JellyMan's 11th Grade Plan

JellyMan will be a junior next year! I suppose his handwriting is as good as it’s going to get. 

Math:

Saxon Calculus

Science (physics):

The Mechanical Universe
Physics and Our Universe: How it All Works 

Foreign Language (Latin IV, Greek III):

Henle Fourth Year Latin 
Athenaze Book 2
Xenophon’s Anabasis 

English

Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student; Corbett
The Elements of Style; Strunk and White
Essential Literary Terms; Sharon Hamilton
The Writer’s Workshop; Gregory Roper
NaNoWriMo
Script Frenzy

Great Books (history component):

Western Civilization, 6th ed.; Jackson Spielvogel
The Renaissance: A Short History; Paul Johnson
Time Tables of History; Bernard Grund
History: The Definitive Visual Guide; Adam Hart-Davis

The Declaration of Independence
Common Sense; Thomas Paine
The Federalist; Alexander Hamilton et al.
Constitution of the United States
“The Rights of Man”; Thomas Paine
“Self Reliance”; Ralph Waldo Emerson 
Letters of a Nation (selections); Andrew Carroll

Great Books (literature component)

The Well-Educated Mind; Susan Wise-Bauer
Psalms; King James Bible
Paradise Lost; John Milton
William Blake
Pride and Prejudice; Jane Austin
Frankenstein; Mary Shelley
William Wordsworth
Edgar Allen Poe 
Jane Eyre; Charlotte Bronte

Extracurricular Activities

Drama
SCUBA
Piano 

Now all we have to do is finish up THIS year…

New Plan: High School Math

JellyMan and I are not happy with his performance in Saxon Advanced Math, and neither one of us feels that he’s ready to move on to calculus. We’ve decided to go ahead and finish the Advanced Math book by the end of October, but instead of moving on to Saxon Calculus 2nd edition, he’ll spend November and December going through The Teaching Company’s Understanding Calculus: Problems, Solutions, and Tips. There won’t be a huge focus on correct answers or any expectation of real understanding; I want him to simply relax, have some fun, and get a feel for where he’s going in math. In January he’ll start over with Saxon Advanced Math. I’ll have him take tests until he scores <80%. When that happens, I’ll back him up five lessons and have him work from there until the end. Even if he has to start on lesson 1, he should be able to finish by the end of next August. Then he’ll move on to Saxon Calculus in September of his junior year. 

Reasonable? Never mind, don’t tell me. I don’t care if I’m being reasonable or not. I’m so sick of fighting with this kid—he’s at the point where he wants to specialize, but I don’t think it’s time yet. How do you deal with this in your homeschool? When do you think it’s “safe” to drop math in favor of Hebrew? Latin in favor of dance? Sooner? Later? Never?

JellyMan's 10th Grade Plan

Oh, it’s that time again! Have your made your plans for the next homeschooling year? 

Math

• Saxon Calculus with Trigonometry and Analytical Geometry
• The Teaching Company’s Understanding Calculus: Problems, Solutions, and Tips; Professor Bruce. H. Edwards

JellyMan keeps changing his mind about math. First he wanted to complete Advanced Mathematics in one year. Then he decided to do it over two years, completing lessons 1-90 his freshman year and lessons 60-124 his sophomore year. Then he thought he might actually be better off starting over with the Art of Problem Solving program. Now he wants to do Saxon Calculus his sophomore year. I’m fine with that, but he’ll have to work through the summer to finish Advanced Mathematics first. No matter what he chooses to do, I’m sure he’ll continue to drive me insane.

Latin

• Henle Third Year Latin
• Latin Vulgate Bible

At least, this is what I think we’ll do. There are other options, but I haven’t really looked into them yet. You  see, I already own Henle Third Year and the Latin Vulgate. I don’t normally skimp on books, but we’re feeling a little squeezed this year. I hate to spend a lot of extra money looking for the BEST option when I already have a perfectly serviceable one sitting on my shelf.

