HS without Out-Sourcing?

[joannqn]

I looked at Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP classes and most of them are half of my current budget for 4 kids. No way I can spend half of my budget on a single class when I'll have two in high school plus two more in elementary (and not much in the way of hand-me-down curricula). I'm not getting my hopes up for being able to afford outsourcing classes, online or at a community college. With all of the budget cuts, I'm not sure if Running Start (our state's dual enrollment) will be affordable.

 

So, has anyone else graduated a student without outsourcing classes?

 

I have one student without academic interests and another that is clearly a STEM student.

[elegantlion]

Our budget is tight. Ds is only in 9th, but I foresee budget being an issue throughout high school. Dual enrollment will be out because there are no discounts here. If we outsource for an expensive class, which I hope to do at least one class in 11th and 12th, it will have to be a core class, probably math. I'm currently looking for more affordable options too.

 

*I* feel comfortable with my plan. *I* don't think I'll ruin his future by not outsourcing. I do feel like I'll have to put in more time and planning and my own training, but, to me, that is part of the whole homeschooling gig. Again, we're only at the beginning of our journey.

[Kendall]

I don't quite qualify, but close. Each of my older two took one online writing class during one year(jr year for one child/senior for the other). They also each took 1 semester of Calculus at a CC their Spring semester senior year. One is a STEM major. One was without much academic interest most of high school, but is now doing well in college. Neither of my children had AP credits.

[snowbeltmom]

So, has anyone else graduated a student without outsourcing classes?

 

I have one student without academic interests and another that is clearly a STEM student.

 

 

I have outsourced some classes, while other classes are completely homeschooled. I think it would be possible to not outsource any classes provided you have a very self-motivated student who was able to learn on his own and would adhere to deadlines that you set.

 

 

If all of the classes are studied at home,imo, it would be a good idea for your son to take the SAT subject tests in physics, chemistry and math at a minimum to provide proof to the colleges that your son was able to master the STEM material on his own at home. I would also make sure that your son was involved in your community in some capacity.

 

Since cost is a factor, you may want to check into CTY classes. I know that they offer financial aid for their summer programs (I am not sure how much each student is given, though). CTY might also offer financial aid for their online offerings as well.

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

My oldest two graduated without outsourcing any classes.

We did not have the money for anything extra at all!

 

We bought curriculum with CD instruction for foreign language. Rosetta Stone and SOS.

 

They have done FINE in college courses.

 

For things that I could not "teach", we concentrated on study skills and independent learning. My second dd learned how to look at questions in the back of the chapter first, skim to find answers, and then read the chapter in Conceptual Chemistry. In the process of learning that study technique, she learned Chemistry. (I did teach her some.)

 

Since I now work part time our budget is allowing my ds17 to take some DE at CC. I would have NEVER forseen that happening!

 

But yes.... you don't have to outsource a single thing !!

[dbmamaz]

my oldest homeschooled kid is only a junior but we have outsourced very little. i did pay more than I thought i should (maybe 250?) for a dissection class, and did a robotics team for a bit which was really not worth the investment. I'm only planning to send him to community college, though, so I'm not too worried about rigor. He's a very smart kid with a lot of anxiety and writing problems and processing issues, so i'm kinda letting him work at a comfortable pace, not pushing him a lot. I've pieced together each year subject by subject.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I looked at Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP classes and most of them are half of my current budget for 4 kids. No way I can spend half of my budget on a single class when I'll have two in high school plus two more in elementary (and not much in the way of hand-me-down curricula). I'm not getting my hopes up for being able to afford outsourcing classes, online or at a community college. With all of the budget cuts, I'm not sure if Running Start (our state's dual enrollment) will be affordable.

 

So, has anyone else graduated a student without outsourcing classes?

 

I have one student without academic interests and another that is clearly a STEM student.

 

It definitely can be done. One of my best friends and home school mentors is about to graduate her third.

 

Her oldest had no formal outsourced courses (online or cc), but did to a group writing class led by another homeschool mom (they met at Starbucks once a week and a couple times at a library) and science lab groups run by her mom (ie the mom was going to do the labs anyway and invited a few other student over).

 

Her next son did the writing group and the science labs with an outsourcing of calculus senior year.

 

Her third is doing community college for senior year.

 

The two older kids are both in good colleges (not hyper selective schools but good solid schools where they are thriving and learning a lot). The oldest received some scholarships and the next is likely to get advanced standing in ROTC (might not be scholarship money but may lead to a contract for a commission after graduation).

