7th Grade Curriculum Picks

Next Fall, my youngest son will be starting 7th grade. This past year’s homeschooling adventure was a huge success, so we’ve decided to continue homeschooling again next year. Here is the curriculum he will be using for 7th grade.

Writing – WriteShop Level F: This particular child did not have a formal writing curriculum for 6th grade. Instead, his language are curriculum focused more on reading and grammar. His older brother used the WriteShop Level 1 curriculum last year, and I had thought about using that curriculum for my 7th grader next year. However, I believe the WriteShop Level F curriculum will be a better fit for him. That is one of the great things about homeschool, you can really tailor the curriculum level to the child for each subject.

Grammar – Fix It Grammar: My son completed the Fix It Grammar Nose Tree curriculum in 6th grade. He will be continuing with this program and doing the Robin Hood curriculum for 7th grade. Fix It Grammar is a very easy to use grammar program where a student edits and rewrites a story one sentence at a time of the course of a year. Grammar rules are introduced throughout the course of the curriculum and then those rules are broken in the text that needs to be fixed. The fact that each sentence that needs to be fixed ties together into a single story adds to the enjoyment of this curriculum.

Vocabulary – Wordly Wise Book 7: My son completed Wordly Wise Book 6 in 6th grade and will be continuing with this vocabulary curriculum for 7th grade. I really like this curriculum. It could easily be used for spelling with younger students and as students get older it turns into a wonderful SAT prep program.

Math – Saxon Level 7/6: I jumped around and tried a lot of different workbooks and math curriculum for my son in 6th grade. He did improve his math skills last year, but the teaching method I used was frustrating at times. I’m did use a Saxon math program with my older son last year and I’m really looking forward to using this program with my 7th grader next year. The material is clearly presented in a teachable way, and the homework assignments continually review past concepts to help solidify understanding.

History – Snapshots in Early Modern History: My son used Curiosity Chronicles history program for 6th grade. At the beginning of the year, I was worried that the Ancient History curriculum was too easy for him. Because this curriculum is designed for elementary students the first book (Ancient History) is intended for students in early elementary. The curriculum still had value and we decided to simply go through it at a faster pace and also complete the Snapshots in Medieval History curriculum in 6th grade. The Medieval history chapters were longer and more in depth and I am expecting that the later books in the series will also progress in depth/difficulty. For this reason we’ve decided to stick with this curriculum for another year, again going at an accelerated rate. There are two volumes to the Curiosity Chronicles Snapshots in Early Modern History. My son will be completing both of them in seventh grade, on per semester instead of one per year.

Science – Physical Science: I wasn’t thrilled with the science curriculum I used for my son in 6th grade. This kid has always loved building toys as a kid and is drawn to STEM activities. When asked what branch of science he wanted to learn for 7th grade he asked for physics. This secular middle school physical science curriculum by Holt is used in many public schools but is also available to homeschoolers. I’m hoping it will be a better fit for my son than some of the less rigorous science curriculums popular with many homeschooling families.

Elective – Computer Applications: My youngest kid is in middles school, and my oldest will be in high school next year. So we need to think about “electives”. My kids go to their dad’s house one day per week. Their dad is a software engineer and has been teaching them coding as his contribution to homeschool. My son will continue to learn coding during 7th grade. He has also been learning to type using typing club this year. I’m planning to have him continue to practice his typing and combine that with the coding lessons he’s getting from his dad a a single computer applications elective.

Spanish – Duolingo: We are starting foreign language this year. I took Spanish in high school, but don’t feel qualified to teach it. I know a lot of homeschool students use Rosetta Stone for foreign language, but based on reading reviews, I think Duolingo will probably be a better fit for both of my kids starting their foreign language journeys. My plan is to have all three of us use Spanish Duolingo next year and see how much we all learn. I will likely find a more through/rigorous program for my high schooler after a year of Duolingo, and then direct my younger son into whatever program I settle upon once he reaches high school himself. But for now, we’re starting with Duolingo.

PE: I’ve been trying to keep my kids active this past year, but I haven’t done a very good job. As social distancing restrictions lift, I’m hoping to also increase their activity levels. I haven’t completely decided what we are going to do for PE, but hopefully it will involve some type of sports activities that will not only get them moving but also interacting with other kids their age. Unfortunately, my soon to be 7th grader isn’t super “sporty” and I’m not sure what kind of team/class I’ll be able to get him to join. Likely a mixture of hiking, golf, and possibly fencing. I’m leaning towards golf, he’s asking for fencing.