Greek

• Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek, Book 2

I won’t bother gathering supplemental materials for Greek this year; Athenaze takes up enough time all by itself. If JellyMan starts wanting to stab his own eyes out, I can download a free fable or twenty for extra translation work.

Rhetoric (English)

• Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student; Edward J. P. Corbett
• The Elements of Style; Strunk and White
• Essential Literary Terms: A Norton Guide With Exercises; Sharon Hamilton
• The Writer’s Workshop: Imitating Your Way to Better Writing; Gregory L. Roper
• Vocabulary From Classical Roots

JellyMan will begin by finishing Classical Writing With Aristotle (we’ll never finish before August), and then he’ll re-read The Elements of Style. He’ll take a month or three to write his way through The New Oxford Guide to Writing, and then he’ll begin Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. That will take him through the end of his sophomore year and will probably keep him busy through most of his junior year. He’ll continue on with Essential Literary Terms and The Writer’s Workshop whenever he needs a break from the daily grind. Vocabulary from Classical Roots will be studied whenever one of us remembers it.

Great Books

History Component:

• The Teaching Company’s Early, High, and Late Middle Ages; Professor Philip Daileader
• A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century; Barbara Tuchman
• How the Irish Saved Civilization; Thomas Cahill
• The Mysteries of the Middle Ages; Thomas Cahill
• The Confessions; St. Augustine
• The Ecclesiastical History of the English People; Bede
• The Prince; Machiavelli
• Commentary on Galatians; Martin Luther

Literature Component:

• The Well-Educated Mind; Susan Wise-Bauer
• Poetry, Plato, and the Problem of Beauty; Michael Clay Thomas
• Literary essays by Umberto Eco, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis
• Beowulf
• Mabinogion
• The Inferno; Dante
• Everyman
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Le Morte d’Arthur; Malory
• Utopia; Thomas More
• Doctor Faustus; Christopher Marlowe
• The Faerie Queene, Book 1 (the rest is optional); Edmund Spencer 
• Julius Caesar; Shakespeare
• Hamlet; William Shakespeare

He’ll just read through as many of these books as he can, and if he gets through them all, I have more! Lots more! I hope he wants to read the Decameron.

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I have a Decameron story. When we were young, The Man worked as a night clerk at a crummy hotel in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. (Here night clerk means big bad bouncer.) After one particularly long night of tactfully running off prostitutes and not-so-tactfully breaking up drug deals, The Man sank into his chair at the front desk and picked up our battered copy of the Decameron, hoping to sneak in a few stories before the morning rush. Of course, two pages into the fifth tale of the fourth day, a guest required his assistance. (Isn’t that always the way?) This guy is Italian, a fight in the alley woke him, since he’s up he’ll check out early, he doesn’t want to miss the train to the glacier, and what is this desk clerk reading, the Decameron, but he wrote his DISSERTATION on the Decameron, it is so wonderful, America is so wonderful, this young DESK CLERK is reading the Decameron, for the love of God, he’s reading Boccaccio in Alaska for pleasure, that’s AMAZING, beautiful, beautiful America.

And then The Man had to go outside and break up a dice game. The end.

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This year we’re shooting for two 8-10 page papers and three 5-7 page essays in addition to his weekly writing assignments.

Science

JellyMan just finished his geology course! Yay! He’ll have plenty of time to get through a very basic conceptual physics book before beginning astronomy. (We’re just using Basic Physics: A Self-Teaching Guide by Karl F. Kuhn.) Not for credit, you understand; this is just for background information.

• The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium, 3rd. ed.; Jay M. Pasachoff and Alex Filippenko
• The Teaching Company’s Understanding the Universe; Professor Alex Felippenko
• various online resources

He’ll watch the lectures, read the book, answer the questions, do activities online, and keep an astronomy journal. I would also like to assign a research paper, but I cannot tell a lie—we probably won’t get to it. 

Extracurricular Activities

• piano
• Shakespearian drama 
• SCUBA 

I don’t know how much scuba-ing the poor kid will get to do this year; it’s insanely expensive, and we’re not wealthy. Why can’t my Goobs have cheap hobbies? Soccer? Drawing? Guitar? No?

