Grading
After lots of research, here’s what we landed on:
Subjects with clear right/wrong answers—like Life of Fred and Keep Going with Latin—get traditional grades. We’ll track lesson points, effort, and focus to calculate a final score.

Everything else?  He earns an automatic A as long as he’s staying focused and completing assignments.

 College Prep
We have mixed feelings about college —there are strong pros and cons. But since he’s set on automotive design, which is tough to break into without a degree, we’re planning like he’s college-bound unless that changes.

 College is expensive, so we’re focusing on earning free college credit during high school:

 Modern States + CLEP Testing + Petersons for test prep
Modern States offers free CLEP prep courses and reimburses test fees. CLEP lets you test out of general ed classes =  saved!

He picked two CLEPs to start with and will self-study first (we can access Peterson’s Test Prep free through the library—check yours!). Then he’ll review with the Modern States course and take the CLEP. His goal: two CLEPs per semester.

 Dual Enrollment
We’re lucky to live in a state with generous dual enrollment. He’ll start next year while continuing CLEP prep.

 Residential Dual Enrollment (Possibly Senior Year)
He’s thinking about a residental program at a private school, where high school seniors live on campus and take a full college load. He’s older for his grade, so he’d be 18 most of the year anyway. If he goes this route, he could graduate high school with at least two years of college credit—basically getting all gen eds done for free and transferring to finish his degree later.

We’ve got time to sort out details, but I’ll keep y’all posted as it unfolds!

 Drop questions if you have any! Happy to share what’s working for us.

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Part 1 here– How we select materials
Part 2 here– In depth info on our daily and yearly schedule
Part 3 here– What journals & books he will be using

 Here’s a peek at all the materials my son will be using for his first year of high school!

We school in 3 terms, so not all of these are year-round.

 Want the full subject-by-subject list + info on what’s not pictured?
 Or our free reads schedule?
Reach out via DM on our Facebook page I’m happy to send it!

 These are Daily/weekly books he uses 4–5 days a week or at his own pace:

 Monday – These will be done 100% independently while I work. We will do an audiobook and nature drawing together-

 Tuesday – Half the day is independent work, half with me.

 Wednesday – Done with my husband while I work. Half independently, and half with my husband.

 Free reads we’ll do together – Mostly audiobooks in the car. These tie into our studies, but he’s not required to narrate — just enjoy.

 Independent free reads – Scheduled this year to help with balance. He mixes reading + audiobooks.

So what about the rest of the week?

 Thursday – Screen-free + field trip day. We listen to free reads in the car. He does his daily stack before/after.
 Friday – He helps at a homeschool gym, then spends the afternoon with my in-laws. He finishes any leftover schoolwork there.
 Saturday – Catch-up day for free reads, papers, handicrafts, and special study (TBD).
 Sunday – Screen-free rest day. All schoolwork is due Saturday night.

 A few books aren’t pictured!
 Science this year is Biology, with a focus on comparing germ theory vs. terrain theory, natural immunity, and arguments from both sides.

Questions or feedback? Leave them below!

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Part 1 here- Info on how we selected materials
Part 2 here– In-depth info on how we schedule our days and school year

My son is a mix of Creator and Friend Learner. My husband or I will do about half of his school work with him to meet his need for connection as a Friend Learner. My husband works a non-traditional schedule, and we have an only child, so it makes it a bit easier. If you have a Friend learner or a student who could benefit from another adult’s attention, consider asking a relative, neighbor, or friend.

Here is our weekly rhythm. We are also part of a teen homeschool group that meets randomly throughout the month, so we adjust as needed.

I will share the journals + books we’re using on each day in an upcoming post.

Monday – He does school mostly independently in his core journal. We’ll listen to a literature book together as an audiobook, and do the nature study drawing page together. Mondays are my busiest work days, so I’m not as available to do school with him.

Tuesday – He’ll do about half of his school day independently and the other half with me.

Wednesday – He’ll do about half of his school day independently, and the other half with my husband.

Thursday – Field trip day- every week! He’ll do about an hour of schoolwork before or after, and we’ll listen to one of our “free read” or “extra” books in the car.

Friday– He helps teach a homeschool gym program for little kids & participates in one for teens. Then he will spend the rest of the day with my in-laws and bring any schoolwork he didn’t finish earlier in the week. This gives me an entire day to work without interruption.

Saturday & Sunday- He needs to finish 4-5 days/week of Life of Fred Math and 4-5 lessons/week of Latin. If he didn’t get to them during the week, he will do those on Saturday. He will also read for an hour/ day on Saturday & Sunday from his “free read”/”extra” books.

Yearly schedule–
We homeschool year-round—
4-6 weeks on, 1-4 weeks off.
We have three terms, each lasting 10 weeks, with two weeks of exams and flex time at the end of each term. This gives us a total of 36 weeks of school.

Holy Week is always spring break. We take the entire month of August off and all of Christmastide (December 25th-January 6th). School starts back on the Monday after Labor Day and the Monday after January 6th.

This school year we have a family wedding in October so we’re going to have 4 weeks on, two weeks off, 6 weeks on, exams/flex, four weeks off, 6 weeks on, one week off, 4 weeks on, exams/flex, one week off, 6 weeks on, one week off, 4 weeks on, exams/ flex- summer break. Next summer will be the longest break we’ve ever taken. He wanted to try having a more “normal” summer this year, so we’ll have all of July and August off.

I create a schedule with weekly readings for each journal + book. Previously, I wrote the schedule on a piece of paper cut to the size of a bookmark, which I left in the book or journal. This year, I plan to create a syllabus that includes the schedule. Partly for nostalgia, because I used to love getting my syllabus in high school, and partly to familiarize him with them before he starts dual enrollment courses. Then he can make bookmarks from the syllabus if he wants them.

Please let me know if you have any questions about our regular school schedule or rhythm!!

The next post will be about the exact materials we are using.

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Part 1 here

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!