Advice on Oldschooling Homeschool

[tooelitistformegoeleswhere]

Let me be blunt out of the gate: we have to do oldschool for high school. Outsourcing is not an option, except for piano. I understand some people have strong opinions about the need for outside classes, but please don't intentionally derail this thread with advice we cannot use. Thank you.

 

We have already chosen most of our curricula for years 9 and 10. What we need is more advice and encouragement on how to do it.

How much teaching did you do vs. how much independent study? For independent study, did you do a daily or weekly check-in on the work? How did you approach a child who wants to learn something neither mom nor dad know? 

Any other advice you care to share is greatly appreciated.

[regentrude]

It would help if you could  clarify: What do you mean by "oldschool"?

[Wheres Toto]

The answers to your questions are going to depend on your student.  

One of my high schoolers needs to be checked in with daily, can do independent study for some subjects but not others, and tends to not ask for help when she needs it so I need to keep very on top of what she's doing.    She does independent study for topics that are of interest to her but that I don't know much about or I'm okay with leaving whether or not she completes them up to her.

My other high schooler could be checked in on once a week or even less.  He would do his work on his own, ask for help if needed, and get everything done.  He ended up going to community college when he was 16 by his own request.  

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

We have already chosen most of our curricula for years 9 and 10.
 

How much teaching did you do vs. how much independent study? For independent study, did you do a daily or weekly check-in on the work? How did you approach a child who wants to learn something neither mom nor dad know? 

What curriculum did you pick? Some are easier to self study from. 

For classes that we didn’t outsourced, my kids self study and then ask if they aren’t sure.  For self study classes, I just checked in randomly but at least once a week. For example, kid read and understood the Campbell biology textbook meant for AP biology so there really isn’t anything for me to value add. 
 

DS18 wanted to learn a lot of stuff that I don’t know or is incompetent in. I don’t have the budget to outsourced everything he wanted to learn. So things like Cello, we went for the most affordable classes. For Japanese, he did dual enrollment for free at community college. For Korean, he self study using YouTube and whatever materials he find since he puts it as lower priority to Japanese. For programming languages he self study beyond what is taught at community college classes. 
 

When you say old school, do you mean just no outsourcing or do you mean no internet, YouTube, Coursera, Udemy as well. If I don’t allow my DS18 to supplement his reading with internet stuff, I would have to spend money at used book stores, library book sales and what have you because our libraries great as they are won’t have everything he needs. Besides research papers are on the internet and some are helpful to his interests.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Arcadia
typo

[Lori D.]

By "old school", it looks like you mean no outsourcing to online or in-person classes.

Is that due to finances -- so what you're looking for are free/low-cost options, and possibly how to implement those?

Or does that mean no use of internet, or possibly not even use of a computer -- so all resources need to be print or working with a live person in the community, and possibly how to go about finding those resources?
 

2 hours ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

...  we have to do oldschool for high school... We have already chosen most of our curricula for years 9 and 10. What we need is more advice and encouragement on how to do it...

- Discuss everything.
- Do a lot of your lit., history, and science together, and discuss everything.
- For writing, we did a weekly timed essay from our choices from past SAT prompts -- I did it alongside both DSs, and then we would gently critique one another's essays, but also discuss the topics of the prompts chosen.
- Did I mention?  Discuss, discuss, discuss. 😉
 

2 hours ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

...  How much teaching did you do vs. how much independent study? For independent study, did you do a daily or weekly check-in on the work? How did you approach a child who wants to learn something neither mom nor dad know? 

This will depend on your student:
- if there learning disabilities that need facilitation
- their learning style
- their level of maturity
- their ability/interest in self-learning.

It will also depend on the on the subject, and how much/how little interest the student has in that subject.

For example: if math is a weak area for the student, that is not something to have the student work on independently. Instead, go over the daily lesson with the student, and be close by to tutor as needed while the student does the exercises.

Or, in another example: if the student loves history and is motivated, you may be able to just check in once a week.

For literature, I would do some as together read aloud and dig into it with a lot of discussion, and do some lit. as solo reading, and touch base several times a week for 10-15 minutes for the student to not just describe the plot ("what has happened"), but to let them share what deeper things they are seeing in the work, or to share beautiful passage, or to talk about what ideas or connections with something in real life that the reading caused them to see.
 

2 hours ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

... How did you approach a child who wants to learn something neither mom nor dad know? 

