EKT
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Posts posted by EKT
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My daughter is applying for a summer program scholarship and the form asks for a CEEB#. From what I can tell, the code for homeschoolers is 970000, but I just wanted to check and confirm that the information I have is correct/current for 2022. (Does this code ever change from year to year?) Thank you!
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9 minutes ago, cintinative said:
To be honest, the pinned threads on this forum (high school board and college board) have answered most of my questions. The only ones I couldn't necessarily get answered here are those dealing with specific local things and those I go to my local friends for. There are books out there, and some of them have even been mentioned on here, but so much is changing at a rapid pace my guess is that some of them are at least partially out of date. So whatever you use, keep in mind that the ball is moving rapidly. 😃
Oh, no question! (And that is good advice.) I have read this board religiously over the years and I agree that every time I ask a question, I get wonderful, up-to-date responses. It has been so helpful. I am working my way through all of the Motherlode posts, but I do find them overwhelming sometimes, because there are just so many threads and going through them all requires constant back-and-forth clicking. (I wish I could read all these posts summarized in book form, on actual paper, so I could mark everything up and make notes!)
I guess I'm mostly curious to find out if there's anything else out there that I might not know about--something that would be a supplement to content on these boards.
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Aside from TWTM, obviously!
Through the years, I've always read as much as I can about homeschooling, but now that we're nearing the end of our ninth grade year, I want to make sure I have up-to-date information on all the things that will be coming up: high school testing (SAT, ACT, etc.), college course requirements, college applications, etc. All the administrative stuff we need to be on top of as homeschool parents.
I do feel like I already have a solid grasp, but I want to cross-reference different sources, to make certain I'm not missing anything. Are there any particular resources for parents (books, online courses or classes, etc.) that have been particularly helpful to you? Ideally, I'm seeking an all-in-one resource that has the information all in one place, but I'm open to hearing about anything you've loved and/or found immensely helpful. Thank you!
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I don't have definitive knowledge in this area, but I think it's pretty standard. We are currently using Oak Meadow Biology as a spine with the Holt MacDougal Biology Textbook by Stephen Nowicki. (I chose that text because Nowicki also teaches the Great Courses Biology class and I thought they paired nicely together.) Along with that, (instead of the Oak Meadow labs) we are using the Quality Science Labs Biology lab kit.
The Oak Meadow curriculum and the Holt textbook outline the topics in this order:
- Intro
- Cells
- Genetics
- Evolution
- Ecology
- Classification and Diversity
- Plants
- Animals
- Human Biology
So, we have done things in this order and I just pulled select labs from the QSL kit as they corresponded with each unit. We had no trouble studying Ecology in the middle. (It made perfect sense in the textbook as we went along; the order did not feel strange to us, in context.) That said, I think that once you cover Intro, Cells, and Genetics, you could probably do the rest in any order. (The topics overlap in so many places.) But I liked the order of these!
I will say that we ended up hitting the Ecology unit in the middle of winter, which turned out to be slightly inconvenient for the labs. The QSL ecology lab is all about observing two ecosystems outdoors. I thought we would have a better-quality experience with this lab closer to summer (when more life forms are out and about!), so we're saving that lab for the end of the year. But we did all the bookwork for the ecology unit already, on schedule. (So, that might be one reason to do ecology early on, OR save it for the end of the year. But like I said, it hasn't been a big deal.)
One other thing I'm glad about that you might like to consider: Our plant unit lined up perfectly with the spring season (we just finished that unit). We did several labs involving living plants (dissections, root observations, etc.) and at this time of year, we had no trouble at all sourcing inexpensive tulips and lilies and other small potted plants at the grocery store, which was really nice. (I didn't have to make any special trips to a florist or a nursery.)
Hope this helps!
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11 hours ago, royspeed said:
Attaching images of my wife's template designs for the transcript & course descriptions document. (She distributes a collection of such templates as part of the materials for a workshop she gives for parents homeschooling through the high school years.)
Hope you can glean a few good ideas...
I LOVE seeing other people's examples! Thank you so much for sharing; I appreciate your help!
