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Julie in MN

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    My avatar was taken as I held a birthday cake for all 3 of my grandkids, 1st birthday of the youngest one, 2006

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  • Biography
    Started homeschooling a 10th grader in 2002; added a 3rd grader in 2004
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    Minnesota - Twin Cities area
  • Interests
    Ahhh books. And family - photo is a great day celebrating the birthdays of 3 grandkids
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    Homeschool mom, wife & helpmeet to ill husband, part-time tutor, and some website maintenance

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  1. I've had 2 kids who had trouble being high schoolers, and the results were different, but they are both doing fine as adults. In some ways, I think high schoolers are ready to move on, to feel like they are contributing to the world; being in a holding pattern controlled by adults around them is counter-intuitive. In other words, I sympathize. However, I was an oldest child, so I said, just tell me what I need to do to get out of here, I did it, I graduated early, and I moved on; my oldest was similarly bent. The middle and youngest were not so willing to "just do it." For them, I adjusted and adjusted, and in the end my minimal standards were very minimal. I didn't feel I was compromising on my word, because I made the kids aware of what an excellent transcript would look like, and how I had been shooting for a great experience moving into adulthood which would fit nicely into their gifts and preferences. Then I explained the potential effects if we gave up on those goals and chose a lesser transcript. When that seemed to be their choice, I outlined options about that transcript. Outside activities could become credits (if named honestly) rather than quality extra-curriculars. Some classes could be pass/fail or repeated. Extra credit could be earned and either boost GPA or boost the number of credits. I gave 0.25 credits for some things that were only partially done. As others have mentioned, there are all kinds of things done in the public school system, as well. There is an ideal, and then there is the reality that all kids aren't all staying on the same assembly-line. My kids have known kids who went into adulthood in lousy situations - some seem to be there to stay, some have pulled themselves out very nicely, at least one committed suicide. There are worse things in life than a lousy transcript. Today, my dd still hasn't finished my minimum requirement of one book per year for English, but she could and I would award her a diploma at any age. Meanwhile she's gradually become an excellent mom and has supported herself as a waitress and weathered the challenges of trying to live very cheaply. The other received a diploma from me, although less than his potential, then dove into a year of sweat labor, until he realized that the men there were still doing the same thing in their 40s. He is in college now :) He is still maturing but is taking care of everything himself in another state. When I see my homeschooled kids conversing with others their age, I am confident they were educated. I am at peace with that. And honestly, colleges will look at your son's great SAT score and may never even read his transcript. Colleges compete with one another by posting high test score averages, not transcript details. Your son may have to pay for high school level courses in college, which may annoy him. He may not get into elite schools that he might have qualified for. But he may find the perfect niche for him, nonetheless. Best wishes on agonizing through this. I've definitely been there. Julie
  2. That first sentence seems off to me. As a non-theater major reading it, I first wondered if all she did was attend a play. If you shorten the description as others have suggested, I'd give that first sentence more "education-ese."
  3. We did a strange block schedule for ds's last semester of high school. He was going through a difficult phase and had done only DE for first semester, then for his last semester at home he insisted he just work on one class at a time, until it was finished. And it worked for him (for the one semester, at least). I'd say he learned far more than he had when he paid partial attention to 6 different classes each day. He really concentrated when it was just one class all day. I was surprised. But I agree with the others that the week in between might be too long. I don't think it would've worked for my ds to work all of one day and then not come back to the material again for a week. Seems like a lot of time would be spent on review? Maybe if it was a class that could be separated into units done discretely? Julie
  4. We enjoyed making our announcement. We must have sent out 50 or more, including ds's friends. Friends exchanged grad photos of one kind or another - ds's announcement was his grad photo. We created a 5x7 announcement at Walgreens, with several pix taken by a friend plus a childhood photo for a cute comparison. The Walgreens announcement had the year and a "graduate" banner already on it, so we just added his name, the name of our school, and a little fun because ds likes fun: Received Every Award (in a class of 1 student) For those whom I worried about appearances, as far as asking for gifts, I placed a sticky note on the announcement and hand-wrote: No party, No gifts! In some cases, I added a comment on the sticky note about how I thought they would enjoy seeing his accomplishment, or how we appreciated their part in his life. One more thing: Be sure your student is prepared to write thank-yous for every announcement sent out, just in case (cards, address book, stamps, decent pen, etc.). That's a big project during a busy time, so talking about it in advance can be helpful. Congrats, Julie
  5. Notgrass is definitely not a 2-year text on its own. It is a fairly gentle 1-year text. So don't worry about that. MFW studies world history over 2 years, with B.C. the first year and A.D. the second year. So, Notgrass is mostly used in year 2, and folks wouldn't be selling their new editions until they were done with that. (MFW uses several materials besides Notgrass, especially in the first year, to fill out 2 credits.) HTH, Julie
  6. You mentioned McCullough, and Mornings on Horseback and The Path Between the Seas both feature TR. Though also long for the time span covered, McCullough's biographies are accessible. Also, you could do just one of the Morris books, and leave it up to your son as to whether he pursues the rest on his own time?