- Pour a ton of time into learning alongside your student when possible.
- If there is not already a textbook or pre-made program on the subject, research online and look at the syllabi for several courses (high school level or college level) on the topic, and look at the table of contents from textbooks on the subject to get a feel for the scope and topics to cover. Then find resources that will cover those topics in a way that fits your student.
- Facilitate with quality materials that fit the student's learning style to make it easier for the student to self-teach.
- If you have access to the internet, look for informational videos, podcasts, and workshops from people knowledgeable on the topic to add to textbooks, print materials, and any DVD lecture series you may have lined up.
- Look for someone in your community with knowledge on the topic to hire as a tutor, or for your student to do an internship with, or to volunteer with.

BEST of luck as you enter the high school years! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Lori D.

[tooelitistformegoeleswhere]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

It would help if you could  clarify: What do you mean by "oldschool"?

I mean homeschooling without outside classes, whether they be in-person or online. I'm sorry; I wasn't aware there was another definition. 

[regentrude]

4 minutes ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

I mean homeschooling without outside classes, whether they be in-person or online. I'm sorry; I wasn't aware there was another definition. 

Thanks, I just never heard the word. It could have referred to pencil-paper-books only, no internet or video media.

That's largely what we did. My kids had some DE to get used to college but we could have covered the content at home.
The one exception was French; since I do not speak French, we hit a dead end with CDs, workbooks, learning alongside and plateaued. Only with the help of a native speaker as a tutor and then college classes did DD achieve fluency. In my experience, foreign language is the hardest subject to homeschool without outside help if the parent is not fluent.

If you don't know the material, you have to look for resources suitable for self-teaching and possibly learn alongside.
The degree of parental involvement varies depending on the kid; however, even a smart strong student will need parental supervision and assistance in highschool to ensure they are actually learning. My DS needed daily checks, my DD didn't. Both benefited from an adult being close by when they worked on math. The complete independent study where they only work through a book but do not have a human with whom to discuss the material - be it math, history, or literature, IMO tends to produce inferior outcomes to an education that has the parent directly involved.

 

[tooelitistformegoeleswhere]

34 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

By "old school", it looks like you mean no outsourcing to online or in-person classes.

Is that due to finances -- so what you're looking for are free/low-cost options, and possibly how to implement those?

Or does that mean no use of internet, or possibly not even use of a computer -- so all resources need to be print or working with a live person in the community, and possibly how to go about finding those resources?
 

- Discuss everything.
- Do a lot of your lit., history, and science together, and discuss everything.
- For writing, we did a weekly timed essay from our choices from past SAT prompts -- I did it alongside both DSs, and then we would gently critique one another's essays, but also discuss the topics of the prompts chosen.
- Did I mention?  Discuss, discuss, discuss. 😉
 

This will depend on your student:
- if there learning disabilities that need facilitation
- their learning style
- their level of maturity
- their ability/interest in self-learning.

It will also depend on the on the subject, and how much/how little interest the student has in that subject.

For example: if math is a weak area for the student, that is not something to have the student work on independently. Instead, go over the daily lesson with the student, and be close by to tutor as needed while the student does the exercises.

Or, in another example: if the student loves history and is motivated, you may be able to just check in once a week.

For literature, I would do some as together read aloud and dig into it with a lot of discussion, and do some lit. as solo reading, and touch base several times a week for 10-15 minutes for the student to not just describe the plot ("what has happened"), but to let them share what deeper things they are seeing in the work, or to share beautiful passage, or to talk about what ideas or connections with something in real life that the reading caused them to see.
 

- Pour a ton of time into learning alongside your student when possible.
- If there is not already a textbook or pre-made program on the subject, research online and look at the syllabi for several courses (high school level or college level) on the topic, and look at the table of contents from textbooks on the subject to get a feel for the scope and topics to cover. Then find resources that will cover those topics in a way that fits your student.
- Facilitate with quality materials that fit the student's learning style to make it easier for the student to self-teach.
- If you have access to the internet, look for informational videos, podcasts, and workshops from people knowledgeable on the topic to add to textbooks, print materials, and any DVD lecture series you may have lined up.
- Look for someone in your community with knowledge on the topic to hire as a tutor, or for your student to do an internship with, or to volunteer with.

BEST of luck as you enter the high school years! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Finances aren't extremely tight, but we do have a budget we can't exceed (about $360 for the year). It's not looking to be too big of a struggle so far.

