Anyone interested in a high school homeschooling thread? - Page 2

[Madame Pomfrey]

I just wanted to back up the notion that if you'll do some work online yourself - you know, putting it together - you can save a bundle.

Math: Right now we're using a bunch of math resources from Key Curriculum Press - spent about $90 there. Top notch throughout - especially the Mathematical World.

English: He's in a Grammar Review stage so he's doing Daily Grams free online.

Literature: EdSiteMent is free and completely top-notch. We've had great success with their short story, poetry and classics lesson plans - just adding in more full-length fiction as you know from my earlier questions.

History: The Choices Program from Brown U sells fabulous units, plus again Edsitement, PBS, and the History channel have more for free. The NY Times Education Page is great for current event connections. So we've spent $20 so far this year on one Brown unit, plus $15 on a History of US book.

Science - it's everywhere online for free. We also do the local science club at the museum. It's for 6-8th grades so my 9th grader is squeezing in one last year and then we'll do our own for a year til he can attend the community college. I highly - very highly - recommend getting to know the ins & outs of the NASA education pages. The Acorn Naturalists site did us for a long time - LOVED the Biodiversity Basics. If your child doesn't have a very strong grasp of the natural world and its systems it would easily work for high school.

French (or foreign language) - get a tutor unless you are fluent.

Adding in science supplies, I still think I'm under $3oo for the year and I'll bet he's getting as good or better than any packaged curriculum. Use the money you save to pay for activities such as the local theater's teen drama club, rock climbing, etc...you get the idea.

Warm regards,

Lucie

[mom2ponygirl]

Anyone else ready to resurrect this thread? I said earlier that we were fence straddlers and doing half-time school at a charter high school, but now dd has decided to homeschool full-time. So, unless something changes, we will homeschool until college.

Ironically, about the same time she decided on full-time homeschool, I was offered a different job with more pay but more hours. I'll be working half-time, along with taking care of the horse farm - although dd helps a bunch with that! Dd's planning on a couple online classes and the rest we'll piece together. She will do some chemistry this year which works out well as I'm a biochemist at the state U. She'll get to follow me at work and do a little hands on stuff.

So, my main concern now is social. We will have trouble making many homeschool events. We'll have to see how this works out this year. I may be able to arrange some rides for her when I can't take her. I want to make sure it is help I can reciprocate though. Her best friend isn't homeschooled and has a very busy schedule with school and music obligations. She will be switching to a new school and it is her mom's priority for her to forge new friendships with kids who will attend her new school. :-( I understand the need and think it is a good idea, but I feel a little worried that my daughter will see even less of her now. I've gotten dd to start attending the teen anime club at the library and a few other activities, but she really doesn't want to go without her bf!

Anyone else wanting to chat about the high school journey? Actually in our case it is more of the jr. high kid taking high school classes, but hopefully some of the issues are the same. I finally subscribed to a thread so I could actually keep up with it. LOL

[Dar]

How old is she now? Twelve to fourteen was difficult for Rain, I think... we moved twice in that period so she had to rejoin a new social circle, and she never quite hit it off with most of the local homeschooling teens. She did make a few friends, mostly boys, but they all lived a long way from us and I was working a lot and public transportation sucked.

Things got a lot better once she got to be 14 or 15, because then she just hung out with adults. Some were neighbors, some she met at college classes, and some at local hang-out places... bu at her 16th birthday party all of the guests, except for her friend who flew in from California, were in their twenties...

[daileyjoy]

I am interested, I have a 14 year old DD Who is in HS this year.

[mykdsmomy]

I'm in We did K12 virtual academy last year (9th grade) but we are hoping to get into a new charter/virtual school that allows us to choose our own curriculum. I'm overwhelmed right now at the choices so I'd love to hear what others are using....

[mom2ponygirl]

Originally Posted by Dar

How old is she now? Twelve to fourteen was difficult for Rain, I think... we moved twice in that period so she had to rejoin a new social circle, and she never quite hit it off with most of the local homeschooling teens. She did make a few friends, mostly boys, but they all lived a long way from us and I was working a lot and public transportation sucked.