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19 minutes ago, BusyMom5 said:
I think it varies, and even changes! One school wanted a transcript notarized while signed by me. Other accepted a Word document e-mailed, no signature at all. One school DD1 toured wanted a physical signed copy, particularly about the format and dates. DD2 toured a few weeks ago, and they asked for an e-mailed transcript, and if ACT was sent, no additional details.
Wow, those are all so different. (All doable, obviously, but just interesting how much it varies.) The notary is particularly interesting!
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40 minutes ago, kokotg said:
on the common app, you can upload pdfs of all of that stuff. IIRC, they show you a preview and you click a box to confirm that it looks how you want it to look. We've never mailed anything; for the few schools that wanted portfolios or graded papers, they scanned and uploaded them.
I'm so glad to know this about the Common App, since so many schools use it! PDFs would definitely be my preferred submission format (no risk of the text getting corrupted), so that is good news!
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Farrar's comment in my previous post (about nit-picky things) prompted another question: How are application documents typically submitted to colleges these days? Is the student's application completely digital, including essays? Will I be able to submit documents such as transcripts, course descriptions, school profiles, and recommendations as PDFs and/or docs? Or, will I have to cut and paste that stuff into a text box form on the college's own website? (My concern there is that any formatting/paragraphing/boldface/italics I use could get all scrambled.) OR, should I expect to mail things in on actual paper? I would love to know how it's currently done these days. (It's so funny to think of all the huge manila envelopes I mailed out from the post office back when I applied to college!)
Anyway, thanks in advance for sharing how you submitted your administrative stuff as the homeschool parent. (As we finish our first ninth-grade year, I'm attempting to write course descriptions, etc. as I go along, so the task isn't overwhelming senior year. Of course I realize I will change things around and edit as I go, but I think it will be nice to have things mostly done year-by-year. I'd like to get as much "right" from the beginning as I can.) Appreciate the help!
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2 hours ago, Farrar said:
Strongly seconding Roy's points. The easier it is to skim, the better. That's why I don't typically do it Lori's way by incorporating the books inside the description. I pull them out.
It's also why - unless someone is dealing with NCAA, I don't suggest using ISBN numbers or editions. They clutter.
And why formatting actually matters. I know a lot of people don't really "see" formatting. I know this because I see how y'all all format things. And how my students format things. 🙄 And let's just say it's often messy. Like, a really good student turned in an amazing paper to me the other day that switched fonts and had everything block indented in the middle of the paper. Um, that's distracting me from appreciating the content of the paper. If you have some things indented and others not, some things in one font, others in another, some things in different sizes, in different places on the page... that stuff matters to the eye. No, it's not going to keep your kid out of college for goodness sakes. Let's not get wild. But it's like dressing nicely for an interview. It does make a good impression of you and your homeschool organization. Of course it shouldn't matter. But little things do.
I totally agree with you about visuals! That's why I'm asking nit-picky questions; I want the content itself to be good, obviously, but I also want to showcase the content to its best advantage and for things to look good on the page. (I always harp about presentation--in a variety of contexts--with my kids.)
I'm a super visual person and super detail-oriented, so I'm definitely planning to put time and thought into how things look--for course descriptions, transcripts, etc.--wherever it's applicable. (I'm still searching for a transcript template that has attractive graphic design. Will probably have to make it myself.) Anyway, thanks for chiming in; it's so helpful to get feedback.
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5 hours ago, royspeed said:
Author, Title.
The key with course descriptions is to make the information easy to skim — i.e., easy to absorb at a glance.
To illustrate: You could list a series of titles thus —
Lydia Chukovskaya, Sofia Petrovna; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Kate Chopin, The Awakening; Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre; Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence.
But my recommended format would be more like this:
- Lydia Chukovskaya, Sofia Petrovna;
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein;
- Kate Chopin, The Awakening;
- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre;
- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice;
- Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence.
— or this:
- Lydia Chukovskaya, Sofia Petrovna;
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein;
- Kate Chopin, The Awakening;
- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre;
- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice;
- Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence.
Key idea: You know that an admissions officer will spend seconds, not minutes, on your student's course descriptions document. So structure the whole document to:
- lower the reviewer's effort;
- facilitate rapid ingestion of the key information.
Hope that helps.
