9th Grade Basics?

Question

Okay, so I'm homeschooled. I have been since 6th grade.

I live in South Carolina, and I'm going into the 9th grade.

Last year(8th grade) we used a different curriculum and it didn't explain stuff well and was on a very low educational level which we didn't know when we started it. Because of this, I slacked. Majorly. I guessed on the ending test on about 50% of the stuff - yes, I know how bad that is but it's the past now.

So my question is, seeing that I pretty much didn't do 8th grade, what are some basics I need to know before starting 9th grade?

What can I expect-basically- in 9th?

We are switching curriculums, too, by the way.

Any advice?

Answer 1

IF it's anything like my american public high-school, you'll have ****-load of textbooks to carry around and a tiny ******* locker.

If it was too basic for you why did you not just flunk class and ace tests?

If my 1st first paragraph is true you'll also have a ****-load of stuff in general to carry around and do something with if you want good grades.

Answer 2

hey cool!

i home school too! its really great, right? well so you are going to 9th grd and guess what im in 7th and im thinking of jumping 8th to 9th so we're almost even!

anyway i had an older sibling who went through ninth grade and really all you need is a solid foundation in math, say a good grasp in algebra. And also good reading comprehension. With those two history and english will be fine ...and then build the harder maths like geometry and calculus and sciences off your solid math foundation! that's all!

hope you enjoy 9th grd!

harrie

Answer 3

Dont worry about the 8th grade time loss, you probably learned just about as much as typical public schoolers in the 8th grade!

Since you are entering 'high school', you need to sit down with your mom and talk about possible college/career choices, yes, now is the time.  If you plan to be a journalist or something similar, I dont see the need to take your Math level to Calculus or Trig, see what colleges you are interested in and see what they require for high school transcripts.

Also, dont just jump into a different curriculum, do some research, look at samples etc, see if it really matches how you learn or if it would just bore you to death.  I personally dont agree with boxed curriculum or public school at home, everything seems to go into short term memory (study for test).  A good site to visit is Homeschoolreviews.com and look up some different curriculums and see if you can find a fit to you.

We are very eclectic here, for example, my son last year 9th grade:

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 (this is a must for math haters or a math hating mom)  You might want to start with Pre Algebra or a lower level.  Dont even attempt Algebra if you are missing some components of your basic math skills. I never attempted Alg until I hit college  :)

Rainbow Science by Beginnings Publishing, Lab every week, lots of hands on science

US History-He read The History of US series by Hakim, used Sonlight's History reading list and watched a ton of documentaries, historical field trips and we talked about it!

English-lots of literature, used LLATL Am Lit some, Sonlight reading list again and discussion, Easy Grammar Plus when we feel like it.

His electives were his interests, Music! and all aspects of it, and this will all go on his transcript.

Btw, I pulled my son out of PS after 7th grade and totally unschooled him for 8th, he did nothing but read and pursued his interests.  He just took his CAT test and scored 94% so I am not the least worried about that year.

High School is what really counts if you are college bound so relax.  Just take everything slow and you'll get it, you are NOT behind!

Answer 4

some basics you need to know hmmmmm..... O! how about 8th grade

Answer 5

If you don't like math, I recommend Teaching Textbooks for Algebra 1.  It is explained so well.

I know that you asked what to do to prepare for 9th, but it also matters what you use when you get into 9th.

Here is a website with activities to help you prepare yourself for 9th grade work:

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/grade...

Answer 6

Hmmmmm. Hopefully you know how much sting a wooden paddle causes, because I think that's one of the states that still has it! That, and getting picked on EVERYDAY because you're a freshman, that's how it was for me in the 70's!

Answer 7

I think you should ask your local school district for the complete High school curriculum standards and then design a series of projects all designed to throw you in the path of that content. Essays, novels, internships, interviews with experts on the topic in your area, and the internet of course.

Have fun with it, maybe you want to make a timeline of the history content you are meant to be receiving all over your room. Maybe you want to compile an anthology of poetry from each decade of the history you are studying and imitate some of them, and write essays about others. That should knock out any english and history requirements so long as you know about basic events.

You could make a newspaper and pretend it's from the 1800's. You could write a story about crash landing in a time machine back during the Cold War.

For math, maybe you could just go to your local community college, adult school or whatever a few times a week and sign up for whatever grade level you're at. Or you could hunt down a used math textbook and work through it using yahoo answers, message boards, and the math saavy people in your life to help you when you get stuck. Take it easy and start where you are (with history you can skip around, but with math you HAVE to begin at the beginning), it's better to learn a few concepts well than to cram and forget everything. Maybe you could swear to spend a small chunk of time per day like half an hour on math; if you are blazing through the work you may want to break your rule some days and spend longer. Or you could promise yourself that every minute you spend in a waiting room, or in long lines, or small chunks of time on road trips will be spent considering a mathematical concept on a flashcard and make Fridays your horrible hideous math days where all you work on is math. Maybe when working on math you could get up and go to the kitchen and make yourself some tea and popcorn. Set up a safe and happy math zone with all of your favorite stuffed toys or light a candle (in a safe way), have a moment of prayer before you start your math. Anything to treat yourself extra special and make you look forward to your math all day.

