Homeschool High School

Meaningful Co-op Activities for World Poetry: Reading & Writing

Here are some meaningful co-op activities for World Poetry: Reading & Writing.

Meaningful Co-op Activities for World Poetry: Reading & Writing

World Poetry can be an eye opening subject to teach to your homeschool high schoolers in co-op. You’ll be delighted to see how they grow as they have small experiences with other people’s cultures.

Want some tips for teaching World Poetry to your teen group?

*Choose a good curriculum. For many homeschool high schoolers, they will get the most out of a curriculum that allows them to

not be intimidated, but have a little fun with World Poetry
feel they can understand the poetry selections
gain some skills for reading World Poetry
feel they can be successful at writing basic poetry
not be overwhelmed or feel the course is too intense

That’s exactly what 7Sisters’ World Poetry: Reading and Writing is about. The lessons are short, accessible, fun and engaging. There’s an answer key to help co-op teachers grade assignments.

World Poetry Reading and Writing 7SistersHomeschool.com #WorldPoetryCurriculum #HomeschoolHighSchoolWriting #HomeschoolHighSchoolPoetry #7SistersHomeschool This etext cover shows a jpg of a globe, scroll, graduation cap, books, quill pen and inkwell.

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*Create a syllabus for the course. World Poetry: Reading and Writing is a quick, 5-week course. This is perfect for introducing American Poetry in a homeschool co-op setting. Click here for a simple how-to on writing a syllabus for your course.

*Start with interest-building. This is probably the most important thing you will do to win your homeschool high schoolers’ attention. Show them a video (or several videos) of famous people reading American poems. There are some links in World Poetry: Reading and Writing. Here are a few more:

*Share a quote about poetry at the beginning of class each week. Here are a few from BrainyQuote.com:

I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better. -Abraham Lincoln
We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in light of what they suffer. -Deitrich Bonhoeffer
When it comes to understanding others, we rarely tax our imaginations. -Lawrence Hill
Poetry is the truth in Sunday clothes. -Joseph Roux
Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. -Paul Engle

*Read a poem in person each week. Choose a favorite poem to read as a group, you read or a student reads.

*Build vocabulary. Create a word wall. Have students bring an interesting word that they have found this week and write it on a group poster board. Then have each student share their word and what it means. Over the unit they will have enriched their vocabulary in a fun way.

*Group writing each week. Introduce each topic and then write a poem of that style as a group (you lead the activity). Allow this to be fun, silly and no-fail.

*Team writing each week. Break into teams. Have them write a quick, fun version of the topic then share with the group.

*Sharing poems. Each week have students share their homework poem with the group. This can be done by passing around.

Remember to keep the atmosphere relaxed. Your teens will be deeper, more understanding people when they’ve interacted with some World Poetry.

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Meaningful Co-op Activities for World Poetry: Reading & Writing

Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 131: Handling Homeschool Countdowns

This week onHomeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 131: Handling Homeschool Countdowns! This post is running concurrently on the Ultimate Homeschool Highschool Network.

Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 131: Handling Homeschool Countdowns

What to do when you feel a countdown coming on…

Vacation is coming!
Christmas is coming!
SATs are coming!
Missions trip is coming!
Portfolio reviews are coming!
College applications are coming!
Graduation is coming!

Are you ready enough? What if you don’t get everything done? What do you do?

Start with self-care. Really! It’s like putting your own oxygen mask on first.

Recognize what you are feeling. Stressed out from the crunch time?
- How do you handle the stress? What are you modeling for your kids?
Use Scheduling Backwards to get time under control (use our freebie download)

scheduling backwards by Sabrina Justison

Click here for more information on this freebie.

Do your deep breathing exercises (download this freebie how-to from Vicki Tillman Coaching)
- Breathing lowers the stress hormones and helps you manage stress

Progressive Relaxation Instructions from Vicki TillmanCoaching

Click image for more information on this freebie.

Watch your blood sugar (stress messes with your blood sugar levels). If your blood sugar tanks, you might feel angry or tearful. Get something healthy to eat!
In fact, beware of the HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired)

Talk to your kids about managing pressure and stress.

