Does anyone use unit studies for high school? My ds13 (8th grade) is one of those kids who can delve into a subject until he's discovered a new theory for the next phase of research. We are currently using Math-U-See, and that won't likely change; however, we have been using Switched-on-Schoolhouse for LA, Science and History/Geography and it is not working well for us at all. It's a great program for self-guided learners and for those of us parents who appreciate automated grading. FABULOUS!!!! Our problem is that ds13 has so many questions for me that I end up going over the entire lesson with him again, including quizes, to make sure he comprehended what he needed to. Then I'm changing the grades because the first time through on his own was pointless and his grades were not an accurate depiction of what he had learned. The difference is similar to getting 30% on his own vs. 95% or more after I go through it with him. Does anyone still use unit studies for high school? or maybe even have some suggestions based on the troubles we are having? Thanks in advance all you wise people out there!
Brooke, Our sons sound much alike. Neither of my boys are good with independent learning. Jazz, often because of the reading level...he cannot read things and really get much info into his head, but he can listen to me read it and get much more of it. (IF it is interesting, and IF he is in the mood) I am also looking at Unit studies...but at this point will probably struggle through with what we are doing. Maybe next year. I am looking at one that is based on the Narnia books. I know I want to do modern history next year...but I don't know if there is enough in there about WW2 or what. On the other hand, except for the Greek and Roman gods I am not sure he is getting much from the history we are doing now. So what is more important. That we do history in some semblance of "order" or that he be interested enough to pay attention. My husband thinks that if I switch stuff up to make it more interesting or fun, that I am "catering" to the boys...and the real world won't do that. (see post on hating mondays. ha ha)
I had this discussion with ds13 as well. He is very intelligent (I know all moms think that, but he really is ) and he learns very quickly...when he is interested. He gets so upset trudging through things that are difficult or boring (let's face it, a lot of what we learn is boring) that he can't get into a 'learning frame of mind'. I understand that he will need to learn certain things to perform well in his adulthood, but I'm considering doing more of a survey of some of the not-so-interesting info so that he can focus on his main interests that he pursues on his own. It isn't that he is lazy about learning new things--quite the contrary (he reads all the time or watches documentaries)--it's just that he has a hard time with having a submissive attitude toward self-discipline, especially when it involves subjects he likely won't use later in life. So, here we are. Do we trudge through and continue on a destructive path to resenting formal education? Or do we continue to taylor our children's educational needs through high school? I'm not talking tossing formal education out the window, but is it okay to do more of a survey of LA rather than delving into it with all the gusto of....well, quite frankly a name of anyone who relishes in LA is eluding me. How much do you actually need to learn to get through comp? When he is 'into' the topic, he can write a great paper. Kwim?
I think it is okay to do a survey of LA, we are doing writing a lot, grammar and literature next year too. ds is 12, but my plans are that we will have mixed styles of lessons all the way through to his senior year when he will probably go out , if not the year before. He is a sportsy kid and I want him to be active in sports for a scholarship so I told the school dd goes to to get a sports program if they want my youngest to follow theolder two haha anyway back to subject, I think you could put together your own unit studies on subject,s Colorado moms son is 8th grade and so she is at about his level of unit study type lesson books. I love her style and will be using a lot of it next year! I am using some this year too to pad what my son is doing for Science, we are doing Astronomy but also earth/llife science in there too.
I think you could do your own unit studies, I haven't done this before. I think the hard thing would be the planning, maybe you child could even help with this, at least maybe think of some activities he would like to include. If he could enjoy at least some of the learning process, he will learn more and remember it. The big obstacle to any different style is letting go of the "traditional" mind set. Who decided that stuffing information in people's head was the way to educate? I don't know about everyone else, but most of that information, rested in my brain for a week or so (or until I passed the test) and then out it flew.
My husband thinks that if I switch stuff up to make it more interesting or fun, that I am "catering" to the boys...and the real world won't do that. (see post on hating mondays. ha ha)[/QUOTE] Well, just by being homeschoolers we are changing our children's education, and if we take a different approach and they still learn and remember it because it was "enjoyable" than what did we lose. Who say learning can't be fun.
