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Do you follow the TWTM for high school?


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I am approaching the "high school" years with much trepidation and wondered how many of you follow SWB's suggestions. It seems to me to be very daunting especially since my own education was VERY different than TWTM's way. I know SWB recommends educating yourself, which I do to some degree, but my time is severly limited as I also have other kids in grammar and logic stages.

 

I will be seeing SWB in Cincinnati and hearing what she has to say about high school so I know this will help. I am just concerned about learning what counts for a credit, what is required, where to get a transcript, etc, etc, etc.

 

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly apprecitated.

 

Thanks!

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Try to remember that TWTM tries to include a recommendation for every type of student. This means that it includes a "thread" of recommendations up to a very high level for each subject. You are supposed to customize it to your child. That means that if you have a child who is talented and interested in literature, you will do many of the literature recommendations but not get as far through the science recommendations. Or if you have a child who is science oriented and struggles with writing, you might not get to the advanced rhetoric recommendations. Or if you have a child who is good at languages, they will do multiple languages and not have time to study history all four years, instead maybe doing one year total of world history (perhaps spread out over two years) and one year of US history (perhaps covered the other two). In the end, you can glom together the time spent into one course to list it on the transcript. Also, TWTM tells you how generally to homeschool high school, but it assumes that you will not blindly follow all the suggestions. They are suggestions - starting points. If you try a curriculum and it doesn't work for your child or you, try something else.

 

Check your school system and potential colleges to find out what basics your child needs. Consider leaving room in the schedule to do a large extra project or two, like volunteering or travel or being in a play or building an airplane or historical reenactmenting or research, and leave time for that. This will let you take full advantage of homeschooling's flexibility and make your child a more interesting person, both to colleges and to themselves. Consider other activities, like music, art, dance, or sports, and whether you want to count them as part of high school or as extra curricular activities (both have advantages).

 

Here is a post I wrote that has more suggestions:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3487&highlight=high+school

 

And hopefully lots of other people will answer you, too.

 

Be sure to come back and tell us what SWB says!

 

Good luck!

-Nan

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It can be done! I had a pretty poor high school education, and I really enjoy learning all that I've learned from TWTM. We follow the WTM somewhat for history, lit and logic. Some subjects that I'm not able to teach, dd takes online.

 

If you want to read some of the great books with your students, there are 2 ways you can approach it. One is to read ahead, as in the summer months. Pick a few important title that you'd like to discuss (not all) and keep a journal of important points of the book. Another way, can be to read the child's assignment the day ahead or the same day. A 3rd way is to read the books you've deemed important to discuss, out loud together. Some books can be read on their own, some you can choose to do together.

 

You can cheat, and read summaries online at places like sparksnotes. This may give you enough info to discuss the books together.

 

Programs like Omnibus, TOG can be used for high school. They give excellent comprehension and critical thinking questions, with answers, so no reading is required on your part.

 

As for credits, I give them based on time. For 9th grade, we have one credit for Great Books 1, we have one credit for Ancient History, and one credit for English 9 (this includes vocab, writing, megawords, some grammar and learning elements of literature from secondary readings in Omnibus). My dd also has one credit for biology, one credit for Computer assisted design and drafting and one credit for music. If they spend an average of 45-60 min/day on a class it's a credit for us.

 

Please don't be daunted by high school. These yrs can be fun and exciting! I find we're all growing so much through this experience together.

Edited by Michelle in AL
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Oh my gosh! Thank you Jane, Nan, and Michelle! I don't know what I would do without this forum. It is so encouraging! You guys have given me some excellent advice. I think I am going to start a "high school" file and add your suggestions to it. :)

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Great Books study has worked out for me with the help of Omnibus Textbooks and Cliff Notes. Western Civilization by Spielvogel gives the historical background for the text. Omnibus CD gives you all the answers to the questions if you had no time to read a particular book during the year which is very helpful. Teaching Company Lectures which may be available through library supplements our studies where necessary. This school year we have not had a chance to listen to any lectures. We did listen to TC's Middle Ages Lectures during last summer.

 

Rhetoric Study as outlined by SWB looks daunting. I have Weston's Rulebook of Arguments which I am going to ask my son to outline next year. Ds. worked on Traditional Logic I on his own last year. He basically read through the text and did the exercises in a notebook. Answer key is provided to check the work. This probably should be accompanied by discussion which has not happened at our house. We plan on reviewing TL I and doing TL II in the Summer. Martin Cothran has a book on Classical Rhetoric that looks doable. Ds. is doing Team Policy Debate which will teach the skills SWB is talking about.

Thomas Kane's book on Writing and D'Angelo's Rhetoric textbook looks difficult to implement.

I am interested in hearing about how other parents have handled logic and rhetoric in 9th and 10th grades. Anyone?

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Click on the "Nan's Words of Wisdom" tag in the tag cloud on the forum list page. This will lead you to a number of threads in which implementation of TWTM/WEM is discussed.

 

This is great advice and I spent about a week just reading all the threads here. I felt I had received an education just doing that!!

 

My oldest is entering high school and I feel, only after reading the threads here, that this is doable. I have TWEM and we are going to VA for the conference in May. I believe with that and the info here I can successfully "coach" my dc's through high school. TWTM is my guide.

 

Even though I haven't done this yet, I think you will find much solace by following the previous threads and the advice here.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Try to remember that TWTM tries to include a recommendation for every type of student. This means that it includes a "thread" of recommendations up to a very high level for each subject. You are supposed to customize it to your child.

-Nan

 

Thanks Nan!

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