Also, take Kym’s advice: Remember, there are some wrong ways to handle stress.

Ignoring your stress
Taking your stress out on other people

Take Vicki’s advice: Teach your kids the 3W’s

What am I feeling?
Why am I feeling that way?
What am I going to do about it?

Here’s more information from Vicki.

Find an appropriate person to talk about the stress. Also teach your kids the 6 degrees of separation of relationships. This helps your teens know who to talk about your stress. Read this post from Vicki Tillman Coaching on how to discern who is safe.

Then write down what you’re going to do about the stress! It helps you be accountable.

In a marble composition book like Sabrina does
On your phone like Vicki does

Remember: Apologize when necessary. It’s okay (and necessary modeling).

Enjoy this fun episode and also check out this episode for teens and crunchtime crazies.

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Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 131: Handling Homeschool Countdowns

Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 130: Field Trips for High School

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 130: Field Trips for High School. This post is running concurrently on the Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 130: Field Trips for High School

When you have homeschooling highschoolers, they are BUSY! Academics and extracurriculars fill their schedules while they build their powerful transcripts. It’s easy to forget field trips when homeschoolers hit the high school academics.

Don’t miss out!

Sabrina and Kym share about favorite field trips with their teens as well as the trips that didn’t happen, but they wish they had. (Check this post about a favorite field trip fail.)

Here are the most basic homeschool field trips for teens:

Science based
- Botanical gardens
- Wastewater treatment facilities
- Dams
- Zoos
- Aquariums
- Museums
- Ranger-led events at state or national parks
- Visits to blood bank
- Nature hikes
- Amusement part
History based
- Architectural tours of historic towns
- Historic town special events
- Docent led tours of historic homes
- Guide-led tours of national or state historic sites
- Attend a re-enactment
- Restaurants with food from a country your family is studying
Arts
- Concerts
- Plays
- Museums
- Arts and Crafts shows
Career Exploration
- Visits to construction sites
- Visits to small businesses
- Visits to chiropractor or other medical professional
- Visits to recording studio
- Interviews with folks at church who have interesting careers
- Visit to sports-team’s facility
- Attend a career fair
- Volunteer work and interview staff
- College tours

Here are some tips:

Come prepared with questions for docents or guides. Talk about potential questions ahead of time.
Have teens write a response paper, essay or create a Powerpoint or Prezi about the trip. (Then present it at co-op or family gathering.)
Use field trips to level up courses or earn a special course credit. Check out this post on how to log hours for credit.
Remember, don’t KILL the field trip by overdoing the academic part!
Many field trips can be turned in some way into Career Exploration.

Here are even more field trip ideas.

Join Sabrina and Kym for this inspirational chat. Also, check out this post:

Why Waste High School Credits on Career Exploration?

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Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 130: Field Trips for High School

10 Top Confidence Building Soft Skills Teens Need for Success

Here are the 10 top confidence building soft skills teens need for success.

10 Top Confidence Building Soft Skills Teens Need for Success

One of the most sad and frustrating things I experience in my work as a life and career coach is when I work with teens who are prepared with career or academic skills but no hire-ability skills.

This is not a homeschool problem, it is a priority problem that I see in homeschooled teens and traditionally educated teens. The deal is: teens are raised to created a great transcript for their academics, even service and extracurriculars. However, they can be so busy that they are never taught basic work etiquette and the other soft skills that help them to:

Build confidence
Work in a group
Lead and follow
Show appropriate respect in various circumstances
Build a new friendship group after graduation
Network

You can get teens started by downloading a simple guide thatI have used with my kids (then reviewed at adolescence). It teaches 10 absolutely necessary skills that every person needs.

Social Skills for Children 7SistersHomeschool.com

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Here are 10 confidence building soft skills teens need for success.

