How is homeschool high school different from P.S.?

[Deb in NZ]

Ds#2 has 7 weeks left of his first year at PS highschool. HIs highschool has a 6 day timetable with 5 one hour classes each day. His course load this year (year 9) was: (the x? = # times that class meets in each 6 days of school)

 

English x4

Maths x4

Science x4

Social Studies x4

Technology x3

PE x3

Year 9 options x4 (eight weeks each of art, drama, health, music, & Tikanga Maori)

Year 9 electives x4 (half a year of each, ds#2 took Classical Studies & Graphics)

 

There is no class that meets every school day. Having only 5 classes a day makes for less stress, but with each class timetabled to meet regualrly, no class gets shortchanged.

 

Ds#2 just chose his classes for year 10 (beginning in Feb 2012) He is required to take English, Maths, Science, Social Studies, & PE/health. He got to choose 3 electives of which he chose Graphics, Technology, & Economics.

 

I asked ds#2 if he found PS to be more work than HS/ing. He said that HS was a lot more work & PS was a breeze. In PS in NZ students don't begin to collect credits until year 11 & credits are earned by passing assessments, not by time spent in class. This may have something to do with the workload in years 9 & 10.

 

If things changed & HS/ing became our prefered ed. option for ds#2, I would make a schedule similar to what his current school uses to spread out the class load, but still get the work completed.

 

Blessings,

[creekland]

Now I'm beginning to question our schedule. I thought that we were giving our dd more responsibility and ownership of her work by allowing her to complete her work by a deadline on her own schedule. I calculated out the hours it will take her and assigned the credits and let her go from there. Now reading the responses here makes me second-guess that..... Does anyone else do something similar to us or am I going about it wrong? :confused:

 

This is what my guys do for high school. I find it is a good prep for college where they have to totally plan their own schedule too. It also allows them to really delve into a subject if they like - or take a short break from one.

 

They get credits for courses they complete regardless of how long it takes them (but I ensure the courses are worth a credit).

[Greta Lea]

This school is well-known in our area for being extremely rigorous! EXTREMELY! I know loads of kids who can't even make it through elementary school there.

 

Anyway, this young lady I had lunch with was telling me about here year. She's taking Alg. 3 (actually what we would have called a Trig class back in the day...so her mom says), A&P and Senior English.

 

These are the only classes she mentioned, so I asked her if she was only going to school for a 1/2 day her senior year.

 

She said, "No, but these are the 'real' classes I have this year. I only have 3 to 4 'real' classes each year." ("real" means vigorous:). She said all the other years she would have had a foreign lang. added to this rigorous math, science and English class.

 

SO, each year of her highschool years had at the most 4 seriously rigorous classes. The other 3 classes were much easier.

[Greta Lea]

He's reading Oedipus Rex, doing chemistry and Algebra, Logic, Latin, Classical guitar and finishing up Analytical Grammar.)

 

Could you put the Logic on hold until you finish the AG? Then plug the Logic into the AG slot.

 

 

 

Sorry for the angst in this post - today ended with ds14 having a meltdown after only getting 5 problems done in chemistry after working for 75 minutes.

 

Ya know, my boys (and me too:) "shut down" mentally after about 45min. to 1 hour if we are working on something that takes GREAT mental effort. I would just limit his worktime in Chem (or any subject) to 1 hour a day.

 

Honestly, if he's that frustrated, he's not gonna be able to concentrate and focus. Once he looses his focus, he's not *really* learning to his full potential at that point.

 

 

But if it isn't chemistry, then it's Latin that's causing the headaches or perhaps it's Classical guitar. The stress is from trying to get 7 subjects done excellently every day. Is there another way to do this? Is it ok to do it another way?

 

Seven hard subjects? That's to many! I would put classical guitar on his schedule, but cut whatever time you have schedule for it now in HALF. Let this be a 1/2 credit course. If you take the stress out of the requirements of this class, he *might* end up studying it more on his own free time. If he does, I'd count that time.