To the Rubicon Academy Ninth Grade page!
Our star pupil...at the N.R.A. Youth Hunter Education Challenge 1999 in Mansfield, PA.
Our student belongs to the Caddo-Bossier Youth Hunter Education Club. Find out more about this great club by clicking here.
Archery is just one of the eight events featured in the Challenge. Others include .22 rifle, shotgun, muzzleloader, Wildlife I.D., hunter safety test and trail, and orienteering.
To find out more about how your child can get involved in your state, click here.
Our High School has built a strong core of basic subjects surrounded by a potpourri of electives chosen by the student. This semester we are exploring photography - both digital and 35mm. Photographs are taken in both color and black and white. Our guide is John Hedgecoe's New Introductory Photography Course. Here are a few examples of her work with the digital camera:
To visit our class gallery, click here.
Our Literature course for this semester is the Literature of Science Fiction. In addition to reading several of the classics of the genre, we are using as our guide the Norton Book of Science Fiction edited by Ursula K.LeGuin and Brian Attebery. We also incorporate film into many of our courses, and Sci-Fi has proven to be quite enjoyable. We have screened 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Bladerunner, among others. We are also using an on-line Sci-Fi course from the University of Indiana as a syllabus. In addition we have read these books:
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
The Complete Harry Potter series (Fantasy)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Stephen Speilberg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Our homeschool schedule allows us to take advantage of many opportunies for study outside of traditional grade/age categories. Our high school student has attended seminars at local and regional colleges, taken courses put together at top universities via the internet, and been able to pursue her own interests. Among those are drawing, reading, computer, photography, the shooting sports, music and singing.
Charlotte Mason said that "Education is a LIFE, the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum. But the mind is not a receptacle into which ideas must be dropped...a child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is...a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge." This is key in a Charlotte Mason education. The ideas and the child need no middleman...no one to spoonfeed or hyper-analyze the ideas. We believe that the lack of intellectual curiousity and desire to learn only that which "will be on the test" is a direct result of this spoon-feeding of our nation's children.
We use technology in the High School classroom as well. Macs are the computers of choice here. We are currently working on personal web pages using the Apple Internet Construction Kit.
We also use film to bring many history and literature topics to life. Favorites this year include:
The Grapes of Wrath The Day the Earth Stood Still Bladerunner
The Right Stuff 2001: A Space Odyssey Patton
1984 Apocalypse Now Full Metal Jacket
Some of these titles may be considered too mature for our student by some. We believe not in censoring, but in sharing ideas (even if controversial) in a nurturing, family atmosphere where they can be discussed and analyzed.. We know that in this way our student can discern what is right and true.
A favorite time of day is read aloud time. Many times the whole school is on the couch together listening to a great book. We have enjoyed these this year:
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
One of the colleges we are looking at is Texas A&M. (GO AGGIES!!!) This photo was taken there in 1999 on a trip to the Science, Technology and YOUth Symposium where we were able to tour the campus and attend several interesting and exciting lectures on topics ranging from Equine physiology to Aerodynamics to the study of the Coral Gardens of the Gulf by marine biologists. We plan to attend the conference in early March.
Favorite Links for High School:
Homeschooling Through High School Essay
Lynn's Very Unofficial CM type booklists
Click here to go to our Rubicon Academy Bookmarks page. I've got links for College Prep and Tests, Interactive Higher Level Math, Literature, Science and more!
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