Reading: It’s not really a curriculum, I do want to add that my son will also be reading a lot next year. I expect him to read independently from the book of his choice for about 45 minutes every day. This kid also still enjoys read alouds, and I enjoy reading aloud. So I want to continue with that too.

6th Grade Curriculum Review

The school year is almost over, and many people are preparing to order curriculum for next year. I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts on the curriculum I used this year for my 6th grader. In citations where I’m planning to continue using the same curriculum next year, I’ll let you know.

English/Language Arts – Reading: The main thing my son did for language arts this year was read. He read independently. I read out loud to him. He had a weekly zoom call with a family friend where they discussed books they read together. This particular kid is a highly capable yet still somewhat reluctant reader. He likes graphic novels, and audio books, and listening to read alouds. But he would much rather be playing video games than actually reading to himself. So this year, we mainly focused on finding books he didn’t completely hate reading to himself.

ELA/Vocabulary – Wordly Wise 3000 Level 6: My 6th grader did the Wordly Wise Level 6 workbook this year. Since there are only 20 word lists per book, he finished this curriculum back in January. My son tends to complain a lot about busy work and most of the other workbooks I purchased at the beginning of the year were abandonded shortly after they were started. The fact that my son completed this entire workbook without noticible complaint is a huge win in my book. I am planning to have him do Wordly Wise Level 7 next year.

ELA/Grammar – Fix It Grammar: My 6th grader used Fix It Grammar as a grammar curriculum this year. My parents have been coming over to help with homeschool once a week all year. Instead of spending five minutes on grammar every day, he’s been completing an entire weeks lesson on a single day each week on the days his grandparents are here. This curriculum is fast enough pace that it can easily be done in 5 minutes per day or 20 minutes once a week. My son has enjoyed this curriculum enough that he actually asked to do the next Fix It Grammar book next year.

Math – Lots of Workbooks: My sixth grader has completed all or part of five different math workbooks this year. You can see a full list of my thoughts on all of them here. My 8th grader started using Saxon math back in January, and I really wish I’d switched my 6th grader to Saxon at the same time. Instead of repeating my thoughts on all the various math curriculum we’ve tried this year, I’ll just say that my son will be using Saxon for 7th grade. I’m very ready to be done with an endless stack of topic specific math workbooks.

Science – Bookshark H: I started the school year using Bookshark Science H with both my 8th grader and my 6th grader. My 8th grader switched to a different curriculum mid-year, but my 6th grader stuck with Bookshark. Beginning with the pro’s, my son did well with the read a chapter and then answer comprehension questions on a worksheet style presented in this curriculum. We read a lot of the chapters out loud together, and then discussed the comprehension questions before he answered them. I have a STEM career and can firmly attest that this curriculum taught very little actual science. The books were about scientific topics, but they didn’t actually teach any of the science behind those topics. The “lab activities” were basic hands on projects that were completely devoid of hypothesis or experimentation. I did supplement with both a Tinker Crate subscription and a Mel Science subscription. Even so, I would not recommend Bookshark for science and will not be using it again next year.

History – Curiosity Chronicles: Of all the curriculum I’ve purchased for either of my children, curiosity chronicles is my favorite. This secular world history curriculum is truly world history. Reading these books with my son, I’ve learned a lot of non-European history that I didn’t learn growing up. I did say books, with an s. This is an elementary school curriculum that doesn’t take very long to complete. If you are teaching a younger student, you probably only want to spend half an hour on history each week, and this curriculum will be perfect. But I’m asking more of my 6th grader, so he’s been doing 2-3 chapters per week and has thus completed two years worth of the curiosity chronicles curriculum in a single year. There are six years total in their curriculum and my son has already agreed that he wants to do books 3 & 4 for 7th grade and books 5 & 6 for 8th grade. If you aren’t afraid to purchase multiple text books for a single year, I would recommend this curriculum for pretty much any age. Like I said, I’m learning a lot from this curriculum myself.

Handwriting/Typing – Typing Club: My sixth grader has horrible handwriting. I got him a handwriting practice workbook at the beginning of the year, and also listened to him complain about how much he hated writing every time I asked him to write something longer than a few words. I agreed to let him start typing all of his writing assignments and then decided to shift from focusing on teaching handwriting to teaching typing instead. He has been using the online program Typing Club for the past several months. He is becoming a much more efficient typer and enjoys the assignments. A part of me wishes his handwriting was better, but typing is an equally important life skill and my son is definitely happier.

