Looking for inspiration for the high school years of homeschooling? Here’s a rundown of our 11th grade curriculum choices and what’s in store for junior year.
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Before we jump into the plans for my son’s 11th grade year, I do want to mention that we’re doing a 5-year high school plan for him. We’re doing this for a few reasons, but this decision primarily stems from him being younger than most students at his grade level and his plans for dual enrollment beginning next year.
All that to say, you may notice some areas of our 11th grade homeschool lineup that may seem light and some that may appear to be too much. His career plans and specific college admissions requirements all factor into those lighter and more robust areas.
Our 11th Grade Curriculum Choices
There aren’t many changes happening with this 11th grade curriculum lineup, but we do have a few things that will look different from recent years. Here’s a look at what’s in store.
11th Grade Science
If there’s ever a good excuse to not finish science curriculum from the previous school year, it’s got to be a global pandemic. We’ve covered most of the sciences needed for my teen, but this year we’ll tackle the human body special studies we didn’t do last year and the new anatomy unit, both from Sabbath Mood Homeschool.
(Note that this anatomy unit is scheduled to be released soon. Since it’s not yet available for purchase, this science plan could change a bit if release date is significantly delayed.)
11th Grade History
It’s no secret that The Mystery of History is one of our top homeschool history picks, so we were pretty excited when we learned we could jump back into MOH again in high school.
Related: Our Review of The Mystery of History
My teen chose to revisit the Renaissance and Reformation volume, and, while the material itself won’t be new for him, in a lot of ways it will be The Mystery of History 2.0. That’s because he’ll be learning through online classes and lectures from MOH author Linda Lacour Hobar. We’ve always found MOH lessons to be conversational and discussion-provoking; I can only imagine how much more that will come into play while he’s working through this format next year.
Worth noting: the live classes are not currently offered and have been replaced by these class options.
11th Grade Math
As always, we’ll turn to Stanley Schmidt and Life of Fred for math. My kiddo will finish the Advanced Algebra book he’s currently working through and then move into Life of Fred Geometry.
11th Grade Language Arts
If our junior year plans for the previous subjects seem to be a little simple, language arts is where we get a little extra. Because my teen plans to be a creative writing major, this is where we beef up the coursework a good bit. This isn’t because we have to do this, but because he wants to do this.
For language arts, he’ll use a combination of Learning Language Arts Through Literature, WriteShop, and Brave Writer.
LLATL’s Gold Book will help from a literature perspective. Through this World Literature volume, we’ll cover the following:
- Early literature – Proverbs, myths, folktales, and more.
- Epic poetry – Beowulf, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid
- Medieval/Renaissance – The Thousand and One Nights, The Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote, and more.
- Enlightenment/Romanticism – The Pilgrim’s Progress, Gulliver’s Travels, Les Miserables, and more.
- 20th Century – The Little Prince and Cry the Beloved Country
- Poetry, composition, critical thinking and other skills.
As for writing, I’ll continue working through our WriteShop lessons with him and take breaks here and there for a few Brave Writer classes. My writer thinks of these month-long Brave Writer classes as intensives to work on specific skills he wants to strengthen. If we can get in before the classes fill up, he’ll take their Scriptwriting class along with one of the essay-focused classes.
11th Grade – Everything Else
Technology Education
We discovered MYTEK LAB last fall and my kiddo was hooked from the beginning. This year he’ll move on to TEKnology Lab Level 2 and will dig more into coding, web design, programming, and more.
Foreign Language
Though he was originally taking Spanish through our old co-op for foreign language, we decided to go a different route once attendance became tricky due to the pandemic. That’s where Mr. D Math’s American Sign Language Course came into the picture for us.
He’s still working through ASL I since he started it in early 2021, but he’ll move on to ASL II before the end of the year.
Arts and More
My teen is finished with all of the arts-related credits needed for graduation and college admissions, but he’ll keep working through the Art School courses available through our Masterpiece Society Studio membership at his own pace.
He’ll also spend time each week participating in Debate Club and Mock Trial with a local homeschool group.
And to round it all out, we’ll add a life skills and college/career preparation through a self-paced option like Mr. D Math’s College and Career Readiness course.
That’s all for our Charlotte Mason-inspired 11th grade homeschool plans. If you can offer tips about these resources or have questions about them, leave them for us in the comments below!
Lastly, take a look at the following posts if you’d like to see our curriculum choices for past years: