Sorry but . . . another "How many credits is this worth?"

[BibleBeltCatholicMom]

How do you credit subjects studied *all* the time. Specifically, I'm thinking of . . .

 

Sewing -- I had really wanted her to take an art class b/c I see in her a strong creative streak but all my encouraging/prodding has been for naught (I even appealed to the sewing teacher on the grounds that it would help her in designing clothing and drawing patterns but I'm assured that art class isn't necessary). She takes sewing now which has turned out to be a wonderful outlet for her. We take sewing every week year around (off for vacation or holidays). For one hour per week my daughter sews under the direct tutelage of the instructor. At home she spends about an hour or two per week w/o instruction. She spends some time working on the new skill and some time working on previously learned skills. In other words, she spends some time working on her new project and some time making things she already knew how to make.

There isn't a set curriculum. We choose projects and learn the skills to make them.

 

We do this year around.

 

This may be an odd question but what about violin. Is that extracurricular? We do not count it as extra curricular at all; it's part of the core. I know schools don't think of it that way, though. She plays both vioin and fiddle, two different curricula. Instructional time is divided roughly in half. Sometimes fiddle gets more attn, sometimes violin. It's an hour per day of practice and a 40 minute lesson per week. She has violin lessons Jan - May as described. In June she has a violin camp for a week of several hours per day of direct instruction plus practice at home for the end-of-week performance. August is off. September -November is on and about half of December. It's a lot. Classical has a book and so does Fiddle. However, we have a wonderful teacher who lets her find a lot of other things to learn that just strike my daughter's fancy. Also, in the past she has participated in Honors Orchestra. This is an enormous time committment (which is why she didn't want to do it this year). If she adds that back in next year, how does that change things?

 

Sorry, I've never considered credits before!

[laughing lioness]

A credit (carnegie unit) is between 120-160 hours of work completed. Barb Shelton's Home School Design Form+u+la has an entire index of forms and methods of counting your work- you might check that out.

 

You can count the work where you want: Art/ Design/Home Ec/Fine Arts/history (of clothing) etc., wherever it seems appropriate.

 

Is it "extra curricular" = that depends. Is this student college bound? going for vocational training? going to be teaching violin and fiddle? Is she is college bound is she going to a 4 year or a specialty school (i.e. music?) If you have some idea of what her vocational training goals are, check with the admissions officer of wherever she wants to end up.

Having a student that stands out from the crowd, along with good/great test scores will go very far with admissions/scholarship money.

Edited August 22, 2012 by laughing lioness

[Barb_]

Just off the cuff, I would be inclined to call sewing an extracurricular and violin either fine arts or performing art or music theory and performance. I would count honors choir as an extra curricular on top of that. Homeschoolers often have trouble scrounging extra curriculars and they are important too.

[magic]

Is your daughter wanting to go into a career involving sewing? If so, and you spend the minimum amount of hours, then I would count it as a credit. My daughter wants to go into costume design. She takes classes and work on projects to prepare her for that career. She is still too young for highschool but there are several girls in her 4-H club who are homeschooled and count their sewing as a credit. They keep samples of their work from the year and their record book that lists classes, costs, demonstrations, as well as an essay regarding their work from the year. They also have an interview evaluation every year that goes over what they have done in the past year. Several of the girls are in college now and their sewing credits tended to be viewed they same way drafting and engineering classes in highschool are- as a specialized fine art (at least that is how the highschool here lists them).

[mschickie]

In NYS 1 high school unit is considered to be 108 hours.

 

Music lessons can definitely be counted towards credit. Our local high school has both theory and lessons as seperate classes where the students can obtain credit so I do not see any reason why a hs'ing family cannot do the same thing.

[KAR120C]

This isn't the standard approach, but it works for me.....

 

Consider what you'll need at the end (college application? scholarships? whatever you're aiming for). What do you want on that transcript? If one credit of sewing is going to be a benefit and four would be excessive, go for one. If she's going to be applying somewhere that four years of sewing will help her application, go for that. If she's applying for a program that doesn't care about sewing at all, make it an extracurricular.

