Suddenly homeschooling tenth grader this fall-help!

[Catherine]

He was at home for seventh and eighth grades, returned for ninth grade to school, now want to spend the rest of HS at home. I'm a bit overwhelmed thinking about teaching him again.

 

First question: how to you find the syllabus of SAT subject tests? It appears the College Board's guides don't include scope and sequence information-am I right about this? If so, where can I find this information?

 

Second question: What's a good, self-teaching spanish course for high schoolers with some background? He is very good at learning languages, and has had a year of HS spanish.

 

Thirs question: Anyone have kids who've entered national science competetions, like the Westinghouse or Intel? He wants to do this, and his school did an awesome three year long research practicum tha ended with entries in these competitions. A number of these kids placed well-last year a girl placed fourth in the final national contest. I'm having trouble seeing how I could reproduce such an experience at home, yet I know it must have been done.

 

Calm me please. I am excited and intimidated all at once!

[Michelle in MO]

He was at home for seventh and eighth grades, returned for ninth grade to school, now want to spend the rest of HS at home. I'm a bit overwhelmed thinking about teaching him again.

 

First question: how to you find the syllabus of SAT subject tests? It appears the College Board's guides don't include scope and sequence information-am I right about this? If so, where can I find this information?

 

Second question: What's a good, self-teaching spanish course for high schoolers with some background? He is very good at learning languages, and has had a year of HS spanish.

 

Thirs question: Anyone have kids who've entered national science competetions, like the Westinghouse or Intel? He wants to do this, and his school did an awesome three year long research practicum tha ended with entries in these competitions. A number of these kids placed well-last year a girl placed fourth in the final national contest. I'm having trouble seeing how I could reproduce such an experience at home, yet I know it must have been done.

 

Calm me please. I am excited and intimidated all at once!

 

we did homeschool our oldest last year for 10th grade, although all three girls are returning to school in the fall for other reasons.

 

As far as the Spanish is concerned, I have no actual experience there, but I seem to remember Jean in Wisconsin (Jean, forgive me if I'm wrong) having a very good experience with Switch-On Schoolhouse Spanish for one of her children.

 

I have no experience with national science competitions; one year our homeschool group did a regional science competition with B.E.S.T. (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics competition; the regional hub is at St. Louis University in St. Louis. I've definitely heard of the Westinghouse competition, though.

 

I hope someone else with vastly more experience than I have can help you out!

[readwithem]

He was at home for seventh and eighth grades, returned for ninth grade to school, now want to spend the rest of HS at home. I'm a bit overwhelmed thinking about teaching him again.

 

First question: how to you find the syllabus of SAT subject tests? It appears the College Board's guides don't include scope and sequence information-am I right about this? If so, where can I find this information?

 

Second question: What's a good, self-teaching spanish course for high schoolers with some background? He is very good at learning languages, and has had a year of HS spanish.

 

Thirs question: Anyone have kids who've entered national science competetions, like the Westinghouse or Intel? He wants to do this, and his school did an awesome three year long research practicum tha ended with entries in these competitions. A number of these kids placed well-last year a girl placed fourth in the final national contest. I'm having trouble seeing how I could reproduce such an experience at home, yet I know it must have been done.

 

Calm me please. I am excited and intimidated all at once!

 

First I would try to remember that at this age, you won't be teaching him much but you will facilitate his learning. He's old enough and sounds motivated enough to make hs'ing succeed.

 

As for the SAT subject tests, I would go to your local bookstore and spend some time perusing the prep books - they'll probably have a whole wall devoted to this.

 

As for the science comp, I would find out whether he can continue with his former school for this. It sounds like a huge commitment timewise and resource-wise, and would probably need to be done in a group setting.

[Jann in TX]

You might want to take a look at the Language programs at Oklahoma State University. If my dd chooses to homeschool again this year (she is still on the fence--one more week to decide) she will take Spanish 2 with them. I was very impressed with their program--I especially liked the fact that they had a one-hour private phone conference with an instructor each week.

 

OSU's program is for highschool students. It was designed to help out small public and private schools that could not afford/did not need a full time language teacher. The program is open to homeschoolers!

 

The cost is $389 for the school year--plus text (around $40). MUCH cheaper than private tutoring and it is a complete program--text, computer program/support, assignments, online tests/quizzes, and conference/tutoring.

 

---

 

My dd is a huge Science person too--I don't know much about the contests--but our choice of Science text for Honors Chemistry was Prentice Hall--with tests, schedule and virtual lab software purchased through Kolbe.

 

HTH

[Catherine]

nt