FINAL POST On SONset Academy: JJ's Senior Year 2020-2021

I'm sorry to say I didn't do any blogging for JJ's Senior Year. It was a strange year with the Pandemic and everything else that was going on, and I just didn't have it in me to blog. But, last weekend, we graduated our son from High School, so I want to at least give a quick review of his Senior year... 

First Day of Senior Year

First day of first W-2 job: Dairy Queen

 

Visiting the Welding Program at Community College

Video Production Class

PROM with a sweet young lady.

GRADUATION DAY!!

Inside the house before making the graduation walk, all the memories we shared over the years came flooding in at once. All the good times we had. All the hard times we had. I wouldn't change any of it, not even the hard times, for it was those moments that helped us to learn and grow. I truly cherish this son of mine, and am thankful my husband and I chose to spend these years teaching him (and also his sister) in our private home school.

It has been 16 years since I first began teaching back in 2005 and, since our youngest child has completed High School, I am now officially RETIRED as a full-time educator.

With that in mind, this will be my last post on this blog. Thank you for reading and for following along through the years. I will be leaving this blog up for those who want to read my curriculum reviews, or read about our adventures through the years. You are always welcome to contact me with any thoughts or questions you may have. 

What We Used for LANGUAGE ARTS in High School

For JJ's Language Arts in High School, we used a variety of curricula. Here is what worked best for us. 

FRESHMAN YEAR:

• Easy Grammar Plus for instruction in Grammar and Punctuation. 
• Sequential Spelling for, well... Spelling, of course. 
• Igniting Your Writing by Sandi Larsen for writing instruction. 

We did Grammar and Spelling Monday-Thursday, then focused on a writing lesson on Fridays. The schedule worked out well for us because it wasn't too overwhelming for my reluctant writer. The lessons in Igniting Your Writing are short, easy to follow, and easy to comprehend. They take you step by step through an assignment, and what I love is that it has 3 different difficulty levels to choose from for each lesson. You can choose to do the easiest level for a reluctant or new writer, or you can choose intermediate, or advanced. You can choose to do one, two, or all three assignments, depending on your interests and needs. It is geared for those who do not care about writing, and helps make things simple to do and more fun for them.

SOPHOMORE YEAR:

• Queen Homeschool Language Lessons for the Secondary Child - Vol. 2
• K12 Reader - Free printable Spelling curriculum for High School
• Freewriting on Fridays using the ideas from Bravewriter - Set the timer for 5-10 minutes, give a topic, and have him write non-stop until the timer dings. Even if they write, "I don't know what to write" ten times, let them do it. At least they are writing and, eventually, they will figure out something else to write. 
• Plus, for U.S. History, he was required to write a research paper, so we used "How to Write a Great Research Paper" by Book Builders as a guide.   

I purchased Igniting Your Writing II, and intended to use it, but it wasn't the best fit for us at that time. Volume I was great for us, but volume 2 we weren't ready for. 

 

JUNIOR YEAR:

• Instead of using Igniting Your Writing II, I found something we liked better for Writing Instruction - Jump In from Apologia. 
• 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know - A small book we used for Vocabulary

SENIOR YEAR:

• Movies As Literature - This is a complete, one-year high school English course that uses classic movies on video to introduce and study the elements of literary analysis. Student discussion and composition questions are provided for each of the 17 lessons.