Homeschool questions

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Hi, I've been reading the home school threads. I home school my 12 year old daughter and had wondered what curriculums or methods you other home schoolers use. What is your typical day like and for the high schoolers or graduates, did you or are you keeping transcripts and records and if possible give details. Thanks Eve Lyn

-- Eve Lyn (evelynv@valuelinx.net), December 07, 2001

Answers

My son is only 5 so we are very relaxed in what we do at this point. When he was 4 he did the Calvert School Kindergarten Curriculum. This year he is doing work sheets from a bunch of 1st grade books. We also use the Hirsch books "Everything a 1st grader should know". Usually we only sit down at the table to work 2 or 3 times per a week for an hour or two at a time. The rest of the week we're busy doing other things, like going to the YMCA, going on play dates, going on outings, doing things around the house. It's amazing how much he picks up just from every day things and discussions. We listen to books on tape since its a bit of a drive into town and we also talk a lot.

I'm sure as he gets older we will have to sit down and do more work but by then he should be able to read and be more able to do and read things for himself without my help (I hope). He has begun to read and can read real simple books, like the Bob Books.

The good thing about homeschool is we can do the work whenever we feel like it, often on weekends when dad is home to help. We've also taken some great vacations when all the other kids are in school.

The hardest thing right now is trying to do school with him and trying to deal with my 2 year old that just seems to want to disrupt school. Still I love being with the kids and homeschooling.

-- anita in NC (anitaholton@mindspring.com), December 07, 2001.


Did Calvert through 8th then Abeka Video through 12th. Both girls in different Universities loving it. I miss homeschooling and my girls but they will both be home this week for 6 weeks. Good Luck to you beginners, don't get discourage. Some day they are off and you molded them into that wonderful person they have become.

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), December 07, 2001.

Lessee.....math in the morning (Saxon, Singapore Math, Key To...series), grammar (Easy Grammar), some writing (letters, sometimes essays), and then reading time which is usually historical stuff. Now we're studying (I hate that word!) Ancient Rome, so we're reading Greenleaf's "Famous Men of Ancient Rome", "Beric the Briton" by Henty, and the kids are drawing maps of Britain during the Roman occupation, and pictures from Dover coloring books about Roman life. We've also checked out a bunch of books from the library on this subject. I think we are what is called "eclectic" homeschoolers, which is customizing our curriculum to what we want. No records, no transcripts. I can give you some cool homeschooling websites if you're interested.

-- gita (gita@directcon.net), December 07, 2001.

We use an eclectic approach, some workbooks, some historical novels "The History of US" is a good series for history, inexpensive and not long winded (Barnes and Noble or Amazon). You can go into further detail on any part with library books, internet etc.

I also have a book called "Homeschool Your Child for Free" by LauraMaery Gold and Joan Zielinski. This book outlines many different websites covering all the curriculum you need, as well as tips and pointers, and excerpts from real life experiences of other homeschoolers. (ISBN: 0-7615-2513-0 I bought mine off the shelf at Borders this past September) Also for the 12 year old, I purchased a workbook covering all the subjects by Mcgraw-Hill called "Basic Skills Curriculum" one for 7th and one for 8th also at Borders. (also at www.MHkids.com) one or two worksheets a day will also introduce new concepts. We go with Saxon Math textbooks because we need structure for our math, but that is the only subject we use a textbook for. All the others are supplimented by the workbook worksheets, any special interests are explored in-depth by that child.

For the high school question get the Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn. Also all questions can be answered at www.Kaleidoscapes.com. At 12 your daughter needs others to socialize with, this can be done through the internet (ONLY with trustworthy sites!) by snail mail as well. I am sure my 12 year old would love a snail mail pen-pal or an e-mail pen-pal. Let me know with a direct e- mail.There are also homeschool magazines, like Homeschooling Daily.

It is most important to find out how your child learns best, and work from there. Does she do best with structure? Unstructured? Some structure? Is your home a faith based home, and do you want this to be the basis for your curriculum? What is (are) your daughters passions, and would you rather use those as a basis for study? There are as many ways to homeschool as homeschoolers. You need to find what is best for your situation.

Clonlara is a private high school that offers it's expertise to homeschoolers, and when finished your child receives the same private school HS diploma as their regular day school. It is a little pricey ($560.00 per year or so) But it gives you the outline you may need to homeschool from. They handle all correspondence to the school department as well as record keeping. (www.clonlara.org)

Be happy to field any other questions you may have....

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), December 07, 2001.


We were very eclecic in our schooling---very "unschool" in our approach until high school. The relaxed attitude continued then but we did go with Clonlara because I felt better about the possibilities of getting into college. They are pricey and getting more so every year or so but they did give us a very acceptible transcript and, in our case, Joel had a very good and approachable contact person. They do not supply curriculum nor do they grade papers, tho they will critique them. They supply requirements (including 300 hours of community service) and the suggestion that the child either start a business or work for someone else. I think it was a good thing. For books, we mostly used the library. The arrangements with Clonlara kept us on track, saw to it that we covered pretty much everything we needed to and supplied a goal. Plus, we went to Michigan and he went through a graduation.

