I can’t remember if I asked this before, so sorry if I did – Bookworm, do you do all subjects every day in the high school years, or do you alternate – can you give me an idea of what you do. In fact any ladies who are doing HS please let me know how you do it – with all that is going on in our family right now – I am looking for some ideas that may help me out with things. Also has anyone had a student graduate HS and then do college from home, if so how did it or is it going? Thanks and again I apologise if I am repeating a previous question. Linda
Linda, I’m so glad you asked this question. Our oldest is starting highschool in the fall and I’m getting a little nervous about it. Looking forward to hearing the responses – thanks for posting!
We don’t do everything every day. We do concentrate a bit more on daily work than in younger years. We do daily: all foreign languages, math, writing/language arts, science. We do things like history, logic, art, music, government, economics, etc. as weekly or alternating days. Just isn’t enough time for everything we’d like to do, lol. It is a difference–our daily work takes us about 3-4 hours most days, then they still have a couple hours of other subjects. Both of my upper grade boys are definitely aiming for college, so we are concentrating on those college-applicable subjects.
Thanks Michelle, that is helpful – my daughter with the illness loves her German, Writing, Literature so those are daily along with Math and Science. She is less into History and those things, so I could drop her down to alternating days along with the government and economics. My other daughter loves history so I could adapt her schedule to allow for that. My daughter with the health issue will find her writing impossible at the moment, so I will have to find some way of working around that – but all her reading and things will be no problem – German will be ok on the computer as she can do the speech recognition sections and avoid the writing for a while. Michelle are the daily lessons about an hour each or how do you break those up? My daughter’s do math with their father in the evening, and that takes as long as it takes, as they are not really great at it – all other subjects are done during the day. I will have to slow things down because of my daughter’s illness so I am looking for ways to do our days without adding more stress to the equation, but at the same time keep her occupied – not an easy thing to do. Anyway, I appreciate the input and anymore ideas would be most welcome. Thanks so much.
We have a senior son, and he decides when he does what. When high school started, we gave him more guidance with a schedule, but as he’s gotten older he has to decide. In fact, this year, I haven’t told him when to do anything. He does more in a day than I would assign, because he’s learned a lot about his pace and abilities. We just give him an assignment and due date. That’s all he needs. He’s a harder worker than I am!
But a few years ago, before he grew in this way, I gave him a schedule for the week; and he still chose what days to do things. We gradually increased his independence, and now he knows how to take care of it himself-I love it. It’s been great to see this develop in him.
As to your original question–I would do math every day and read and write, but the other things can be alternated I think.
The other part of your question about college–Our son has taken piano at college and online algebra. Both went great because he works so hard and is very responsible. A trend I’ve noticed with homeschooled high school kids!
We concentrate more on history, math, science, and Bible in our high school. Foreign languages, writing, and music are done several times a week. Picture study and poetry are done once week. That is what works for us. Government and grammar are also studied before graduation. We do several Shakespeare plays a year and the kids are required to read and narrate several good literature books each year. The read a lot more on their own but I require a certain number each year just to make sure they get read.
We have graduated two of our kids. Our oldest is earning a four year business degree with accelerated distance learning. We are using College Plus to help guide us through the process. He has been able to work at his own pace with studying for the different CLEP and DANTES tests. He studies for one or two tests at a time and has completed three years of college in less than two years. He studies for about three weeks or so for each test. The last year of credits is earned through a distance learning college, Thomas Edison State College for us. Some of the credits are earned through Thomas Edison’s own tests, similar to CLEP. Some of the credit is earned through actual classes that are done over the Internet. Not sure how that works yet as we are just approaching that part.
I hope that gives you some idea of what college from home can be like.
Thanks Angela and Karen, great information – I think it might be a good idea right now to give my daughter with the illness assignments and ask her to work them as she is able and pace herself, as there are days when she is better than others healthwise – though now we are in a rough patch. I like the ideas you put forth Angela, thanks so much. Karen, great info about college at home, I am glad I can hear from someone who is doing it – one of my daughter’s has cerebral palsy, and though it is mild, a college campus would be way too much for her, and she wants to do college at home – so your info is wonderfully helpful for the future. I am grateful for the encouragement right now so thanks – Karen I may ask more questions if you don’t mind, when and if I think of any. Thanks again. Linda