Daisy30 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I met with the school yesterday and they are still not sure they will give me credits for the MFW curriculum. I showed them the scoring etc. I feel like it may be a bigger hassle than I am willing to face right now. I would hate for dd to do a semesters worth of work for zero credits. She already has the Abeka grammar and comp book(half way through that is what they use at her school) and the Abeka Spelling/vocab half done. I think maybe I will stick with those b/c TWTM recommends them anyway. Then pick up the teachers manuals? Does anyone know how much of a difference there is between the forth and fifth edition? She has the fifth. For lit I am thinking about making a list of great works and letting her pick a few to read. Then for the grade I will either give her a quiz or have her write a paper. We will also discuss, but not for a grade. Also thinking of adding in The rule book for arguments. We already have these in place: Algebra~ ALEKS Spanish~ Rosetta Stone HS Geography~Trail Guide to World Geography/ Around the World in 180 days/Geography through art Biology~ continuing at the high school So that leaves me with trying to find a Bible curriculum. Can anyone recommend a good one? I was really excited by what MFW had to offer for Bible. Thoughts? Does this look like a good plan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I'm confused. I'm not in the situation of needing approval like you seem to be, but still I don't get it. They'd let you do your own thing for English, but won't approve a planned out curriculum? Or do they like your other plans because you'd have a couple of grammar workbooks in addition to doing your own thing? MFW's English has a grammar workbook, too (when you're not studying a major piece of literature, you often do some of the grammar exercises in the Lit & Composition Supplement). But by high school, a lot of grammar is taught just by using it in writing and working on a student's weaknesses -- especially in a homeschool situation with a "personal tutor" rather than a teacher needing to keep a classroom busy. Have they approved the geography you described, which includes two fairly young books (Trail Guide & the Art book) plus the 180 days that's open-ended research without really answers? What exactly do they like in that which is so far superior than the AHL plan, using part of a textbook, supporting books, an extensive timeline, mapping assignments, etc.? They won't give her a Bible credit for reading the entire Old Testament in a year and answering questions & more? Is this another preference for workbook over reading the real thing? Do you know what exactly they are objecting to? Is there another, less workbook-prone person you could talk to? Sorry, I don't blame you for not wanting to deal with this, but bureaucrats like that get my ire up :tongue_smilie: Julie I met with the school yesterday and they are still not sure they will give me credits for the MFW curriculum. I showed them the scoring etc. I feel like it may be a bigger hassle than I am willing to face right now. I would hate for dd to do a semesters worth of work for zero credits. She already has the Abeka grammar and comp book(half way through that is what they use at her school) and the Abeka Spelling/vocab half done. I think maybe I will stick with those b/c TWTM recommends them anyway. Then pick up the teachers manuals? Does anyone know how much of a difference there is between the forth and fifth edition? She has the fifth. For lit I am thinking about making a list of great works and letting her pick a few to read. Then for the grade I will either give her a quiz or have her write a paper. We will also discuss, but not for a grade. Also thinking of adding in The rule book for arguments. We already have these in place: Algebra~ ALEKS Spanish~ Rosetta Stone HS Geography~Trail Guide to World Geography/ Around the World in 180 days/Geography through art Biology~ continuing at the high school So that leaves me with trying to find a Bible curriculum. Can anyone recommend a good one? I was really excited by what MFW had to offer for Bible. Thoughts? Does this look like a good plan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy30 Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 I know it just seems silly. There is one other person I can bring the MFW samples to. I can see what he thinks. I just got the trail guides yesterday I don't know if they are challenging enough. There's no formal test so, who knows if they will accept that credit? I know the school isn't trying to make it hard on me they are trying help, they don't want me to spend time and money on things they won't take as a credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I know it just seems silly. There is one other person I can bring the MFW samples to. I can see what he thinks. I just got the trail guides yesterday I don't know if they are challenging enough. There's no formal test so, who knows if they will accept that credit? I know the school isn't trying to make it hard on me they are trying help, they don't want me to spend time and money on things they won't take as a credit. I'm sorry--I missed the beginning. Are you planning to put your dd back in school next fall and that's why you're getting approval from the school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy30 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 I'm sorry--I missed the beginning. Are you planning to put your dd back in school next fall and that's why you're getting approval from the school? Most likely, if not next year then at some point before she graduates. I plan for her to get her diploma from the school. I am thinking that I will need to return to work outside of the home (I run a small in home daycare right now). Although I would love to be able to continue and do a full year. I am not sure what God has planned ;). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I met with the school yesterday and they are still not sure they will give me credits for the MFW curriculum. :grouphug: I had a friend who had to same problem with her SL and MFW. She put her dc in public school for high school, and the school wouldn't give credit for either year - the SL or the MFW. Your plan sounds great. I don't know about Bible; we did a year of OT and a year of NT so far to line up with our history/lit study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 just hearing the story Angela has... makes you wonder what the powers that be at that school would accept? or was it "ancients' that threw them off ? (you know.. classical thing and they don't get it?) I can't see how reading Iliad and Odyssey and a Henty book, and entire Old Testament, and writing 5 argumentative essays, plus several poetry units, and lit. analysis and grammar ... how could that not be a credit in English? I was in AP English and never did this much in high school. oh well... it's just the red tape of it all.. Daisy, if you are sure that at some point you will put her back in the school, try to use what the school is using then. I missed the beginning of your story to know if it is public or Christian school or other private. It might not matter on "Bible credit" if it is public school. You could do something like read the Old Testament, or you could look at Explorer's Bible Study, Quest, high school.. I'm just having trouble believing that the school would count those books for geography and not count MFW for English. If you need a list of classics and all of that.. consider getting that SAT prep book that MFW sells - that will have a lot of books. You might want to have some kind of study guide. Would the school accept Progeny Press high school guides? :grouphug: as you deal with all of this red tape. -crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 just hearing the story Angela has... makes you wonder what the powers that be at that school would accept? or was it "ancients' that threw them off ? (you know.. classical thing and they don't get it?) In my friends case, they said that it was the lack of tests and graded work. I've never used MFW or SL, so I have no idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 In my friends case, they said that it was the lack of tests and graded work. I've never used MFW or SL, so I have no idea. I'm laughing at the school. I"m sorry your friend had to deal with that. :grouphug: That would be hard. It's like hearing stories of college admissions offices that want a homeschooler to have a GED. The school is not seeing the forest for the trees, as the saying goes. ;) sigh.... the red tape of it all. I've never used SL, so I don't know on that. But I can't imagine it isn't credit worthy. But there is plenty of graded work in the MFW stuff - or at least let me put it this way... I'd turn all of those Notgrass review questions and SMARR guides into "test" instead of "review" and find a way to document the discussion group participation. Notgrass has "tests/quizzes" and MFW uses them in WHL. I"d renamed the vocab "quizzes" to be "tests". there's plenty of graded work? A lot of it is essay writing and open ended questions. Some of it is multiple choice quizzes etc. I'm sorry your friend had to go through that with the school. I think the school is just not seeing the material for what it is. and for some reason, it bothers me much like hearing a college say a homeschool graduate needs a GED. on the other hand... with that in mind.. one could make sure all of those daily review questions/quizzes are answered by the student in a way that appeals to mass education styles. Those are part of the overall grade. But it does make my head tilt thinking "what did this school want? For history in mfw ahl for graded work, there are 6 written essays, each of which is 1-3 pages, daily review (test) questions that are short answer, a year long timeline project, Israel Kings chart (basically, that's this most of the year long ongoing project where the student has to write about all of the Kings in OT), Greek quiz and the map work assignments are graded in history!" Not enough? ha! turn the review questions into "test" instead of "review" and I bet the school wouldn't have batted an eye. I'm venting on behalf of your friend... oh well.. hey, I got new coffee and it's pretty good. Maybe I should go drink some more. sorry for the side track in the original poster's question. But if you end up using a non "textbook" approach - it might mean you dress it up for the school in a way that they can handle. You know... throw some red ink on a piece of paper once in a while. -crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy30 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 It is a private Christian school. She has attended since K5. They use a lot of Abeka in elem and JH. They get away from it a little in High School. I think only 2 classes use it. They use some Bob Jones, Glencoe etc. The school has not Approved the geography. I did not receive it till after our meeting and honestly I think I will have to supplement or buy another program. I am open to suggestions. Their main thing is assessment. They think MFW is great. She even said she knows I would do a great job with it, but they need documentation. She compared it to transferring credits in college. They are part of the ISHA (Illinois State High School Association) and need to have *documentation* to back it up. The 9th grades at the school will read Illiad and Oddessy for lit class this semester as well as Lord of the Flies and Romeo and Juliet I believe. It bums me out cause I know dd was looking forward to a curriculum like MFW. She said she is fine doing it the other way too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) What do they want for assessment? When I transferred my college credits from Carnegie Mellon University to Washington Unviersity in St. Louis, I was not required to produce my tests from the class. Of course both of those were universities. How much do they ask a community college to produce for dual enrollment? :confused: Do you have the actual Lit and Comp supplement to show all of those assessments to the school? Although this is for SMARR guide, it is not for a book in AHL... if you print that out and said this is the kind of assessments I will be using for literature... what would they say to do? That is the level and type of actual assessment in daily work from the LIt/Comp Guide in AHL for Gilgamesh, Bulfinch, and Odyssey. This sample is one section of reading (first few chapters or so). http://www.smarrpublishers.com/samplettc.pdf Why wouldn't those assignments count? All of that is written out and graded! Real quizzes for vocab with multiple choice. Real questions that require non multiple choice answer. Essays. A real rubric for grading. I'm sorry if I sound so shell shocked at the red tape they are giving you. But I"ve done the program. There are real assignments in the program with real grades. I don't know what they are not seeing in that if they have the actual materials in front of them. What kind of documentation do they think they need in order to transfer credit? Do they want a copy of the argumentative essays along with the grading rubric? Would they be happy with the quizzes? no matter what program you decide to use.... I think you should go back and ask them to clarify what kind of documentation is needed in order for them to evaluate it properly. Will they want to see the entire semester of written work and questions? Is it if it is only textbook company would all multiple choice quizzes be enough? I