Just as all homeschooling parents are these days, I've been researching like crazy to figure out how our homeschool will be the same and how it will be different for fall…
I know you all keep reassuring me that I'm not going to scar my kids for life if I don't do this or that subject perfectly, but wow, the amount of insecurity I have in this area is pretty huge some days. Mostly in regard to our now 8th grader. I'm SO thankful we started homeschooling this year and not next, but I totally feel the pressure to “get this right” since next year it officially counts on his transcripts for college.
So I've decided to bite the bullet, at least for 9th grade, and pay for a consultant who will talk with me on the phone 3-4 times throughout the year, help me choose curriculum to fill in any weak areas, and keep track of grades and transcripts. (I'm going to use Mother of Divine Grace, because my friend, Anne, who helped me choose curriculum last year, has always used them, so I'm already doing a lot of the stuff they recommend.) If I find out that the expense isn't worth it, then I won't do it in future years, but for my own peace of mind I'm going to give it a try. (The only issue I'm wondering about has to do with the fact that they're in California, and for the money we'll be paying them, I sure hope they'll also be up on Michigan curriculum requirements…)
But there's a lot that I've learned from this year, and based on that, here's what we'll still be using:
- Teaching Textbooks – We'll use this again for sure for the younger two (they do math almost entirely on their own!), and I'm still undecided for our 8th grader. (He may need something with more repetition, this is something I'll discuss with our consultant.)
Writing strands – We just started this recently. It's a writing book that they go through mostly on their own. This isn't enough for writing, but it's at least something more. (This is an area I'm getting help with next year, they'll be going to English classes at their homeschool enrichment building.)
- The Great Editing Adventure – We started this once we realized that “Easy” Grammar wasn't doing it for us. It's SO fun, for real! The kids beg to do this more each day on our big whiteboard. (Does anyone use Growing with Grammar? Jen from Conversion Diary mentioned as part of her Survival Homeschool Routine, so I was curious if anyone has any scoop on that one?)
- Story of the World history books – We're almost half-way through the 2nd book already. We'll keep going through these and do an occasional activity in the accompanying activity book. This is another subject we all love because the books are so well-written and keep their attention well.
We'll keep doing some type of Latin/Greek practice. Mostly I'd like to cement in their mind the 100 words we learned in this year's book: English from the Roots Up.
- We'll keep learning and memorizing more poetry from the Harp and Laurel Wreath book, I know that the act of memorizing is so good for their brains.
- We just started using History Links and I love that it's something we can all do together and it can be adapted to the different ages of the kids. There are also a lot of different choices on what projects or research we want to do with each topic.
- Each one of the kids will be taking different enrichment or core classes at our homeschool enrichment building as it's a great way to fill in the gaps from what we might be missing at home (science and writing are our weak areas) AND it's great for the socialization/friends aspect, too.
So that's what I have so far, what are you using in the fall? What great finds have you come across that work really well for your family? Please share!
- Did you see this yet? A Day in the Life of Our Homeschool. 🙂
- All my homeschooling posts are here.
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
Those tests primarily measure two of the many types of intelligences that exist. If someone is not strong in math/science or linguistics, they are labeled not-so-bright, even though they may be brilliant in other ways. As a teen (decades ago!) I wondered why my dad’s friend, who could barely read, could fix or make almost anything. He was labeled as “slow” in school. The man is brilliant. You can guess how I feel about testing….why hasn’t schooling changed over the decades? It has gone backwards!
angie h says
I love the idea of homeschool. I was wondering if you or one of your readers would know can someone/is there a market for teaching homeschoolers or homeschool groups specialty subjects? I teach geology at a local college and am nearly done with my Master’s degree. I love teaching geology and purely love the subject itself. For awhile, I thought about getting a teacher’s certificate which would be required if I wanted to teach K-12. But, I really don’t like the direction our public schools are heading in. I am very attracted to the homeschool programs, I think there would be such great opportunities to teach kids who actually have a hunger for learning.