Our internet is not very reliable, and streaming is pretty much impossible anyway, so online courses are out of the question. There are no in-person options available, except for piano. We have looked. The nearest community college is around two and a half hours away, so that's out as either a source of internet or dual enrollment courses. 

Your advice is really helpful. The SAT practice suggestion, especially the idea of doing the essay along with the dc, is absolutely genius. Thank you!

[JennyD]

11 minutes ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

I mean homeschooling without outside classes, whether they be in-person or online. I'm sorry; I wasn't aware there was another definition. 

My two high schoolers (so far) have done relatively few outside classes -- mostly we homeschool at home, with me and/or occasionally DH.  They do outside classes for things that I simply don't have the background to handle: mostly foreign language and religious studies (which is in a foreign language).

2 minutes ago, regentrude said:

however, even a smart strong student will need parental supervision and assistance in highschool to ensure they are actually learning.

I very much agree with this, and would add that even the best student needs feedback and interaction to push him/herself to higher levels.  I suppose that my main advice, then, would be not to underestimate the time commitment and to use the summer to get as thoroughly prepared as you can for the upcoming school year.   I spend a huge amount of time over the summer preparing classes and getting myself up to speed so that during the school year I can concentrate on the day-to-day.   

 

[ScoutTN]

Agree that it depends on your kid. For classes that I taught or Dd self-studied (all humanities or words based subjects in English) we planned the semester together including goals, resources and booklists, and assignments. We discussed daily and checked in on time/progress weekly. Daily discussion was just whenever it worked and varied widely. Weekly assessment was scheduled. I did most of my prep in the summers. My student needed more help with executive function and time management than anything else. 
 

For high school, we did not tackle anything “oldschool” fashion that I have no knowledge of or prior experience teaching, so I was not having to learn anything from scratch. 
 

Agreeing with pp: discuss, discuss, discuss! 

Edited May 29, 2023 by ScoutTN

[ScoutTN]

Do you have a decent library? Access to ILL? 

We used some Great Courses on dvd from the library that were good to add to reading and gave my student practice taking notes from a lecture. 

[regentrude]

4 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

We used some Great Courses on dvd from the library that were good to add to reading and gave my student practice taking notes from a lecture. 

We used a lot of these for history.

However, wouldn't that technically be an outside class? I mean, Dr. Vandiver was teaching our Greek literature and history,  not I.

[ScoutTN]

2 minutes ago, regentrude said:

We used a lot of these for history.

However, wouldn't that technically be an outside class? I mean, Dr. Vandiver was teaching our Greek literature and history,  not I.

Yes, though it may meet the OP’s criteria of being free/inexpensive and not needing internet? Not sure if  GC on dvd would be excluded by principle or practical issues or not at all. 
 

We loved Dr. Vandiver! 

Edited May 29, 2023 by ScoutTN

[LostintheCosmos]

We've just finished our first mostly oldschool high school year. The only things I totally outsource are math, because a good friend and former brick-and-mortar math teacher offers in person classes locally, and Greek, which is more of an enrichment thing for us than a core academic course for now.

If you have not already done some explicit teaching of study skills, plan to do this immediately. I never got this in my own education and survived, so I initially underestimated how important it is to teach explicitly. My current favorite resource for this is Dan Willingham's new book, Outsmart Your Brain. He's a cognitive psychologist at UVA who has written a lot of accessible work on the science of learning.

The more specific, granular, and clear I made assignments, the more successful my son was in working independently. We had a meeting on Monday mornings to which he brought his planner and filled it out sitting next to me while we talked through his assignments for the week. Most days, we also met in the afternoon for some discussion or instruction from me.

I did a lot of instruction a couple of times a week in subjects I'm very comfortable with (Latin, English - next year this will include history) and almost none in areas I'm not (physics, world geography), but I expected discussion across all the subjects. When we met for Latin and English lessons, he also had to tell me about what he was working on in subjects I was not offering instruction in. I would ask for elaboration or for him to explain concepts to me, so there was that less-formal checking in on a near-daily basis.

So yeah, I would second Lori's emphasis on discussion, discussion, discussion. For my son, he could easily slip away into his room and work in solitude and probably do okay enough on written output, but I think for us to really get everything we want to out of oldschooling, lots of interaction and conversation are essential. I am fortunate that my husband really helps out with this during dinner conversations. He expects at least a daily report on each kid's school work for the day and often draws those reports out into more in depth conversations. 

I also agree that things go best when I try to learn as much about the subjects he is studying as I can. This is hard because there's only so much time, so I've had to decide how to prioritize what subjects I try to teach myself more about (geography over physics this year, for example). And we don't "combine" students, but I do try to have his studies at least somewhat overlap with what I'm doing with the younger kids to get more bang for my self-teaching buck (next year everyone is doing some sort of biology, for example).

The last thing is that the more I get his input on the planning, the more cooperative and diligent he has been carrying out the work. So things like picking (from a list I've created) what he's reading in Latin, or what aspect of biology he will focus on. Also stopping periodically throughout the school year for a big picture check in and being willing to change course if things aren't working (we totally rehauled our science plan about two months into year) helped a lot with buy-in.

Good luck! It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed our year immensely and am looking forward to the rest of high school mostly oldschooling. To me, it feels like such an awesome pay off from the investment of the early years, although admittedly a ton of work!

Edited May 30, 2023 by LostintheCosmos

[tooelitistformegoeleswhere]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

What curriculum did you pick? Some are easier to self study from. 

For classes that we didn’t outsourced, my kids self study and then ask if they aren’t sure.  For self study classes, I just checked in randomly but at least once a week. For example, kid read and understood the Campbell biology textbook meant for AP biology so there really isn’t anything for me to value add. 
 

DS18 wanted to learn a lot of stuff that I don’t know or is incompetent in. I don’t have the budget to outsourced everything he wanted to learn. So things like Cello, we went for the most affordable classes. For Japanese, he did dual enrollment for free at community college. For Korean, he self study using YouTube and whatever materials he find since he puts it as lower priority to Japanese. For programming languages he self study beyond what is taught at community college classes. 
 

When you say old school, do you mean just no outsourcing or do you mean no internet, YouTube, Coursera, Udemy as well. If I don’t allow my DS18 to supplement his reading with internet stuff, I would have to spend money at used book stores, library book sales and what have you because our libraries great as they are won’t have everything he needs. Besides research papers are on the internet and some are helpful to his interests.

By oldschool I mean no outside classes, whether they be online or in-person. They just are not options due to where we live. 

We are continuing with MP's Classical Composition series; I just order the teacher's guide and nothing else. We write the lessons in composition books, but I have them type the final drafts. We are going to keep with AO's literature because I have most of it already.

My dh is handling German, since it is his mothertongue. 

For Latin, we're following Ursa Minor Learning's sequence with books on Archive. I would have to go track down the list to know exactly what we're doing. 

For math, we follow the CM schedule here: Math Across the Forms (charlottemasonpoetry.org) We are doing Stewardship Math from Math-U-See for consumer math. For algebra, I have downloaded the Intermediate Algebra textbook from OpenStax. We've also downloaded Elements by Euclid for geometry in year 9 at my ds's request. We will most likely switch to a more modern geometry textbook in year 10. 

For science, we have the books for Sabbath Mood Homeschool, but we are going to make our own schedule. I am looking for more budget-friendly experiment options.

We're using History of the World this year, our first away from Story of the World. 

For Bible study, we'll be using the KJV, a Bible atlas, and hymns from AO.

For music appreciation and art appreciation, we normally do the AO rotation, but we sub in a German for each category. Piano lessons are outsourced. I don't quite know what we will do for art. We have used Prang for 1-8, filling in the gaps for 3, 4, and 6 since those books are not available.

Our big issue is that my ds wants to learn Spanish, but nobody speaks it here. We have the old !Buen Viaje! books and CDs from a friend whose aunt was a teacher. 

[tooelitistformegoeleswhere]

23 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

Do you have a decent library? Access to ILL? 

We used some Great Courses on dvd from the library that were good to add to reading and gave my student practice taking notes from a lecture. 

No. Our closest library is about an hour away, poorly stocked, and hostile to homeschoolers. It sucks. I will admit to being jealous of people with access to good libraries.

[tooelitistformegoeleswhere]

12 minutes ago, LostintheCosmos said:

We've just finished our first mostly oldschool high school year. The only things I totally outsource are math, because a good friend and former math teacher offers in person classes locally, and Greek, which is more of an enrichment thing for us than a core academic course for now.

If you have not already done some explicit teaching of study skills, plan to do this immediately. I never got this in my own education and survived, so I initially underestimated how important it is to teach explicitly. My current favorite resource for this is Dan Willingham's new book, Outsmart Your Brain. He's a cognitive psychologist at UVA who has written a lot of accessible work on the science of learning.