No.

JellyMan's Rhetoric Stage Sequence

Don't mind me; I'm just thinking out loud.

9th Grade

Pre-Calculus:  Saxon Advanced Math
Latin:  Henle Latin book 2
Greek:  Athenaze book 1
English Grammar:  Rod & Staff English 9
Geology:  Understanding Earth, by Press, Siever, Grotzinger, and Jordan; Lab Manual for Physical Geography, by Zumberge, Rutford, and Carter; The Teaching Company's "How the Earth Works"
Rhetoric:  Classical Rhetoric with Aristotle
Great Books I: to 400 A.D. 

10th Grade

Calculus:  Saxon Calculus
Latin:  Henle Latin book 3
Greek:  Athenaze book 2
English Grammar: Rod & Staff English 10
Astronomy:  This course from Cornell University and The Teaching Company's "Understanding the Universe" 
Rhetoric:  A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston and The New Oxford Guide to Writing by Thomas S. Kane
Great Books II:  400-1600 A. D.

11th Grade

Physics 1:  The Mechanical Universe by Frautschi, Olenick, Apostol, & Goodstein
Latin:  Henle Latin Book 4
Greek:  Anabasis
Biology:  ??? (maybe a summer course at local community college)
Rhetoric:  Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward P. J. Corbett
Great Books III:  1600-1850 A.D.

12th Grade

Physics 2: Beyond the Mechanical Universe by Olenick, Apostol, & Goodstein
Latin:  Virgil
Greek:  Homer
Chemistry:  Chemical Principles by Dickerson, Gray, & Haight; The Illustrated Guide to Home Laboratory Experiments by Robert Bruce Thompson
Great Books IV:  1850 to present day

JellyMan's 9th Grade Homeschool Plan

Math:  Saxon Advanced Math 

Math is the easiest decision for me to make - we'll just do the next book in the Saxon series.  No supplements, no enrichment, no fantastical journeys through abstract mathematical theory.  JellyMan has never had any interest in math and just wants to get through calculus, take his CLEP test and be done with it forever.  (It's a crying shame, but he is who he is.) 

Latin:  Henle Latin Book 2

This is another easy decision - we'll just go on to Henle Latin Book 2, using Lingua Latina and Lingua Angelica as supplemental materials.  

Greek:  Athenaze Book 1

I'm not anticipating him having any trouble with Athenaze; he is burning through the Elementary Greek series, usually completing a week's worth of exercises in one day.  (And remembering everything effortlessly.  I'm so jealous.)  Still, I'd like to find him a class - he shouldn't have to teach himself everydamnthing, and I want him to take a few outside courses just so he can prove to college admissions officers that he is fully functional.  I'm thinking we'll go with Lukieon in spite of the time difference; getting up at 0400 once a week won't kill him, and it might build a little of that character we homeschoolers are always yammering on about. 

Hebrew: The First Hebrew Primer, 3rd ed.

I can't see Hebew earning a spot on the transcript until 11th grade (if ever), but JellyMan is interested now so why not buy him a book?  Whatever he accomplishes this year is fine with me - it's up to him. 

English Grammar & Composition:  Ugh.

I have never found an English program I can use as written.  Rod & Staff is great for grammar, but I don't like the way they approach poetry or composition.  I think the information on poetry and composition in the Classical Writing program is wonderful, but the implementation doesn't do us much good at all - I'd much rather he write essays about the literature and history he's reading already.  So I have two choices here.  We can keep doing what we're doing:

1.  Spend 10-20 minutes a day going through the grammar exercises in R&S orally (diagramming sentences on paper and simply reading the composition and poetry lessons).

2.  Read the Classical Writing books once the R&S book has been completed, completing one writing exercise for the most advanced topic and spending one session doing the more complicated sentence diagramming.  (CW Poetry gets a little more time and effort.)

3.  Write outlines and essays for history, science, and literature The Well-Trained Mind way.

Or I could try something completely different and order Michael Clay Thompson's Magic Lens series.  As far as I can tell, most of it would serve as review, but the new format might be a welcome change.

