I have a high schooler! I'm not going to lie, it made me a little anxious this year. Peter has to earn credits. We can't just say, oh well, we are going to drop that and switch to something new. I mean, we can if we really have to, but he does need to earn a certain amount of credits.
After I did a ton of research, we had a working lunch date in May of last year where I presented his options, answered his questions, and hammered out his first year of high school plans. And, although we did have to make some changes to our plans, everything has worked out very well.
Probably, the hardest part was that he had more hours of work per day than he was used to, but he adjusted to it and has grown up quite a bit this year. Here is a run down of his 9th grade coursework and credits.
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Math
1 credit Precalculus
.5 credit Intermediate Number Theory
Math has been Peter's passion since age 4 and that hasn't changed yet. He spent 4 weeks last summer at MathPath, a residential summer program for high performing middle schoolers. This was his second summer attending MathPath and he received a full scholarship to cover his tuition and travel. Peter has loved his time at MathPath and we are so grateful to this organization for its programming and its financial support.
Peter decided to study AoPS Precalculus on his own using the textbook [$37.49 on Thriftbooks and $10.49 for solutions manual] and by working to master each ALCUMUS topic (AoPS math learning system) [Free]. A motivator for studying precalculus this year was to enable him to be more competitive in applying to high school math summer programs.
In the spring, after he had some more room in his schedule, he decided to enroll in the AoPS class Intermediate Number Theory [$400]. He is very interested in number theory so adding this class was fun for him and I think it felt good to have a subject that was easier for him to excel in.
Science
1 credit AP Physics 1
AP Physics 1
Initially, we thought Peter might try to study AP Physics 1 & 2 in the same year and take both AP exams. I was able to go through the College Board's AP Course audit and adopt this approved textbook for our homeschool course.
I signed Peter up for a self-paced AP Physics 1 prep program [$325] and purchased a $100 lab kit to accompany the program.
We quickly realized that this course was a lot! Peter was adjusting to a higher course load than middle school and he wasn't finding physics that easy so we decided to stick to AP Physics 1 and instead add a programming course as well.
And while the Physics Prep class was very robust and the labs were well laid out and thoughtful, Peter was not learning the content well from this course. My husband and I were having to figure out what he wasn't understanding and then going back over the material and he found it frustrating.
Sigh. I was kind of freaked out about that I was going to fail him in preparing for his first AP exam. Then I saw that his much loved AoPS offered an AP Physics 1 class that started in October and ran until a few weeks before the AP exam. And I dropped another $690 on that. Ouch.
But the AoPS class has been great. He already knew and liked this format of class and it kept him on the tight pacing schedule he needed. He still did the Physics Prep labs and he will take the AP exam on May 16 at our local public school. To help with review, I purchased the Barron's AP Physics 1 review book [$23.84]. He takes the AP exam on May 16.
Introduction to Programming and Computer Science
Peter used Carnegie Mellon's free Computer Science curriculum to take this introductory course designed for 8th or 9th graders. It has been a great first class and he has enjoyed it much more than a double dose of physics.
English
1 credit English 9
We used semester 1 of UC Scout's English 9 course [$29 for the basic teacher course, this version is unavailable after June 30, 2025]. It was ok, but I felt there was too much busy work and not enough reading, writing, and analysis. There were also typos and other annoying course choices that Peter did not appreciate. So after finishing the first semester, we transitioned to a home brewed course with much more writing, discussion, and analysis. Overall we used the following materials.
Books and Plays:
- The Odyssey
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
- Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare
Short Stories:
- The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst
- Rules of the Game by Amy Tan
- The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
- All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
- The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
I purchased a study for To Kill a Mockingbird [$12.77 with coupon] and used these free materials for Into the Wild.
While I would not want to create a course from absolute scratch, adapting materials from unit studies made by others worked very well and I plan to design his English 10 course myself for next year.
Social Studies
Peter is very interested in history. After taking the History of the United States I: Early Colonization to 1877 CLEP exam last year, I wanted him to have a challenging and interesting course for high school. This course through ASU's Universal Learner program allowed him to earn college credit through a self-paced class that has "grade protection." The course costs $25 to take and if you want to transcript it when it is done, you can pay another $400.
There were website problems when Peter added this course so we did not have to pay the initial $25 fee (along with everyone else who happened to add courses during the website update). He enjoyed the content and worked hard on the course earning an A. We choose to transcript the course for $400.
Foreign Language
1 credit German 1
We have dabbled in German language as a family, using several Talkbox.mom boxes and Peter had studied a little German on his own using Rocket Languages [free from the library] and Rosetta Stone [free from Brown University because my husband is a Brown alum].
He didn't love the idea of studying a foreign language in high school but I was able to convince him that it is a college expectation that he will study foreign language for a minimum of 2 years.
