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Scared/nervous about High School- don't want to "mess it up"


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The title about sums it up. This is our first year hsing- 2nd, 6th, and 8th grade. We have decided to hs our oldest for 9th grade. I feel confident but scared at the same time.

I feel there is no screwing up, no time to mess things up or do things wrong. I mean it all goes on her transcript, and I want her (and she wants) to get into a good college. Not sure on curriculum yet for next year, but anyone else have these feelings, and all worked out okay?

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I'm probably too hard-headed and confident for my own good. It never occurred to me that I *could* screw up high school. I mean, think about it--who cares more about your daughter's success than you do? So, why would turning her over to a PS give her a better chance at success?!?

 

Definitely draw up a plan. We designed a course plan (like a college catalog, list of "required" courses to graduate) and signed it, and had her sign it. Then we talked about options for electives. We talked about *why* she was studying the courses she was going to be studying, and how they figured into her "life plan"...which ones were necessary evils for the good stuff to follow--LOL--and which ones were interesting in-and-of themselves. We gave her a lot of autonomy to choose the scope and sequence of the material she'd study in each course. Well, I'd say we gave her a lot of leeway in *how* she'd cover the scope and sequence of the material. I still set that scope for the most part. :) And let the spine text for each course set the sequence.

 

I will say this--enjoy it. It goes very, very fast. My daughter is graduating from the university in December, and I think it was yesterday that we set her high school plan. GRIN. Never in my wildest dreams when we designed high school in 2003 would I have thought she'd be married in 2010...but that's what is happening. A BA in mathematics, a husband, and a life of her own in 7 years.

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I will say this--enjoy it. It goes very, very fast. My daughter is graduating from the university in December, and I think it was yesterday that we set her high school plan. GRIN. Never in my wildest dreams when we designed high school in 2003 would I have thought she'd be married in 2010...but that's what is happening. A BA in mathematics, a husband, and a life of her own in 7 years.

 

My word, Lori, where have the years gone?

 

To the OP, I suggest that you go to the forum index page, scroll to the tag cloud, then click on "Nan's Words of Wisdom" for general high school plans. The tag "Lori D's Words of Wisdom" will help you with literature plans. You can also use the search function on this board to gather more information on the curricula that you are considering.

 

And welcome aboard!

 

Jane

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Welcome to high school, Vicki! :) It's not so scary to homeschool high school -- really!

 

I started off by lurking on the high school board for about 6 months before we started homeschool -- listening, and asking the occasional specific question. I compiled answers to my questions and helpful info on other people's threads and printed them off to look at from time to time.

 

Over the summer before starting 9th grade, I printed off a copy of what our state high schools generally require credit-wise for graduation, plus a copy of what our state universities require credit-wise for entrance. That gave us a very basic guideline for 4 years of high school: required classes and elective classes.

 

Then I started reading some homeschooling high school books to help me see how to handle some of the specifics -- how to count credit hours; how to create your own classes -- especially helpful if you have a student who knows what they want to do in college/career!; how to prepare for SAT/ACT testing; how to create a transcript; etc.

 

And then I came back to the WTM high school board and started asking more questions to help me narrow down which specific curriculae would help us achieve specific class goals for 9th grade. Because our boys have been changing so much just in the 2 years we've been doing high school, I found that while it's helpful to have a very *general* 4-year plan, that it's even more helpful to not look *too* far ahead in planning specific curriculae for more than a year ahead.

 

Just to get you started, below are some threads from the past 6 months on this board, all various areas of getting started homeschooling high school. Hope that helps a little! Happy reading -- and happy to have you aboard the Good Ship Homeschool High School! :tongue_smilie: Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

 

Talk to Me About... High School Fears

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86986&highlight=high+school

 

 

Homeschooling High School

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77406&highlight=high+school

 

 

Best Resources to Learn How to Homeschool High School?

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76368&highlight=high+school

 

 

Best Guides for Homeschooling in High School?

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87113&highlight=high+school

 

 

Book for Planning High School Curriculum Choices

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82307&highlight=high+school

 

 

Need Book Suggestion for Help in Homeschooling Through High School

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81097&highlight=high+school

 

 

High School at Home

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86614&highlight=high+school

 

 

Who Else Has an 8th Grader and is Making a High School Plan?

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83725&highlight=high+school

 

 

Do You Follow TWTM for High School?

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85560&highlight=high+school

 

 

Does Anyone Do High School History/Lit ala TWTM?

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81682&highlight=high+school

 

 

Tell Me About Your Traditional Lit/History High School Courses

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77827&highlight=high+school

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High school is not scary. So just relax and enjoy it!

 

Definitely draw up a tentative plan for high school. In pencil. Your daughter is growing up; give her a say in what she wants to study and even what materials to use. Encourage her to work independently and manage her time wisely. Make sure you cover all the bases: math, science, writing, and history.

 

Read some books or websites about high school. And transcripts. And how to get into college. It's not that hard, but it can be intimidating until you know that. Keep an eye out for early college programs as well.

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In addition to the excellent advice you've already received (good job logging those threads, Lori D!), I would also suggest that you find a local homeschool parent who has already launched some children from home school to college and whose children are doing well. Take her to lunch. Then you can ask lots and lots of questions from someone IRL about documentation, transcripts, state requirements, local resources, etc. Really, there is just so much out there now for home educated kids that you can cherry pick the best resources and path for your dc!

 

Welcome ~

Lisa

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I was so scared that I began to look at cover schools - accredited ones that would award a diploma and make sure I didn't make too many dreadful mistakes. Then I realized that I could do everything they would do by myself.

 

Here is a post I wrote about some of the different ways people homeschool high school. You can do it as school-at-home, or you can be more creative about it.