Civics – Painless Government: As I mentioned before, my parents have been acting as homeschool teachers for both of my kids once a week. For the first half of the year, they taught weekly civics lessons. They pulled a lot of resources from Teachers Pay Teachers and also spent a lot of time focusing on the November election. Painless Government was another resource that they used. They found the text informative and helpful when teaching the basic concepts of US Government. If you are planning to teach your kids government, I recommend this painless resource.

Economics – Economics and You: For the second half of they year, the weekly social studies lessons with the grandparents have been focused on Economics and Personal Finance. They have been using the Economics and You curriculum and really enjoying it. This curriculum has a long term simulation where students get a job, make a budget, and pay for all of life’s expenses from financing a car to getting an apartment. Both of my kids are enjoying this curriculum a lot, probably more than they enjoyed learning about politics last fall.

8th Grade Curriculum Review

The school year is almost over, and many people are preparing to order curriculum for next year. I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts on the curriculum I used this year for my 8th grader. In citations where I’m planning to continue using the same curriculum next year, I’ll let you know.

English/Language Arts – Reading: My eighth grader has always been a veracious reader. He did a lot of independent reading this year. Many of the books he read I aloud him to select himself. I did also assign a few classics and historical fiction titles that corresponded with what he was learning about in history. Sometimes I gave him writing assignments associated with his reading, but for the most part reading was simply reading, not really an assignment this year. I am planning to assign more of the books that my son reads in 9th grade and also have more reading related writing assignments next year.

ELA/Vocabulary – Wordly Wise 3000 Level 8: My 8th grader did the Wordly Wise Level 8 workbook this year. Since there are only 20 word lists per book, he finished this curriculum back in January. In some ways this workbook feels like busywork, and in general I don’t like giving my kids tons of workbooks to complete. But many of the activities in this book reminded me a lot of SAT vocabulary questions, so doing these workbooks not only builds vocabulary knowledge, it also familiarizes a student with analogies and other vocabulary test questions. I am planning to have him do Wordly Wise Level 9 next year.

ELA/Writing – WriteShop I: My 8th grader used WriteShop I as a writing curriculum this year. I really like the WriteShop curriculum. The skill builder activities and prewriting/brainstorming exercises helped improve his writing confidence a lot. My parents have been coming over to help with homeschool once a week all year, and my son’s been primarily doing WriteShop on the days his grandparents are here. If he was using this curriculum every day, instead of only once or twice a week, he easily could have finished both WriteShop I and WriteShop II in a single year. Instead, he will be continuing with WriteShop II for 9th grade.

Math – Saxon 8/7: We tried a lot of different math curriculum this year. You can see a full list of my thoughts on all of them here. My 8th grader has, however, been using Saxon Math 8/7 since January. Math is a subject my son has always struggled with, but he’s really enjoying the Saxon curriculum. I’ve seen a big improvement in both his mathematic ability and his overall enjoyment of math since starting this curriculum. Since he started this curriculum midway through the year, I’m planning to have him continue using it over the summer and into next fall. I’ll them have him move on to Saxon Algebra 1/2 next year (likely starting in the late fall).

Science – Bookshark vs RSO: I started the school year using Bookshark Science H with both my 8th grader and my 6th grader. In January, my 8th grader shifted to instead using Real Science Odyssey Astronomy 2. From a scientific standpoint, I’m a lot more impressed with Real Science Odyssey. The Bookshark curriculum talks about science without really teaching science, if that makes sense. The RSO Astronomy curriculum is only a single semester curriculum, which is why I had my son start it midway through the year. RSO also makes a middle school level Biology curriculum, but other than Biology and Astronomy all their curriculum are for elementary students. Despite the lack of subject options, I would still recommend RSO and I wouldn’t recommend Bookshark, at least for science.

History – Build Your Library/Build Your Own: My 8th grader has been learning about US history this year. I purchased a lot of US History books at the beginning of the year and then attempted to create my own curriculum. Build Your Library is a secular literature based curriculum that uses a teaching style very similar to what I was attempting to create myself. US History is covered in BYL levels 5 & 6. Halfway through the year, I decided to purchase the BYL Level 6 curriculum to supplement the curriculum I’d been attempting to build myself. Even though I only used a fraction of the BYL Level 6 curriculum material, I still found the material helpful. I would highly recommend Build Your Library to anyone looking for a secular literature based curriculum. While I’m not planning to follow either curriculum exactly, I will be pulling from both BYL Level 7 (Geography Elective) and BYL Level 9 (Earth Science) in my son’s 9th grade curriculum.

