Senior Year Curriculum Picks - Lindsey

Lindsey will be a senior in the fall, so I've been working on her curriculum picks.  It's very surreal for me to be picking the last year of subjects and curriculum.  It was also a little harder picking Lindsey's curriculum, simply because she'd done a lot of work alongside her sister, and she really doesn't "need" any classes or credits.    Technically, she could graduate without doing school this year, but taht would put her graduating at 16.  As it is, she'll be graduating at 17 so I think that's plenty early.

I was trying to decide if we wanted to add another math or personal finance class.  Seeing as how at 16 she's already purchased a car with cash and has thousands of dollars left in the bank, I think she's got a good handle on how to handle money.

I definitely want her to have a very solid understanding of U.S. Government, so we'll be using the Lifepac 12 History & Geography.  For whatever reason, it does NOT list it as government, although that is the subject matter.

Since she's already completed American Literature and World Literature, I decided we'd focus on literary criticism this year.  I went back to one of our favorite vendors and chose Learning Language Arts Through Literature - Gold Book - Literary Criticism .

This next one was a surprise for me.  After caring for a baby with a heart issue, and listening to his story from his mother, she's leaning towards becoming a pediatric nurses aide.  She has no desire to do the shots and procedures, but wants to focus on being the one who cares for babies while they are in the hospital (bathing, feeding etc.)  Whether this will continue to be an interest, I don't know, but to prepare her somewhat we decided to add Advanced Pre Med Studies to her class schedule.

Lindsey is very good at ASL and since the state deaf & blind school is in our town, there tends to be opportunity to use this language here.  We've added year three of  ASL 3 - Lifeprint to round out her year.

She will also being doing a morning Bible devotional, but I don't count that towards her academics or credits.   As you can see this will be a smaller academic workload, but again there's no need for over kill.  Additionally, she'll be working 5 days a week, plus her jiu-jitsu classes, so she'll be plenty busy.

11th Grade Curriculum Picks (Lindsey)

Lindsey is very different from her sister, in almost every way.  They definitely have different learning styles, and the products we used for Olivia don't necessarily work for her.  Some of our items will be repeats, but not all.  Our planners never change.

U.S. History: Lifepac American History is our pick for history this year.  Lindsey really enjoys the format of the work texts, so we'll stick with that in this area.  This will link together geography, history, government, citizenship, economics and social studies.  1 credit

Language Arts:  Lifepac American Literature will be the core of our language arts study. She'll be reading The Red Badge of Courage, The Great Gatsby, The Pearl, and 1984. We'll also study Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Frost in depth.  Additional she'll be including the Easy Grammar Ultimate Series Grade 11 program, and writing more essays and short stories to round out a full language arts course. 
1 credit

Biology: We'll be using a repeat of the Science Shepherd Biology this year.  Lindsey is not a huge science fan, and the dissections aren't at all appealing to her, but this is a very strong curriculum and, well...I already have everything we need except her test booklet. 1 credit

Math:  Having already completed Algebra 1 & 2, and Geometry, we'll be focusing on more applicable math this year.  Abeka's Consumer Math will allow her to get a better understanding of finances as it applies to her personally.  This is a repeat product for us. 1 credit

American Sign Language (Year 2):  Lindsey absolutely loved Lifeprint ASL last year, and we'll be continuing with this for her junior year.  The instructor, Bill Vicars, is very engaging and an excellent instructor.  I often hear Lindsey chuckling at some funny story, or interaction he has with the students.
1 credit

That should round out Lindsey's junior year academically.  We won't know what extra-curricular things are available until we see what state of reopen things are in come fall.

Sophomore Year - Mid Year Review

We are technically about half way through Lindsey's sophomore year, so I thought I'd give you a little review on where we are over all.  I say "technically" because it's looking like she's going to be done a lot earlier than expected.   You can read about the curriculum we picked, and why we picked it Curriculum Picks - Sophomore Year.

Geometry - Teaching Textbooks was our pick for this year.  We ran into some snags in early January due to their revamping their whole program online. Once the system was working, it still didn't have the proofs working (expected completion now 2/15/21), but you can't finish a lesson without that aspect. We finally had to resort to moving back to the 2.0 series on thumb drive.   This whole thing put Lindsey about 2 weeks behind schedule.  However, as of today she's completed 80 of the 110 lessons. I expect she'll complete this class in mid-March.