The more specific, granular, and clear I made assignments, the more successful my son was in working independently. We had a meeting on Monday mornings to which he brought his planner and filled it out sitting next to me while we talked through his assignments for the week. Most days, we also met in the afternoon for some discussion or instruction from me.

I did a lot of instruction a couple of times a week in subjects I'm very comfortable with (Latin, English - next year this will include history) and almost none in areas I'm not (physics, world geography), but I expected discussion across all the subjects. When we met for Latin and English lessons, he also had to tell me about what he was working on in subjects I was not offering instruction in. I would ask for elaboration or for him to explain concepts to me, so there was that less-formal checking in on a near-daily basis.

So yeah, I would second Lori's emphasis on discussion, discussion, discussion. For my son, he could easily slip away into his room and work in solitude and probably do okay enough on written output, but I think for us to really get everything we want to out of oldschooling, lots of interaction and conversation are essential. I am fortunate that my husband really helps out with this during dinner conversations. He expects at least a daily report on every kids' school work for the day and often draws those reports out into more in depth conversations. 

I also agree that things go best when I try to learn as much about the subjects he is studying as I can. This is hard because there's only so much time, so I've had to decide how to prioritize what subjects I try to teach myself more about (geography over physics this year, for example). And we don't "combine" students, but I do try to have his studies at least somewhat overlap with what I'm doing with the younger kids to get more bang for my self-teaching buck (next year everyone is doing some sort of biology, for example).

The last thing is that the more I get his input on the planning, the more cooperative and diligent he has been carrying out the work. So things like picking (from a list I've created) what he's reading in Latin, or what aspect of biology he will focus on. Also stopping periodically throughout the school year for a big picture check in and being willing to change course if things aren't working (we totally rehauled our science plan about two months into year) helped a lot with buy-in.

Good luck! It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed our year immensely and am looking forward to the rest of high school mostly oldschooling. To me, it feels like such an awesome pay off from the investment of the early years, although admittedly a ton of work!

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for. And thank you for the book recommendation. I'm definitely getting it. 

[JennyD]

18 minutes ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

No. Our closest library is about an hour away, poorly stocked, and hostile to homeschoolers. It sucks. I will admit to being jealous of people with access to good libraries.

In that case an out-of-state library card is almost certainly going to be worth every penny and then some.  Note that some have student rates.  

 

[cintinative]

2 hours ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

 

Our big issue is that my ds wants to learn Spanish, but nobody speaks it here. We have the old !Buen Viaje! books and CDs from a friend whose aunt was a teacher. 

 

Can you clarify if your internet access is also poor, or if it is just a cost issue with paying for online classes?

If it is not an internet speed issue, does your library offer access to online streaming or learning databases? Ours allows free access to LinkedIn Learning and Transparent Language.

If it is a cost issue, but not an internet issue, I have seen the ULAT mentioned on here many times, especially for Spanish. It is online, but it is self-grading and asynchronous. It looks like it is $60 per year for a family.  Is that doable?

For math, we have used textbooks with videos on youtube. Is that a possibility?

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by cintinative

[cintinative]

Just to encourage you, there are people on these threads that have not outsourced any of their children's high school work. 

The only thing I have outsourced is composition, literature and physics.  

What I can tell you is that doing all the other subjects myself (including Latin, Spanish and high level math) has required a LOT of time for preparation and planning and reading ahead and studying and learning ahead.  So I can rather confidently say it is a full time job plus.   I am sure there are exceptions but I really think that is the tradeoff for not doing the outsourcing. You save money but you have to make up for it in labor hours.   I have done what I had to do because we didn't have the money to do differently. I have no regrets. 

[tooelitistformegoeleswhere]

41 minutes ago, cintinative said:

 

Can you clarify if your internet access is also poor, or if it is just a cost issue with paying for online classes?

If it is not an internet speed issue, does your library offer access to online streaming or learning databases? Ours allows free access to LinkedIn Learning and Transparent Language.

If it is a cost issue, but not an internet issue, I have seen the ULAT mentioned on here many times, especially for Spanish. It is online, but it is self-grading and asynchronous. It looks like it is $60 per year for a family.  Is that doable?

For math, we have used textbooks with videos on youtube. Is that a possibility?

 

The primary issue is internet. It's not very reliable, and streaming isn't an option. 

