Summer Week 7 & Lesson Planning

It's been a jam-packed week for us, but again I took very few pictures. We've been enjoying fun events with a little bit of school work, even with our lingering colds .

Fun times:

• Half-birthday (14.5 already!?) with Grandma, including lunch and shopping.
• Lunch and ice cream with a friend and her mom
• Project Write - because it's more fun than work for Amber
• Lunches out, just Amber and me.
• Video games

Lunch with Grandma and two books she picked up (one from Grandma, and one from Mom)

 School lessons:

• Physical science - Amber really did not get far into this during the school year. We tended to put it off when we needed more time for another subject or a medical appointment. She is on track to finish it in just a couple of weeks now.  
• Medieval history - listening to Beric the Briton from Heirloom Audio Productions. This is a TOS Review Crew item, but Amber adores it just like all of the others. 

We still had ALL of Amber's regular therapies and appointments, plus her flute lesson which was a bit difficult considering she was still coughing quite a bit. However, she'd already had two weeks off from flute, so she attempted the lesson. It could have gone better; it could have gone worse.

Science, listening to Beric the Briton, and working on a Solar System puzzle.

I've been trying to be more diligent in planning school for Amber's upcoming ninth grade that starts in 2 weeks.  Somehow I thought I was more prepared than it turns out I really am.  I had vague ideas and even written ideas, but those do not firm lesson plans nor are they equivalent to having the school books in hand.

My poor Amazon account has been rather active this week while I acquired the needed books for Amber's mostly self-designed botany class and the plethora of books needed for Tapestry of Grace Year 3. Amber will be using the history, government and philosophy subjects from Tapestry, so I needed to buckle down and definitely decide which books I was purchasing, which books I am going to borrow from the library and which books, if any, we were going to skip.

I'm happy to say that I've printed everything needed from Tapestry of Grace (maps, assignment pages for Amber, etc), either received or ordered all of the Tapestry books, added the resources I really want Amber to include in history, received all of the botany books, organized my school book shelves, and even listed a few things on Amazon that we do not need.

This weekend I need to enter my school plans into Homeschool Tracker, devise a weekly schedule for Amber (I keep procrastinating because this is a bear of a job), and actually look at Amber's creative writing course. I have no clue what is involved in it on my end.  Wish me luck with it all this weekend

I don't foresee getting any lesson planning done next week, since Amber and I are over booked most days. Regular appointments and activities, all three cats need their annual checkups, haircuts, and our July Amber & Mom day.

Two weeks until High School officially starts! (meep!)

Happy Weekend!


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Transitioning to Homeschool High School

Over the past year, we've slowly been migrating Amber to high school level courses and came to where almost everything in eighth grade could earn high school credit.  It took me a while to realize that this slow progression was diminishing Amber's excitement over entering high school. Further discussions revealed she needed a distinct beginning to her high school years.

We decided to have a formal high school planning meeting, much like eighth graders in the public schools here do, where all of the specifics of her high school academic needs would be clearly detailed and plotted.

In order for Amber to feel she had as much control over her education as the public and private high school students, I spent time researching the course offerings at many local schools including my old high school. This research had the two-fold result of giving us new course ideas and helping me define the parameters / descriptions of Amber's core classes.

Our state does not have any specific high school graduation requirements for homeschoolers, which meant additional research on the public school requirements and the expectations of universities Amber is likely to attend. It took some time, but eventually I had a set of documents ready to present Amber at a formal sit-down discussion. I wanted her to understand every aspect of earning high school credit.

I truly thought this meeting would bore her, but she was excited and often checked on my research progress,  "Mom, did you want to have my high school meeting now? I have time and feel ready."  Once the day of the meeting came, I presented Amber with the general requirements for graduation and then specifics for the major she has indicated she would like to pursue. We also discussed what types of courses would ensure she is university ready for almost any degree field, should she change her mind during high school.

It turns out Amber had quite a few thoughts on her academic goals and was able to clearly communicate which goals she feels will be realistic and which will be a stretch. We even discussed how she wants to approach completing all of her goals, including the more difficult items. Amber wrote out, in her own hand, her course plan for the next 4 years and where each credit will go. She was ever so proud to be making her own choices.

Like many high school students, Amber didn't honestly have a wide array of choices to make given that she needs specific sets of credits for college. However, the process of selecting elective courses, history & science topics, and even how many math credits she will earn has given her ownership of her future. She knows what goals she wants to complete and why, instead of feeling like she is in an endless loop of continuous school lessons.

Our planning meeting helped Amber to feel that high school was a real change in her life. We created a tangible beginning to her high school education where she is an active participant in her life decisions.

Back to Normal?

Two appointments - that was it for this week! We had two regular appointments related to Amber's health, and it was a glorious Spring week spending more time at home.

Amber has been on Reglan for 8 days now and we haven't seen any crazy side effects, although she had a few minor ones last weekend which have evened out already. On the positive side, she's able to eat more consistently too. No, she can't eat like an average person still and needs smaller meals while watching the types of food. Meat still is difficult as is anything with fat. However, food goes in and digests. We are now working on a more balanced diet within her tolerances since she can digest a wider range of food.

All of this means we had time for an almost regular school schedule this week. After discussing how we want to proceed going forward knowing Amber will have two or three appointments each week, Amber and I have decided to leave the block scheduling behind at this point.

While she enjoyed the block scheduling when her school time was limited, Amber thinks she would prefer to return to shorter but more frequent lessons in each subject. It's certainly easier for me to manage that type of schedule, however the block scheduling got us through a very busy and rough portion of the school year. Although we've decided it is not how we went to conduct every school day, it is still an option for us in the future.