World History - Lindsey has never been a fan of history, and that has not changed this year.  The Abeka World History is going ok.  She really struggled early on with all of those ancient names that she couldn't pronounce.  It all ran together in her head, and frustrated her.  She's doing much better now that she's moved past that.  She's about 3/4 of the way finished, and will likely finish in late April.

World Literature - We're using Abeka World Literature to keep with the same time period as our history.  Lindsey is enjoying this class, although she does like to critique some of the selections pretty harshly. As with history, she's about 3/4 of the way finished.

Grammar - This is our first year using Easy Grammar Ultimate Series and we really like it.  The lesson doesn't take forever and isn't horrible dry and boring.  I can see a big difference in Lindsey's understanding this year, and it's showing up in her writing.  She's on lesson 90 of 180.  We'll start to double up on the lessons as we get closer to the end of the academic year.

Science - We both really like the layout of the Survey of Science: History and Concepts.  We've completed the Mathematics and Physics book, and just about finished with the Biology.   This has been a great way to hit several branches of science, and fill in some gaps.  I'm looking forward to the Chemistry and we'll hopefully add some experiments with that.

Civics - This ended up being the perfect year to focus on Lifepac Civics.   Lindsey has learned so much about the  way our government is set up and has been quick to see the things that aren't lining up with our Constitution.  This was supposed to be a 1 semester class, but I've added projects and enough current events to turn it into a full credit.

ASL - We had planned on using Rocket Language, but quickly learned that this was way too slow paced and dull.   We changed to LifePrint and Lindsey absolutely loves it!  She's doing really well, and has been able to use it a few times both at church and in stores.  

Lugandan - We'd planned on doing a semester of  the Luganda language study.  However, finding resources that have audio for pronunciation is proving to be a bit of a challenge.  We've tabled this for now, and I'll continue to research.

So there we are, about half way through the academic year and looking to start wrapping things up in the next 6-8 weeks.  Now it's time to work on our junior year picks.

Used Curriculum Sale 2020

I thought I'd do a used curriculum post, to see if I have anything in my stash that might be on your things to buy list.   For your convenience I've linked the title of the product to the online product description so that you can read a full product description.  Prices do not include shipping.   All items are from a smoke free home.

Abeka Language Arts Teacher Books (grade 9).  Excellent condition. $80 for bundle. 
Includes the following:
Vocabulary, Poetry & Spelling III, Teacher Key
Vocabulary, Poetry & Spelling III, Test/Quiz Key

Grammar & Composition III, Teacher Key
Grammar & Composition III, Quiz/Test Key

Themes in Literature, Text Key
Themes in Literature, Quiz/Test Key
English 9 Language Arts Parent Guide/Daily Lesson Plans

Themes in Literature Student book (photo below) also available $10.  This book is a little worn, but in good condition.  No marks.

Science Shepherd Life Science (middle school).  $35
Includes student text and teachers guide.   Excellent condition.

SOLD A Fresh Approach:  Geometry (High School) $50 Excellent condition.
Set includes student text, solution manual and test/answer packet.

North Star Geography (High school) and CD $35 Excellent condition.

Learning Language Arts Through Literature - Gray Book (8th Grade) $10.00  Excellent condition.
Includes the teachers manual and the required literature selections.  The student book is currently on sale for $14.95 at Rainbow Resource.

Learning Language Arts Through Literatuer - American Literature (High School) $25.  Excellent condition.  Includes student book and readers.  There is no teacher book for the high school level in LLATL.

Learning Language Arts Through Literature Green Book (Grade 7) $10.  Excellent condition. Includes teacher guide and student literature selections.  

If you see anything you're interested in, send me a message at tjohuffman @ verizon dot net.   I accept paypal, money order or cashier's check.  Shipping charges will vary depending on your location and whether you want media mail or 1st class.

Curriculum Picks - Sophomore Year

This is my first year of only needing to pick our curriculum for one child. I'm excited about cutting the expense in half, but wow...I'm down to one "student".

Lindsey will be a sophomore in the fall, and has vastly different interests and learning style than her sister.  A few of the items will be things we've used before but we do have some new items as well.

