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My fourth child has entered high school! With two kids in high school this year, plus one in junior high, and two in elementary, I needed to find some courses that my kids could do independently. I have found BJU Press video lessons and Notgrass History to be excellent options for independent learning.
While my 9th grade homeschool curriculum choices are mostly ones my teen can do independently, I did add in one course that I’ll be working through with my son. Introduction to Logic was such a fun course to teach in a co-op setting and I’m looking forward to working through it again with my 9th grader.
9th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices
Below is a look at our 9th grade homeschool curriculum choices. Under each subject I have listed the course title that will go on my son’s transcript, the credits that he’ll receive for the course, and the curriculum he is using.
Math
The past few years my son has been working through the Math-U-See curriculum. It has been working really well for him so we plan on continuing it through high school.
- Course Title: Pre-Algebra
- Credit: 1
- Curriculum:
History
Last year I tried Notgrass History for all of my kids and we loved it! This year my son will be using their high school world geography course. Notgrass History has a literature and Bible component that you can use as well. This year we will just be using it for history.
- Course Title: World Geography
- Credit: 1
- Curriculum:
- Exploring World Geography (Notgrass History)
Science
I wanted to use BJU Press science curriculum this year for my son. I’ve been really pleased with all their science courses. I originally planned on having my son take the 9th grade physical science course from BJU Press but it has a corequisite of Algebra 1 which my son won’t be taking this year. No worries though! Homeschooling allows me to cater courses to my children’s needs, abilities and interests so he’ll be taking the earth science course from BJU Press instead. I’ve already used it with another child and did a review of it here.
- Course Title: Earth Science
- Credit: 1
- Curriculum:
English
I have consistently struggled to choose curriculum for English. It’s hard to find the right balance between grammar, writing, and literature. Some years we focus more on writing while other years are more heavy in grammar. Sometimes we use literature curriculum that focuses on teaching literary terms and analysis while other years are spent enjoying novels related to our history lessons.
This year, I decided to go with BJU Press English online for my son. I love that it provides excellent instruction in grammar, writing, and literature and that it is something my son can do on his own. I was excited to see so many new courses from BJU Press including English 8. Even though my son will be a 9th grader, I decided to go with the new English 8 course. I couldn’t pass up a brand new video course from BJU Press!
While the BJU Press course is called English 8, I will be putting English 9 on my son’s high school transcript since it’s the English course he took in 9th grade.
- Course Title: English 9
- Credit: 1
- Curriculum:
Bible
While looking through the BJU Press website, I also noticed a brand new Bible course covering the life of Christ. It looked like an excellent option for my son this year. Even though the course is marketed for 8th grade, it looks thorough enough to count as a high school level course.
- Course Title: Life of Christ
- Credit: 1
- Curriculum:
Elective
Two years ago, I taught Logic in a co-op setting using the Introduction to Logic curriculum from Master Books. It was a great curriculum that I looked forward to teaching again. I’m thrilled to be working through it, one-on-one, with my son this school year.
- Course Title: Introduction to Logic
- Credit: 1
- Curriculum:
- Introduction to Logic (Master Books)
That’s it for my 9th grade homeschool curriculum choices! I’d love to hear what you are using for your high schooler. Share below in the comments.
2023-2024 Homeschool Curriculum Choices
Check out all my homeschool curriculum choices for the 2023-2024 homeschool school year below.
- 11th grade homeschool curriculum choices
- 7th grade homeschool curriculum choices
- 4th grade homeschool curriculum choices
- 2nd grade homeschool curriculum choices
Homeschool High School Forms Pack
Ease your worries about the high school years with these helpful high school forms. Print off as many as you need to stay organized with high school record keeping and planning. This is a digital product.
My 10th grader did Notgrass World Geography last year and really enjoyed it. I didn’t find it had a lot of map work, which was a little disappointing to me, but he enjoyed the content so much that I let that one negative go. I will find something else for my daughter bc I’d really like her to have a better grasp on where countries are in the world.
My daughter will be in 9th next year, also taking Pre-Algebra, so we also had to rethink her science trek. She will be doing earth science with DIVE science next year bc of math prerequisites.
I used World Geography from Memoria Press with one of my kids and it was very heavy on map work. She had to memorize every country, the capital and where it was on the map. She actually enjoyed the course and was amazed at how much she learned. I did a review of it here: https://www.janelleknutson.com/2021/06/26/world-geography-from-memoria-press/
Praying for you, that the Lord will strengthen you and continue to equip you for doing all He has called you to do! Thank you for sharing this info! Do you also incorporate some type of reading program into your 9th and 7th grade curriculum? Wondering if it may be too much for my kiddos to do, on top of all other courses. Thanks!