Non-verbal skills. When teens learn some basic skills for managing their body language, they will inspire confidence in themselves and others will have more confidence in them. It’s a pretty amazing thing to switch up the way you stand and your facial expression and see the change in the way others react to you. Here’s a freebie you can download with some basic skills.
Communication skills. Teach teens: active listening (waiting for others to finish/not interrupting, repeating back what others have said when clarifying), speaking positively (avoiding gossip and complaining), giving and receiving compliments, assertiveness, using please and thank you.
Self-awareness skills. Teens need to be in touch with their feelings, so feelings don’t manage them. The need to be non-judgmentally in touch with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Other-awareness skills. Teens need to practice perspective-taking and reading other’s non-verbals. They need to practice the skill of respect (for other’s needs, personal space, feelings, safety).
Motivational skills. At the root of motivation is values. Teens need to be clear on their values and know how they must accept or reject other’s values (family, friends, work, groups). Here’s an introduction to a values discussion.
Teamwork skills. Teens need to understand the importance of a group’s cause or project and how to respectfully pull their weight. They need to learn to give credit where credit is due.
Leadership skills. All teens will be leaders somewhere, sometime. Here’s a post on basic leadership skills for teens.
Creative thinking skills. Teens need to know that the ability to think creatively is one of the most hire-able qualities. Many teens think that they aren’t creative. However, if they are created in the image of God, who is a creator, they have creativity. What they need is to discover their creativity. Try on hats: build something, take an arts appreciation class (download this freebie), listen to classical music in the car, do some creative writing assignments, have a brainstorming session, do a progressive story (see YouTube below).
Problem solving/critical thinking skills. Teens need to be willing to work on a problem until it has a solution, to talk things out looking for solutions, not vindication. They need to be able to learn discernment of facts and truths. Here’s a post to get you started.
Trustworthiness skills. Teens need to be able to say, “I’m wrong”, to do what is asked and more, to honestly handle time and resources. They need to be able to understand confidentiality and the limits thereof. (This is important when dealing with fragile friends. This is one of the topics handled in 7Sisters’ Introduction to Psychology text.)

Psychology from a Christian Perspective from 7SistersHomeschool.com

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If this all feels a little overwhelming, do what you can.I’ve found from experience as a counselor and coach that these skills make a BIG difference in teens confidence and success.Your teens will thank you in the end.

AND keep your eyes open. 7Sisters will be releasing a health curriculum that covers all this and more (hopefully for next school year.)

10 Top Confidence Building Soft Skills Teens Need for Success

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What Kind of Writing Should Teens Do With CS Lewis Literature?

Are your teens reading Lewis this year? What kind of writing should teens do with CS Lewis Literature?

What Kind of Writing Should Teens Do With CS Lewis Literature?

One of my homeschool high schoolers’ favorite Literature-topic years was the year we spent studying the fiction of CS Lewis. We not only studied his fiction but we extended their learning by including Lewis-type themes in their writing. Here’s how we did it:

First off, here’s what we read.

In the fall semester, we read:

The Chronicles of Narnia (This is only a high school literature if you include a high-school level study guide for each book in the series). Of course, our favorite study guides are 7Sisters Chronicles of Narnia guides because they develop great Language Arts skills and thinking skills without killing the book.)
Screwtape Letters
If we had time, we’d add another Lewis favorite (each of my teens has been different). We’ve included one of the following (none of which are fiction, but did enrich that teen’s Lewis experience).
- Mere Christianity
- Surprised by Joy

In the spring semester, we read:

The Space Trilogy
Poems by CS Lewis

Now for the writing that can go along with the fiction your teens are reading.

In the fall, we began the work on a myth-fantasy short story.

Do create a good myth-fantasy, your teen needs an excellent backstory (or what Lewis would call a *subcreation*). We would use 7Sisters APA Research Paper Writing Guide and 7Sisters Myth-Fantasy Short Story Guide.

APA Style Research Paper Introductory Writing Guide from 7SistersHomeschool.com

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The Myth-Fantasy Short Story Writing Guide guides your teen through the same writing process that CS Lewis used to write The Chronicles of Narnia. There’s a format to these myth-fantasy stories, so once teens learn the format, they can truly write that genre. These really are delightful writing assignments!

