One of Addison's biggest interests is music. She sang with the Tucson Girls Chorus for the first three years of high school. For her freshman year, she added an online music theory program to her chorus rehearsals to create a class named "Music Theory and Performance." For her sophomore year, we created a "Music History and Performance" class using the Discovering Music multi-media course by Carol Reynolds, PhD. Her rehearsal schedule increased quite a bit this past year as did her volunteer time spent with a younger choir, so I counted that time as sufficient for a full credit of "Music Performance."
Her participation in the Tucson Girls Chorus led to an amazing opportunity this past year. They were invited to travel and perform in China for three weeks this past summer. Since she had some extra time in her school schedule, she started studying Chinese using Middlebury Languages for a semester. She didn't know a lot of Chinese, but she knew enough to be somewhat useful on a few occasions. She's particularly proud of the night when she helped one of her friends ask if the dumplings she was ordering were meat-filled or vegetarian.
Perhaps the best thing she learned from her Chinese studies was how to write her name in Chinese characters. I noticed them on her luggage tag when they were leaving on the trip.
Later she told us about an evening when the girls were all signing autographs after their concert. Several young Chinese girls approached her asking for her autograph. She wrote her name in English and then thought to write down the characters. The girls looked at it and then suddenly realized that they could actually read what she had written. They sounded it out and started cheering for "A-dis-son." It's perhaps her favorite memory from the trip.
I'm thankful that homeschooling allowed Addison to follow her interests and to take advantage of all the opportunities she found along the way. It's perhaps just a nice bonus that her work could count as high school credit on her transcript.
You can read more about High School Electives by visiting some of my friends:
- Chareen at Every Bed of Roses with thoughts on Electives in the High School Years
- Debbie at Debbie's Homeschool Corner shares Electives: The Fun Part of High School
- Carol over at Home Sweet Life on Homeschooling High School ~ Electives
- April from ElCloud Homeschool shares High School Homeschooling: Electives and Jobs
- Tess from Circling Through This Life shares on What about Electives? ~ Homeschool Highschool Blog Hop
- Leah from As We Walk Along the Road shares her thoughts on Choosing Electives for Homeschooling High School
- Kym at Homeschool Coffee Break shares on Customized Education and Electives
- Wendy at Life at Rossmont shares thoughts on High School Electives
- Gena over at I Choose Joy! shares Homeschool High School Public Speaking: Drama, Speech, and Debate
- Cristi from Through the Calm and Through the Storm shares on Interests + Opportunities = Electives
- Dawn Oaks at Double O Farms shares Just What Do You Do with Elective Requirements?
- Jennifer from A Glimpse of Our Life on High School Electives
- Michele at Family, Faith and Fridays shares How About Some Fun?
- Lisa at Golden Grasses says Frosting on the Cake- High School Electives, Jobs and College Prepping
- Meg from Adventures with Jude on High School Electives - Tasting the Real World
- Debra over at Footprints in the Butter asks Is your high schooler taking the "right" electives?
- Laura from Day by Day in Our World shares about Selecting the Best Electives in High School
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Love the stories of how the bit of Chinese she had learned made for wonderful memories as she traveled in China!
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