 

I've had to be more selective about coops and outsourcing as we've hit high school. I make a clear distinction between elective and academic classes. Elective work gets done last after required courses (ie, Latin, German, algebra, physics, history and lit are going to trump the art project).

 

I will also say as a demanding coop literature class teacher that outsourcing to a coop does not mean that the parent should walk away, especially in early high school years. In some ways it is a time for a little more hands on than middle school, especially as the student learns to handle a syllabus, outside graded assignments and deadlines. It's been very frustrating to have families that are using my class as their only freshman English class, but that don't ensure that their kids are doing the readings or assignments.

 

All of which is a round about way of saying that a) you don't have to outsource, B) if you do, be choosy, c) if you do, be committed and teach your kid how to handle the class.

[fiddle]

This may be our situation, too.... probably not a whole lot of disposable income by the time older gets to high school. I'd been looking into My father's World for high school. With that covering literature/history and then using Apologia science and we plan to continue Teaching Textbooks for math I think that will cover the bases. It seems like there are quite a few of the MFW folks that don't outsource in high school and their kids have done well in college ;)

 

Paula

[AK_Mom4]

The only thing we outsourced for my oldest DD last year was her foreign language. But that doesn't have to be expensive, you can usually find a lower-cost tutor or community class or native speaker who wants to earn a few extra dollars. She needed two years of a foreign language for the colleges she had chosen.

 

She did play in a variety of different music groups and paid for music lessons, but those were definitely extras.

 

She did Calculus with the Dr. Callahan lectures. US Govt, Criminology, and Composition were all independent study. Definitely can be done without breaking the budget.

[Barbara H]

While covering difficult to cover content (like foreign language or science) is one reason many familes outsource, the other big one is more one of motivation. Some high schooler end up working much better for people outside of the family so outsourcing becomes a way to try to resolve that conflict. So knowing you don't plan to outsource it will be extra important to really work with your kids to build a good high school routine with clear expectations from the beginning of high school.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

While covering difficult to cover content (like foreign language or science) is one reason many familes outsource, the other big one is more one of motivation. Some high schooler end up working much better for people outside of the family so outsourcing becomes a way to try to resolve that conflict. So knowing you don't plan to outsource it will be extra important to really work with your kids to build a good high school routine with clear expectations from the beginning of high school.

 

 

I think that you also need to be careful that you're not penny wise and pound foolish. For example, while I use Rosetta Stone for elementary and middle school language introduction, it is missing some significant parts of foreign language learning (heavy grammar exercises, longer reading selections). But you can buy used foreign language texts pretty inexpensively now and work with a real life tutor. It will probably cost more for a tutor over several years, but you're likely to achieve a much better result.

[tvaleri]

I've graduated three from home without outsourcing other than a lab class for Apologia Biology. Currently, I am homeschooling the last two, 10th and 8th grades. Our finances won't allow the outrageous fees for local homeschool classes and dual enrollment is out for a lot of reasons. In addition, I had to take on a part time job. So like another poster, we use dvd's for math (Mr. Reed), writing (IEW & Lost Tools), Netflix, and online resources such as Khan Academy, YouTube (great history documentaries and Shakespeare performances), and Codeacademy.

 

Recently found this: http://allinonehomeschool.wordpress.com/

Looks very promising for filling in some of the gaps =) Thanks so much to the author!!

 

In addition, we are blessed my sil is Latino and converses in Spanish with us whenever she is around =)

In His grip,

Teresa

[bobbeym]

There might possibly be an option for DS to take some CC courses his jr/sr years, but for now I can't count on us being financially stable enough to write it into any of my plans. Even local tutors and co-ops aren't an option for us right now.

 

We're using a variety of textbooks and curriculum to meet DS's needs, being as frugal as we can by shopping around for the best deals, and using free online resources as much as possible.

[MomatHWTK]

Could you make use of Coursera and the other new free internet based classes?

[joannqn]

I'm not worried about being able to cover the material adequately at home. I'm more concerned about how it will look on transcripts to not have any/many outside classes. I definitely plan on having them take some subject tests or AP or CLEP tests in addition to the ACT/SAT.

 

We have outsourced Korean. DS takes that at a local church. It runs $110 per semester. He also takes taekwondo, which I expect will continue through graduation. That's another $120 a month. So, he's running about $1600 a year for those two classes. I plan on being a math student right along with DS through AoPS calculus. I'm really enjoying it so far. I don't have a problem with buying lab supplies since I have four students who will use them.

