Home School Curricula: the good, the bad and the ugly

[LIzzieB]

What I did have a blast doing was their state and national competition program, and I won some awards for essays and music that I wrote. We sang but our school never won in voice, though my deaf friend won for organ (she could feel the vibrations of the instrument). They also had sports competitions, too, but I was an egghead.

I do remember the friend who went to the small school talking about going to big conferences, and I think she even went to the USA for one or two.

Biggest setbacks: You have to be a self-motivated learner, otherwise I don't think that the system works as well. I also never heard many words spoken aloud, though you're supposed to read the vocab words to a teacher before you take the test. I was a good student, so I don't know that anyone scrutinized me this way. Needless to say, I was in my 30s before I stopped learning words that I didn't know how to pronounce correctly. (I don't take it for granted, though. I may still find a few.) For instance, I pronounced "disheveled" as "dis- heeve -elled."

To me, working from an exercise book seems to be pretty limiting, as I think most people do better when they are shown how to do something rather than reading it from a book. When I first heard my friend was homeschooled, I immediately thought of all the amazing homeschoolers I've heard about and expressed some envy. She scoffed and made it clear that there was no room to explore subjects in more detail or deviate from the curriculum. She went to a public school for the last year or two, and found that she was actually on a par with other students, so maybe it's not all bad? Both girls are bright and excellent musicians, but do seem a bit sheltered and lacking in general knowledge. It's interesting to wonder if that's because or in spite of ACE!

[clibbyjo]

Is there any homeschool curricula that deals with this sort of skill?

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Re the argument papers: This was standard in all the forms of schooling I participated in, public, private, and my last year homeschooling, at least since middle school. Don't know about all the curricula, but I would think it would be rather hard to avoid, actually. Though I'm sure the quality of teaching depends on the school or the parents.

There is curriculum for everything.I prefer the kids to learn by doing if possible.

We have someone in our group who is a judge on the highschool NFL team(forensics debate ) and she is thinking of starting a group for our highschoolers. We are several lawyers in the group who taught a class on the Bill of Rights and had the kids set up like a judge and jury who had to argue their points.

Demgirl, are you looking to teach a class for my co-op? You come up with the idea and I will make it happen. :) (you know I will,and I know where you live LOL) Of course "fundieology 101" is already taken by me .:)

[Brainsample]

I spoke to my girlfriend that I only have occasion to talk with infrequently, and she put her daughter into Christian school for the last two years, simply because she wanted to play volleyball competitively. They had three kids who are now all doing well in college, and one is in law school at their state university. They mixed and matched curricula, and she left her kids sample and pick. They used Saxton math, and they did ACE for a couple of subjects along the way, too.

I have another friend who essentially creates her own curriculum, but she homeschooled two sets of three kids that are all close in age. Two of the older ones in their early 30s/late 20s did well in college, and the two teenagers that are finishing up also play volleyball. The local and quite big Christian school allowed them to sign up for one academic class only which allowed the girls to play on their volleyball team, and the girls are also on some pre-olympic team which their local community paid for because the girls are so good.

A number of years ago, my friend got in over her head with her first daughter when they got to advanced math, and I encouraged her to explore options at the local community college. I knew that you could attend and earn credit, even if you didn't speak English. She's used this option with the eligible kids ever since, and she also put her daughter back into public school at 16 because she wanted to take electives that they couldn't offer her at home. In Christian school, we had several guys leave after the first year or two of high school at the ACE place so that they could go to vo-tech, too. We did have a guy who would leave a couple of days each week in the afternoon so that he could go to vo-tech, but he had his own car. I imagine that it would be a transportation nightmare doing that if your kid couldn't drive, and probably not that great for the kid on a socialization level (little kid waiting on mommy to pick him up, so lets beat you up while you wait). The kid that left in the afternoon to go to vo-tech was big and burly and not an abuse target.