Homeschool Reading List - 9th Grade Ancient History Theme

Here is the reading list I put together for my 9th grader in addition to the books suggested by My Father's World. That year they were studying ancient history so quite a few of these titles fit with that time period. (the + means any title by that author) Enjoy!

A Pillar of Iron +	Caldwell, Taylor
Alas, Babylon	Frank, Pat
Antony and Cleopatra	Shakespeare, William
Ben Hur +	Wallace, Lew
Bruchko	Olson, Bruce
Byzantium	Lawhead, Stephen
Catherine of Siena	Undset, Sigrid
Daring to Live on the Edge	Cunningham, Loren
Doctor Faustus	Marlowe, Christopher
Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ	Guyon, Madame Jeanne
Four Horsemen of Apocalypse	Ibanez, Blasco
Foxe's Christian Martyrs by John Foxe	ed. Berry, W. Grinton
Gods and Kings series	Austin, Lynn
House by the Medlar Tree by Giovanni Verga	Lawrence, D.H.
I, Claudius	Graves, Robert
I Dared to Call Him Father	Sheikh, Bilquis
Is That Really You, God?	Cunningham, Loren
Jerusalem +	Lagerlof, Selma
King Solomon's Mines +	Haggard, Henry Rider
Kisses from Katie	Davis, Katie
Lalla Rookh	Moore, Tom
Last Days of Pompeii	Bulwar-Lytton, Lord Edward
Lord of the Rings	Tolkien, J.R.
Mythology	Hamilton, Edith
Oedipus Rex	Sophocles
Peace Child	Richardson, Don
Quo Vadis	Sienkiewicz, Henryk
Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems	Arnold, Matthew
Taliesin + (series)	Lawhead, Stephen
Tartarin on the Alps	Daudet, Alphonse
The Greek Way	Hamilton, Edith
The High King (The Prydain Chronicles +)	Alexander, Lloyd
The Hobbit	Tolkien, J.R.
The Hunger Games (1,2,3)	Collins, Suzanne
The Lost Queen of Egypt	Morrison, Lucile
The Narrow Road	Brother Andrew
The Robe	Douglas, Lloyd C
The Roman Way	Hamilton, Edith
The Snow Goose	Gallico, Paul
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs	Morris, William
This Present Darkness	Peretti, Frank

2018-2019 Homeschool Curricula Choices for 9th Grade - My Father's World

Year 8 of our "I will never, ever, ever homeschool" journey. LOL
I was thinking the other day that my padawans had a combined 6 years in Christian school but now we're at 16 years of homeschooling. Crazy daisy!

While those first years were full of hands-on projects, activities, and field trips, that aspect has definitely slowed down as we've hit high school for both of them. If you follow my blog regularly, I'm guessing you've picked up on the fact that there's very little worth blogging about when it comes to high school work. We still have a few hands-on projects, but it's shifted to more writing and textbooks than picture-worthy assignments.

Anyway, here's what Soprano's freshman year will look like:

Math: Saxon Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 and Life of Fred books
She needed a little more time in Algebra 1 to really grasp all of the concepts so we're scheduling it as half the lesson one day and the rest on day 2. She worked through about 2/3 of the Algebra 1 book last year, so we're plugging away at finishing it sometime this spring and then will move right into Algebra 2 (and probably continue that over the summer). To mix things up, every Friday she will do several chapters in Life of Fred picking up where she left off last year with the Pre-Algebra series.

English/Bible/History/Geography: My Father's World - Ancient History and Literature
Soprano is back using My Father's World this year after having two gap years using Notgrass and Beautiful Feet Books. She is a good writer, so I think she will have great success with AHL this year.

She also has a required literature list from which she needs to pick at least 20 books. Plus there is a good selection of lit recommended in AHL (see the stack with yellow tape on the spines).

Science: Compass Classroom Devotional Biology
I saw a great pre-sale offer for the DVD set, and it really caught my eye. I've just never jumped on the Apologia bandwagon and was on the hunt for something that Tenor and Soprano could do together this year. Devotional Biology has a great premise for teaching attributes of God as they teach aspects of biology. It also includes a full lab program that we'll be using.

