Are you looking for a homeschool support group? I’m located in Seattle Washington, so I’m not familiar with every local support groups, but you can find some support groups listed here: Homeschool.com (General), A to Z (General) and HSLDA (Christian)
We were sitting at the dining table, filling out college applications and came to the part that said “What is your major?” My son panicked.
It’s rare to have a teenager know exactly what they want to do in life. Very few high school seniors can confidently say what their major will be. One step in the right direction is to do some career planning in your home. Here are some resources that may help. Don’t expect a book or website to solve your problem, because learning your purpose in life happens over time, not in an instant. Still, these resources can begin the process of thoughtful reflection.
Books
What Color is Your Parachute
What Color Is Your Parachute? For Teens, 2nd Edition: Discovering Yourself, Defining Your Future Get the teen version because I have heard the adult version may have inappropriate content
Finding the Career that Fits You Workbook by Larry Burkett is a Christian classic for career exploration
Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type by Tieger and Barron I haven’t read it myself, but others have recommended it.
www.thecallonline.com The Call Vocational and Life Purpose Guide from Focus on the Family (Approximately $79)
www.careerdirectonline.org Career Direct assessment from Crown Financial Ministries founded by Larry Burkett ($80)
Mostly, just pick a major – anything! If you’re stuck, pick the hardest major considered, not the easiest major. It’s a LOT easier to go from Engineering to Business than to go from Business to Engineering. The harder degrees will often have harder math and harder science. Meeting those strict requirements will certainly meet requirements for the easier degrees. On the other hand, when you choose an easy major, the prerequisites are easy. Those easy science and easy math classes will NOT meet the requirements of a harder degree, so it could lengthen the amount of time spent in college.
It’s our son’s wedding day! Congratulations Kevin and Liz!!!
Do you remember the dreaded analogies in high school? Here are some examples from our past:
Cat is to meow as dog is to bark
Poverty is to wealth as hunger is to food.
Designed to encourage critical thinking, analogies used to be included in the SAT test. But wait! Analogies aren’t on the test anymore! For the past few years, the SAT has eliminated all analogies, and has something even MORE fun instead! When they removed analogies, they added a section on writing. The SAT test includes a hand-written essay now, but it does NOT have analogies.
Analogies are still a great way to increase your vocabulary and reasoning skills. Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Verbal by Critical Thinking Press still has curriculum verbal analogies, and the Analogies Workbook by Liebman remains popular. It may really come as a surprise that analogies are no longer on the SAT. It may still be an important skill for you, and perhaps it’s something you want to pursue with your children, but it’s NOT on the SAT anymore.
Whew!
While I’m relieved, not everyone is happy. In 2005, when the change was announced, all the reviews were not positive. Here is an article from the New York Times that year; Still, most of the students I know were HAPPY to avoid the dreaded analogies.
If you’re sad about it because you love analogies, this game site may be fun.
Do you like getting this sort of help for homeschooling high school? Gold Care Club members get extended answers to their most challenging high school issues.
Budding engineers, listen up! Engineering is a LOT fun, but a future in engineering requires some math and science.
My 14 year old will be participating in the First Lego League in which he will 1) Build and program a small robot to accomplish challenges and 2) investigate a research topic then prepare a presentation. Both activities culminate in a competition with other teams at a regional tournament. This is to build build science, engineering and technology skills.
My question is what exact subjects do I categorize this into: obviously science, but which science exactly and since he will be researching and speaking, would it be considered English or Social Studies as well? And how will this look on his transcripts?
Thank you for your help.
~Esther in Washington
Dear Esther,
My son did a class much like that as an Introduction to Engineering. He took the class in COLLEGE
I would call the class an Introduction to Engineering class. Use all of the experiences within that league as one single class to make it a big, beefy credit. At the end, estimate how many hours he spent with it. 120-180 hours is one high school credit. All the papers and speaking will all be part of his science credit.
One word of warning. When kids like engineering, they do need to cover the basics of biology, chemistry, and physics while they are in high school, so eventually he will need to cover those things as well. This is sort of an elective-science, but he will also need the regular sciences in order to do well in college engineering. Science, engineering, and technology degrees also require a lot of math. Make sure you are working consistently on math every day during the school year, so a lack of math doesn’t become an impediment later on.
Socialization is not about a group of kids all the same age. True socialization is about people of ALL ages getting together. When kids are feeling alone, then getting out into the world can provide the socialization they are craving. Here are some suggestions for socialization activities:
Family and family outings.