 

Once you know what you're aiming for, establish that she has done (or will have done) the work. Hours can be useful, but consider also what sort of portfolio you could put together showing her ability and effort as well as her improvement over time. Are there particular techniques she has mastered? Anything that has sparked her interest in particular, that she has put extra time into or done extra projects on? Creative changes she made to existing patterns? Experimenting with fabrics?

 

Even with more standard courses like English, I like to consider all of these things. DS needs an English credit for every year. He has an English credit for every year. I want to establish that he did sufficient work for each, so we have papers he wrote and he can intelligently discuss the books he read. And he has good SAT scores.

 

I personally find counting hours fairly tedious and not particularly helpful. DS does a lot of work every year - I have no doubt that he makes whatever hour cutoff anyone wants to set (and then some) but what I really want is to be able to show up at the application deadline with the transcript he needs and the supporting material (test scores, portfolio, etc.) to establish that what I say we did is actually what was done - showing both that he has substantial ability in the areas he studied and that he improved from year to year. If I can't provide that, then no amount of arguing about how many hours it took will help.

[SkateLeft]

I tend to simplify things, and I don't bother tracking hours, so I'd be inclined to award a half credit for the sewing, and maybe a full credit for music. Then I'd use the extracurricular list to expound on what's been done.

 

As an example, my daughter sails... a lot. She races for long hours each week from early spring, as soon as the ice starts to thaw. Then from late spring through the late summer, she races a few times a week on a big boat as crew. She spends weeks at a time sailing Lake Superior through October. In the fall, she races 470s again until they get iced in. She has ASA and US Sailing certifications and a MN Watercraft Operator's permit.

 

On her transcript, I gave her two semesters of PE credit for sail racing. All of the other stuff, which could have counted for full credits every year, gets put into the extracurricular list.

[Jenny in Florida]

Sewing -- I had really wanted her to take an art class b/c I see in her a strong creative streak but all my encouraging/prodding has been for naught (I even appealed to the sewing teacher on the grounds that it would help her in designing clothing and drawing patterns but I'm assured that art class isn't necessary). She takes sewing now which has turned out to be a wonderful outlet for her. We take sewing every week year around (off for vacation or holidays). For one hour per week my daughter sews under the direct tutelage of the instructor. At home she spends about an hour or two per week w/o instruction. She spends some time working on the new skill and some time working on previously learned skills. In other words, she spends some time working on her new project and some time making things she already knew how to make.

There isn't a set curriculum. We choose projects and learn the skills to make them.

 

If my kid were seriously studying something like that, and I could document meaningful learning, I'd probably go with half a credit for that sort of study.

 

One thing I'd suggest is firing up your Google fingers and searching for "high school" syllabus sewing and see what you find. I often start with that, looking for a few examples of what other schools (or homeschools) are requiring for credit in a particular area.

 

For example, I want to give my son half a credit in English for Shakespeare Study (or something -- I'm still considering title options.) The reality is that we have season tickets for a local theatre that does at least two Shakespearean plays per year, and we often see shows at other theatres, too. It's just part of life. But I need to carve out an additional half credit of English, and it occured to me that this might work.

 

I found that most Shakespeare-centric high school courses require reading and analyzing four plays for half a credit. I decided that we will read two plays per year this year and next. So, I looked at the theatre's offerings this year, then looked at the HD opera broadcasts and saw two operas based on Shakespeare plays and chose two of the plays he hasn't already seen or read to read this year. I'll choose another two next year. And I'll award half a credit at the end of that second year.

 

 

This may be an odd question but what about violin. Is that extracurricular? We do not count it as extra curricular at all; it's part of the core. I know schools don't think of it that way, though. She plays both vioin and fiddle, two different curricula. Instructional time is divided roughly in half. Sometimes fiddle gets more attn, sometimes violin. It's an hour per day of practice and a 40 minute lesson per week. She has violin lessons Jan - May as described. In June she has a violin camp for a week of several hours per day of direct instruction plus practice at home for the end-of-week performance. August is off. September -November is on and about half of December. It's a lot. Classical has a book and so does Fiddle. However, we have a wonderful teacher who lets her find a lot of other things to learn that just strike my daughter's fancy. Also, in the past she has participated in Honors Orchestra. This is an enormous time committment (which is why she didn't want to do it this year). If she adds that back in next year, how does that change things?

 

Opions vary, but I count music as an extracurricular.