Assembling the rather large Ninjago set - Destiny's Bounty

We decided at nearly the last minute on Monday evening to set aside Tuesday of this week as our Amber and Mom day for April. When reviewing our schedule for the month, we noticed a lack of days available for our dedicated time and so made the quick decision to take our day off on Tuesday. I did have a blood test scheduled already that morning, but otherwise we went shopping, had lunch at a restaurant we've missed greatly, binge watched Ninjago together while Amber assembled her new Ninjago LEGO set, and relaxed.

Accomplished this week:

• Daily work on IEW Poetry and Memorization
• Lots of yearbook class homework - It's all due next Thursday, the 21st.
• Wrapped up discussion on two more Tapestry of Grace history units
• Daily math lessons (the days we had at home)
• John Adams biography work
• IEW Writing lessons
• Co-op: Yearbook, Art (2 hours), and Improv drama
• Greek and Roman Technology Great Courses video
• Flute lesson and practices 
• P.E. (PT and home exercises)
• Grammar placement test (we might switch curriculum)
• Started Memoria Press Traditional Logic (we're so excited!)

As we are nearing the end of eighth grade, I've been talking with Amber and working independently on possible high school courses for her to complete. Wednesday afternoon we had her much anticipated "High School Meeting."  While she has understood the concept of what she needs to complete high school, I thought she deserved a full explanation and chance to choose much like the kids in private or public school.

Since our state does not have any high school graduation requirements for homeschoolers, we went over what the state requires of public school students and specifically used my old high school as an example. It is still one of the best public schools in the state and they readily had the course guide online with class descriptions, suggested course selections for desired paths, and details of the graduation requirements. Many schools now have that information available only through parent portals, for which we do not have a password. It was actually blind luck that I found my old high school's information on a generic Google search.

Amber apparently had already put a great deal of thought into her high school courses and how she wants it to all work towards her college career. Her plan includes five more total credits than required to graduate. She thoughtfully considered all the topics I gave her as viable options in the various subjects and came up with what she thought would help her become a well-rounded and informed adult.  She has even chosen to complete four credits of science, while desiring to complete calculus as well.

Lunch out - she attempted a 5-cheese grilled cheese and fries. She ate 2/3 of half a sandwich and 5 fries. But at least she ate!
The goofy Milori in one of his regular homework positions. "Pet me. Pet me. Pet me. Pet me."
Rosetta being cute and little.

She will have a busy time in high school, however Amber stated her desire to work harder throughout high school than she has been in middle school. She also took care in planning a few of the more interesting or important classes earlier on to ensure they are completed if she runs out of time for everything on the schedule.

Our planning meeting was an absolute success and rather eye-opening for me. In the past Amber has not wanted to discuss her future much for fear it would not end how she desired, but now she is taking an active part in designing her high school years. Now it's up to me to implement the outline Amber created, which means I have my work cut out as well!

I'm going to try to clean up the outside landscaping this weekend and perhaps make decisions on new plants to fill some empty spots now that we might be past all of the freezes. Otherwise, it's regular chores, yearbook homework for Amber, and Doctor Who watching (Amber got us hooked on it a couple of weeks ago. I still like the 9th doctor best.)

Happy Weekend!

In case you missed these posts:

-{Review} Homeschool Copywork
-Wish List: High School Curriculum Options

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Wish List - High School Curriculum Choices

We are in the midst of formally preparing for Amber's high school years by planning out her courses and credits in detail. There has been a snag: she has found too many interesting topics and subjects to study in the amount of time available. I'm not sure how we are going to nail down her curriculum when we are struggling to narrow the courses themselves.

Still, we've been researching curriculum for potential courses, and have a huge wish list of items that's growing almost daily.  It's a good problem to have, but we are definitely suffering from a surfeit of excellent curriculum options.

We have made an honest effort to not put every last item she finds interesting on our list. Instead including only topics and curriculum we think will be of benefit while also possible to complete in the next four years.

Below is our current wish list of high school curriculum, excluding what we are already using or have purchased (which is a substantial list of its own). 

Language Arts:

One Year Adventure Novel  - Creative Writing. Something of a must, considering this is Amber's college goal.

Other Worlds - Creative Writing. This is module two of the  One Year Adventure Novel. Amber desperately wants this module since it focuses on science fiction and fantasy - her favorites.

Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) - Pretty much everything high school level. No, I'm not joking, and there isn't time for it all. In detail:

• SICC - B, Continuing from the SWI-B she is finishing next month
• SICC - C, eventually. Or maybe just level C themed writing.
• Windows to the World, literary analysis introduction
• The Elegant Essay
• Excellence in Literature -Introduction to Literature, Literature and Composition,  American, British, World Literature sets. (Some of these aren't available through IEW)
• Fix-it! Grammar, because it looks fun. But we already have a grammar curriculum in progress that we like.

Memoria Press Literature Guides: Shakespeare guides (minus Henry V, which she's already completed), the three British Poetry Anthologies. Plus the American Poetry guides we have, and the early British literature guides we have. 
(Yes, I know I listed literature under IEW; we're having serious trouble deciding on literature)

Writing with Sharon Watson Literature: Amber so loved the Illuminating Literature: When Worlds Collide, and is hoping there is another edition / year coming. (But seriously, we have to decide on which literature path to take at some point.)

Math & Science

Life of Fred Math: Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Statistics... the list continues. I don't think she will have enough time for anything past Calculus.

Science Shepherd Biology - Only for the genetics & creation sections. Amber isn't interested in a full year of biology.

