Wordless Wednesday: Graduation

 

Puzzles in Our Homeschool

 

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this puzzle from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains tracking links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Finding a way to make science come to life can be challenging for some homeschooling families. What happens if your child is not interested in experiments or labs? How do you get them interested in their science lessons if science is not their favorite subject? While our oldest son enjoyed some of his science lessons, it definitely was not his favorite subject of his homeschool career. In the past, we incorporated hands-on activities like growing different plants and experimenting with the soil type and such, but how could we bring anatomy to life? Enter Dr. Livingston's Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzle: The Human Thorax courtesy of Timberdoodle. 

Included in both the 2021 Eleventh-Grade Curriculum Kit and Nonreligious 2021 Eleventh-Grade Curriculum Kit, The Human Thorax puzzle is 500 pieces of science education and entertainment. The puzzle shows a cross-section of the rib cage and its contents including the heart, the lungs, the trachea, and many muscles are also labeled in the lid of the puzzle box. While putting together the puzzle, you can easily see exactly where each piece fits into the puzzle and the human body. 

A Unique Educational Experience 

Unlike some puzzles, The Human Thorax one is not a typical square or rectangle. The shape follows the thorax of the human body but at about twice the size of a real, live human. In addition to this unique feature, the puzzle is also one that is 100% medically accurate, as it is illustrated by Mesa Schumacher, who is a certified medical illustrator. I would describe the colors as warm but vibrant, giving the impression that you are viewing the human thorax in a medical textbook or journal. 

Dr. Livingston's Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzle: The Human Thorax is one of seven total puzzles that will help your high school anatomy lessons come to life. Together all seven puzzles will look like vintage medical texts sitting on your homeschool shelf. The box has a very sturdy feel and opens and closes quite nicely. I love the fact that the box for the puzzle does not have a separate lid. What a great feature! 

Puzzling It Out 

After dinner one evening, I asked everyone to stay after we cleaned off the dining room table so we could work on the puzzle. All five of us – my husband, our senior, our second grader, our kindergartner, and myself – worked on separating the 500 puzzle pieces and organizing them by color and by which section of the puzzle we felt they belonged. These early puzzle activities kept our younger two children involved, but as soon as we dug into the actual putting together of the puzzle, they disappeared because they found it too difficult. And I agree. Dr. Livingston's Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzle: The Human Thorax is a more difficult puzzle than those they have helped us with on previous occasions. It is recommended on the Timberdoodle site for ages 14+, and I would agree with that assessment. I think it could fit nicely in a junior high or high school anatomy curriculum, but younger children will find it very challenging.

We started putting together the puzzle after dinner and continued through the evening. Then, we took a break with only part of the lungs left for the next morning. The pink section of the lungs was very difficult. We found a system that worked for us was to look for the shapes and then try individual pieces. While using colors and the shapes of the puzzle pieces for the border and heart was the way to go, we found we had to change our method when we were finishing up the puzzle. In all, it took us maybe four to five hours to complete the puzzle with those working on the puzzle changing a few times as one of the three of us took a break. 

I firmly believe introducing puzzles into your homeschool routine is a wonderful way to bring your science lessons to life. And you will be able to complete the puzzle over and over, depending upon your time and desire to do so! Each time you complete The Human Thorax puzzle, you can discuss different parts of the puzzle or introduce new activities to go along with it. Use the puzzle to label worksheets, have animal discussions, or while reading and researching.

Looking for More From Timberdoodle? 

We have had the opportunity to review several items from Timberdoodle in our homeschool. From games to puzzles, there are so many wonderful items you can purchase to incorporate into your homeschool lessons. If you need an entire kit for your 11th grader, you can purchase the 2021 Eleventh-Grade Curriculum Kit, which includes this puzzle, or you can pick and choose from the items that you need for your homeschool plans.

A Brief Journey through the Quotes of Shakespeare's Hamlet

During high school, we read at least one play by William Shakespeare every year (in my own freshman year, we read two: Romeo & Juliet and Merchant of Venice). In our teen's sophomore year, we read Julius Caesar with him using Shakespeare's Tragedies from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources to facilitate our lessons. Last year, we did not read any Shakespeare, sadly, but this year, he read Macbeth using the British Literature course from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. I also hope to include Hamlet if we have time before he graduates. 

