St. Bruno’s 2025-26 Curriculum

I’m sick of writing up lesson plans so instead I’ll write a blog post about our curriculum choices! Nineteen years at this game (because I don’t count PreK) and I’m still learning things, but very much looking forward to the year ahead. No deep reflections this year (unlike last year’s post and my other recent homeschooling post), just the picks with the customary affiliate links.

Teddy, 9th Grade

My baby is in high school! Do I have some big feels? Maybe…

Math – Teaching Textbooks Geometry

English – I’ve got Teddy reading a mix of literature tied to the ancient history we’re studying, and then modern literature. The Iliad followed by a modern heroes journey, Enders Game. Then Oedipus Rex, followed by a modern tragedy play, Death of a Salesman. Lastly, Antigone followed by The Great Gatsby. He’ll do some quizzes on Sparknotes but I got a lot of curriculum on Teachers Pay Teachers based around each book to guide his writing assignments. He’ll be able to do everything on Google Classroom.

Many of the resources a I bought this year were digital products designed to be used in Google Classroom. While most are created for use with a class of students, a lot of the resources work well in a homeschool setting. I liked that I could find materials for each literature book I already knew I wanted to use, so the writing the reading are tied together without extra work on my part.

Latin – Continuing onwards in Ligua Latina under Tony’s tutelage.

Logic – This is offered at co-op and they’re using Fallacy Detective. It’s sort of a step down from what he did last year, but it will review a lot of what he did learn and someone else is doing it with him (and I’m lousy at teaching logic) so it’s fine.

History – I’m teaching high school history at co-op this year so he’ll be taking that. We’re using The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer. I’m really looking forward to discussing ancient history with the teens, even thought I’m probably going to be more excited than them. It’s going to be an intense year as the text is long and we only have 31 weeks of co-op, so it’s becoming an everyday class for both boys vs once a week. Edie used this book and it’s a really great series that are enjoyable to read.

Science – Apologia’s Exploring Creation Through Biology. Thanking myself for taking the time to enter all the tests into a Google Classroom years ago for Edie. I’ll be overseeing things a bit closer with Teddy to help with the labs, but if it gets too challenging (for me and/ or him) I might order the video lecture series. This subject is also moving from once a week to everyday; thankfully there’s a daily schedule outlined in the Student Notebook.

Elective – Music Composition – He wanted to try music composition, knowing that his goal of writing a movie score is probably a long term goal and not something he’ll accomplish this year. It’s going to be a mix of basic music theory, piano, and learning Garage Band. We’ll see how it goes.

Fulton, 12th Grade

I’m preparing to graduate another child!! How is this possible?!?! Fulton’s path may look a bit different than his siblings, but he’s got goals we’re going to work towards following his own timeline. I’m really glad we’re homeschooling him this year.

Math – Teaching Textbooks

English – Fulton will also be listening to a mix of fiction tied to history and modern literature; Black Ships Before Troy, The Golden Compass, Circe, Eragon, Ben-Hur, and The Great Gatsby. I also got a writing curriculum for him from Teachers Pay Teachers that I uploaded right to a Google Classroom for him to complete on his tablet. (Just FYI; if your child is using the Google Classroom app on an iPad like Fulton, they need to also have the Google Slides app dowloaded in order to edit any Slides you’ve uploaded to their classroom. Learn more about using Google Classroom in Your Homeschool.)

French – He’ll continue working on French with DuoLingo for fun and review, but with lessons from Mango Languages. We get free access through our library and it has an app he can use on his tablet.

Logic – He’ll be taking the same class with Teddy at co-op.

History – Also taking my history class. I got the textbook on Audible for him to listen to.

Science – While he’ll do the experiments with Teddy, he’s going to listen to Science Matters for his text, also available on Audible. Between Libby and Audible, we’re able to find pretty much any book we need.

Elective – Entrepreneurship – There are some life skills we’ll continue to work on, however Fulton wanted to create an online business selling t-shirts. We’ll work on design, setting up a storefront, creating shirts with DTF images, packaging orders, inventory, bookkeeping, and marketing. Once his designs are available, y’all will be the first to know!

Morning Meeting

I made an executive decision to bring back the morning meeting. By late afternoon I was done and often antsy to catch up on calls, errands, chores, or anything that had gotten put off during school hours. And the boys never really wanted to gather for afternoon tea either, even with the allure of snacks. Topics include:

Shakespeare – I’m not teaching a Shakespeare class at co-op this year, so we’re focusing on reading plays we haven’t covered before; Measure for Measure, Pericles Prince of Tyre, Cymbeline, and Timon of Athens. We’ve gone through all but one of the No Fear Shakespeare series, so some of those are modern translations put out by other publishers. We’ll see how it goes. Depending how quickly we go through them (or how I feel about the translations) we may cover Antony and Cleopatra.

Music Appreciation – Following Ambleside Online’s recommendations.

Art Appreciation – Following Ambleside Online’s recommendations.

Geography – Still using the ‘High School Card Set’ from The Good and the Beautiful since we stuck with it for only a few weeks last year.

Religion – I’m leading the high school religion class at co-op this year, but it’s basically just me introducing a topic for 10 minutes and then a shortened holy hour, followed by a discussion question the kids answer online. I’m pretty happy with the topics I’ve come up with for the year, but in addition to this class I’ll read entries from the YouCat. and possibly another devotional during morning meeting. But I’m hoping we’ll be able to discuss (argue?) about the religion lessons in depth too.

Today in History – I’ll read entries from The American Patriot’s Almanac: Daily Readings on America. Because we can’t get too much history in this house.

I’d really like to find some extra curricular activities for them both, but its challenging for different reasons (not for lack of my ideas or insistence). Our days will be a bit longer, but the afternoons are filled with more subjects they can work on independently so I can still make phone calls, move around laundry, scream into the void, and what have you. I’m feeling pretty good about the year, despite the fact that on the first day, I learned we’d be losing nursing care (but that’s a story for another post, hopefully coming soon with some camp pictures as well). And I’m looking forward to continuing with co-op. I’m also running a drama club, but neither boy was interested in that (clearly I’m the only dramatic one in the house).

Happy September everyone! Hope you’ve all had a seamless return to school this year!