 

DD has nothing outside of home. She attends youth group and helps out in the church nursery once a month. She hates every sport we've tried and has no interest in anything that resembles exercise. I'm not sure what we are going to do to make her look better to colleges. At this point, she has no great interest in anything...no plan for after graduation.

[Kathy in Richmond]

JoAnn, when my son was in high school, money was pretty tight, so we only outsourced a little bit for him. Luckily he, like your son, enjoyed working at home with me. I wasn't worried about his academics; they were fine. He did have piano lessons outside the home, along with boy scouts and church stuff, but that was it before tenth grade.

 

My son is a STEM kid to the core (dd is a little bit of everything under the sun), and from an early age wanted to be a computer scientist (never ever changed!). He self taught several programming languages and was working on projects on his own. But it got to a point where I really wanted him to take a computer science class from an outside teacher, since neither my husband nor I have any recent knowledge of the subject, and so we had no way to know whether his progression was adequate prep for college or not. I also knew that he'd need a letter of recommendation or two from outside teachers for those college applications.

 

Since we could only do afford a few outside classes, we decided to hit his areas of strength. Dual enrollment is expensive around here, so that wasn't the answer. In grade 10 we bit the bullet and he took one PA Homeschooler class in AP computer science. We learned two things: first, he could have done it on his own (the class was fine, but it was a snooze for him), and secondly, the teacher refused to write LORs for his students at the end of the course. That seemed a bit unfair, but whatever... (fwiw he doesn't teach for them any more).

 

In grade 11, ds studied for his five AP subjects happily at home. All we outsourced that year was an AoPS semester-long problem solving class. That was back in the days before their courses required textbooks, so they were a little less expensive.

 

In grade 12, ds continued to self-study APs at home, and took two more AoPS classes online (one was free). I also panicked about his writing, so we also enrolled him in a two month long Write at Home research paper writing class.

 

That was it for outsourcing. No brick and mortar classes. All science/labs, history, foreign language done at home. We did send him to summer math camp when he showed some serious talent there. But by high school, he was also able to work part time and help pay for that.

 

He did take lots of AP exams and SAT subject exams. He enjoyed participating in various math contests and the computer science olympiad, all from home, inexpensively. His good results in college acceptances were probably due to those exam scores and contest results, along with his obvious passion for computer science. Letters of recommendation came from a summer camp math mentor and his piano teacher. The lack of outside classes didn't hurt him.

[lllll]

..

[CyndiLJ]

We are beginning high school next year with our first, and plan on outsourcing as little as possible unless it is career oriented training. There are such great resources available now that it seems unnecessary to outsource. If college is in the future, it will definitely be online (TESC or some such) or in state. We will meet all requirements for lower level college entrance, and that is good enough for us. Looks like our first is likely heading toward computer networking/repair or gps/surveying, both of which have two year programs nearby.

[WTMCassandra]

I think high school with outsourcing, or with only a little outsourcing, is completely do-able in this era of video courses, open courseware, and other internet resources. I am an English major and basically hopeless in math and science, but we muddle through.

 

I have a 10th grader (my humanities student) and an 8th grader (my STEM student). I do outsource Koine Greek, with a private tutor, for both children, and my humanities 10th grader also has a tutor for supplemental Latin translation using Wheelock's (we still do MP Latin at home). The children do math courses either scripted for the student or video-based, and my math-y husband helps them if they have problems. My husband also does our science experiments, although I monitor the bookwork. We also belong to a NCFCA Speech and Debate club and go to competitions. We are also active it two model rocketry clubs.

 

Cobbled together, although we do spend some $$$ for the above things, it is manageable. There are so many helps these days for subjects you feel incompetent in, that you should be able to find a solution. When my son gets to Pre-Calc, we will go with Chalkdust video-based courses. I do try to document things carefully and have course descriptions, grading rubrics for each course, etc., and when they complete a course I save all of their work.

[Barbara H]

I'm not worried about being able to cover the material adequately at home. I'm more concerned about how it will look on transcripts to not have any/many outside classes. I definitely plan on having them take some subject tests or AP or CLEP tests in addition to the ACT/SAT.

