1st 6 Weeks of 9th Grade

Hannah and I have made it through her first 6 weeks of freshman year. She is doing Core 100 – American History with Language Arts. She is doing Apologia Physical Science and Math U See Algebra. The science and math programs are new to us so we had to work out a good schedule for them. I also needed to make up some grade sheets for each class so we can assign grades and fill out a transcript at the end of each semester. And we set a tentative plan for graduation to get all the correct credits. Whew! We are settling into a good rhythm and she is doing well in all her classes.

We are finishing up our study of The Story with our church so that has dominated our family devotions. Hannah has a devotional called Bible Study Sampler and another theological book called Why Pray? that she is working through. She still has a weekly memorization passage and had some memory work for her volleyball team. Awesome!

In history/social studies, Hannah is at the beginning of US History. Ginny is also doing this time period and because Benjamin is in the middle of world history they are all overlapping and I’m having a hard time remembering who has done what. Hopefully they will stretch out a little bit and it will be easier for me to keep straight. Hannah has her own student guide and schedule this year. It helps her know all the things she needs to get done by the end of the week and she is doing well figuring out her own schedule around other activities.

Hannah will be working through a series called A History of US this year. So far she has read through the first two books along with a couple of articles and a book called Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution. During this unit she also read Before Columbus, The Landing of the Pilgrims, and started Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold. Hannah has been tasked with trying to watch a daily news short and still has a current events report once a week. We also still do a timeline activity at the end of each week and her timeline is getting busy.

In language she is being given more latitude in scheduling her creative assignments. She is given the prompt on Monday and it is due at the end of the week. We have discussed a good schedule for finishing and have done fairly well, but she is definitely learning how to manage her own time and the consequences when she doesn’t. She is still doing spelling with Sequential Spelling Book 6 and vocabulary with Wordly Wise 3000 Book 9. She has two ‘extra’ books that are scheduled sporadically; a Latin study called Vocabulary with Classic Roots and Analogies I which will help her with her SAT testing.

Hannah’s reading books have included Peace Child, Stink Alley, Amos Fortune: Free Man, and The Children of the Longhouse. She also reads selections from A Treasury of Poetry for Young People each week.

Science is Apologia Physical Science. It has a text and a student notebook. I like the way it is laid out to help her learn how to take notes as she reads. It gives her a study guide before each test and is walking her through experiments as well as how to write good lab reports.

Hannah’s math text is Math U See Algebra I. It has a collection of lectures that she watches online followed by a set of lessons, and then a test along with an ‘honors’ assignment that can be used for extra credit. It is mastery based and we have always used a spiral approach but so far, she is doing well.

Hannah has decided that her main extracurricular will be volleyball (at least this year). She just finished her freshman season with Liberty, a homeschool team, and has been accepted onto a regional club team called Legends that will start up in November. She is still a little timid but had some great hits, blocks, and digs that get us excited. The other thing that takes up a lot of her personal time is she is our church’s worship leader. She picks the songs for the week and leads practice. She does a great job and we are very thankful for her help in this area. She babysits once a week for a cute little one-year-old and does a little bit of piano lessons for friends along with karate. We have a lot of fun at Connections and church with events and activities. It sounds like a lot, but she still manages to drive her car around on the land and take Sam for walks. We also had a couple visits from family and a trip to the beach and NASA this unit. Yay!