I’m a visual learner. Show me an example, and I can usually imitate it (unless technology stands in my way.) Are you a visual thinker? What would you like to see?
“I’m a visual thinker and I guess I need to SEE a piece of paper as to how the course descriptions are laid out and formatted. Do you have a format?” ~ Maria
Here are some links for visual learners who want to see a course description:
While supplying universities with the information they require, going further than a transcript will be able to better your likelihood of scholarships. A transcript may be the building block of admission, however colleges require more than that if you expect them to offer you scholarship money. They ordinarily want to see further comprehensive homeschool records.
Examples of student work can be the icing on the cake, the mouth watering dessert of comprehensive homeschool records.
In our homeschool records, I offered three writing samples. I made an effort to pick a wide range of writing styles; research, fiction, and poetry. I tried to use writing samples that I knew were very good. We had submitted a few writings to essay competitions to win scholarship money. When my children earned scholarship money, I assumed the essay must have been good, for that reason I tried to incorporate that piece of work.
What’s more, I saved a sample of work for each class on the transcript. I didn’t send those to colleges (I suspected it’s possible that they didn’t actually prefer documentation of four years of PE, you know? That could get lengthy! ) In its place, I produced a note on each course description about how “written work is available upon request. ” I actually did keep something from each class. In the event that they asked me for something, I ended up being able to offer it to them.
I ended up being asked for various additional work samples. I was asked for a “graded” English paper (presumably along with a few red marks on it) and math work in the student’s handwriting. A different college needed to see a lab report from science. My suggestion is to be well prepared. It’s not possible to estimate specifically what information they could ask for. Instead of being concerned about it, simply make an effort to maintain a couple of representative samples from each course. Then you’ll be all set
for anything!
Learn how to translate all those great homeschool high school classes into the words and numbers that colleges will understand. Get the Total Transcript Solution http://www.thehomescholar.com/easy-truth.php1
Now is a great time of year to start planning events for the winter and spring. If you are considering a “Pemberly Ball” for your own homeschool literary studies, you might be interested in how to find the costumes! Here is the email from my son’s Pemberly Society Vice-President, describing the process.
Have fun!
Hello everyone,
Although costumes for the Pemberley ball are not required, I’m sure some of you would like to come in one anyway and are wondering how to put one together on a student’s budget. As someone who has bought, constructed, and altered several Regency costumes before (five ladies’ gowns, and two gentlemen’s including our illustrious president, to be precise), I’d like to give you some tips for putting together a fabulous look without using up your life savings.
For the ladies, really all you need is the gown. That’s all anyone will see. A basic starting point for that can be found courtesy of the Jane Austen Centre here. If you want to buy your own, my best suggestion to you is to look on E-bay. One particularly reasonable vendor is Wendy’s Doll closet: most dresses run between $40-80. They ship very quickly, usually within a week, and are of excellent quality even though the pictures online are not particularly impressive. The only drawback is that are completely unadorned, but all they really need is a sash, which you don’t even have to sew on, and that only costs a few dollars for ribbon. If you’re more ambitious you can also add beading and trim to suit your fancy. Really, all you have to do is put your hair up in a bun. If you want to leave out your bangs, be sure to part them down the center if you really want to be period-correct.
For you gentlemen, there is a really good guides for MacGuyver-ing a look together from secondhand items. It can be found here. There are also good instructions for tying a cravat here. Do this so that you will not face the scorn of Sir Percy Blakney, the Scarlet Pimpernel, “Odd’s Fish, m’dear! The man can’t even tie his own cravat!” Remember that most tasteful cravats in Jane Austen’s time were white.For those of you looking for a tailcoat and a waistcoat, I got tailcoats for two of my gentlemen friends from an E-bay vendor called Monkeysuits. In both cases I was able to get them used tailcoats in their exact sizes and in excellent condition for only $20, and waistcoats run about $10, and recieved both items within three days of ordering them. For the waistcoats, the higher they button, the more period-correct they will look. One last word about tailcoats: darker colors were more fashionable for that time period, so given the choice between black or gray, the two most common colors you can find, go with the black. For pants, long pants will work in a pinch, but if you want to go for knee breeches, a good trick is to get a pair of women’s capris or petal-pushers as long as they’re relatively plain and not denim. Then you just stick a pair of white knee socks with them, and you’re done.
Well, that’s about it. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.
Take care and God bless,
Sandra
Vice-President
The Pemberley Society
If you have any suggestions or experiences with Pemberly Balls I’ve love to hear about it!
Several people tend to be intimidated by grading. A number of parents tend to be fearful of high school credits. Then you will find some unschool or delight-directed homeschools that definitely stress out regarding naming courses. It can be very easy if you use textbooks (look at the title of the textbook! ) however in other conditions it’s not as simple.