Would I need a teacher’s certificate? how would one get started, I’m thinking word of mouth would be great.
KitchenKop says
Angie,
If I were you, I’d start by asking local homeschoolers where they go for enrichment or core classes and go from there. Sorry I don’t know the answer to your questions but they would. 🙂
Kelly
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
My oldest didn’t need any for entrance to community college so she didn’t take any of those tests. She easily transferred to a 4 year university after completing her associate’s.
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
I love EFTRU!
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
I would not bother with the PSAT, and the act or sat if the college requires it.
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
Michigan is an ACT state and in order to qualify for some scholarships you must have an ACT score. Call us for more info if you want.
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
As far as I know, it’s not really a question if “should”, but rather if they have to or not depending on their goals. I think you just need the score to enter a university. Personally I’m not planning on sending my kids to a university. There are very few colleges that I would pay to send them to. There are a few food liberal arts colleges left. Other than that, they can go to a community college and then transfer later if they need college to accomplish their goals. I think it’s much more important to help a youth get in touch with their mission in life than to simply get them accepted into a university.
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
They are only required for admission to 4 year colleges, not community college. We take the SAT out west. I would start there.
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
SAT is the most important, in my opinion, and the most commonly required of universities. ACT is accepted by most I believe as well, and is different in content somewhat from what I understand–do some research and find out which you think is the best fit for your kids. maybe they can take both and use whichever has the best score? PSAT is just a preparation type test for the SAT, BUT it is also where National Merit scholarships “come from”. Of course, you’d have to basically ace the thing and very, very, VERY few students qualify for National Merit Scholarships. Community colleges don’t require any of them in our experience.
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
don’t take any of them. it’s all a scam anymore… higher education is a joke.
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
*test. Teat/test…big difference there. :-/
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
great points by others that these all relate to college-bound kids. BUT, they’re good for a few years, so best to take them in high school in case they don’t first go to college but want to a few years later
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
PSAT is only a prep test, with a few scholarships. SAT is what most of the country accepts and is more common, but midwestern schools favor the ACT–I recommend SAT and ACT. If your kids are strong in science, there is a science component in the ACT that is not part of SAT
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
Consider which teat your child would do better in and choose that one. My son took the ACT…our community college did require it, but I’m sure that’s different wherever you go.
https://www.studypoint.com/ed/act-vs-sat/
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
Here in the Lansing Area, the community college doesn’t require those tests. Only the universities.
%kelly the kitchen kop% via Facebook says
I only thought they ‘should’ if they needed it for college. Otherwise, what is the point? And not all kids are called to college. I have 8 kids and only one has gone to college so she can be a funeral director/embalmer. All other kids are doing well in their chosen fields of life (so far!) and it has never been an issue. My kids range in age from 21-38.
Lori says
Kelly,
I want to encourage you to, first, just BREATHE! LOL You will get through this and will look back and say, “Why was I so worried?” I have 6dc, ages 25, 24, 19, 18, 14, and 8. We have always homeschooled. Once you have a transcript template (there are many free ones online) just keep up on it each semester. As others said, transcripts are not that important, but you want it to look ‘good.’ We also keep a portfolio of work/volunteer/activity involvement in high school. This can look good to an individual school. (My 18yo is going into law, so the private university that he will transfer into in a year or 2 will look favorably at his involvement as a Page for a legislative convention.) I have the children make copies of the Table of Contents of math/science/history texts along with samples of work. In high school especially, have them keep a reading list. This can be important! Each time they read a book, have them enter it in to a file you can set up on the computer.
Have them take an SAT/ACT prep course. We found this very worth our $$. We also did the course on site, not an online one. This helped them to ask questions, get lots of tips, etc. PSAT scores are very important when it comes to scholarships. If they can do well on that, college costs can be cut tremendously.