Oh, what to do?  Luckily it doesn't really matter; English is his "thing" and he'll do well no matter program we choose.  Actually, he'd do well with no program at all.  I don't know why I'm even worrying about this. 

History:  World History 1 (Ancient History)

He will either read the first three books in Will Durant's The Story of Civilization series:  

• Our Oriental Heritage


• The Life of Greece


• Caesar and Christ 

or study history exactly as written in The Well-Trained Mind.  I'm leaving the final choice up to him.  Either way, he will write a six to eight page history paper in the spring.

Science:  Geology

We pretty much "unschooled" science throughout the elementary and middle school years, and now it's time to buckle down.  He'll read the relevant chapters of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything this summer, then go on to use my college geology texts:

• Understanding Earth, 4th ed.


• Physical Geology lab manual

and syllabus along with the "Understanding the Earth" lectures from The Teaching Company.  I'm so glad I kept my quizzes, tests, and labs from my college course - it will save me so much time! 

Literature:  World Literature 1

I'm thinking I will expect a three to five page essay on four of these works, but will be satisfied with a one to two page essay on the rest.  You'll notice that Homer and Virgil are missing from the list; that's because he read The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid in middle school, and if all goes as planned he'll read at least parts of them again in the original Greek and Latin by the end of his senior year.

1st Quarter:

• Epic of Gilgamesh


• The Theban Plays; Sophocles


• The Oresteia; Aeschylus

2nd Quarter

• The Histories; Herodotus


• Medea; Euripides


• The Birds; Aristophanes

3rd Quarter:

• The History of the Peloponnesian War; Thucydides


• On the Nature of Things; Lucretius

4th Quarter:

• Metamorphoses; Ovid


• Annals of Imperial Rome; Tacitus

This is the second reading list I've drawn up.  The first was more exhaustive, but after I gathered all the books together I felt as though I might be punishing JellyMan for being, well, who he is.  I cut it down by about 1,500 pages, but I left the stack of books out on the table, and now he's walking around the house with his nose stuck in The Oresteia.  

And he just requested Sun-Tzu's The Art of War.  

Logic:  Material Logic 

He is due to start this soon, but probably won't finish it until the middle of October or so.  After he finishes Material Logic, he'll begin:

Rhetoric:  Classical Rhetoric with Aristotle

This course includes readings from Aristotle's Rhetoric, Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book, and periodic Latin review.  It will most likely take him into the next school year. 

Religion:  Early Church History 

• The Fathers of the Church: An Introduction to the First Christian Teachers; Mike Aquilina


• The Mass of the Early Christians; Mike Aquilina


• History of the Church: From Christ to Constantine; Eusebius

Fine Arts:  What isn't he doing?

I don't have these lessons lined up just yet (we're still trying to figure out the "who's who" of the Oahu arts scene, not to mention local traffic patterns) but he'll keep on with piano, drama, and tap.  I'll also keep dragging him to art museums and making him watch art documentaries and assigning the appropriate pages of Janson's History of Art.  We'll do music theory and appreciation with:

• Scales, Intervals, Keys, and Triads: A Programmed Book of Elementary Music Theory, 1st ed.; John Clough  


• The Understanding of Music, 2nd ed.; Charles R. Hoffer. 

This is also the year I make a concerted effort to get JellyMan drawing.  Seriously.  I mean it this time. I'm going to try everything Donna Young recommends.  If that fails (knowing me, it probably will), I'll spring for drawing lessons.

P.E.:  I don't know yet!

Scuba?  Sailing?  Tae kwon do?  All three?  Time will tell.  He'll go on his first dive this week.  I hope he likes it!  And I fervently hope he doesn't get eaten by a shark. High school planning and sharks - I'm battling some serious mommy angst right now.

JellyMan's Daily Schedule for 9th Grade

I haven't quite finished the list of books JellyMan will use for his first year of high school, but I've been able to work out a basic schedule.  I would like to share it with you because I've had a lovely sort of EUREKA! moment - I realized that school schedules look more friendly when you combine subjects.  For example, which of the following do you prefer?