Civics – Painless Government: As I mentioned before, my parents have been acting as homeschool teachers for both of my kids once a week. For the first half of the year, they taught weekly civics lessons. They pulled a lot of resources from Teachers Pay Teachers and also spent a lot of time focusing on the November election. Painless Government was another resource that they used. They found the text informative and helpful when teaching the basic concepts of US Government. If you are planning to teach your kids government, I recommend this painless resource.

Economics – Economics and You: For the second half of they year, the weekly social studies lessons with the grandparents have been focused on Economics and Personal Finance. They have been using the Economics and You curriculum and really enjoying it. This curriculum has a long term simulation where students get a job, make a budget, and pay for all of life’s expenses from financing a car to getting an apartment. Both of my kids are enjoying this curriculum a lot, probably more than they enjoyed learning about politics last fall.

Teaching Humanity

What does it mean to be human?

This is a question we humans have been asking for millennia, it is also the question I’ll be asking my son as he enters high school. I’m currently in the process of pulling together my soon to be 9th grade son’s freshman curriculum. At it’s core every single class he’ll be taking asks this same question. I’m excited to see what he learns and how he answers this timeless question for himself.

My soon to be 9th grader is a voracious reader who I’ve discovered learns best using a Charlotte Mason style approach to education. Last week I shared the 25 books he’ll be reading for his world literature language arts class. He will also be taking a overview of world history course, a Geography and World Cultures elective, and for science he’s taking an Earth Science and Geologic history course that will conclude with a study of the evolution of man.

These four courses will require my son to read more than 60 books next year. All of these titles blend together and overlap into a glimpse of the human experience. Even reading thousands of books, nobody can truly understand all human experience. Humanity is far to diverse for a scholar at any age to grasp it’s full breadth.

I am still excited for my son to take this path in his high school education. So much of school is focused on facts. Next year, my son will learn some facts, but I’m hoping he’ll also learn to look beyond the facts and see the bigger questions hidden behind them.

Do you ask big questions in your home school? What questions do the curriculum you use or create seek to answer?

9th Grade World Literature

Next year, I’ll be home schooling high school. What! I made things up as I went for most of my son’s eighth grade year, but for ninth grade, I feel the need to plan ahead. Here is what my son will be reading in the 9th Grade World Literature course that I’m creating for him.

  • Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
  • Endangered by Eliot Schefer
  • Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
  • Scythe by Neal Schusterman
  • The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
  • Memory of Water by Emmi Itaranta
  • Land of Lost Borders by Kate Harris
  • Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan
  • Revolution is not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine
  • I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
  • Murder on the Orient Express by Agetha Christie
  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
  • Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Macbeth by William Shakespeare
  • The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  • Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
  • Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
  • The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
  • Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
  • The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
  • Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
  • Endurance by Alfred Lansing
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

In addition to reading all these books, my son will be writing weekly essays about his assigned reading. I’m also planning to have my son continue with the Writeshop program that he began in eighth grade. He will be completing Writeshop Level 2 as a part of his 9th grade language arts.

For history, my son will be studying world history from early humans to 1850. He will also be taking a Geography and World Cultures class as an elective. The titles that I selected for language arts are all books I sincerely believe my son will enjoy reading. They also correspond to either the place he’s studying in geography or the time period he’s learning about in history whenever possible.

I understand that requiring a ninth grader to read 25 books for English class may seem like a lot. This particular student has always been a veracious reader. I personally typically read 10-15 books per month. When I was in high school, I read just as much as I do now, even though the vast majority of the books I read were not assigned by my teachers. As I mentioned before, I hand selected these titles with my son in mind and sincerely believe he is going to enjoy all of these books. He will likely have 1-2 hours of required reading per day to get through this reading list. Not only do I know he can handle it, I fully expect him to enjoy it.

Putting together this reading list was really fun for me. Hopefully, it can also give you some ideas of titles to have your high school student read.

