Should I/can I give "school" credit for non-academic work?

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  • August 2, 2013 at 11:16 am
    jeaninpa
    Participant

    My children have been working very hard this summer.  We bought a foreclosure last spring and they’ve helped to rebuild the garage, re-do all the electrical and plumbing, framed in new closets, plastered and drywalled, and cleaned and cleaned.  I still have a month (for sure) of full time work to do on it before it’s livable.  Would you credit any of this as “school hours” for your kids?  We typically just count 180 days of academic work for our school year.  

    August 2, 2013 at 12:04 pm
    Misty
    Participant

    I have heard of a lot of ways to do this and can’t wait from a more experienced mom how they would label this.  1st easy thought would be home economics, PE or some type of building 101 class.  But yes you can and should if they have put in enough time to count it.  If all else I would keep it for volunteer hours.

    August 2, 2013 at 5:44 pm
    blue j
    Participant

    Yes, we do use life experiences as “credit worthy” schooling.  FWIW, The high school from which I graduated had building trades courses and the various classes worked together to renovate two houses and build 2 more on land that they bought or was given them through the years. They did the work on the renovations over 2 years and the construction over 2 or three years time.  At any rate, my dh worked on one of them as an electrician and received credit for it.  They also had a trades math course that combined algebra, geometry, and trig and labeled it as I have above.  Here is how I would probably assign credits:

    All construction – Building Trades 101
    All cleaning – Home Maintenance/ Home EC
    Framing calculations/ meauring for construction – Trades Math or Building Trades Math

    If you have a child(ren) who did some more in depth learning for any one of the skilled trades (plumbing or electrical) – or will do some when you begin your school year – and had a semester’s worth of hours (about 18 or so) in the learning & application it could be labeled Electricity 101 or Plumbing 101.

    Pax,

    ~jacqleene

    August 2, 2013 at 6:36 pm
    Misty
    Participant

    Blue – thanks for those wording idea’s I appreciate that.  We just built a deck and the boys have been all hands on with dad.  And in the last 6 months worked on a large coop and some other projects I might have to add those into there records.

    August 3, 2013 at 5:38 am
    anniepeter
    Participant

    Just a note here on credits in the US…a credit is considered 120-180 hours of coursework, with most of us shooting for around 150.  Absolutely count it.  It doesn’t take long to rack up a LOT of hours on sometihng like this either! 

    August 3, 2013 at 11:54 am
    jeaninpa
    Participant

    Thanks.

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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