Ooh, I really like the points you raise. The idea of making things easy-to-skim is a good framework for me. (Because I know you're right; skimming is how things will be read. Ugh...the idea them spending only seconds! Of course I know it's true, but still...it's demoralizing, lol.) But thank you for sharing the info in this way!
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We are using A Sentence a Day in our morning time this year and it has been fun and effective! (My kids are currently in 9th and 6th grade.)
Basically, each day, there is an incorrect sentence your kids have to correct. (You would write this sentence on a whiteboard for your students to copy down themselves, or you can type or copy the incorrect sentence onto a sheet of paper to hand out to them.)
Below the "incorrect" sentence, the book shows you the "correct" sentence. Below that are notes that explicitly explain the issues.
I liked this book because it was exactly what I was looking for: quick, daily exercises. It is designed for grades 6-9, but sometimes the sentences were too easy. I frequently made the sentences harder by adding in additional errors and problems. But the sentences in the book gave me a starting place to work from; it's very easy to adjust the sentences yourself to make them harder or easier. (Otherwise, this resource is very open-and-go). The sentences are intended to be silly--and some of them are cheesy--but overall they are fun.
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2 minutes ago, Lori D. said:
For book lists that no one but you see, feel free to use as much or as little detail as works for you. I just listed title and author, as I could not think of a time I would ever need the publisher info, and if I did, I could always pull the book off the shelf, or, if we no longer had the book, I could do a quick online search for the edition we had used.
For the course description, keep it short and to the point -- the admissions officers who look at these do NOT have the time to wade through 1 full page of info for each and every course. A paragraph, especially if it is a pretty typical course like American Lit. is plenty. (Yes, longer if it is a unique or specially-designed class.) Titles of major works, and/or names of major authors covered is fine -- you don't have to include every single thing read for the class.Example of my American Lit. course description:
English 11: American Literature
1.00 credit, homeschool course
An introduction to American Literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, reading, discussing, and analyzing a variety of works: novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, and plays. The major novels and novellas included: The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne), Billy Budd (Melville), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway), The Pearl (Steinbeck), Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury), and I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Craven). Dramas viewed and discussed in this course: Our Town (Wilder) and A Raisin in the Sun (Hansberry). Over 20 short stories spanning the 1800s-1900s were read and discussed in depth, while major poets covered included: Phyllis Wheatley, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Carlos William Carlos, Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, and Langston Hughes. Writing for this course included several multi-page literary analysis essays, plus reader responses of various lengths.Very helpful, thank you! 🙂
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1 minute ago, cintinative said:
Missed some questions. It is secular.
Generally my oldest, who is a fast worker, can get through two books in a year. My youngest, who is a slow processor, takes maybe 3/4 of a year for a book.
Perfect! Thank you for this!
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1 minute ago, cintinative said:
We have been using Vocabulary from Classical Roots as a supplement since we finished spelling. My oldest (10th grade) finished Book E last year. My youngest (9th grade) is on Book E right now I think.
We have done it 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week. I do nothing other than check in every now and then. They use Quizlet to review words, do the workbook and some exercises in the teacher book and they do their own grading. We don't do tests. I don't generally list it on the transcript either.
This is good to know; thank you!
And yes, it's not something I'm necessarily looking to add to a transcript; just something I want to add in to our routine, as a form of general vocab development and casual test-prep.
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1 minute ago, BusyMom5 said:
I used the purple book once, but I prefer Word Roots by CTC. Perfect for morning work! My boys will be using WR2 next year, and one kid used 1, 2 and 3.
I haven't heard of this one; thank you for the recommendation! I will check it out and add it to my list of options!
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6 minutes ago, Slache said:
I've heard that English From The Roots up works better for this. I have not used either program.
Thank you for chiming in! I am considering that one, too! Cathy Duffy's review made it sound like English from the Roots Up is more teacher-intensive (which I am not opposed to, necessarily), but I'm looking mainly for something that we can do in little 5-10 minute bites each day.
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Lots of questions today! 🙂
In your course descriptions and/or reading lists, how do you list your books? Do you simply write the title and author, or do you write it in a particular format (such as MLA), complete with dates and publisher info? In other words:
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
OR
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. C. Scribner's Sons, 1925.