I just got off the telephone with a mom attempting to name an unconventional class. If you are stuck, try to Google a few key words from the course you are making an attempt to name, with the words “course description. ” You’ll come up with a bunch of high school and college class course descriptions that will be similar. Look for the title that best represents your class, and Voila! In this mother’s situation, we determined that “Occupational Education: Restaurant Occupations” was the perfect title for her class.
Are you aware that every week on Facebook I provide you with a video tip of the week for homeschooling high school? Not too long ago I put on Facebook a video tip about Naming High School Classes. If you are on Facebook, make sure you check out my fan page! You can “LIKE” my page, grab my free mini-course known as “The 10 Essentials – What Every Homeschooler Needs to Study Before Graduation”
At the high school level, sometimes it can see like math takes FOREVER! It can simply take a LONG time to complete math when you are working at a high school level. Kids get slower after they have worked for an hour or more, so it makes sense to break it up into two pieces. Some kids need more practice and some need less. Each child only NEEDS to do the number of problems necessary in order to learn. Perhaps you can try to do odds or evens in math for a while, and see how the chapter tests go. If a student doing well, that may be all the practice that is needed.
The Comprehensive Record Solution provides the training and templates and real life examples of successful high school records.
Seniors – Fill out an application for College and Register for Tests
It normally takes a rather long time to finish a college application form. Get started right now, and mail the application in as soon as the colleges begin taking applications. Financial decisions could possibly turn out to be made “first come first served” and applying early might possibly enable you to obtain the most beneficial financial aid package. Sign up for ACT test by September 16th if you would like to take the test on October 22nd. Register for the SAT online well before September 9th if you would like your student to take the SAT or SAT II subject tests on October 1st. This time of year, it’s often the seniors who seem to take the SAT, while the younger students put emphasis on the PSAT instead.
Juniors – Register now for the PSAT exam
The PSAT will be offered on Wednesday October 12 or Saturday October 15th this year. You will need to sign-up at a local high school, public or private. Get in touch with them as soon as possible to sign-up – at the very least by the first week of school. Word of caution: Students will have to take the PSAT/NMSQT in eleventh grade to meet the requirements for the National Merit Scholarship! There is only one chance to take this specific exam each year, for that reason sign up now for the October test!
Sophomores – Give some thought to taking the PSAT
You might choose to take the PSAT for practice, along with high school juniors. It won’t be counted for the National Merit Scholarship Competition at this point, however it is great practice for next year, and at $13, it’s a inexpensive approach to obtain a standardized test if required by your state. About fifty percent of the students who take the PSAT are actually sophomores.
Learn the SECRET to getting your student placed at the TOP of the stack for college admission consideration as well as one of those MASSIVE university scholarships. Get the Comprehensive Record Solution!
Stanford University Magazine had a write-up regarding a gifted homeschool student. I love this quotation: “It’s the spark, the passion, that sets the truly exceptional student-the one driven to pursue independent research and explore difficult concepts from a very early age-apart from your typical bright kid. Stanford wants students who have it. Looking very closely at homeschoolers is one way to get more of those special minds, the admission office has discovered.” As Reider explains it: “Homeschooled students may have a potential advantage over others in this, since they have consciously chosen and pursued an independent course of study. ” I really like the focus on independent homeschooling! Read the actual write-up for yourself here:
A homeschooling mom called the particular college that her student was interested in, to obtain a few answers for herself. Here is exactly what she found out:
I did end up calling the college that my son will most likely attend, and they verified that a mommy-transcript is just fine…and they also expect that we will submit to them a 4. 0 GPA (like 99% of homeschoolers apparently do). Of course he will still need to take the SAT and any placement tests that are required for ALL students, but the only thing that they might require of him that they don’t require of the public-schooled students is an interview. Needless to say, I am *much* relieved to hear all of this, because I do not want to join an umbrella group or an online high school or anything else that would be done for the sole purpose of satisfying a college-admissions person.
Love, Gigi
She found that she can continue to homeschool on their own!
Learn how to translate all those great homeschool high school classes into the words and numbers that colleges will understand. Get the Total Transcript Solution.
One thing that I love about the homeschool community is that most of us love to encourage others with our stories. In this post Joyce, a homeschool mom, shares the story of her two sons so that it will encourage each of you. You CAN homeschool high school!
Joyce's Sons: Devin & Michael
Wow! I can’t believe they are graduated!
We put our twins, Devin and Michael in the public school system from kindergarten thru 2ndgrade and when they were not learning to read, I found myself spending a lot of time after school with them each day trying to help them. They would get home from school around 3:30 in the afternoon and I would sit down with each one of them and get through their homework and work with them on their reading. We got used to having dinner around 6:30 since I couldn’t really start working on it until about 5:30 after I got done studying with my twins. (I also had a two year old running around interrupting us as well – so it took a little longer then it probably should have.)