Myth-fantasy Writing Guide 7SistersHomeschool.com

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Here’s the fun:

We combined the 2 writing projects into one by making the APA Research Paper a totally fictional paper about the subcreation my teens were creating for week 1 of the Short Story guide.

Using the APA format, my homeschool high schoolers created:

A world with map and written geographic descriptions
*People* groups with descriptions
A history of that world
Famous *people* of that world’s history
*Current events* in that world
A fictional reference list and in-text *citations*

Of course, we did not finish this in one week. To complete the entire project (APA Research Paper and Myth-Fantasy Short Story) took the entire fall semester.

After they finished their full research paper, my homeschool high schoolers completed their Myth-Fantasy Short Story Guide by writing a 5 (or more) page story based on that subcreation.

My teens have been so proud of both projects! They had great APA experience and Myth-Fantasy experience and they had fun. (Note: We also did real, non-fiction APA papers other years. AND my teens who were aiming for honors credits wrote a second APA-style paper: a biography of Lewis or history of England during his life.)

In the spring semester, we wrote:

Essays based on the themes suggested by 7Sisters Literature Study Guides for The Space Trilogy. Of course, we used 7Sisters’ Essay Writing Guides. (I picked a guide according to my teen’s level at the time: Introductory, Intermediate or Advanced.)

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Poetry using 7Sisters’ Poetry Writing Guides (I picked a guide according to my teen’s level at the time: Introductory, Intermediate or Advanced.)

In this way, we covered the requirements for Language Arts (both reading, writing, vocabulary, editing). If we were covering Lewis for the year in co-op, a public speaking experience would be included also.

Your teens will have fun, gain great Literature experience and lots of powerful thinking and writing skills when you do a year of CS Lewis with them!

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What Kind of Writing Should Teens Do With CS Lewis Literature?

Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 126: Grandparents and Homeschool High School

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 126: Grandparents and Homeschool High School! This post is running concurrently on the Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 126: Grandparents and Homeschool High School

Grandparents are awesome…especially if they are willing to be involved in their grandchildren’s lives!

Sabrina’s parents join her on this episode. Dr. Gerald and Betty Culley are happy homeschool parents.

Dr. Gerald and Betty Culley. Used with permission.

Why are grandparents great for helping homeschool high school?

One reason is socialization. As you know fromis the passing on the important cultural components and lifestyles from one generation to the next. Grandparents can pass on years of wisdom to homeschooling high schoolers Episode 118: What about Socialization? socialization
Another reason is relationship. When grandparents are more than just *special occasion* people in their grandchildren’s lives, the relationships are much richer and deeper.

Dr. and Mrs. Culley were supportive when she and her sister, Allison, both announced that they wanted to homeschool their children. (Allison is Sabrina’s biological sister and also a member of the 7SistersHomeschool.com team.)

Both parents were totally on board because they had observed the educational world and felt that homeschooling would be a great option for quality learning experiences.

The grandparents were so happy about homeschooling that they were happy to be drafted as teachers for their kids:

Dr. Culley (Classics professor emeritus at University of Delaware) taught all the grandkids Latin- all the way through high school.
Gerald taught the high schoolers Apologetics. He was especially popular when he started teaching Apologetics to the local homeschool group classes. His grand-teens were quite proud to have such a cool grandfather!
Mrs. Culley taught the children piano.
They both helped teach the children how to learn.
They taught the children how to work healthily in a group.
Betty was willing to tutor when needed. (A very helpful gift for homeschool high schoolers.)
*Fridays at Avus and Ava’s* were weekly get togethers with grandparents and grandkids. Grandparents enjoyed spending non-structured and structured educational days with their grandparents.

Not all homeschooling families have the opportunity to have this kind of relationship with their grandparents, but if you do, be thankful! Grandparents who want to be involved can:

Pray for them.
Encourage the teens and invest time in them by tutoring and free time.
Do some research about colleges or careers your teens may be interested in. How can you invest in them from your experience?
Attend events.

Join Sabrina with Gerald and Betty Culley for an encouraging discussion. Also, you will enjoy these posts:

Dr. Culley joined us for an episode about Apologetics. You’ll love it! Listen in!