Music/Art: Harmony Fine Arts 9th grade plans
Soprano will also be working towards a fine arts credit using the Harmony Fine Arts plans from 9th to 12th grade. This year she'll be focusing on ancient art through the Byzantines and baroque and early classical composers.

I'm also adding in a hymn study this year. Once a week, I'll read a chapter from one of the Mr. Pipes books and together, we'll learn and sing the hymns. Next year, I'd love to continue the hymn study...maybe adding in one of the books about some of our modern hymns or worship songs. Music geek alert. :)

Foreign Language: French Essentials Books 5 and 6 and Learn French the Fast and Easy Way
We need to get her 2 credits in foreign language to graduate. In previous years, Soprano has worked through the elementary and middle school levels of French Essentials. In order to make sure she will get a full credit this year, I added Learn French as well.

Electives:
Spelling - no credit/not graded
Soprano is going to work on her spelling this year using Apples and Apples 2. They are short, daily lessons specifically for secondary students. No random spelling lists...just quick reminders of basic spelling rules and then some practice exercises or word puzzles each day.




Logic - 1/2 credit
I did not like the logic books recommended by MFW when Tenor was in 9th grade, so Soprano will be using Art of Argument (Tenor used it in 10th) for her logic elective. She was grumbling about having to take it, but then I told her since she likes to argue this will help her learn to argue better. Then I stopped and thought about if I really wanted her to be able to argue better.... parenting fail. ;)
At least we'll be finishing this one up at the end of our first semester. Should I just give her an 'A' now? ;)


Creative Writing - 1 credit
Soprano is my writer. Since I despise writing, I am so pleased that I have one kid that enjoys it and doesn't seem to struggle with it like I do. AHL has plenty of academic writing in it, but we are also using The Creative Writer and My Book of Stories: Fairy Tales to give her time to work on her stories.


Interior Design - 1 credit
I sort of suggested this as a possible elective, and Soprano got really excited. Since we won't start this until after Christmas break, I haven't purchased any of the books yet. I have several resources in mind and once I get them in hand I will be able to pull the course together and come up with a schedule. I'm pretty sure we will definitely need to resubscribe to Sling TV so we can get HGTV and DIY Network...for research and educational purposes of course. :D
Possible books/resources:
Learning Zone Express: Interior Design
In the Hands of a Child Project Pack: Elements of Interior Design
AOP Consumer Science Lifepac 6: Interior Decorating 
Interior Design Studio (Kit)

Interior Design Course (book)
Design Your Dream Room (book/toy)
My Beautiful Room: Interior Design Workbook
Fashion Angels: Interior Design Sketch Portfolio (book/kit)
Interior Design Master Class (book...which is at our local library)

These lit-based curricula make the amount of needed books look insane!

School Summary - 7th and 9th grades - weeks 15-24

I respectfully ask that you not pin pictures of my children to Pinterest. Thank you!

You can see what we're using here: 9th-grade curricula and here: 7th-grade curricula.

Like I said in my previous post, this is a really boring school year as far as blogging goes. I'm blaming that for the reason why I haven't blogged school since the end of November and the reason why I'm going to dump an entire quarter into this single post. :)

Weeks 11-14

In Tenor's homeschool this quarter…

He finished "learning" Greek letters in his AHL work. He's worked through Psalms and Proverbs and is now tackling Isaiah in Old Testament. He just finished Rick Warren's "What on Earth Am I Here For?" There are opposing viewpoints about using this book in AHL, but I like it. I think it's a good foundational-type book. We'll be using John Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life" and "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris this summer to build on what he was working through. His literature study is focused on the Iliad at this point. While I've heard that some students really struggle with the book, Tenor seems to be comprehending what he's reading.

Map work

Proverbs project

My favorite thing this quarter…
His literature study is focused on the Iliad at this point. While I've heard that some students really struggle with the book, Tenor seems to be comprehending what he's reading.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Again, just emphasizing that the weekly conference is really important. (Yup, just leaving that line here for the rest of the year as a reminder to myself!) At this point, Tenor's in a good routine about getting things done. He hasn't had any big writing assignments in the past few weeks so that helps to ease the schedule.