Geometry - Lindsey did remarkabley well with Teaching Textbooks for Algebra 2, and I'm totally kicking myself for being so late to step over into the realm of online classes.  That being said, we'll use Teaching Textbook Geometry online this year.    1 credit

Science -  Lindsey isn't a huge science fan, and honestly, I'm not either.  She's not quite ready for dissections, so this year we're going to go outside the box.  We'll be using Survey of Science: History and Concepts  from Masterbooks.   This will give Lindsey a firm foundation in some of the basics, and give her a year to gear of for biology and dissections. 1 credit

World History - I loved the way Abeka's World History was laid out when Olivia used it, so much to Lindsey's dismay, she get's a hand me down here.  All I had to do was order her test booklets, score!  1 credit

World Literature -   The same holds true on Abeka's World Literature.  The layout, and the fact that the timeline coincides with the history is a big plus for us, so we'll be using it again as well.  Once again, and added bonus for me is I only needed to order the student test booklet.  1 credit

Grammar - While we loved the Abeka literature, we hated all the busy work and layout of their grammar, so we decided to go with Easy Grammar Ultimate Series Grade 10. This will be combined with the world literature to round out the 1 language arts credit.

Civics -  Lindsey enjoys workbook style learning where she can just plow through and get it done.  Lifepacs work well for her, where they bored her sister to tears.  She'll be using Lifepac Civics this year to ensure that she has a good foundational understanding of our government and her civic duty before we plunge completely into the Constitution.  1/2 credit

Luganda After reading Kisses From Katie and Daring to Hope this past year, Lindsey has really developed a passion for children in Uganda.  She wants to learn to speak Luganda in hopes of being able to use it on the missions field. She will be using Luganda Language Lessons for one semester (or longer) 1/2 credit

ASL - Lindsey really enjoys sign language, and although she hasn't had a great deal of instruction, she's quite good at it.  While working at the museum these last two years, she's had the opportunity to use what she learned and sees the need for more knowledge to be able to help communicate with the deaf community.  She'll be using Rocket Languages ASL through our local library's website.  We get a free membership with our library card! We will be working towards mastery, spending more time on each lesson that is required, so that it becomes almost 2nd nature to her.  1 credit

Lindsey will add 6 full credits to her transcript this year.  This will bring her to a total of 16 high school credits at the end of her sophomore year.

Are you making changes in your go to picks this year?

Study.com (Product Review)

Typically, I don't do a lot of online product reviews, because our internet is often questionable.  However, in recent months it appears to have become a bit more reliable, so I'm venturing out.

Study.com is our first online review in quiet a while, and wow, there's a LOT to tell you about.  The site offers over 4,100 video courses spread out over middle school, high school and college level material.    The site also offers complete homeschool curriculum for grades 3-12.

The standard length of videos is approximately 8 minutes, although there is some variation  on occasion.  Topics covered by Study.com include science, math, business, psychology, history, English, social sciences, humanities, Spanish and professional development.  There is also test prep courses for SAT, ACT, GED, ASVAB and a slew of other professional tests (nursing, real estate, teacher certification to name just a few).



The site has information on degrees and requirements, colleges, networking, and building resumes.  As many of my long time reader's know, Olivia plans to go into the field of veterinary medicine.  The information we've been able to access through Study.com has been incredibly helpful in finding not only classes, but resources to help her see the timeline for her studies, classes and certifications she'll need, internship information and projected job market and salaries.

One thing we love about Study.com is it doesn't just give you dull information.  Lessons are presented in an engaging way, and the information (at least in the class Olivia has been working on) is applicable.   For example, it explains the different roles of the various office staff in a veterinarians office all the way from kennel attendants, administrative staff and assistants right up to the veterinarian.   This was huge in helping her see what other opportunities there are outside of being an actual veterinarian.

The video lessons are a blend of lecture and graphics.  Some of the videos are cartoon style, which Olivia found to be a little childish or corny, but they still contain in depth lesson material, so don't get hung up thinking it's just for kids.

There are three pricing packages to choose from.  I've outlined what is included in the packages below:

Basic Package: $29.99/month (save 10% paying annually)
-unlimited access to all videos
-lesson transcripts
-technical support

Premium Package: $44.99/month (save 10% paying annually)
-includes everything in the Basic Package
-practice quizzes and tests
-personalized coaching
-access to instructors
-certificates of completion
-create custom courses

College Accelerator:  $199/month (save 10% paying annually)
-everything in Basic and Premium Package
-earn college credits
-take two (2) exams per month
-take exams remotely

The package you choose would be solely dependent upon your student's goals.  You may want to just do a few enrichment or remedial classes, or you may want to expedite the college track.    You can cancel your membership at any time, so if you sign up for one month and find out it's just not for you, or you just don't have the internet connection (ahem) you need, you aren't stuck paying all year for something you don't use.