We decided that since we were putting so much time into educating our children after they came home from school that we might as well take them out of the school and do it ourselves. That way I could teach them at a time that was a little more convenient for our family.
Since I used to say that I would never be able to homeschool my children, the plan was to just get them “caught up” and put them back in school when they were “ready.” Well the rest is history. We never did put them back in traditional school, and the two babies that followed after our twins have never stepped foot in a public school. We have just found that we love having our family home with us and learning together. We saw all the benefits of having our children at home with us, not to mention that the socialization at home was far superior to the “socialization” that happens in the public schooling environment.
As we schooled through the years, I always wondered if I was doing enough. I was bothered by the fact that we weren’t memorizing all the facts that I had to memorize in public school as a kid and constantly wondered if we were doing the right curriculum. I worried that we didn’t have a biology lab where we could do the official experiments that all kids should have access to. I worried about our children having a “well-rounded education” that so many education experts talk about. But learned that no one is really “well rounded.” Everyone is gifted by God and given certain “bents” that are God given. Why focus so much on being well-rounded when the God of the Universe has a specific (or a few specific) things for you to accomplish. He doesn’t expect you to be great at everything! All of my children’s’ specific “bents” were towards music. They all loved playing music and since my husband and I love music too, it was perfect for our family. Don’t get me wrong. We didn’t completely “blow off” all the other stuff and just do music all day long, but it was a good leverage to use to get them to do their reading, writing and arithmetic before we brought out the guitars and drums.
Like I said above, I was always worried that we weren’t doing enough for our boys, but I guess we did okay, because one of our boys qualified for our local Running Start program and will be getting his AA degree earlier than usual and my other twin was just accepted into a college where he will be getting his degree in fitness. So far the one that is in the Running Start program has a 3.4 GPA and would like to get a degree in Business so he can own his own business someday. Both boys love the Lord and are frustrated with the college environment but we are talking a lot about it and I am glad they have such a strong foundation from their homeschooling days that will hopefully help them navigate those challenges that they will and are coming across in the secular college environment.
We just had a wonderful graduation with our boys. We didn’t have any other kids in their class (from the homeschool co-op we are involved in) that were graduating so we had a ceremony just for them at our church. Our church let us use their facility and it was beautiful! We had about 100 of our friends and family join us in our celebration. We were able to share a great video of their growing up years and present our boys with their diplomas and words of encouragement. They each had some words of encouragement for us and it was very heart warming.
Someone asked me if I had to do it all over again, would I do anything differently and I think that I would probably have looked for more ways to get college scholarships for my boys so they could attend a private Christian college, but I am proud of the way they are handling themselves so far. We have a good relationship with them and it makes for good/honest conversations.
We prayed all the way through their homeschooling years for them daily. I believe that is why we don’t have many regrets on what we did. I believe that God guided us in curriculum choices and what to really spend our time and money on for them. God was very clear with us on what we should focus on and I am very thankful for His leading in our homeschooling.
We also joined a homeschool cooperative that made a huge difference in our continuing this journey. Whenever we were frustrated and ready to quit, the community of other homeschoolers were there to help us and support us. I think that was a pretty important thing for us. There are so many resources and support networks out there now. You don’t have to do this alone.
Obviously, we are not a perfect family and we have had our challenges and warts, but I am truly amazed at how well homeschooling works.It’s not nearly as scary as I thought it would be!
Thank you, Joyce, for sharing your story! I’m sure many will be inspired by your experience!
Your best strategy for keeping all those balls in the air is preparation. The HomeScholar Gold Care Club will give you the comprehensive help you need tohomeschool high school.
When you tell people you are homeschooling high school, you may get some pretty unusual questions. What about college? What about scholarships? What about socialization? For me, the strangest question was always, “What about Prom?”
Yeah… what about it?
Homeschoolers who want to have a prom can create one! Read this article, about a homeschool group that got together to make a Prom for their high school students.
A group in my area did the same thing, and had a large group get together. If that’s not your cup of tea, you can locate an English Country Dancing group, and do a “prom” the way Jane Austen did dances in her day! English Country Dancing groups are found in many locations. We didn’t have a prom, but when my son went to college he arranged a “Pemberly Ball” at the university, in the style of Jane Austen. You can read a few blog posts about it here: Can’t Get Enough Jane Austen?
If dancing isn’t your cup of tea, some groups will have a formal dinner instead. At a home or restaurant, it can give teens the opportunity to dress up and practice manners in a wholesome environment. Like etiquette classes of the past, these experiences are important for future professionals. In fact, these experiences are common on college campuses, where groups can learn adult manners. There are plenty of resources if you search for “Teaching Manners to Adults.”
So go ahead and create your own brand of “Prom” that is as unique as your homeschool! Start planning now, and you can have a great event for the upcoming homeschool year!
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