High school classes at home --

[OnMyOwn]

How well do you learn the material yourself if you are not using an online class or coop?  Do you do read ahead for understanding?  If it is something like chemistry, do you read ahead and keep up with all the math and do all the assignments?  

 

 

[regentrude]

For subjects where problem solving skills are involved, like math or chemistry, I make sure I understand the material sufficiently well to be able to do the assignments myself. I don't actually do them, but I know I can do them if my student has any questions. If I did not, I would need to ensure the student has access to a person with expertise who can answer questions.

Subjects in which I cannot deliver this (like a foreign language in which I am not fluent beyond beginner level), I outsource.

 

For literature, I do not read every single work, but am familiar with most of the assigned reading. For history, we use a lot of Great Courses lectures; I listen to most of them, but not all. Some topics, I let DS self study completely and just read his writing assignments.

 

I find that for many things I can draw on my own education without having to specifically prep for my kids' high school material.

 

Edited March 30, 2016 by regentrude

[Garga]

For subjects where problem solving skills are involved, like math or chemistry, I make sure I understand the material sufficiently well to be able to do the assignments myself. I don't actually do them, but I know I can do them if my student has any questions. If I did not, I would need to ensure the student has access to a person with expertise who can answer questions.

Subjects in which I cannot deliver this (like a foreign language in which I am not fluent beyond beginner level), I outsource.

 

For literature, I do not read every single work, but am familiar with most of the assigned reading. For history, we use a lot of Great Courses lectures; I listen to most of them, but not all. Some topics, I let DS self study completely and just read his writing assignments.

My oldest is only in 8th, but the above is my plan.

 

I tried teaching him chemistry in 7th and quickly realized I didn't know what I was doing. :( It was humbling. After struggling through the first semester, we set it aside and did something else for the rest of the year. When he studies chemistry in high school, it will 100% be outsourced!

 

I am teaching him Algebra I this year, and I make sure I know how to do the problems. As he learns the lesson, we do the practice problems together (they're sidebars on the page--Lial's Algebra.).

 

However, I skated through geometry in school and didn't let any of the lessons sink in. I don't remember any of it. I'll be outsourcing geometry online next year, and then possibly Alg II and whatever else is next. I never made it past Alg I, II, and Geometry in school myself. (Laziness and not lack of ability--I was an aimless teen.)

 

Same with Spanish. I never learned it, so I have signed him up for a Spanish I class with a retired public school teacher.

 

For Literature--I love reading. I will re-read the books (or read some for the first time) before we study them. But I can knock out a book in 2-3 days, so it'll be easy for me. I just re-read The Great Gatsby the other day with the goal of thinking as I read it, "How would I teach this to my son?" I was heartened to find that as I read it, I could easily and naturally come up with all sorts of activities and discussions and essay questions. I will feel no need to outsource lit. Same with writing. I'll get a writing curric, but will teach it to him myself. Writing comes easily to me.

 

For history, I'll learn it along with him, since it's not a skill course-it's just learning facts and themes. I have a spine and some Great Courses we'll watch and write about.

 

For his electives, he chose Ancient Egypt and Introduction to Astronomy. Those will be fun classes. I will learn alongside him with books and Great Courses. (The astronomy class is NOT heavy on math. It's an intro course for fun just because astronomy is fun.).

 

So, for me it will be a mixture. After that humbling experience trying to re-learn chemistry 26 years after I last learned it in high school, I realized my limits. My son and I could have slogged through it, learning it together, but it was a slog. The simplest questions he had, I couldn't answer, because they were somewhere further ahead in the book and I couldn't really figure out where to find them. Some of the questions I didn't even really know how to fully articulate to someone else to ask them. For some subjects, you just need a teacher who is well-versed on the subject--beyond what their students are learning.

 

This might not be true for everyone, but it's my story. :)

Edited March 30, 2016 by Garga

[Penguin]

It depends.

 

For math, it is enough for me to just refresh my memory prior to DS hitting the topic. Once we pass that point, I want to outsource!

 

Science unnerves me more. Months prior to the class, I try to figure out what is really important so that I know which parts of the textbook are interesting details and which parts are the big ideas. I spend a lot of time on this. I try to at least skim read a text that is a step above the one my student will use. I do stay at least one step ahead of him. I think that he is going to need me more for chemistry (next year) than he did for biology (this year) so I have bought the textbook and started reading. 

 

Like regentrude, I don't do the assignments but I make sure that I could do them if I needed to do so.

