canadian high school

Hi Miranda…

In what province are you?

My kids are younger, so I haven’t done anything specific – but I know that at this time, in my province, there is no way for a homeschooler to earn an official provincial highschool diploma.  

I haven’t found out about issuing our own – whether that is something considered OK here or not.  (For instance, the HSLDA.com website for the US has information about issuing your own diploma and everything.  The HSLDA.ca site does NOT have that information – and I don’t know if doing it here is ok or not.)

Ok – so you would be registered in some school division for your homeschooling – if my understanding of Alberta Homeschooling is correct….  Do they have any information on how homeschoolers earn diplomas (if they do?)  Or a local homeschooling group?

I know you can get pretty detailed information on what the Province requires for a PS diploma (including information given just to the schools…) – so that might give you information on what might be needed.  – but of course it is possible/likely that they don’t issue diplomas to homeschoolers and therefore you can pretty much do whatever you want, as there is no difference to you… 

About all I’ve got is generallities – there is a bit of info on the Canada page of AO (generally for History…)   http://www.amblesideonline.org/Canada.shtml

I guess so far my long-range plan is to look at what is generally required in some province or another (I grew up in Alberta, so might look at their requirements – or I might look at the province in which I currently live….) for each subject, and decide how I agree with them.  I’d also be looking even more closely at what is likely to be required at the local universities, or any my kids want to go to – for either a general Arts or general Science program – or whatever they want to be….

Then I’d look at how to get there in a CM way (Where possible) for each subject…. keeping in mind that some I won’t need to do exactly what is being done….

So – for instance – Math….

I’d look at the Universities that we might be interested in, for programs we might be interested in  (and if child has no idea yet – I’d look for at least a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science….)  Ok – say it says they need Math 33…..    I’d then use what I can find for what is covered in Math 33.   Then I’d look at the math programs we are using – does it cover those topics?   [As we are currently using RightStart – which only goes up to about Jr. High…. well I’ll evaluate the various math programs after that to determine what we’ll use)

I would think that “Social” and “English” should be pretty easily covered with a standard CM program… – of course making sure you have done Canadian topics.

Anyway – that is my general plan.  My oldest is just starting “Grade 5” – and he also has dyslexia adding challenges – I just haven’t gotten too far yet – except for looking now and then at what some universities homeschool policies are…  (Including Royal Military College (My husband and I have both been in the military – and yes – RMC does have a homeschool policy!)

The other thing I’m not sure of is how much ACT and SAT tests affect homeschoolers in Canada….  unless things have changed, Canadian Universities don’t use them for their admissions for “regular” students….  

Ok – well, I can give you a bit of University Insight, and preperation for it (And technical school too, for that matter…) keeping in mind it was a LONG time ago….

I took Engineering for a couple of years at U of A.  I imagine this would depend a lot on the program you are taking….  Engineering of course had a pretty full load.  For Engineering, there really wasn’t choices in what you were taking for first year – there were specific courses required….

We had to take a “Technical Writing” course.  This is where I discovered that most Engineers don’t understand grammar or the technical rules of writing.  (It was a “mouse” course for me…. 

The particular Class I was in for Chemistry (we all had the same course, but the time & Professor varied…) – I had done a bunch in High School – but not all of it.  Our Professor had written his own textbook (just came out our year – a few areas had something along the lines of “section to be added”… and he handed those out in class.)   If your professor uses a textbook he wrote himself, and the other professors of that course use a different textbook – buy both!  If your professor can’t explain it well enough in class – reading basically the same explanation in the textbook likely won’t help!

Get used to English spoken with different Accents before going to university.  It is almost guaranteed that you will get at least one professor, or Teaching Assistant, or Lab Assistant who you would swear doesn’t speak English… LOL

Let’s see – most students are there (at least back then) because it is the next thing to do – and often paid for by parents or student loans.  There is motivation to do well if the student is paying for at least part of it themselves.

Technical School  (I went to Westerra, which was Taken over by NAIT the year I graduated…… I find it amusing that I am a NAIT Alumnus, having never gone there….)…   There seemed to be more students there that wanted to be there (average age in any year was a little bit older)….   And yes, there was a writing class again…

Hm…  Not sure if any of that is helpful or not….   

other tidbits of random information that may or may not be important…..

I got into 1 class by showing up the first day, and when the roll-call was taken, saying I was missed.  (I was already taking extra classes, and there was a limit to the number allowed so it wouldn’t overburden you….)

If, in a class like Electronics or Math, the teacher, while writing equations, sometimes writes a letter in print, and sometimes in cursive – ask about it!  Yes – turns out there was a difference.  I think 1/2 the class ended up throwing out a months worth of notes (including me… )

If they scale the results of a test, and it should give you a score more than 100%, but they only want to give you 100% – fight for the extra points (but probably not in front of the other students….) – it can make a difference to the final grades, etc – and can make a difference in competative scholarships etc…

Depression and School isn’t a great mix – if depressed, get help…

A cheap way to eat lunches is to pay for a locker (useful to have anyway), and have a small electric frying pan in there.  If you can get a locker close to a plug-in – even better (also by a bathroom for water and cleanup – woohoo!).  You can heat up lots of things, (canned soups, stews, etc) make grilled cheese sandwiches, pancakes, or all sorts of quick meals.  I suppose one could get in trouble – but I never did…

So – how is that for random, mostly off topic hints?

I don’t have much time right now, but the WISDOM website has some useful information:

http://www.wisdomhomeschooling.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:high-school-information&catid=77:high-school&Itemid=44

Oops, the link would be helpful 😉

http://anniekateshomeschoolreviews.com/2013/06/homeschool-mommy-marks-and-universities/