 

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

 

TWTM book itself has lots of good advice about high school. Just remember that it gives directions on how to do every subject extremely rigorously, just in case your student is advanced or extra interested, but it assumes that you won't go that far in every single one. Think of each subject as a to-do list. If you have a very academic-minded, intelligent student who works quickly and isn't heavily involved in sports or other hobbies, you might get fairly far through the to-do list for each subject. In all likelihood, you have a more ordinary student who is not going to get as far. One of the very wise people here (I am SO sorry - I can't remember who it was) said that she made herself responsible for moving her student forward through the subject, but let her daughter be responsible for the rest.

 

I also like the book The Homeschooler's Guide to Portfolios and Transcripts. It has quite a lot of information about planning your approach to high school and your educational philosophy, what colleges skills are looking for and how to tell them your child has aquired them, and how to document your child's work as you go along. It sounds like it would be something to read at the end of high school, but I wish I had read it at the beginning. If you are thinking of doing anything non-traditional, it might be worth reading.

 

I found the whole thing very scary, and I still wake up in the night worrying about it, even though my son has taken community college courses and done ok in them, even though he has been accepted to a four-year college, even though the things that have been the most successful at making him a good, interesting adult could not possibly have been combined with public high school, and even though his older brother did go to our public high school and it was a disaster. I am deciding how to homeschool for high school all over again for my third son, right now, and redoing all the fears and worries and arguments. The third recently chose to do some of the un-public-high-school-compatible things that the middle one did, so you would think it would be easy, but it still is very, very scary.

 

Hugs!

-Nan

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I have good, solid, non-academic reasons for homeschooling. If my son had done nothing but his extra unschooling-like-projects, it would have been worth it. Yes, he would have lots of work to do now at CC to get ready to go to his four-year college (about two years worth going year-round to make up the math), but he would have been ok skipping 4 years of academics and then picking it up again in CC. He learned quite a lot of academic things during his projects, and on top of that, he learned many things that I consider more important than academics. When I wake up in the middle of the night with the heebiejeebies, I think about who he would be if he had gone to public school, what he would have missed, and it makes me feel better.

 

If you can list out for yourself some major non-academic reasons to homeschool for high school, then you can remind yourself of them every time you hear about a wonderful school project, or discover you have failed to teach your child any blank in the last half year, or discover that there was a whole catagory of things that you didn't know you were supposed to be teaching.

 

HTH

-Nan

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The title about sums it up. This is our first year hsing- 2nd, 6th, and 8th grade. We have decided to hs our oldest for 9th grade. I feel confident but scared at the same time.

I feel there is no screwing up, no time to mess things up or do things wrong. I mean it all goes on her transcript, and I want her (and she wants) to get into a good college. Not sure on curriculum yet for next year, but anyone else have these feelings, and all worked out okay?

 

Every time I read the subject heading on this post I think, "Oh, gee! Their education has already been messed up! And there is NO WAY you are gonna get it right over the next 4 years. So give up and get some rest."

 

And then I click on something else and think I should behave myself.

 

But here it is. My gut feeling hanging out. It seems as though we try and we try. We do our best. We research and study and google and poll. And when we get all done, we wish we had done something different here or tweaked it there. We realize we could have done Math better or we could have prepared them better in science. We wish we had known what we know today about composition. On and on.

 

But then I look at the children coming from my area public school and laugh. My kids got a good education. They have held their faith. They are kind. You know they would never have gotten all of that at a public school.

 

PSAT, SAT, ACT...transcripts, diplomas, scholarships...classes, grades, curriculum...we do our best. We offer them what we can. They are left to make life the best they can with what we have given them--and what more can we give than all that we have given?

 

It's O.K. We are only mothers. We are Amazon women doing Atlas' job...but it never seems to be enough.

 

But it is. They are only human, too. They will get on in life, making mistakes and learning from experiences just like we do.

 

Life is good.

 

:)Jean

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I would like to jump in and be a cheerleader for you! I was really afraid to take the plunge. I'm a single mom working full time. There were even some on this board who, ever so gently, reminded me that homeschooling is not for everyone. I ended up taking a friend with homeschool experience to lunch and she was very encouraging. Most people just do what everyone does. To pull my dd out of school was to take full responsibility for every part of her life. What if I fail? What if we can't do it and she ends up a year behind in high school because I tried to do something better than the norm and fail? It felt like an enormous burden. But that burden is the burden of freedom. No one else is responsible for providing for us; we are taking care of ourselves. By the end of the first year I had no patience for people who complained about the public schools. I kept thinking 'why do you expect the government to provide for your education/social life/schedule/etc'? I had to remind myself that their mentality was normal and how scary it was for me to step away from it.

 

The first year was tough. It was really difficult. There were tears and frustrations for both of us. But we learned from the experience. We both matured and learned a lot. Our second year is going much better. This is the best year we've ever had - in every aspect of our lives. And she really is learning to take responsibility for every part of her life. The beautiful thing about homeschooling is when something isn't going the way you like, you change it.

 

One thing that would have made the transition easier for me... We started homeschooling for 10th grade. I assumed the public school would not take any of her credits and that we were stepping off a cliff and there was no going back. I thought we couldn't go back to public school even if we wanted to. It turns out our public schools are fairly welcoming of accepting homeschool credits. I've since met families who homeschooled one year - or even a half year of high school and returned to the public schools. Had I known that at the time, then I might not have been so terrified.

 

So the moral of the story... Yes, it's scary. I don't want to discount your fear. It's a big step. But it's worth it, and you can do it. And even though the first year won't go as well as you want it to, it will be worth it.

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