Our nearest library is about an hour away, and it's hostile to homeschooling. They wouldn't help us, even if we could get there regularly to use it.

YouTube videos aren't something we can rely on, but I appreciate the suggestion. 

[Arcadia]

3 hours ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

Our internet is not very reliable, and streaming is pretty much impossible anyway, so online courses are out of the question.

 

2 hours ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

Our closest library is about an hour away, poorly stocked, and hostile to homeschoolers. It sucks

We look out for gently used books (textbooks and literature books) on Amazon and Half Price Bookstore. We bought paperback classics from Half Price Bookstore from their $1 shelves. For math and sciences that DS18 self study, we try to buy the annotated edition or the instructor edition. Even though I can help with math and sciences, it is nice to have the annotated instructors edition.

We have broadband access and community colleges nearby so I am only commenting on the stuff we did the old school way of pen and paper. Old school style is useful for us on road trips where we don’t have internet access for portions of the freeways. 

[lewelma]

6 hours ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

Let me be blunt out of the gate: we have to do oldschool for high school. Outsourcing is not an option, except for piano. I understand some people have strong opinions about the need for outside classes, but please don't intentionally derail this thread with advice we cannot use. Thank you.

Welcome to the board! We are a group of very eclectic homeschoolers. Although, many people use online classes for high school, it is definitely not a strongly held opinion for anyone here that I know of. People do what is good for their kids and that varies hugely. In addition, the WTM series of books focuses on learning not on resources. It is a method, a way of thinking about education. So it sounds to me like you fit right in here. So welcome. 

[Shoeless]

I picked up most of the books we will use for 9th and 10th at thrift stores. If you have a decent sized town with a Goodwill, you might get lucky.

If not, ebay is a good place to look for books.The bigger used book sellers usually have a "Buy 3 get one free" type deal for books, with free shipping. Most of the books are $4 or so, making it a really good deal if you aren't picky about cover condition.

We are doing a mostly textbook based year, which is different and a bit of a relief after stacks and stacks of living books for years. Used textbooks are cheap ($4-5) if you go back an edition or two. I think I have only spent about $100 for books this year. The most expensive item I still need to buy is a lab kit for Earth Science ($160) and I will still come in under your budget of $360. 

We do outsource art classes and blacksmithing. Those are as much for social connection as they are for the lessons. My teen is at a point where he NEEDS time with other people.  

ETA: we are outsourcing Spanish because I do not speak it and DS is a reluctant learner. We are going to try ULAT.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Shoeless

[lewelma]

6 hours ago, pocketfullofpennies said:

How much teaching did you do vs. how much independent study? For independent study, did you do a daily or weekly check-in on the work? How did you approach a child who wants to learn something neither mom nor dad know? 

I think this really varies by the kid, my older was independent for everything except writing. My younger was not independent AT ALL.

For my older, I worked with him for 1 hour per day on his writing, and while we were sitting together, I would check in on what he was working on that day and how it was going. This was not a top-down assignments approach, rather it was a student-led 'what are your goals' approach. So basically a daily check in through highschool, and during his external exams (NZ has national exams), I was more involved with helping him set study goals. 

In contrast, my younger boy needed constant supervision and help. He has/had dysgraphia which impacted every aspect of his learning and there was no way he would achieve what he wanted to achieve in his education without my intensive help. Luckily, I was able to give it. In addition to content help (direct teaching), he needed me to micromanage his time most days. Even in highschool, he needed to be kept on task. Kind of an every hour sort of thing. By the time he hit university, he could manage a day of goals. But still called asking me to help him schedule out the day. By 19, he could schedule a week at a time on his own. Basically, because he had to deal with the dysgraphia, the independence piece was slower in developing than is typical. 

My point is that independent learning might be the end goal, but that does not mean that all kids blink it into existence at the age of 14. This is something that is still being taught for many kids, so I would suggest that you stay involved making sure things are getting done. Slowly, give more agency to your child. But there are many stories told here of parents who assumed their kid way more independent and responsible than they were, and then 5 months into the year, they realize that not much has been done.  Most people need a watchful eye, some motivation, some encouragement, whether child or adult. 'Independence' is not isolation. Each of us has to find the balance that is right for our kid, and this balance is a constantly moving goal post. 