Maybe you could take the science standards and then make up lists of questions to be posted to a blog then you could go all over the internet and make phone calls to different universities to ask scientists some of the questions. Then post it to your blog along with credits.

Or maybe you could volunteer at a local lab or research university cleaning out trays and petri dishes and sweeping floors in exchange to watch scientists in action and pull out the most difficult of questions when you feel like it.

You could have a club to do a five times a year science exhibit where different homeschoolers all go out and research different topics on the internet and in books at the library, then you can all come together for a week and invite homeschoolers and parents to look at all of your work. Walking around the room taking notes on everything. Then make a test off of all the content and practice it until you know it.

For P.E. you could join a swim team, or a soccer team, or take a yoga class, anything you want.

Most of all structure everything in a good way for you, if you like things the public school way (6 periods, one hour for each subject, on a schedule) than do that, but if you like freedom than design your schedule so that you have more time for each topic each day, for example Monday- 1/2 an hour on math, 2 hours on your timeline project, than head over to the lab with all of your notebooks. Tuesday-yoga for an hour, read your book on how Louis Braille and Hellen Keller changed disability rights in the United States until lunch time. Than go work on math for another half an hour. Than go work on your blog.

Or you could consider doing block studies, two weeks for one project, two for another.

You could be really radical and decide that you are going to do school all year round except for Christmas, but you are going to start school at lunch and work until 3 pm leaving Sundays off so that your schedule will remain the same.

Remember when you are structuring all of this to factor in your family, if you have little siblings getting up at 8:00 to work at the kitchen table until lunch time and then after lunch work until 4:00 be considerate and make it obvious to the whole family that you are working very hard. Consider the amount of money your family has, gas isn't cheap and sometimes parents have no money to spend on a community college class, look into financial aid and scholarships for the things you want to do. Call people up and ask them if they'll exchange work instead of cash for a class. Remember that you as a homeschooled teen have responsibility in the home. Make sure whatever you plan  allows room for helping mom on baking day or laundry day, doing chores, and babysitting any siblings.

Consider parental misgivings, design your plan and then go to them with it, make sure that all of your plans are neatly layed out on paper, tell them you simply want to do a trial run and here is your plan for the year and a tentative long term plan for the entire four years.

When planning it all out go once in a while to your mom or dad and ask them questions to mentally give them hints that you may be planning some big things for the year. For example: "Hey mom, what if I used your curriculum but went to the library three days a week and bring the materials with me to use it partialy and then go find some fun books on it?". If your parents are really overprotective about letting out of the house alone then ask if they could take the class with you. ("Hey mom check this out! there's a ceramics class at the community center this year, lets take it together!", "dad, can you believe it! a statistics class at the University that has space for two people to audit!").

If they are the types to say that you have to get your moneys worth out of the curriculum say that you'll use it as a reference guide and starting point to spark ideas for your projects and that with your plan you would have to have a comprehensive guide to all of the things that you are studying this year to constantly refer to, and that the new curriculum will be that guide. Convince them that you are going to work the curriculum to death (and then make sure you do) you'll use it even more in some ways than if you were using it the way that they said. Appeal to the fact that you and they know more about what's best for you, not some distant cold stack of materials, books, and worksheets designed and mass produced for homeshoolers. When explaining it be respectful of all the opinions they voice, be ready for any questions and say things like "that is definitely a concern but I may have a solution, there is this free workshop here." If they come up with a question you can't answer write it down and ask them if you can consider/research it and get back to them the next day.

Your parents will definitely bring up your slacking of last year and say that this year you are ready to turn over a new leaf and that you are passionate about your plans. Ask them if they wish to set up rules, perameters, and consequences around your plan. Tell them your plan is revisable. Whatever you do stay mature and treat even the stupidest of questions like a valuable insight, thank your parents for having misgivings, but don't suck up too much. Remind them constantly that all you want is a trial run. If they give you a week, then I suggest you be extremely strict with yourself that week and get up earlier than stated in your plan to get to work. Relax as they do.

During the meeting if they bring up a concern and drop it without you thoroughly knowing a good answer to it then write it down and at the end of the meeting tell them that you haven't forgotten about it.  Treat their concerns not like something to get around to have what you want, but like your own concern that you are truly worried about and are commited to solving.

Your resources would be the library, the internet, any community centers, and community/junior colleges. Perhaps if you have a large university in your area they'll allow you to audit classes (sit in on classes for no credit for free), the YMCA is a good place for P.E.

Answer 8

In basic curriculum for 9th grade you will be learning Algebra I, Journalism, English I, Physical Science, Civics, and Free Enterprise. At least thats what we did. You should try going to Glencoe. com. It is a website that can give you information on all subjects. You just choose yours state, put that youa re a student, choose your subject and go from there. I used this website a lot with my math. Hope this helps!