I struggled more than usual this year to get my head wrapped around school planning. (Am I getting old?) A lot of it was last-minute and thus I never did my usual planning post. But for curious minds, here is what we ended up doing.

Duncan/11th Grade

Math – Mr. D’s Consumer Math. After geometry last year, Duncan’s basic requirements for high school were completed. He has no plans for college and no desire to go further in math. (He does have enough math for college should he change his mind.) So we selected this program which contains lots of great practical instruction and skills for life. Some algebra and geometry are included to keep it high-school level. It is an online, self-paced course.

English – Excelsior Classes English III. We considered a couple options this year but he really wanted to stay with this particular teacher. This meant we “skipped” English II. This does not matter if similar skills are worked on; it is often just a different genre of literature. We also joined a local Speech class that is using IEW materials. It is really nice to have an in-person class in the midst of many online courses.

Social Studies – True North Academy Civics. Since this was a one-semester class, we are going through the Uncle Eric books for the second semester. These are a fabulous overview of government and economics from a libertarian/natural-law perspective.

Science – Excelsior Classes Aviation Science. Duncan’s interests have shifted to aviation (likely due to his older brother’s career) for the moment. He helped select this course and it was with a provider we all were familiar with. He seems to enjoy applied science much better than pure science, and I’m okay with that if students are learning some pure science incidentally. I think that may be the case with most kids. More on that, as well as math, in the next post.

Extracurriculars – Piano, Choir, Bells, and Civil Air Patrol. CAP is new this year, due to his blooming interest and also a driver’s license! Additionally, he enjoys working part-time at a couple local farms; such a blessing for a teen boy that I do not take lightly.

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I was able to attend a GHC conference last year which was my first homeschool conference in awhile. I noticed a theme among the various speakers that was very encouraging for me and helped shape a new view of high school. This was reflected in some of our choices for Duncan this year and next. It is too much to go into here, but I can possibly share in a future post.

It has been working fairly well for The Man to manage Duncan’s school. Duncan has his desk in The Man’s office and they have a formal meeting once a week with a spreadsheet to go over schoolwork. Occasionally something will fall through the cracks but overall it is workable!

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My 8th-grader and 5th-grader still follow in their older siblings’ footsteps for the most part, so check the Learning archives to see what is being used. (This also helps us save money for all these online classes.) The 8th-grader (Pearl) is doing her first online class this year for English (also with Excelsior: Language Arts II). Since she particularly enjoys writing, I signed her up for the Writing Club which has been a big hit. They join Duncan in choir, bells, and music lessons. Also a neighbor has been pulling together some informal baking (see dumpling pic above) and quilting classes which have been awesome! With a mid-week youth Bible Study, they are living their best (homeschool) life.