Hamlet has been a favorite of mine for a number of years. Even though I am unsure if we will get to read it, I do hope to be able to share at least one theatrical version of the play with our son. As I was looking through my books (so I can share my copy of Macbeth with him), I stumbled upon my well-worn copy of Hamlet and found some favorite quotes to share. 

"To thine own self be true." 

Act I, Scene III 

"That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain." 

Act I, Scene IV 

"More matter, with less art." 

Act II, Scene II 

"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action." 

Act III, Scene II 

"A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm." 

Act IV, Scene III 

Interested in more Shakespeare quotes? Check out these other posts from A Mom's Quest to Teach. 

Day in the Life of a Homeschooled 12th Grader

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I can hardly believe that our oldest will be graduating soon. When he started his schooling journey, it was in public school, but he eventually decided to join his younger brother and sister on our homeschooling quest. 

Prepping for the Homeschool Year 

As this was our oldest's last year of high school (after I had bookmarked a variety of possible courses on SchoolhouseTeachers.com), I invited our son to sit down with us to go over all his options. (And there are a lot of options on SchoolhouseTeachers.com!) Little by little, we narrowed them down to pick ones that would fill out his final year of homeschooling. 

We created our own schedule for the year based on the courses at SchoolhouseTeachers.com, but you don't have to do it all alone. If you are not looking to create your own course schedule, you can use the School Boxes on SchoolhouseTeachers.com. For 12th grade, the box includes: 

• Precalculus 
• High School British Literature 
• For writing: 
• Writing: College Admission Essay 
• Writing: Advertising Copy 
• Writing: Compare and Contrast 
• Words and What to Do with Them 
• Specific pieces from Writing and Classics-Based Writing
• High School Spelling
• High School Physics 
• Two History Options: 
• Traditional: American Government (Part One) and Economics (Part Two)
• Classical: Understanding Modern History 
• Art 
• Studio Art for Teens
• Digital Art and Product Design for Small Business
• Inkscape Online Adventure

Prepping for the Homeschool Week 

My methods for preparing our senior's homeschool week are very similar to those of last year. I use an editable PDF to plan out the days and weeks using the lesson plans from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. I often just copy and paste the information if it fits into the boxes. For some courses, I have printed out the lesson plans so that our son has a full list of assignments. I then just type the unit's title or week number to follow in the weekly plan.

For those courses where I print out the materials, I try to print several weeks in advance and have those in a three-ring binder. He can access this binder whenever he wants so he can look ahead or look at work he has completed. If I do not print the materials (usually because there are a lot of links within the document), I email them to him each Sunday night or Monday morning. He can then work through that week's assignments online. 

What Courses Is Our 12th Grader Taking? 

This year, our high schooler had a lighter course load as he has completed most of the requirements he would need to fulfill if he was following a public school course load in our state. But this doesn't mean that he didn't actually take a lot of courses. Many of his courses were short – 9 weeks or 18 weeks long, so he actually learned a lot from a variety of disciplines this year. 

• Introduction to Worldview and Philosophy
• Apologetics: Creation vs. Evolution
• United States History: Exploration to the Present Day Lessons
• Business Plan Creation 
• Money 101 
• High School British Literature
• Introduction to Graphic Design 
• Spelling High School 

I can bookmark all of our son's courses on SchoolhouseTeachers.com, so they are easy to find.

A Typical Day 

As both my husband and I are working from home now, we have schedules that vary and need to be on conference calls or online meetings. With our days being busier, we have asked our oldest to help with his younger siblings in the morning by getting them breakfast. And on some days, I have asked him to help one of them with various homeschool assignments. By asking our 12th grader to help more around the house, we hope to teach him how to run a household.

For the majority of his homeschool work, I give our son a lot of freedom. I let him pick and choose what order he wishes to complete assignments in and on which days (with the exception being tests or quizzes). Like many children who receive a lot of freedom, there are times when we need to push him along to make sure he is completing his assignments. 

In general, he completes his work for each subject in one day. So Mondays, he may focus on Spelling and do the entire week's worth of work while he would forge ahead with his Apologetics course on Tuesdays. Personally, I do not have any problem with the order in which he does his work as long as he is completing it. 