Art drawing

What’s working/not working for us…

He's not a big fan of writing summaries about composers and artists/art periods for Harmony Fine Arts. I tried to find some online resources about writing a music critique but there's not really a lot out there. I did put some thoughts together but the first time he used it, he still only gave me one paragraph. We're going to keep refining the process. :)

Picture proof that they do get along on occasion ;)

In Soprano's homeschool this quarter...
She finished her literature program...Beautiful Feet Books History of the Horse. Soprano worked hard at the end to read the last book which was only scheduled as a 'finish as you have time'. She completed it and the extra activities quickly to finish up the whole curriculum. After the literature was done, we moved to her semester of science, Winter Promise Equine Science.

BFB mapping

BFB art -- attempt #1

BFB art -- attempt #2 (with less enthusiasm)

My favorite thing this quarter…

Some of the activities in Equine Science have been fun to see. She had to re-enact Hun stealth tactics using her model horses and "Be Genghis Khan" for another. Her silly personality definitely came out! 

Harmony Fine Arts

Harmony Fine Arts

English oral report on hedgehog anatomy

Notgrass Uncle Sam & You -- around our state (Soprano says I did that college that has the cat logo. Ah... Penn State...Nittany Lion :D )

What’s working/not working for us… I thought we had conquered her 8 hour school day issues. For about three weeks, things were going really well. She was getting done by 2pm each day. Then all of a sudden it was back to horrendously long days where she'd get stuck on a math lesson for 6 hours. We're hoping an earlier bedtime (as early as we can with outside activities) will help.
We also ended up ditching her French curriculum. There were just too many gaps from the lesson to the lesson work. We were both lost. I'm looking into a couple other options. Either we'll start this year with a different program that will have quite a bit of review, or we'll try again next year with something else and start working on an early high school credit.

9pm Seriously...doing schoolwork at 9pm!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing...

We went to a local theater company's Christmas program, saw Rogue One in the theater, and did a couple craft shows. Tenor got his braces off and tested to earn his red stripe belt in Taekwondo!

 

Soprano joined a local youth choir and enjoyed a youth group Galentine's Day party. There was other holiday busyness with family, church, and work. Including getting our newest family member: Peanut.

Most of my hours were spent preparing for those craft shows. (Blog posts to follow about all that.) :)

Things to come:
Soprano's choir concert season begins in a couple weeks
We need to pick and plan some of next year's curricula.
We're ready to plan our big field trip for the year...the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter!
Soprano has a big birthday coming up and we're thinking a French Patisserie themed party.
Tenor is looking into getting a summer job.
Oh yeah, and we should probably finish the school year. :)

What's on your list? 

School Summary - 7th and 9th grades - weeks 11-14

I respectfully ask that you not pin pictures of my children to Pinterest. Thank you!

You can see what we're using here: 9th-grade curricula and here: 7th-grade curricula.

Literally this is the most boring school blog year I've ever had. I'm not sure I'll even blog school regularly next year. It's just a different set-up than our first five years. They are working independently, and it's more book work than hands-on. Maybe I'll continue with it, maybe not. :)

Weeks 11-14

In Tenor's homeschool this month…

He started learning Greek letters in his AHL work...which is super easy since he's on his 3rd year of biblical Greek. Yay for one thing that's easy!

Tenor art assignment

My favorite thing this month…
He wrote a few psalms for AHL assignments that I just loved. He does have a good sense of poetry when he puts his mind to it.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Again, just emphasizing that the weekly conference is really important. (I'm just going to leave that line there for the rest of the year as a reminder to myself.) I'm trying to get him to go back and take notes on things he's already read to help cement it, but it's taking a long time. I should have had him take notes while reading from the beginning of the school year.

What’s working/not working for us…

He seems to be struggling with the logic elective. I'm not sure if he is reading the exercises and answering too quickly or if he's not grasping the concepts... if he has continued interest, we might find another logic resource at the end of the year to keep working on it.

