Monday, August 22, 2016

Second Year of High School

I love August.  It's just another month closer to autumn!  And it's the time I get everything ready for the new school year.  10th grade is upon us and W's IHIP is mailed.


W started taking drum lessons a few weeks ago.  He's always wanted to, but I couldn't figure out the practicality of it as we live in a small apartment.  But I just found out there are electronic drum sets that hardly make any noise - but sound like a full drum set when headphones are on!  He tried a set out at the music store, so we'll probably pick one up one of these days.  For now, he uses a drum pad to practice on.  His other interests lately revolve around current events, politics, health, fitness, art, playing the ukulele, Muay Thai, computer gaming, and all types of engineering (computer, mechanical, construction, environmental, etc. - I feel like this is the path he's meant to take, but we'll see).

We're going to continue with our Great Restaurant Adventure this year.  We still plan on getting to all 70 cuisines by the end of his senior year.  Also this year I'm going to try and get back into field trips.  Last year he really wasn't into going to same old places, so I plan on finding some cool things places to go this year all around NYC.

We have already started the new school year.  With my working full time, W does some light academic stuff on his own during the week - mainly the English workbooks, math review pages, and history readings. On my days off we spend a few hours on new math lessons, science reading, lab work, and more English and history. 

High school is a breeze so far.  W knows what he has to do to get into his colleges of choice, so he does it.  He makes goals and does what he needs to achieve them.  I truly believe that this kind of determination, independence, and maturity is what comes from 10 years of unschooling.  And yes, our unschooling has always included curriculum.  The kids prefer it, ask for it, help pick it out, and do it on their own terms.  No stress, no hassles.

Here's some of what he's using this year:

Life of Fred High School Language Arts Series (3 books done, 1 left)
Daily Paragraph Editing (still the best thing ever)
501 Reading Comprehension Questions, 5th ed. (we're trying a few new things for English) 
Painless Reading Comprehension, 3rd ed.
Vocabulary & Spelling Success in 20 Minutes a Day 
Math U See Geometry (he asked for something different and likes it so far)
Short Lessons in World History, 4th ed.  (quick and easy)
Apologia Biology, 2nd ed. with all labs (secularly)

Once again, I'm looking forward to a wonderful school year.  Watching W turn into this amazing adult (he's over 5'11" now!) is the most incredible thing.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was happy to find your blog. I am seriously considering home schooling my freshman who is very unhappy in an overcrowded school. I have never home schooled and was wondering if there is a way to reach you directly to ask a few specific questions about your exp homeschooling a high schooler in NYC. I will check back for a response. Thanks!

Angela said...

Hi! You can contact me via email if you like: nycitymomx3@aim.com

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much! I will email you this week. Look for something from a gmail account with the subject line about home school.

Unknown said...

Alleluia!!!!! Thank Gawwd!!!!! You're not lettn your precious, pragmatic, precocious kids be MissHandled by o'er-the-Hillary's P/S system.

If I may say something about wisdom and discernment, dear; gotta-mega-lotta knowledge on our blogs, girl, and in fact 97.79% wiseabove after reading'm according to CNN ...HeeHee

trustNjesus, dear,
and meet me Upstairs
for a Big-Ol beer...
gotta lotta tok about
celebrating our eternal resurrection.
God bless your indelible soul.

Homeschool Base said...

Haven't seen an update from you in a while! Was hoping you're doing well.