I think it is important to note that homeschooling does not magically happen. Just today, we had a 'meeting' with our son to discuss a poor test grade and try to motivate him to finish the year strong. Like so many young individuals, our son is smart, but that does not always translate to schooling – whether in public school or homeschooling. As parents, it is our job to help provide the tools, encouragement, and sometimes the prodding to make sure that work is completed efficiently and to the best of our children's abilities.

And if you are curious what his 11th-grade year looked like, please visit Day in the Life of a Homeschooled 11th Grader. 

Homeschooling and Grading

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Many parents new to homeschooling question how to one-grade homeschool assignments, keep track of those grades, issue report cards, and/or issue transcripts if they are graduating a homeschool student. The first thing any homeschool parent should do if they have questions about homeschool and grading is research what the requirements are for their state or country. Some locations require you to maintain more detailed records, while others may request a portfolio examination once a year.

Research the laws that apply to what grades you need to keep in your homeschool. 

What Age Is Your Child? 

After you discover just how detailed you need to be in grading and record-keeping for your homeschool, think about the age of your child and what grade they are in this homeschool year. For younger children—unless you are required to by law, you do not need to have detailed grades. If you remember seeing an elementary report card, many of them list the subjects, objectives, or areas of study/growth and then 'grade' using satisfactory, unsatisfactory, needs improvement, or not observed (usually meaning they did not look for that objective during that marking period).

For younger homeschooled children, it is important to mark work for accuracy and go over any wrong answers. But you do not necessarily need to take these 'grades' and input them into a spreadsheet to calculate a grade point average (GPA) or marking period grade. For example, I mark our second grader's math worksheets to check to see if he answered the questions correctly. If he missed one, we go over how to get the correct answer. I may put a stamp or sticker on the page or even write down a letter grade (he has seen his brother's high school grades) but I do not track these grades in an online program or spreadsheet.

For elementary-aged children (and even for middle school-aged children), check for accuracy of assignments to review concepts they do not understand. 

When it comes to high school, it is important to continue to check for accuracy and understanding, but also to grade assignments as you will need to create report cards or transcripts if you are graduating your homeschooled child. There are many different ways to go about doing this. If you are proficient with Excel or another spreadsheet program, you could create a spreadsheet that helps you maintain (and even calculate) grades for each course that your homeschooled high school student takes. For our oldest son, I use Excel to track his grades throughout the year. Each course has one sheet in the document. I then calculate those grades together (weighing quizzes and tests more than 'homework' or 'classwork' assignments). I input these final grades into a system called Applecore that I have access to, thanks to my membership with SchoolhouseTeachers.com. I can then use Applecore to create report cards and a transcript for our son.

For high school-aged children, check for accuracy, but also maintain records of grades to help you produce report cards and a transcript. 

How Do You Grade in Your Homeschool?

As a former high school teacher, I have a system that works for me when it comes to grading a high school student. I assign labels to the work as classwork (things that might be completed with me), homework (assignments that will be completed independently), quizzes (assessments on small pieces of information for the courses), and tests or exams (a large assessment). Research papers or essays might be weighted the same as a quiz or test, depending on how much time was necessary to write it.

Personally, I use a point system rather than a percent system. This makes it easier for me to track information and grades. All graded assignments are worth anywhere from 5 to 200 points. Smaller assignments like classwork or homework would be worth 5 to 45 points, quizzes are worth 50 points, tests are worth 100 points, and projects, exams, or research papers may be worth 100 to 200 points. So, if our son got two questions wrong on a quiz, he would score 40/50 which would be 80%, if you wanted to calculate it that way.

Would You Like to Do More Research into Grading? Check out These Resources and References: 

Read my review of Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork to see if this resource might help your family during the high school years.

You might find useful information on The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine Resource Guide page. They have resources to help you with many homeschooling decisions.

In the Homeschooling with Heart blog, you can read how to create a transcript in five easy steps. How awesome is that!

And if you are looking for some inspiration regarding grading, read this excellent poem from A Net in Time called Keep Track of Grades.

Homeschooling During the High School Years

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One of the most rewarding times to homeschool our children can be during their high school years. At this point, they may already know what they wish to do 'when they grow up' and you can start to narrow down the curriculum, courses, and classes they take during the school year. If they don't have any idea of their future job or career choice, they can start exploring the possibilities through a variety of interesting resources, experiences, and discussions. While it may become more difficult to get them to complete assignments and work, they can start to learn about taking care of a home and other important life skills (if you haven't already incorporated these into your homeschool days).