Is there a preferred way to do this for college application/records purposes? (I realize this is nit-picky, but I figure I should do it correctly from the start, so I don't have to re-do it later.) I'm inclined to use the version which includes dates--so they know which edition of a textbook we've used, etc.--but I don't want to be tedious. Please advise. Thanks!
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Would these workbooks work well for Morning Time? I'm considering adding in more formal study of vocabulary (with an eye towards SAT prep), but I don't want to spend more than a few minutes on it every day. My understanding is that books A-E are appropriate for grades 7-12. (I'm assuming we should just start with book A and move forward?)
How long does each lesson take? How quickly can you move through each book? Is it secular?
I'd love to hear feedback from anyone who is familiar with the program. Thank you!
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Context note: Of course, as homeschoolers, our kids are learning all the time! And in our family, reading is a constant pursuit, year-round. But in my question here, I'm referring to actual curricula and formal homeschool plans.
Okay, so for grades K-8, I always picked a first day of school and a last day of school. Each year, we'd start on the first day of school, go along all my plans as far as we could, and then we just stopped when we reached the scheduled last day of school. (For example, in English, we never read every last book I'd hoped to, but I'd either let it go or work it into my plans for the following year. In subjects where we used a formal curriculum, such as Latin, we'd get as far as we could in the program, take a summer break, and pick up wherever we left off the following fall.) We did always finish math. (We've always used Math U See, and that program lends itself very well to being finished in a school year.) Anyway, that approach always worked great and I never worried about it.
But, now....HIGH SCHOOL! lol. Now that my oldest is in high school and we're finishing up our first year of ninth grade, I'm feeling a little conflicted. We only have six weeks left before our scheduled last day of school (May 27th). We're pretty close to achieving everything I'd hoped, but I'm at the point where I have to make some decisions: Do I cut parts of the curriculum (skip the last two biology units, for example), or do I extend the school year by a couple of weeks to get my imaginary "finisher" gold star? I think the reason I feel internal turmoil about this is because I will be assigning formal credits for the first time ever and I want them to be honestly assigned. (A weird part of my brain feels like I can't grant a "legitimate" world history credit if we only make it to the Cold War, instead of the to the end of the curriculum. The other part of my brain knows that that viewpoint is totally stupid and no high school student--nor any graduate student!--can cover "all" of world history in a single year in any case, so I can go ahead and grant the credit no matter where we end up.) I think the other part that's a struggle is that we're moving on to other subjects next year. (I can't pick up biology next fall as I normally might, because we have to move on to chemistry...)
We have done good work this year. In the places we are "behind," it's because a particular project took longer than expected, or because we spent more time investigating an area of interest, or because we took a short break to pursue something else of equal academic worth. (That is, the reason we're a little behind in some areas is not because anyone has been lazy or slacking! We have put in consistent, diligent time and work.) So, I'm inclined to just cut stuff and make peace with wherever we end up. (But again, the Type-A part of me hates that we will have done only 16 biology labs instead of the 18 I planned, lol. Argh!)
Anyway, I'd love to hear what others do, and why. When do you call the year in your household? How do you plan and adjust for the last few weeks? Thanks!
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3 minutes ago, regentrude said:
Art History is a "social science" - it's a special view on history and certainly mirrors the societal developments
(Btw, the whole distinction between "humanities" and "social science" is stupid anyway since there's a lot of crossover)
I agree! I totally believe it is, too! (There is so much history, politics, economics, etc. in art history. You cannot divorce it from "other" history!) But my understanding is that credit-wise, colleges don't consider it a social science, as far as transcripts go. My understanding is that it belongs under "electives," and will not be accepted for social science credit.
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4 minutes ago, kokotg said:
I feel like the answer to these kinds of questions is almost always "it depends on what her goals/plans are." Is she headed to art school? I would imagine the academics on her transcript will be less important if so. I wouldn't look just at the minimum requirements at your state school but at what kinds of transcripts people who actually get admitted have. If she's looking at very selective colleges, then I'd say that having fewer than 4 social science credits might indeed be viewed poorly. But it really just depends on what schools she's looking at. I made sure that my music kid had a transcript that would pass muster at pretty much any college. I probably erred on the side of caution in that because there was no way to know when he was in 9th and 10th grade if he'd change his mind about music and also because some of the music schools he was applying to were within very selective colleges, and I didn't want academics to be what held him back. So he took fewer outside classes than his older brother did so that his schedule would be flexible enough to fit music in, but he didn't really do less (at least not until senior year, when we kept things somewhat lighter to leave plenty of time for audition prep and travel). And, yes, it's been very hectic. But he doesn't view the music as work, so it's really about time management more than feeling like he's doing too much work, if that makes sense. If you're worried about 10th grade in particular being especially busy, she could always double up on social science another year (maybe through dual enrollment if that's an option for you--doing one course each semester).
