Our Homeschool High School Lesson Plans: Truth Trek One are here!
A few years ago, we started to pursue a long-term vision of developing a complete course of study for Grades K-12, one in which families can experience many of the benefits of a one-room schoolhouse atmosphere. As a first step towards that end, we offered a suggested sequence along with curriculum recommendations for studying high school subjects as they correspond with each program within our Mission: Great Commission Curriculum series. Since then, we have embarked on the long process of evaluating high school curriculum with our teenagers using our corresponding lesson plans for each curriculum choice. We’re excited to announce that after years of curriculum evaluation and lesson planning, our first two levels of Homeschool High School Lesson Plans is finished!
What it entails
- Engagement with family. High school students often become disconnected from the rest of their family as they earn high school credit, so our aim was to develop lesson plans that would step them and their parents through learning the same general topics at a deeper and more challenging level – and with curriculum that qualifies as high-school level material. By having these same general topics correspond to our Mission Great Commission series, high schoolers can remain engaged and contribute what they’re learning to the discussions because of the overlap between material.
- Parent help. Co-op help. If you’re not sure how to lay out lesson plans over the course of the year or what to do when you meet with your student to discuss what they’re learning, these lesson plans provide that support for you. Each week concludes with a co-op or parent meeting day in which students present and discuss material with other students (in the case of a co-op setting) or with their parents. Prompts are included for discussion.
- College prep. Because we wanted to do our best in preparing students for college, we also wanted to ensure that our high schoolers could successfully transition to college and/or successfully earn college credit via testing before offering our plans to others. In these lesson plans, we’ve taken our favorite courses, scheduled them out over the course of the year, and provided some tips for how to earn college credit as your student works his/her way through high school using CLEP testing.
- Complete, four-year program…. eventually! This set of lesson plans will be Trek One, intended for 9th graders. Depending on the interest expressed by homeschooling families, our goal is to create an entire scope and sequence of lesson plans for the four years of high school. Trek One was released in May 2023. If the response to Trek One warrants the further development of this program, Trek Two, Trek Three, and Trek Four will most likely be released in Spring 2024, Spring 2025, and Spring 2026, respectively.
The most challenging part of this vision has been simply…. decision. There are many different curriculum options, and there are many different learning styles. Education is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Even so, these lesson plans are meant to provide a framework to equip parents to continue to teach their children at home through the intimidating high school years. And our hope is that it will provide a catalyst for meaningful discussion and memory-making with your high schoolers!
The Curriculum Choices
If you’re interested in using our lesson plans, Trek One will provide a full, 36-week schedule for the following subjects:
The lesson plans are for the following curriculum choices which correspond to subjects studied in our Grade 2-8 program, Mission Lasting Liberty.
This one-year high school-level curriculum provides 36 weeks of daily lesson plans for eight high school subjects: Bible, American History, English, Lab Science (Biology), Math (Algebra I), Foreign Language I (Latin I), Health (1 semester), and Government (1 semester). To accommodate for learning style differences, we offer two curriculum options for two of the subjects (history and science). This guide includes lesson plans for each option.
- Two options for combined American History, Bible, and English credit (full year, 3 Credits) – Choose One:
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Option 1: Condensed American (full year): Notgrass Exploring America (textbook-based) with the following American Literature:
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrative of the Life of David Crockett by David Crockett
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Co. Aytch by Sam Watkins
- Humorous Stories and Sketches by Mark Twain
- In His Steps by Charles Sheldon
- Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
- Mama’s Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes
- Miracle in the Hills by Mary T. Martin Sloop and LeGette Blythe
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
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Note: The curriculum + literature bundle from Notgrass includes all of the literature listed above.
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Option 2: American History (full year): Dave Raymond’s American History (video-based) with the following American Literature (with settings up to the early 1900s):
- The Last of the Mohicans
- The Scarlet Letter
- Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Excerpts from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (in appendix of the Truth Trek One Guide)
- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Co. Aytch by Sam Watkins (in lieu of The Red Badge of Courage)
- My Antonia by Willa Cather
- Up from Slavery
- Select short stories and poetry (refer to Truth Trek Supplemental Resources)
- Optional: Barron’s American Literature (EZ-101 Study Keys)
Note: If your student is uncomfortable with responding to essay prompts and needs more formal instruction on essay writing, we recommend using IEW Structure and Style for Students Level C .
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- Two options for Biology (full year lab science, 1 credit) – Choose One:
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- Option 1: Experience Biology with readings from The Riot and the Dance. Read our detailed review of Experience Biology.
- Option 2: Discovering Design with Biology
- Health (1st Semester, 1/2 credit): Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Health and Nutrition
- Government (2nd Semester, 1/2 credit): Notgrass Exploring Government. You will need only the Exploring Government Curriculum Package and the corresponding Student Review Pack. These lesson plans are compatible with both the 2016 edition of Exploring Government and the updated 2023 edition of Exploring Government.
- Math – Algebra I (full year, 1 credit): Math U See Algebra I Legacy Edition (brown cover)
- Foreign Language I (full year, 1 credit): Visual Latin 1 along with Lingua Latina (Familia Romana).
In future posts or newsletters, we will share why we chose this particular curriculum out of all the high school curriculum we have purchased/reviewed/used over the past five years.
If your student is using a different program for any of these subjects, blank planning pages are provided so that you can insert your own lesson plans for those subjects.
Check it out!
If you’d like to download a sample of the first week of Homeschool High School Lesson Plans: Truth Trek One, click here.
If you have questions, feel free to hop down to the comments or contact us via email at halfahundredacrewood @gmail.com (no spaces).
If you’re interested in our second year of Truth Trek Lesson Plans, click here.
High School Lessons – Truth Trek One
High School Lessons Truth Trek One PDF Only
Streamline high school with all-in-one lesson plans for courses written from a Christian worldview! This one-year high school-level curriculum provides 36 weeks of lesson plans for seven subjects: U.S. History (full year), English with American Literature focus (full year), Biology (full year lab science), Math – Algebra I (full year), Foreign Language – Latin I (full year), Health (Elective – 1st Semester), and Government (Elective – 2nd Semester). Each week consists of four days of instructions for students and wraps up with a “Co-op or Parent Meeting Day” that walks parents or co-op teachers through a discussion of the current week’s topics and confirms that the student understands the material. To download a sample, click here.
For families with children in Grades 1-8, the Mission Lasting Liberty program teaches corresponding subjects at the elementary and middle school levels. This provides a unified approach to teaching and learning in the home as all students in Grades 1-12 study similar content areas.
Format: PDF Download (Mac & PC Compatible), 256 pages. For individual family use only. A link to download the PDF Document will be automatically sent to the Paypal email address used at checkout.
Suggested grades: 9th grade (or high schoolers who need to take a course in any of the following: High School English (with American Literature), U.S. History, U.S. Government, Biology I, Health, or Foreign Language I).
PDF Price: $39.95