Our Experience Homeschooling a High School Student

Our oldest son came to homeschooling in his 10th-grade year. (Read more about this decision here A Teacher Turned Homeschooler). We already had some idea as to the plan of action that we wanted to take, basing the course choices upon our state's requirements for a graduating senior. We then filled in his homeschool year in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades with courses that could prove to be helpful for him if he pursued a future as a photographer.

How do we schedule our day? 

While some children are self-motivated, we have found that we need to check in with our homeschooled teen on a regular basis regarding his completion of assignments. With the freedom we have given our son, we also need to make sure he uses this freedom wisely. I create a schedule for the work he should accomplish during the week but I allow him to decide how he structures his individual days. For the most part, he likes to get all his assignments for each class done in one day. So he might work on his religious studies (Introduction to Worldview and Philosophy) on Monday, complete his spelling on Tuesday, and so forth. In most cases, this works for our homeschool. If he was completing more assignments alongside his younger siblings, we might need to take a different approach (like how our younger children complete their spelling together) but this works for our homeschooling family.

Picking Courses

Unless you come to homeschooling in the middle of your child's school life, you probably have an idea as to whether your child learns better with one method of teaching or another. Perhaps an online curriculum works best or your child does better with a written/textbook approach. And what about the courses that you should choose?

After you find out if your state has any homeschool requirements, you should determine whether or not your homeschool high schooler has any future career plans. Then, you can work from there with scheduling electives and the rest of the core academic courses. For example, we scheduled our high school homeschooler's courses based upon what our state requires for a high school graduate. So he has taken four years of English (one in public school), three years of math, three years of science, and so on.

What About Grading?

A lot of grading homeschool high school assignments depends upon the individual courses and curriculum chosen as well as the future beyond senior high school graduation. As our son is not looking to attending a four-year college at this time, my approach to grading is different than if he was looking at a four-year college or university.

This does not mean that we do not correct work for accuracy or completion, but I do not necessarily assign as many written assessments as other homeschooling families. We complete the written work provided with the curriculum we use, but we also spend time talking about the classes and courses.

When grading high school work – actually when grading any homeschool work, having answer keys is important. If you don't have answer keys, then you will need to read the assignments along with your children or you might need to have an understanding of the material. For example, I like essay assignments that have a rubric with possible answers or facts that should be included for subjects that I may not be super familiar with myself. And if you are using an online program with self-correcting assignments, that's an even better bonus!

Final Thoughts 

Homeschooling during the high school years does not need to be a challenge. Once you are set on the path, it can be easy to continue. With so many wonderful resources for school and for extracurricular activities, your high school student can succeed in various areas of life with a little bit of help and guidance from you.

Studying History Through Connecting Past Events to Today: A Review of The Mayflower at Cape Cod

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Our family enjoys studying history so anytime we have the chance to review a new history resource we are happy to do so. For the past several weeks our teen has been helping me review The Mayflower at Cape Cod - Stories, activities, and research that connect 1620 with life today by Rebecca Locklear. It is a seven-unit resource aimed at grades 6-12 which looks at what happened during the five weeks that the Mayflower was anchored off Cape Cod in 1620.

What Is the Resource?

Depending upon how you would like to purchase The Mayflower at Cape Cod - Stories, activities, and research that connect 1620 with life today, you can order a print copy or a digital copy. We received the book digitally for the purpose of our review. The PDF is 74 pages long including the cover, table of contents, lessons, appendices, sources, index, and acknowledgments.

Each of the seven lessons opens with an objective and continues onto a reading, several activities, and research topics based upon the lesson. There are a number of photographs, maps, and sketches spread throughout each lesson.

There are 70 activities and 80 research topics which span a variety of topics and methods for learning the material.  So depending upon your children's interests and strengths you can pick different activities for each lesson. For example, you could cook with seafood and cranberries in Lesson 5 when reading about Native culture and discussing the different local and seasonal food if your children love to be in the kitchen. Or if your children are artistic, they could create leaf art as outlined in the activities for Lesson 3. One of the objectives for Lesson 3 is to analyze the survival situation and identify trees so this fits in perfectly.

