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Is SCM college-prep?
- This topic has 13 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 4 months ago by
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I mean that in all sincerity, because I really want it to be. I don’t want highschool to be full of busywork (looking at various programs for next year). But I worry that if I don’t use a pre-packaged program, with detailed assignments, that I’ll miss some important skill.
SCM is definitely college prep. The high school guide clearly outlines a college prep education with Jay Wile’s high school science and upper level math included.
If your child is seeking to attend an elite university, you will want to beef it up with additional literature and history books as well as good elective classes. All students planning on taking the SAT or ACT should begin some sort of prep program a while before taking either of these tests.
I know that you’re right, Melanie. I don’t even know what it is I worry about. My husband always makes me realize how funny it is when I explain that I have math, science and English settled. He asks, “So you’re just talking about history, basically? Why are you worked up over 1 subject?” I guess it’s because so many homeschool programs rotate around that one subject.
I’ll be transparent. I’m always looking at Heart of Dakota highschool programs. When I look through the detailed, daily lessons plans, it brings relief that all the bases are covered. The history assignments have outlining, summarizing, full narrations, annotating, note taking, essay writing, Socratic discussion, source document analyzing…..you name it…..all planned out so that I don’t have to think of it. But then I start to feel overwhelmed with all the details. (I’ve determined that I have undiagnosed adult ADD)
I look at SCM, with a solid spine in the curriculum guide and lots of “white space”, and breathe a sigh of relief. But if the beefing up is left up to me, I get overwhelmed with the choices. So I swing back to something all planned out, knowing that when we finish a day’s assignment, we’re done. I don’t have plan anything else.
But when it comes down to it, I plan to use MUS for upper math, and I know I’ll use a standard science in some way, so what I’m really just looking at is English and history. I worry about the simplicity of reading and narrating for history and literature. Even though I know there are suggestions of upping the narrations, that leaves it up to me and my flakiness to carry out.
Long story short, I have 5 kids. I don’t feel good about spending all my time planning, plus, I rarely have confidence in my own plans. But something planned out to the last details bogs me down.
Thank you to anyone who took the time to read all this. 🙂
Reading your post made me feel like you were writing about me! I feel the same way. I desperately want to prepare my kids well, but dont want to frustrate them with needless busywork or instense study they will hate and never have needed. So I am following for the same help. Sorry I have nothing productive to add. I will offer some encouragement for what it is worth. It helps me to remember that God will redeem whatever mistakes we make with our kids. He will accomplish His purpose for them, in spite of what we do, not because of what we do.
I hear you;) For me, part of it is that if my children don’t complain about the history assignments I feel like they are getting off too easily.
I hated history in school. The dull textbooks and memorizing all those names and dates. Add to that writing research papers on a history topic? Ugh!
I will say that I retained very little. Today I love history after teaching it the CM way.
My teens remember and relate to history. They did a different curriculum last year and wrote reports a lot for history. They were late often and I tired of pulling them along.
If my teens graduate enjoying history and retaining it, and most of their English skills come from my English classes instead of history, that’s ok. We have a lot of good discussions about history topics, and they do the quarterly essay tests.
Find what works for you. Another option would be to use HOD history, but skip the busy work parts.
My oldest is about to graduate and we have used SCM/CM for about 10 years. We followed a “general” course of study for high school, meaning we did not do 4 years of math/4 years of science. For whatever reason, he plans to take the SAT this coming year (Jan.) and is preparing for it. I have no idea how he will do but I’m not quite worried about that as I’m more thankful that he has the desire to do it and has made all the arrangements himself. He has decided to take a Junior College course for computer “something”, not quite sure exactly what it is, but he knows! He took an assessment at the school and will need to add a math course to his classes, which I’m not surprised about. He is good at math but taking off almost a year has caused him to need a brush up, which is totally fine.
This is all working toward his goal so he chose a school that had the program he was looking for. Is it a university? No. But, as he was looking around, he found this program to meet his needs in less time, with less money. If he wanted, maybe he could choose to further his education later.
I’m so proud of him for taking the initiative to further his education towards what can help him make a living doing something he enjoys.
Oh, my point. The school (not a university, I know), did not ask him about Ancient Egypt or any other historical figure or event. They are looking for students who are committed, wanting to learn and are willing to work hard. They are looking for students who are well mannered, respectful and will take their education seriously. Of course he has to pay for it but he will be given the tools he needs to further his goals and have an experience to shape him as a person.
I wanted to add that I still believe all of the great literature, history, picture, composer, Shakespeare, basically all CM’s wonderful feast *is* important and he is completing his senior year with all the above, because it’s good for him. And, I believe it has all contributed to his overall character and love for learning. So I’m not dismissing any of it. But for what he wants to do to make a living, those wonderful ideas were not necessary, but they have all contributed to him as a person.
It has all been so wonderful, I wish I could do it all over again!
I’ll be transparent. I’m always looking at Heart of Dakota highschool programs. When I look through the detailed, daily lessons plans, it brings relief that all the bases are covered. The history assignments have outlining, summarizing, full narrations, annotating, note taking, essay writing, Socratic discussion, source document analyzing…..you name it…..all planned out so that I don’t have to think of it. But then I start to feel overwhelmed with all the details. (I’ve determined that I have undiagnosed adult ADD)
Those are important skills and most of them are covered in SCM’s plans for middle and high school. Several are better left until late in the high school years at which point you could switch back to HOD if you feel more comfortable or you could simply add in a language arts program that covers those things.
Too many details overwhelm me as well. I like simple plans that cover the basics when life is hectic and I can add to as needed when time allows.
Actually, the more I think about it, I think you might be happy going with SCM for everything while adding in a separate program that covers language arts. It sounds like that is the only area you are concerned about. It might bring you peace to have your children do a complete language arts curriculum if you are feeling anxious about it. I think it would be fairly simple to add that in and still have a school day that is quite doable with SCM.
Blessings,
Melanie
My high school so-called “college prep” classes consisted of reading from a textbook and then answering the end-of-chapter questions and test questions, almost all of which were either fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice. There were no books used for history class other than the textbook. No living books! There was no narration, so when I got to college and the teacher just asked me to write everything I knew about a person and then share my opinion about them? Oh my. I panicked. I’d definitely say doing written narrations on the Odyssey or Plutarch are college prep!
Thank you everyone. I know you are right. I just have moments of doubt where I have a hard time blocking out the”voices”. ?
KeriJ,
I have had some of the same thoughts this year. My oldest is in 9th. I also wanted something all planned out for me (specifically English) because I, too, have 5 children, and I was worried that I couldn’t get it done if I was winging it or thinking up essay topics on the fly.
Long story short, those pre-planned English and literature programs just didn’t work for my son. We are back to reading and narrating and you know what? It’s going really well. And I don’t feel frazzled or unable to make it work. He’s got a list of books to read. Every third or fourth book I have him write about and so far it hasn’t been a big deal to think of something to write about. If I need ideas, I look at free lit. guides online. He writes narrations about 3x a week and often they turn into essays.
All that to say, I was worried about some of the same things, and it’s working out fine so far.
Along the same lines and worries, I recently followed a link on here that lead me to this article on mastery that seems to speak in some part to what I worry about so much “are they doing well enough/fast enough/college prep enough?” If I acknowledge (I think that’s my hang up … not recognizing what’s really going on – wow, sounds silly, huh?) my CM homeschooling as being all about mastery learning, then I see I am on target!
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