2011-2012 Curriculum Choices

 I just updated our curriculum choices page. 

As I see it, homeschooling will be pretty laid back and also pretty hands off next year.

My daughter will be a Jr.  She will squeezing Geometry in over the Summer and into the fall, in time to take the PSAT, which she will also put some speficic effort into studying for it over the summer. She may take the College Math CLEP at the end of the school year, as it seems easy to pass after taking the SAT.

For language arts, I will count the work she does towards her PSAT & SAT studies and she will also take a fiction writing course at her homeschool program.

For science, she will take the online MIT course Kitchen Chemistry.

We are skipping history this year opting to study government during her Sr. year, an election year.

She will continue to work on Spanish (2a) and Mandarin (1b).

Then there's a slew of arts electives such as voice, drama, instruments, art...

*If she starts at a decent hour she will be done with her work by lunch and can work on her electives and independent stuff... not holding my breath.  I am considering not regulating her sleep patterns next year to see what happens.


My son will be a SR.  ACK!!

He has few requirements and has opted to take them as a dual enrollment student at the local college.  We are working on his applications now, but it looks good.  The dual enrolled classes will probably be:

• Intro to Physics (Fall)
• Personal Finance (Fall)
• Spanish 101 (Spring)

In addition to that, he is taking a Journalism class at the homeschool program, and a few arts related electives.

*My job with my son is to ask questions and perhaps guide organization.  Oh, and to make sure he gets his drivers license. 







FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE MY BUSINESS WEBSITE WalletPop Contributor Brighthub Contributor

We need a one-room schoolhouse mentality

 In speaking to a homeschooling mom whose 18 year old homeschooler could really use one more year to be ready for college, but because of his age and the fact that he has done 4+ years at highschool level, he is determined to graduate and head to college, it dawned on my that we need a one-room school house mentality.

If you ever read Little House on the Prairie, you might remember that grade levels were not so cut and dry.  The child finished school when they had completed the required work.  It was not unusual to graduate young.  It was not unusual to graduate at an older age.

You'd think that as homeschoolers, we'd have a little more flexibility where grade levels were concerned, but ...not so much if the goal is college.  It is not possible to put a six year span on a transcript and call it high school.  The goal college would call that a less-than-rigorous program and put them out of the running for competitive colleges.

To counter this problem, we can do this for younger grades up to grade 8.  We can set a bar of where we want the child to be before they start high school level.  For instance, they may need to be through Algebra in math, and their reading and writing would have to be at a certain level, as well as geography and basic science knowledge.  Once they have reached those guidelines, the child is ready for a high school curriculum, which you can do in the traditional 4 years.  If they are above average advanced, they can dual enroll in their senior year or use CLEP exams to accelerate their education.


FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor
Brighthub Contributor

Always Adjusting

I woke up this morning feeling overwhelmed.

Yesterday I mapped out the last 3 months of the school year on a calendar and realized that for my daughter who is in a play, has a year end performance coming up, and an arts competition, we are close to overbooked for the month of March.  The more this fact sank in, the more frantic I became.

Today at a play rehearsal it hit my.  We are homeschoolers.  I can back off during the month of March and everything would come out fine.

When I say back off, I mean take time off from the classes she does at home.  As of next week when she takes the History 1 CLEP exam, all that will be left for the year is math, science, and a little Spanish.

Well, I already planned for math to go through the whole summer.  Spanish is no bother for her she enjoys it,  but why not back off of math and science until he schedule lightens up.

Yes... that's what we'll do.  What a wonderful idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com

Check out FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE for free homeschool links and resources

Online options for high school students

I don't know if my son will get accepted for dual enrollment for fall due to his late ACT Date and the later score release date.  For that reason, I have been exploring my other options for his senior year.  I have found two great possibilities.  

The first is Georgia Virtual School: http://www.gavirtualschool.org/

Not to be confused with Georgia Virtual Academy, Georgia Virtual School provides a teacher led, virtual classroom environment.  Apparently homeschooled students have now been approved by the state to take 6-half credits each semester for free.  I don't know how I feel about it because it is public school at home, and I preferred a college course, but it will help my son get his last high school requirements out of the way in one semester.  

The second is BYU independent study.  Kids can take college and high school level credits and the cost is cheaper than most virtual schools.  It is "a distance education program that offers almost 600 university, high school, junior high school and personal enrichment courses to people throughout the world. BYU is accredited as an institution by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). The BYU Independent Study High School Program is accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC) and by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC)."  I am really intrigued by this one. Since I found out about it, I am a lot less stressed about my son's senior year.  If he gets dual enrollment, great.  If not, he can do a combination of CLEP exams and online study.  

Is any of this even necessary?, you might ask.  Well the point of doing some dual enrollment in his Sr. year is to give him a taste of what college might be like.  He has taken course with teachers all along, but the last 2 years have been primarily for arts related courses.  I want him ready for an intensive college level class.

FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor
Brighthub Contributor

Just call me a homeschool rebel.

 I've been homeschooling and blogging for nearly a decade now, and I am finally coming to terms with a realization that has been in front of my face all along.  I'd say the light truly came on when I read this blog over at Homeschool and Etc. She admitted that most homeschooling curriculum is kind of annoying.  I SOOOO AGREE!

I'm so sorry to tell this to any homeschoolers who just eat up the Bob Jones and Abeka homeschool materials.  I just find it grating.  The thing is, when I sit down to teach my kids, I want to teach them the material.  I don't

Getting Carried Away with AP?

 I have lots of public school kids in my family to compare with my own and for a while there I was pretty nervous about the sheer number of AP Classes these kids were taking, that mine weren't.  It seemed to me that my kids might be behind the ball and unable to compete for a place in a good college.

I can see now that the stress was unfounded because as homeschoolers there are ways to stand out

English - Done!

I took my girl this morning to take the Analyzing and Interpreting Lit CLEP.  She passed the test my a good margin, and so I am pleased with her progress in Language arts for Grade 12.  She has also earned college credit for one class.  (Had she gone to another college, it would have been worth 6 credits.

If find it interesting that she passed this test without any extra studying, and based on the wealth of her accrued knowledge alone.  It just reinforces to me that Language Arts / Literatures is definately her natural inclination, and also that a ton of reading will have big rewards later.

As for the remaining 7 weeks of school, she has to complete 2 papers, finish 5 chapters of health, and 2 chapters of physical science.

Then there's the senior project and performance.

I can't believe the finish line is so close.


FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
ahermitt.com

Sharing Classnotes on Facebook

There is a new website designed to help college students share notes with other students. It allows them to flesh out classnotes, and to get a different perspective. The way this works is that a student in a... at lets say University of Wisconsin POLI SCI 104 course is working on a Political Science Paper and feels they are missing something. They can go through this facebook application to to access notes of a student in another college in another state, or even in the same class to see if their notes reveal something different. In short Coursehero allows students to share information and coursework over a facbook application.

Now if you are thinking that this is an excellent way to cheat and plagarize, you should know that you can and very likely will get caught. This site was designed for ethical sharing of personal class notes and nothing more.

What does this have to do with homeschooling you might ask? Well, if you autodidact homeschooled child is interested in learning,more about political science, or ants to take a CLEP exam for English Literature, they could access notes from students across the country and get a good feel of what is taught in the class. This could turn out to be an excellent resource for homeschoolers, even if college students push the envelope of ethics while using it.




Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com

Carnival homeschooling #414, Vlog hop edition.

I am happy to be posting this week's carnival of homeschooling, but since this past week was thanksgiving weekend, alot of our regulars were off giving thanks and didn't submit posts.  But never fear, there's still plenty to share.  We've found a couple of new bloggers to add to our carnival, and I want to introduce you to some of my favorite homeschool vloggers, and encourage you to give that a try too.  

I will start with a post of my own from last summer, as you can see, I posted the vlog on Youtube, and then embedded it into my homeschool blog.  Eeasy-Peasy.  You will find Homeschool Vlog Hop at Notes from a Homeschooled Mom, presented by me, Andrea. 

As you can see from my post/vlog, I am pretty much done with hands-on homeschooling of my own children.  The next post is from another homeschooling family who have a lot of homeschooling years under their belt with some children graduated, and some in progress.   Read about how Janine reflects on homeschooling and family time with Homeschooling and family time at Why Homeschool. 
Another vlog hop edition gives a tour of the home.  In this video, you may see a bit of your own chaos organization skills.  See the video below for more information.  








There are sooooo many curriculum choices as we discovered in our next vlog hop edition.  Parents had to post multiple vidoes to cover all that they had accumulated.  Here is a video that will give you an idea of what one family had to share. 


Now I would like to introduce you to Sharla at the Chaos and Clutter Blog.  Her wonderful entry shows us What a "typical" homeschool family looks like.  





Also, Laurie presents Ron Paul Curriculum Tip of the Week - SAT or CLEP?  at Trivium Pursuit.
If you've started poking around through the homeschool vlogs on youtube, you may have noticed that some vlogs are planned, with the suggestion of a title and everyone jumping in.  Others come from the heart and are more spontaneous.  In this case, encouragement for homeschool moms may inspire you, or inspire you to encourage someone else. 


Speaking of curriculum, Mystie presents the ever seasonal Advent Term Plans at Simply Convivial. 






The following post presented by Chris entitled Blessings and Miracles  at Home School vs Public School is also quite inspirational. 

If videos are not your thing, perhaps you can try adding pictures.  The blog post presented by Melissa entitled Day in the Life of Us, in which she details an entire day activity by activity, with lots of vibrant pictures, is very enlightening.  You can find more of this blog at The Corkums. 

