moms anyway? #kidding #maybe

The annual curriculum post has always been a favorite tradition of mine; in fact, it was the ONLY post on this blog for the 2016-2017 school year. I finally accepted the fact that I just don't have time for blogging, but I can't pass up the opportunity to participate in the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop one more time. This is the 9th year of the blog hop and I've participated almost all of those years -- take a look HERE for a trip down memory lane! Time flies, mommas.

So, let's get down to business. I have one official homeschooler this year: Ryne, my 18-year-old son who was diagnosed with autism when he was two. He is in his senior year and is enrolled in the Classical Conversations Challenge III program. He is only doing a half day at CC, taking the rest of his classes at home. My youngest, Grace, 14, is returning to the 3-day-a-week classical Christian school she attended 5th-7th grades, although she will outsource her foreign language requirement, taking French II at The Potter's School. Anna, 19, is starting her second year of architecture school.

In Challenge III and IV, students can pick which courses they want to participate in, so our group is not even offering math or Latin because everyone was using their own math program and most did not want to continue studying Latin. We also chose not to participate in the Rhetoric/Logic portions because we had other things we wanted to accomplish in our last year of homeschooling.

THE PLAN

Chemistry 
(through Classical Conversations)
Apologia's Exploring Creation Through Chemistry, 3rd Edition

Shakespeare and Poetry 
(through Classical Conversations)
Much Ado About Nothing
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Henry V (long-time readers know what we'll be doing after reading this!)
Hamlet
Brightest Heaven of Invention
The Roar on the Other Side

American History 
(through Classical Conversations)
A Patriot's History of the United States

Latin
Latin Alive 2, Classical Academic Press (he still has a few chapters left from the last school year)
Latin Alive 3

I'm both shocked and proud that Ryne chose to continue with Latin this year. It's not the easiest subject, but he does enjoy it. Last year we tried (again) to love the Latin curriculum Classical Conversations uses (Henle), but we only made it a few weeks before I ditched Henle for good (to the cheers of Ryne and Grace). We switched to Latin Alive 2 and once we got into a routine it was clear we made the right choice. The kids all grew up on the elementary level programs from Classical Academic Press (Song School Latin and Latin for Children) and loved them, so Latin Alive was a natural fit.

Pre-Calculus
Math U See PreCalculus with Trigonometry

We learned the hard way with Latin that if something's not broken, don't fix it. Thankfully, we did not make that mistake with math. It took almost all of our first year of homeschooling to find a math curriculum that clicked with Ryne, but once I found Math U See and started Ryne at the Alpha level, it's been pretty smooth sailing. We'll miss Mr. Demme after this year! And, yes, I'll be taking Pre-Calculus too -- I bought my own student books for Geometry and Algebra II and did all the lessons and tests. If sticking with MUS was the best math decision I've ever made, this was a close second. And guess what? I like math a LOT more than I did when I was in high school, and I understand it so much better. I feel like a rock star when my kids come to me for help and I can actually solve the problem, haha!

Research & Writing
(or at least I think that's what I'm titling the class on his transcript!)
A series of online writing courses through BraveWriter

Ryne has made a ton of progress in his writing skills through Classical Conversations, but it's still a struggle. He actually spends the majority of his free time writing science fiction or fantasy stories, so it's not that he doesn't like to write. Unfortunately, writing research papers and literary analysis don't come quite as easy. I kept hearing such wonderful things about the BraveWriter online courses for both struggling writers and gifted writers, so I decided that we'd give it a try. I'll try to update as the year goes on and share how it goes.

Information Technology
Digital Savvy, CompuScholar

With the heavy workload in the Challenge program, Ryne's had few opportunities in high school to just take an elective of his choice. So, he's skipping rhetoric/logic and taking a self-paced online computer course instead. Anna took a similar course at the community college and found it very helpful.

Health
Total Health, Susan Boe
Starlite Press Health
Spark, John Ratey
First Aid/CPR course
A variety of autism books

For a course that is traditionally one of those get-er-done type classes, my list of sources we'll be using is probably overkill. Yet, health issues seem to be some of the biggest struggles we face in adulthood, whether it's our own health or that of a loved one. So I decided to take health education seriously in our homeschool. But I wasn't in love with any of the health books I looked at, so I kind of pieced together our own health course that will meet our needs and interests better.

Physical Education
Cross Country & Track Teams

Ryne is part of two great Christian school teams that welcome homeschoolers. It has been a huge part of his high school experience and extends far beyond just physical fitness.

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In case you haven't noticed, Ryne has eight courses on his schedule this year, yikes! Somehow I missed that fact in all my summer planning. Thankfully, we started some of the health stuff last spring, and I had told his Classical Conversations tutor months ago that we'd be cutting out some of the presentations and writing assignments since he was taking an extra writing course. We're still fine-tuning that now that I'm able to better gauge what each subject involves.

It's an exciting but bittersweet time at Blue House Academy. I'm so humbled and grateful for the Lord's guidance and provision over the past ten-and-a-half years, and I'm eager to see what new paths He has in store for us. Until then, we're going to focus on having an amazing senior year.

Happy Homeschooling!