I was given a free 90-day subscription to Study.com for this review.  I was not required to write a favorable review.  The thoughts and opinions shared here are strictly my own.

2019-2020 Curriculum Picks

This fall I'll have a senior and a freshman.  I can't believe one is finishing high school...and the fact that the "baby" is starting high school seems surreal.    This obviously isn't my first year of picking 9th grade curriculum, but I've struggled more this year than I did the first go around, which seems a bit backwards to me.  However, my girls are very different kids, with very different learning styles and maturity levels, and that's reflected in their high school paths.

Olivia will have a light academic load for her senior year at home.  I'm focusing this year on easing her into the adult world.   She'll be getting a part time job, and also be doing concurrent enrollment at the local community college to complete their veterinary assistant program and certification. (I think).

12th Grade Curriculum Picks:

Government:  I want my kids to understand the Constitution and the way our governmental system was set up so that they can be actively involved in voting and government policies.   To accomplish this goal, I've picked Constitutional Literacy to be our basis for learning about the constitution.
1 Credit

Spanish 2:  We will continue to use LifePacs for Spanish 2 this year.   This will give Olivia 2 years in 2 foreign languages.  1 Credit

Health and Nutrition:  This is one of those classes I wish had been around in Olivia's early high school years.   Honestly, she's struggled with her weight and food choices in the past few years.   She's made some really good changes on her own this past year and started dropping weight and eating better, but I want her to have as much knowledge as she can on the subject, so that when she reaches that "goal" she doesn't just revert back to eating whatever.   So, we're going to use Apologia's Health and Nutrition this year to really get a firm foundation of why we need to make those healthy food choices.   1 Credit

Consumer Math:  While all the "higher math" is great, I know that there are lots of day to day math things that a many teens are clueless about.   I want my kids to not just be book smart, but also prepared for life.   We chose Abeka's Consumer Math, as it fits the criteria of real life application and also shows free enterprise as a positive.  1 Credit

Olivia will graduate with 30 high school credits in addition to her veterinary technician certification.

9th Grade Curriculum Picks:

Language Arts:   Lindsey needs more structure and guidelines in her academics.   For language arts we'll be using Abeka's 9th Grade program.  This consists of Grammar and Composition,  Spelling and Poetry and Themes In Literature.   This will be a much more rigorous program than what she's had in the past, but I'm sure she'll do well with it.  1 Credit

Math:  One thing I've avoided using over the years is online curriculum.  This is in part due to our slow internet, and poorly running laptop.  We were blessed with a really nice (fully functional, and has all it's keys) laptop this year, so there's that.   I'm finding that Lindsey is a gadget gal, and does better in math with verbal instruction over reading on her own.   I've looked at a couple of options and have decided that the new online Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 looks like it will work for our budget and class needs.   1 Credit

Health and Nutrition:  Lindsey will also be using the Apologia Health and Nutrition this year alongside of Olivia.  This will give them an opportunity to spend a little more time together this last year that they are both in school...and it's much needed information for her as well.  1 Credit

Spanish 2:   This is another class that Olivia and Lindsey will be doing together.   We'll be using LifePac Spanish 2.   1 Credit

World Geography:   Lindsey is not a huge fan of geography, and really isn't looking forward to this class at all.   We'll be using North Star Geography again this year.   While I don't expect her to turn into a geography lover, I think if we focus on the people aspect of the places she learns about it'll be more likely to stick with her.   The format for North Star lends itself easily to my plan.   1 Credit

Consumer Science:  This year's elective will be Family & Consumer Science from LifePac.  Lindsey is a homebody, and her career goal is to be a nanny (true story).  Her high school path will be very different than that of her sister, and this class really got her excited.   1 Credit

Lindsey is going into her freshman year with 4 high school credits (3 in foreign language, 1 math).   She'll end her freshman year with a total of 10 credits.

Curriculum Picks - Revised Again

A lifetime ago (in mid-April) I posted our curriculum pics for 8th grade and 11th grade for the 2018-2019 academic year.    Our course lists were tightly tied to our co-op plans and schedule, and included classes that neither me or the kids were happy with, but we were doing that whole bend over backwards thing to make co-op work for everyone else.