Another subject also shared among homeschool vloggers is Why do I homeschool.  The reasons run the gamut. It could be anything from problems in schools, to wanting a unique or spiritual upbringing fro the children.  The following video is one such example.  





Last but not least, I had to ask this blogger for permission to add her post to the carnival, because it summarizes everything I feel about early education.  So please read Liz's post Play to be Happy at Lizness.com.  


I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Carnival of homeschooling.  I hope I gave you some ideas about different ways to share your homeschool experience, whether it be through vlogs, traditional blogs, or photo blogs.  To Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of homeschooling use our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Free Sample Transcript

 I have viewed alot of homeschool transcripts, and a couple of public school transcripts too.  I don't pretend to be an expert on transcripts, but I am a quick study.  I came up with my own one page form that I plan to use.

Update:  This transcript was used to get my son accepted in multiple colleges with scholarship offers.

It is easy to scan, makes room for all the electives homeschoolers participate in.  It also takes into account the possibility of weighted grades due to AP classes and CLEP exams.

I have already customized one for each of my kids even filling in classes that I plan for them to take in the future... it really helped this visual person to see it laid out like that. 

Click here to view the transcript sample with notes:  
Feel free to use it as your own sample.

I've discontinued selling the template for this.  I feel it needs updating.  Thanks for your patronage. 

So Here's where we are at in the whole homeschool college search

College #1 application is almost complete.  He loves this college so much that we went to an open house day and they told us to apply  last September, so his application has been in process for a year now.  All he needs to do is submit his art portfolio to increase his scholarship chances. This college has rolling admissions, so an acceptance letter will not mean he HAS to go to THIS school if he is accepted.  Our feedback so far is that his homeschool portfolio is awesome.

College #2 application is ready to go out... just waiting for the early application deadline to pass so he is not considered early enrollment as they are not his first choice, just a comparison point. While is best friend is at the school, he says that will not sway him... it will probably come down to dollars and cents.

There are a couple of other colleges that are pretty much ruled out, but he may apply to one or two of them for grins and giggles... especially the one that already sent a scholarship letter... followed by a letter inviting him to apply, no charge.  It's a nice offer, but they offer NO art.... and very little graphic design.  It is more of a bible college than anything else.  That's great, but you'd think they would have a program for people who wanted to work in Christian media.. Christian TV, Christian websites for kids.... that sort of thing.  We are going to ask about the options for filling electives at other colleges before ruling them out completely. The recruiter is kind of cracking me up.  His last letter was all like.... "Yeah, we know we don't offer what you're interested in, but we're Christian and you'll get to use your camera."  That's not very convincing. 

As a homeschooling mom, of course I have some worries and insecurities.  Have I educated him enough to be ready for college?  Our experience with online public schools tells me that is ready to work on someone else's timetable.  That is good.  Plus he also took and passed a language arts CLEP exam worth 6 credits.  So that's good.  However, his ACT score was median.  Period.  He didn't rock the test.  He didn't blow it out of the water.  He did well enough to meet the median ACT score for his first choice college.  His scores are very considered pretty good for the second choice and most of the other colleges too.  Still, as a homeschooler, you kind of want to SHOW THEM... the doubters, you know.

A final statement and point of pride...  That boy writes a mean essay.  I had him ready a book about college entry essays, then write his own.  It was so good I wanted to cry.  sniff... very proud. 

Hoping to get results soon.  I don't want to be dealing with this all year.




FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor
Brighthub Contributor

It's a new school year!

We are home from California and ready to start the new school year.

The kids are going to Artios Conservatory on Tuesdays (High school fine arts, drama, chorus, etc).

My son is studying for Clep Exams this year.

My daughter is doing online curriculum programs.

I am also pledging to travel more and do more field trips.

Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com

Great Deals on School & Homeschool Curriculum

A new semester- the final semester

I am spending this morning getting my son's laundry done  so we can take him back to college. ( I know he should do it himself, but these kids will let a wet load sit in the machine for hours).  It has been an interesting break.  He is clearly more mature (and bossy) than he was when he left home.  His opinions are strong.  His patience is also short. ... and I can't tell when he's serious or joking anymore. I look back at the period of my life when I left home and remember how necessary the distance was.  I was getting to the point when I was becoming my mother, and I was still a teenager. Every glance, every opinion, every argument I had, and someone would comment how much like my mother I was.  Now, my mother was a perfectly lovely person and I wish I had half her sense of humor, but I was not her, and in order to become uniquely me, I needed time and space- off by myself to deal with the world.  This is my son's time.  I may not like or understand all the changes, but he is still the same at his core- uber moral, and deep thinking.  My work may indeed be done.

