Incoming Senior Beginning Homeschooling

[Guest SaradaT]

Has anyone pulled a high school junior following their junior year and started homeschooling at that point? I am considering it but would like to know if anyone has done it already and if so where did you start and how? This particular student failed nearly every class last term their highest grade was a D+. What kind of assessments do you do and where to jump in with the rhetoric stage?

[swimmermom3]

I have done it with a depressed teenager, but I had a couple of years of homeschooling experience behind me even if it wasn't at the high school level.

 

I think before you can make a decision on what to do academically, you need to look at what is going on emotionally and socially. What I would do with a student who isn't going to class because they are bored out of their mind is far different than what I would do with a seriously anxious student or one with diagnosed or undiagnosed learning challenges.

[Julie in MN]

I started homeschooling with a student who had failed most of 9th grade (including summer school).

I wouldn't necessarily call him a senior yet, if he doesn't have 3 years of high school credits in place. In my state, we can register homeschoolers until age 21; homeschooling independently can be done at any age -- just like you can get a high school diploma by taking classes and paying for it as an adult.

I liked Teresa Moon's book, Evaluating for Excellence. She also has another book, How Do You Know What They Know, which I haven't used.

I also got a lot of help initially for high school from Barb Shelton's book, Senior High: A Home-Designed Form+U+La.

These helped me evaluate (a) what my homeschool would give credit for that had been done previously, maybe partial credit etc. (b ) where my student was already at in her skills, rather than where her previous teachers said she was at.

Julie

 

Edited to fix smiley face (b ) !

[Guest SaradaT]

Thank you both, Lisa and Julie.  You brought up good questions and areas for me to chase down.  I appreciate the input.

 

Sarada

[AK_Mom4]

Different circumstances here, but yes.  DD19 decided to homeschool for the first time for her senior year - mostly so she could concentrate on her music without having to waste 6 hours a day on school.  She is a very motivated young lady - she finished all her academic work in just a couple of hours, played in several different music groups, had a part-time job and volunteered in the band class at the local junior high. 

 

DS17 asked to do the same thing for his senior year starting this fall, but with different reasons.  He had a bad academic year last year because he was bored and unhappy when his best friend changed schools.  It was a much harder decision for us because although he did home school grades 5-8, he is a challenging personality and we will be butting heads quite a bit. 

 

As far as coursework, we pretty much knew what credits they needed to graduate - the challenge was to find high school materials that were going to be interesting.  DD chose a handful of text books and did them herself.  For DS17, we are using a mix of outsourced classes , some online and two at his old high school, plus a couple that I made up myself this summer.