Then it happened, one of our dedicated families got a job transfer out of state and the group had to back up and punt.   I lined up a new family and new classes,  revamped the schedule and bought curriculum based on the new offerings (still not what worked for us, but I told the kids we'd just have to make it work this year).

Two weeks before I left for Haiti, my new co-op family contacted me to say they were enrolling in private school and wouldn't be homeschooling or attending co-op in the fall.  This left us with only 2 middle schoolers (on very opposite ends of academics), and four high school students.  Try as I may, I just couldn't pull another family out of thin air to made the middle school more bigger, so we lost the other middle school student and two high school aged siblings.   This left us with only three total students, two of whom are mine.   At this point, I pulled the plug on co-op for the fall and decided to try to do something monthly with the group to keep the relationships strong.

So....after all of that, I've have to sell lots of new curriculum that we'd bought, take a financial loss on most of it and just chalk it up to "this is why I hate co-ops", ahem.    The good news is that I've been able to actually pick the classes that we wanted and both the girls and I are thrilled about that, so here's what we are doing:

8th Grade - Lindsey

Math -   Lindsey will be doing Algebra 1 this year.   I'm telling you, finding a higher math that works for us and is affordable has been my biggest struggle with high school.   This year she'll be using A Fresh Approach Algebra I.  1 high school credit

Foreign Language -   Even though she has three years of Latin under her belt, we'll be adding Spanish this year using LifePac Spanish I.    Olivia will also be taking this course along side her sister.   1 high school credit

Science - We will be using God's Design for Science - Weather and Water and also reading through the Apologia Anatomy & Physiology.   Both of these books were bought to accommodate the ever changing co-op class list and since I have both, we'll just do them even though they really have no correlation to anything else we're doing this year.


Spelling -  We're going with what we've used in the past, Christian Liberty Press 8th grade spelling.   This is the last year in this series, and focuses on vocabulary and word origins as much as spelling.

Language Arts - Learning Language Arts Through Literature - Gray Book although, we will be using the older version (since I already have it on hand), and because the reading list of the old one includes the book Across Five Aprils, which is one of my all time favorites.

History - Lindsey will be studying U.S. history through the end of the Civil War using a out of print work text I found at a thrift store...yes really.   We'll also be adding a timeline to her studies.

11th Grade - Olivia

Foreign Language -   Even though she has three years of Latin under her belt, we'll be adding Spanish this year using LifePac Spanish I.    Lindsey will also be taking this course along side her sister.   1 Credit

Geometry - We'll be sticking with what works, so this year's pick will be A Fresh Approach Geometry.  While math may never be Olivia's strongest subject, she really liked the way the Algebra II was done and wants to continue. 1 Credit

Art:   Olivia has loved her art class this year and wishes to continue using the same program.   She'll get to explore the world of color as she works through Artistic Pursuits: High School Book Two - Color and Composition.  1 Credit

World History - We'll be using Abeka World History and Cultures .  I had already bought all of the items for co-op for this class, so we decided to keep it since Olivia needed a world history credit, and since I can't afford to lose that much money at this point.   1 Credit

World Literature- We'll be using Abeka World History.   Again, this is one I'd bought for co-op, but it will work for us and that whole can't not use it after we paid for it comes into play.  I'll be adding some writing assignments as well.   1 Credit

Grammar:  We will be killing two birds with one stone here.  Olivia will be working through Barron's SAT and ACT Grammar Workbook both to prepare for the upcoming tests, and to strengthen her understanding of grammar.

Science -  Veterinary Science - Preparatory Training through Texas A&M.   This is something we'd had planned for several years and had to keep kicking it out to make the co-op thing work for everyone.   I've finally been able to work it back in and we're all super happy about it.   1 Credit

There you have it, the final revision for the 2018-2019 academic year!

Persuasive Writing and Classical Rhetoric (Review)

Today I'm sharing our review of Persuasive Writing and Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers from Silverdale Press LLC.  For this review, I received digital downloads of the Lesson Book (235 pages), the Reader (111 pages), the Workbook (202 pages) and the Answer Book (65 pages).   Unfortunately, I'm one of the few people who still has dial up internet, so downloading these big files was impossible for me.  I contacted the vendor and within one business day I had a USB drive in my possession.   Great customer service!!     