Astronomy & Astrophysics (Six Day Science / Castalia House). Amber is rather interested in this one, but I'm not sure we will have time with all the other science topics, since this is a full year curriculum.

Intro to Meteorology and Astronomy, Amber is still very interested in meteorology, but I'm not sure it will make the final cut.

Plus all of the other curriculum on our detailed High School Science Options Page.

History / Government / Philosophy

Tapestry of Grace: Years 1, 3, & 4. We already own year 2 and we've completed it for the dialectic level.  The question here is how much of TOG do we want to complete? Just history? Or the literature, government and philosophy sections too. At least we know we will be doing IEW writing (we think).

Constitutional Literacy - Amber is rather interested in this DVD series, but we can just use government from Tapestry of Grace, plus some resources we already own. Oh, the dilemma.

Philosophy Adventure from Homeschool Adventure - Because we don't have any other options for philosophy, literature, or critical thinking. (Actually, we have two high school level critical thinking sets waiting already).

Electives

Life of Fred: Financial Choices. So far this is the front runner for personal finance in combinations with lessons already completed.

Homeschool Psych 2nd Edition. Amber still hasn't decided on her electives, but psychology has made the final cut. This one is on the wish list still.

***

Please visit our Blogging Through the Alphabet hosts to read more interesting A to Z topics!
Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm & Meg @ Adventures with Jude 

High School Science Options

Recently, we had an epiphany in regards to Amber's high school science courses given that her intended college path does not include any science related fields. Upon checking with multiple possible colleges, we decided Amber had the freedom to choose her science topics and did not need to follow the standard progression of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and advanced science. Although wonderful, this left us bewildered as to what her options might actually be.

We were looking for course options that interest Amber and of sufficient level to grant high school credit, while not being too difficult as to trigger her anxiety.  After what felt like eons of research, I came up with multiple options to present Amber. She has made some initial selections and indicated her potential future interest in others. There is no need to map every science course immediately, but it relieves some concern to know what directions we might take for science.

These are the options that made the final cut and were presented to Amber. All are worthy choices and she would have been happy with any, yet given the numerous items she was at liberty to narrow this list to her personal favorites.

Anatomy
(Amber has basically decided against anatomy in general, but not because of the curriculum offered. She's really only interested in a couple of topics so we will cover those individually.)

• Guest Hollow - High School Anatomy
  
• Crash Course - Anatomy and Physiology Videos
  (Mostly supplemental in nature)
• HelpTeaching.com
  (The majority of it is free and includes videos, worksheets, and tests at the high school level)

Astronomy

• Astronomy & Astrophysics (Six Day Science / Castalia House)
  (*This is the front runner right now)
• Intro to Meteorology and Astronomy
• Crash Course - Astronomy
  (*Supplement. We've already started)
• Alpha Omega Lifepac - Select Astronomy
• Signs & Seasons: Understanding the Elements of Classical Astronomy (with field manual)

Botany

• Guest Hollow - Middle School / High School Botany
  (*Front runner - We will leave out a lot of the supplemental reading, but lower it to 1/2 credit.)
• Ellen McHenry - Botany in 8 Lessons (Used in the Guest Hollow curriculum above)
• The Internet Science Room
• HelpTeaching.com
  (Supplemental)

Chemistry

• Guest Hollow - High School Chemistry in the Kitchen
  (*Front Runner - but we will basically use portions of all the chemistry resources listed here for a custom course)
• Crash Course - Chemistry
  (Supplement)
• Khan Academy - Chemistry
• HelpTeaching.com
  (The majority of it is free and includes videos, worksheets, and tests at the high school level)

Geology

• Alpha Omega Lifepac - Select Geology 
• Intro to Archaeology and Geology 
• HelpTeaching.com
  (Supplemental)

Meteorology
(Our current plan is to create our own 1/2 credit course using all of the resources below.)

• Intro to Meteorology and Astronomy 
  (Only the meteorology book)
• YoungMeteorologist.org
• WeatherBug backyard station

Overall Science

• Survey of Science History & Concepts

Although Amber has indicated her points of interest, I'm still actively researching in my available time. Who knows what I may find or what new products will become available prior to us starting a topic. If you want to keep up with my ongoing research, check my Science Options - High School Pinterest board for my most recent list of finds.

Letting Go and Moving Forward

When Amber was young I had expectations and hopes for her future that looked a lot like my own life: parochial school through high school (except I went to a highly rated public school), interests in science, piano lessons, and attendance at a highly respected science university.

Slowly over time I've come to realize that we've tried to raise Amber to be her own person and give her the opportunities to do this, but that philosophy did not match my mental path for her life. In order to allow Amber to be the person she wants to be, I've had to let go of my plans and allow her to guide us.

As you might expect, some of the expectations were easier to give up than others. After all, it was Fred and my decision to homeschool Amber when parochial school clearly became a less than ideal choice. She was more than happy when we presented the option, but we willingly made the change. Adjusting to Amber playing the flute after six years of piano lessons took a little more effort on my part, but I can't begrudge her that change.

Then a little over a year ago Amber announced her desire to work towards an English degree instead of science. She had tried to find a science field to suit her interests and abilities, but the truth of it is that science does not fit her personality while she adores all things language. Again, I felt I did pretty well in accepting and embracing this choice. It had been fairly clear for a while that science was merely a topic she found intriguing in a vaguely superficial way. After making her decision to not pursue a science degree, she was free to be interested in select topics without feeling the need to learn more for the future. 

Unless Amber can be healed of her dysautonomia she will need to go to a local university, however this wasn't a real issue for me. We live in a large metro area with a wide array of private and state universities, most of which are highly respected and rigorous. I was confident Amber could attend one of these universities even if she had to go as a part-time student due to the nature of her dysautonomia (and Ehlers Danlos).

