We began homeschooling when Keilee was 7.  Then  everything was shiny and new and I hadn’t a clue what I was doing.  High School?? I didn’t think about high school at all.  She was 7!  Well now she is 14 and starting high school.  How did that even happen??? 

There will be no more learning History with her Webkinz.

Or having a 1700’s day where she wears a costume, uses candles or writes with a quill.  

Or making a jello cell:

Or learning about Ancient Greeks by dressing up in a toga.

 This year looks more ‘bookish, more ‘schoolish’ despite my efforts to talk her out of it.  She wanted to do it this way.  She found her own curriculum except for History.  She wanted Ancient History and couldn’t find a high school level class.  She also knew she wanted Southern Lit so we sat down together to plan it.  She has her daily plan all worked out.  Not every subject every day but it does all flow. 

Disclaimer: Keilee is like me, great at planning but occasionally lacking follow through. These are her plans but as a Homeschool Mom I know how often plans can change. These will I am sure. 🙂

Keilee’s 9^th Grade 2014-2015

HISTORY:

The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome We LOVE Susan Wise Bauer’s SOTW series. We used them all and loved them so I was so excited to find this. There is also an audio version!

I actually found the book but wondered how much work it would take to make lesson plans when I discovered this:
Study and Teaching Guide: The History of the Ancient World: It is like a grown up “Activities” guide for high school. It looks amazing! We are going to supplement this with movies that I found from the time periods she is studying.

SCIENCE:

Understanding Psychology: Keilee has always loved anything to do with the brain and people’s reasons for behaving a certain way. She found this used on Amazon so I ordered it. I found lesson plans and resources to go along with it here.

SOUTHERN LITERATURE

I couldn’t find a Southern Literature curriculum so we are making our own. Every book list I have found has “To Kill A Mockingbird” on it but Keilee has not only read the book and watched the movie but she played Scout in the play. My brother was very helpful because he was an English major. He gave us several suggestions. I ordered this book; “Growing Up in The South: An Anthology of Modern Southern Literature. I am going to pick a few of the books listed here. We are also reading short stories and poems including:

William Faulkner – Barn Burning and A Rose for Emily or The Bear
Flannery O’Connor – A Good Man is Hard to Find
Truman Capote – A Christmas Memory
Eudora Welty – Why I live at the PO and The Worn Path
Tennessee Williams – The Glass Menagerie or A Streetcar Named Desire (Plays and Movies)
Fannie Flagg – Fried Green Tomatoes
James Dickey – poems (I love Animal Heaven)
Alice Walker – The Flowers; The Color Purple (Flowers is very short but makes you think)
Because of what they wrote about Twain, Poe and Ambrose Bierce are called southern writers by some. Read The Open Window or An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Bierce. Both of those are great!

 CREATIVE WRITING
Keilee has written 24 chapters of her book and will continue to work on this. She will also take a Creative Writing class with Jessica and her girls.

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
We are trying to find a local class for this. Someone suggested contacting our Deaf Association and seeing if someone would be willing to teach Keilee. It would help them and her. I am waiting to hear back. In the meantime I found several websites. Lifeprint is one that I found a couple of months ago. Keilee knows the alphabet and so many words from a television show she has watched for a few years. I also found one from Start American Sign Language that looks interesting. Like most things she will have to dive in to know if it’s something she will benefit from.

AFRICA
I have so many Africa resources that Keilee will use for this study. She wants to one day live in Africa so she decided she needed to learn more about the people, the government and the country.
Some of the resources she is using are:
Africa Hands of a Child
African Lap Notes
African Countries
African Maps
Animals of The Savannah Plain
Southern Africa: Tribal Huts and Homes; Tribal Life and Nations
Water and Landforms of Africa
The A to Z of African Countries

ALGEBRA 1 SAXON  {Edited]

Sandra pointed out that I didn’t put her Math on here!  Good grief, we can’t forget our favorite subject! NOT.  We started Algebra I last year and will finish in December and start Geometry 2nd semester.  Well, that’s the plan! 🙂

BIBLE

We are still looking for a good Bible Study.  All the ones I have seen for Teen Girls are full of dealing with things that, thankfully, isn’t something Keilee has to deal with.

We are also watching some YouTube Channels.   One is ET The HipHop Preacher that Bene’, one of our lead pastors, recommended.  I also found a audio version of The New Testament that we are going to listen to.  $2 at a yard sale! 🙂

 We plan on watching tons of movies using the Teach With Movies website. I actually found this site years ago when you had to pay a small yearly fee to join but now it is FREE!! It has so many movies and teaching resources to go along with it. Check it out, I think you will really like it!

2-4 WEEK STUDIES
World Government
Major World Religion
United States Presidents [ongoing] She is making Notebook Pages on each President with information on each one. It will be put in a notebook. I won a lifetime Membership to Notebooking Pages which we LOVE!!
Mythological Creatures
Medicinal Plants

YOUTUBE CHANNELS [She watches these continuously when she is doing anything creative]  I can not tell you how much Keilee has learned from watching YouTube videos all her life.  Her knowledge of all things Science and History amazes me!!
Please watch before you let your children watch. They may not all be appropriate for all ages.

Khan Academy
Animalist News
Animal Planet
Sic Show
Smarter Every Day   We know Dustin. He lives where we live and Keilee has done plays with his brother. 🙂
Crash Course
The Brain Scoop
V Sauce
Horrible History
National Geographic

CURRENT EVENTS:
CNN Student News
BBC Worldnews

PHILOSOPHY

After reading  Sparklee’s post about what she is doing with her kids, the idea of a Philosophy course intrigued me.  So I did some searching and found “Philosophy for Teens” on Amazon.  I got the Kindle version.  I have never taken a Philosophy course but it looks really good.  It also talks about Socrates, Aristotle and Plato so it will go along with our Ancient History.

ARTS:

Of course she will continue with her creative endeavors. She plans on taking her Crafts to our downtown Market on Tuesdays and restocking her Etsy store in time for Christmas.

JOB SHADOWING

She has written down all the ‘job shadowing’ opportunities she wants to explore. I have found that people are very willing to share their love of what they do with kids. All you have to do is ask. The worse they can say is “No”. These will be, hopefully, a couple of days to see if it is something she would like to pursue. Some of the places she has written down are:

Newspaper
Court House
Law Office
Lab
Animal Shelter
Wildlife Refuge

She has another idea for a wonderful volunteer opportunity but we will have to see how it unfolds.

So there you have it. Keilee’s 9^th Grade Year. I told her she didn’t even need me but she assures me she will.  She said, “I still need you for Algebra Mom”.  Great!  The thing I HATE most. 🙂  I will still do History and Southern Lit with her because I want to learn too!  I have learned so much since we started homeschooling.

I hope this is an amazing year for us all!!!

Homeschooling Rocks
Karen

My quote this post is from a Paul Simon song.  I hope this is the antithesis of how Keilee feels after her 4 years of learning at home!
“When I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all”  ~Paul Simon

Linking with:
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday“