Abandon Hopefully
Catholic Humanities-Centered Homeschooling
(for parents of college-bound high-schoolers and others)
Catholic Humanities-Centered Homeschooling
(for parents of college-bound high-schoolers and others)
Why "Abandon Hopefully?"
In my all-girls' high school, I was lucky enough to encounter one of those magical teachers of the sort they don't seem to make any more: master of many languages, font of etymological knowledge, the kind of teacher who could, and did, at any given time in his long career, teach English, Humanities, Bible, French, or Greek -- and in his spare time, play the male lead in any school play that needed a male lead.
Above his classroom door, he had posted a sign, a takeoff on the notice above the entrance to Hell in Dante's Inferno, which reads, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."
The sign above the classroom door?
Abandon hopefully . . .
Mr. Frey, you showed me how to be educated. This is for you.
Thanks for visiting us here at Abandon Hopefully, home to a developing Catholic humanities curriculum for homeschooled high-school students. Our aim is to provide you with resources for a rich, challenging, mind-expanding, college-preparatory course of study, integrating history, literature, and faith, as inexpensively as possible.
If you enjoy your visit, please consider tweeting us
or liking us on Facebook.
Thanks!
Breaking News!
At work on Grade 9 lesson plans!
At this writing, I'm one eighteen-week semester into a 36-week school year plan for ancient and classical history and literature (plus I'm listing everything else my son will be doing). I'm scheduling coursework using the reading list on the Grade 9 page, plus more readings and resources as I find I want to build them into the course. Watch our progress here; I'll also add a lesson-plan link to the Grade 9 page. If you have a rising ninth grader or would like to use our Ancient-World course next year, stay tuned!
Meanwhile, it should be pretty clear to all that this site has been operating on Mama Time. That is to say, I've been living homeschool plans instead of writing them. In our house we're in the second semester of grades eight, three, and two, which right now means that I have one child ordering e. coli through the mail so he can grow it in petri dishes for grins and giggles, while another child struggles with cursive writing, and another still doesn't want to read to herself. Life in all its splendors, right?
This seems a good time to assess what's been working in our house this year, as well as to lay out some plans for the future. So here goes . . .
What's Working:
Grade 8:
The One-Year Adventure Novel
After a semester, I really can't recommend this program enough. It seems like the perfect transition from the nuts-and-bolts "here's how you write a sentence/paragraph" of the later elementary/early middle-school years to the more formal, extended, and analytical writing which would characterize a strong high-school education. You could use it later on, but for my current eighth-grader it's a perfect fit -- he has the basic writing skills by now and needs the motivation to strrrrrrettttccccch out in a more sustained project. He's enjoying it, and I'm enjoying the fact that it's completely self-teaching; I glance at his workbook from time to time to make sure he's understood what he's being asked to do from exercise to exercise, but otherwise I just let him have at it.
It's also a great foundation for literary analysis. My eighth-grader has just finished Great Expectations, for example, and I'll be asking him to evaluate Pip in terms of the adventure-novel hero, and/or the novel as an adventure novel. (see my actual discussion question here) The heroic ideal is a theme we trace throughout Western literature, so to begin thinking about it now is good amendment for our mental soil for next year, when we take on The Iliad.
Saxon Algebra
I know, I know. There are the people who love Saxon and the people who don't, and we have been both. As it happens, this particular child actively loves Saxon and credits the Algebra 1/2 course he did last year for his love for math. Moral: never assume that because something is apparently deadly repetitious (to, for example, a certain species of maternal non-math-loving brain) it's necessarily a joy-killer.
We have used the Art Reed instructional DVDs with great success, and algebra, like pre-algebra, has been almost completely a self-teaching affair. The eighth-grader begins his day with algebra and spends, on average, two hours working at it, which seems about right: roughly the amount of time you'd spend in class plus doing the homework. He takes the weekly tests and has maintained an average of 98 -- obviously the maternal non-math-loving-brain genes didn't get passed down to him. This is all good news for a kid who'd like to move into college math classes while still in high school, as prep for something like West Point.
Deutsche Interaktiv
We found this gem via the HomeschoolCollegeUSA website, devoted to free online access to preparation for CLEP tests. The student moves at his own pace through units which include both grammar and conversational components, with tests. Our aim is to have our son ultimately take the CLEP in German, while counting his years of study as German I, German II, and so on. My husband is a German speaker, so the eighth-grader does get some additional practice as Dad has time.
The Baldwin Project
We've used this site extensively this year for all grades. The eighth-grader has been reading his way through various histories -- The Story of Russia, The Story of China, The Story of Japan, etc -- to cover areas of the world which we hadn't already touched in previous history/geography courses. Obviously, because these are public-domain books which date from the turn of the last century, the histories miss a hundred years of fairly important events; the eighth-grader has done a good bit of independent twentieth-century research to fill those gaps, as well as following current events worldwide. Quaint and outdated though they may seem, the books he's been reading via The Baldwin Project have provided him with some useful historical background presented in a readable literary format.
UPCOMING:
Well, we'll be getting a jump-start on biology once this e. coli arrives in its little test-tube packaging from HomeScienceTools. I confess that I've largely lost track of what the eighth-grader is doing for science -- last I saw, he was reading Alvin and Virginia Silverstein's The Code of Life. This is an easy read and a nice introduction to DNA. At any rate, because my eighth-grader is actively interested in science, particularly biology, I've mostly let him continue with it as a hobby this year, reading and researching on his own. Now he wants to do some hands-on experiments -- the bacteria, for a start -- which I'll count as part of next year's formal biology course.
So that's the eighth-grader, whose work is probably of more interest to readers here than is my younger kids' work. I know that for my own part, I think of middle school, particularly grades seven and eight, as serious high-school prep. Whatever skills and concepts you can solidify in these years, whatever foundation of knowledge you can lay, will help immeasurably in high school, if for no other reason than that you can move on to bigger, better, and more interesting things without having to go over the same remedial ground to make way for them.
This is why, incidentally, I'm a proponent of reasonably formal math in the early grades. I'm not a big fan of super-early formal learning in general -- no three-year-old readers in my house, as it's turned out -- but on the other hand, I've also seen the knock-on effect of not taking sequential learning seriously early enough. We spend a LOT of time on math these days, in second and third grades, with the idea of learning to enjoy it for its own sake (which means, in part, that we have to develop facility and confidence in it), but with the idea also that algebra will be a heck of a lot easier if we've laid the proper foundation.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time at this site on my elementary kids (you can check out our planning blog here), except to say that we've ended up doing a simplified version of what I'd planned, particularly in terms of independent reading, and that the piece of their program which I'm really excited about is math.
We do MEP math as a spine for conceptual learning; we also use the arithmetic video playlist and practice exercises at KhanAcademy.org to hone our basic grade-level skills. We also play math games at CoolMath.com and maintain a subscription to IXL math. Our MO thus far has been to do four to five MEP lessons a week (mostly just the practice pages, with selected exercises from the scripted lesson plans), with one to two sessions of KhanAcademy or some other more skills-based online practice.
We've also been working on writing and spelling via copywork and sentence-writing, grammar by reading the delightful Grammar-land, and history, science, geography, etc, via the "Combined-School" reading as outlined on our blog.
If you enjoy your visit, please consider tweeting us
or liking us on Facebook.
Thanks!
Breaking News!
At work on Grade 9 lesson plans!
At this writing, I'm one eighteen-week semester into a 36-week school year plan for ancient and classical history and literature (plus I'm listing everything else my son will be doing). I'm scheduling coursework using the reading list on the Grade 9 page, plus more readings and resources as I find I want to build them into the course. Watch our progress here; I'll also add a lesson-plan link to the Grade 9 page. If you have a rising ninth grader or would like to use our Ancient-World course next year, stay tuned!
Meanwhile, it should be pretty clear to all that this site has been operating on Mama Time. That is to say, I've been living homeschool plans instead of writing them. In our house we're in the second semester of grades eight, three, and two, which right now means that I have one child ordering e. coli through the mail so he can grow it in petri dishes for grins and giggles, while another child struggles with cursive writing, and another still doesn't want to read to herself. Life in all its splendors, right?
This seems a good time to assess what's been working in our house this year, as well as to lay out some plans for the future. So here goes . . .
What's Working:
Grade 8:
The One-Year Adventure Novel
After a semester, I really can't recommend this program enough. It seems like the perfect transition from the nuts-and-bolts "here's how you write a sentence/paragraph" of the later elementary/early middle-school years to the more formal, extended, and analytical writing which would characterize a strong high-school education. You could use it later on, but for my current eighth-grader it's a perfect fit -- he has the basic writing skills by now and needs the motivation to strrrrrrettttccccch out in a more sustained project. He's enjoying it, and I'm enjoying the fact that it's completely self-teaching; I glance at his workbook from time to time to make sure he's understood what he's being asked to do from exercise to exercise, but otherwise I just let him have at it.
It's also a great foundation for literary analysis. My eighth-grader has just finished Great Expectations, for example, and I'll be asking him to evaluate Pip in terms of the adventure-novel hero, and/or the novel as an adventure novel. (see my actual discussion question here) The heroic ideal is a theme we trace throughout Western literature, so to begin thinking about it now is good amendment for our mental soil for next year, when we take on The Iliad.
Saxon Algebra
I know, I know. There are the people who love Saxon and the people who don't, and we have been both. As it happens, this particular child actively loves Saxon and credits the Algebra 1/2 course he did last year for his love for math. Moral: never assume that because something is apparently deadly repetitious (to, for example, a certain species of maternal non-math-loving brain) it's necessarily a joy-killer.
We have used the Art Reed instructional DVDs with great success, and algebra, like pre-algebra, has been almost completely a self-teaching affair. The eighth-grader begins his day with algebra and spends, on average, two hours working at it, which seems about right: roughly the amount of time you'd spend in class plus doing the homework. He takes the weekly tests and has maintained an average of 98 -- obviously the maternal non-math-loving-brain genes didn't get passed down to him. This is all good news for a kid who'd like to move into college math classes while still in high school, as prep for something like West Point.
Deutsche Interaktiv
We found this gem via the HomeschoolCollegeUSA website, devoted to free online access to preparation for CLEP tests. The student moves at his own pace through units which include both grammar and conversational components, with tests. Our aim is to have our son ultimately take the CLEP in German, while counting his years of study as German I, German II, and so on. My husband is a German speaker, so the eighth-grader does get some additional practice as Dad has time.
The Baldwin Project
We've used this site extensively this year for all grades. The eighth-grader has been reading his way through various histories -- The Story of Russia, The Story of China, The Story of Japan, etc -- to cover areas of the world which we hadn't already touched in previous history/geography courses. Obviously, because these are public-domain books which date from the turn of the last century, the histories miss a hundred years of fairly important events; the eighth-grader has done a good bit of independent twentieth-century research to fill those gaps, as well as following current events worldwide. Quaint and outdated though they may seem, the books he's been reading via The Baldwin Project have provided him with some useful historical background presented in a readable literary format.
UPCOMING:
Well, we'll be getting a jump-start on biology once this e. coli arrives in its little test-tube packaging from HomeScienceTools. I confess that I've largely lost track of what the eighth-grader is doing for science -- last I saw, he was reading Alvin and Virginia Silverstein's The Code of Life. This is an easy read and a nice introduction to DNA. At any rate, because my eighth-grader is actively interested in science, particularly biology, I've mostly let him continue with it as a hobby this year, reading and researching on his own. Now he wants to do some hands-on experiments -- the bacteria, for a start -- which I'll count as part of next year's formal biology course.
So that's the eighth-grader, whose work is probably of more interest to readers here than is my younger kids' work. I know that for my own part, I think of middle school, particularly grades seven and eight, as serious high-school prep. Whatever skills and concepts you can solidify in these years, whatever foundation of knowledge you can lay, will help immeasurably in high school, if for no other reason than that you can move on to bigger, better, and more interesting things without having to go over the same remedial ground to make way for them.