As the time for the ACT and other preparatory testing has begun to approach, Amber is getting more stressed about her future. Timed tests are difficult for her and she will not be able to sit the length without pain. She will need to take medication during the test as it lasts longer than her medication. And she can't concentrate for that long even on a good day since the mental strain fatigues her whole body. This all means we will need to seek testing accommodations, which is not an easy process. Still, I've been researching those options.

Even testing at home is difficult.

Anxiety over college entrance exams has been weighing heavily on Amber and putting her body under additional stress. She can't even think about high school without worry. I had to find a way out of this for her, or she wasn't going to survive eighth grade, much less high school. 

After some searching, I found one local private university that no longer requires either the ACT or SAT. Amber was overjoyed to hear this, but its English program is geared toward those seeking to continue into an advanced education degree. There is an even closer private university in our county that has the perfect English program for Amber, but unfortunately still requires the ACT for incoming first time college students while not for transfer students. 

The answer to our dilemma turned out to be easy if I could let go of my preconceived plan for Amber and chart a path for the amazing child I have, not for a carbon copy of myself. 

Her own path: Crash Course Government

The university with the program better suited to Amber also has a great relationship with our county's community college. They work cooperatively to allow students to take their first two years at the community college and still transfer all credits to the university. There is even a program already in place between the two schools mapping the courses for the degree Amber wants to seek. Best of all, the ACT is optional for the community college which instead provides an alternate un-timed test that can be taken by topic sections in the campus testing facility any day the school is open - no appointments needed. These alternative tests are also not entrance exams, but merely placement tests for a few key subjects to ensure the student is college ready. 

Her own path: Project based high school (sometimes).

For the first time Amber is getting excited about going to college some day. We have a plan that suits her physical abilities instead of mimicking my educational choices. It also gives us more freedom in how we complete her high school credits. IF Amber feels up to the ACT in the coming few years, she may still take the test to ensure doors are not closed that she regrets later. However we aren't going to force the issue if her body can't handle the anxiety. 

This process of letting go has not only allowed Amber to envision her own future, but brought me to a greater appreciation for Amber's many talents and to see how uniquely gifted she truly is.

***

Please visit our Blogging Through the Alphabet hosts to read more interesting A to Z topics!
Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm & Meg @ Adventures with Jude 

Birthday Celebration Week

It's been a hectic and exciting week here. We agreed this year there would be only one day taken off of school for Amber's birthday celebration - her actual birthday. We did plan to make the day after her birthday our January "Amber and Mom day" to allow Amber the time to recover. Our plans almost worked out.

Monday started out a little slower than we wanted and Amber was still very symptomatic with dizzy spells, exhaustion, and very low cognitive function. She did manage a few lessons before physical therapy. First off she was able to complete a single math lesson in Life of Fred Algebra 2, but past that her abilities were much more limited. It's like it took everything she had to do the one lesson. Still she was able to read a small amount of history, and advance through the preparatory lessons in literature before beginning Peter Pan. Later in the day she also worked on her art assignments for the co-op art class and finished the yearbook assignment.

Ready for her epic birthday adventure.

Her physical therapist worked her while taking it easy on the upright exercises since he could see she wasn't doing well. It doesn't look like Amber will be dropping to every other week therapy any time soon. Amber pushed through the session and never complained. Her therapist and I did need to get her attention several times though because her mind wandered off and she's gone.

An orthotics specialist (who is also a PT) also came to Amber's PT session to look at her feet and fit her for shoe inserts. It was determined to only treat her falling arches at this time. There was some consideration of trying to help correct Amber's walking gait with the orthotics, but it has been determined her difficulties come from weaknesses and problems with her hip joints. Now we just wait on the inserts to be made.

Annual birthday celebration at Texas Roadhouse (at our usual Saturday lunch). More LEGO Dimensions, and birthday card making for a friend.

Tuesday was Amber's 14th birthday and it was a frigid day here. I had an "epic birthday adventure" all set up that caters to Amber's varying abilities. First though, we had to stop at Junior Achievement to pick up our Finance Park curriculum. Amber will be going to their Finance Park simulation in February, but lessons are required in advance.

We then started Amber's birthday riddle hunt. She was given riddles and had to guess where it described. Each was a fun location and mostly all inside a single mall, which allowed her to stay out of the cold and rest whenever necessary. I was careful to watch Amber for signs of fatigue since just about any of the stops could be skipped and she would have never known.

The first stop was Barnes and Noble outside of the mall where Amber was given a gift card to shop. Next we met Grandma at Chilli's for lunch, again just outside the mall. The remainder of the stops were all inside though: she had her nails done, went for a glass of tea at Teavana (and some to take home too), the Clinique counter for a new eye shadow color, picking out a new comfortable athletic shirt (she loves Nike and Under Armour shirts), and a snack.  Amber was tiring by the last one and chose to have her snack at the bakery where we would be picking up her birthday cake. 

Her first riddle and stop. Then lunch and presents with Grandma.

It was a fun day with just enough exertion and it made Amber very happy. She still hasn't stopped talking about the excitement of having to solve each riddle first. 

Wednesday we ended up not having our "Amber and Mom day", but instead a make-up party with Amber's friends. The joint birthday for Amber and her friend who is moving to Kenya was supposed to happen last Saturday, however the host of the party and her entire family came down with a stomach bug. The party was then moved to Wednesday.  The girls had a blast even if it was a little bittersweet.