  7. I would ignore that person's advice. Sounds like he doesn't know anything about modern homeschooling :) And yes, you certainly can grant credit in your school wherever credit is due. In cases where I wasn't involved in my son's learning, I had him type up a list of what he did, a sort of syllabus, and attached any paperwork, photos, etc., that he picked up along the way. It sounds like it's also a good time to get letters of recommendation from adults he has worked with, which can be included with the syllabus but also may be needed for scholarships and college admissions.
  8. To me, there is a big difference between grammar and writing. They are connected, but you would spend your time in different ways for each of them. Is it possible for you to borrow the books used in your school from previous years? You could skim through them to locate gaps in your knowledge, and read those sections carefully. Also, are you taking a foreign language? Grammar skills are often strengthened by learning the grammar of another language. If you are picking up the parts of speech and such through your foreign language studies, perhaps your English is simply lacking in punctuation skills or other fairly narrow areas? To me, it's best to spend your time on the specific areas you need, rather than something so broad as grammar and writing.
  9. Agreeing with Kelly and 8Fills - you don't have to make choices for them but you can do quite a bit now to educate them about their career ideas. I had my son do a research report in 10th about medical careers, having him interview many different folks in the field, with educational backgrounds ranging from 2 months to 8 years, to show him that "doctor or nurse" does not sum up the entire field. You could do the same with any career, from engineer to artist. I also think of a Girl Scout I was acquainted with, who got a "wider opportunity" through scouting to try out the journalism career of her dreams. During that experience, she realized that journalism was not what she imagined and was not the career for her. It's a fortunate person who realizes this beforehand.
  10. I totally agree. My boys are both math/engineering-minded and just wanted text authors to tell them what they were getting at, not make them read their minds about where they were going. I can see the benefit of exploration, and I loved when we did Singapore primary and explored many ways to solve a problem, but in later years, my boys wanted efficiency. They had too many other hobbies to explore LOL - probably were picking up a few of the same analytical skills when trying to fix their cars or win a hockey game. Oldest is now a successful petroleum engineer, youngest is a student in computer science, so I don't think it was a fatal flaw. But sorry, no experience with Forester's. Jacob's Geometry was discovery based and I forced youngest to spend a semester in it, but then I let him off the hook :)
  11. I also consider Singapore more advanced, but had some problems using high school level. We ended up only using a couple of topics in NEM at the end of 7th because I couldn't figure out how to schedule it and didn't have a son who would work hard without an assigned goal. The Discovery series was supposed to have much more homeschool hand-holding from I believe the same gal who did the Home Instructor Guides for the Primary series, but now I see that has morphed into the Dimensions series to incorporate common core, so I don't know how far from the original Singapore methods it has strayed. I would probably count NEM 1 & 2 as Prealgebra & Algebra. It doesn't cover proof-based geometry, which to me is where you get a separate high school level geometry credit. However, folks do it both ways with Saxon as well, so of course it's up to you. One problem with switching over to American Algebra 2 would be the exposure to the quadratic formula, which is such a staple in American Algebra 1 but not included in NEM 2. It looks like it's been added to the Dimensions series, see #3: http://www.singaporemath.com/FAQ_Secondary_Math_s/16.htm The quadratic will be in Algebra 2 and college Algebra 3, but goes faster and further each time, so I might find a quadratic unit online to prep for Algebra 2, if you choose something that hasn't covered it. HTH, Julie
  12. I agree that there can be some crossover. My dd had a lot of camp counseling experience and so no need to duplicate some of those skills and experiences if I required them for certain credits. Also, if Eagle Scout is a possibility, that looks really good as an extra on a transcript, so I'd keep that separate. There are also potential college scholarships for Eagle Scouts and other awards that could add to a good application package. For instance, http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/scholarships.aspx (Some of the girls in my troop earned silver or gold awards in Girl Scouting, and most scholarships are now treating those equally.) Julie
