Summary: Frugal homeschool high school curriculum. This post may included affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our homeschool. Please see my disclosure policy. This article has been read by over 2,000 people.
Are you starting to look around for new ideas for your high schooler for next year?
At BJ's Homeschool as you my know, we homeschooled from age 4 through high school. We used a variety of frugal homeschool high school curricula for our daughter, as I will be sharing below.
Each year we considered continuing on with favorites, adding in something new, and always working to keep things as frugal as possible to fit into our tight budget.
We have found each of the resources to be quality and good for any teen, wherever they are headed after graduation.
We have found each of the resources to be quality and good for any teen, wherever they are headed after graduation.
Planning
We explored around, as usual, choosing the textbooks, living books, and/or online courses that seemed to be a good fit for our teen. We worked to meet our teen's interests and along with her college entrance requirements. And we found that it wasn't hard to do, by making good use of electives.
My Teen's Interests
My daughter loved film making, gymnastics and political science. Fitting gymnastics in was easy. We just signed her up for that through our Parks Dept.
But we found out for her other two interests, that, if she wanted to study either of these in college, the college entrance requirements would be the same.
But we found out for her other two interests, that, if she wanted to study either of these in college, the college entrance requirements would be the same.
She needed to complete her requirements in the basic subjects (LA, social studies, math and science), for either path.
We still did not forget about her interests. They framed her electives.
First, I'd like to share two favorite resources that we have depended on each year.
Searching for your Curriculum
First, I'd like to share two favorite resources that we have depended on each year.
Searching for your Curriculum
1. - CURRICULUM RESOURCES at Homeschool.com
This curriculum directory for high school is the most complete one I have seen. I invite you to check it out.
2. - THE CURRICULUM CHOICE
This site is full of curriculum reviews, written by a team of authors (I am happy to be one) who have actually used the curriculum. It includes reviews of such curriculum as Tapestry of Grace, IEW for literature and writing, a number of Charlotte Mason options, and tons of other reviews.
This resource has many faith based curriculum reviews plus some secular options as well.
OUR CURRICULUM CHOICES
You know your teen best, and just because these were helpful for our daughter, doesn't mean that they are right for your teen.
1. SCIENCE
We found many options for science including Oak Meadow, Apologia, A Beka, Switch-On-Schoolhouse (SOS), etc.
We chose Switched-On-Schoolhouse (SOS), as we wanted a computer based program, and my daughter wanted to work independently. Plus it was all graded for me! We used them for:
Physical Science - 9th grade
Biology - 10th grade
Chemistry - 11th grade
Many families do two or three years of science. Most college just require two, Biology and Chemistry with labs, unless your student is heading to a science oriented major in college.
Then they would likely look for another as well. Amazon offers some used SOS curriculum here.
Other Science Options we considered:
2. MATH
We found that SOS met our daughter's needs for math. It had the structured and depth to help my daughter retain what she had learned. We used it for:
Prealgebra - 8th grade
Algebra 1- 9th grade
Geometry - 10th grade
Algebra 2 - 11th grade
We looked at LifePacs, Switch-On-Schoolhouse, Math-You-See,
A Beka, etc. We also considered Teaching Textbooks, but found that, for us, it did not provide enough depth for good retention. It's all about what fits your student.
Amy from Orison Orchards offers help in choosing your homeschool math curriculum, including Saxon Math Homeschool in her Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Math Curriculum Comparison Guide, where she shares her choices for best homeschool math curriculum.
A Beka, etc. We also considered Teaching Textbooks, but found that, for us, it did not provide enough depth for good retention. It's all about what fits your student.
Amy from Orison Orchards offers help in choosing your homeschool math curriculum, including Saxon Math Homeschool in her Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Math Curriculum Comparison Guide, where she shares her choices for best homeschool math curriculum.
Teens going into a computer, science, economics or math related field will need pre-cal in senior year, but I encourage you to check with the colleges, just in case there is another course required.
Others that we considered:
We check out The Curriculum Choice for a review of ALEKS, and No-Nonsense Algebra, Saxon, VideoText for Prealgebra, and more, all very strong.
3. ENGLISH
One option that many families do for English, is to create their own courses, and pick out the living literature yourself.
3. ENGLISH
One option that many families do for English, is to create their own courses, and pick out the living literature yourself.
Pairing that your own writing assignments, essays, etc can make up a complete English course for your teen.
OAK MEADOW ENGLISH
We decided to try and Oak Meadow, which offered a number of living literature courses, from 9th to 12th grade.
They offer used curricula for OM high school English here, called Oak Meadow Seconds.
Oak Meadow helped our daughter with her narrations! We liked how Oak Meadow offered tons of great questions for each piece of literature, which helped my daughter to write essays about what she read.
But Oak Meadow was not very frugal. Even the Oak Meadow Seconds were hard on our budget.
But Oak Meadow was not very frugal. Even the Oak Meadow Seconds were hard on our budget.
And we loved that it came as downloadable PDF high school curriculum, that worked just as well as Oak Meadow for high school English. And writing, too.
