Our 2017/2018 Relaxed Homeschool Curriculum for 10th and 12th Grade

Don’t you just love back-to-homeschool time? Everywhere you turn, excited moms are sharing their plans for the new school year. It is such an awesome experience to see how different homeschooling can look from house to house, and how, despite the differences, they’re all equally impressive.

Today I though I’d share what I have in store for my 15 and 17 year old. I will admit that these choices aren’t set in stone- but then again, nothing in homeschool should be, right? Another thing I’ll also point out is that, although I have them “labeled” as 10th and 12th grade students, I don’t actually use a single resource that is grade level specific.

Not one. To me, grade levels are just an arbitrary holdover from traditional school. In fact, we only use them so that:

• our kids know which Sunday School class to attend, and
• because our school district assigns them grade levels in their records, anyway.

So, with that being said, let’s get started! 

Our Relaxed Homeschool High School Curriculum for 2017/2018

Bible:

Now that my kids are getting older, they’re at that age when they’ve really started questioning what they believe. It can be a scary time for parents, but I keep telling myself that this is the time they can decide to make their faith their own.  Because of this, I’ve found two great books I’ll be reading through with them:

Answering the Toughest Questions About God and the Bible– This is a fantastic resource that actually addresses the questions asked by doubters and unbelievers.

Man, Myth, Messiah: Answering History’s Greatest Question– This book is the inspiration behind God’s Not Dead 2 and examines the historicity of Jesus Christ and the Gospels.

Language Arts:

In addition to notebooking and copywork, both of my high schoolers will be using Daily Grams for grammar. I love that each lesson only takes about 5-10 minutes.

In addition, my 15 year old will be using Apologia American Literature, which I am excited about for so many reasons, mainly because it can double as a history curriculum for her, and it has a notebook to accompany it!!

Double yay!

Algebra:

Both of my teens will start out this homeschool year using No-Nonsense Algebra. My 15 year old will be just starting it, while my 17 year old has about 1/3 of the textbook to complete.

After my 12th grader completes the algebra curriculum, we will be finishing out the year going over real life math with him in a real world context. We tried a consumer math book last year with my daughter who just graduated and honestly didn’t like it at all. To me, consumer math should be about math you’ll use in everyday adult life, not calculating the rate of inflation.

I mean, come on. Who even does that?

History:

I mentioned earlier that my 10th grader’s Apologia curriculum will double as history, but she will also be doing an in-depth study of Ancient Egypt. At this point, she hopes to be an Egyptologist, so this will be her main history curriculum. Since she is a Charlotte Mason learner, she will use library books and other living books as her primary resources for this.

My 12th grader will be using Story of the World (hopefully, all four volumes), documentaries, and movies as his main history curriculum. Since he does have ADHD, it is extremely important that we utilize resources that will keep him engaged.

Science:

Both of my teens will be taking biology this year. Since I’ve never found a textbook that I was completely satisfied with, instead I will be using the table of contents from A Beka Biology as a starting point, and I will craft my own curriculum using living books based on the topics covered in the text.

Since my son has a deep interest in wildlife photography, he will supplement his biology with lots of field work to give him an opportunity to find, photograph and research the creatures he finds while he’s out and about.

Electives:

Art– In addition to photography, my 12th grader will be using Drawing Professionally through Easy Peasy All-in-One High School. And it’s free!!

Italian- My 10th grader has been using Duolingo to learn Italian for the past several months, and she really enjoys it, so we’ll continue on until she completes it. (Also free!)

Egyptian Mythology- This elective will tie in beautifully with my daughter’s studies of Ancient Egypt. She will use living books for this as well.

Well, there you have it- our 2017/2018 relaxed homeschool high school curriculum! Are you homeschooling high school this year? I’d love to hear your curriculum choices. Leave a comment!

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