 

 

 

Just to put your mind at ease - I would not worry about it from an admissions perspective. While as homeschoolers we know all about stuff like AOPS, Lukeion, PA homeschoolers - unaccredited classes have almost no meaning to most people working in admissions. They may be wonderful and helpful but most people outside of homeschooling aren't really familiar with what these courses are like. Admissions knows about community college courses, APs, and SAT subject tests so any of those will be helpful.

 

The one thing I would pay attention to is having some contact with someone outside of the family who can write a recommendation that speaks to an academically related experience. The Korean teacher may be good. If ends up doing an internship or finding a mentor that could also be helpful. I liked the suggestion to look for free opportunities to develop his STEM skills (not sure which area of STEM but here are a few ideas: math tutoring, volunteering to do websites for organization, any kind of internship, teaching a co-op class for younger kids, getting involved in group computer programming projects, volunteering with organizations that do environmental testing, etc.

 

While it is easy to find ways to spend money homeschooling high school and they can make life easier, you don't have to and plenty of kids have gotten into good colleges without outsourcing courses.

[Parrothead]

I can't afford to outsource academics. Not with four dance lessons a week plus guitar. And as she progresses there may be more lessons on top of the current 4.

 

I'm finding lots and lots of help for free online. From free help for me to teach well to free classes to supplement dd's academics. i don't think it is going to be necessary to outsource much, if at all.

 

This forum alone has been a lifesaver.

[AngieW in Texas]

The only high school classes my kids have done outside of home have been at the community college. In my district, kids can take up to 2 classes/semester at no charge starting with the summer between 10th and 11th grades, so that's a very inexpensive option. We still have to pay for the textbooks, but the average cost of textbooks/supplies for just 2 classes has been about $150/semester here, not a bad amount at all.

[Nscribe]

I can't afford to outsource academics. Not with four dance lessons a week plus guitar. And as she progresses there may be more lessons on top of the current 4.

 

 

True not just in the sense of $, but time and scheduling conflicts. One reason we homeschool is to allow for the flexibility in time demands to be able to juggle more balls simultaneously. Someone else's deadlines often just don't work for us.

[CupOCoffee]

I am not currently nor I do I plan on outsourcing any classes for my 2 kids either. As many here have already said, it is not necessary in this electronic age!! As Chuckie said, THIS FORUM has on more than one occasion been a lifesaver for our home school! Even today, in *this* thread, I found a source for free courses that I had not already seen before; it went right into my Bookmark Folder titled "Free Curriculum".

 

If you have the money, the time for transportation, and the desire, by all means outsource! But many of us just can't afford it on many levels. And I do firmly believe it is not necessary.

 

~coffee~

[kroe1]

I outsource only what I absolutely cannot do like performing arts, dance, voice, piano. When it comes time to fill out the college transcripts, we may include photos of science experiments or whatnot if need be. I do not worry about the college application process at all. My first was a high school dropout with a GED and he is now an ER physician. His transcript was the pits, to say the least.

 

 

[BlsdMama]

I looked at Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP classes and most of them are half of my current budget for 4 kids. No way I can spend half of my budget on a single class when I'll have two in high school plus two more in elementary (and not much in the way of hand-me-down curricula). I'm not getting my hopes up for being able to afford outsourcing classes, online or at a community college. With all of the budget cuts, I'm not sure if Running Start (our state's dual enrollment) will be affordable.

 

So, has anyone else graduated a student without outsourcing classes?

 

I have one student without academic interests and another that is clearly a STEM student.

 

 

She isn't graduated yet, but she'll be a senior in about a month. :)

 

We've not outsourced anything unless you can count music lessons. We have participated in a co-op but she was too old to participate, so she volunteered with the pre-schoolers and she was active in the speech class.

 

Once I went to a meeting with a mom who was graduating her fourth child. I was so excited until I realized all of the outsourcing she had done and then it was very discouraging to me because I wondered if I could do it and do it well.

 

The answer? I think we did all right. ;)

 

However, my "goals" for middle school has very much changed now with experience. My goals for middle school became "equipping" to be very self reliant for high school, focusing on any weaknesses that could impair their abilities to really fly. High school, for Ana, has been a time when she has been very self-motivated, focused, and working independently. It's been a beautiful thing to watch her take over and take control. My role has been purchasing curriculum and accountability. Her role has been to set her schedule, drive her courses, and keep track.

 

In my mind, I now have a very clear vision of what I want for the rest of my high school students. (I am a little sorry she was the guinea pig as I could very much have done some things better.) But, yes, I can say it is very do-able.