Amber received many lovely gifts from her friends, but one item of note was a Lilla Rose hair clip. Amber had not heard of them before, but instantly recognized it as what her friend wears all the time. I had read many reviews online about Lilla Rose, but honestly never believed the reviews nor thought it would work for Amber. Many hair clips claim they work well, and none have ever held Amber's hair. 

Another riddle, nails, and Teavana

She has unbelievably thick and heavy hair that looks deceptively normal until you actually touch it. Many people have been surprised by the amount of hair she actually has. Her hair is also stick straight with fine individual strands. The texture is so very smooth just like mine that most hair clips slip right through our hair. So Wednesday night I grudgingly tried the Lilla Rose clip on Amber's hair because she wanted to wear it to co-op on Thursday. To my utter amazement it held her hair without issue. Who knew? Amber wore her hair with the front pulled back and it didn't slide all day Thursday.  I foresee more of these clips in Amber's future and fewer rubber bands.

More riddles to make her giggle and confuse, her reward for solving, and the end. Leaving by the glass elevator.

Today we are taking our "Amber and Mom day" as a recovery from the busy week. We might have managed lessons if co-op hadn't been yesterday and used up the remainder of our energy. It's good to have a rest day for Amber to recharge for the rest of the month. We have several new topics planned:

• Amber and I will be working through the Junior Achievement Finance Park curriculum
• We are beginning Amber's civics course with the new Home School in the Woods U.S. Elections  (look for a review next month)
• Amber is starting real life cooking lessons, as opposed to baking and fancy one-off dishes
• Lastly, Amber has a new physical exercise plan we are trying to implement.

I'm heavy into altering / detailing plans for the rest of high school. We've been mapping out possible locations for Amber to attend college and how that affects her high school needs. We've also decided to unit study / piece together many of her credits over several years instead of using full semesters or years of a single curriculum. For example: the JA Finance Park with be part of her Personal Finance credit and the U.S. Elections will be part of her civics credit. She may not finish either one of those credits until years from now, but she is getting a start this semester.

Oh so much cake!
And a little worn out today, but wearing her new shirt from the epic birthday adventure!

We're also looking into our options for science. Amber wants to know about the natural world and scientific information, but is struggling with science as a formal subject. Apologia is mostly working for Physical Science, but suspect it will be too much soon. This is such a mind opening experience for me to search out alternative options. Hopefully, I'll have a good list soon and can share some of our ideas.

Happy Weekend!

This week on the blog:

Our Kitties (Blogging Through the Alphabet - K)
Eighth Grade (HS Year 1) Update

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{Review} The Ultimate Homeschool Planner

Organization is a major key to successful homeschool days for many families.  It is especially important if, like us, you have even one child with medical concerns. Personally, I'm a list maker and extreme organizer who is lost without my calendar. Recently, I began using The Ultimate Homeschool Planner (Yellow Cover) from Apologia Educational Ministries.

I wasn't expecting such a lovely and full planner. It's a large, spiral bound book that comes in a variety of pocketed vinyl covers. The Ultimate Homeschool Planner is designed especially for homeschooling families and includes a wealth of features to make our school years and days run smoother.

The first section of the planner contains:

• An full school year calendar display for the school years 2015/2016 through 2022/2023.
• A front page to document the current school year and students.
• A quick one year planning grid.
• Student goal setter for both character and academic goals.
• Detailed instructions on how to use this planning system, which includes specifics for weekly, monthly, and yearly school planning. The full color pages with example graphics make this section a particularly valuable asset.

 The pre-planning guide section continues with:

• A page to document family priorities before deciding on the details of your school year.
• Several pages of blank resource lists to complete for each of your students.

Planning:
The book of the pages in The Ultimate Homeschool Planner are dedicated to two types of calendars / planning pages. The monthly planners are a two page, at-a-glance style calendar with room to write in each day, while the entire month is visible at once.  The month headings and day numbers are blank, making each of these month planners usable no matter which month you begin using the planner. Each month also has room for notes at the bottom of either page along with inspirational and Bible quotes. There are enough monthly planning pages for an entire calendar year.

The weekly planning pages are where the lesson details for each student can be recorded. Every week of the year has a four page spread that starts will a full page for "The Lord's Day".  This page includes a quote plus room to enter a Bible plan for the week, a Battle Plan (fighter verse), Prayers, and Hospitality / Outreach.  The second page of the weekly planner is divided into two sections: one for the week's Memoriable Moments & Achievements, the other to record evidence of grace. This last section can be especially helpful during difficult weeks when you need to focus on positive aspects.

Resource list and front page.

The final two pages are a six by six set of lined blocks or squares for use in planning. The rows and columns are not labeled so they can be used in a multitude of ways. For example, you can structure it with each of you students listed across the top and their subjects down the side, which allows each block to be the weekly lessons in that subject for each student. If you have only one child, like us, you can again put the subjects down the side and use the top six columns for the days Monday thru Saturday. These detailed planning pages also have room for notes, supplies needed (perhaps for experiments or special projects), and appointments. 

After Planning:
After the year's worth of weekly planning pages are a couple of sheets where you can record student grades, reading lists, field trips, and activities.  It's the little details like these pages that complete the planner and make it easy to store all your homeschooling related information in one place.

The back of the planner also contains

• Valuable teaching tips to help understand learning styles and thinking styles.   
• A high school planning guide to help map out high school courses and credits. The empty high school planning grid is accompanied with a sample schedule for a competitive merit scholarship candidate. This guide even has summer planning and college admission testing.
• A couple of pages to summarize the progress of your students in a year-end review.

How I Used the Planner:
I've never been the type to use paper school planners. I might make a few handwritten notes when initially planning courses for the year, but almost everything I do is in our electronic tracking software. After years of planning this way, a paper weekly planner is not something that fits either my or Amber's style.

