July 27, 2015

Happy Summer!

I am enjoying a quiet week with one son at camp and the other one graduated, working and waiting to go to college. I am going to invest time in planning for this year. I will be starting high school with my youngest and teaching some other kids on the side.

So how do I go about planning high school?  I start at the DOE website for my state. I know, I know. A lot of you look at all state agencies like Dracula views garlic, but they are useful for my purposes and I have already paid for them so I use them.

I take a look at what the requirements are for graduation. No, you do not have to follow them exactly. In fact you can graduate your child when and how you want as long as they are meeting the requirements for advancement of your state, Having said that, the requirements for my state of Virginia are based on what the state universities say they want to see in a child's transcript when they apply to college. So if your child is college bound, if they might be or even if they have no interest in college in the summer before their Freshman year, you should take a look at the graduation requirements.

The next step I take is to split the requirements among the four years of high school. English is easy. They have to take it every year. Done. All of their High School English Classes need to include a literature component, vocabulary and composition. I will go into these more in a later blog.

Math. This is such a bugaboo for parents. They frequently feel inadequate to teach these subjects. First, you need to understand there is a Scope and Sequence in all math instruction. That means that math topics like fractions or geometry build on previous skills that the student has learned. If your child has not mastered fractions and decimals he is not ready for Algebra. Review basics and take Pre-algebra. Then figure how many credits she may need to graduate. If you don't want to use the state requirements, decide what you think you child will need to know to be able to function in the real world. Put it in the plan.

Science. Does your state require particular subjects be covered, like biology? Does your child have a real interest like astronomy? put these in the plan

History. See Science

I will talk more later about specifics and how I plan to have my son taught this year.

One last note. Front load her classes to the first 2 years if possible. When they turn 16, if you have raised them right, they will want to start working for thier own money. It is easier for them if they don't have to take a full load of classes.

T