Senior Year Homeschool Plan 2019-2020

Joel turned 18 in June and I love homeschooling so much I wanted to keep him an extra year. It's going to work out that way for my oldest three kids, but I should have my younger two on track to graduate sooner. We'll see. Maybe I will try to keep that last kid around several more years LOL

This kid can now officially be called an Eagle Scout as of August 15, 2019.

Here's Joel's senior year plan:

Math
Finally going to kick Algebra's butt using a workbook with tons of problems because he doesn't work best with a program like Teaching Textbooks. Then we'll move on to a Geometry workbook so he has some basic knowledge of these two concepts as he heads out into the world.

Literature
Here's what I have so far on the list for all the kids, but for now I'm checking into The Outsiders, some sort of classic, something Shakespeare, some short stories, something contemporary. First up is The Great Gatsby.

I either read these books aloud to Joel and his brother (10th grade) or we listen to an audiobook. We talk about the book, sometimes write papers, discuss things like plot, structure, foreshadowing, etc. We will try to do this 3 times a week.

Taking certain things into consideration, and it's hard to choose since I only have one more year with him, (in the past we've read quite a varied list, like Okay for Now, Station Eleven, Fahrenheit 451, Wednesday Wars, etc.):

Here is what PrepScholar says are the 31 best books for boys to read in high school.

Here is how BuzzFeed weighed in with 26 Contemporary Books That Should be Taught in High School

I also have a list that I'm going through based on The Read-Aloud Family and Honey for a Child's Heart.

I also highly recommend Time4Learning for their English for high school; amazing short story and book ideas and great teaching to back them up. Please tell them Kerrie McLoughlin sent you!

Grammar
Easy Grammar (4 times a week)

Writing/Composition
We work on this a couple of times a week, incorporating the literature into it. This year we'll also write a research paper.

Science
Apologia Exploring Creation Biology, utilizing the student notebook for homework and experiments

History
Our Pioneers and Patriots during Morning Time (which can be any time of the day when we can all come together) just to cement some of the history concepts. He has learned about Government and all sorts of history already so this is just a refresher, not really a necessity. Plus he may end up taking a History at the community college, and one semester counts as a full year of credit for high school.

Physical Education
The kid goes to the gym 6 days a week

Spanish
Dabbling in this during Morning Time with the younger kids

Psychology

October through December: 8-week accelerated Psychology course online through our "local" community college (local means it's like 20 minutes away) for dual credit. Eight weeks of this count as a full one-year credit.

Criminal Justice

January through May: Tentative plan will be to take two more classes, maybe History and Law or Criminal Justice. He would like to go into law enforcement, so we are determining the best classes for him right now.

Job/Life Skills
Working for a lawn care business 20-25 hours per week

Field Trips
Art Museum
Truman Library
Still working on this list!

Please see my Ultimate Field Trip List (Kansas City) when I have that live (coming soon!)