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Miss L has started her high school work as a 9th grader for the 2020-2021 school year. She actually started it back in June because we were working on the review for My Father’s World, which is the curriculum we have settled into for 9th grade. It is working well.
My Father’s World is a Christian based core curriculum for history, Bible, and literature. They had other subjects you can add on to make it a full boxed set curriculum with math, science, and electives. You can read a full review of the program and what we thought about it from our previous review. Today, I just want to talk a bit about how it is working.
We are not following the lesson plans exactly as written. It doesn’t allow for additional interests and passions but the plans are well written and thorough. We have created two sets of curriculum from My Father’s World and the other subjects: a daily set and a looping set.
The daily subjects that Miss L does include math, violin, dance, and foreign language (French). For math, she is using CTCMath (read the review) and working on Algebra I. She finished up her pre-algebra work with CTCMath, also. We are working on finding a violin teach that will do in-person classes but that has proven difficult at this time. She is working in one of her Suzuki books for the time being. She is taking a number of dance classes locally and working as a student assistant, also. She takes ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, and is part of the company group. She is working with Duolingo for her French class. These are what she does every day and she will likely add debate in a month or so.
The classes that she loops include Ancient History, literature, writing, logic, science, and Bible. Because of the way the lesson plans for My Father’s World are written, she actually does Bible in several ways and places, so she does work on Bible every day. The lesson plans have a place to check off when an assignment is done so she just loops through the work with the assistance of the check boxes.
She is using Notgrass World History, though the plans do not go straight through it; rather they pick and choose the topics that align with their designed schedule. She is using the Ancient History Literature Supplement that goes with the MFW lesson plans for her writing and literature. Logic is a set of books by The Critical Thinking Co and she is loving these. She actually worked ahead a lot during the recent break we took in August. She is using the Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science. Bible includes reading through the Old Testament and using several books to go along with it.
This has given her a lot of independence and she has done well with it. The lesson plans are a big help for her and help show a lot of progress. The lesson plans have the student “checking in” with the teacher in several different ways so I can stay up with her in her learning without being fully involved in each step. Additionally, we have chosen for her to do a discussion of questions for some of her Bible lessons, which has been a good and helpful way to approach the topic and ensure that she is getting truth in the discussion.
This program is definitely a huge benefit for her and we are well pleased with MFW. It is as rigid as you need it to be and we have been able to make it even more flexible to work with our schedule. That’s a win-win for sure.
You can read about the 11th grade curriculum and, soon, the 6th grade curriculum choices for the 2020-2021 school year.
Blessings,
Lori, At Home.
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Tagged: curriculum, high school
At Home 
That sounds like a great well-rounded 9th-grade curriculum. I have a ninth-grader too, but he chose all online classes this year. I had to let him lead the way for the most part, and he’s doing good. So glad MFW is so flexible, it sounds great!
I’m always curious to see what others use, especially since I have a 9th grader as well. I love the flexibility that homeschooling lends, and it looks like her schedule will allow her to balance dancing with academics!
I enjoying getting ideas from others also. So far, we are enjoying how the looping part works because it does allow her the dance time her heart and body need.
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We used My Father’s World for second grade and you’re right, it doesn’t allow for a lot of extras or pursuing other interests. I love how you have modified it to make it work. High school is two years away for us, but I am already researching and I like to see what others are doing for high school. Thanks for sharing!
This is one I am super excited to share about because the rigidity of boxed curriculum has always been a reason for me to shy away from them. Finding a mix of fixed and looped subjects has been key to making it work.