Welcome back! I hope that my recent posts have helped you in some way or were useful for you to guide new homeschool families or those who just don’t understand Pennsylvania’s home education law. Remember that if you are a returning home educating family in PA you need to have your notarized affidavit and generic academic objectives submitted by AUGUST 1st. That’s coming up. Your affidavit can contain all the names and ages of your children that you are opting to home educate. You will however need an objectives list for each, unless this is contained into your affidavit (I’ve seen this before, but it’s now how I do it, I send an attachment). Also note that many families are opting for the unsworn declaration in lieu of the notarized affidavit. I have examples of both of these forms here. If you are new to home educating in this state, you’ve come to the right place. Please have a look around my blog, but start with reading the actual law text. Then read my articles if you want more information or tips/advice. My blog is a work in progress. I’m always trying to make things easier for you to find what you are looking for. I provide a lot of resources for you and this information is all for free. Remember I’m not a lawyer, I’m a home educating parent just like you. This is my 7th year. I have just graduated my first teenager and I have one teenager to go. Homeschooling high school is not hard. It’s actually not different than the elementary years. In fact, I find it easier. I think I’ve enjoyed home educating more than my children…as in, I have enjoyed everything I’ve learned from their curriculum, and what I learned about my own children and finding ways to make learning fun.
Onward to curriculum choices for the 2023/2024 school year and what would be my 16 year old’s 11th grade year. If she wanted to she could take extra credits and graduate this year, but we are going along as would her peers. I say this every year, but I’m excited about what we picked out for her to study this year. Okay, maybe not very excited about her math course, but it’s…math. I will list what we’ve chosen for her and at a later date I hope to provide a review of how it works out, or doesn’t. I hope these posts I make on their curriculum are somewhat helpful. There are so many choices and I struggle every year with picking an English curriculum, but I manage to find something that works, even if it’s not very interesting. I don’t get paid to talk about any curriculum I’ve used, so everything on my blog is solely my honest opinion.
Math – My daughter already completed Alg 1, Geometry and half a year of Alg 2 with no interest and at this point no need to go further into those higher maths, like pre-calculus, in which my son did take because it will help in his college degree program (computer science). So, we chose Consumer Math (or personal finance which my son also did in 12th grade). For my son, I pieced it together, but for my daughter as it is her stand alone math course, I chose Bob Jones Consumer Math set, though I did consider AOP’s Lifepac set. This will be her 3rd and final required year of math, however, re-enforcement of these concepts is likely into her 12th grade year.
Science – This one I am excited about, and I hope it’s good. Master Books Introduction to Forensic Science is what my daughter agreed to take this year. This will be her 3rd year of science and she does not need to take another to graduate unless she chooses to, which is probable.
History – We are opting not to do history this year, she will complete her 3rd year for graduation requirements next year.
English – The toughest subject for me to pick curriculum. This year we went back to Christian Liberty Press’s Applications of Grammar, book 5. They have done another book from this publisher in the past and it works well enough to teach concepts and gets them writing. Because I don’t like to just focus on grammar and writing, I also added another literature course. I went with Memoria Press Poetry and Short Stories. These are actually 2 standalone 1-year courses. I’m undecided if I will count this as 2 English credits or 1 because it depends how quickly she moves them. Together they surely will fill a year.
Bible – This is a required subject in my homeschool program. This is considered an elective (arts/humanities) in the requirements to graduate. We are a Christian family and as such Christian education is a requirement. She will begin the year with Master Books Foundations In Faith, teaching doctrine. It’s a full year course.
Music – Overlapping Bible and to fulfill her music requirement for the home education law for secondary school, she is taking a music course. I wanted to teach her how to play the Ukulele, since I play, and that still may happen, but I got Master Books Foundations in Worship for her to learn from this year. This is a study of hymns, faith, biblical concepts and music appreciation. It can couple easily with my wanting to teach her the ukulele as I primarily play worship songs and can hopefully learn some of the songs from this course.
Culinary Arts – Switching gears from interior design to her first interest and that’s cooking and baking. This year the approach is going to be on technique, the artistry of cooking and the science behind it and flavoring foods. She has 2 books thus far to read for this course, The Science of Cooking and The Science of Spice. Of course, there will be labs for her to put into practice what she is learning. The bonus for me is, I might not need to make dinner for an entire school year!
P.E. – This one is easy. In the past we have always just done exercise (or learned to play a sport) at home in a variety of ways, but we have recently joined a gym and strive to go 3 days a week.
I am also hoping that this fall she will take and pass her drivers permit test and we can than begin driver training in preparation to take her drivers skills test to get her license. This totally counts on her transcript, by the way.
That’s the plan for this next school year. Books have been bought. I am missing one that ended up being backordered and I need to get a digital copy of a book to go along with the Foundations of Faith book, but otherwise I’m just waiting to begin again. In the meantime, my daughter is working 3 to 4 days a week and continuing to go to church and youth group, reading her Bible on her own, and going to the gym with her old mom. I submitted my paperwork well over a month ago. I never heard anything from the school district, yet. In fact, they didn’t even send me my return receipt. This is the 2nd year in 7 that I didn’t get it. My tracking information says it was delivered, so I am moving forward until/unless I hear something from them.
Enjoy the rest of the summer!