I am currently busy planning for the twins senior year, (I am ignoring the sadder implications of this) and have been buying and planning for their electives. Most of our main curriculum choices are set but I have been twiddling with the electives. I am not including foreign language, science, english, math, history or Bible in this post. Since I am in electives mode, I thought I would share some of our favorites.
Freshman Year
Intermediate Music Theory – (1) My kids had 7 years of piano and/or guitar lessons but I wanted to make sure they had a thorough grounding in theory and I needed a good fine arts credit on their transcript. I thought this was a great on-line class. It was small, but it gave my kids the training they needed while also providing them an opportunity to work with classroom deadlines, tests, homework and a teacher other than me. There is also a Beginner class but mine were past that with their previous music education.
Traditional Logic I – (1) We did the Logic from MFW in 7th and 8th grade and then choose to add a more formal Logic in 9th. This was a little dry, but it gave my kids the background in Logic that I wanted. We were reviewing these formal logic fallacies just this week to prepare for the SAT Writing Portion and doing some of the logic in math. I like my kids to really be trained to think critically.
Sophomore Year
AP Psychology -(1) Sonlight has really developed some great new electives, and this is no exception. It taught everything needed for the AP exam (my kids both passed) but from a Christian perspective. This was a doable first AP course but it did take a lot of time and energy on their part. (Remember Honors and AP courses are weighted differently. An ‘A’ is worth 5 points not 4 etc)
Junior Year
Beginning Java – (.5) – Collin was originally going to make this into AP Comp Sci A but the high school we take APs through wasn’t offering this test year so, we made it into a semester elective and will take the test next year. CodeAcademy is a great tool. We did pay the $20 a month from Aug – December in order for him to do all the lessons and projects and have help available.
Artistic Pursuits II – (1) This is another elective through Sonlight. Caileigh loves art and we wanted to give her the time and credit to pursue it. She has previously gone through book 1 of the High School series but I didn’t give her high school credit for it.
Senior Year
I am still working on this next year but I have found this new elective –
AP Computer Science A – (1) – Sonlight just came out with this elective from CompuScholar that will teach Java and prep for the AP test. It’s an online subscription, but it is considerably cheaper to add an extra student on after paying for the first. (Score! I have twins!) It is the same price through Sonlight or through CompuScholar, but I got it from Sonlight when their electives were on sale so it cost me $25 less than CompuScholar. If you have bought previous Cores from Sonlight, Sonlight should also cost you less, but I would look at the deals. They also have courses for elementary, middle school and other high school courses.
