Gwen in VA
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Posts posted by Gwen in VA
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What a great ending to her high school years!
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My son took "M". At least four years ago he heard that the "M" was easier since the texts did a better job preparing the student for the "M". There is a difference in average score -- I thought the M was higher than the E, but I could be mistaken and I don't know where you would find the information.
My son took the "E" and did really well -- but he tests ridiculously well, so it means nothing. Ds did not like cells (and intends to never take another bio course again!) so the E made more sense for him.
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Dd took English lit with Mrs. Bell. She did not particularly enjoy the class; dd did not find Mrs. Bell's feedback on essays helpful. Also, Mrs. Bell used the threat of poor grades as a means of motivating her students, which dd did not like since dd is already a highly motivated student. The threat of a B or even a C just annoyed her. She did receive an A, but was one of only four in the class to do so. Other kids might find the grading issue discouraging. Also, the class only studied five books, which surprised me. It was a very worthwhile class, however. (Dd received a 5 on the AP exam.)
Ds took English Language with Bethany Gilmour and really enjoyed the class. The essay feedback was VERY helpful and prompt, and she really encouraged everyone to work diligently on the material without nagging. (I don't know how she did it!) He found the online discussions very stimulating, and spent a LOT of time on that board. (Ds obviously hasn't received his score yet, but he felt very well-prepared for the exam.)
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We allow our kids a fair amount of choice.
In 9th and 10th grade, the choices mostly entail HOW a subject is studied. Do they take an online class? If so, which one? (I'll give two or three options.) Do they do it at home with me? If so, which curriculum? (I show them various options.) If I feel that for that subject there is only one option, I explain why that is the only option. I limit the choices, but I do give them choices.
By 11th grade, the kids are growing up and have their own sense of where they are going. The courses they take reflect that --
1) Dd took APUSH her junior year because she was planning on going into history. Ds took AP Economics and AP US Govt instead of history his junior year because he was planning on going into economics and public policy. Would I have preferred that ds take history? Yes -- but he was VERY persuasive!
2) Dd took AP US Govt her senior year in addition to history -- but she took NO science. (Dh and I are engineers and we did not like that!) But again, she was pretty persuasive! And not having taken a science her senior year didn't hurt her -- she received a scholarship for being the top freshman chemistry student this year! :001_smile:
I have always stressed that one of the big benefits of homeschooling is FLEXIBILITY. Flexibility not only in terms of time, but also in terms of academics.
I would never ever advocate substituting basketweaving 101 for history, or home economics for chemistry, but if the subjects your dd is interested in taking are serious subjects that can enrich her education, I would say to let her go for it.
Would you consider requiring her to do history for her freshman and sophomore years so she has a good foundation, and then letting her explore her own interests, which still sound pretty academic? Or you could require her to do history but try to minimize it so she can do the subjects she is passionate about -- keep history to one hour a day. (History a la WTM can end up taking hours and hours -- I know!)
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I sympathize completely with your weariness -- trying to motivate an unmotivated child is exhausting!At age 14 my older son was also a "slug." He was very motivated to do what he wanted to do, but he was NOT motivated at all to do what I wanted him to do.
In absolute despair I started signing him up for online classes -- 2 his freshman year, 4 the remaining years (in addition to cc classes and 4-year college classes). He responded VERY well to other people's requirements and deadlines, and actually has been a top student in almost all of his outside classes.
I found that passing the academics on to outside people allowed us to regain our mother/son relationship, which had been seriously hurt by the teacher/student relationship. Also, ds1 is extremely competitive and having him in outside classes really motivated him to do well. (I can teach my other three kids with much less friction for whatever reason -- ds1 is just a challenge!)
In summary, I would investigate having him take one or two outside classes. This may help him realize that you aren't being overly demanding, and he may enjoy the challenge of meeting outside expectations. In any case, the outside classes would allow you to wear your "mommy hat" more often, which might help your relationship.
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Wow -- What wonderful news! I'm delighted for both of you!
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I agree completely, Ailaena! :iagree:
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We also did pass/fail for non-academic electives.
No college questioned this at all.
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A friend of mine just spent the last several years living in Germany. She says that it is actually quite difficult to find places to cash travelers' checks these days; people use ATM withdrawals for cash.
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My kids have told me that when they take AP exams, a LOT of kids just don't care. They nap during the exam.....
My son took an AP exam last week through our public school. The ps requires kids who take the AP course to take the exam. During the break many kids went up to the teacher and said that they had answered NONE of the multiple choice questions -- could they please go home now?
In our school district all sophomores are required to take one of two social studies classes -- AP US Govt is one of the two classes. So surprise, surprise -- many kids get a 1 on the exam!
High schools are "graded" on the number of AP courses they offer and the percent of kids who take the AP exams; exam scores don't enter into the criteria. I have heard that the percent of 1's given on AP exams is skyrocketing for this reason.
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My parents were VERY unusual -- since I was pretty ambidextrous as a kid they "encouraged" me to be a lefty!