Things got a lot better once she got to be 14 or 15, because then she just hung out with adults. Some were neighbors, some she met at college classes, and some at local hang-out places... bu at her 16th birthday party all of the guests, except for her friend who flew in from California, were in their twenties...

My dd is turning 12, and she is finding it difficult. Most of the girls her age tend to want to talk about which boys they like and my dd finds these discussions rather pointless. LOL She enjoys the company of a few different boys, but doesn't like to hang around them at homeschool park days or activities. She likes them one on one but doesn't want to hang with them when they are in a group being very 'boyish'. She can't get much one on one time with them because all 3 have little sisters who want to hang with her too. She enjoys the sisters and likes playing with the younger kids from time to time. However, she tells me she's not finding these interactions very fulfilling right now.

She was at work with me on Friday hanging out in the break room reading "The King Must Die" by Mary Renault and an undergrad student struck up a conversation with her about it. He was very interested in mythology and her extensive knowledge of the subject. He asked if she would be there often and said he was getting a copy of the book to read and discuss with her. I hadn't envisioned a new friend of 20, male, with dreadlocks, but hey as long as I get a chance to mention -she's 12! it should be fine. :-) She also has several good long distance friends. We're debating let her on facebook to enable those interactions.

I think the tweens/early teen stage is just kind of hard no matter what -so I may need to just be supportive and tell her this too shall pass.

[spruce]

I'm subbing, too. I have a hs senior (homeschooling) who will be graduatiing a semester early (in December), and a sophomore homeschooler.



Now off to read the thread.

[mom2ponygirl]

Originally Posted by mykdsmomy

I'm in We did K12 virtual academy last year (9th grade) but we are hoping to get into a new charter/virtual school that allows us to choose our own curriculum. I'm overwhelmed right now at the choices so I'd love to hear what others are using....

How were the K12 high school classes? I haven't heard much about them. Our state virtual academy is only K-8, but recently a district near us opened a K12 virtual high school 9-12. I doubt we'd go with a virtual school, but it is good to know what options are around.

Here's what we're doing next year, although plans will change! I've upped my hours at work so we're throwing in some online classes.

English - Magic Lens 2, Word Within the Word 2, Poetry and Humanity, Academic Writing by Michael Clay Thompson from www.rfwp.com We're reading a selection of books that strikes our fancy this fall. We may do Lord of the Rings literature in the spring, or a course from Lightning Lit from Hewitt homeschooling

Math - Intermediate Algebra from www.artofproblemsolving.com - We're going to go through the book ourselves instead of the online class this time. This will cover the non-trig portions of pre-calc.

Spanish 2 - OSU spanish online

Latin - Lone Pine Classical (Dd's idea not mine! She wants a third language but I drew the line for now)

Intro to Programming - Python from www.artofproblemsolving.com just in fall.

History - She does this with my dad. They are basically reading the books from History Odyssey level 3 from Pandia Press. They will probably finish the Ancients in a couple months and start on the middle ages. They may try to do a National History day project, but mostly they read and discuss only.

Science - Want to cover some basic Physics and Chemistry like a typical Physical science course in Jr. high. She's had a jr. high level earth science course and high school biology already. We're watching Joy of Science dvd's and I'm currently putting together problem sets, labs, and interactive web activities to go along with it.

Music - Piano and episodes of Professor Carol's music history course when the mood strikes. She's also teaching herself the penny whistle.

Art - Did a lot this summer, watched How Art Made the World from netflix, she attended a great Art in Nature camp and will do a week of clay work on the wheel next week at a weeklong course. She does lots of drawing and we're going to scan some in for her to make Christmas cards from her art work.

PE - horseback riding, swimming, running, and biking.

[lauriem33]

Subbing so I can come back & read later.