Play-only groups; many support groups will have park days in the summer. It may be worth joining a group JUST to meet kids are park days.
Homeschool days at various activities: skating and bowling businesses will often have “homeschool days.”
Church and youth groups.
Volunteer work; work together at a food bank, clothing bank, YMCA or church camps.
Community classes: take pottery, photography, or exercise classes with a local YMCA. Take art classes at Michael’s or JoAnn stores.
Fitness groups; join a swim team, running team, or volksmarching.
Call local homeschool groups and ask “What are some ways your group gets together?”
In Lake Wobegon all the children are above average, but in the real world some kids struggle. What is a parent to do?
I have a son with fairly significant learning disabilities. He is dues to begin high school this fall. He is on a sixth grade level in math…so we keep going…do I give him high school level credit for the math we do next year? His writing looks like a second grader’s ~ do we continue on and give high school credit for his English work? He is 15 and says he really wants to go to college and I want to prepare him to do so, which means an intelligible but honest transcript. thanks!
~ Carol
Hi Carol,
Yes, he can be in high school and yes, you can give him high school credit. I have an article about College for Struggling Learners that you may enjoy here.
Your question about high school credits is answered more fully in my free one-hour homeschool training webinar.
Some colleges want to see your homeschool transcript as a piece of paper that you mail. Other college, and some other situations, require that you provide your transcript by email.
When you are submitting your transcript electronically, you want to make sure nobody but you can edit it. To make it un-editable, and therefore more official, change your transcript into a PDF document before emailing it. Microsoft Word 2007 will allow you to “Save File as PDF” There are many free resources online that will allow you to convert your documents into a PDF format as well.
Remember to make a PDF transcript when you submit it electronically.
That’s all for today.
Read to what others are saying about The HomeScholar Gold Care Club!
How did they teach themselves Biology? Did they do dissections and was it a lab course? I am planning to teach them Apologia Biology this year, but it’s the one subject I didn’t think they could teach themselves, even though they’re waaay more gifted in science than I am. Did you just give them the book and a schedule and let them go for it? I would really love to know, as I’m feeling very intimidated by the time requirements of Biology! Thanks so much! ~ Lisa
Dear Lisa,
Learning to be independent is a process, and biology usually comes along pretty early in that process. I’ve seen children successfully learn biology on their own, but we were just beginning the process of independence at that point. I’ll be glad to share how we did it – just remember that every child and family is unique.
We used Apologia Biology as well. I did have a list of assignments that told them what pages to read or what lab or test to complete. I prepared that during the summer months. It was in a checklist format, so I could easily see if it was checked off each day.
With biology we had a morning meeting like I described in a earlier blog post: Homeschool Accountability – Try a “Morning Meeting”. During that meeting, I went over their vocabulary words, and would sometimes ask them questions found in the book (not very often – I didn’t have it all together that much!) They were responsible for reading the chapter on their own. I think going over the vocabulary helped the most. That’s a tip I read in a book about college success; if you know the vocabulary words you can pass most college tests.
The labs were a little different. I’m a nurse, and I love biology. I loved every dissection and every microscopy lab. Sometimes I had trouble giving the microscope to my children to use, but I don’t believe I taught them anything. I was present in the room when they did their experiments. With biology labs kids are either working with expensive microscope equipment or are wielding sharp dissection tools. Not wanting them to get hurt, I was always in the room. They read the labs on their own. They followed the directions, and I watched – usually while getting some laundry folded.
Once complete, I would leave them alone to complete the lab write-ups. I asked them for a paragraph of what they did and learned, and a drawing, graph or chart explaining the lab. At the end of the day I would look at their lab report to make sure they truly had a paragraph (not a sentence) and they had some sort of chart or drawing. If those things were present and I understood from their lab report the purpose of the experiment and what happened, then I gave them 100%.
When it was time for a test, I simply handed them the test, confiscated the solution manual and walked away. I corrected the tests when they were working on their next course. I gave them the grade, and wrote it on a piece of notebook paper I kept in their binder. Then had them correct their answers.
I suppose you could say they were learning independently. They did all the reading, and I didn’t lecture (except about how expensive the microscope was. ) They did the experiments with an adult standing by. Perhaps I did try to teach them how fun and exciting biology is, because I remember I did a lot of squealing, but it didn’t work. Of all the sciences, they liked biology the least.
