What?! Is it possible to have delight-directed high school curriculum? Why, yes it is! Following the interests of your teen, you can build any high school course on your own or by collecting curriculum and resources that are perfect for the personality and strengths of your high school teen. Let’s take a look at what we will be doing this year for my 14-year-old daughter.
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Homeschool High School Math Curriculum
First of all, she will be taking Algebra 2. We will be using Teaching Textbooks, but we will also use Khan Academy and Math-U-See Algebra 2 (especially the DVD’s) to help her think mathematically, since this is her least favorite subject. I also picked up the Algebra Survival Guide: A Conversational Handbook for the Thoroughly Befuddled. We will be going through the book together during the first few weeks of school to refresh her memory on Algebra, since she did Geometry last year and has not been doing Algebra for a full year.
Homeschool High School Geography
Since Rachel has already done three years of high school English (literature and writing), she will not be doing English this year. Instead we will be focusing on the location of each country in the world, along with its culture and topography.
She started by decorating a binder with travel-the-world stickers to get her excited. We have a puzzle of the world with each country a separate puzzle piece. We will also be going on field trips: our first trip is to Canada! She has a travel journal to snap pictures of Canada and write descriptions on the sides of the pages. I picked up a brand new atlas, since countries are changing all the time. Of course, her passport is current–we will be using it the first week of school!
Homeschool High School Psychology & Early Childhood
My daughter is taking Psychology and Early Childhood courses from 7 Sisters Homeschool. I love, love, love their no-nonsense curriculum. They have a LOT of electives to choose from that are perfect for delight-directed homeschooling of high school.
Introduction to Psychology is a one-semester course with printable tests and activities for each of the chapters. I found two visual guides about psychology at the local bookstore: How Psychology Works and The Little Book of Psychology. I might make a YouTube video showing you the inside of these books at some point, since they are beautifully laid out.
Early Childhood Education is another one-semester course with printable tests and activities that my daughter will be taking the second half of the school year, when we finish Psychology. Over the summer my daughter took the Safe Sitter class at the YMCA to start babysitting. What she learned in the class is a perfect introduction to Early Childhood.
I plan to also do Astronomy with my daughter this year, but the curriculum hasn’t arrived yet, so I will write a separate blog post for that.
Last but not least… what my 16-year-old son will be doing:
My 16-year-old son will be taking Pre-calculus, Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Piano, and Civil Air Patrol. He already took the SAT last year and did well, so this is his senior year. He will continue running the sound system at Youth Group at church, as well as teaching himself computer programming.
And that’s how you do delight-directed homechooling. Why are my kids so far ahead, you ask? Well, I’m glad you asked! It’s because of what I did with them in early childhood (which I explain in my workshop Cognitive Development in Early Childhood). Secondly, they are far ahead because we accelerated their learning through unit studies. Thirdly, we skipped middle school. Stick around. Join my newsletter below, even if you don’t want the Bible craft book, just to keep up with our family adventures!