And while I have spent a LOT more money on his first year of high school than I ever had spent on homeschool before, I'm still trying to keep costs down and keep homeschool flexible, so I opted to have him self study German 1 using UC Scout [$58 for both semester 1 and 2 basic teacher course, no longer available after June 30, 2025] plus a local tutor [$15 for 30 min x 8=$120].
Finding a tutor was much harder than I thought it would be. It took months even though I live in a college town with another university 20 minutes down the road. However, Peter is good at memorization and has a good ear for languages so he did well on his own in the beginning.
That being said, I don't think this method is going to work as well going forward. If I'm going to have my kids study a foreign language, I want it to be a robust course. So I have already signed Peter up for an online German 2 class that meets 1 time per week for next year.
Electives
1 credit Physical Education / Health
I started with the idea that Peter would want to earn 1 credit in each of the core subjects of Math, Science, English, Foreign Language, and Social Studies, plus another 1-2 credits of electives per year.
Knowing that he was going to have a challenging program including a difficult precalculus course, an AP course, and a dual enrollment course, I wanted him to have something more self-paced and interesting. To earn this credit, he logged 75 hours of various forms of exercise and read and discussed the following health related books:
- I Am Joe’s Body by J.D. Ratcliff [$12.59 on Thriftbooks]
- The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code by Sam Kean [Library]
- It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris [already owned $1 book sale find]
- The Social Skills Guidebook by Chris MacLeod MSW [$14.89 on Thriftbooks]
- How Not to Die by Jan Garavaglia [free with Thriftbooks credit]
Everything Else
Peter again participated in a local homeschool envirothon team which involved monthly meetings, preparing and presenting several slide presentations, studying enviromental topics, and many interesting field trips. His team competed in the regional competition and earned 4th place overall out of 43 teams. Because the first place team was the other team from our homeschool group, his team was only 2nd place in our county and he won't be advancing to states this year. But his team did place first overall in current events so they each won a nice hammock!
He participated in a homeschool math team I organized to help my kids and their friends to prepare to compete in local math competitions. He took the AMC 10 exam, improving his score significantly over last year, and he competed in 4 high school math competition at local universities and 1 online competition. He spent a significant amount of time preparing applications for high school summer math programs which didn't work out for him this year so his summer plans are still to be determined.
Also, I took all my kids on a 2.5 week road trip in September throughout Michigan and the upper peninsula. We camped on or near Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior and stayed at a hotel next to Lake Huron. We saw waterfalls and traveled through the American and Canadian locks at Soo locks. We visited museums, took a shipwreck boat tour, ate ice cream, and visited Sleeping Bear Dunes and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshores.
Finally, he did some volunteering at our local library and doing trail work with the Keystone Trails Association. He also cooked dinner for our family every other week and provided lots of help with covering short gaps in childcare or making it possible for my husband and I to attend local trivia nights or grab a coffee together.
Thoughts on Cost
I spent $2,234.07 on Peter's first year of high school courses. I feel anxious to see such a high number because I am frugal by nature and long practice. And I haven't yet paid the public school for his AP exam, which I think will be another $90+. The majority of this money was for math ($447.98), physics ($1138.84!) and his dual enrollment history course ($400).
I know it is possible to homeschool for less. He didn't HAVE to take the number theory course or do a college dual enrollment course for history. If I had known that the physics prep course wasn't a good fit, I could have saved $325, but I would have had to spend more time planning experiments. I feel so conflicted about the cost because it seems extravagant.
But he had an amazing year of learning. His coursework was quite challenging but attainable. If he does well on his AP exam, he will potentially earn 3 college credits and he earned 3 college credits from his dual enrollment class. Peter's extracurricular activities are inexpensive as well. His envirothon participation and his math competitions total less than $50 for the year so I want to spend money giving him the academic challenge that he thrives on.
Next year, I will again work to design several low cost classes for the subjects that I can. But, I plan to spend more money overall paying for excellent courses in the areas that I feel less able to inspire or challenge him in (AP exams, German, and any dual enrollment). We value experiences and education and we continue to make frugal choices, especially on big ticket items, to spend more money where we value it most.
I also save money by reusing previously purchased materials for my younger kids. This year for comparison, I spent less than $75 each on 1st grade and 4th grade materials, and about $142 for my 7th grader. I am also carefully saving lab kits and lab instructions and hopefully that will also help keep our high school costs down next time high school rolls around. I also hope that Peter will be able to access local free or low-cost dual enrollment in his junior and senior year to help with costs.
This was a year of tremendous academic growth for Peter. I'm so excited to continue to see where his interests and efforts will lead him.
Wow! That's all I can say. Wow! What a fabulous year for your boy! You really are an amazing educator/facilitator for your children.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It is more nerve-wracking at the beginning of the year but when you write it all up at the end it turns into a beautiful picture of learning every year. And I feel that when I follow along with you as well.
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