dansamy Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Because I have no idea how! My eldest is 7th grade this year. My plan is to focus on math and grammar to get him up to speed in those areas. (He's a wee bit behind.) I need a good map for high school because I don't even have a clue where to start. He wants to be an engineer, so I know I'll need to focus him towards math and science. Help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 (edited) I suggest you start by looking at the admission requirements of the universities he might be interested in and work backwards. Math will be the most crucial subject; for a STEM major, algebra 1 in 8th grade is a good idea, if doable, because that will allow exposure to calculus in high school before taking the required three semester of calc at uni. If he is behind, however, do not rush math- spend whatever time is needed on a thorough mastery of algebra 1. The students who have trouble in my class do so because they lack algebra skills, not because they have problems with calculus. I also recommend a rigorous algebra based physics course in high school, because engineering students have to take at least two semesters of calculus based physics, which is considered a difficult course. Edited August 5, 2012 by regentrude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dansamy Posted August 5, 2012 Author Share Posted August 5, 2012 I'm not even sure he (or we) know where he wants to go to college. He wants to look into automotive engineering. And he is quite mechanically inclined. He always has been. He's also quite artistic and constantly coming up with drawings of new designs. (They're pretty rudimentary. We're dealing with poor hand/eye coordination, pencil control, etc.) He's not a dumb kid. He is pretty average academically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 I'm not even sure he (or we) know where he wants to go to college. Does not really matter at this point; just look at a few options, starting with your public state U to see the requirements. They do not really vary all that much, except that highly selective schools have more stringent ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Choose a school that is known for engineering. In Texas, the two that I automatically think of are Texas A&M and UT. For either one, the minimum to get in should come close to this: http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/admission/hs-courses/recommended That should give you at least some idea of what to think about when designing a high school plan. The niggling details aren't all that important. Colleges generally don't really care if you actually took a speech class or did a full year of government vs. one semester each of government and economics or actually credited P.E. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Florida Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 As others have said, I'd suggest looking at a sampling of a few colleges that have programs that might be of interest to your son. You could try plugging information into the search feature here: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search. Then make a list of the admission requirements for both safety and reach schools of the type in which he might be interested in the future. I also looked at the high school graduation requirements of public schools in our districts and of the best thought of private schools when I made my list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Because I have no idea how! My eldest is 7th grade this year. My plan is to focus on math and grammar to get him up to speed in those areas. (He's a wee bit behind.) I need a good map for high school because I don't even have a clue where to start. He wants to be an engineer, so I know I'll need to focus him towards math and science. Help? A quick answer to your quick question is to give you a general idea of the typical high school plan: 4 years math 4 years English (literature, composition and whatever grammar/spelling/vocabulary you feel you need to add in) 3-4 years lab sciences 2-4 years foreign language World history American history Civics and economics (in California it is one semester of each) A year of art or theater or music electives Many homeschoolers make time for in depth senior year projects or for internships or artistic pursuits. You will figure out how you want to tweak this as your teen enters high school because his interests and skills will become somewhat more focused as he matures. Also, once you visit a campus or two he will get a better idea of what he wants to aim for in a college. You can start with the above template and revise it as your specific needs dictate. In our case, my teens tweaked the heavy high school load by not doing 4 years of a foreign language, by taking courses at the community college (the general rule of thumb is that a semester long cc course is the equivalent of a year of high school) and by combining history and English as described in the rhetoric section of the Well Trained Mind. Both had time to do long term internships in their respective fields of interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 I'm not even sure he (or we) know where he wants to go to college. He wants to look into automotive engineering. And he is quite mechanically inclined. He always has been. He's also quite artistic and constantly coming up with drawings of new designs. (They're pretty rudimentary. We're dealing with poor hand/eye coordination, pencil control, etc.) He's not a dumb kid. He is pretty average academically. You may want to explore some of the Complete-a-sketch materials at http://www.insighttechnicaleducation.com/ to work on technical drawing skills. Starting with the vision-dexterity-focus one might help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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