Here's an overview to give you an idea of how I plan high school courses for our students and minimum graduation requirements for each subject:
Theology - 4 credits
Our current senior completed the first three and then took Christian Moral Principles from FUS.
She is actually planning to get an AA in Theology from Franciscan and will be taking more Theology this upcoming semester and next school year.
Our current "freshman" has already completed Understanding the Scripture and Intro to Catholicism so this year he is taking Apologetics as you'll see below.
English & Literature - 5 credits (including at least 2 credits of Literature)
History - 3 credits (World History, US History, History Elective)
Our students have typically completed the three years of history and followed it with Government and Economics their senior year. Our current senior is the first to take history as a dual-enrollment class and has really enjoyed the course!
Mathematics - 3 credits (Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra II or higher)
Our second son completed Advanced Math his senior year. The girls opted to finish with Algebra II. One daughter finished with Foundations in Personal Finance
her senior year. Our current Freshman is already working through Algebra II and I plan to put him in dual-credit Pre-Calc/Calc classes etc as soon as he is old enough. One son got his Geometry credit by working through Saxon Algebra I, II and Advanced Math. Another son and one daughter completed Teaching Textbooks Geometry on top of Saxon Algebra I and II, and one daughter completed Jacob's Geometry in addition to Saxon Algebra I and II. As you can see it has varied depending on the student.
Science - 3 credits (Biology +Lab, Chemistry +Lab, and a Physical Science)
We have used
Taylor Science for high school biology and chemistry for our older students. I prefer having two siblings take it together when possible so they can work through the experiments at the same time. It was nice having the older boys go through high school science together and then the older two girls. It's harder now that we have bigger age gaps with the younger ones.
Foreign Language - 3 credits (2 credits must be in the same language)
We now start with a Grammar Intensive in 8th grade, followed by Latin online with
The Lukeion Project. We've had four students take Latin from Dr. Sue Fisher and we love her so much! Charlotte was the one to
introduce us to Lukeion and the live classes my high schoolers have taken have all been excellent.
For anyone with auditory processing challenges/dyslexia, ASL is an excellent foreign language option.
Our first completed 1 year Latin, followed by 2 years ASL.
Our second completed 4 years of Latin
Our third LOVES ASL so she also choose to take it on top of Latin.
Our fourth completed 2 years Latin + 2 years college Spanish (6 high school credits all together since each semester of college counts as a year of high school credit)
Our fifth is taking his first year of Latin now.
To quote Lukeion: "There are many programs now available for younger students. In our experience, however, these programs demand a lot of busy work but deliver very little in the way of learning the functional nuts-and-bolts of Classical languages. Students are not generally prepared to master these languages until they have reached the logic stage. You will accomplish much more in a fraction of the time if you wait until your student is 12 to 15 before you start formal instruction in Latin and Greek. Better still, waiting to start these logic based languages may mean your student will enjoy them more."
I've found this to be true and no longer attempt to teach Foreign Language to my younger students. It's just not worth the effort, time and frustration.
Academic Electives - 2 credits (we have always exceeded this requirement)
This is usually additional Math, English, Literature, Philosophy, and Government/Economics - lots of options! Academic areas only.
Visual/Performing Arts - 2 credits (Kolbe would allow them 1/2 credit each year)
Choir, drama, art, music lessons, etc
Physical Education - 2 credits (Kolbe would allow them 1/2 credit each year)
Our high schoolers have all participated in our local public school(s) sports.
- Captain- Varsity Hockey (2 years), Varsity Golf (4 years), Varsity Soccer (2 years), Ski Lessons
- Ranger - Varisty Hockey (2 years), Varsity Golf (4 years), Junior Varsity Basketball (1 year), Varsity Soccer (2 years), Ski Lessons
- Twinkle Toes - Varsity Golf (4 years), Varisty Soccer (1 year), Ski Lessons
- Chiquita - Varsity Golf (1 year), Ski Lessons (both girls were in Irish Dance for awhile too)
- Scout - Junior Varsity Golf (just completed his first year), Hockey, Ski Lessons
We've been grateful that we live in areas (both in Southern Oregon and North Idaho) that allow homeschoolers to take advantage of the public school sports programs. It's usually right around $100 for the season (when else can you golf nearly daily for a 2-3 months for so affordably?!) and thankfully the hockey and ski options here are fairly affordable too.
Home School Help!
Homeschool Connections We're still paying the monthly fee for access to all of their recorded classes which the kids can take at their own pace. Middle School favorites have included science classes with MacBeth Derham and history classes with Philip Campbell. For high school we have loved Joseph Pearce, Gregory Pyne (Screwtape Letters), and Eleanor Bourg Nicholson's literature classes, as well as American Sign Language.
My high schoolers can't get the "Kolbe designation" on the non-Kolbe courses, but they still qualify for high school credit (the high school level courses do anyway, with pre-approval from Kolbe) and they have worked well for us!
This is our very first year using LIVE classes from Homeschool Connections! Our 15 year old is very excited to be taking America History from Philip Campbell and his older sisters are a bit envious that he gets to take literature live from Elenor Nicholson (they loved her recorded classes).
I wish our oldest children would have had access to these dual-enrollment online courses! We could never make it work for them, since we didn't like the idea of community college classes, plus they never worked with their sports schedules anyway. Our current high school senior will have completed at least her first three semesters of college (with great content/courses!) for so much less than what we are paying for our other college kids. Spring registration will open on December 15th for dual-enrollment students so her course plans for spring aren't confirmed yet.
The price for the Take Credit! Program unfortunately went up this school year... It was more affordable last year, but it's still worth it and I just enrolled her for two more courses this upcoming spring. (Still need to pay the bill though...) I'm grateful to have dual enrollment options from faithful Catholic colleges! As I mentioned above our daughter highly recommends Rhetoric with Patrick Reilly!
Math Tutor - I really miss having a math tutor. If we could afford to add anything right now (we've had way too many medical expenses and college expenses the past couple years) another math tutor would be at the top of my list. I loved having someone (from outside our home) come once a week to review all completed lessons, the weekly test, and go over any questions and mistakes. It really helps keep my kids on track having them accountable to someone other than mom! We are managing without the help, but the middle/elementary kids are slipping a bit behind where I'd like them to be and they will most likely be finishing up in the summer (again) this next year to make up for weeks of sickness, ski days, etc...
English Editor - I also love having someone edit IEW papers for me when I can get the extra help... Right now our 9th grader emails his papers to our oldest son who is off at college and once it's edited I send him a little payment through Venmo... I get help and he gets a little spending money at college. Win win!