This is why, incidentally, I'm a proponent of reasonably formal math in the early grades. I'm not a big fan of super-early formal learning in general -- no three-year-old readers in my house, as it's turned out -- but on the other hand, I've also seen the knock-on effect of not taking sequential learning seriously early enough. We spend a LOT of time on math these days, in second and third grades, with the idea of learning to enjoy it for its own sake (which means, in part, that we have to develop facility and confidence in it), but with the idea also that algebra will be a heck of a lot easier if we've laid the proper foundation.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time at this site on my elementary kids (you can check out our planning blog here), except to say that we've ended up doing a simplified version of what I'd planned, particularly in terms of independent reading, and that the piece of their program which I'm really excited about is math.
We do MEP math as a spine for conceptual learning; we also use the arithmetic video playlist and practice exercises at KhanAcademy.org to hone our basic grade-level skills. We also play math games at CoolMath.com and maintain a subscription to IXL math. Our MO thus far has been to do four to five MEP lessons a week (mostly just the practice pages, with selected exercises from the scripted lesson plans), with one to two sessions of KhanAcademy or some other more skills-based online practice.
We've also been working on writing and spelling via copywork and sentence-writing, grammar by reading the delightful Grammar-land, and history, science, geography, etc, via the "Combined-School" reading as outlined on our blog.
"But when are you going to update this site, and how?"
Here's the plan, folks:
I have a rising ninth-grader, so look forward to more developments in the ancient history/lit program for next year. I will be writing out weekly plans for my own student, with specific reading and writing assignments, so you can expect to see actual lesson plans here as the next big step. As time permits, I'll hash out an eleventh-grade reading list for those readers who used the tenth-grade medieval and Renaissance reading this year, but from here on out my general expectation is that the site will grow with my students.
Meanwhile . . .
Check out the new Beowulf link on our Grade 10 page!
On the curriculum page, links to my planning blogs for 2nd, 3rd, and 8th grades.
More Hot Links! Find free curriculum, free resources, free downloads, free printables, plus a few cool things you might have to pay for.
Most Grade 9 readings in ancient history and literature are now available via hyperlinks.
Grade 10 is almost finished! This course covers history and literature -- mostly, though not exclusively, English -- from the Anglo-Saxon era through the Renaissance and Reformation. Still adding readings for the Tudor era, plus historical background to cover the Reformation, plus suggestions for written and research projects. Stay tuned!
Also visit our new lesson planning page. Eventually I'd like to add actual plans which demonstrate how to put this program into practice -- someday! (see above) In the meantime I'll do what I can to help you generate your own.
While you're at it:
Introduce yourself in the forum! (please, so I don't have to keep talking to myself . . . )
In progress: our College Fair page. Currently we offer a directory of Newman Guide Catholic colleges, with some scholarship information. Coming soon: service academy information: how to prepare, how to apply.
Read more of my writing elsewhere.
Here's the plan, folks:
I have a rising ninth-grader, so look forward to more developments in the ancient history/lit program for next year. I will be writing out weekly plans for my own student, with specific reading and writing assignments, so you can expect to see actual lesson plans here as the next big step. As time permits, I'll hash out an eleventh-grade reading list for those readers who used the tenth-grade medieval and Renaissance reading this year, but from here on out my general expectation is that the site will grow with my students.
Meanwhile . . .
Check out the new Beowulf link on our Grade 10 page!
On the curriculum page, links to my planning blogs for 2nd, 3rd, and 8th grades.
More Hot Links! Find free curriculum, free resources, free downloads, free printables, plus a few cool things you might have to pay for.
Most Grade 9 readings in ancient history and literature are now available via hyperlinks.
Grade 10 is almost finished! This course covers history and literature -- mostly, though not exclusively, English -- from the Anglo-Saxon era through the Renaissance and Reformation. Still adding readings for the Tudor era, plus historical background to cover the Reformation, plus suggestions for written and research projects. Stay tuned!
Also visit our new lesson planning page. Eventually I'd like to add actual plans which demonstrate how to put this program into practice -- someday! (see above) In the meantime I'll do what I can to help you generate your own.
While you're at it:
Introduce yourself in the forum! (please, so I don't have to keep talking to myself . . . )
In progress: our College Fair page. Currently we offer a directory of Newman Guide Catholic colleges, with some scholarship information. Coming soon: service academy information: how to prepare, how to apply.
Read more of my writing elsewhere.