Option #1:

• History


• Geography


• Literature


• Religion


• Philosophy


• Government

Option #2:

• Great Books

I don't know about you, but option #1 makes my eyes bleed.  So I went with #2.  I also decided to chuck this:

• Latin


• Greek


• Hebrew

in favor of this:

• Classical Languages

Wow, I feel so much better!  Here's the finished schedule:

Monday

Math (1.5 hrs)
Classical Languages (2 hrs.)
Logic/Rhetoric (1 hr.)
Great Books (2 hrs.)
Piano (1 hr.)

Tuesday

Math (1.5 hrs.)
Classical Languages (2 hrs.)
English (.5 hr.)
Science (1.5 - 2 hrs.)
Piano (1. hr.)

Wednesday

Math
Classical Languages
Logic/Rhetoric
Great Books
Piano

Thursday

Math
Classical Languages
English
Science
Piano

Friday

Math
Classical Languages
Logic/Rhetoric
Great Books
Piano

Saturday

Math (1.5 hrs.)
Art History (1 hr.)
Music Theory (.5 hr.)

Beautiful, isn't it?  He will study logic during the first semester, and rhetoric during the second, and logic/rhetoric will alternate weekdays with English, so that one week he will have three days of logic/rhetoric and two days of English, and the next week he will have three days of English and two days of logic/rhetoric.  (By "English" I mean grammar and the like.  The bulk of his English credits will be earned during his study of Great Books and rhetoric.)  He'll also have things like drama and physical education and dance and such, but I won't know the particulars until after we get to Hawaii. 

We're going to Hawaii!  In a matter of days!  I'm so excited - I'm going to the beach!  I can't wait to eat good sushi!  And Chinese food!  And, oh!  I'm going to get a SUNBURN!  OOH!  And maybe my freckles will all run together and make it look like I have a TAN!

Ahem.

I still have NO IDEA how I will put any of this onto a transcript, but I'm working on it.  So much depends on what sort of college he'd like to attend (if he ends up wanting to go at all), and I'm thinking that I might create two transcripts as I go - one that says what we're actually doing, and one that tries to shove what we're doing into all the traditional little boxes. 

Ugh.  JellyMan might be ready for high school, but I'm not.

Thoughts on High School Math and Science

Oh, no.  It’s time to reevaluate.

This is what I’d like JellyMan to do for high school math and science:

9th Grade:  Saxon Advanced Math

10th Grade:  Saxon Calculus

11th Grade:  The Mechanical Universe; Olenick, Apostol, Goodstein (physics)

12th Grade:  Beyond the Mechanical Universe; Olenick, Apostol, Goodstein (physics)

But that plan makes me hyperventilate because it isn’t “normal.”  I’m fine with being unconventional in other subjects, but I don’t have enough math and science to feel comfortable deviating from the traditional path.  I mean, really.  Two years of math?  Two years of physics?  What am I thinking?  What about chemistry and biology?  What about the four years of math recommended for college admissions? I’m so far gone that even thinking about my own pathetic high school math and science progression:

9th Grade:  Geometry (C/D)
                   Earth Science (B/D) 

10th Grade:  One semester of Algebra 2 (D)
                    One semester of Chemistry (D)

11th Grade:  One semester of Biology (D)

12th Grade:  One semester of Algebra 1 (D) 

and knowing that I did in fact go on to college (earning A’s in math and A’s and B’s in science) doesn’t help me breathe any easier.  So JellyMan’s high school plan will probably look more like this:

9th Grade:  Saxon Advanced Math
                   Geology/Astronomy 

10th Grade:  Saxon Calculus
                     Chemical Principles 2nd ed.; Dickerson, Gray, Haight (chemistry)  

11th Grade:  The Mechanical Universe (physics)

Summer:  Biology 101 at local college

12th Grade:  Beyond the Mechanical Universe (physics)

At least, we’ll call that the plan until he turns 14 and decides he’s too smart for school.  It happens.  Ask me how I know.