Re: schooling
Posted by: imhiz4eva <imhiz4eva@...>
Jennifer
Robin J Kim <the5kims@earthlink.net> wrote: My two cents worth ....
Like Jennifer, we homeschool through a charter school. There are pros and cons, but since I've been with them the past 6 years, I guess the pros outweigh the cons. 🙂 One negative thing is that we have to adhere to the traditional school year schedule. BUT we can kind of manipulate our schedule so that if we want to take off during the school year, we can do so and just count other days and new experiences as education. Our youngest (3 yrs. old) receives special education services through the school district. And since her schedule is traditional, we can't really steer too far away from that calendar.
And as with Jennifer, the charter school is filled with Christian leaders. It just started out that way, and now, when a new administrator or teacher comes on board, he/she is usually a Christian. Our principal, two vice principals, and 8 out of 12 teachers at our site are openingly Christians. (I just don't know the other 4.)
We use an assortment of curriculum too. Our children have not been exposed too much to workbook learning only because I can sit through it. So when they were little (now they're big - 8 and 11...LOL), I didn't introduce them to workbooks because I didn't want to sit at the kitchen table with them. Instead we went places (museums, aboretums, ocean, mountains, veternarians, etc.) and learned that way with buying and borrowing books to further learn. Math has always come easy for them (I can't understand why since I know I have not made it interesting!) and I began them with Saxon. I ordered the placement test and both of my children started with 3rd grade Saxon in kindergarten. But for them, after one year of Saxon, neither of them wanted to see another page. I think Saxon can be dreadfully slow for children who do not need repetition. Through the charter school, I had the kids tested each year to see what they needed to still learn in math. They are able to learn a new concept quickly, and with very little practice, retain the knowledge. The prove it because as I said, I had them tested each year. I don't remember which math grades they skipped. There is a lot of repetition from 2nd through 6th grade math. But anyway, my 11 year old will take geometry next year using a traditional textbook and my 8 daughter will take Algebra I with the KEYS TO ALGEBRA series.
As far as history and literature and writing, we do it all together. I just use novels to teach it all (with as many field trips as I can). This year my daughter will follow BEAUTIFUL FEET's geography curriculum for the first semester and study through novels and non-fiction the Civil War second semester. I will probably use a traditional science textbook supplied by the charter school. They just adopted a new series so I want to check it out.
My son this year will be taking all his classes at Biola University's STAR program - a program designed just for homeschoolers for 7th - 12th grades. He will attend two days a week and take classes in biology, world history/art, geometry, and computers. As you can see, all of his classes are considered 10th grade classes which leads to the question Julie asked about graduating one's child. Big question.
Because we homeschool out of a charter school, we are allowed to use whatever grade level curriculum our children need to meet their intellectual needs. But, we cannot just skip them a grade officially. The charter school keeps records for us, our tax dollars go to it, and if children choose to go into the public school system or a private school, the charter school sends them transcripts, etc. just as if we were transferring schools or moving out of the district, etc. But the school has suggested (and we decided to do it) that we accelerated one grade level each of our children (at different times). So that is official. Now we have been conferenced with again about accelerating our 11 year old again. He is very mature and of course bright. But if we do have him skip another grade, he'll be 12 years old in 9th grade. He'll continue to attend Biola's homeschooling program - a great academic program with Christian teachers and Christian students. But would we let him go away to college at 16 years old? No. My husband and I feel strongly that no matter how smart or mature our children are, they are still just children. Besides, we'd miss them. 🙂
In CA, there are lots of homeschoolers that attend community colleges for credits. Sombody wrote that a child could attend community college and use the credits for both high school and college. (I looked back to see who it was and where they are located, but couldn't find the post.) But here in CA, a student can only use the credit for either high school or for college - not both. Eventually our children will run out of classes at the charter school and at BIola, so they'll have to attend our local junior college. But I'll probably attend with them because they'll still be very young and I don't like the idea of them being on their own with 18 - 20 year olds (and older, sometimes). So while it looks like both will be graduating formally through the charter school at the age of 16, they will not go away to college at that time. My son wants to get at least 3 undergraduate degrees. One place he wants to go is CAL TECH to get a robotics engineering degree. If he is accepted at 16, I'll drive him there (about 40 miles with solid traffic) on a daily basis. He also wants to get a wildlife biology and botany degree from University of CA at Davis, which is about 9 hours north. He will not be allowed to go there at 16 because I cannot drive him or be there with him.
What my husband and I most want to do, is to travel with our children before they go to college. Because they are going to graduate so early, they'll have plenty of time to do that without them feeling like they will be behind. Plus both of the children want to play their violin with local symphonies. It would give them a chance to play for productions such as the Nutcracker and other scores in southern CA. If they went straight to college, they wouldn't have time to do anything like this until they were much older, after they completed all their studies and then they'd be persuing their job etc.
Okay, I've gone on long enough. Has anybody made it through this long post? LOL Robin
"And let us not become weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." Gal. 6:9
There are two things that you can do that can work wonders....
smile at a stranger and never go to bed
without saying I love you
to someone!
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