Comparing Math Curriculums

Math was always my favorite subject in school as a child, but it’s both of my kids least favorite subject. Both of my kids were below grade level and disinterested in math when I started homeschooling a year ago. In the past year, I’ve tried a LOT of different math curriculums. Here are my thoughts on all of them, along with what I’m planning to use for both of my kids next year.

Life of Fred: I tried Life of Fred with my oldest son last spring and was initially excited about it. My oldest son loves to read, and I thought he’d enjoy learning math in a story form. He did like it when the material was review (I started him about two years below grade level). But once he had to start learning new material, Fred just wasn’t cutting it and the curriculum was fairly quickly abandoned.

Spectrum Math: I start my younger son off using a Spectrum Math workbook. The curriculum is only a workbook without a text book to go with it and teach the material. I’m good at math and my son is never excited about reading textbooks, so I thought we’d be fine working through the Spectrum Math curriculum together. Unfortunately, the problems are overly complicated. When simple numbers could be used in a problem to introduce a new concept, huge numbers were included that made it impossible to do any of the math mentally. I work in a STEM profession and found this elementary school curriculum tedious.

Kumon Workbooks: After abandoning Fred and Spectrum, I shifted both of my kids to Kumon. Kumon workbooks are very inexpensive and provide lots of practice problems on a specific topic. When my son was learning long division, using the Kumon division workbook was great. But the Kumon workbooks are all very topic specific, so it would be easy to miss some important concepts if this was the only resource you were using.

Math Skills by Flash Kids Harcourt: This workbook is very similar to Spectrum in that it is supposed to cover all the topics taught in a given year, but is only a workbook without an associated textbook. While Spectrum math seemed way to hard, this program seemed way too easy. My son rushed through this book really quickly. I could see using this as a review program over the summer but it I didn’t find it useful as a full math curriculum.

Beast Academy: I tried Life of Fred with my oldest son because he loves to read. My younger son loves comics, so I decided to give Beast Academy a try with him. The “text book” is a comic that introduces the concepts. My comics loving son doesn’t like it and never reads it. The accompanying workbook is a mixture of practice problems to reinforce the concepts taught in the comic (or taught by me because my kid doesn’t read the comic), and games. The games further reinforce the concepts in a fun way that I know I would have LOVED has child. Kids who love math already will stay in love with math by using this program. But, if you kid doesn’t love math and doesn’t want to play a bunch of math games, this curriculum is fairly lacking in straight forward explanation and practice of the basic concepts.

Saxon: Saxon is the most commonly used homeschool math curriculum. There is a textbook the clearly explains each new concept. The homework sets are looping, so they continually reinforce past concepts. And there are texts after every five lessons to make sure concepts are being learned. It’s the most like public school math of any of the curriculums I’ve listed. I started using Saxon Level 8/7 with my eighth grade son in January. In February of 2020, this son had a D in public school 7th grade math. He’s now getting A’s and B’s on all his Saxon math tests. This program isn’t gimicky, it’s just a good program. I’ve found the correct level for my son and he’s actually learning/mastering all the math concepts he’s struggled with for years. My youngest son is still using Beast Academy, but I’m fully planning to use Saxon math for him next year too. I honestly wish I’d bought a Saxon math program for him at the beginning of the year.

Mathnasium: This isn’t a program I’ve used while homeschooling, but my kids used it while in public school, so I figured I’d include it in my list. Mathnasium is a math tutoring program. As I mentioned earlier, both of my sons struggled with math while in public school and often needed extra support. My oldest son did mathnasium tutoring for two years. During that time he moved from being more than two years below grade level to about one year below grade level. I liked the tutors and thought the program was beneficial enough that I also enrolled my younger son during the second year. During the year he was in mathnasium, he consistently stayed about one year below grade level and didn’t have a very positive experience. Mathnaisum is affordable as far as tutors go, but still significantly more expensive than buying one of the curriculum I’ listed above and then teaching your child yourself. If you have a child that needs more one-on-one math insturctuion than you feel capable of providing, and you have the funds to pay for a tutor, mathnasium could be a great option. There is a flat membership fee to belong to mathnasium, so you could sign your homeschool child up and have them go in every single day for tutoring and have that be their full math program. Mathnaisum is good at targeting their instruction directly to the gaps in a students understanding, which is a pro over any standard off the shelf curriculum.

What math curriculum do you use with your students?

March Reads

Here’s everything my family read this month. What have you been reading?

