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Is it Possible to do "Family Style" homeschooling in High Schoo?


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Is it feasible to combine students of different ages when the oldest reaches high school? I'm all for the independence that my oldest has (she is a VERY good student), but she feels isolated doing everything on her own. Can it still work to combine history, science, and other subjects in family-style learning in the high school years? // I'd appreciate all feedback -- for the positive or negative. Also any suggestions of how (if it's possible) to make it work well. My daughter will start high school this summer.

Amber :)

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History and literature - yes, to a degree, if the age spread isn't too large. Younger children could study similar periods, listen to the same history audio lectures and audio books, but older does more detailed analysis and discussion and writing assignments. Some literary works will not be accessible to younger students, and one needs to be careful not to shortchange the highschool student.

Math - no. It doesn't make any sense to combine a student who studies trigonometry with one who learns how to add fractions. It also doesn't make sense to artificially slow down the older student and push the younger so they can work on similar material. Math needs to be taught at the student's level, and the student needs to move at the pace appropriate to them,

Science - possible, but requires a lot of effort. You could for example coordinate an algebra/trig based physics course for older with a conceptual physics course or physical science course for younger, but it requires a lot of extra work matching up the topics. Same for chem. Bio would be easier since it does not require math and thus it is easier to omit material for youngers.

It's going to be a lot of extra work, IMO, to line up the materials and also enforce the students to work at the same pace. I consider it a benefit of homeschooling that students can work at their own pace and don't see any benefit in giving this up for the sake of uniformity with a sibling.

That does not mean the highschool student must be isolated and work on her own. The parent still needs to be involved in schooling the highschooler and make enough time for active discussions and involvement, not just grading independent work. 

Edited by regentrude
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Yes, it really is possible.  My 16 and 14 year-old are completely combined in everything, but math.  They're very competitive and I think they enjoy working together.  They do their chemistry labs together, literature discussions together with me, etc.  We're getting ready to start a new unit of stuff, so they're going to do Marine Biology and Ancient History and Literature together.  All three of us are going to write a play together, too.  We're going to do come up with a plot, setting and some characters.  Then, we're going to take turns writing a page or two of the play - switching off between the three of us until we finish it.  And then we're going to do a reading together.

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My 16ds and 14dd also do all their subjects together except for math.  They enjoy learning together and help each other along the way. My son excels in math and my daughter excels in reading and writing. They use their strengths to help when needed, even before asking me. 

 

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1 hour ago, aaplank said:

My 16ds and 14dd also do all their subjects together except for math.  They enjoy learning together and help each other along the way.

How do you handle that with math based sciences?

Does that mean your younger's science sequence will be different than your olders? What is your philosophy behind the science progression?

Edited by regentrude
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OP, have you looked at the Tapestry of Grace curriculum?  It is set up for kids at multiple levels,  including high school.  Even if you wanted to pull things together yourself, looking at the info on the website might give you a clearer picture of how the approach could work for your family.

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My 9th grader is doing Biology and World History with my 6th graders.  In Biology they do the same stuff  (6th graders are high achievers in science).  In history the 9th grader has more written output.  We have read a few things together,  but the 9th grader does a lot more LA, and much harder books.  I cant think of any way to combine for that or for math.  I do plan to do some iij investigative math things together this spring, but it's not their main math.

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I don't have a whole lot of experience with this because I the one time I tried to do stuff together, it was a disaster (too easy for older, too difficult for younger), but I did find that if I kept both kids (six years apart) in the same subjects for history and science, things seemed to have some cohesion to them.  I know other families who simply have the youngers tag along with the high school student and that seems to have worked for them.

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2 hours ago, regentrude said:

How do you handle that with math based sciences?

Does that mean your younger's science sequence will be different than your olders? What is your philosophy behind the science progression?

