happycc Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 It is a sad sad moment for me as I am no longer looking at the middle school level forum and now looking at high school forum. My girls are starting High school next year and I cannot believe how much time flies. I am making the decision not to do a-g during their four years of high school as we would never honestly be able to afford twins at a four year college and they would most likely want to stick around home and attend junior college nearby. I see a-g rather restrictive for them and they wouldn;t be able to take courses that would interest them through many of the resources mentioned on the TWTM forum. So can someone tell me some dos and donts of high school level... what have you learned? What to avoid? Tricks? What is it like to homeschool at this level? Next year I will be homeschooling five kids....two 9th graders, one 7thgrader, one 1st grader and a preschooler who uses ASL for communication as he is nonverbal autistic although he is starting to voice more now. However he is more expressive when using ASL and shows high knowledge through his use of signing and gestures. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Welcome! There are a few things that come to mind as I read your post... 1) Time flies in high school too. My youngest is now a college sophomore and no longer a teen. It seems like only a year or two I had three boys here at home and enjoyed homeschooling. 2) You can find answers to many of your questions in a couple of the stickied posts at the top of the forum. 3) I'd really hesitate to slot any high schooler into a planned path for their future in 9th grade. College isn't always sticker price. Many (including all of mine) get either merit or need-based aid or both bringing that price far down. It's easy to "back down" from aiming higher with classes. It's difficult to catch back up. The education they get along the way is always good, if nothing else, for training the brain. At this level students should start becoming more independent. I rarely taught much at the high school level. We had books they read to get the basics down, then we did tons of discussions to be sure they understood what they were learning. A few classes they did completely on their own (Marine Bio, Anatomy, Art History) as I didn't have time to learn with them. It still worked out well. Adding a couple of CC classes later on worked well for us too. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Welcome. Creek said it all. I'm not in CA so I can't comment on a-g, but you can find plenty of threads about it here. There is no reason to be sad about having high schoolers. It is a wonderful time to homeschool. My oldest is in college and my youngest is finishing high school this year and doing all DE this spring. Enjoy these last 4 years. They will fly by. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 I think I would spend time learning what it takes to satisfy a-g first. It looks like you can do SAT subject tests if the courses you use are not on their approved list--so it may be you could have more flexibility than you think. Like Debbie, I'm not in CA either, but it seems like it would be worth looking at other threads on here (if you haven't already). That said, nothing wrong with going to CC and transferring if that's the best path for your family. Do you know other homeschoolers in your area who have done that? Sometimes it helps to find those who have followed a similar path. I find that some of the specific "do's and don'ts" can relate to one's particular area when it comes to high school and getting ready for college. It helps if you know some moms a few steps ahead of you, to learn how the process works, what's necessary, and so on. Homeschooling high school is mainly taking the next step. It can seem new and scary at first, but I think it's a great time in a student's life--we've enjoyed these years! I find that sometimes I can teach from a point of knowledge, often I am a co-learner, and in a few cases, my student is the expert and I'm not involved much at all. My students have been very independent in high school, but generally I spent 1-2 hours per day with them (we continued read-alouds as a family, we did Bible together, and I always did a one on one tutoring time to go over their subjects). I checked work daily, but tended to rotate which subjects we spent the most time discussing, depending on what assignments they had or if I found something in their notes that warranted further discussion. I made sure we had time to discuss each subject at least weekly, often more. Math, of course, was on the daily list, but other subjects could rotate more. When my kids needed help, we would find the answer together or I would spend time reading if they just weren't getting it on their own. My daughter is taking physics now, which I never took, and we tend to teach each other. Sometimes I can understand a nuance or how to find the needed information more easily, but she understands how the concept works. On the other hand, when my son took Japanese, I started out learning it with him, and then decided he was going to do that on his own. I could correct his quizzes, but not his daily work where he wrote out sentences in foreign characters--so I had him check his own work. I told him that if he didn't understand or agree with something in an answer key (sometimes answer keys are wrong), we'd go looking for outside help/answers. And I made sure he knew the goal was to learn, not to copy a correct answer! But he wanted to learn, and it was a good subject for him to learn independently. I think the biggest thing for me with high school was the need to be flexible, to find resources that would work for my teaching style and my student's learning style (if it's new to both of us, it better be good at teaching the majority of the time--no resource is perfect, but we should be able to understand and proceed), and to help my kids really learn how to study and learn. I would also say--keep records as you go. It's much less time consuming (and less nerve-wracking) to keep that information updated each year than to try to remember at the end of 4 years when you are scrambling to make a transcript. Most of all--enjoy your teens. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 What is a-g? I saw it for the first time last week and can't figure out what it stands for. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 What is a-g? I saw it for the first time last week and can't figure out what it stands for. Its for California's UC and CSU systems http://www.ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 Look for middle college high school program in your region. Link is for Canada middle high school program just to explain what I mean. I know someone happy in the Gilroy program but that would be far from you. http://canadacollege.edu/middlecollege/ Also look at the TAG program at your local community college http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/guarantee/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 Also look at the TAG program at your local community college http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/guarantee/ This, but research carefully. There are some restrictions on majors I believe. UC San Diego pulled out of this program not too long ago. I wonder if others will follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 This, but research carefully. There are some restrictions on majors I believe. I agree. There is a linked table on that webpage. Since OP is looking at junior college, make sense to check if TAG would make economical sense for her going to be 9th graders. Direct link to table http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/tag-matrix.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Welcome! Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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