I’ve decided to list all the novels my kids are reading regardless of weather they finished them this month. My sixth grader is reading multiple books simultaneously and hasn’t actually finished any of them this month. I am only listing history books that they actually finished. Since there are multiple history books that my 8th grader has been reading all year a few chapters each month.

My 6th Grader’s March Reads:

  • Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (year long literature study, not finished)
  • Refugee by Alan Gratz (discussing with reading buddy, not finished)
  • Spaced Out by Stuart Gibbs (independent reader, not finished)
  • Hitchhikers Guild to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (read aloud, not finished)
  • Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin

My 8th Grader’s March Reads:

  • Call of the Wild by Jack London
  • York by Laura Ruby (Did Not Finish, he didn’t like it)
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin (just started, not finished yet)
  • Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin
  • Red Cloud by SD Nelson
  • Wheels of Change by Sue Macy

My March Reads:

  • The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
  • The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
  • A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab
  • A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab
  • The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
  • Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
  • American Gods by Neil Gaiman
  • A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen
  • How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
  • Lovely War by Julie Berry
  • Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
  • The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
  • The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

As you can see, I read a lot of history this month. I’m working on finalizing my oldest son’s 9th grade reading list, especially for world history. I really enjoyed Silk Roads, but I’m not going to assign it to my ninth grader next year. I would recommend it for late high school or adult readers, not high school freshman. I am going to have him read Sapiens and Genghis Khan though (along with a lot of other books).

Planning for High School

This year my two sons are in 6th and 8th grade. I started homeschooling them because of COVID and thought this year long experiment would end with them returning to public school. Homeschool has been an amazing fit for our family, and we all want to stick with it next year. But, next year my oldest son will be in high school. So now, it’s time to plan for high school.

As soon as you start thinking about starting high school, it’s also important to think about finishing high school. What is required, and how can you as a homeschool parent ensure your child is able to graduate. There are a few different options for how to approach homeschool high school. I’ll list each option below with the basic details.

Charter School: Technically, this is not homeschool, but it is what I’ll be doing next year. My kids were accepted into a home based charter school. I will essentially still be homeschooling them, but the charter school covers some of the cost of books/materials and provides oversight. The biggest thing the charter school does is ensure my sons are learning everything they need to know and assigning grades/credits to the courses they take. So they will graduate from high school with a recognized diploma from a real school. I’m SO glad we were able to get into this charter school, because it makes everything else I’m listing below moot.

Dual Enrollment: High school students can take community college classes beginning at age 16 for both high school and college credit. If you are homeschooling your student, you will likely have to pay for all of these community college classes. The charter school my sons will be attending actually covers some of these tuition costs making it an even better deal. Even if you aren’t a part of a charter school, taking dual enrollment classes is a great way to build a transcript for your high school student that will be recognized by other colleges and universities once you’re making plans for after high school.

GED: The General Education Development Test, or GED, is a test that can be taken in place of a high school deploma. The test has sections for language arts, math, history, and science. It’s not a pass/fail test, but is actually scored. Most colleges and universities are well versed in the meaning of the scores and understand what type of score would correspond to the high school GPA they expect for admission. Having your homeschooled high school student take the GED is a great way to prove they know everything they need to enter college.

Create Your Own Diploma: Many homeschool families don’t use any of the options listed above. Instead, they teach there students what they want and simply keep track of all the subject material covered and then create their own transcript. “My mom says I got straight A’s” might not be the best argument for getting into a top tier college. But if your high school student has enough interesting/challenging courses on their homeschool transcript and a completive SAT/ACT score, it is definitely possible to get into college with nothing but a parent created homeschool diploma.

One other important item to think about when starting to homeschool a high school student is that homeschool credits are not transferable. If you homeschool your child for 9th grade and then try to send them to public school for tenth grade, your local public school is unlikely to accept the credits from 9th grade. This could potentially make it very difficult for your child to graduate from high school on-time. Charter school credits are transferable, which is why I’m so glad my kids were able to get into a charter school. It is, however, important to go into homeschool high school with an awareness that you can’t always transfer back to public school.

US History Reading List

This year, I created my own US History homeschool curriculum for my eighth grade son. Here is a list of all the books he read, or will be reading this year.

Weeks that books were read are listed next to each title. Schedule is based upon a 36 week year. I also included historical fiction books my son read in English/Language Arts that correspond with period of history studied.

