2016-2017 School Plans

I think I have almost certainly over-scheduled for the upcoming year. Elise is entering her Sophomore year of high school and will be taking US History, American Lit & Composition, Fine Arts: Ballet, French, Bible, PE, Geometry, and Biology. In addition to this I'm hoping to fit in Health, American Government, and Washington State History. The reality is those classes are only 1/2 credit classes, so can probably be done 2-3 days a week spread over the school year. She only needs an additonal 1/2 credit of PE this year, but her activities will continue all year long, so this is not a true 1/2 credit class. 

For US History we will be the history portion of Sonlight's HBL 100. Our spine will be A History of US by Joy Hakim. The remainder of our studies will include a mix of non-fiction, historical fiction and biographies: The Boys' War, Before Columbus, Dragon's Gate, Sacajawea, Freedom Walkers, The Great Little Madison, Shh! We're Writing the Constitution, World War II, The Yanks Are Coming, Cameron Townsend, The Cross and Switchblade, Farewell to Manzanar, The Landing of the Pilgrims, Moonshiner's Son, The Panama Canal, The Slopes of War, and Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold. She's got a jump on her studies already as we visited the Vicksburg National Military Park when she was in Mississippi this summer.
 
Bible study will be using the Bible portion of Sonlight's HBL 100. And includes the Bible Study Sampler, God's Will, God's Best for Your Life, Why Pray, Evidence for Jesus, and The Bible Jesus Read.

Elise will use Sonlight's American Literature (from HBL 400) for the majority of the literature component of her American Literature and Composition class. She will add in a few books from their Core 100 literature, namely To Kill a Mockingbird, Rip Van Winkle and Call of the Wild, which she will study with Erik. 

 

For Biology, both Elise and Erik will use Apologia's Exploring Creation through Biology. I also have Biology text books on the Kindle if we need additional resources. I still have to finish purchasing supplies for this course, as we have yet to purchase a microscope and supplies or a dissection kit. 
 


Elise will continue on taking French on-line with Mr. G. Erik is looking forward to starting this, too. (He's heard how funny Mr. G is from Elise.) 

Elise will continue dancing this year as a performing member of our local company, Peninsula Dance Theatre. She just returned from a month-long dance intensive, studying ballet with Ballet Magnificat! in Jackson, Mississippi and is hoping to return there next summer for more dance fun! Her ballet and pointe classes will meet her Fine Arts requirement, while her Pilates, Tap, Jazz and Modern classes will meet her PE requirement. 

Elise will use her beloved Life of Fred series for her Geometry class along with some extra from NEM(esis).

Health is going to be a bit eclectic. I saw a curriculum that I really liked, but it wasn't readily obtainable at an affordable price. So, I started searching for a collection of books that covered the major topics. (We studied anatomy and physiology a few years ago, so we aren't repeating it now.) We'll be combining an e-book study on Human Growth and Development (across the lifespan) which has assigned homework, practical experiences and suggests additional readings with some of those extra readings (or other books on similar topics). Those extras include: Do Hard Things, For Young Women Only/For Young Men Only (providing insight into the opposite sex), The Teenage Q & A Book, and The Bare Facts: 39 Questions Your Parents Hope You Never Ask About Sex. 




Since it's an election year, I'm hoping Elise will be able to complete her American Government studies, too. We'll be using the Sonlight HBL 400 Government unit for that which includes: Basic American Government, Congress for Dummies, The Complete Idiot's Guide to U.S. Government and Politics, Selecting a President, Are you Liberal? Conservative? or Confused?, and The U.S. Supreme Court.

         

I'm still a bit undecided regarding Erik's studies, but he will be doing Lit & Composition with an eclectic mix of American Lit, American Historical Fiction (selected titles from SL Core 100), and some Classical Lit. He'll study Rip Van Winkle, Call of the Wild, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Out of the Dust, Amos Fortune: Free Man, Keeping Score, Children of the Longhouse, Elijah from Buxton, Maniac Magee, A Long way from Chicago, A Year Down Yonder, Our Town, Twelfth Night, Treasure Island, A Parcel of Patterns, and Pictures of Hollis Wood, The Wise Woman, The Gammage Cup.
(Core 100 lit pictured)

He has a few things to wrap up from last year including World Geography, Beginning Algebra, and Physical Science. When he completes these he will move on to either US History or Washington State History, and Advanced Algebra. He will be doing double duty on Science for the first month or so of the year as he needs to stay on track with Elise for Biology so he has a lab partner for dissections. 

He will be playing soccer this fall, working to complete his Personal Fitness merit badge for scouts and plans to play baseball in the spring which should meet his PE requirements. He also says he would like to run the Seattle Rock 'N Roll half marathon again next summer. He will also have various scout camping and hiking activities to keep him busy.