In a few weeks, I’ll share our school schedule and rhythm. A few weeks after that, I’ll share what materials he selected. Then, I’ll share a few considerations for him as a college-bound student.
Today – the how behind selecting materials this year and how it differs from when he was younger.

Three things to know about our homeschool –

One– We love Charlotte Mason/ living books & primarily pull books from CM lists.
Two– My son thrives on variety.
Three – We almost exclusively borrow books from the library to use with our journals.

Our Planning Process-

• First, he selected his core journals & elective journals. I selected Language Arts and a couple of other journals.
• Next, I printed the booklists from Ambleside Online (AO) & Wildwood (WW) for his “grade” & eliminated books I didn’t want to do. I put all the books our library had + a few books I wanted to add in on hold. He researched books for his special study (more on that in a future post) and put those on hold.
• Then, I researched Biology materials since science is not included on AO and WW for high school. I pulled books from the Sabbath Mood homeschool book lists, looked at the biology section in our library, and asked Grok for suggestions based on some specifics we wanted to cover. (more on that in a future post) And I put these on hold.
• Last, I sorted the books into piles by subject. On top of each pile, I placed a note indicating the number of books from that pile he needed to select for the year. He spent a good amount of time looking over them and choosing what he wanted to use. There was also a pile of “these are books I think are important and want you to read this year” for him to review. We matched books to journals & set the books he didn’t want to use aside to return.

How did this year differ from previous years?

In previous years, our process began the same way, with me putting all the books from Ambleside and Wildwood that our library had on hold. I also incorporate a lot of books I have found on my own & we sometimes use those instead of the books from the list.

• Every year, he chooses an area of special study, either based on a Fun-Schooling journal or two he wants to use, or something he wants to learn about. I joke with my husband that the people who plan for AO and WW have him pegged because almost every year, he’s chosen something already part of the curriculum. This is essentially the same idea as a “major” Sarah talks about.
• We often match journals to books instead of starting with the journal and finding the books to use with it. This works well for me because I know the journals SO well. I’m happy to help you do so if this is something you’d like to try!
• In his younger years, he wanted to select his Fun-Schooling journals but was not interested in choosing books other than those related to his special study/ major area. Even then, he did best if I presented him with a few options to choose from.
• Starting in 6th grade, I gradually had him select more books yearly.
• This year, he selected about half of the books for his core studies and all of the books for his special study.

Do you have any questions about this process, either for this year or in previous years? I’m happy to help! And I’d love to hear your feedback!