Anybody have suggestions for independent homeschool Literature for a 10 year old working roughly at a high school level? It's hard to find things that are 1. mostly secular 2. don't use books that are too adult in subject matter 3. don't require a complete re-writing for a gifted kiddo.

I don't care if it's unit studies or a full year program.

Thanks!

I think you may find it easier to piece together your own curriculum, with your own literary selections. High school-level curriculum will naturally assume a high school-aged audience.

When I was ten I wore out a copy of The Hobbit, then revisited it as a 9th grade Honors English assignment, so that seems like an easy fit.

Thanks,

I was afraid that was the answer. I think you are right.

She's read Hobbit, but it is one that warrants re-reading.

I've written/ pieced together our own stuff all along. My schedule looks to be tighter next year. If I do end up writing literature for her for next year, I'd probably start it fairly soon. Winter is a good time for it.

We have been quite happy with Laurel Springs Honors English (for English, we strongly prefer the Honors online, not the Honors textbook -- the textbook version uses anthologies, while the online version uses whole books and other original sources; the online courses are developed in-house and are quite good -- they aren't multi-choice junk at all). They pretty much stick to the canon, which means that they aren't focused on contemporary "teen issues" at all (unlike some bricks and mortar schools). So I have had a middle-schooler in 9th and 10th grade Honors English there, and the readings included the Odyssey and Iliad (in a good translation), Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Beowulf, some Gilgamesh, poetry, and a bunch of other stuff. (Hope this is useful!) Lots of writing as well: good, analytic writing assignments, not "how do you feel?" stuff.

On the independence front: you can buy LSS courses one by one. There are 36 fairly hefty written assignments, and they are graded by a teacher, but the parent does the day-to-day work of teaching.

If I were doing literature without an outside curriculum with a 10-year-old (which I once did!), I might add in Call of the Wild, Elijah of Buxton, and some narrative poetry (Charge of the Light Brigade, The Raven, Ride of Paul Revere).

I am right there with you. I am going to have to put together a homeschool English class for my ten year old who will homeschool sixth grade next year who needs high school level books and challenge.

My other concern (because at some time he might return to public school or he might do early college)...Is do I call/consider it middle school English I gifted/honors or high school level ninth grade English?

She loves "The Raven".

I do have some High School Lighting Lit that might be adaptable. I teach a homeschool High School Coop Class that she regularly butts into while waiting for her own class I teach later. It's American Lit; I'm not sure "I" can do another round of Ben Franklin.

I do have a writing program she likes (and does willingly / independently- other than an hour a week when I'm teaching a coop class). So I really need mostly lit, and maybe a little grammar. She's does French and Latin (both grammar based), so she wouldn't need a lot.

The lit is the hard part, though. She's pretty good with analysis, and likes to read, but somehow it seems to take a lot of my energy. I have her reading from a long list of choices, discussing with me, then writing each week.

I'd like to do something Middle Ages because I like the synergy of reading from the same time period as our history (and she likes history, but not particularly historical fiction). There's lots of good high Lexile, kid- friendly literature that could tie-in: Robin Hood, King Arthur, some Shakespeare. There doesn't seem to be a lot of support materials for a young independent learner outside of a traditional classroom, though. Memoria Press has some lit units, but the ones I've seen sort bludgeon to death the books (to be fair, I think that of most literature units).

GF2, I will look at Laurel Springs. I was not aware of part time options. Cookie, we've decided just to call things by age grade and list materials in our record keeping (and test scores/ lexile level, etc). We had her "grade skipped" on paper, and undid it b/c for homeschool the benefits out-weighed the drawbacks. We also know she won't go into a public school. Early college would require an SAT score for our closest option.

Have you tried Athena's advanced academy? It is aimed at gifted kids.

She's beyond most of Athena's offerings. I've actually had her enrolled twice in G3 classes and had to drop because the times are hard for us. I might look at those again. I sort of feel like they are more social than academic, but maybe that's what she needs for lit this next year if the times work out.

Hi, Bean,

Just thinking about your situation, and given that your DD is 10, one question you might think about is whether her writing skills correspond to her reading level. I know that my dc, for a long time, was a voracious and comprehending reader at an upper-high-school level, but his writing and analytical skills, though quite high for his chron age, were not at the same level. By age 13-14, that changed completely, and at 14, he reads and writes at a college level. But there was a huge developmental leap there. So at age 10 or 11, if you are seeing something similar, I wonder whether you might build language skills and historical background by doing (as you suggest) something on the MIddle Ages and a bit beyond. You could do Beowulf (I love, love the Seamus Heaney version) and some Chaucer (bits of Canterbury Tales?), and perhaps have creative/fiction assignments as well as analytical stuff. (Just understanding Beowulf and Chaucer at that age would be fantastic and a wonderful challenge, let alone thinking about poetic structure and that sort of thing). She could read some "Inferno," maybe? (My dc, for whatever reason, LOVED the Inferno at 11 and got into the circles.) And to lighten things up :-), it might be really fun to read some 19th- and 20th-century takes on the period. Anything from Walter Scott to the Hobbit.

Anyway, all I'm trying to say is that there seems to be some asynchronous development in humanities kids -- i.e., a gap between reading and writing. Think of Jane Austen's Juvenilia -- you can see glimmers of what she will be, but she's still very young in her understanding of people, events, and structure. So in hindsight, I guess I got some of it right -- I let him read everything and encouraged him to read and talk about it. But at that age (10-11), writing assignments were mostly fiction or light analysis. It wasn't until 12 that a true high school approach made sense, with more rigorous attention to literary terms, structure, and higher-level analysis.

Now, at 14, the difficulty is that he is quickly outpacing high school anything. :-) I have to figure out how to get him into State Uni courses before their age 16 breakpoint.

I hope this is useful. Ignore it if not! :-)

I was going to say or G3. I know about times. Morning courses in the US are very early morning here.

Thanks GF2- She'll still be a young 10 when we jump into school in the fall.

She's pretty good with analysis, and a good little writer, but isn't very fast at physically typing. She wouldn't have the life experience for most high school assignments (thank goodness).

I think I should focus finding something more to guide her reading of more challenging lit- like some of your suggestions, rather than a full course.

G3 classes are wonderful -- very academic, actually, just more focused on conceptual stuff -- thinking and analyzing and discussing rather than producing a large volume of written work. My kids learn a ton in those classes.