One other thing, our kids, so far, have never done dual-credit. I know this goes against today’s ‘norm’ but we just had too much we wanted them to have time for in our homeschool high school. We kept thinking, ‘What is the rush?’ This is no offense to many families that do this, but we were in no hurry for the kids to be out in a secular world before they were emotionally/spiritually ready. We have seen so many 15, 16, 17yo so stressed because they are continuing homeschool, but trying to keep up with course work/schedule at a community college. Just mho. Do what is comfortable for your child/family.
KitchenKop says
Thanks for the great advice, especially the reminder to relax! 🙂
I may put this on Facebook too, but can you all remind me: Should our kids take the SAT *and* the ACT *and* the PSAT or what??
Thanks all!
Kelly
Maria says
Hi Kelly,
We have been enrolled in MODG since 1997. I have had four children graduate from MODG and I still have three at home that are enrolled. I can’t say enough positive things about this curriculum. I am so happy that we started it in 8th grade years ago with my oldest. It has blessed us in many ways.
It is a well thought out curriculum and it will give your children (and you) a great education. 🙂
Rebecca says
Kel,
Which teaching textbooks do you have? I’m thinking about purchasing them, but I don’t want to make a mistake and get the wrong grade.
KitchenKop says
It all goes by the grade they’re in. Is that what you were asking?
Kel
Samantha Jacokes says
They have placement tests on the teaching textbooks site too. That’s what I did to determine which one to use.
Lissa says
i’m a home school graduate who did dual enrollment. I got my associates degree when I graduated from high school (my mom was one of the early homeschoolers). I am a pharmacist and I have to say that in the end the curriculum didn’t really matter. My mom tried tons of different ones. What really matters is the ability to be able to learn (and teach yourself) and to think critically to solve problems. Classes at college will cover basically everything you need to know to pass that class. My mom/dad even had to make their own high school transcripts and have shared them with hundreds of people – who have gone to college and beyond. Colleges don’t really care about transcripts for homeschoolers, you just need one, unless you have classes that were not graded by the parent or other homeschooling parent. Its all about the ACT/SAT scores and classes you took at the community college/CLEP tests.
KitchenKop says
What you say makes total sense and I believe it completely, my problem with our now 8th grader, though, is that I’m not sure I’m giving him everything he needs to DO well on the ACT. He’s just *not* one (yet) who is excited about learning and teaching himself – unless it has to do with aviation, which he loves, and that’s great, but that doesn’t get you good ACT scores. Know what I mean??
Lissa says
I would suggest start taking the ACT and or SAT now. I took the ACT/SAT for the first time in 8th grade. I found out I was way better a the ACT then the SAT, so I just took the ACT in high school. I don’t know if things have changed but a college could not tell how many times you took it. For every point you get higher on it, you get more scholarships. I have no idea what the cost is today, but the $40 my parents spent on it (numerous times, about 1x per year from then on) helped all my sibling (there were 5 of us) get full or almost full rides to college (some went to public other went to private colleges all over the country). At the college I attended, an increase in 1-2 points increased scholarships by $2000-$4000/yer times 4 years) which was worth the money. Since I had taken the test before my senior year (I got a score good enough to enter college in eight grade, so I could take community college classes starting in high school – that is definitely not for everyone), I was not as nervous and was familiar with the format / methods of testing and environment. Also, if they still let you get a review of the test you took, to see you answers, that is worth getting starting you sophomore or junior year, as questions show up again and again.
Also, I was not one of those people who loved to learn, unless it was reading about theology or playing in orchestras. Your children just need to have the skills to learn, and if he can develop them while learning about aviation – that is great!
KitchenKop says
Do you think I should have him actually GO to an ACT test site, or is it ok to just have him start doing practice ACT’s like crazy??
(Thank you so much for helping me!)