Leaf art by our son

The appendix offers a handy chronology of events on Cape Code, statistics about the Mayflower (like the ship being dismantled in 1624), answers to the questions, and game cards you will need for the lessons.

How Did We Use the History Homeschooling Resource?

Our teen had recently completed his World History course for the homeschool year so I asked him to complete activities and research projects from the lessons to jump-start our next homeschool year. I emailed him the PDF and asked him to read one to two lessons a week. As we are nearing our summer break, I required significantly fewer assignments than if this was in the middle of our homeschool year. For each lesson, I requested that he would pick one or two activities and research topics to complete. He then could email them to me or present them to me (as in the case of the artwork I asked him to complete).

The one objective of the first lesson was of interest to our son: "To recognize that history is told by the side of the victor and to be aware of both sides." He enjoys reading about the American Civil War and World War II, so he was able to apply the lesson of examining the first encounter between the Natives and the English to his prior knowledge of other events. And much like expected, he chose to complete the activity discussing who had more responsibility in winning World War II: Great Britain or the United States. In a short essay, he discussed the various Allied powers and their impact on defeating Hitler. In conclusion, he wrote: "All in all, I think the U.S. helped teeter the Allies' power over the Axis, causing the Nazis to be defeated."

I was pleasantly surprised that for another lesson he completed a poetry activity where he wrote an acrostic poem using the word Thanksgiving. It was nice to read his poem about God never failing after the lesson dealt so heavily with the negative impact of Europeans on the Natives (disease, war, slavery, etc.).

As I believe primary documents, like the Mayflower Compact, are very important to read and study, I requested our son complete the art activity to complete a stamp commemorating the signing of the Compact. We have a small collection of stamps, so it was nice to tie in these lessons with the stamp collection of my grandfather.

Our son prefers to draw in just black & white – hence the lack of color.

What Did We Think?

The resource is very well organized. There are a great number of activities and research topics that the lessons could take weeks to complete if a homeschooling family completed everything. Some of the activities are better suited to small groups rather than one student (like our son) such as the corn game, cultural game, or greeting game.

There are very heavy topics in The Mayflower at Cape Cod including cultural appropriation, environmental ethics, stereotyping, immunization, epidemics, and slavery. I think parents should preview the entire resource before deciding if it is appropriate for their children in grades 6-8. I think once children reach 9th grade, they might have a maturity to be able to have healthy discussions about these topics. For example, one of the research topics asks students to reflect upon "Why did Europeans in the 1600s feel they had the right to settle America? Interpret their justification for taking Native lands, including the designation of being 'unpeopled' and 'devoid of all civil inhabitants.'" This is not an easy topic to discuss so I think parents should carefully go through the entire work.

Beginning layout of the lesson showing objective and the lesson starting with the story

I think our son was able to really think about the events surrounding the Mayflower being at Cape Cod and how we need to be careful to view and interpret history. One thing as a family we try to stress is the importance of examining the past through the eyes of those who lived it by using primary sources and be thoughtful students of history. My hope is that by reading more about different events, like the English arriving at Cape Cod, our son will become a more astute student and adult.

Would You Like to Know More?

Rebecca Locklear offers many resources through her website including a newsletter to which you can subscribe for blog and book news (click here to sign up). You can read more about the connection she sees between history and drama and can order her books and materials for your homeschool.

Rebecca Locklear

Website – Facebook 

In addition to reviewing The Mayflower at Cape Cod - Stories, activities, and research that connect 1620 with life today, the Homeschool Review Crew also had the chance to review Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities by Rebecca Locklear. Be sure to check out the reviews to see how they used these two resources in their homeschool.

Day in the Life of a Homeschooled 11th Grader

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Our teenage son joined our homeschooling journey when he was in the 10th grade. So for most of his schooling career, he has been attending public school. After much discussion and soul-seeking, he decided to join his younger brother and sister in our homeschooling quest.

For the majority of his homeschooling classes, we use SchoolhouseTeachers.com plus other materials that we were blessed with through the Homeschool Review Crew. Then there are a few pieces that we have added ourselves like Exploring Government after purchasing the books from Timberdoodle.

Preparing The Homeschool Work 

Each Sunday night, I go through our teen's homeschool bag, pull out completed work to be graded, and replace that with his new assignments for the week. This year, I am using folders for all of this work plus keeping his schedule in one folder. I also sometimes email him the necessary files and links he needs.