Learn how to use Dr. Culley’s FREE Apologetics resources to earn a full Apologetics credit.

Click image to read post.

Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 126: Grandparents and Homeschool High School

What’s the Difference Between 7Sisters Lit & Comp vs Our Other Guides?

We sometimes get the question: What’s the Difference Between 7Sisters Lit & Comp vs Our Other Guides?

What’s the Difference Between 7Sisters Lit & Comp vs Our Other Guides?

There are 2 different kinds of English Language Arts curriculum here at 7SistersHomeschool.com. It can get confusing! We’d like to clear up the difference between our:

Literature & Composition courses
Literature Study Guides
Writing Guides

So here’s the difference between 7Sisters Lit & Comp vs Our Other Guides!

First off, you need to know that English/Language Arts should include a

Reading and some literature analysis
Vocabulary
Writing (with editing or grammar)
Public Speaking (not always included in English/Language Arts but recommended by some colleges)

Now that we’ve got that straight, let’s move on.

Here’s how 7Sisters English/Language Arts works for Literature and Writing Guides:

If your homeschool high schoolers use ONLY 7Sisters Literature Study Guides, they will cover vocabulary and reading/literature analysis. (You get some optional suggested writing prompts but no instruction in HOW to write- that’s for the Writing Guides to do.)

So, your homeschool high schoolers can specialize in a literature topic of their own interest for the year with 7Sisters’ individual Literature Study Guides OR purchase a full year’s Literature Study Guides on one topic such as:

American Literature

American Literature 7SistersHomeschool.com

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British Literature

British Literature - One Year of Reading and Thining

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Great Christian Writers

World Literature

World Literature BUNDLE 7SistersHomeschool.com

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Cinema Studies for Literature Learning

Literature Analysis, Literal Thinkers and Movies

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If your homeschool high schoolers use ONLY 7Sisters Writing Guides, you get writing instruction of 4 different types, but no reading/literature analysis or vocabulary (along with rubrics for editing). The 4 types of writing include:

Essays

Introductory Guide to High School Writing including essays, short stories, research and poetry with no busywork.

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Research Papers

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Short Stories

Introductory Story Writing: Family Narrative 7SistersHomeschool.com

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Poetry

Introductory Poetry Writing from 7SistersHomeschool.com

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Writing Guides may be purchased by topic or bundled to include all the writing homeschool high schoolers need for each year.

Here’s how 7Sisters English/Language Arts works for Literature & Composition Bundles:

The idea behind the Literature & Composition bundles is to meet both of the reading/literature analysis and vocabulary and writing/editing needs for the English/Language Arts credit, one semester at a time. You will need Literature & Composition Part A (fall semester) and Part B (winter/spring semester) to get the full credit.

Introductory Literature and Composition Part A from 7SistersHomeschool.com

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We offer these in all of these different options because there’s not ONE right way to homeschool:

Some homeschool families have really strong readers who LOVE literature analysis but need some concrete writing instruction; they are great at talking about books, but not so great at writing. So they buy a Literature Study Guide bundle of their choice and a Writing Guide bundle that fits their skill level.
Other families are tackling reading and literature analysis in a co-op or book club that chose a list of titles and those don’t fit with any of our guides. So they just purchase a Writing Bundle for their teens.
Some families have teens who is use a different curriculum for writing, so they don’t need writing instruction, but they DO need literature analysis. So they order a Literature bundle.
Some families want the English/Language Arts to be *boxed* in one place, so that all they need to do is move right through the curriculum with no extra work or planning. They order Literature & Composition.

There’s note ONE right way to homeschool high school! 7SistersHomeschool.com has lots of options for English/Language Arts. Your teens will develop strong skills as they use our curriculum. Download yours!

What’s the Difference Between 7Sisters Lit & Comp vs Our Other Guides?

Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Handling Homeschool Co-op Lunchtime

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Handling Homeschool Co-op Lunchtime. This post is running concurrently on the Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Handling Homeschool Co-op Lunchtime

Want some guiding principles for healthily handling homeschool co-op lunchtime chaos. First off, we need to acknowledge what we expect (whether it is realistic or not):

We expect teenagers to bring their lunches, eat them and clean up without making disasters.
We expect teenagers to handle themselves well.
We expect all the co-op moms to pull their weight.

