Helping Bio Mom to feel comfortable with homeschool - Page 2

[PoetryLover]

Originally Posted by pigpokey

I would say something like:

Absolutely the goal of our academic plan is that she be able to attend the college of her choice. There are a lot of options and like the individual public and private schools, home schoolers can decide whether to use commercial textbooks subject by subject. There are also some cutting-edge curricula that are made available free or for a fee on the internet -- some by university departments -- others by educators that just don't choose to go the commercial textbook route. There is a local school that teaches literature straight from the works and I am interested in visiting there and seeing whether that might be a good fit.

One thing I have learned in my research that surprised me is that both selective colleges and our state colleges don't actually require that home schooled applicants have followed a state standardized curriculum. Isn't that weird? They recruit home schooled kids based on standardized test performance and portfolio and seek diversity in previous learning. We will have a lot of practice in portfolio generation by the time 9th grade rolls around because we will be doing this now in middle school in compliance with the homeschool laws.

Thanks! This sounds like a great way to approach it. Thanks for your thoughts about the practice we will have regarding portfolio development between the 6th and 9th grades. That makes a lot of sense to me, and has been part of my thought process, as well. I really appreciate your thoughts on what colleges require when it comes to a homeschooled education.

[domesticidyll]

First, wow to you for building such a positive relationship with dsd's bio mom.

You could also send her to a few college admissions sites that mention homeschooling--I did a quick look at Caltech, for instance, and they are very positive about it.

As far as math, I wanted to mention that Singapore is much less expensive: we use only the textbook,which costs about $9/semester, and supplement with library books, printables, games, marshmellows, napkin folding.... There is also MEP online, which is free--I have heard here and elsewhere that it is supposed to be good.

This might also be a helpful moment to have your dsd start brainstorming some things she wants to do, schooly and unschooly,

I think as time goes by, and you share all the amazing things you are doing, she will gain more comfort with the process. But it's just hard at the beginning. Beginnings are hard. And thrilling, and wonderful--but newness sometimes just needs time to fade.

Heather

[twinergy]

You might want to take a look at khanacademy.org, he has some videos there, under talks and interviews, that explain why it is important for people to learn at their own pace. Lots of other resources there for older kids.