I love that I can type our 11th grader's work right into the planner. 

So, while I create a weekly schedule with assignments listed on certain days, in general, we let our homeschooled 11th grader decide his own pace and schedule for the week. If he wants to complete all his math lessons on one day, I am usually okay with that decision. For me, the most important thing is that he completes assignments by the end of the week including any tests or quizzes.

Our son usually starts his day with getting breakfast for his younger brother and sister. This is especially helpful as they are morning people and I am not. I am very glad that he is able to help support his family in this small way. And since we don't have to rush off to school, everyone can enjoy a leisurely start to the day.

After breakfast, our teen either goes back to sleep or starts working on his homeschooling. He usually breaks for a late lunch and then will finish up work before dinner time. On occasion, I will ask him to help out by making lunch for his siblings or keeping them entertained and busy while I have meetings. We are very blessed to be able to pull together as a family to get our daily tasks completed.

And in some instances, my husband will help our teen with an assignment in the evening or we will work on a project over the weekend as a family. I love that homeschooling our 11th grader allows us the flexibility to homeschool when it is right for our schedule and not someone else's.

What Courses Is Our 11th Grader Taking? 

In addition to physical education and health, our son has a full academic schedule of seven courses including:

• English - Christian Values in J.R.R. Tolkien from SchoolhouseTeachers.com 
• Algebra II courtesy of CTCMath.com 
• World History using my materials from when I taught World History 
• Photography from SchoolhouseTeachers.com 
• Friendly Chemistry and now Botany (both from SchoolhouseTeachers.com) 
• Exploring Government text published by Notgrass 
• Religious Studies - A Study of Extraordinary Women in the Bible and They Lived for God 

We will also be reading a play by William Shakespeare and completing some other projects and reading assignments as the homeschool year progresses. Our son also read Britfield & the Lost Crown before he started reading about Middle Earth this homeschool year. So as you can see, he has a busy 11th grade homeschool year. 

How Homeschooling Works in Our Family

I found many new subjects to study while homeschooling our 11th grader. I think I have enjoyed reading through the Exploring Government text the most so far this homeschool year. I love the way in which it is presented as well as the fact that it is giving our 11th grader a firm understanding of how the United States of America is governed. And I am also looking forward to taking the course A Study of Extraordinary Women in the Bible myself this winter so we can discuss the topics together as a family. 

Our 11th grader said, "Homeschooling allows me to work on my own time, and I can make up work whenever I need. It also allows me to spend more time with my family, and help my step-mom with my siblings."

My husband said, "Knowing that what we believe will not be impugned as our children learn is a relief after my own public school experiences as both student and parent. Being able to work as a team with my family in our children's learning is a blessing that cannot be matched. I enjoy seeing what my wife and kids have been doing for school while I was at work and then helping out when needed."

Finishing Up His High School Career

I can hardly believe that soon my teen will be preparing for his final homeschool year. He will then have to decide if the courses he has taken in image editing and photography will be put to use if he starts his own photography business, or if he moves into other field of work. I am excited to sit down with him this summer to plan out his final year. 

Finding a Homeschool Course for Everyone: A Review of SchoolhouseTeachers.com

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Every Subject. Every Grade. Every Student.

When our family unanimously decided that we would start homeschooling our teenager beginning with his 10th-grade year, we needed a place to find as many courses as possible to fulfill his scholastic requirements. We were fortunate to receive access to SchoolhouseTeachers.com upon my writing several courses for them as well as when I became a part of the Homeschool Review Crew in 2018. Using the Ultimate PreK-12th Annual Membership enables us to homeschool not only our teenager but also to find courses and supplemental materials for our two younger children. In this review, I would like to focus on several different aspects of SchoolhouseTeachers.com:

• How you can fill your high school student's homeschool schedule using SchoolhouseTeachers.com exclusively
• How the Lesson Plans can help you easily schedule your homeschool day – especially if you use the digital planner available via the website
• How we supplement our homeschool day using the Video Library
• The resources available in the Focused Learning Centers especially those available to help you homeschool your high school students

Flexibility is the Key to Success!

