9th Grade Curriculum

Chronologically, Mister should be entering 7th grade with his age peers. The fact that I’m writing about 9th grade curriculum just blows my mind. He’s never really stuck to the timeline, though. I mean, he was born at 35w5d, and has been ahead of schedule for SO many things. LOL.

Learning has been no exception to the rule. I taught him his ladder blends and vowel sounds when he was three, and he taught himself how to read. 😲 He completed kindergarten at age 4, decided he was done with school at age 5, then started 1st grade at age 6.

When we started the university model school, or hybrid homeschool, in 2016, I started him as a 4th grader. That advanced him one grade year because he’d already completed most of what their required curriculum was for 3rd grade. In 2019, we stayed home and did two co-ops and he did a mixed middle school curriculum, with some middle school level classes and some high school level classes.

9th GRADE CURRICULUM

I figure since he now has 4 high school credits (astronomy, earth science, American literature, and Algebra 1) under his belt, so I’m labeling him a 9th grader for school purposes. So… night grade curriculum it is. Even as I write this, I can’t wrap my head around the fact that we homeschooling high school. We didn’t start homeschooling with a plan to homeschool through high school. We’ve typically spend February and March praying about what we’ll do in the coming school year. This March, COVID hit, so I found myself researching 9th grade homeschool curriculum.

FAMILY CORE CURRICULUM

I mentioned in my 2nd grade curriculum posts that we’re using Gather Round Homeschool curriculum, along with the Year 1 Lifer Package, as our family core curriculum. I like the fact that we can do combined lessons that engage my 7yo and challenge my 12yo. And yes, he’s using the high school level student books.

So far, they’ve been challenging enough for him.

Our tentative unit schedule is something like this:

1. North American Birds – August
2. Asia – September
3. US Government Mini – October
4. Space – November
5. Christmas Mini – December
6. Europe – January
7. Oceans – February
8. Africa – March
9. Earth Science – April
10. North America + Indigenous Peoples – May
11. Human Body – June
12. South America – July

9th GRADE MATH

We’ve chosen to continue to use the Teaching Textbooks Online Math Curriculum curriculum. Mister completed Algebra 1 with an A average, so he’s currently taking Geometry. It is proving to be a little more challenging than Algebra was, which is great because he needs to be challenged. We’ll add videos from CTCMath or Khan Academy if he gets stuck on anything.

9th GRADE SCIENCE

As I mentioned in my 6th grade curriculum post, the Gather Round Year 1 curriculum has full unit studies on North American Birds, Space, Oceans, Earth Science, and Human Body. Since he’s already completed credits for high school level astronomy and Earth Science, he’ll receive 1 General Sciences credit for this year. We also have the Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum for Integrated Physics and Chemistry as well as Apologia’s Home School High School Chemistry that we can use if I feel like he’s not being challenged enough.

9th GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS

The GRH curriculum does cover language arts, with enough to qualify for 1 LA Credit for high school. We are combining it with an World Literature Book Club and study in order to be able to grant him a credit in World Lit. He completed American Literature last year.

His World Literature Book Club meets by Zoom every two weeks. A friend of mine is facilitating the group. She has a google classroom set up for it, as well, where she posts questions, prompts, etc.

World Literature

The books that we’re using for World Literature include the following:

[The Iliad: (the Stephen Mitchell Translation)] [Author: Homer] [August, 2012]The Count of Monte Cristo (Bantam Classics)Robinson CrusoeThe Screwtape LettersThe Scarlet PimpernelFrankensteinCrime and PunishmentThings Fall ApartBorn a Crime: Stories from a South African ChildhoodThe Good EarthSold

 

1. The Iliad by Homer
2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
3. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
4. The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis
5. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
6. Read a British Literature selection written by a FEMALE author (he’s currently leaning toward Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, but hasn’t settled on it)
7. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
8. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
9. Born a Crime by Trevor  Noah
10. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
11. Sold by Patricia McCormick
12. Short stories from South America
13. Choose a book from provided list (which is being compiled)

He initially started reading the Fitzgerald translation of the Iliad, but the names were all spelled differently, and it was making it more difficult for him to follow along in the Google classroom. We switched to the Stephen Mitchell tranlation of the Iliad and paired it this with a Homer’s Iliad Test Pack I purchased on TPT.

He’s actually finished The Iliad and started The Count of Monte Cristo.

Additional activities for World Lit will include things like any corresponding movies I can find, like these on Amazon Prime.

Great Greek Myths: The IliadThe Count Of Monte CristoRobinson CrusoeAffectionately Yours, ScrewtapeThe Scarlet PimpernelCrime and PunishmentMary Shelley’s Frankenstein

 

He will also use theYear Long Handwriting Practice Bundle from The Sprinkle Topped Teacher for both manuscript and cursive writing practice. And yes, I am having him do handwriting as a 9th grader. We teach to mastery, and he hasn’t mastered handwriting. #sigh

Year Long Handwriting Practice

 

9th GRADE READING BOOKS

He is reading some weighty books for the World Lit course, so any other reading will be free reading. Right now, his list includes all things written by Rick Riordan. He owns the Percy Jackson series, which he’s read multiple times. He’s checked the Heroes of Olympus books out from the library a few times, too. According to him, Rick Riordan books are “books that you simply must own.” So, we’ll work on building his collection.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Boxed SetThe Heroes of Olympus Paperback Boxed SetThe Trials of Apollo Boxed SetThe Kane Chronicles Collection Boxed SetMagnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard Boxed Set

 

9th GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES

Our family core curriculum covers quite a bit of social studies in the Connecting Continents units from the Year 1 package and the mini units from the Year 1 Lifer add on.

GRH AsiaGRH EuropeGRH AfricaGRH North AmericaGRH South AmericaGRH US GovernmentGRH Indigenous Peoples

 

We’re currently working our way through Asia.

9th GRADE ELECTIVES

Mister is actually taking the same exact electives as Sister, with a P.E. class, an art history class, and a social skills class at our co-op. We’ve added a Zoom Art Club for him, and will add a research project to round out his Art History credit.

9th Grade Credits

As I mentioned, the GRH student notebooks he is using do qualify as ni nth grade homeschool curriculum. According to the Gather Round Homeschool FAQ, completing the full year at the high school level earns:

• Language Arts – 1 Credit
• General Sciences – 1 credit
• History – 1/2 credit
• Social studies (humanities, government, social issues, etc.) – 1/2 credit
• Geography – 1/2 credit
• Art – 1/2 credit
• Bible – 1/2 credit

I’m still trying to determine what his transcript will look like, since this is his first official year of homeschool high school. As mentioned, I will likely lump the LA hours into the World Lit class. In general, a high school credit requires 120 hours. He reads fast. LOL. He’ll also have the Geometry credit, and his Art History class can count either toward high school art or American history. We may also add in more science. At the very least, he’ll earn 5.5 credits, and that’s not counting credit for any of the co-op stuff. That, combined with the 4 high school credits he already has, will be plenty to round out the Freshman year of homeschool.