[mom2ponygirl]

Anyone interested in resurrecting this thread? We're doing fine, but a bit over scheduled. Trying to figure out how to cut back without dropping stuff dd enjoys! She also has lots of independent projects she would like to pursue, but is a bit too busy for right now. We're trying to figure out how to prioritize. She's doing some online classes this year so it isn't as simple to switch gears now. Or at least not as inexpensive. LOL

How is everyone else's high school experience going?

[purslaine]

Ds is doing well. I honestly do not know how kids who go to school handle it!! Ds has 2 online classes plus is in theatre locally, and that is all he can handle and have a decent amount of free/sleep/life time.

I am pretty impressed with the quality of the classes and lack of busy work. A little plug for the virtual learning center for those in Ontario.

One small caveat: he has had 3 courses, total, online...and math and online are tricky. Having to draw xy graphs online is way more time consuming than on grid paper. Paper notes might be better for math for him as well. Oh well, we have a printer and I may look into borrowing a few books from the library on math to have hard copies around to look at to work through problems.

His biggest issue as well is schedueling. Because we are very relaxed HSers, he needs a bit of help with the transition from relaxed to classwork and deadlines, etc. He and I are not on the same time plan. I keep regular ours (and work occasionally) and Ds is a night owl. Figuring out when is a good time to help him (which he both wants and needs at this point) is an issue.

I am watching some academic bloom which is very cool - he is very into world religions, world geography/travel and history. No gauruntee - but maybe travel will be in our future

My DD is grade 7 age - but has chosen to go to school this year - gah!!! Hence why I am not writing on her, here.

[zebra15]

HI, can I join... DS is 10 but able to do HS level work in some areas. I prefer to unschool but DS likes his online classes via CTY. (They have him listed as 4th grade, which is correct if he would be in traditional school, late b'day). Why does school have to be so confusing??

Anyway he is almost totally phased out of elementary school material and probably 50% phased out of jr. high material. Socially and Emotionally he is a solid 10 yr old though...

DS loves his science and math. He loves TO read but anything with writing or dissecting literature isnt his thing right now!

Drama classes start next week!

[moominmamma]

10 would be 4th grade? Wow, that's a late cut-off! My 11-year-old is considered 7th grade by age here.

I read the first part of this thread and when I posted there a year ago I said I had one high schooler doing course work and that my middle two weren't interested. Things sure can change!

This year my 11, 14 and 16-year-olds are all doing course work through the local high school. My 16-year-old is doing a combination of in-class courses and independent study courses on a part-time basis. My 11- and 14-year-olds are not doing any in-class courses, but are each taking a few high school courses via independent study.

My 14-year-old is struggling with evaluation and written output. He's doing Science 10 through the local school district, which he needs as a pre-requisite for Physics 11 which he's interested in taking, but he hates the written work. He's doing as much of it as he can on the computer now, which helps, but it's still a bit of an obstacle for him. And he's stalling on test-writing in Math 9. He covered all the material two years ago so this is very much easy review for him, but he has not written a test ever and has been stalling for three weeks on writing the mid-term. He chose this course rather than Math 10 or 11 which would be more at his level, because he wanted something drop-dead easy to get used to the idea of taking tests. So far he's not really making progress on that count.

He's having a blast with his Information Technology courses. It's all student-led project work, and he's using programming and modding environments to get credit for what he loves doing: scripting logic circuits and creating tutorials and explanations and multimedia demonstrations and machinima and websites and the like. He was registered for InfoTech 9, but when he showed his first creation to his supervising teacher he was told that pretty much covered all of InfoTech 9 in one fell swoop, and he was given credit on the spot and moved up to InfoTech 10.

He has discovered the local teen/adult Gamers' Club, which he has become quite active in, so he's got a lot more people in his social circle now, which is nice. He's continuing with youth choir (where his now-tenor-voice has allowed him to be "made a real man"!) which he loves, and with viola and his various musical chamber groups, so I feel like he's got a really good balance.