  • Before Columbus by Charles C Mann (wk 1-5)
  • Turtle Island by Eldon Yellowhorn (wk 2-4)
  • Blood on the River by Elisa Carborne (wk 4-5) Historical Fiction Read in ELA
  • The History of US by Joy Hakim (wk 6-36) 11 Book set, used sporadically, don’t recommend
  • Young People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn (wk 6-36) highly recommend
  • One Dead Spy by Nathan Hale (wk 9) Graphic Novel read for fun
  • Shh, We’re Writing the Constitution by Jean Fritz (week 10)
  • King George by Steve Sheinkin (wk 12-13) for younger readers, but my son LOVES these
  • My Name is James Madison Hemings by John Winter (wk 14)
  • It Happened in Oregon by James Crutchfield (wk 15-19)
  • Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin (wk 17- 24) highly recommend
  • Bound for Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen (wk 17-18) Historical Fiction Read in ELA
  • Two Miserable Presidents by Steve Sheinkin (wk 19-22) highly recommend
  • Harriet Tubman by Ann Petry (wk 18-20) Historical Fiction Read in ELA
  • Call of the Wild by Jack London (wk 23) Historical Fiction Read in ELA
  • A Different Mirror for Young People by Ronald Takani (wk 24-36) didn’t read every chapter, could have started earlier in year
  • Red Cloud by SD Nelson (wk 25)
  • Wheels of Change by Sue Macy (wk 27)
  • Treaties, Trenches, Mud & Blood by Nathan Hale (wk 28) Recommend entire series
  • Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (wk 30-31) Historical Fiction Read in ELA
  • The Great American Dust Bowl by Don Brown (wk 31)
  • Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (wk 32-33) Historical Fiction – ELA
  • Civil Rights Movement by Steven Kasher (wk 34-35)

Build Your Own Library

If you want a secular literature based homeschool program that is ready to use without tons of planning, I highly recommend Build Your Library. If you are like me, and love planning, then I recommend building your own library.

My eighth grade son is on track to read about 60 books this year. I read 15 books in February alone. When I started homeschooling a year ago, finding a literature based curriculum seemed like the best option. I looked at the book lists associated with a few different open and go literature based curriculum and then proceeded to create my own.

My eighth grade son has been studying US History this year. I purchased a plethora of books and then figured out how to break up the chapters to put them all in chronological order. My son has learned a lot from all this reading, but he needs to do more than just read. Early in the year, I started purchasing worksheets and other assignments from Teachers Pay Teachers to add to the books my son was reading. I fairly quickly realized that even at only a few dollars per worksheet, I was spending a lot of money on worksheets. I needed an actual curriculum, that would work with the stack of books I already had.

Build Your Library is one of the sites that I looked at when trying to decide what books to buy in the first place. Build Your Library is a secular literature based homeschool curriculum. US History is divided into two years and taught in 5th and 6th grade, then taught again in 12th grade. I was teaching all of US history in 8th grade, but didn’t decide I needed a curriculum until halfway through the year. So I purchased the 6th grade curriculum. It comes as a pdf lesson plan with weekly and daily breakdowns of reading assignments, associated writing assignments, projects, and even the occasional worksheet.

My son is not reading all the books included in the BYL Level 6 history curriculum, but he he’s reading a lot of them. Even reading them in a slightly different order and adding the writing assignments, projects, and worksheets included in the BYL program to my sons daily reading has greatly improved the quality of his history program.

Next year, this same son will be in 9th grade. I have already purchased both the Build Your Library Level 7 and Build Your Library Level 9. He is going to complete a lot of the BLY Level 7 as an elective (Geography and World Cultures), and he is going to combine parts of the BYL Level 9 science and history into his science course. When it comes to language arts and history, the main heart of the BYL program, I’m going in a very different direction than either of the BYL courses I’ve purchased. I’m creating my own World Literature course for language arts, and my own World History course for history. A few of these titles I pulled off the reading list from BYL Level 10, but I feel no need to purchase that curriculum.

The Build Your Library curriculum is relatively inexpensive. Purchasing all the books can get pricy, but the lesson plan is very affordable. I’m sure there are lots of people who want a secular literature based program and enjoy following the Build Your Library curriculum exactly. I’m not one of those people. I really enjoy researching titles and considering my child’s interests when developing my own curriculum. But I’m also really glad I have a BYL writing assignments, projects, and worksheets to use where they fit both this year and next.

If your student enjoys reading as much as mine, I highly recommend building your own library.