I have a seventh grader who is using Switched on Schoolhouse. We are a new homeschooling family and seh loves it. I do, too. Ny only concerns are: 1. She wants to be totally independent, therefore, we are not getting enough student-teacher/parent child interaction;

2. She's getting A's in every subject almost all of the time. Does she need to be challenged more?

3. I'm amzed that she is mastering Math, a subject that she struggled with. Is she truly grasping the concepts?

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2002

Answers

Debra,

I have an eight grader, a seventh grader, a fifth grader and a third grader all using SOS (and one first grader using Life-pac). For the most part the boys get up (At different times) between 9-10 am. They do thier chores, and begin homeschooling on their laptops. They are all over the family room and kitchen area! Some days, I am not asked to help anyone, and other days I am all over the house. We set up our schedule so that we go 11 months out of the year, but take off Fridays. We use that day to do the family stuff, field trips, music, sports, or arts and crafts. The kids enjoy having a three day weekend, and I get the one on one I miss with them using a computer based program.

As for the A's in almost everything, If you are using the SOS mastery program which requires them to get every answer correct before the leason is finished then, she should have A/B's depending on the value of exercises,quizes and tests. I made exersices worth 25%, tests worth 50% and quizes worth 20% and Projects worth only 5%, since we do family projects.

I also require that my kids retake a quiz or test if they get less then a 75%. They are the first to admit that the information they missed on the first try is forever stuck in their brains after studing again and retaking the test.

As for Math, whatever they are doing at SOS they got it right, none of mine that struggled with math at traditional school are struggling this year, I am amazed because there is some pretty tough stuff!

Hope this helps, All things in His name,

Patricia Loynd

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2002