However, the Apologia Ultimate Homeschool Planner offers so much more than daily lesson planning. I used the high school mapping section to clearly lay out Amber's high school courses in one easy to find location. Reading through the planning and teaching tips sections was quite enjoyable and gave me some great ideas as well as reminders.

Weekly planning, and high school planning!

I also found the Resource List invaluable in documenting all of our online educational sources. Often I forget about free resources that come with our curriculum and even sometimes some of our paid subscriptions. This list has definitely made it easier to locate all of our available educational materials, including the physical products I forgot were on the shelves.

Lastly, I did end up using the weekly planning pages, but not for our school lesson plans. As I mentioned earlier, I am a list maker. These pages are the perfect place to document my daily and weekly to-do lists as well as adding my meal plans for each day, Amber's food trials and subsequent reactions. I know it wasn't exactly the intended purpose of those pages, but it has kept me even more organized than normal and I've got all of our other school information along with our daily lists. I seriously am in love with the entire planner for the extra organization it has helped me achieve.

If you are a paper school planner, then The Ultimate Homeschool Planner has everything you could ever want to keep your homeschool organized. Even for those of us who don't use daily paper planners, there is extraordinary value in this planner.

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High School Planning for Chronically Ill Children - Scheduling

This final post in High School Planning for Chronically Ill Children comes after discussing how to define a credit hour and then selecting which credits will be needed for your child.  After going through the process for our daughter, I realized it might possibly take her five years to complete what the average high school student can easily complete in four years.

After some thought and a lot of calming breaths, it dawned on me that Amber could be a five year high school student without tacking the fifth year onto the end. We could just begin early, which will allow Amber to still graduate with her friends. However, I've always wanted 8th grade to be Amber's last relaxing year. If we treat 8th grade as partial high school, which is allowed in our state, then Amber could start earning credits in courses that were technically high school level material while easing into the more rigorous aspects of high school.  This plan will hopefully give her the extra time needed.

Now that we had a better idea of how to achieve all the hours, the nitty gritty planning of courses still remained. In order to receive the full benefit of Amber's 8th grade year, we must map out the courses for each year of high school, instead of randomly throwing high school level studies her way.  Knowing the curriculum to be used isn't necessary at this point, but knowing what specific topics we need to complete per year is paramount to graduating by the end of 12th grade.

In our state a student may start earning high school credit in 7th grade, provided the class is of high school level. This caveat gave me a place to begin plotting out courses.  Looking back at Amber's 7th grade, she took Algebra 1 and completed half of German 1, which are both considered high school level content and thus qualifying for early high school credit.  I decided to use Algebra 1 as the math starting location.

Amber will need four credits of math, but additionally, if she can't test out of college level math she will also need to take at least one math class in college.  With her current level of brain fog, that could be disastrous. This leaves us with two math options. Firstly, we can count Algebra 1 as a credit and then accumulate the remaining three credits from Algebra 2, Geometry, and Trigonometry, which gives her five years to complete three math credits.  However, our ideal schedule would be option 2 where we add a Calculus class to give Amber a chance to AP or CLEP test out of college math.  Knowing that she has options for this most stressful of subjects gives us hope.

Amber enjoys science, but similarly to math finds it difficult during some of her more sickly days.  We had intended for her to reach an advanced science in 12th grade by starting Physical Science in 8th grade.  However, since Physical Science is considered high school level, we can use it for science credit number one.  Amber will then progress through Biology, Chemistry and Physics, all of which are considered laboratory classes.  This schedule sets her up to complete four credits of science in five years.  As a bonus, since all of the classes are considered laboratory science, we do have the option of exchanging Physics for a slightly less difficult course when the time comes.

The last of the tricky subjects is German. Amber will basically need a minor in a foreign language for an English degree in college.  She will also need a minimum of two foreign language credits for college admittance.  While it isn't necessary, we'd like to help her along with the university level minor by completing as many foreign language credits in high school as possible. It simply feels wrong to push everything off until her college years and hope for the best then.  We have a good start on Foreign Language, because Amber already earned a half credit of German in 7th grade. If she can earn another half credit in 8th grade, that leaves us four years to earn the required remaining one credit.  It also gives us four years to complete as much German as time allows.  Our goal will be five total credits, but we will be content with three.

The problem subjects of Physical Education and Practical Arts will most probably be achieved through four to five years of homeschool co-op classes, physical therapy and home exercises.  Amber takes enrichment classes through our co-op with the topics varying each semester. A single semester enrichment class will not be enough hours to earn her a half credit.  I've decided to not stress about this for now and assume we will cover Practical Arts through a mixture of co-op classes over the next five years. I expect the most difficult aspect of this plan to be documenting diverse classes taken over longer periods of time as one course.

The remaining subjects do not pose as much of a difficulty for Amber and will be evenly distributed across the last four high school years. Most likely, we will float some of the smaller credit needs, like Government and Personal Finance, around until it feels like a good semester or year. Perhaps even leaving them until the end of high school in the hopes that Amber will have already completed the majority of her math and science. However, if an opportunity arises to take one of those topics at the co-op, especially Personal Finance, we will probably utilize that class.

I've written out our tentative course schedule for Amber and even started filling in ideas for curriculum.  More importantly, I'm working on the scope of each course to ensure that whatever curriculum we select fits our needs and not the other way around.  I'm sure this will be an on going process and the scope of several classes may change as Amber changes.