don't think they know the answer. If you want Geography, check BJU books and quizzes. They use that publisher so they will know about it. Again, I am sad that this school is not sure how to help you. There are real assignments that require real writing in MFW stuff. I don't know what they think we do as homeschoolers. Show them the sample of what a SMARR guide is assessing. Let them know that the entire Lit/Comp Guide is like that on 3 major novels read that year. Plus, that's not the only things in the guide. The argumentative essays and rubrics and written, graded assignments are in there. If a student were to turn in a copy of first and final draft of each essay, and the entire Lit/Comp daily work... if that doesn't show a school what the student covered and the level of material... then they need to rethink it. I'm sorry you have to jump through so many hoops like this. No one at my university questioned the transcript from the other university. And I know that in that dual enrollment class, we didn't take tests. -crystal Edited January 12, 2012 by cbollin left out some words... new brand of coffee. what can I say? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy30 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 no, I haven't bought any of it yet. Just the online samples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenninMN Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I'm not sure how this would work financially, but what about going with NARHS. They are accredited and geared to homeschoolers. Then the school SHOULD accept the NARHS transcript. http://www.narhs.org/ This would cost more money, but it might be worth the money to avoid the hassle. (I suggested Notgrass alone in your other thread. I'm not sure if you got back to it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy30 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 thanks! I will check it out. If it is an online school I don't think it would be a good fit. She is already doing 2 classes on the computer and she would do better if she just used the computer for research for her other classes. I know this seems crazy, but this school has people who come in and out of home schooling all the time. It really shouldn't be this hard. I may call the mother of a 10th grader who I know is HS'ing partial days. I really don't know her personally, but I need to get moving on curriculum. I really wonder what all these other people are using? I was so excited about homeschooling too. I am feeling a little defeated right now. I just need to set a plan in motion! :auto: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy30 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Thank you Crystal. I think you are right! I tried to print that out but my computer wouldn't let me. I will try again later. I appreciate the detailed information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I don't think the link Jenn gave is for "online classes". It's for a school. check out the link... I think what Jenn is encouraging you to think about is... if you get an accredited school to approve whichever materials you choose, then your local school might have the documentation that way - not from parent, but a real school that has some private school accreditation. hang in there with homeschooling.... :grouphug: -crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy30 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 oh! That makes sense! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josie Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 You could make a few tests for her to take. You could also require her to write a few papers on topics studied and call that an assessment. Would that work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 I was thinking on some of this... Why not call MFW's office directly and ask if they have some kind of documentation that the school might like? Maybe something like that is enough paperwork for the school? I know that Prof. Carol Reynolds (Discovering Music) says she provides that kind of edu-speak documentation upon request... so maybe MFW has something like that? If you call them, ask to speak to one of their senior High School consultants. I usually talk with a guy there named Bret. -crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Daisy, the geography you're looking at isn't high school level material. Get a BJU 9 geography book and be done with it. And if you do geography properly, it's a full unit (on her transcript), meaning you don't need to do history on top of it. If you want to do history on top of it (ie. two units of history/social studies in one year), then, again, get a textbook and just add the literature you want on top of it. Have you thought about just continuing at the cs part-time and homeschooling the rest of the way through? That way you could use what you think fits her and still outsource things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy30 Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Daisy, the geography you're looking at isn't high school level material. Get a BJU 9 geography book and be done with it. And if you do geography properly, it's a full unit (on her transcript), meaning you don't need to do history on top of it. If you want to do history on top of it (ie. two units of history/social studies in one year), then, again, get a textbook and just add the literature you want on top of it. Have you thought about just continuing at the cs part-time and homeschooling the rest of the way through? That way you could use what you think fits her and still outsource things. Do you think the BJU geography is superior to the Abeka? The CS requires geography. I am open do do either BJ or Abeka. I have to buy the teacher books for grammar and vocab from abeka anyway. I have not considered continuing part time next year. That may be a good option for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in CA Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Do you think the BJU geography is superior to the Abeka? The CS requires geography. I am open do do either BJ or Abeka. I have to buy the teacher books for grammar and vocab from abeka anyway. I have not considered continuing part time next year. That may be a good option for us. My older two boys used Abeka geography and reeeeeeaaaaally disliked it. Dry, dry, dry. But having not used BJU's I can't compare the two. You might want to start a new thread asking about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy30 Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 thanks Melissa! That was my fear that the Abeka would be too dry. I will try the BJU I can always supplement if I need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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