Soprano art coloring

In Soprano's homeschool this month...
Boring post alert...it's the same old, same old for Soprano too. :)

Art coloring and notebooking

Beautiful Feet assignment for Brighty of the Grand Canyon

Beautiful Feet assignment for Brighty of the Grand Canyon

My favorite thing this month…

She had to create a poll for the family to cast votes as an Uncle Sam and You assignment. She picked the questions, the answers, and tallied up the votes after we were done.

What’s working/not working for us… Her school day is taking for.ev.er. I feel like she should be done much earlier each day than she is. We're working on trying to figure out how to help her be more motivated and to get done sooner.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing...

Tenor went on his first Senior High youth group weekend retreat. He had a great time. :)
We went to D.C. again. It was originally going to be a weeklong trip but our accommodations fell through. However, we had already received notification that our White House ticket request was approved. We went down for just a day instead.

View of the gardens from the First Ladies' Hall

China Room

East Room

Mom, mom, mom, that's the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington that Dolley Madison saved when the British were burning Washington! I guess something we learned stuck.

Green Room -- aptly named

State Dining Room

White House North Lawn

 After the White House, we hit the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

The only 'super moon' I actually got to see since the weather was so overcast at home.

We found a platypus! Another of Soprano's favorite animals.

After another busy month of schooling, we enjoyed taking off the week of Thanksgiving. A few more weeks, then Christmas... crazy!

School Summary - 7th and 9th grades - weeks 7-10

 

I respectfully ask that you not pin pictures of my children to Pinterest. Thank you!

You can see what we're using here: 9th-grade curricula and here: 7th-grade curricula.

I've got a couple time-intensive things in the works, so my blogging has been sparse. I have stuff to share, but I just never seem to have enough time (or if I have time, then enough motivation) to get posts together. So, the crafty stuff for the blog is on hold, but since the padawans are diligently doing school, I'll post their stuff. :) We (and by we, I really mean they) are done with the 1st quarter which included our first break week!

Weeks 7-10

In Tenor's homeschool this month…

AHL, week 6 board game (finally finished)

 

We played it and discovered it needed a little tweaking or else it would go on forever. Tenor did a great job on it though.
week 7 project (clay tablet)

week 10 project (painting)

art projects

My favorite thing this month…
Tenor finally catching up on some late assignments. I think he's better understanding how much work he needs to put in in order to keep up-to-date.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Again, just emphasizing that the weekly conference is really important.

What’s working/not working for us…

After 10 weeks, I'm still struggling to figure out which book has which answer key. I always seem to be flipping through all of them to find the answers for Tenor's work. I might make a master key for myself.

In Soprano's homeschool this month...
Nothing terribly exciting...just more of the usual. Soprano Is getting all of her work done so that's a relief.

A character sketch assignment; I think she only picked me in order to have a chance at a better grade. lol

My favorite thing this month…

Hearing her work on her French vocabulary and pronunciation. She has a listening CD that goes along with her textbook. I scheduled it so that she completes a lesson each Wednesday but listens to and practices along with the CD the other days of the school week.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

The adjustment to her English lessons is working out well. I probably should have done it years ago. :)

What’s working/not working for us…

So far, so good with her curricula this year. Beautiful Feet (literature) and Notgrass (civics) are both easily completed each day.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing...

Before we started this month of school, we traveled for our first big field trip. We didn't have the funds to take our usual beach vacation earlier this year. But unexpectedly this fall, we were able to sell a few things online that allowed us to spend a couple days in Ocean City, Maryland. While there we visited Assateague and Chincoteague Islands.

A couple of Misty's descendants

We only saw a few wild horses while there

Tenor displaying a horseshoe crab on our island boat tour

 

The day after we got back, we headed to Penn Museum for Smithsonian Day.

 They have a large exhibit of Ancient Egyptian artifacts...

including ancient hedgehog pieces. (We love hedgehogs!)

A friend gave us free tickets to see Samson at Sight and Sound Theater. (It's nice to know so many people that work there. :) )

We also hosted a stop for the senior high youth group Amazing Race event.

 Each team had to eat 4 cold, chocolate syrup covered hotdogs. (Um, ew!)

The task was disgusting, but the youth were great. It was fun!