 

I read all of the literature, but sometimes he gets ahead of me.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Penguin

[ondreeuh]

My son is starting 9th now, but I've been homeschooling for several years. My kid isn't ready for outsourced classes yet (very dysgraphic) so I am teaching him myself. I use full programs that have materials written to the student and an answer key. For math, I am good through at least algebra 2 without needing to work ahead. I teach the new material, do some review problems, and then check his work after he's done the practice probs and do any reteaching necessary. With history and science I let him do more self-teaching while I learn alongside him - I read the textbook and use the key to check his answers, then discuss. Ditto health, civics, psychology ... Literature is something I read along with him and use guides to help lead discussions. Spanish I will be teaching at the introductory level. It makes for very long days, but I try to do the reading the night before so I can just check answers and discuss during school hours. My younger son needs a lot of my time too.

 

He is taking a study skills class through BYU Independent Study and may take things like Alaska history and government through them if they have multiple-choice and short answer tests. Maybe even Spanish, but I would be very involved in that. We belong to a public school program that offers some classes on-site, and if he can get accommodations for writing then he can do a few of those. And I might actually send him to the high school for some science classes since I can't do a lab at home.

[almondbutterandjelly]

How well do you learn the material yourself if you are not using an online class or coop?  Do you do read ahead for understanding?  If it is something like chemistry, do you read ahead and keep up with all the math and do all the assignments?  

 

Hmm.  Math -- my degree is in math so I just have to glance at the day's work and generally know it so that's not a problem.  Plus we use Mathusee (because my dd is a big picture thinker and I am not and Mathusee Mr. Demme is) so I don't even have that much to do.

 

History -- We just read the next thing.  My prep for this is my coordinating outlining assignments or Horrible Histories videos.

 

Science -- My husband does this.  He reads ahead and makes sure he understands.  

 

English -- I pick out materials and coordinate books ahead of time, but I don't usually read them until I'm with my dd.  I generally read them aloud to her, so we both get the material at the same time.  

 

French -- I do look at what we'll be learning and refresh myself.

 

I guess mostly I'm not teaching stuff that's new to me.  

[AK_Mom4]

For math, a refresher was good enough until we hit Calculus. Then, I had to actually work the problems myself each week to keep up - it had been too many years without being used. So every Sunday afternoon, I work all the assigned problems and check them against the answer key. Tedious but it has made teaching Calc much easier.

 

For literature, I am familiar with the materials and have read most of the books in the past. I review the lessons each week to make sure I understand what is being taught.

 

Biology and history, it's enough for me to just look over the chapters each week when I'm doing prep for the week. Same thing when DS was taking computer programming.

 

We only outsource music and foreign language here for high school. However, I may make an exception when DD completes Calc BC next year. I'm not sure I want to teach any farther in math and may send her over to the college for her final two years of math courses.

[Mom22ns]

I have a science degrees, so for me brushing up on math and science was all that was needed. Sometimes I had to delve a bit more into a topic I hadn't dealt with in a long time. I definitely had to do some chemistry practice problems, but not many, one or two was usually enough to get it.

 

I love literature and was a natural writer, but I didn't study either much in college. So, I did read all the books that my kids read. There weren't many that I had already read. Of those, I sometimes re-read (I often liked them much better as an adult) and sometimes I just read through some notes (such as Sparknotes) to refresh my memory.

 

Most electives we did together and learned them together, but some they did completely independently - video based courses, homeschool specific courses. 

 

In general, I found that my general knowledge base is strong enough to re-learn any high school subject quickly and easily enough to just go through with them and gain complete understanding in far less time than it took them to achieve that understanding. I really didn't have to work to hard at keeping up. If I'd had a strong math student who needed calculus (which I've never had) I would have had to defer to dh, used DE or something, because I don't think I could have learned it fast enough, and stayed far enough ahead to be a resource. Dh's calc is very out of practice, but he did have Calc 1-3 in college so we could have made it work.

[Penguin]

I had three semesters of college calculus, college stats, and a semester of differential equations. And I don't want to teach math beyond Algebra II :)

 

You fast readers make me jealous! I am a slow reader. Fortunately, I am old and have had plenty of time to read. I have already read most of the lit that DS will read in high school, but I will reread the books along with him.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Penguin

[deerforest]

I'm only teaching a middle schooler right now but we are using some higher level materials already, and I've thought about this a lot. I have a weird background that is very strong in languages, social sciences, and lab sciences. I have BA in Spanish and Psychology but I went to grad school for neuroscience and I currently manage a dozen writers in the tech industry. So, I have a weird amount and comfort with pretty much all subjects, certainly through the high school level. I don't like chemistry and physics, but DH loves them. So, I just plan to stay one step ahead as we continue on. I don't feel like I'll need to outsource anything unless DD wants to.