I am also trying to get my daughter to wash her hair so I can set it in some new-fangled rollers I

5 iPad Apps for College Freshman Preparation (Guest post)

I thought this guest post was especially relevant because many of our kids are taking college level tests and CLEP exams.  We don't have to wait for college to take advantage of these "college apps".

The iPad is such an amazing, new tool for education. Many homeschooling groups are now using this tool to supplement traditional book lessons. In addition to complementing current class content, the iPad can also help incoming college freshman prepare for their first year of college.
The following five apps are perfect for helping high school seniors prepare for common first-year college courses.

College Algebra
This app has received top ratings from users who say that it helped them get through their college

New Carnival of Homeschooling

This carnival of homeschooling features dogs... and lots of blogs about homeschooling including my post on CLEP exams.

Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com

Is it even worth it to apply to a state college?

So here's my dillema. 

Son wants to go to SCAD Atlanta (Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta).  He has for a couple years now.  He is willing to look at other schools to apply to as a back-up, but he wants to go to SCAD so won't actively look for other options.  He as asked me to spearhead the search for backup colleges, and I have.  There is one other smaller, less expensive Christian college that he likes and beyond that, there is a big party college, where he can get a decent arts education, and the main campus of the state college (UGA) also has what looks like a very good art school.  The last two he would only apply to for giggles and grins, just for the sake of saying he applied to more than one or two colleges.

Here's the thing, we are not worried about him getting into SCAD.  We are only worried about paying for it. We are also not worried about getting into the second choice as they love homeschoolers.  But the State college... they want us as homeschoolers to jump through an ungodly number of hoops to get in...  A 3.7 GPA or close to it.  25-30 average ACT score.  Extra exams (SATII) or multiple AP tests.

That would add alot of extra work to my son's senior year, when his personal goal is to work on his portfolio and to get out a little more into the world.

Is it even worth it to spend the extra time studying for SATII's (when he has already passed CLEP exams).  Is to worth it to keep taking the ACT every test date to push for the highest score when he already has a Score that will get him a scholarship at another college?

Is this state college really THAT elite? or are they shooting themselves in the foot by making it difficult for homeschoolers to get in?



FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor
Brighthub Contributor

Update on Families.com blog

Over at families.com blog where I blog about homeschooling, I have been working on listing homeschool resources and groups for each state. This is going to take months. So far I have done California and Alabama

Meanwhile, I also wrote: Are You Prepared for an Unexpected Change?


Considering the CLEP exams for homeschoolers

Homeschool Questions and Answers: Reversing Letters

Proposed NJ Homeschool Legislation

Homeschool Questions and Answers: Homeschooling a Kindergartener

Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com

Top 10 homeschool resources for 2014-15

Unfortunately, one of the sites I have relied on heavily (Hippocampus) to provide my kids with free, high quality education is has lost it's contract with NROC but I have found a couple new sites for you to try.  Keep in mind that most of my picks are for high school students, as that is hardest to find, and that you need to check these out thoroughly. My kids no longer try out these sites as they are in college, so I rely on reviews, poking around, and a couple hours of trial access.

10.  MIT Open Courseware is a great way to challenge advanced students who aren't quite ready for the college classroom environment.  Most specifically, I recommend the Audio Video Lecture based courses as they are easier to follow.

9.  Spanish Hour has helped a couple of young people I know with this very important foreign language. You can start with the basic free membership, and then move to Premium membership for the extra tools later. It helps to prepare for the CLEP exam which means your kid won't have to tangle with Spanish in college.

Resting and figuring out the rest of the year

This has been a low-key week with me staying as close to my bed as possible.  Hence, the lack of blogging.



I was up to my eyeballs in work and business for the last 6 weeks with my daughters competitions, elections, and finally, the fall play, which I was costuming.  With the exception of the pile of dirty dress shirts in the trunk of my car, and answering surveys about my precinct managers, all of that work is behind me.  I am spending the week napping.

On the homeschool front, my daughter is currently finishing up her unit on Government, and then we will start her second trimester for the year.  As of Friday, she will have completed Spanish, Government, and Business & Personal Math, and part 1 of Physical Science.  This next Trimester will be the remainder of Physical Science, Economics, and Analyzing Literature (in the form of a CLEP exam).  After that, sometime in late winter, she will only have to do a health unit, and work on finishing her Senior project.  Another round of competitions and her final high school musical will also dominate her final trimester in the spring, which is why I have left only one little course to finish.

This week's carnival of homeschooling

A new Carnival of Homeschooling has been completed. Beverly from About.com has a bit of fun with it trying to help a lost hat find its way back home.

My entry was Colleges with best return on investment that accept CLEP

Some of my favorite entries are:

Whatever You Do, Don’t Ask Me About…

Unbelievable (No Child Left Ahead)

and

The apologia biology giveaway

Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom

Visit Me at the Families.com Homeschool Blog

Visit My Education Column at Examiner.com