Kelly
Lissa says
Its been a number of years (I’m getting old) since I took took the ACT. I heard from sibling that they have added a writing portion. I also do not know how it costs to take it and if you can control how many tests the colleges can see. For example, on the PCAT (for pharmacy school admissions, the colleges could see every time you took it). I wouldn’t take it so many times if they can see every time you take it but if you can pick which test to send to the college, then I would take it many times. For me personally, I did practice ones and the real one many times. I think taking the real one at least once a year (if you can afford it and maybe an additional time or two that year when you are applying for admission/ scholarships) is very valuable. Its just feels different then taking one in the home (even if you are under strict timing). I would defiantly do practice questions and a full practice test before taking it at a testing center (so he knows some what to expect and you don’t waste your money). If your son would take the test seriously, and not waste your money is another factor. But I highly recommended paying the extra $20 (I don’t know what it is now) to review the test. The use similar questions and sometimes reuse questions – but I am someone who learns by reviewing my mistakes.
Its really dependent on your son’s goals, personality, and finances. If he wants to go away to a 4 year college and not attend a community college (there is nothing wrong with community colleges and staying out of debt – you still end up with the same degree from hopefully the same place or better) then taking the ACT more times is very beneficial. My score over 5 years improved by 10 points -which was ALOT of scholarship money.
KitchenKop says
You’ve been a GREAT help, I’m taking ALL of your advice, thank you so much!!!
Kel
momawake says
We found www.amblesideonline.org to be a great resource from beginning to end. It’s a Charlotte Mason based “program” with booklists and schedules from year 0 to year 11.
Andi says
Hi Kelly,
My daughter enjoys Growing With Grammar. She finished book 5 and asked for 6, so that’s been a good fit for us. I like that she can do it on her own. She reads the lesson and then does the workbook page, which is one page front and back unless its a chapter review. The pages are clear cut (no clutter) and to the point. You can order test sheets, but I haven’t. I feel I can easily gauge how she is doing by the workbook pages.
Abby Pires says
Kelly,
Have you used the Switched On Schoolhouse curriculums yet? They are from Alpha Omega Publications who also publish the LifePac curriculums. I am currently using SOS, and I have to say it makes homeschooling so convenient! I am in the ninth grade and I rarely need help from my parents if at all by using SOS. Even though LifePac is a perfectly high-quality curriculum, it requires a lot of self grading and checking unlike SOS, which automatically does everything for you. SOS features the four core subjects, and hosts an array of electives as well so you do not have to worry about mish-mashing (is that a word?) different resources together.
KitchenKop says
I’ll check it out, thanks Abby!
Kel
Tonya Scarborough says
Two awesome greek and latin curricula are “Hey Andrew, Teach me some Greek”, and “Minimus Mouse” for Latin.
KitchenKop says
Tonya,
Can you tell me more about the daily work and what you like about them?
Thanks!
Tonya Scarborough says
“Hey Andrew” has a lot of teaching supplies like cd’s and flashcards as well as quite a few level workbooks to go through as you progress, but we have only used the lower level workbooks. The workbooks are great though. The lower levels have more graphics and varied activities than the other greek workbook that we used, the Bluedorn’s greek hupogrammon. Although none of my kids have gone all the way through the curriculum to the end. The oldest is 12 and I don’t make them do workbooks if they don’t want to. I would say these workbooks are good for a variety of ages from younger kids all the way to more serious students of greek and you can see sample pages on their website.
Minimus Mouse is very different. There are just 2 books and they’re not workbooks. You read through them more like a comic book with exercises and questions every now and then to give meaning and retention. They’re good as a thorough introduction to Latin, rather than a complete teaching curriculum. But it’s just the kind of thing that my kids like to do, whereas they get tired of doing workbooks. They read it with their Dad and it’s just fun and I don’t have to do anything for it. I’m sure they could read through it on their own as well. These books are probably best for ages 6-13 and you can view sample pages on amazon.
Hope that helps! 🙂
Peggy says
And in addition to CLEP and AP for demonstrating seriousness of your student, they can also take dual enrollment courses. We found our local community college’s DE credits are accepted both by our state university and several local private colleges as well. My middle child took Psychology and Intro to Film this year, both online. She won a scholarship for a project she did for the Film class which will help pay for her classes in the fall and look great on her college applications and resumé.