  13. I just want to share a different view. I would never, ever, ever take away the dance. Sure, she's messing up in some areas. But dance is healthy. It is building important "educational" skills like accountability, teamwork, and performance. It is getting her out of her chair to experience investing herself fully. A truly failing child might have none of those assets on board. A student doing poorly in school and quitting dance could potentially do absolutely zero, could potentially blame parents, could potentially become depressed. As Cleopatra mentioned, take her age into consideration. As Kiara and Janet mentioned (or my own take on what they said), take into consideration that ALL of us likely don't perform at 100% for 12 hours a day. We homeschool moms want everything for our kids, but realistically not many kids accomplish everything during their high school years. It's a tough time for many kids, juggling a lot of things, including culture and new responsibilities for self-discipline and in her case multiple families. Yes, keep her mind sharp for future college options (and just for life). Yes make her aware that her decisions impact her future. Your asking for tips on how to guide her is a great idea. But I have seen teens fall and fall hard. If she has one area where she's getting healthy exercise and disciplining herself, I'd hang onto that area for all it's worth, and start outlining her options from there. Julie
  14. We joined HSLDA off-and-on when we could, and I always felt it was good to have a national group of lawyers to keep an eye out for homeschooling ups and downs. But I'm one who has never had my own lawyer and would have no idea whether the guys in the phone book were any good, especially on homeschooling topics. I'm sure each person would interpret that differently, but folks could be referring to their support of conservative Christian programs for teens/young adults, or possibly their stance on parental rights with as little state involvement as possible? HSLDA does have two high school consultants, here https://www.hslda.org/highschool/coordinators.asp I have called them about several things, from a dd who flunked public school 9th grade to an uncooperative ds who needed credits. Of course, I also consulted local friends and online places, but I was very happy with the HSLD consultants, as well. Over the years, it seems like I've used HSLDA for various things: * their alternative homeschool forms for MN, which help us provide only the info required by law, rather than the extra info our local school districts tend to want (these things are kept current, updating them as our laws changed) * HSLDA also got involved when our local school districts wanted us to fill out "surveys" * their list of homeschooling laws by state when friends and family from other states have asked about homeschooling * forms for state income tax credits on education materials, which can get expensive in high school (I know, MN is a rarity) * their curriculum buying/selling market And specifically for high school, which is where I began (first year homeschooler was a 10th grader) and where I ended (youngest is now a college freshman): * free sample filled-out transcripts & blank transcripts * detailed instructions on calculating high school credits in various situations * lists/links of various curriculum providers on random topics my kids wanted to pursue in high school Well, things like that. I really found they had a lot of info, and it was fairly specific and current compared to some of the homeschooling books I had, but YMMV. Julie
  15. I would have a hard time calling Friendly Chem a lab science. It has some good materials for visualizing electron distribution using a hands-on distribution activity and visualizing the way you do a chemistry equation using different sized cards. It has some good activities for remembering the noble gasses using a skit and there is an experiment involving burnt marshmallows. But I just don't see that as a lab science. You could present it to your dd as a science course without lab, or lab could be added through another program (we used some of Rainbow Science chem labs and planned to use Experiences in Chemistry to completed a full lab credit, but my dd didn't finish that credit). Just one opinion. Julie
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