How do you set up classwork for homeschooled teenagers?

Question

Thanks for the answers so far. I am just a lost puppy! I have found some online curriculum that seems to be what we need. But how do you know your child is learning the subject? Do you test them? My son plans to go to the Air Force Academy or college, so I want to make sure we do EVERYTHING to allow this. That is the main reason I took him out of public school, because they were not willing to work with us after he had some medical issues. I am so afraid I am not gathering the correct information, and he will not be able to achieve his goals. Any info someone can give would be appreciated. I.E., record keeping, testing, weekly schedule sample, etc. We are concentrating on the core classes, but we are starting with science first, since this is one of his favorites. Thanks again for your help.

Answer 1

That depends on the subject. Remember, we design a classroom for our students to feel like they are home.

Answer 2

You're best to pick a curriculum to follow. For example, I intend to follow the method described in "The Well Trained Mind." They recommend different curriculums or texts for each subject, so you follow them, more or less. I will have to modify their suggestions for history, cutting down on the American history and adding more Australian history. I like The Well Trained Mind as a basis, but will be supplementing it with some Steiner flavoured activities and community volunteering.

Read all you can about homeschooling, and you'll get an idea what sort of philosophy you want to use as your basis, and how you want to modify it. Then you can look for recommendations as to what curriculums to follow, and what can be dealt with simply utilising your local library.

Answer 3

It depends on where the teenager is going in life.  I will use my son as an example.  He did terrible in public school.  He was passed on from grade to grade without getting an education.  After 2 years of homeschooling, he is still not interested in academics but realizes that he must learn the basics.  I set up classwork by stressing the basics.  He must learn to read and understand, write where he can be understood, and use correct grammar.  We are using  used public school text books for Literature and Writing/Grammar.

He must understand basic math.  We are using Saxon with the DIVE CD that explains the same thing the book explains, but it is more my son's learning style to watch someone work the problems. Saxon has 30 problems each lesson and he does 5 lessons a week.

We recently added World History from a set of books that were picked up at a yard sale this summer.  

We use the library and have many mini courses during the year using video, DVD, audio and TV programs from PBS, History Channel and science programs.

This would be much different if our son was a scholar who was planning to attend 4 year college.  His plan is to attend community college with possibly starting early with dual enrollment.  He is very mechanically inclined and loves working outdoors.    He likes sports and Nascar and continually looks for career opportunities within those areas.

He is a 'people person' and very outgoing.

Homeschooling works for us because we can create his classwork to fit his personality, interests, and career plan as it  develops.  He is in the 10th grade and we plan to homeschool for 2 more years with him graduating at 17.

Answer 4

I would suggest getting in touch with a leader of a homeschool group in your area.  Often, they will have resources - even a team of moms - to help you formulate your curriculum.

My son is in middle school right now, but he will soon be working on a high school level.  He plans to be a medical missionary, and is extremely interested in science, so we utilize a strong science curriculum (Apologia) which carries AP levels in Bio/A&P, Chem, and Physics.  I studied to be a linguist, and in order for him to be a successful doctor and missionary in a foreign culture, he will need to have a strong language background.  He is already taking Latin and Greek, as well as Spanish (he wants to go to South America).

He will also need to be able to understand worldviews, so his history/lit/writing curriculum will be fairly hefty.  Math...I'll probably end up having him take concurrent enrollment once he's high school age, as at the rate he's going, he'll have already finished everything he can take in high school.

Here's what I have tentatively scheduled for him for 8th-12th grade, this is building on what he has/will have already taken by that point:

8th Grade: TRISMS - Discovering the Ancient World.  In-depth research of ancient cultures 3500-500 BC.  This program is heavy on lit, research skills, and writing through IEW.  It is also heavy on worldviews, geography, art/music/architecture history, and history of science/technology.  It'll cover about 2/3 of his credits from 6th-12th grade.

Math - Videotext Geometry (geometry, trig, pre-calc 2-year program)

Biology, Marine Biology - Apologia

Spanish 4

Latin 2

Wordly Wise

9th Grade: TRISMS Expansion of Civilizations - in-depth research of world history from 500 BC-1500 AD with everything listed above.

Math - Videotext Geometry

Chem, AP Chem? - Apologia

High School Greek 1

Hermeneutics (methods of Biblical interpretation)

10th Grade: TRISMS Rise of Nations - in depth research of World History from 1440-1860 with everything listed above.

Math - concurrent enrollment at local college

AP Bio (Human Anatomy) - Apologia

High School Greek 2

Systematic Theology

11th Grade: TRISMS Age of Revolution 1 - in depth research of world history from 1850-1920s with lit, writing, etc. - everything listed above

Math - concurrent enrollment

Physics - Apologia

AP Spanish

Old Testament Theology

Any other classes of choice

12th Grade: TRISMS Rise of Nations 2 - in-depth research of world history from 1930-present with everything listed above

Math - concurrent enrollment

Advanced (AP) Physics - Apologia

AP Spanish 2

New Testament Theology

Any other class(es) of choice

The TRISMS curriculum, due to the amount of research, writing and lit that can be included in it, can be taught and learned at the level of either a high school or AP class.  The courses cover world/European/American history, lit, humanities, writing, research writing, geography, world religions, political science, art/music/architectural history, rhetoric, government, intro to philosophy, cartography, economics, and special interest projects.

We school year-round, so he has an extra 8-10 weeks or so throughout the school year.  He also tends to go fairly quickly and in-depth with his studies, so he has a lot planned.  This plan takes into consideration his future plans, the colleges that he's interested in (if he changes his mind on colleges, we can adjust his plan), and his interests.

I know that what I wrote was pretty detailed, but I wanted to give you some ideas about how to set up coursework.  Since your son is looking at going into a military academy, you are going to want to make sure that his coursework is fairly rigorous.  VideoText, TRISMS, IEW, and Apologia would provide a very good foundation for him.  (Apologia is Christian/creationist, but even if you're not, it provides excellent scientific knowledge in a way that is easy to understand, and it comes with MP3 and CDRom supplements.  The Advanced courses are college-level work.)

Record keeping - there are several software programs out there that make this a cinch - they will even record and line out your lesson plans.  You click a few buttons, enter the info, and it records in the student's log; you click another few buttons, and the info will transfer to a report card, transcript, portfolio log of work done and hours attended, etc.  Some examples are Homeschool Tracker and Edu-Track.

Weekly schedule - you will find this to be all over the place.  There are some who have a set schedule - Monday 9:15-10:00, Math...and there are some who line out what they need to complete for the day or the week, and then go for it in whatever order works best for them.  It depends on your student's most awake times during the day, his interests, strengths, and weaknesses, and any outside forces on his schedule (lessons, co op classes, clubs, etc.).

Testing - this is subject to personal preference and state mandate.  Some states require annual testing, others don't.  For the ones that don't, you are still able to take advantage of the testing, but it is strictly for your benefit.  He should still take the college entrance exams (SAT/ACT) as well as any CLEP or AP exams he may qualify for.

Hope that helps!

Answer 5

the first step

* classification of students talent or gift

* set up a design of class like home

* start teaching a lesson

* growing a talent student by your lesson

* testing what you teach to student, such: examination, real questing or real applying etc.