Prove student did high school courses?

[Pamela H in Texas]

I know it's been discussed many times in the past as an issue, but I'm wondering if anyone knows how to quickly PROVE their student's high school courses?

 

If you said kid did these classes for 9th and 10th grades, but they were strictly homeschooled (courses not taken through correspondence, online, in person programs), how would you PROVE they actually did it?

 

If you didn't have the means for your primary methods, what ELSE would you do?

[periwinkle]

Who are you proving this to and why? That might help us answer your post.:confused:

[Pamela H in Texas]

Deb,

 

For an opportunity for a student to participate in a public school sponsored program.

[periwinkle]

I have to submit a portfolio for review here in Pennsylvania at the end of the year. I include a list of resources used for each course and a few samples of the student's work. Would that be sufficient? Or perhaps a syllabus you have created?

 

Since you said quickly, and you have to prove all your courses, tests like clep or SAT subject tests wouldn't work. I still think a nice transcript should be acceptable. Have you asked them exactly what they want from homeschoolers? Maybe they have their own placement tests?

[mcconnellboys]

I'm not sure what your last sentence means: "If you didn't have the means for your primary methods, what ELSE would you do?"

 

If I had used absolutely no outside teachers, classes, etc. to corrorborate my child's high school level work, I would just make certain to KEEP all the work (and I do).

 

I keep a plastic tub for each year of school work and keep all written work, workbooks completed, notebooks with notes in them of work done, etc.

 

I think it's a good idea for a high schooler to keep a sort of "diary" of how their day goes, such as: 8:00 watched morning news, 30 minutes (current events); 8:30 read chapter 10 in ________ history text, 75 minutes; 9:45, did problems 30-60, page 56, ________ Algebra I book, etc., etc. (We did not use this method, but I think it's a very good idea....)

 

We have always put a date on the top of each page of text as we complete it and I put a checkmark after I've checked that page of work. This allows us to go back quickly and recreate how our days were spent. In addition, I do write out a plan for my year which also shows what work is to be done each day. Some folks make daily checklists, etc. If I did that, I'd keep all those in a notebook, in order by date.

 

When my older son wanted to enroll in a private school for this year as a sophomore, I spent some time last summer putting together two large, 3-ring binders of info on each high school level course he had completed. I didn't need all those credits for this school, but I'll need them later for college, anyway, so it was good to pull them together while they were fresher on my mind.

 

For each of these courses, I typed out a "course outline" which included a brief synopsis of what the course was meant to cover. I included texts used or book lists where a lot of living books were used. Where I already had my year laid out by topic spreads from particular spines, I also included those. And I included some samples of his work for the course.

 

Another thing that it might be useful to use would be a summary of time spent on particular course work. So, for instance, if you know that your student did math from 11-12, 5 days per week for the year, then state that the course consisted of an hour per day, 5 days per week, of lesson and practice for the year. Again, keeping the actual written work and being able to display it in notebooks would go a long way toward corroborating this information.

 

Also, any outside awards that might relate to your subjects studied would help to corroborate that you actually did that work, such as National Latin Exam, President's Physical Fitness awards, etc.

 

Regena

[Julie in GA]

What do you mean by your last sentence? Can you please clarify? Thanks.