This is a full year (36 week) high school writing curriculum, and it includes a weekly 4-day a week schedule.   You can either have a mega printing day and get everything printed off at once, or weekly print off the sections of each download needed for that week.  I went with option 2.  Day 1, students read the lesson and answer review questions, Day 2 students will read a passage by a great writer (or rhetorician) and answer review questions, Day 3 students work on an activity  that works towards the final writing assignment, Day 4 students write a writing prompt based 500 word essay.   If you want a 5 day based schedule, then have your student write 250+/- words of the essay on Day 4 and the other 250+/- on Day 5.

During the year, students will read the writings of various great authors and rhetoricians such as John F. Kennedy, John Locke, William Wilberforce, Eleanor Roosevelt and Antonin Scalia to name just a few.  The authors are not in historical date order, so it gives the student another aspect of reading from different time frames, but not on a timeline.

Since we are in a weekly co-op, we stuck with the four day a week schedule.   The lesson portion is roughly 8 pages, so Olivia would spend 30-40 minutes reading and answering the corresponding questions in the workbook.  The Reader segments are relatively short, most being two to six pages on average, this typically took Olivia anywhere from 5-20 minutes, and then another 5-10 minutes for the review questions.   So, days 1 and 2 were 40 minutes or less (typically) then day 3-4 (or 5) were often longer just because Olivia really does put a lot of time and effort into her writing assignments.   On these heavy writing days I tried to make her other workload a little lighter.

I loved that this curriculum has her reading works of great leaders and thinkers, not just great writers.  No disrespect to writer's meant by that.  I think that as we finish the curriculum (next academic year) she'll really start to get into the people aspect.   Being a World War II fan, she really liked the section on Winston Churchill in Lesson 3.  I'm waiting for her to get to the section on Ronald Reagan, my favorite president, in Lesson 11.

This is a thorough and engaging curriculum that helps students learn to not only write persuasively, but to think through their topic.  The creators of this curriculum are homeschool family from the great state of Virginia, but more importantly they are experts in their respective fields (law, history and political science).    They know how to think through things, and how to help students learn to do the same.

To read more Review Crew opinions on this product or their Holiday Unit Studies, click here.

Curriculum Picks - 8th Grade

This is my first time picking 8th grade curriculum.   With Olivia, we skipped over that grade since she was already doing mostly high school work.   With Lindsey, I already have her on track to graduate at 17 because of where her birthday falls, so as of now I'm not planning to skip a grade with her causing her to graduate at 16.   However, we'll see where we are in a couple years and revisit that.  She'll still be earning two high school credits this year.

Math -   Lindsey will be doing Algebra 1 this year.   I'm telling you, finding a higher math that works for us and is affordable has been my biggest struggle with high school.   This year she'll be using A Fresh Approach Algebra I. 

1 high school credit

Foreign Language -   Even though she has three years of Latin under her belt, we'll be adding Spanish this year using LifePac Spanish I.    Olivia will also be taking this course along side her sister.

1 high school credit


Science -  Our pick for this year is Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy & Physiology.  Although this is a geared towards elementary students, we'll be using it as our spine and beefing up the content quite a lot  in order to make it work for middle school.   We'll also be using the notebooking journal as well.   

Language Arts -  We'll be using Apologia's  Reader's In Residence and Writer's In Residence programs combined this year to cover literature and grammar.   I'll also be adding a beefier reading list as well.

Spelling -  We're going with what we've used in the past, Christian Liberty Press 8th grade spelling.   This is the last year in this series, and focuses on vocabulary and word origins as much as spelling.

Co-op Classes

History - I'll be teaching World History at co-op at the middle school level.   To be honest, I'm still working on what this is going to look like as I want it to be very hands on.   I'll use the same schedule that I'll be using for the high school class I'm teaching, so that I can streamline my workload to some extent.

Critical Thinking - This class will also be taken at co-op.  The class will sharpen critical thinking skills through activities such as matrix puzzles, mysteries, deductive reasoning, process-of-elimination and various games.

Science:   This will be another hands on class using God's Design for Science as the spine.


Total high school credits:  2

Curriculum Picks - 11th Grade

How is it possible that I have a junior this year?  I'm beginning to regret letting her skip a year now that I realize I cut my time short having her at home, sigh.

