Our 9th Grade Curriculum for 2012-13 School Year

First off, let me state what will become obvious: I spent a lot of money on curriculum this year. I've been hoarding gift money and spent all of it on curriculum. I am chronically tired and I really wanted my hand held this year as I navigated our first year dealing with high school. So, we went with Winter Promise "Quest for the Ancient World." We are using their history curriculum, as well as their Language Arts, which includes some writing, grammar, and novels that tie into what is being studied in History. 

Here are a list of the core books for Senior High: (copied from the Winter Promise website:

http://www.winterpromise.net/product_info.php?cPath=21_38&products_id=1260&osCsid=a04e76d6cecfd1c891d6aa66c77b7b94)

The Mystery of History - 2nd edition
Encyclopedia of the Ancient World
Great Ancient China Projects
Holman Bible Atlas
Archaeology for Kids
Unwrapping the Pharaohs & DVD
Story of the World, Vol. 1
The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone
Ancient Greek Challenges
Ancient Roman Challenges
Tools of the Ancient Greeks
Tools of the Ancient Romans
Augustus Caesar's World

I am excited to be using Mystery of History!

Here are the novels he will be reading:

Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt
The Golden Goblet
Victory on the Walls
The Iliad
Bronze Bow
Gladiator
Hittite Warrior
God King
Adara
The Odyssey

In addition, he will read these novels for La. Arts:

Mara, Daughter of the Nile; Shadow Hawk; Hadassah; Archimedes & the Door of Science; D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths; Galen & the Gateway to Medicine; The Ides of April; Beyond the Desert Gate; Ben Hur

In addition to history, reading the novels, and grammar, he will also be reading from this:

For Math, he will finish up Math-U-See Algebra 1 (the last 9 weeks to be exact; Math was a struggle last year and we detoured a lot.)

After he finishes this, we will move on to Life of Fred Geometry:

For Vocabulary, he is beginning SAT prep. We are using this book because he is a visual learner:

He has to do two words per day. He has to copy the words into a notebook along with the definition and a "hook" (either a picture or a phrase based on the info in the book).

He has additional Bible work each day, and will work through this book: (The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study)

A special thanks to this website, which I will use as a reference for lesson plans for this book:

http://homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/bible-lesson-plans/

He will do Spanish twice per week; he will continue with Rosetta Homeschool Spanish.

For the other two days (we do a 4-day week due to co-op), he will do an art appreciation class for this workbox. I got my lesson plans from here:

http://harmonyfinearts.com/section/rhetoric/

It uses these books:

Another of his workboxes is Music Appreciation. I am using the free curriculum also found on harmonyfinearts.com. Here are the main resources:

For Science, he is using Apologia Biology.

I buy the curriculum from My Father's World so I can use their lesson plans, which are already typed up and bound so I just include that in his box. He also will be doing interactive notebooking and lapbooking with science. I want it all to be in a big 3-ring binder, so instead of using a regular notebook, I am printing off pages that look like this:

from this website: http://www.printablepaper.net/

It is lined paper that runs the long way instead of the short way. I will fold each piece in half and then open it up so it is divided into a clear left and right side. On the right side, he will take notes. On the left, he will apply the information in a creative way. I've given him a list of things to choose from, some of which are ask ?s, draw a picture, create a chart or mini-book, or do a chart/graph to help remember the material. Usually this is done in a spiral notebook (search for "interactive notebooking" online), but this way, I can punch holes in it and include it in his Biology binder so everything is together. Later in September, some other moms and I are going to try to start a Biology co-op so we can do the labs together. 

I am using lapbooks from http://liveandlearnpress.com.

He will also be doing some spelling. We will do a combination of All About Spelling and the suggested words in Winter Promise. 

I think that is everything! Here's hoping for a good first year of homeschool high school!!