I'm fortunate that my daughter is ahead of where she needs to be in math and can handle the workload.  She takes tough honors science courses alongside her brother and is able to do well.  She hates math, but is able to do it.  She also likes science, especially labs, and is able to produce thorough, well-written lab reports.  My son encourages her in the math portions and she helps edit his lab reports.  It's definitely a symbiotic relationship. 😉

Even though they are 2 years apart in age, I've assigned them as being a grade level apart.  There really won't be much difference in their science sequence, other than that my daughter has the freedom to have one year of a more specialized science.  She might be doing an internship at a zoo her senior year and take a required dual enrollment Biochemistry class along with it.

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I agree with Regentrude. Not working family style does not equal working alone. 

I have only successfully combined a couple of  my kids a few times in lit. I am not as successful in combining as in just teaching each where they are. I meet with them for discussion or grade math while they work through their problems, etc.

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Yes, we have stuck with family style for my two that are two years apart for a lot of things. For the most part, that means sticking to similar subjects and time periods but not always using the exact same resources for each. It also means that they may participate in labs or experiments or cool art projects with the other sibling, when it really isn't anything that is in their current class list, if that makes sense. Like, we did a Biology year for our homeschool co-op last year. Technically my older had already done biology, but it doesn't mean she couldn't add to her biology learning by participating in hands on projects and field trips and watching documentaries and such with the family. Oldest does not have room in her schedule for a full on art class this year. But there have been a couple of projects that dd15 was doing that were just fun, and dd17 did some with her just for enjoyment. DD15 is also watching a series of movies for one of her classes. We often do that on the weekend and in free time so that the whole family watches.  From at least one of those recent movies that dd15 was watching because she is studying fashion, dd17 then chose her next literature selection because she wanted to read the book. 

Currently we have such a big age gap (10 years between the older two who are two years apart and the ker,) that the little often follows along with them and jumps off when it gets to be too much. I will check out a book on Abraham Lincoln for her. I will read to all of them. Then she will color a coloring sheet as the olders and I watch a video at their level or move onto reading history at their level and discuss their current work. Then they do their own reading and writing on their own, possibly from different books from each other. Recently they all entered an art/essay contest by the local bar association at their own grade levels from k to 12. They all led the pledge of allegiance at a city council meeting and met the governor and looked at history exhibits at the city hall building, etc, for part of our government. Then the olders each have their own books they are reading, and we all do read alouds and videos together.  Youngest will get bored in there and be moving on to toys or painting her nails or something, but she is around. And I do one on one projects with her often while they are doing their quiet on their own work like math or their reading and writing for subjects after discussion times.  The little one does a coloring sheet on most topics that we are learning about and adds to her history notebook. She is very proud to have her own history notebook like the olders. I just google for sheets related to what we are doing or photocopy from one of our Dover coloring books in our collection.

For lit, we combine some, and do some separately. I will do some read alouds. We read some together especially plays, and we attend plays together. But the older can read much faster and higher level books than the younger, so they also both have ones going on their own that I discuss on their own with them that they then write about as well. 

So yes, everyone has their own official class list for high school of what is officially on their transcripts. But everything overlaps, and I try to do classes together that I can, namely history and government, art, lit, and various electives. 

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I don't even combine my twins for everything. I feel like one of the biggest benefits to high school homeschooling is carving out an individual path. 

I'm not saying you can't do it - especially for humanities and electives. But I think the efforts aren't worth the payoff.

Rather than trying to combine everything, I'd lean toward doing one family read together each semester or quarter or one big family project together - something like that.

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I do a lot of combining, but it has its drawbacks. My two oldest are doing the same lit/history/Bible. Discussions are arguably better with two kids than one, but my daughter is out of the house so often for work and other commitments that we are behind for the year. The same with the subjects my boys are together - Ds13 does three band classes at the local school and often is pressed for time when Ds15 is free. Ds15 is pretty good about getting all of his independent stuff done, but he can't make his siblings be available when he needs them to progress in combined classes. We are going to have to spend more time in the evenings and weeks to finish the stuff with Dd before she is gone for 7 weeks this spring/summer. The boys can work into June if they have to. If the kids were all doing separate things, I could do the things when it worked for each kid. That wouldn't be a magic bullet either, though, because I only have so much time in my day, too.

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