With so many courses available across grades Pre-K to 12th, we have a variety of options open to our homeschooling family. I could spend post after post discussing all the great courses at SchoolhouseTeachers.com (in fact, I have shared information regarding some of the fantastic courses in prior posts including two reviews: one in 2018 and one in 2019).

If you have a membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com, the first step I would recommend is watching the tutorial videos available. Then I would recommend taking a look at the planners and schedule builders to help you organize the many courses that your children can take through SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Another great way to plan your homeschool year is to browse the courses by either grade or subject. Then you can look at specific courses and bookmark them.

If you pick a grade, you will see the subject areas separated. Each will then link you to several courses that can meet the needs of that specific grade (in this case, 11th grade).

Planning Our Teen's 11th Grade Year

During the summer, I went through classes I had previously bookmarked for our teen on SchoolhouseTeachers.com that we did not use for 2018-2019. From there, I looked at what subjects he still needed credits in and browsed the different subject areas looking for courses that would fit our homeschool. With so many options, it would be very easy for me to overfill his homeschooling schedule!

Once I picked out his core classes and electives, I used both the "Hey, Mama! Schoolhouse Planner for 2019-2020" and the "2019-2020 Schoolhouse Planner" which is digital to plan out the school year. I love using a mix of both because—with the digital planner—I can make edits very easily and print out the pages I need for our son. (There is even a High School Schoolhouse Planner that you can print for your teen if you wish them to track everything themselves.)

Since our teen has an interest in pursuing photography as a career, he is taking Photography by lesson designer Michele Peterson. It is a 30-week, text-based course that can be assigned two days a week where students will learn how to use their camera including all of the special features of a camera with manual exposure settings. I love that our teen can take an elective that will help him develop the skills he might need for his future career path.

I love how he captured the setting sun in this photograph.

Another course we are using is Christian Values in J.R.R. Tolkien which is an advanced course for 11th-12th graders. One of the key details I like about this course is that it includes 2 short papers and one longer research paper that will allow us to help our teen become a more skilled researcher and writer of essays and papers. There are several books to which students need access in order to complete this course but—like most of the courses on SchoolhouseTeachers.com—the majority of the materials are available online through PDFs or through World Book Online. So, there is not too much outside prep work needed on the part of the parent.

Some of the other courses that are available to fill out an 11th grader's homeschool year include:

• World History 
• Apologetics: Creation vs. Evolution 
• Spelling High School Year One 
• Algebra II 
• American History: From Columbus to 1914 with Socratic Discussion 
• Friendly Chemistry 
• Botany

We have not started his Botany course yet but I am very excited by the materials when I was putting together his schedule for the rest of January. Looks like all three of our children will be able to join in on some of the lessons and experiments.

Using the Lesson Plans

This year I took a different approach to our son's homeschool schedule. I printed more of the Lesson Plans that are available rather than reinventing the wheel myself. In some cases, I copied and pasted the instructions from the Lesson Plans into the digital planner.

For the Lesson Plans that I printed out, I was able to highlight important tasks, make notes and adjustments, and add the dates I wished him to work on certain assignments. The suggested Lesson Plans give you the class length, schedule, resources needed, instructions, a place to check off lessons as they are completed, and week-by-week and day-by-day instructions and information for your children.

The first page of the lesson plans provides you with all the necessary information for the entire course.

Each week lists daily assignments and I can write down the dates in the appropriate space.

I admit to not really utilizing the Lesson Plans with our younger children. For the most part, we are taking a relaxed approach with our preschooler and first grader this year. For the two lapbooks we created, I did take a look at the Lesson Plans as we did not follow them exactly since we were doing them more quickly. As they get older, I know that I will rely more heavily upon the Lesson Plans.

Flexibility

Just to show you that there really are classes for every subject, every grade, and every student, I want to share a bit about the history course we are using with our first grader (and of course our preschooler is joining in for some of the activities, too). "Hands-On Notebooking: The United States" is written for grades K - 2nd and provides 50 lessons, one for each state. Our homeschooling first grader is learning about each of the 50 states in alphabetical order. We read about famous people or groups of people from each state, sometimes create art projects, and learn about the state symbols.

While reading about California, we talked about the state flag and examined bridges. Different states have different activities but they all have a spot to study a famous person or group of people from the state as well as a sheet to keep track of books read.

This was such a fun experiment to talk about bridges.