Thank you for the prayers.
BJU English covers grammar, writing, and literature/reading so they already get that in the English course. I do require all my kids to read a book of their choice for 20+ minutes each day throughout the entire year (school year and summertime) so they get in a lot of extra books/reading that way.
I truly appreciate your ideas and advice for homeschooling. Your reviews are just so thorough. I do have a question about the BJU curriculum… How do you fit their 180 days into a four day school week? Or do you do a five day school week? I just really struggle trying to fit that many days into our year and finish 180 days of work. We need the four day school week so we have a day open for everything else that needs to get done and we need the summer break from school by the time May comes around. We are not year round homeschoolers. To make BJU work we would need to be year round homeschoolers. I love the idea of BJU, but I don’t want to spend that much money on something that we can’t finish. I have read posts about BJU saying the curriculum is not meant to be used all 180 days because it is meant to be adjusted to work for each individual school or family that uses it but there is no advice on how to do that. I’m not an English expert by any means so I struggle knowing what I can leave out and how to narrow down the teaching to fit our year. We have sick days and appointment days and just plain busy days where we need the flexibility and BJU does not seem flexible. I have had people tell me to just make it flexible, but I need guidance. I don’t want to have to be doing school into our summer break and we are not willing to be year round homeschoolers since our summers are full of travel and trips to see out of state family. I understand I just may have to use a different curriculum to make things work, I just thought I would ask someone who has used the curriculum first just to see how it is done. Anyways, I was really wanting to use English 7 with my 7th grader and English 3 with my 3rd grader but the 180 days has me at a stand still. Thank you for your time and hard work. I look forward to hearing from you. And please know you and your family have been in my prayers. I hope you have been able to find peace and rest. No rush on getting back to me.
Melissa
It is a lot easier to modify BJU materials when you are doing the teacher-led option but I have been able to adapt things for our schedule even using the video lessons. You might find this blog post and video (scroll all the way down down to see the video) helpful:
https://www.janelleknutson.com/2017/12/29/bju-press-distance-learning-online/
We have usually done a 5 day school week when using BJU Press curriculum but I have never done school for 180 days. We usually end up completing the year in 160 days or so. That being said, last year we did a 4 day school week with some BJU materials and were able to make it work. The ideas in the blog post and video above should help. Some additional tips:
Math: The first few chapters of math are usually review so we often skip those first few chapters. Math is one subject we might have to wrap up over the summer though. Math builds on itself so you can’t skip anything. That being said, you can take two years to work through one math level. And I definitely don’t have my kids do every single problem. Also, if they have a good grasp of the material we will skip review lessons, cumulative review, and/or quizzes or tests.
History: I like to get through all of history so my kids don’t miss any portion of history BUT we don’t do all the work. Some chapters I just have them read (no video, no workbook pages etc) so they might read several days worth in one day since they don’t have to watch the videos or do the assignments. Some chapters they just watch the videos (so maybe 2 videos in one day). And then some chapters we do all or most of the work. My goal with history is for them to have an overall understanding of history but not to remember every detail. I’m a little stricter on the amount of work they do when they get to high school but we still skip and adapt things.
English: Each year BJU English covers the same topics just in more detail so I am okay with skipping things because I know they will circle back around to most of it in years ahead.
Hope that helps!
Thank you! I will definitely keep these ideas in mind going forward.
I love seeing how you pull all your curriculum together for your kiddos. I have a question. I was thinking of using Earth Science for 9th grade as well, due to math. Do you do anything special to make it high school worthy? I know it’s a beefy course on its own but I was just curious. I’m also praying for you due to the health scare. I am glad you posted because it feels like people only let us see the good but it’s also good for us to see the vulnerability. We can learn so much about ourselves and our faith during times of crisis. You are such an inspiration to many. Thank you for everything you do, for your followers as well as for your own family. May God continue to bless you.
The Earth Science course has more than enough content to count as a high school course. 🙂
And thank you for your kind words. God is good!
Hello,
Would you consider Notgrass World Geography a credit in History or as an elective credit in World Geography?
World Geography fits under the “history/social science” category. I list it as “World Geography” on the transcript. You don’t need to list categories (such as history, math, elective, etc.) on the transcript. Hope that makes sense.
Can you tell me if you feel Math-U-See or BJU press is a stronger math for algebra and above?
Both of them will prepare a student for college or trade school that requires math. However, BJU Press is stronger in critical thinking skills related to math. If you have a child who wants to pursue a math or science related career where critical thinking is crucial, I’d go with BJU Press math. Hope that helps.