Another HUGE plus for us was that the courses contained worldviews that we do not espouse and having her home when she took them allowed her the safety of discussing controversial topics with us.
Kelly, you might want to look into ALEKS for your student needing repetition in math. It’s online and can be done very independently. You can choose the course and even the state you live in so that the student’s math is keyed to the benchmarks for your state, if that matters to your family. It is mastery oriented, so missed problems are repeated from time to time until they are mastered.
Sadly, with how my schedule has heated up, (and having a high school graduate this year) I haven’t really done much research into next year at all. I will tell you we LOVED Around the World in 180 Days this year. I got some flak at the beginning, the 7th grader was worried she wouldn’t be able to keep up, and the 9th grader complained that the 7th grader was joining them, and the 12th grader worried it wouldn’t be rigorous enough, but we all had a great time and learned so much. I love “family style” courses, and this one really fit the bill.
I’ll only be teaching 8th and 10th next year, two students down from six, with only five years left in our homeschooling odyssey. I can’t believe it’s already been 23 years! It goes so quickly!
KitchenKop says
Peggy, what’s the daily work like with Around the World in 180 Days?
Thanks!
Peggy says
Because it’s set up like a unit study, the daily work is whatever you choose. Each continent is studied as a unit, taking anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks, but averaging 6 weeks. At the beginning of the unit, I assign two long term projects (study a missionary to that continent and a fiction book about that continent) to present on the last week of that unit. Then each week we divide up the study questions. There are usually 10-20 questions to choose from of varying levels of difficulty per week. We do them all but divide them evenly among the students so each student only has 3 to 6 questions. We all listen to each other’s answers and fill in our books with the work everyone has done. There are vocabulary words some weeks, and always map work one week which I print on a huge poster board for everyone to label and contribute.
In addition, we each do a “presentation” each week on one item in the “for further study” section. That’s where it gets fun. I’ve opened it up to their creativity, so we’ve mummified a stuffed teddy bear, had multiple Power Point presentations, cooked chapati on a hot rock, had a puppet show of the animals of Australia with homemade puppets, “interviewed” Winston Churchill…the list goes on and on.
In all, the kids spend about four hours a week researching, writing, preparing their presentations and doing their long-term projects. I don’t separate it out daily for them because they set their own schedules.
KitchenKop says
That sounds very tempting…!!!
Kel
Beth says
I read this as I’m getting ready to work on transcripts and portfolios :). It will all work out. I’m finding that for homeschoolers there is more weight given to ACT or SAT scores than transcripts where we are. CLEPs are not always accepted (nor recommended for classes in Science if they will be a Science major, for example) but do help in demonstrating rigor of the homeschool transcript. My dc like CLEP more than AP but AP is more accepted. I’m still trying to decide on those issues. We plan on starting dual enrollment for a class or two for my senior next Fall. My point is (somewhere there was a point!) that high school with your 8th grader will flow and work out as is should for him and he will be enriched with your choices. If the counselor will give you peace then it is well worth it.
Colette says
Kelly,
I enrolled in November, and I am so happy I did. The consultant was a huge help. We live in Ohio & our consultant is from Kansas. She was kind and very helpful. I was feeling completely overwhelmed, but now I feel much more confident. I hope you have a good experience as well. You are doing a great job!
Colette
KitchenKop says
Thanks Colette. 🙂
Only problem with Mother of Divine Grace is that it was over $900 for this year, yikes! I really like our consultant so far.
Kelly
Jeanmarie says
What’s a homeschool enrichment building?
KitchenKop says
It’s where the kids can take classes like music, art, gym, web design classes, etc. And they also have core classes for the older kids. I love that we have this option for areas I’m weak in teaching or areas I just want them to still experience. Our youngest loves gym class with his friends, our daughter loved home economics this year with her friends, and they’ve taken lots of other classes there, too.
Kel