Homeschool Year in Review – 9th Grade

Now that the school year has been over for us since May, I thought it would be a good time to share my homeschool year in review and what we used for my oldest child for 9th grade.

I was apprehensive about high school homeschooling and did a lot of research.  I really wanted to have a good idea of where we were headed, so I created a 4 year plan of all of the credits I will expect my daughter to complete to earn her homeschool high school diploma.  In my state, Texas, homeschools are considered private schools, so I am able to come up with my own requirements and issue a diploma to her myself.

Here is what I came up with for our graduation requirements so you have an idea of where we were going with her 9th grade credits:

High School Graduation Requirements

In total, she’ll graduate with 26 credits.

Here was what we did this year for her freshman year of high school:

English I – For this, we used a mix of Notgrass Exploring America, personal reading/literature, Easy Grammar, and journaling activities.

Math – Algebra I – We used Teaching Textbooks for this.  We used the 3.0 version, along with the spiral-bound workbook that I purchased for her to use alongside it.

Science – Biology – We did a combination of Friendly Biology and some biology review and labs at our homeschool co-op for her science credit.

Social Studies – US History – Notgrass Exploring America was the curriculum we chose for history.  This is a very full program and can be counted as English, History, AND a Bible credit if used in its entirety.  Grace decided not to do the Bible credit at all, so she received 2 credits from the text and activities.

World Languages – French I – My daughter wanted a program with at least 3 years of instruction possible.  After doing a lot of research, we chose Breaking the Barrier (the homeschool edition).  With this, she also used DuoLingo a few minutes a day and even changed her Siri to speak and respond to French for a while to practice.  I thought that was a neat way to go about it, and she did fairly well in the program.

Physical Education – PE – I have given Grace 1/2 a credit for PE this year.  Between her physical activities at co-op, archery that she’s participated in, riding her bike some, and walking our new dog, she has definitely gotten exercise enough hours to count as half a credit.

21st Century Skills – Speech I and II – I gave Grace a full Speech credit this year (designated as I and II).  For her first semester, she did the IEW Speech Bootcamp with her co-op and put in a lot of time preparing and delivering speeches.  We both discovered that she hates giving speeches, but her writing is actually quite good.  For her second semester, she completed Hewitt Homeschooling’s Lightning Lit & Comp Speech using a huge selection of speeches found in “Lend Me Your Ears” by William Safire.  This course was an excellent way to read and analyze a wide variety of impactful speeches.

Electives – American Literature & Poetry – I haven’t decided if we will move this credit to be an advanced English course or just leave it as an elective.  My daughter completed the Memoria Press Poetry & Short Stories: American Literature program for a full credit, along with completing a poetry prompt journal and many creative writing exercises in poetry.

If you’re keeping track, yes, she completed 7.5 credits toward the 26 I’m requiring.  Her 10th grade year is looking lighter because she feels like she needs a breather, but she actually may end up completing a science credit early (she wants to do forensic science and work through it quickly), so she may at least begin on her third science (chemistry) before the school year is up.  We will see!

Coming up for her sophomore year, so far:

• English II
• Geometry
• Forensic Science
• World History
• French II
• PE (.5 credit)

I’m hoping to convince her to sneak in an elective or a dual enrollment course of some type, but it’s up to her!