Our 11th Grade Choices

How do I already have a junior in high school? It is so bittersweet. The years seem to go by so fast, and I want to hold on tight, but I also enjoy watching him grow into a godly young man.

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This year we are making a HUGE transition. He is going to be dual enrolled in our local community college. I will still teach him several of his courses, but others he will take at the community college. Those classes will count for both high school and college.

Community College Courses

Here in North Carolina, dual enrollment is free for high school students. He will not pay any tuition, but we are responsible for purchasing his textbooks. He will take College Algebra, Spanish 1, and Public Speaking from the community college this first semester. We will reevaluate towards the end of the first semester, but most likely, he will take Spanish 2, English 111, and Fine Arts during the spring semester. He is starting with two online courses and one hybrid course.

Homeschool Courses

In addition to his college courses, he will take Chemistry, American Literature, and American Government in our homeschool.

My daughter is entering the ninth grade and will be taking those courses with him, so I am excited to do some learning together.

Chemistry

For chemistry, we are using Journey Homeschool Academy. We LOVED their biology program and are very excited about the chemistry course. Both of my high school students will work through this course and can watch the videos together or separately. Each will do their own tests and quizzes, but we will do lab work together.

We love how thorough but relatable Journey Homeschool makes their courses and the fact that they use a Christian worldview.

I am super excited that they even have homework help videos added this year because it has been a long time since I last took chemistry.

American Literature

My son taught himself to read at age three and has read voraciously since he was in early elementary school. However, over the last several years, I noticed that he was not reading as much, and he rarely picked up a book for fun and complained about his literature programs.

I wanted him to be well-read and prepared for college-level courses, retain his love for reading, and be a lifelong reader. This year, we found that he enjoyed comparing books and movies more than answering questions about the books. The comparisons and subsequent discussions generally showed a good understanding of the book.

Therefore, this year he and his sister are each picking several books from American authors, and my husband and I are also picking several. When possible, we will find correlating movies. We will all four read the book and then have a family discussion. When there is a movie that correlates, we will watch it and have them make a Venn diagram comparing the two.

American Government

We have already started the American Government course as it was a recent review from Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum. We will do their Principles and Precepts of Government along with a video series. We have enjoyed the first part of the curriculum and are looking forward to finishing it.

Conclusions

We will continue to use World Watch in the mornings as a family to discuss current events and family devotions. My son is also running his own business raising meat chickens, and we may add in a poultry science elective related to the business.

He has a full schedule, but we look forward to the changes.

Stay tuned to find out what we are using for my other children. I’d love to hear what courses you love.

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