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Homeschooling: Choosing the Subjects You Will Teach in a School Year

The first step in planning your school year is to select the subjects that you will be teaching each student during the upcoming year; the subjects define what you are going to teach. Initially, your subjects might be quite general, for example subjects like math, history, geography, science, and so on. After you have selected the general subjects you will teach, you further refine those subjects to be more focused on a specific aspect of a subject you will be teaching, such as Ancient Egyptian History, Algebra 1, Biology, and so on.

Selecting subjects can be a bit intimidating at first. But, there are lots of resources available to you, including this book, to help you select appropriate subjects. Also keep in mind that there just aren't all that many general subjects from which you will choose, especially before a child reaches the junior high level (typically considered seventh grade).

As you contemplate the subjects you are going to teach, refer back to the legal requirements for your state. If your state requires that specific subjects be taught, this will provide a good starting point for your selection of subjects for a specific year. Some states require specific subjects for specified grade levels, while others require that a general set of subjects be taught each year. You can refer to the HSLDA Web site for your state to determine if subject requirements are provided.

For example, consider New York's subject requirements. New York requires that specific subjects be taught and also provides the grades in which those subjects must be taught. All grades (K-12) must be taught the following subjects: patriotism and citizenship, substance abuse, traffic safety, and fire safety. In grades 1-6, the additional subjects required are arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, English, geography, U.S. history, science, health, music, visual arts, and physical education. Although this is quite a list of subjects, the 1-6 grade subjects don't all have to be taught in the same year, although some of them (such as math) are likely to be taught each year at a different level.

Utah is another state that requires specific subjects be taught, although the list of subjects is not broken out by grade level, as is New York's list.

Although at first such subject requirements might seem burdensome to you, they can actually be helpful – especially when you are just starting to homeschool because you don't have to come up with a list of subjects from scratch. And, although these subjects are required, you are still free to choose how you teach the required subjects. The requirement is only for a general subject; your job will be to decide how you want to teach that subject and the kind of curriculum you will use to teach it.

You should consider such lists of subjects to be just what they are – basic requirements. You are free to add more subjects, and you probably will want to do so.

If your state doesn't require that you teach particular subjects, you are free to choose the topics that you believe should be taught. This can be more difficult initially, but choosing the general subjects for a school year likely won't be all that difficult for you, especially after the first year.

Basic Subjects by Grade Level

Grade Level	Subjects
Kindergarten-2nd Grade	Reading/Phonics Math Arts Physical Education
3rd-5th Grade	English Math Science History Arts Physical Education
5th-8th Grade	English Math Science History/Social Studies Arts Physical Education

In addition to these basic subjects, you might want to add more subjects to suit your and your children's interests and values. For example, you might want to include Bible study on your agenda.

As you can see in the table, basic topics are general. After you have selected the basic topics, you can break them down into more detail, usually by grade level. For example, you should teach math at every grade level. Each year, the student progresses in difficulty as shown in the following progression from kindergarten through the third grade:

• Kindergarten: numbers, counting, simple addition

• First grade: simple addition and subtraction

• Second grade: multiplication, division, simple word problems

• Third grade: more advanced operations, charts, and graphs

As the student enters the fifth and sixth grades, the topics become more complex and move into pre-algebra and algebra.

Your goal in this part of the planning process should be to develop the list of topics that you will teach each student in the coming year. A simple example is shown. Example Subjects by Student and Grade Level

Student	Grade Level	Subjects
Rachel	Kindergarten	Reading/Phonics Math (Numbers, counting) Arts (Painting, drawing) Physical Education Bible study
Hans	3rd Grade	English (Literature, spelling, grammar) Math (Advanced operations, graphs, charts) Science (Basic life science) History (1700-1800 America) Arts (Piano lessons, basic music reading, performing arts) Physical Education (Soccer, baseball) Bible study
Jill	5th Grade	English (Literature, writing, spelling, grammar) Math (Pre-algebra) Science (Geology, astronomy) History/Social Studies (1700- 1800 America, geography) Arts (Violin lessons, ballet, performing arts) Physical Education (Gymnastics) Bible study

This list provides what you will teach and will provide general guidelines for the coming year.

As you plan subjects, there will be some that you can teach to children at the same time even though those children might be at different grade levels. History is a good example of this. You can choose the same general subject, such as Ancient Egypt, for each child. You can teach the subject to each child based on its own grade level. This makes preparation slightly easier, but it makes managing your classroom time much easier because you can teach more than one child at the same time. Of course, the specific way you teach that topic, such as the level and amount of work required, will be different based on the grade level of each child. This approach works for some subjects, such as history and the arts, much better than others, such as math (which is very difficult to teach to different grade levels at the same time).

The next step in the process is to break down those general guidelines into specific plans.