How to know what to teach each year

Although Florida does not set requirements for homeschool students, some states do. High school classes are usually pretty similar throughout the country because the universities establish class requirements.  North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and New York are the only states that enforce high school graduation requirements to homeschoolers. 
Graduation requirements include four years of English, two to three years of foreign language (preferably the same language), three or four years of mathematics (Algebra I and above), two to four years of science, two to three years of social studies (American History, World History, economics, or American Government), and one year of art. 

Often, homeschool parents teach their children through traditional methods in middle school, but are very conflicted when it comes to high school. Should classes be taken through an accredited school? 
I chose to have all core classes  taken through accredited schools. All elementary and middle school classes were done at home.

 I signed my sons up with Seton High School for Algebra, Algebra II, and Pre-Calculus. I was still in charge of teaching the classes, but all the tests were sent by the school and graded by their certified teachers. 

Linking the state guideline topics with your curriculum relieves some of the stress.  This method is to be used as a guideline and not to replicate brick-and-mortar school curriculum. I came up with a method to align my lessons with the school system’s “required topics” to ensure my sons were learning everything that was expected of them. Although it is not necessary to follow this method, it definitely gives homeschool parents peace of mind. I linked my lessons with the sunshine state guidelines per grade and subject level (for core classes only) and made sure my sons learned that material, in addition to our curriculum.

At the time, Florida had adopted the Sunshine State Standards which is a guideline that addresses what students should learn by the end of each school year. These guidelines provide vital problem-solving and analytical skills   used across all subject areas that will benefit students in this increasingly complex high-tech world.  

Only nine states in the United States did not adopt the Core Curriculum. Florida adopted it for a few years, but mostly used the Sunshine State Standards.

Regardless of which standard your state adopted, they are all designed to identify and create high quality education. The goal is to ensure that all students are prepared to successfully complete their upper education and are career ready. 

Linking your curriculum with the Sunshine Standards:

CPalm is an interactive website that contains tutorial and resources for students, teachers, and parents for all subjects from kindergarten to high school. It highlights all the standards and course descriptions for each grade level.

1.    Core subjects that homeschool parents should add to their list: English, mathematics, science, and social studies. Social Studies includes American History, Geography.

2.    Electives: Dance, music, foreign language, health education, theater, or visual art.

Physical education can be done with other homeschool students in your area. Join a physical education homeschool group, a competitive soccer or swimming team. 

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Once you determine everything students need to learn, link the lessons with topics found in the table of contents of the book you purchased. It is possible to just use the topics given for each standard and develop lesson plans according to each requirement, without purchasing a curriculum. 

 

It takes us about four months to cover the lessons required by the public schools, leaving the rest of the year to work on more advanced material, expand on topics of interest, or start the next school year. The idea is not to follow exactly what is taught by the school system, just use the topics as a guideline.

Correlating your curriculum with other Standards:

The same can be accomplished with standards chosen by your state. The only states that did not adopt the Common Core Standards are: Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Nebraska, Indiana, South Carolina, Virginia, and Alaska.                                              

• Florida
•  Texas
• Oklahoma
• Minnesota (ELA standards)
• Nebraska
• Indiana
• South Carolina
• Virginia
• Alaska
• Common Core Standard

Homeschool parents can use this site to search the guidelines for each standard.  The same standards are sometimes used for multiple grade levels, which can be useful if you have children in different grades and want to combine lesson plans. Obviously, the same standard at a higher-grade level will be more in depth, so parents should take that into consideration when teaching a younger child.

Method to  find lesson plans and activities related to each specific standard:

1. Go to the CPALMS website

2. Choose the grade desired level

3. If you choose 8th grade (see below), you will see the following subjects:   English Language Arts, English Language Development, Health Education, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies. Social Studies include American History, Geography. Economics, Civics, Financial Literacy, and some other electives.

If you choose science (see below), you will have access to all 113 standards. In addition, it will show all the student resources.

4. After clicking on the science standards, you will see detailed information of each standard.

5. Choose one of the standards (see below)

6. Although this site offers a lot of different resources, you can also search the standard online. You will find hundreds of lesson plans, videos, and games (see below.)

6. This is a link to one of the videos related to the standard above. 

Once you determine everything the student needs to learn, link the lessons with topics found on the table of contents of the book you purchased. It is possible to just use the standards and develop lesson plans according to each requirement, without purchasing a curriculum. I purchased curriculums for all the subjects and highlighted the table of content for all the lessons that I had to teach my children. It took us about 4 months to covers the lessons required by the public schools, leaving the rest of the year to work on more advanced material, expanded on a topic of interest, or started the next school year. 

Enjoy your journey!

REFERENCES:
Pictures are from http://www.cpalms.org/Public/ webiste and the video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSSP7KaH3PI