Need help w/ senior year, please!

[swimmermom3]

As many of you know, my dd is coming home from ps hs for her senior year. She has never been home schooled, nor have I home schooled a high school student. The choice to come home is my dd's and is primarily due to a two-year struggle with severe depression with school as her primary source of anxiety. Her decision comes late in the summer with only three weeks before the school year starts. I won't be able to contact the school and discuss options until the end of August. I need to develop a basic plan and would appreciate your help. If I seem more ignorant than the mother of a senior should be, please understand that our focus has been primarily on basic survival on a day-to-day basis.

 

Oregon requires 24 credit hours to graduate. I have broken down the requirements and listed where my dd is in fulfilling them:

 

English Language Arts (4): Lit and Comp 9, Lit and Comp. 10, and Contemporary Lit and Comp. (Needs 1 credit)

 

Mathematics (3): Algebra 1 (needs Geometry and Algebra 2). *See explanation below.

 

Science (2): Biology, Chemistry, A Short History of Everything (Bio/Chem/Phys.)

 

Social Science (3): Global Study 9, American Studies 10, AP European History, Government (.5), and Economics (.5)

 

Second Language and/or Career Development (1): Spanish I, II, and III

 

PE (1): Fulfilled

 

Health (1): Fulfilled

 

DD has 19.5 credit hours. To meet the state requirements, she needs to take 2 math, 1 Language and Comp. and another 1.5 credits of electives.

 

At this point, I don't know what we will be doing about a diploma. I know many of you operate under umbrella or charter schools or utilize the CC. What are the ramifications of a GED? My dd has not taken the official SAT test, only a practice one given by the school, so I have some indication of what to work on as well as her ACT scores.

 

I have wanted this opportunity for over a year as I felt like having her come home and work on foundational skills would do more to shore up her confidence and ease the depression than any other one factor. Now that I have the chance, it is overwhelming. Perhaps the best thing I can do right now is let you ask me questions.

 

The tentative plan is to finish Geometry and Algebra 2 (this situation probably requires its own thread:tongue_smilie:) and to create a challenging Lit and Comp class based on an overview of the classics as she is lacking in this area and has requested it. She is also hoping to take the Social Anthropology and Religion and Philosophy courses she signed up for at the high school. This would give her another elective credit.

 

I would like for her to be in a position to look at 4 year schools if she is ready to, but primarily I want to re-ignite her love of learning, shore up her skills, and develop her confidence.

 

Usually I can meet life head on; I feel paralyzed by the enormity of this task and all of the unknowns.

[mysticamethyst]

Do you have a community college close by? If you do then I would run up there and see if she qualifies for dual enrollment and have them help fill in the gaps, she will have to take an exam lilke SAT, Compass or Accuplacer. I am sure you will get some great advice from others as well. Good luck:001_smile:

[Miss Marple]

Just a couple of quick ideas: geometry and algebra 2 can be done at the same time. We have done this in the past. We simply scheduled 2 hours per day for math. Then I would suggest seeing if she qualifies for dual enrollment and, if so, enroll her in a freshman composition course. Our experience with Freshman Comp is that it, at the CC level, is very basic but covers the basics well. It will usually include a literature component as well. The CC experience will, hopefully, ignite her interest in further college level work.

 

Based on her past issues, I would try to work in electives that she is fascinated with but that won't require huge amounts of time or stress her. She needs to be successful. She may find some interesting subjects at the CC - a sport of some sort (tennis, volleyball, etc.) would make a great elective that would also be good for her health issues. I encouraged my oldest to fill in a 1 credit gap (needed 14 hours for scholarship, but only enrolled in 13) with a sport. He said it was one of the best things he did because it helped with releasing frustration as well as being a diversion from his more "intellectual" studies.

 

Best wishes! I understand the feelings you are having (similar situation with one of my sons) and it is so hard to know exactly how to help these kids.

[swimmermom3]

Do you have a community college close by? If you do then I would run up there and see if she qualifies for dual enrollment and have them help fill in the gaps, she will have to take an exam lilke SAT, Compass or Accuplacer. I am sure you will get some great advice from others as well. Good luck:001_smile:

 

Fortunately, we are only about a 5 minute drive from one of our CC campuses. The main issue is that she does not want to be in a classroom. Her only concession on that is the two semester courses in Anthropology and Philosophy that are offered at her high school. The classes are taught by the same teacher who taught her AP European History course last year. The caliber of his teaching and the support of the swim coach are probably the two factors that kept her in school.