Yes, I was actually thinking that about dual enrollment. (It's likely she'll do some dual enrollment courses in 11th and 12th grades. In that case, it's possible she could graduate with 4 or more social science credits, since she could theoretically earn two credits per year like you said--taking one course per semester or whatever.) So that's definitely an option, too.
And yes--I just threw out my state flagship's requirements as a general standard. She's definitely planning on art school, but I'm sure she'll be applying to a range of schools--the state flagship included. I think her art portfolio is going to be the thing that gets her into art school, so it feels like it makes the most sense for her to cultivate her art more than any other subject. But of course, it's important to me for her to have a solid liberal arts education overall....
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Next year, I'll probably be using Crash Course: Chemistry (watching alongside my daughter as we go along), but the Wondrium chemistry course also looks great.
We're currently using the Wondrium biology course this year, and it is SUPER thorough (it feels college-level to me), so the content is great. But I find that we prefer YouTube (Amoeba Sisters and Crash Course: Biology) because the videos on those channels are so much more concise and enjoyable to watch. But I figured I'd suggest the Wondrium chemistry course, because I will probably reference it next year, even if we don't watch every single video.
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Context: Daughter is an artist/aspiring fine arts major. Excellent student, very self-directed, very mature. She requires many, many hours each week to paint and draw, so I am trying hard not to overschedule her academically. Her tentative plan for next year:
- Math: Math U See Geometry
- English: English 10 at home (I'm a former high school English teacher, so I have this covered, though I'm still deciding on specific plans)
- Foreign Language: French II at WTMA
- Science: Chemistry at WTMA (Actual course will be taken through WTMA, labs will be done at home with me, using QSL Chem Kit)
- Elective: AP Art History at PA Homeschoolers
- Elective: Self-directed art, with occasional online courses and workshops thrown in. Multiple competitions planned.
Other stuff:
- P.E. (Regular home-based exercise, as a matter of course)
- Extracurricular: Ballet at local studio 2x per week
So, obviously, this is a pretty standard schedule, but you might have noticed that I have not included a social science. (DD is currently taking world history as a ninth grader, and we will definitely do American history and/or government at some point in the upper grades.) Is it "bad" not to have a social science on her schedule for next year? I just don't see how we can fit it in, given the amount of time her art requires. Also, AP Art History will be her first-ever AP class (read: time-consuming!), and I think Chemistry will likewise be a good challenge. Plus, I really want to solidify certain writing skills in our English work. So...that's a lot. In my heart, I know that adding anything else in will be way too much, but I guess I'm just worried that her schedule will appear "light" academically without a social science in 10th grade on her transcript. (Personally, I think art history should count as a social science, but from everything I've read so far, it's considered an elective.) As a point of reference, our state flagship only requires 2 credits of a social science; I'm thinking that if she does one social science each year in the upper grades, she will exceed those requirements. But still, I'm a little nervous to deviate from a "5x4" academic plan.
I'd love feedback, especially from those who have an art or music kid, or a kid whose passions otherwise require a ton of time. (I'm trying to find a balance between providing solid, college-prep academics and protecting the huge amounts of unstructured time my daughter needs to make art. I'm scared of making a misstep.) Thank you for any feedback or advice!
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On 4/1/2022 at 8:56 PM, AmandaVT said:
Is this with Dr. Eaton? DS is taking her Logic Stage chem class this year and wants to take high school chemistry with her next year. The class is great and he really likes her as a teacher!
Yes, it will be with Dr. Eaton. Thank you for sharing feedback; it's always great to hear that other students enjoyed a particular teacher!
The homeschool CEEB# is 970000, correct? (Does this ever change?)
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
Perfect! Thank you so much for your quick response!