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How many credits to you require? What electives do you have your child take


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Ds(8th grade) and I were talking this morning about highschool next year and how he will have to take on more since he will be in highschool.

 

I told him he needs to get between 27 and 30 credits...Ga requires a minimum of 23.

 

So far what I have for him is

 

Math --4 credits Geometry, Alg II, Trig, Calculus

 

Science--4 credits--Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Adv Bio or Chem

 

History--4 credits-- Modern American History, Geography, World History, Civics and Government

 

English--4 credits

Computer--1 credit

Spanish---2 credits

P.E.--1 credit

Music--1 credit

Health---1/2 credit

Speech--1/2 credit

Debate--1/2 credit

Keyboarding--1/2 credit

Art--1 credit

Bible--1 credit

(?)Mythology---1 credit

Marine Biology---1 credit

Consumer Math---1 credit

 

I am awarding the Bible credit, but I noticed with my oldest that the Tech College did not accept the credit.

 

I am not sure what I will use to teach Art and Mythology(he is not sure he wants to do this one)

 

 

 

 

Also I noticed on the GA Board of Ed site that I could award him a credit for Algebra 1 this year.

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Electives were a mixture of things I thought ds needed to show such a driver education, keyboarding, and one semester of art along with things he wanted to do such as advanced logic and music (piano and classical guitar).

 

My son ended up with 27.5 credits overall, and I structured his transcript by using columns for general categories with the course titles appearing in rows listed chronologically.

 

The categories I used were:

Math 4.5 credits

Science 4.5 credits/three of the credits included labs (bio, chem, & physics; 1/2 credit for History & Philosophy of Science)

Language Arts: English Grammar and Composition 4 credits

History Literature & Aesthetics 4 Credits

Civics 2.5 Credits

Foreign Language 3 Credits

Electives 5 Credits

 

Depending on how your Bible course is structured and the work you require, it might be possible to count it as a literature credit. I considered using Bible as an elective at one point, and kept records to do so. However, we had one disastrous year in which our History, Lit, and Aesthetics work was thin in some areas so I folded our Bible curriculum for the year into that course instead of listing it separately.

 

My son does not work quickly, and that schedule kept him busy during his high school years, but he also had some time-management issues :glare: which cut into his free time. Letting him choose from a list of pre-approved options for the electives he wanted helped motivate him.

 

One thing I would do over, if I could, would be to include a specific program of study skills (not for credit) early on (maybe 8th grade; certainly in 9th) instead of waiting 'till later.

 

HTH,

Martha

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I would say it is a good starting place, but you need to be willing to change it as time goes along and let your student do some of the deciding. It looks very much like the list I began with. Then once high school began, we were much looser and concentrated on learning things. In the end, to apply to college and graduate, I looked at what my son had done and organized it into courses and found he had 4 maths, 5 Englishes, 7 social studies, 1/2 logic, 1 PE, 2 1/2 fine arts, 3 1/2 foreign language, and 1 technology, making 29 credits. I did keep track as we went along, to make sure he was learning the things I though he needed to to be grown up and to manage college, but I didn't focus so much on courses as on items of learning.

-Nan

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It will depend on the child for what courses they will complete for their high school diploma. Our current plans are not set in stone other what we will require for them to earn a high school diploma...

 

For their high school diploma: they will complete total of 26 credits minimum

 

4 Credits/yrs of language arts (English 10, Composition and Literature, DC Rhetoric I, DC Rhetoric II)

4 Credits/yrs of Math (Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, DCprecalculus I or DC statistics)

4 Credits/yrs of Science (depends on child goals and interests but for most part all science will be DC and will also go towards their associate degree)

4 Credits/yrs of Social Studies (World History, US History, 1/2 cr US Government, 1/2 cr Consumer Education/Economics, 1/2 cr World Religion, 1/2 cr Human Geography)

6 Credits of electives (1/2 cr World Literature, 1/2 cr US Literature, 3 cr Foreign Language, 3 cr are choices)

3 Credits of physical education

1/2 credit of drivers education

1/2 cr Health

 

Both my twins want to graduate in 3 years (well, that is the plan but it is very up in the air and up to them). They will attend full time college in their 3rd yr of high school and a yr after high school. They plan to earn their associates degree by the time they would normally graduate high school.

 

Both twins are in Civil Air Patrol... so we may count what they study in CAP as Aerospace for one cr of science (They will be in CAP for 4+ years but we will count it as 1 cr of science on their transcript).

 

Ds plans to major in astrophysics so he will do a lot of math, science, and some computer courses. He will take about 7-10 courses of science alone... I will only count 4cr for high school credit. For math he will do about 5-6 courses of math at the CC beyond the alg I, II, and geometry at home.... again not all will count as high school credit.

 

Dd plans to major in music and will not do as intense in math and sciences. For science we are thinking of keeping it "lite". Dd wants to do a year of integrated science so that is what she will do for a science credit and the aerospace credit. She will need to do two courses at CC for her associates degree so these will count as dual credit. Dd will do a lot of liberal arts courses (especially music).

 

Technically they could earn way more credits for high school but I am not going to count all the college courses as high school credit. Especially the 2nd yr of full time college will not count at all as high school as they will officially graduate high school the year before. They will also take some AP and CLEP tests (mainly in their social studies and elective courses).

Edited by AnitaMcC
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It seems like more and more colleges require 3 units of the same foreign language and would really like to see 4.