While I am working on different homeschooling tasks with our older children, I can peruse the Holiday and Seasonal Resource Center to find activities for our preschooler. The resources are organized in a manner that makes lessons, videos, and worksheets very easy to find. And with two of the activities I found, our first grader and our preschooler can work on the lapbooks together.

During the fall, we read The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter using a Unit Study on SchoolhouseTeachers.com and colored in pictures related to Thanksgiving. There are activities for one week and you can download a copy of the story because The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin is in the public domain. The copy of the story you can download also has the vocabulary words in bold and contains some notes on the side to share with your children.

Everything is laid out on the site – very easy to navigate.

Our daughter had great fun cutting out the pieces and coloring them in for the lapbook. 

We also read Christmas in the Barn by F. Arnstein from the book In the Child's World by Emilie Poulssen which is also in the public domain. This lapbooking Unit Study can be taught over the course of two weeks. Per the lesson plan, you can download it for your homeschool. I like the fact that I was able to print some of the activities twice for both our younger children to complete. For those that are better suited for just our first grader, I printed one copy and we were able to work on them together. For example, our son wrote two similes after we discussed the simile from the story in which the cat was "curled up like a little bundle of wool."

Both kids working on the first activity. 

Our daughter's lapbook.

Our son's similes in his completed lapbook.

Video Library

There is an excellent collection of videos available with your membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com with the Ultimate Pre-K to 12th Annual Membership. While the videos are part of many different courses, you can find them all in one place – the Video Library – which categorizes the videos by

• Kids
• Art
• Apologetics 
• Bible 
• Electives 
• Foreign Languages 
• Geography 
• History 
• Language Arts 
• Math
• Marriage
• Missions and Persecution
• Music 
• Parents
• Science
• Video Courses on SchoolhouseTeachers.com 
• Christmas
• Easter 

Some of the videos and series that our children and I enjoy include:

• Adventures of Donkey Ollie
• From Aardvark to Zucchini 
• Drive Thru History 
• The videos that go along with the course They Lived For God 
• The videos that go along with the course Foundations for Teens which our son took last year 

We have watched the series From Aardvark to Zucchini more than once during our lunchtime. They make for a nice break from our homeschooling day while still providing lessons for our younger children.

Focused Learning Centers

There are many resources available in the Focused Learning Centers including Focus on Math, Help with Reading, and Focus on Special Needs, to name a few. I am very happy that there are many resources available to us as we homeschool a high school student. There are 6 eBooks available to members of SchoolhouseTeachers.com which can help prepare parents of high school students as well as information for academic weighting of courses for transcripts, the use of Applecore Recordkeeping System, and a career center.

If you are in need of inspiration, the Focus Learning Center: Focus on High School and College offers such titles as Homeschooling the High Schooler: From Transcripts to Graduation which provides readers with advice and resources from a variety of authors. If you are worried about dual enrollment or how you can include extracurricular activities in your child's transcripts, you can sit down with a cup of coffee and read through this useful eBook. One can also find help with career training, the various paths that your child can take to go to college, and advice from one whose child attended college.

With video tutorials to help you use the materials and resources—plus helpful tools, you will find many ways to succeed on your homeschooling journey with your children.

In the Career Center, SchoolhouseTeachers.com pulled together some key classes and categorized them into how they can suit several different careers. For example, if your child is interested in an art-related career, SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers at least five specific courses for high schoolers and many other art courses as well. As our teen is interested in photography, he has taken one of the courses listed (Image Creation and Editing) and is currently taking Photography.

I think the Career Center would be a great place for your high school child to peruse to help figure out their homeschooling schedule. If they know what careers they are interested in, then they can help look for a science or math course or an elective that might fit their needs.

My Final Thoughts 

I truly feel our family has been blessed with becoming a member of SchoolhouseTeachers.com. From being able to homeschool our children quite easily using the many courses and other resources on the site to finding a unique family of fellow blogging homeschoolers via the Homeschool Review Crew, I feel we are successfully moving forward as a homeschooling family. There is truly a course for everyone at SchoolhouseTeachers.com and I would recommend every homeschooling family takes a look at this great curriculum.

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I was only one of many members of the Homeschool Review Crew that reviewed the Ultimate PreK - 12th Annual Membership. Please be sure to check out the other reviews!