-- Rosalie (Dee) in IN (deatline@globalsite.net), December 09, 2001.


Our daughter is now attending a college in Michigan after home schooling. For high school we participated in the Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Association. While it did not tell us how to teach or mandate a certain curriculum, it did give us accountability and a diploma that is recognized by the PA Dept of Education, just as any other government high school diploma. There were certain minimums that we had to meet. Because I submitted to them a record of classes taken (grading was optional) and credits earned, they have her records, although I did keep copies. And she has a fine looking diploma, which is worth more than the government issued ones. This way,even if she never went to college she would be guaranteed the right to homeschool her own children. (In PA you must have a high school diploma.)

There are numerous programs like this located throughout PA. They do not tell you how to teach, etc. They do tell you how many math, english, science, history courses you need but they are not beyond what the regs for PA. And they do not tell you the type of math, science, etc. they should be. Because the agency is run by home schooling parents they are flexible and understanding of the variety of methods open to homeschooling families.

Lest you think that those of us in PA are a little hyper on home schooling high schoolers - in PA, after you start home schooling a high school age student, you rarely have the option of stopping. PA government high schools do not accept any high school work done through home schooling. All students must restart as freshman, no matter their age.

There is also wonderful books out for homeschooling high schoolers. They give you direction on setting up "home made" courses. If you were to teach your son/daughter a course on mechanics and the car - what are the minimum things you would want them to learn. Or, if you are planning a computer course - suggestions include wordprocessing, use of graphics, internet use. etc. They are wonderful jumping off points to work with. They also have great recommendations on how to set deadlines, check off lists as your child masters portions of the course, recording keeping and, even designing your own diploma.

-- Chris in PA (CLMngs@aol.com), December 10, 2001.


When as an adult your children write down where they went to school, how is the employer/college able to varify your child graduated from school? For those of you who do not use programs that give you diplomas, do you just make up your own transcript, and have it notorized for college entrance? My son who is 17 and a Junior in High School, has the opportunity to compete for a gym in Houston. He will have his transcript for the 3 and 1/2 years he was in High School. Finishing the requirments has been put to us "either correspondence courses, tutoring or homeschool", all three things the other kids in the gym use. So how does the paperwork part of homeschooling work? I did homeschool him one semester of 8th grade to be able to improve his math with Saxon, but 8th grade isn't even on transcripts! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), December 10, 2001.

Hi Vicki, Our oldest son has worked for three different employers and has never been asked to verify that he graduated. We gave our homeschool a name which he used on applications but of course the address was the same as our home address yet no one ever asked about it. Our middle son was also never questioned about this when interviewing for a job

Our middle son joined the Army National Guard and needed a transcript, which is required of anyone joining the military. His transcript did not need to be notorized, they simply excepted his transcript directly from me with no other requirements. The university he is attending also only required a transcript (did not need to be notorized). Both the military and the university were aware that he was homeschooled.

We also put together portfolios of work done during high school with a description of each course and info on textbooks used, other books read and studied, projects done, field trips taken, etc. We have never had the opportunity to show them though :-).

The paperwork used depends upon what your child plans on doing later. There are any number of ways to keep records, using the traditional grading and making of a transcript, portfolios and others. There are quite a few books that have been written as guides for homeschoolers in these areas.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), December 10, 2001.


i had a friend who thought high school was boring. he dropped out, took the GED and got into New York University with that.

However, you are assuming your child will want to go to college. college is overrated. Unless there is something specific your child is driven to do that s/he needs college for, then college can be a waste of time, like sending kids to school is in the first place.

We don't worry about it, and don't use any curriculum. My husband and I are both college graduates, and don't use our degrees.

-- marcee (thathope@mwt.net), December 13, 2001.


Marcee, would like to disagree with you just a tiny bit about college. Aside from the piece of paper you get at the end, college is good for other things such as networking, being exposed to new ideas, people, ways of looking at things (sometimes being sheltered by small-town life can be a disadvantage), etc.

That said, one can always just "hang around" the college if you want to soak up the atmosphere, use their library (though you'd have to pay extra for borrowing privileges), etc. You can even audit classes in some places, free, or for very little money in many cases.

Also, depending upon what you want to do in life, there will always be jobs/employers that will insist on your having that piece of paper to gain entry, even though that paper only shows that you spent money and time in so many hours on classes. The computer field seems to be an exception to this rule, but even that may change as more people get into the field. Some disciplines (like teaching, for example) will always require extra pieces of paper.

I enjoyed college, much more than K-12, probably because all the discipline problems were weeded out by then. Public school would be a lot better if they were run like parochial schools, imho.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), December 17, 2001.



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