I know other successful mothers who took a much more hands-on approach. Dealing with learning challenges, they may read the entire chapter, or carefully assist them in following directions for labs. It’s important to remember to do what works for YOUR family. Some parents may want to judge others, and call it “spoon-feeding.” I think it’s important to remember that some students will learn and thrive with one-on-one tutoring because of challenges that others don’t understand, so do what works for your student,
regardless of what others say or think.
In the four years of high school I became less involved each year. The following year I found that chemistry didn’t require as much help, so we didn’t include it in our morning meeting. The labs were rarely dangerous, so many times I would just peak in. With physics I felt completely overwhelmed, and I didn’t understand any of it. They worked completely independently with that science.
I hope that helps! Learning to become independent is a process that has to start somewhere and then build.
Thank you for your informative web site. My eldest child is entering eighth grade, and I’m educating myself on how to homeschool high school. We’ve always homeschooled, but I’m learning that high school will have added complexities.
I’m considering buying your book Setting the Records Straight, but I’ve been unable to browse a copy beforehand. Do you include many sample transcripts and other record-keeping forms in the book? I love to keep records and thrive creating files in Microsoft Publisher, Word, and Excel. I suspect I could create my own files if I can copy your ideas from enough sample pictures in the book. Would that be feasible? Is that the intent of the book?
Thanks for your help.
~ Julie Larson
Dear Julie,
Thank you for your interest! You can go to Amazon and see their “look inside” feature to browse a few random pages here
When I discuss transcripts, I use my own homeschool transcripts to list the discussion. You can see two of my transcript samples.
The course description portion of the book also includes homeschool records from two other parents who were also successful with college admission and scholarships.
If you do best with downloads, then you may want to consider getting the Total Transcript Solution. It comes with ten transcript templates, not just my own, so you have a wide variety to choose from. The Total Transcript Solution also comes with one month of support through the Silver Training Club, which has a new course description every month, so you’ll have lots of those to choose from as well. The Total Transcript Solution does not come with Setting the Records Straight, and it’s intended to help you mainly with your transcript, not with course descriptions. To read more about the Total Transcript Solution, you can read this page
As I often say on this blog, our goal as homeschool parents is NOT to teach something. Our goal is for our kids to LEARN. Sometimes they will learn how to learn a subject on their own, without having a teacher teach them.
I believe that older teens MUST learn how to teach themselves. If they go to college, they will be expected to learn all the textbook material on their own. College lectures are most often supplemental to the textbook – not the same. If they don’t go to college, they will still have to teach themselves some computer skills, or online banking, or how to buy a car – whatever. Learning to teach yourself is a critical life skill.
I could have taught my kids “at grade level” and they would have not learned a thing. Instead, I gave them curriculum at their ability level, and then they had to learn something that they didn’t already know. When we got into high school, some of things that we “at their ability level” were truly above my ability level. I thought I was stuck, and unable to teach them. I felt inadequate. How could I teach them subjects I didn’t know myself?
My kids taught themselves Advanced Math (pre-Calculus) and Calculus. They taught themselves physics. I gave them the answer key and the textbook, and they read the books and worked on their daily work using the answer key until they felt comfortable with the concepts. I know they knew the material because I gave them the tests. When I gave them a test, I went shopping, taking the answer key with me. When I returned from the grocery store, they were done with the test, and I would use the answer key myself to make sure my kids answers matched the answers on the key. The answers had to be exact, because I didn’t know what the calculus symbols meant. If the answers weren’t exact, my children would contact the email or telephone support provided by the homeschool textbooks to get some clarification.
I could have taught them Biology and Chemistry (because I’m an RN and I know that stuff) but they actually taught themselves that as well. It just worked out better for us when they were teaching themselves, while I just checked up on them from time to time. Alex taught himself economics, and is now doing graduate level work in economic thought (we’ve been told by his professor.) He even taught himself psychology and business law, because he got fabulous grades on the college level CLEP exams in those subject. Your children may not teach themselves in EVERY subject, but parents can feel confident in allowing their children to learn things on their own. When children use a video tutorial for the first time, that does NOT mean the homeschool parent is a failure, and failing to teach. Instead, it means the child is becoming an adult, and learning how to learn by teaching themselves.
Here’s my point: kids will teach themselves something when they are interested in it. It’s fine for kids to do that, and it works out great for kids that are working on an intensely academic, college-prep curriculum as well as for kids that are in a relaxed homeschool environment.
I’ve recently been connecting with friends on LinkedIn. I invite you to send me an invitation if you want to connect with my business.
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Christianbook.com Curriculum Page
