I remember back in eighth or ninth grade being asked by my teachers or guidance counselors to make a “four-year plan” for my high school career. I came across that plan recently, and I had to laugh at the absurdity of it! The ninth grade year was spot on (I am guessing we had already picked that year or were about to), but tenth through twelfth grades weren’t even close to what I ended up taking (“Mass Media”, “Fashion 1”?). I had even left unchecked the “Pursuing College Prep certificate”. In fairness, I changed schools (well, moved to a new state) after ninth grade, so some (most) of the courses weren’t even an option, but the original spirit of that first schedule was lost in the move as well.
I thought I’d do the same for Sunshinegirl, giving her the option to look four years out and at least set down some goals. I told her my story (and showed her my hilarious plan) and said that I didn’t expect her to follow that schedule 100%. It was simply to get her thinking about what is required and what freedom she has to explore other topics. The sky’s the limit with homeschooling since we could potentially create a class on any topic! We could have both a college prep curriculum and choose courses that preview her college and future careers.
We started with the traditional grid, broken down into four years, six-seven lines and two columns (semesters) per year. Before handing the schedule off to her to work on, I plugged in the Michigan Merit Curriculum requirements for graduation (each state has its own required–and recommended–courses for graduation, so you would have to find your own). Since I was creating this in Google sheets (Microsoft Excel or Word work great, too), I was able to boldface the required courses so that it was easy to see what was required and what could be modified.
This exercise was useful for both of us. For me, I could plan ahead beyond a year and make sure proper pre-requisite knowledge was covered in other courses. For her, this process let her put her academic “likes” and propensities down on paper as rough goals. It made her think about “do I want/need to take Calculus senior year?”, “What, if any, AP courses/tests would I want to tackle?”, and “What courses could fulfill my academic passions?” (When in high school were you ever asked to consider your passions when picking classes!?)
Below is what she picked at the end of eighth grade. We’ll circle back each year and fill out the same sheet, and I will post that progression on this site.
Top of Her Class of One 