Mostly though, I am fantastically relieved to now have a plan in place that makes it possible for my chronically ill girl to complete a college preparatory course in high school.  We had not intended to plan out Amber's high school years so far in advance, but our initial preparations made it clear a detailed plan would be necessary in order for her to stay on track. I most certainly did not plan my own high school years so carefully, yet still managed to attend and graduate from college.  However, life with a chronic illness changes all the rules.

High School Planning for Chronically Ill Children - Selecting Credits

Welcome to the second post in a series on planning high school for chronically ill children.  The previous post covered how I ended up with our definition of a credit hour and my subsequent panic over how Amber would actually be able to earn the needed credits each year. 

While our state has no laws on what is needed for homeschool students to be considered graduated, many homeschoolers use the public school as a guideline or place to start.  I also checked the admissions policies of several local universities.  If Amber were to meet the state's public school requirements for a "college preparatory" certificate in addition to the diploma requirements, she would have no trouble being admitted to any of the universities.

But is admittance all we want? Knowing, at this point, that Amber intends to seek a degree in English, I also checked the recommendations from those specific departments and degree programs.  They had additional suggestions for high school courses that would be wise to have taken in advance of attending college.  This is the exact information we needed to create a better high school plan.

After tallying up all the requirements for a state issued diploma and college preparatory certificate, plus the recommendations from the universities, we had the following subject credits:

• 4 credits of Science (at least one must be laboratory)
• 4 credits of Mathematics
• 4 credits of History (1 must be American history)
• 1/2 credit of Government / Civics
• 4 credits of Language Arts
• 4-5 credits of Foreign Language
• 1 credit of Fine Arts
• 1/2 credit of Practical Arts
• 1/2 credit of Personal Finance
• 1/2 credit of Health
• 1 credit of Physical Education

This is just a minimum too. Amber could potentially do more in the Language Arts area to put her further ahead.  She could also drop down to fewer credits of Foreign Language, but all the universities she is considering basically require a Foreign Language minor for the English degree.  She will be better prepared for that requirement with a full 6 years (7th - 12th) of German.

These numbers definitely caused me to panic just a little more. During the elementary and middle school years our core subject hour requirements were all lumped together and the division of hours didn't matter.  For high school Amber will need over 650 core hours a year dispersed very specifically among the subjects, which is where our problem lies. Remember our very skewed 7th grade hours? 

After calming down a bit, I realized we had yet another concern: exactly how do we pick topics to earn these credits. Yes, our state recommends some topics for a few of the subjects, but many others are subjective.  Mentally checking off the credits, I decided Fine arts will not be an issue because of Amber's music. Unfortunately, in my credit break down I've already taken the easy option provided by our state and put Personal Finance under Practical Arts, instead of in Social Sciences or as an elective.  Even with that inclusion, I have no clue what other Practical Arts she could possibly earn.  Not to mention Physical Education.  The child is exercise intolerant and on a specific regimen that may let her achieve an entire credit over 4 years.  Maybe. It really depends on how many sick days she has.

I seriously began considering that we might have to expect right from the start on Amber being a five year high school student.  It's alright if that happens due to her illnesses, but to know from the very beginning it's going to take five years would make Amber feel defeated. Still, how are we going to earn all the need hours in the myriad of subjects within four years?

The final post will talk about how we plan to help Amber graduate with all the needed courses by the end of her 12th grade year. 

High School Planning for Chronically Ill Children - Defining Credit Hours

Planning to homeschool high school can be a daunting task for anyone and everyone has circumstances that make their family and child unique. As Amber neared the end of 7th grade, I began to research in earnest for high school. I found that a majority of the resources assumed I would be homeschooling a unique, yet healthy, child with reasonably equal capabilities each day.

Honestly, how could I expect generic resources to know my child's ability when it fluctuates so wildly that we don't even always know what it will be from hour to hour. Even though I felt like I was without guidance, it actually left me free to be creative and forge our own high school path.

My philosophy is that we can adapt almost any educational experience to fit with Amber's physical / medical needs if we simply understand the end goal and requirements. That's where the initial problem came in. Until recently, we didn't have an end goal or know all the necessary information.  I made the choice to start my planning at the beginning by exploring the foundation of high school - credit hours.

Early in my research I realized some experienced people in our homeschool group had unfortunately misunderstood a state law and then published within the group, as fact, that our state defines a high school academic credit as 100 hours. This is actually not true. It defines a statutory credit as 100 hours, not an academic credit. The statutory credits are used to determine when compulsory education has been fulfilled. There is even documentation stating that the 100 hour statutory credits should not be used toward graduation or on transcripts.  Thankfully, I'm a "get it from the source" type of person.  While seasoned homeschoolers are a wealth of information and support, sometimes you need to do the leg work yourself.

So what really is an academic credit? I did a weeks of reading to finally decide we would use 150 hours for all classes excepting laboratory science, and those we will target 180 hours.  These numbers are significantly higher than a Carnegie credit, which is 120 hours of face time with the teacher. Our state quantifies, for the public schools, that a credit is granted for a course that meets for 130.5 hours (7830 minutes).  None of these definitions address the concept of homework or assignments outside of the classroom, which are expected to be part of the course.

In my research, I found that many homeschoolers, and even HSLDA, recommend a range of 120 to 180 hours of work to equal a credit.  Clearly our state recommendations are on the lower end of this.  My final decision was based on the idea that it is better to do more than not enough.  Striving for 150 hours per credit gives us leeway if Amber has difficulty and we can drop back to the 130 hours per credit used in our public schools. Though, I would definitely feel more secure using the 150 hours.  I believe it gives Amber the best possible chance at any university she would like to attend.

