dd, 9th grade, first year in ps, wants to come home I have questions

[Jeannie in NJ]

dd, 9th grade, first year in ps, wants to come home I have questions

 

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My dd went to a technical high school this year for 9th, that was hard to get into but she is miserable there. She is making all A's and B's and has friends but she still hates it. She says most of the kids are very disruptive in class and curse like crazy. She is also having health problems (chronic knee and hip pain that she may need surgery for).

 

Here are my questions, the 3rd marking period is about to end and she really wants to come home for the 4th marking period. I am concerned about how I would do her transcript eventually for college. For ex. she is taking biology lab, how could I count that for the year without having to finish biology and do labs at home which I cannot even think about the expense of buying an entire lab for just one marking period. The rest of her classes we could continue at home with no problems (geometry, english, history, spanish, etc).

 

How would I do her transcript with 3 marking periods of school and 1 at home? She wants to go to community college either next spring or starting fall of 2011 so I don't even know how important a transcript would be for starting cc at age 15 or 16.

 

Any opinions out there?

[Impish]

Could she just take the lab at ps? I don't know how it works, but some high schools allow hs'd kids to take classes here and there. I'd call and talk to someone.

[Sputterduck]

I'm not sure if community colleges differ from state to state, but in California they do not at all care about transcripts.

 

Why not just send her there now?

[Guest]

My daughter came home part-way through the year this year and I too am faced with the problem of what to do with half a year's physics labs completed. My daughter also had health issues -- she had mono and was exhausted, catching every germ that wafted her way -- and I put that absolutely first on the agenda, deciding to worry about transcripts later.

 

Here's what I have been thinking: she was at an accelerated school, so got more done in the first half of the year than most public schools would (sounds as if this may also be the case for your daughter if the school has a technical/sciency focus). We did a few very basic labs at home without ordering any other stuff than what we could find at the hardware store (I got the experiments themselves on-line for free, or in books we already had at home) or in science kits I found on-line. For the rest I had her widen out her reading from the textbook the school used. She has been reading very good adult trade books on physics, and a manga book about physics concepts.

 

As far as transcripts go: What I am doing is writing up the whole year as if it was a homeschool year; we simply chose to fulfill some of the requirements of our state part of the time through an instititutional school. Or you could give her 3/4 of a credit through the school, 1/4 through homeschooling. I don't know how interested community colleges are going to be in the details. You could probably find out from people on the high school board if you cross-post your thread there.

[LunaLee]

Yes, the cc's here in CA do not care about transcripts, but depending on the cc she might be limited on what classes she can take.

 

Also, not sure in NJ, but you might be ok with the labs if she's already done some at school. Here, in order for it to be considered a "lab"science a student has to complete 8-10 labs but only 2 of them have to be wet. The other labs can vary between really easy ones or even modeling labs.

[Jeannie in NJ]

LunaLee, what do you mean by wet labs? Her bil. loab at school is a double class period every wed. so she has had at least 20, maybe even 25 labs so far at school.

[Jeannie in NJ]

I meant bio. lab (was typing too fast without looking)

[LunaLee]

As explained to me by the school counselor: "Wet labs...disections, chemicals...that kind of thing."

 

And from Wiki: "Wet laboratories are laboratories where chemicals, drugs, or other material or biological matter are tested and analyzed requiring water, direct ventilation, and specialized piped utilities. Wet laboratory space types do not include biohazards in Levels BL-2, BL-3, and BL-4 as defined by the 1999 NIH/CDC guideline "Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories." The wet laboratory space types are typically located within a building specifically designed to house them.

 

In biology, genetics or biochemistry, the terms wetlab or wet laboratory distinguish classical experiments handling biological material from in silico work (computer analysis)."

[TravelingChris]

20 to 25 labs is much more than I did in high school biology and is about the number I had my two oldest do. Bring her home.

[Starr]

Bring her home. Finish the biology book or one similar and don't worry about it. You can check and see if she's had enough labs but I'd guess she has. If you are really wanting her to do more labs I'm sure you could order one or two or make something up by checking through the posts here and on the internet. There is no reason for her to be miserable especially if she has to have surgery soon.