 

Just a couple of quick ideas: geometry and algebra 2 can be done at the same time. We have done this in the past. We simply scheduled 2 hours per day for math. Then I would suggest seeing if she qualifies for dual enrollment and, if so, enroll her in a freshman composition course. Our experience with Freshman Comp is that it, at the CC level, is very basic but covers the basics well. It will usually include a literature component as well. The CC experience will, hopefully, ignite her interest in further college level work.

 

Based on her past issues, I would try to work in electives that she is fascinated with but that won't require huge amounts of time or stress her. She needs to be successful. She may find some interesting subjects at the CC - a sport of some sort (tennis, volleyball, etc.) would make a great elective that would also be good for her health issues. I encouraged my oldest to fill in a 1 credit gap (needed 14 hours for scholarship, but only enrolled in 13) with a sport. He said it was one of the best things he did because it helped with releasing frustration as well as being a diversion from his more "intellectual" studies.

 

Best wishes! I understand the feelings you are having (similar situation with one of my sons) and it is so hard to know exactly how to help these kids.

 

Cynthia, I didn't even think about the sports aspect as an elective. I believe she will be allowed to continue to swim varsity for the high school, but that is only a 3.5 month season. She turns 18 this fall and qualifies for Masters swimming. We had thought about this for working with the depression and as a social outlet. She can practice hard, get excellent coaching, and compete without the pressure of the Senior squads on our swim club. The work load would easily count as a PE/elective credit but it wouldn't be accredited.

 

I am glad to hear that someone else has tackled geometry and Algebra II at the same time. We moved our dd from a private school to a great public school in 7th grade. The school teaches Connected Math and that does not seem to be a good fit for our kids without substantial supplementation. We spent a year and a half in tutoring at Sylvan Learning Center and her outstanding 8th grade math teacher was the first person to notice her severe discomfort with testing. She did fine with Algebra 1 her freshman year, but things came to a head her sophomore year. She had a B in geometry up until the last few weeks of the semester. She dropped everything in an attempt to salvage the chemistry course. The school uses the proficiency system. If a student gets behind with more than 2 proficiencies, it becomes very difficult to learn new material and dig your way out at the same time. This was the term she was diagnosed and the school cleared the chemistry and geometry course from her record and gave us permission to redo them through Keystone. She completed the chemistry course easily but is still working on geometry. I have spent the summer with her going over basic skills like fractions, percentages, and decimals to see where exactly the weak spots are and to prepare for the SAT.

 

What it comes down to is that she wants me and only me to teach her math and the Lit and Comp course. The psychiatrist told her to just finish up with bonehead courses and get out of school. She told me that would be a waste of her time and that she really wants to learn. She knows I will push her especially with the Lit. I appreciate her vote of confidence; I feel anything but confident.

 

19.5 complete and approved credits. So close and yet, so far.:tongue_smilie:

[Chris in VA]

Hi Lisa,

Perhaps it would only take a little while to finish Geometry? Then move to Alg 2?

Have you thought about letting her do the Chalkdust SAT Math Prep? I would finish her geometry course (sounds like a good 6 weeks might do it), then use CD to get the basics of Alg 2 (enough for the SAT), then just continue with Alg 2 the rest of the year (as it branches into pre-calc--there's so much review of Alg 2 in precalc).

 

Whatever you can do to bond with her and help her organize will probably help. Depression leaves me unfocused and unmotivated. Someone working alongside me always helps. I'm glad for you and your dd that you can help her thru this by homeschooling her.

[swimmermom3]

Hi Lisa,

Perhaps it would only take a little while to finish Geometry? Then move to Alg 2?

Have you thought about letting her do the Chalkdust SAT Math Prep? I would finish her geometry course (sounds like a good 6 weeks might do it), then use CD to get the basics of Alg 2 (enough for the SAT), then just continue with Alg 2 the rest of the year (as it branches into pre-calc--there's so much review of Alg 2 in precalc).

 

Whatever you can do to bond with her and help her organize will probably help. Depression leaves me unfocused and unmotivated. Someone working alongside me always helps. I'm glad for you and your dd that you can help her thru this by homeschooling her.

 

Chris, thanks so much for weighing in. You have described exactly where she finished the year. She had a stellar first semester but it takes everything she has to hold it together and then there was no focus or motivation left for the rest of the year. Helping her to organize herself is a huge issue and I think you are right in that if I work on my own education along side her so she can see the organizational efforts without being nagged, it would be helpful. We enjoy a fairly solid relationship and have always discussed literature and world issues.

 

About the math, I have a call into Keystone to see if they will extend her time to work on the geometry. I didn't realize that Chalkdust had a SAT math prep and think your plan sounds like a good one. Otherwise, we'll be short those skills if she tests in December. I hadn't considered that. So far, our Algebra review has yielded more positive results than I expected. I think if I can help her fix those basic skills and then work on timed testing, we'll be okay.