It doesn’t always work out that way. Here’s help:

Acknowledge that we homeschool moms have SO much to do during homeschool lunchtime! We’d love to simply have downtime and visit together. However, we often have to stomp a lunch fire (hopefully not literally), chase a younger, monitor some cleaning.

By our experience, these principles help:

Have clear expectations, clearly expressed
Plan during the summer so you start off well (one cool idea is having group meals at least on special occasions)
Have a person in charge to oversee lunchtime setup and/or cleanup, a *buck stops here* mom or teen
- Also, there needs to be support people who back him/her up or switch off
- Make sure expectations and authority limits are clear for all in charge
Communicate with the young people well
- For young drivers, may they leave co-op to go get lunch?
- Where can people have food?
- Are there any off-limits foods?
Chore lists for each homeschooler (and each mom)

If everyone is going to bring their own lunches (rather than a group lunch), at home these principles will help:

Have clear expectations, clearly expressed
Plan during the summer so you start off well
Communicate with the young people well
Chore lists for each homeschooler (and each mom) for lunch preparation and after-co-op cleanup

Enjoy this advice on homeschool co-op lunchtime. Also, you’ll love these posts.

Co-op advice:

HSHSP Ep 85: Healthily Handling Homeschool Mean-Moms with Dr. Melanie Wilson

Homeschool Highschool Podcast Ep 84: Finding Mom Friends

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Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Handling Homeschool Co-op Lunchtime

Talent-Developing Ways to Create Honors Level Creative Writing Credit

Here are talent-developing ways to create Honors Level Creative Writing credit.

Talent-Developing Ways to Create Honors Level Creative Writing Credit

One of my teens was a born author. He created short stories and poems before he could write (which meant dictation with illustrations when he was very young). At high school level, his love of writing was still there. He needed to write. When God gives a gift to a young person, it should be developed- so we did LOTS of writing in homeschool high school.

Do you have a teen who loves to write? Teens who have a love of creative writing and want to build their skills and power-up their transcripts can create an Honors Level Creative Writing Credit. Here’s how to create an Honors-level Creative Writing credit.

Honors-level Creative Writing credits are Language Arts electives. These should be above and beyond the writing required for Language Arts. Language Arts electives are useful for any teen heading to college and planning on a major in:

English
Humanities
Writing
Communications
History

If you are not familiar with levels (Honors level of this elective) for the homeschool transcript, this post will help. Also, listen to this episode of the Homeschool Highschool Podcast.

HSHSP Ep 116: What Are Levels in Homeschool High School?

Click image to listen to podcast.

While there’s not ONE right way to create an Honors-level Creative Writing credit, here are some suggestions. Mix and match projects that catch your homeschool high schooler’s interests. Work on this together. Develop a syllabus with due dates so that your teen doesn’t flounder. (A syllabus is always adjustable if a teen finds a project they love so much that they are producing LOTS of material.)

Aim for a Carnegie Unit credit (240-360 hours, according to your state requirements). That’s a lot of hours, but not too much for Honors-level work.

A Creative Writing elective can be broken into units. Here are 5 units we suggest.

Unit #1: Myth-Fantasy

Use 7Sisters Myth-Fantasy short-story writing curriculum for this project. This is a fun project teens. Even if your teen has written one myth-fantasy, allow them to write another. Log those hours (on all the projects). You might want to assign page minimums and maximums (for a Creative Writing elective, you’d expect more of your homeschool high schooler if this is a second story: maybe 10-50 pages). Depending on the number of extra assignments, this unit might last a full semester.

Myth-Fantasy Short Story Writing 7SistersHomeschool.com

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Other creative assignments based on their Myth-Fantasy short story:

Create an APA-style *research paper* based on their subcreation. They get to make up the whole totally fiction, research paper (even the *resources*)!
Write a *biography* of one of the characters in their story.
Write a collection of 5-10 poems/songs that their characters might have written.