So I write and eat lefty...
I could NEVER EVER do sports as a kid. I never ever made that bat contact the ball. I could not get the tennis racket to make contact with the ball. Then in shear frustration my husband-to-be suggested that maybe I should try holding the racket with my right hand. Guess what -- I can actually hit a ball when playing righty!
So I guess I am a confused righty who does many things lefty!
The funny thing is that when I learn a new skill (like crocheting) I need to decide whether I want to do it righty or lefty -- how confusing!
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What a great article! Thanks for sharing it.
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I was just cleaning my bookshelves because there will be a homeschool booksale in our area in a few weeks. I bumped in to LOTS of "guidance counselor" - type books. I had no idea I had so many! (The sad thing is that I have discarded a number along the way -- these are the ones I recommend!)
Home-Designed High School
The High School Handbook
The Homeschooler's Guide to Portfolios and Transcripts
Homeschoolers' College Admission Handbook
Reading Lists for College-Bound Students
A Is for Admission
Acing the College Application
Looking Beyond the Ivy League
Colleges That CHange Lives
Get a Jump
What Colleges Don't Tell You
Choosing the Right College
All-American Colleges
I guess I can open up a guidance department in my house!
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Our local community college did not care at all about ds's SAT-II or AP scores. I bought the score sheets with me when he registered, and they didn't want to look at them.
The only thing the registrar cared abou was the cc placement test results.
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To the impressive list of yahoo groups (I have been or currently ama member of ALL of those listed!) I would like to add one more source of info --
collegeconfidential.com
The parents who post on it are a VERY uptight bunch, but it is FULL of information. Be selective about where you poke and how much you let the people there influence your thinking -- but it is a goldmine of information.
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Wow -- they recommend doing AP English Language for juniors and AP English lit for seniors?
We treated it as an either/or choice for senior year! My kids could choose one or the other, but neither did both.
My dd certainly needed her three previous years of lit classes to be able to succeed in AP English Lit. Of course, she doesn't get along that well with literature, so if she was a more humanities-oriented person by nature, :glare: maybe I could imagine her dealing with the AP Lit with only two years of high schoo lit under her belt.
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Nan,
I really appreciate your response!
Yes, there are more kids graduating,which is making competition for those coveted "desirable college" spots brutal. This year's graduating high school senior class is the biggest ever. The number of graduating seniors will start to shrink starting either next year or the year after.
College is just more expensive nowadays. The tuition has been rising at about twice the rate of inflation since the early 80's.....and over 25 years that's a lot of increase!
My father worked his way through college. His parents didn't contribute in any way. I could not have gone without serious parental help, but still during the summers I earned the equivalent of about 1/5 of my tuition (not including room and board) -- and I went to an expensive school! In one summer my kids couldn't earn 1/5 of their tuition no matter WHAT they did!
All of the Virginia state schools that have announced their tuition rates for next year are increasing tuition about 10%, and UVA has said that it will be increasing at about 10% for the next several years! GULP!
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My son started Greek after doing Latin 1. (He did Latin 1 for four years, using lOTS of different textbooks, but he never got beyond Latin1.)
Greek is difficult, but my son is enjoying reading Plato in the original language and being able to comment on sermons where the pastor uses Greek to prove something.
After two years of Attic Greek, ds could pretty much read the Bible in terms of forms, though vocab was still an issue. Starting midway through Greek 3 he has been able to read and translate from the NT pretty fluently.
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I wear gas perms and love them. One doctor convinced me to try soft and I stopped wearing them after six months and went back to gas perms.
My older dd started on soft and hated them. She just wears glasses now.
My younger dd needs contacts so she can be in her fife and drum corps (only 18th C eyewear allowed!) so I wanted her to try gas perms given my and older dd's failures with soft. She loves the gas perms.
My 18yo ds will start on gas perms in a month.
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I haven't investigated gap years, but I think that usually the high school senior applies to college, gets accepted, and then defers the acceptance a year.
I know that i just saw an article on Yale's freshman class this year, and it has 25 seniors who are accepting to be part of the class of 2013 (not this year's but next year's freshman class).
Obviously, you can also just wait and apply the year after graduation, but I think that is a bit more unusual.
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Have him take Greek through Scholars Online. My son is finishing up Greek 3 right now, and he has learned a lot and really enjoyed the classes.
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One last comment -- students definitely do get lots of attention at small liberial arts colleges. For financial reasons both of my older kids looked at the Honors Colleges at various state universities, and we were really impressed.
Honors Colleges seem to provide a lot of the benefits of LAC's at the state U price -- small classes, attention from professors, special counseling, etc.
Just another approach to college!
Standardized Testing Iowa vs. Stanford
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
You cannot give the Stanford to your own children. You can give the Iowa to your own children. If you expect to use the scores outside the family circle and the school authorities, the Standford has a bit more credibility because the parent cannot be the proctor.
However, if you are just giving the test scores to the school department to satisfy the legal requireent, I don't see that it would make any difference.