After making the decision on how to define a credit hour, I did the calculations for all the needed credits. Despite Amber being able to successfully complete the state required 600 core subject hours each previous year, I had significant concerns with the hours needed for high school. Looking back at the division of Amber's core hours for 7th grade, it's a bit scary. 210 hours language arts, 190 hours history, 90 hours math, 80 hours science. 50 hours foreign language. Oops.  This is a bit skewed.

While I'm hopeful we can get more math and science in per year, if motivated, it's going to be hard to achieve 150 hours or even 130 hours with Amber's current frequency of symptomatic days. There are frankly times she can't process the meaning of written words.  It's like her brain just doesn't know what to do. We use videos for a few subjects on those days to help keep learning going.  However I'm not sure how much actually gets through and math rarely is successful on her "sick" days.

The next post in this series will talk about which credits we discovered are needed and how we plan to ensure all the requirements are met, even with Amber's numerous less-than-healthy days.

Feeling Accomplished

This has been a productive week in several aspects. Amber started out still feeling great and accomplished many lessons and even all of her assigned chores on the correct day.  She did wear down over the week and is now back to feeling pretty puny. We aren't sure if it's the storms that rolled in and are here sporadically for the next week, or if it's the slow weaning her from all medications in preparation for Mayo. I personally think it's the storms; she did the same thing with the last round of bad weather. 

Despite feeling less chipper yesterday and not being able to get out of bed yet today, Amber will probably finish up the last of her required school hours today. However, she's not finished with all of her assignments for the school year yet, but the final core hours needed will hopefully be recorded today. Every year we give a little sigh of relief when all the hours are officially completed. 

You can really see the difference between Tuesday and Thursday above.  But she was still diligent in her school work.

Amber also started her private confirmation lessons at church on Monday. Evening lessons with her class were too rough on Amber. She was exhausted before the class began, had trouble understanding and focusing, and felt awful the next day. She didn't make half the classes of the last module and had to make those up individually. This time we arranged for her to take the module individually during her good part of the day. It went as well as expected.  I'm not sure if we will continue this way for 8th grade or not. Amber still goes to Sunday school with her class and some of the social activities. She just can't handle the evening lessons, or the evening sports related social activities. 

Math went splendidly again this week. Life of Fred is really working for Amber. She also supplemented it a little with two items we are reviewing: one is online and one is a physical book. I think we like the online supplelement with LOF best. Amazingly, Amber willingly did more math than assigned every day this week. She might yet finish algebra 1 before the summer is over.

Amber continues with a huge emphasis on language arts and history and is nearly finished with her research report, I think. That alone is a huge accomplishment.  I checked her log for this year and she has something like 190 hours of language arts, and nearly equal hours of history.  Science and math are pathetic and under 100 hours each.  But honestly, if I told that child her entire school work was reading and writing she'd be happy.  She pushes each day just a littler farther if the next subject is language related. 

We saw the Avengers: Age of Ultron on Sunday.  We really liked it, but Captain America: Winter Soldier still might have been better.  I'm bummed that Thor 3 is a 2017 release though. At least the next Captain America is 2016.

Sadly, yesterday I put our Rush concert tickets up on Stub Hub. These were supposed to be my birthday present and are awesome seats, however I'm not sure about taking Amber anymore. Fred says I still have a Pollyanne-ish attitude toward Amber's condition.  She went to the last Rush concert in 2012 and I thought she could do it this time, but she wasn't sick then either. It's Rush's last large scale tour, and I've been to a concert on every one of their tours since the early 1990's. I guess if the tickets don't sell we will try to go anyway.  I'm very very concerned about the after affects on Amber and honestly she won't last the entire concert. I suppose we could go and just leave early. The tour starts today, which means there is not even a set list published yet. 

Yesterday, I finished a rough plan for Amber's high school years and am definitely glad I started on that early. She will need a couple credits in eighth grade to provide a buffer year for math and science. Technically on the plan she isn't scheduled for either subject in 12th grade, but given the problems we've had the last two years with brain fog and those subjects, I expect she will be pushing it to finish 4 credits of each even with a buffer year.

New foods this week:  We made "cheez-its" from thin slices of cheddar cheese.  They really do taste like the crackers. But we store them in the fridge since the only ingredient is cheese.  And... Amber and I tried First Watch on Thursday.  We used to love it there.  Apparently, that entire plate of food is safe for us both.  Who knew.  Lastly, the silverware wrapper from First Watch.  It cracked Amber up because I say that almost every single day.

Amber has officially, for the moment, decided on pursuing an English degree with an emphasis in writing. With two parents in science and math, Amber is definitely proving to be her own person and choosing her own path.  She excels in understanding math and science concepts, however they don't make her happy. I'm proud Amber had the courage to step away from our choices and select what makes her happy.  The current high school plan reflects her interest and the requirements local universities have for such a degree. 

Thankfully, Amber started German in seventh grade, as pretty much all the local and viable English programs also require the equivalent of a foreign language minor.  Perhaps we can have the majority of that work completed prior to graduating high school.

She even did school work in the car between clothes shopping locations.  Also a trip to the eye doctor (no sign of vascular problems, yay!).  And Amber climbed that entire flight of stairs on Tuesday without a problem.  By Friday she couldn't walk from one room to the next.  I hate dysautonomia.

On the blog this week I talked about our favorite gluten free and fructose friendly products.  These aren't recipes, but products that save my sanity.  Check it out if you are interested in a gluten free diet.

This weekend is pretty low key for us, I think.  We will see my mom one day.  Fred's mom now lives out of town, so we will just talk to her.  It's supposed to rain here all weekend and it might be nice to simply relax and not worry about "doing" things for a few days. 

Happy Weekend and Happy Mother's Day!

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