 

ETA: I actually outsource non-academic things like the arts (chorus, pottery), aerial/circus, outdoor nature program (lots of survivalist learning kinda stuff)

Edited March 31, 2016 by deerforest

[8filltheheart]

One of my strongest skills as a homeschooling parent is finding great resources.  Seriously.  My kids know far more than I do.  :) (For example, my chemistry is weak and my physics knowledge stinks.  Somehow I have managed to have a chemE and a physics major graduate from our homeschool!) My personal strengths as a teacher are definitely more in the humanities areas.  I can teach writing and analyze literature without difficulty, but math beyond alg 2 is beyond me.

 

I outsource when it seems like the best choice.  Otherwise, we do it at home if I can find good teaching resources.  We use a lot of Teaching Company lectures.  I search for books that teach their subjects well.  We use some Thinkwell courses.  

[theelfqueen]

At the moment, and for next year, our plans include almost no outsourcing. Or even 'curriculum' purchasing.

 

I rely on my existing knowledge for some things, I read ahead for some things, I find high quality materials and guide my kid to use it...What I want for my homeschooled high schooler is to develop study skills, love of learning and inquiry that will enable him to delve into whatever interests him and find his own good materials in the future :)

 

Right now we're buying materials and building our own classes for the most part ( current examples: We're using Miller and Levine for biology but don't have lesson plans, and are adding labs independently... the big exception is Saxon Algebra with the My Father's World Lesson plans.. but we're not using DIVE courses, though we did find a helpful video resource on Youtube.)  (building Geography, Astronomy, Geology, Botany and English classes right now for Fall)

 

I do plan to have him do some DE in 11th and 12th grade.

 

I don't understand why the first question from most of the homeschoolers I meet seems to be "What (curricula) are you using?" I think they all think we're unschoolers ;) We're definitely not (Yet, LOL)

Edited March 31, 2016 by theelfqueen

[Eliz]

My math skills are okay, but rusty so I outsource algebra 2 and up.  My undergraduate degree is in microbiology.  I can teach most science programs.  Even though I had several years of French in college (a long time ago),  I tried but just couldn't teach my older daughter French.  My younger daughter is interested in Japanese; I definitely can't teach that!

 

I outsource those classes that I either know I can't teach (Japanese) or would take too much review time on my part. 

[lllll]

nm

Edited April 20, 2016 by _ ?^..

[MerryAtHope]

How well do you learn the material yourself if you are not using an online class or coop?  Do you do read ahead for understanding?  If it is something like chemistry, do you read ahead and keep up with all the math and do all the assignments?  

 

Some things I know well, some not as well, some not at all. Examples:

 

Literature I want to discuss: I read the book ahead, pull questions from lit guides, maybe keep some notes etc... Some literature that I want to discuss, I actually use as read-alouds (we continue lit. read-alouds throughout high school, as well as lit the kids read on their own).

 

Literature my kids read but I'm not doing a guide--I may or may not read it. Mostly I have them tell me what's going on in their book. I ask questions about the characters and events, and I only read it if they have trouble answering my questions, or if their answers don't make sense.

 

Math--we use MUS, and I watch the demonstrations with them, use the teacher's guide as needed, correct work daily, and rework problems that my kids get wrong. I want to understand why they got the problem wrong so that I can help them at points they don't understand. I also want to double-check in case the answer key is wrong and my student is correct (I've not seen that happen in MUS, but did in our previous program).

 

History--I read some but not all. I have my kids take T-notes and I make sure their notes make sense and include the most important topics. I model how to take notes if not, and discuss history with them a few times a week.

 

Science--I read some but not all. We use Apologia, and they have daily work (On your own questions), and I check their work with the answer key. If I don't think their answer matches, we discuss the topic orally and I have them read the answer in the book and see if they understand the difference. If their math is off, I look to understand where and why, and have them check their work against the solution as worked out in the book. I ask lots of questions, and my student who is strong in science often has better understanding than I do (especially this year in Physics, which I never took). If my student is confused or we can't reconcile my student's understanding with the book, then I take time to read more thoroughly and figure it out. I have often told my daughter, "We're two intelligent women; we can figure this out!" And that's been the case. If we couldn't find an answer, we have friends who are strong in science that we could ask, I could ask here, I could google, or I could call the company. 

 

Foreign language--I initially thought I'd keep up with my son's Japanese, and that lasted for about 10 lessons. I soon realized that just wasn't going to work. He was completely self-taught with online videos, text book, workbook etc... I had him check his homework (too many characters after awhile for me to track with), but I would check his quizzes, dialog with him about how his studies were going, have him give answers in Japanese, and so on. A difficult question came up one time, but we were able to find the answer. 

 

HTH some!