Unit #2: Creative Chronicling

Now try something completely different: a personal chronicle. This is a creative project that is easy, meaningful and fun! Use 7Sisters’ Creative Chronicling Writing Guide for a great project.

High School Guide to Creative Chronicling 7SistersHomeschool.com

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Depending on the interest-level of your homeschool high schooler, this project could last 1 week to 1 month.

Unit #3: Family Narrative (Holiday version)

A family narrative story is a meaningful and quick creative writing exercise for the holiday season. Allow 1 week for this quick project using 7Sisters’ Family Narrative Holiday Story.

Holiday Family Narrative Writing Guide 7SistersHomeschool.com

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If interest is greater, this exercise can include:

A personal or family biography 5-10 pages.
A family tree (do some family/ancestor research).
A tall-tale version of the story. (If you need help, use 7Sisters’ Tall Tale Writing Guide.)

Unit #4: Poetry

Creative Writing electives should include a unit of poetry. Poetry is important for the development of creative word-usage and vocabulary. This unit could last 5 weeks- a full semester according to the interest of your teen.

If your teen has no experience with poetry, start with 7Sisters’ Introduction to Poetry. If your teen has a little experience with poetry, start with 7Sisters’ Intermediate Guide to Poetry.

If your homeschool high schooler has some experience hop to Advanced Guide to Poetry and add 7Sisters’ American Poetry Reading and Writing.

American Poetry: Reading and Writing 7SistersHomeschool.com

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Unit #5: Tall Tale

By the end of the year, your teen may be ready for a simple, easy project. Tall-tale writing is a great choice. Use 7Sisters’ Tall Tale Writing Guide. Give this project 1 week-5 weeks, according to the interest and experience of your teen.

Tall Tale Short Story Writing Guide 7SistersHomeschool.com

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Because Creative Writing Elective is an elective, you and your homeschool high schooler have choice on which projects to include and the time frame to assign for each project. At the end of the year, you may want to write a course description, in case you need that for a college application portfolio or other opportunity.

Teens who love writing will love a Creative Writing elective. It is worth the investment!

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Talent-Developing Ways to Create Honors Level Creative Writing Credit

How to Use Our FREE Resources in a Full Apologetics Credit

By request: Here’s how to use our FREE resources in a full Apologetics credit.

How to Use Our FREE Resources in a Full Apologetics Credit

Many families want their homeschool high schoolers to earn an Apologetics elective credit before they graduate. This is wise because teens need to be equipped to understand, explain and defend their faith as they interact more with the wider world.

As many people know, 7Sisters has a FREE Apologetics lessons. There are 28 special Youtube videos that explain biblical, archeological and scientific reasons that our faith is real and reliable.

Apologetics 101 A Good Answers Apologetics Presentation

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The powerpoints are the creation of Dr. Gerald R. Culley of Good Answers Ministries. Dr. Culley is the professor emeritus of Classics at the University of Delaware. He is also the father of 7Sisters Allison and Sabrina.

Dr. Culley has been teaching Apologetics to our local homeschool high schoolers for years. He also gives these same presentations at churches around the region. He is a well-beloved figure and is full of wisdom. He developed these lessons as a gift so that all students with access to a computer could watch the lessons. He did not want anyone to be left out due to financial concerns, so he offers the FREE as part of his Good Answers Ministries.

Ezekiel and Tyre Presentation Good Answers Ministries

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Our local homeschool high schoolers LOVE Dr. Culley’s Apologetics course. They eagerly watch the Apologetics lessons and then discuss them enthusiastically. Here is one of our teens’ favorite lessons:

Arguing with God Presentation Good Answers Ministries

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Some students are interested enough in Apologetics that they want to earn a full elective credit for their high school transcript. So Dr. Culley provided us with the syllabus that he uses with our local homeschool high schoolers. That way they can earn the same credit that our local teens earn as they work through the year with Dr. Culley.

Click this link to download your FREE syllabus from Dr. Gerald R. Culley of Good Answers Ministries.

Apologetics Suggested Syllabus Good Answers Ministries

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