Foreign Language -   Even though she has three years of Latin under her belt, we'll be adding Spanish this year using LifePac Spanish I.    Lindsey will also be taking this course along side her sister.   1 Credit

Geometry - We'll be sticking with what works, so this year's pick will be A Fresh Approach Geometry.  While math may never be Olivia's strongest subject, she really liked the way the Algebra II was done and wants to continue. 1 Credit

Art:   Olivia has loved her art class this year and wishes to continue using the same program.   She'll get to explore the world of color as she works through Artistic Pursuits: High School Book Two - Color and Composition.  1 Credit

We're doing things a bit differently this year.  Three of Olivia's core classes will be taught at co-op, with the students working at home 4 days a week then  working with the teacher and other students on Friday.

Co-op Classes:

World History - We'll be using Abeka World History and Cultures during this class.   I'll be teaching this as well as middle school world history, so I'm hoping to be able to teach both using the same schedule to make things a bit more streamlined for me. 1 Credit

World Literature- We'll be using Abeka World History.   The layout for the class combined with the schedule for World History make this a good fit for the upcoming year.   1 Credit

Anatomy and Physiology - The teacher in charge of this class has a Master's Degree and will using various resources, labs and dissection opportunities to make this a full year of high school science.  1 Credit

Total:  6 credits

Year In Review - Academics

I don't really go by "semesters" where our homeschooling is concerned.  However, we're at the end of the calendar year, and we won't be starting back up with lessons until January, so I thought it would be a good time to look at where we are.  

7th Grade

Lindsey is showing more progress than Olivia, as far as finishing up subjects.   As of the end of this month she has finished up her Junior Analytical Grammar, Bible, American History and 1/2 of her Literature for the year.   She still has to read Anne of Green Gables and The Trojan War after the first of the year.   In January, she will be adding study of the  Renaissance and Reformation, Creative Writing and working independently on her sewing.  You can go to  Curriculum Picks - 7th Grade see what products she's using this year.   Spelling, pre-algebra and science continue to go smoothly.  

10th Grade

Olivia has finished Economics and is a little more than half way through Civics.  She's almost finished up her American History, and then upon it's completion, she will move into a unit study of America during WWII. She has a much heavier/stronger course load this year, so most of her classes are full year.   She's ahead of schedule in her American Literature, and right on track with biology, Algebra II and art.    You can check out Curriculum Picks - 10th Grade to see what products we're using for each of Olivia's classes.

Lightning Literature and Composition Pack: American Literature - Early-Mid 19th Century (Review)

Today's review features Lightning Literature and Composition Pack  American Early-Mid 19th Century from Hewitt Homeschooling.   This is a one semester (18 week) literature and composition curriculum.   We received both the student and teachers guide for this review.

The student guide is softback, but with a lovely glossy cover, and it includes 176 pages.  The student guide starts off with 21 pages of how and why to use this product, followed by 4 units, broken into 8 lessons.   There is also an 18 week schedule, and 36 week schedule as well (if you decide to go that route).  Students will need the unabridged copies of the following books:  The Autobiography and Other Writings (Benjamin Franklin); Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself (Frederick Douglas); The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne); Moby-Dick (Herman Melville).

The teachers guide is a simple 3-hole punched, stapled together, 56 page document.  It  contains answers to all the discussion questions, grading tips and checklists, and grading rubrics.   Also included in the teachers guide is the writing exercises and project suggestions so that you can see what your student is supposed to be doing without having to take their guide away, grins.

There are four units in the student book, and each unit contains 2 lessons.   Each lesson consists of the weeks reading assignment, comprehension question and writing assignments.   There are typically several (7-10) writing assignments that allows the student some control as they pick the one or ones to do.  Obviously, the parent can assign more or different assignments if a student leans towards always picking the "easy" work.

There are also three Appendices included in the student book.   The first contains discussion questions (different from the ones in the lessons) and project suggestions,  additional reading by unit and then the semester and full year schedules.

Olivia loved the first book about Benjamin Franklin.   She also liked the fact that the comprehension questions were broken down into sections so she could focus on the each section instead of having to remember every single thing at the end of the book.   The writing assignments that went along with this unit were great, and since she had to write about herself (studying the autobiography) it allowed her to write about something that she obviously knew a lot about, alleviating the need for research right at the beginning of the class.

I had planned to work this product into Olivia's fall curriculum stack.  However, after working through the first book, I felt like the reading was going to be too heavy if we did the 18 weeks, and didn't feel it would be enough if I stretched it out to the 36 weeks.   That is not meant as a jab at the curriculum, I really like the layout and the style, but with all the other heavy courses we had going on this year I didn't feel like it would be wise to add anything else.

To read other Review Crew reviews of products from this vendor, click here.