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With theses, she learned to write a variety of essays, and also do bibliographies for her research papers, plus literary analysis papers. too. It prepared her well for college English studies later on. All of the literature courses were paired with wonderful choices of living literature. And there were many courses to choose from! |
And it is made by homeschool moms themselves, who led a high school co-op for many years. I liked how it was much more frugally priced!
They offer many other high school
English courses, including:
- Literature and Composition Courses
- Literature guides to tons of books so that you can pick and choose and make your own course
- Essay writing courses at a variety of levels.
- World Literature and more.
To check out any of these frugal offerings, please click here and go to Literature Guides and English and Writing.
WRITING COURSES
Another popular choice for English is the Institute of Excellence in Writing, IEW, which offers a structured, step by step approach to composition. Go to here for a review of it.
For us, IEW was not a good fit, as we found it to be too formula based too rigid for our high schooler. We used the 7 Sister's writing programs instead. (Click this link then go to English and Writing)
They offer a variety of levels of writing instruction, including:
- Advanced
Plus Literature and Composition courses, at 3 different levels.
Each of these writing courses are full one year long courses which were used successfully in a well established college prep high school co-op, lead by 7 Sisters Homeschool.
Other options we considered:
We also looked at such programs as Hewitt Homeschooling: Lightning Literature & Composition and SOS and found them to be very strong.
For more information on what is required for High School English, click here - High School Writing Requirementss - an Authoritative Guide.
4. SOCIAL STUDIES
Social studies for high school can include a wide variety of subjects, such as World History, US History, Geography, Economics, Psychology, etc. Some colleges look for specifics in this, but our college let us choose from a variety of subjects.
Social studies for high school can include a wide variety of subjects, such as World History, US History, Geography, Economics, Psychology, etc. Some colleges look for specifics in this, but our college let us choose from a variety of subjects.
We decided to use Oak Meadow's history courses, and also some geography from the Rainbow Resource catalog.
We used Oak Meadow for: Civics - 9th grade, US History - 10th grade, World History - 11th grade.
We used Oak Meadow for: Civics - 9th grade, US History - 10th grade, World History - 11th grade.
Our colleges allowed us to do Psychology as one of my teen's social studies's requirements. In junior year we did Introduction to Psychology, a full year course from 7 Sisters. From a Christian perspective it covers the following topics in 15 chapters:
It counted as one of my daughter's social studies requirements for college entrance. (But check with your colleges, as that differs from college to college.)
-The brain and how it works
-Perception
-Genetics and Learning
-History of Psychology (Ancient to Modern Times
-Communication
-Personality & Theory
-Sleep/Dreams
-Abnormal psychology
-Psychological testing
and more.
It counted as one of my daughter's social studies requirements for college entrance. (But check with your colleges, as that differs from college to college.)
Other options we considered:
We also checked out SOS and Lifepacs, for social studies, all strong programs.
5. FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Most colleges require two years of the same foreign language for their incoming freshmen.
For Spanish 2, we went with the homeschool version of Rosetta Stone (RS) @ http://www.rosettastone.com.
I liked the homeschool version best because it included grammar, while the regular RS version did not. Also, our college choices preferred the homeschool version.
Other Options We Considered:
There are so many options for foreign language. Cathy Duffy has a number of reviews of foreign language curricula.
There are so many options for foreign language. Cathy Duffy has a number of reviews of foreign language curricula.
6. HIGH SCHOOL ELECTIVES
Electives were the most fun of all, for both my daughter and our family. They were all chosen by my daughter and included some of her friends from co-op in many of them.
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Career Exploration. Course |
Does your teen not yet know what they want to do in the future? Are they struggling with deciding on a career goal, or what to study in college?
It also prepares them by offering lessons in:
- writing resumes
- drafting cover letters
- learning how to interview for a job
Are you wanting a way to teach your teen critical thinking?
How about a course in philosophy?
7 Sisters offers a philosophy course was written by a homeschool graduate who has an Masters in Philosophy,
They have a bunch more homeschool high school electives in such courses as:
Acting and Directing
Fine Arts
Speech
Human Development
Financial Literacy and many more options.
Is your teen interested in Art? Here's a video based course in chalk art and it can be done independently by your teen.
Fine Arts
Speech
Human Development
Financial Literacy and many more options.
And they all earned high school credit! What is your teen passionate about?
Is your teen interested in Art? Here's a video based course in chalk art and it can be done independently by your teen.
7. ART and FINE ARTS
It's called A Simple Start in Chalk Pastels Video Art Course
Taught by a master artist, and offered by Tricia Hodges, mom of 5 who are all homeschooled. This is a full one year course in art using chalk pastels.
Taught by a master artist, and offered by Tricia Hodges, mom of 5 who are all homeschooled. This is a full one year course in art using chalk pastels.
Get your fine arts requirement done with this fun option if you like.
No need for a long list of supplies. J
What are your favorite homeschool high school curriculum choices for your teen?
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Create your own unique and nurturing high school program for your teen and help them get into college, if that is where they are headed.
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Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,
Betsy
Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school. She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, highschool,
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition, She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting, and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition, She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting, and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.
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