[Shoeless]

Mine has made the jump to independent learning and now prefers it over instruction from me. I checked in daily with him "What are you working on? Do you have questions? Need any help?" The answer is mostly no, but sometimes he has a question. I check his work weekly. I aim for daily, but sometimes the day gets away from me. I think it is important to stay on top of math work because mistakes can compound into huge errors in thinking if not caught early enough.  

I do sometimes have to nudge him along, because I find him dawdling and playing with the cat instead of working. 

I haven't looked at geometry or Earth Science since high school, so kiddo and I will be doing it together. 

[Shoeless]

The Brooklyn Public Library is offering a free e-library card for young people 13-21 via the Books Unbanned program.  Might be worth looking into.

I'm guessing you live in a rural area where you head into bigger towns infrequently? 

Are you mostly needing resource suggestions to accomplish a books-only education, or reassurance that it can be done? 

https://www.bklynlibrary.org/books-unbanned

[Zoo Keeper]

OP,

This thread may have some advice/encouragement for you.

and here's a thread that may have some teaching science at home ideas for you.

 

[Zoo Keeper]

Math texts like Lial's Beginning Algebra (Algebra 1) and Intermediate Algebra (Algebra 2) are particularly good for self directed study. Or for refreshing *your* memory so you can teach the course or help when your student is stuck. There are many threads where Jann in TX (board member here who is a math teacher and teaches using these texts) gives advice and ISBN numbers. 🙂

MUS does still sell DVD's to go with their books.  Essentials in Writing also still sells DVD's for their courses. We used this DVD when going through Conceptual Physics this year.  This year's biology student used our old DIVE biology disc for most of her labs. Biology lab DVD's for other programs/publishers are easy to find on ebay/amazon, etc.  The content is still usable, even if the delivery method is dated. 😉 Not everything has to be steaming/online.  I prefer not to be online dependent for anything in our schooling, since our ISP can be spotty and go glacially slow when more than one person is online. 

 

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

It might be worth seeking a big Friends of the Library sale or strong used bookstore to look for things like Great Courses or Modern Scholars lecture sets, books, and instructor guides.

For example, I was able to find an instructor manual for a Norton anthology of literature, instructor and student texts for Perrine's Structure Sound and Sense, and many Great Courses sets. Used book sites like abebooks.com is another good resource. 

Independent learning will depend on the subject and the student. I found that mine would happily do independent study of subjects they liked and cared about. But topics like math were easy to get behind in. 

My most successful math student was the kid with whom I did every math assignment side by side from pre-algebra through algebra 2 and geometry. We had two text books and worked through each problem separately, then checked our answers, compared approaches, and moved to the next problem. We set a timer and did one hour of math a day Mon-Fri in this way. I did outsource once we hit pre-calculus, but would have continued in this manner if we'd had to do it at home. 

For topics you don't know well, you might look for relevant podcasts. For example, one of my kids learned a lot of literary analysis listening to The Tolkien Professor podcasts. The host has been doing the podcast for about 15 years now, and the earlier episodes might be more useful. I'm thinking this is something you could download when you have access to solid internet and then play as desired. 

We did a lot of science at home, including basic labs. We did them together and did lab reports. Since a lot of labs in curriculum are more demonstrating a concept, I tried to leave time for what if type explorations. For example, we did a pretty standard osmosis lab with an egg, soaked first in vinegar then in corn syrup. Then we put it in diet cola to see what would happen. 

[Momto6inIN]

My kids have done very few outsourced classes.

For math I watch a video  with them and learn alongside them. I've done algebra 1 and 2 five times now and I'm getting pretty good at it if I do say so myself 😉 So maybe that's outsourcing and maybe it's not - but it works. For other subjects we've watched Great Courses lectures and discussed and read inexpensive textbooks and discussed. Again - maybe that's outsourcing and maybe it's not - it's certainly not information coming directly from my brain and being spoken to them in a lecture. But it's not an online class from someone else either.

My kids have learned about all kinds of stuff I know nothing about. I may not know anything about journalism or architecture or creative writing or computer programming or comparative government or horticulture, but I know how to google and find a good reliable textbook for a spine.

Most of my kids were ready for a weekly checklist by the end of freshman year. I still check in and discuss daily, but I give them their assignments in bulk and they stay on top of it.

[Renai]

On 5/29/2023 at 11:42 AM, pocketfullofpennies said:

No. Our closest library is about an hour away, poorly stocked, and hostile to homeschoolers. It sucks. I will admit to being jealous of people with access to good libraries.

There is www.openlibrary.org as well. It is free to register and checkout ebooks.