2015-2016 Freshman Year

It's the time of year that I get into gear planning for the following school year. This year brings some added pressure as Elise will be a high school freshman and school gets a little more serious as she now is prepping for college and life after high school. Trying to balance her desires with what she needs for graduation and to prepare for college is a bit of a challenge. After being sure of my plans for about 6 months, I've recently made a rather significant switcheroo.

Elise and Erik have always studied the same "core" subjects of bible, history, geography, readers and read alouds. This year for the first time they have split off into their own science programs. After much thought, they will be splitting for most subjects next year. Elise will be studying History of the Christian Church (or History of Western Civ from _____ forward with an emphasis on the Church's influence on Western Civ), she will be reading some classic literature (with a few lighter selections) including: 

A Child's Anthology of Poetry

Till We Have Faces

Pontius Pilate

Romeo and Juliet

Jane Eyre

The Shining Company

The Gammage Cup

The Outlaws of Sherwood

The Ramsay Scallop

A Parcel of Patterns

Pilgrim's Progress in Today's English

Robinson Crusoe

A Christmas Carol

Treasure Island

Oliver Twist

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales

The Wise Woman and Other Stories

Twelfth Night

The Screwtape Letters

Going Solo

The Hawk and the Dove Trilogy (2 of the stories)

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Pictures of Hollis Woods

What Hearts

The Best of Father Brown

Enchantess from the Stars

 She will also be working on knocking out her state history requirement (or finishing it up). 

She will continue to use a combination of Singapore's NEM and Life of Fred for her math classes. She will finish up Algebra II and start Geometry. Hopefully this switch over will occur near the semester break. 

For Science, I think Elise will move on to Chemistry. That will allow for combining Elise and Erik for Biology (and having a partner for dissections) the following year. Since she has already started into Algebra II and will be about half way through the class at the start of the year, I think she will be able to handle whatever math is thrown at her in the Chemistry text.  She is looking forward to this class.

Physical Education and the Fine Arts are EASY!!! Elise will be counting Ballet and Pointe towards her Fine Arts credits and Modern, Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop and Pilates towards her PE credit. She will be getting in some miles as she trains for another half-marathon next June. She also will have extracurricular activities in the form of her participation in the dance company and church youth group. 

For electives, Elise will have 1/2 to 1 credit of Bible Study. She is interested in computer programming and we'll be looking at a way for her to study this. I also want her to keep plugging away at French, with the goal of taking French at the local community college as a junior in high school.