My 11-year-old is doing well. Her course work is Math 9 and Science 9 both of which are a cakewalk for her, but she's methodical and easy-going, loving the indepedence of doing academic work that comes from somewhere outside the family, and doesn't mind the lack of challenge at this point. This is her first foray into evaluated academics as well, and she seems to be handling it fine. She's branched out socially as well, and doesn't seem to have been sucked down the path of obsessive computer use which I had been worrying about last year when I posted. She's doing the local community (adult) choir this year, and spending lots of time at her friend's farm riding horses and caring for pigs, goats, sheep, cows and the like. And she's busy with stop-motion animation projects, reading, sketching, baking, violin and cross-country running team.

My 16-year-old has developed and refined her future ambitions. She's across the country this weekend networking with top violin teachers, getting lessons, making connections, checking out university possibilities. She also has a couple of major violin recitals scheduled for next month. She's working away at enough home-based and school-based coursework to hopefully almost complete provincial requirements for a grad diploma this year. That way she'll hopefully be able to live away from home next year to get the musical training she needs, while just mopping up a last credit or two. Next year will be audition year for post-secondary music performance programs to commence in the fall of 2012. She's pretty driven these days and all I have to fuss with for her is getting her to and from her rehearsals and lessons (most of which are hours away, so that has its own challenges).

And then I have a delightful 7-year-old who is not doing any high school learning who I won't talk about at all here.

Miranda

[mom2ponygirl]

Originally Posted by kathymuggle

One small caveat: he has had 3 courses, total, online...and math and online are tricky. Having to draw xy graphs online is way more time consuming than on grid paper.

http://www.geogebra.org/cms/
He might find this useful. It is a free download. My daughter uses it for graphing for online classes. It seemed a little tricky to get pictures to export in the form she wanted so he may need to play with it a bit. Of course, if she had read the directions or tutorials, it might have been very straightforward.

[JessicaS]

We should probably make a different thread for pre-teens. Preteens are not teens and they both face different challenges.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by abimommy

We should probably make a different thread for pre-teens. Preteens are not teens and they both face different challenges.

Sure they're different. But I thought this thread was about homeschooling high school, not homeschooling teens -- unless I'm missing something. My 11-year-old and my 14-year-old are both doing "Grade 9 Math" and I don't see that the issues are really that different between them that we need to separate them into different threads.

Miranda

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

My 14-year-old .. he's stalling on test-writing in Math 9. He covered all the material two years ago so this is very much easy review for him, but he has not written a test ever and has been stalling for three weeks on writing the mid-term.

Update on my own post earlier today. Despite a certain amount of sighing and moaning he wrote his mid-term this afternoon. First hurdle over with. It may seem like a small deal but it's not for him. This is the kid who quit piano at age 8 in large part because the informal oral note-naming quizzes his teacher gave him every week were way too stressful for him. He has steered entirely clear of grades, scores, competition and evaluation until now. So I'm very proud of him for completing the test. He scored pretty well too, which is nice for his confidence, if not a big surprise to me.

Miranda

[Dar]

I guess then I'm *not* homeschooling high school, then, because my kid's been taking college courses for more than three years.

I'm going to bump up the latest homeschooling teens thread, I think, so maybe we can talk more about the academic challenges of high school-level coursework here and stick to the other challenges of homeschooling a teen there?

[zebra15]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

10 would be 4th grade? Wow, that's a late cut-off! My 11-year-old is considered 7th grade by age here.
Miranda

Only because AZ uses Sept 1st as a cut off for school entrance and my son misses it my a few days. So technically he was still 9 yrs old as of 9/1/10 and that qualified him for 4th grade in traditional school out here. Arizona also starts school in early August. Everyone is back in class by 8/15.

Never mind he took pre-algebra at our local state university at a 3 week condensed course this summer.

But this kid really wants a break from math and is looking forward to some Science classes from CTY!

[mom2ponygirl]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

Update on my own post earlier today. Despite a certain amount of sighing and moaning he wrote his mid-term this afternoon. First hurdle over with. It may seem like a small deal but it's not for him.
Miranda

It's great to see them over coming issues like this!