 

I would advise checking minimum course requirements at the colleges your student is considering. Then, design your homeschool coursework to ensure they are met.

 

Indeed. Four units of math is a minimal entry requirement by NC public universities. And is a graduation requirement from NC public high schools.

 

One thing that parents of younger children need to do is pay attention to which way the wind is blowing. Sandra has a point--schools are looking for more foreign language, specifically more units of the same language. Be prepared! I sometimes hear parents of students in college tell parents of elementary aged children that two years of foreign language will suffice. Not necessarily.

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Our state requires 22 credits minimum total:

4 credits = English

3 credits = Math (Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry)

3 credits = Lab Science (Biology, Chemistry preferred)

3 credits = Social Studies (1 = Amer. Hist, 1 = World Hist., .5 = Government, .5 = Economics)

2 credits = Foreign Language

1 credit = Fine Arts

2 credits = PE

4 credits = Electives

 

 

It looks like our boys will each end up with 24-26 credits, depending on how we count things. Even though we will have 4 credits worth of Biblical Studies, we won't count it -- secular institutions don't care to see that on a transcript. We also may NOT count as academic credit some activities, preferring to include them as "extracurricular activities" -- I understand universities/colleges prefer to see a variety of extracurriculars on applications/transcripts, NOT an over-abundance of academic credits.

 

 

re: Electives

I dearly wish I could get our boys interested in art, music, drama, graphic design, photography or some other interesting elective to balance out the heavy lit/history/humanities emphasis in the transcript... Even just trying something different for a semester -- or a quarter! BUT... you can't force people to do something they don't want as an elective. :(

 

So here's the "variety" of electives we've managed so far (worth anywhere from 0.25 to 1.0 credit):

- Filmmaking: Digital video production and animation

- Great Books Study: Ancient Classics

- Great Books Study: 20th Century Classics

- Worldview

- Logic

?? Computer Software (son has played around with, but no real instruction or defined projects: Garage Band; Blender; other software) -- not sure yet if this can count towards anything

 

Possible future elective credit ideas:

- art class (individual teacher)

- 3-D rendering class (community college)

- video production (homeschool co-op)

- media arts (community college)

 

 

BEST of luck in your planning and scheduling! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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PS:

 

Like Nan in Mass in her post above, the further into high school you go, the more you need to leave flexibility for your child's interests, exploration, and possible early prep for career interests. For example, you have some pretty heavy math and science in your tentative schedule... but what if your child shows more and more of an interest and desire to work in ministry... or theater... or construction?

 

I thought initially our older DS (who has always been very math-minded, and who enjoys seeing how things work and enjoys NOVA and other science shows) might go into a math/science field. But even in middle school it became apparent that was not at all his career interest -- he just enjoys math and science in a "hobby" or "recreational" sense.

 

What he has shown much more interest -- and initiative! -- in is filmmaking, video production, playing around with various software -- i.e., the "media arts". So, I backed off of my original schedule "requiring" a 4th math credit in Trig/Pre-Calc. (not required by our state anyway) or an AP science credit. Instead, we've done more humanities and cultural studies (additional history credits and literature credits) as background for historical connections and motivations, understanding people, and background/allusion/reference -- all of which might translate into a richer experience for translating into work in filmmaking; media arts in-house department for a big company; creating educational videos; website design; etc. I've also tried to open up our schedule a little more to allow him more blocks of "free time" for reading and experimenting with his own little video or software projects (which eventually add up into hours towards a filmmaking or other elective credit).

 

It helps to move along at a steady rate accomplishing your state's required credits -- but to all along leaving wiggle room for your child to discover who he is and what he may want to do! :001_smile: Warmest regards, Lori D.

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PS:

 

Like Nan in Mass in her post above, the further into high school you go, the more you need to leave flexibility for your child's interests, exploration, and possible early prep for career interests. For example, you have some pretty heavy math and science in your tentative schedule... but what if your child shows more and more of an interest and desire to work in ministry... or theater... or construction?

 

It helps to move along at a steady rate accomplishing your state's required credits -- but to all along leaving wiggle room for your child to discover who he is and what he may want to do! :001_smile: Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

Yep, this is what I keep telling my kids. I told them that the plan we have... does not mean it is what will be. I told them that if at any time they find they have a spark of interest that goes off the plan then no problem. I could require them to do less in math and science. I could even ease up on the foreign language requirements because they could do them at college/university instead. All the colleges we have checked out do not require 3 yrs of foreign language in high school, just a recommendation.

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My kids all know they will have to have 4 credits each in math, science, history, English. They will also have to have at least 3 credits in foreign language, preferably 4. That takes up 17-18 credits right there. They also each have 2 credits P.E. (maximum allowed in my ISD, although I know I don't have to go by their rules), 0.5 credits Personal Finance (my requirement), and 0.5 credits Health. Now we're up to 20-21 credits without anything they've chosen aside from choosing which foreign language to take and which science and math to do the final year.

 

My oldest in is 11th grade this year. So far her electives (outside of what I already listed above) have been Intro to Psychology, Drawing I, and Drawing II. She will be taking Digital Imaging I this summer. All of these are cc courses.

 

My middle dd is in 9th grade this year. Her elective this year is Philosophy of the Mind, a Teaching Company course. The videos by themselves would not be a full semester course, but when you add in the readings that it recommends to go along with it and answer the questions in the course guide, it can be a 0.5 credit course.

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