"Do we trudge through and continue on a destructive path to resenting formal education?" quoted from Brooke I have been there many times, but I have come to the conclusion that the modern educational system does not actually care how much a student grows or learns as long as it looks good to the world. Now, I am not saying teachers don't care. Let's see---pour the info in--give them a test--they pass and we look good. Years from now the kids (a lot of them) won't know a thing, or very little, on the same tests.
Well, I started by getting rid of the deadlines on SOS. Not that deadlines are bad in my book, but my son has Tourette Syndrome and all the little red exclamation marks showing what is past due is waaaaaaayyyyy overwhelming to his senses and his psyche (he has had pink eye/allergy eye as well as dr. appts and we missed a couple days :roll: ) I haven't been back here for too long and I'm unfamiliar with Colorado mom's unit studies. I'll look into them. As long as I know ds will be prepared to meet his goals in life, I'm good. (i.e. you have to play the game to some extent, even if you don't like it or agree that it is beneficial to your child :roll: )
Simplezines is the name on the website I also have regenerated my SOS a lot, If we get behind or ahead I will regenerate it about once a month or two.
The beauty of homeschooling is that you can adapt it to each child. My oldest is now in college. In 9th grade I 'made up' an Arthurian Legend course for her based on the Teaching Company DVDs. We watched together (I did ironing) and she read the books (I had read them when I was in college). I also made up a HIstory of Art course for her using a variety of materials (videos and books). Now I have 2 boys in high school. My 11th grader did Economics last year and got fascinated with Game Theory, so asked to do that as an elective. Fortunately the Teaching Company has a course in that too, and I emailed the lecturer and asked for further reading ideas. My 9th grader is doing a 'put-together' course in Computer Graphics. I took some books out the library and found some free websites. He has a number of projects to do (including designing a Twitter background for me!) I constantly look for subjects that fascinate my kids - and then let them use those for 1/2 credits. It makes their transcripts look interesting, and they have fun. Most times I require a paper, or a powerpoint or a website or something like that to show what they have learned and I grade them on that. Meryl
Thanks for some great ideas, Meryl! I just need a bit of confidence in the idea that it doesn't have to be boxed curriculum for high school. I was a nerd in school and I totally fit into the pigeon hole for education. :lol:
Once again, I am going to recommend the book Senior High: a Home Designed Form-U-La. Absolutely indispensible for teaching your own curriculum through High School. Tells you how to come up with curriculum that not only "counts" towards credits for graduation, but also meets college entrance requirements and covers what they need for SAT/ACT tests! Goes into hours, unit studies, Home Ec, work study, just absolutely everything! I have NEVER, EVER owned as valuable a book in 20 years of home schooling!!! YES! you can do it!!! No problem! But my recommendation is to not go about it pell-mell. Your curriculum needs to be ordered and complete for the entire four years, or you will only hurt your child in the long run. For all of my chileren we ended up going an extra semester at least. Plain hard facts are that they need at the minimum an HSED to survive, and even better some sort of higher education, whether it be a trade school, vocational school, internship (or both), or college, which nowadays you pretty much need a master's degree in anything. If your child is not prepared to meet the requirements society demands, he will be set back terribly. Just for the record, I have nothing to do with this book personally. I am speaking only as a HSmom who has homeschooled 3 kids into high school. I tried SOS for my 2 youngest and it did not work at all. I had to constantly be after them and checking on them, and when they had questions I had to go completely over the curriculum myself to find the answers. It just did not work for us at the HS level. If you have a self-learner who is motivated, I'm sure it would be great. Unfortunately, that did not describe my three...lol. I could go on and on ad infinitum in detail about unit studies, transcripts, entrance requirements, class requirements, but fortunately, someone put together an absolutely wonderful and totally complete resource for it all that is worth every penny! I can't say enough good about the above book!
Now I'm really scared! :lol: I have no fear of him being behind because of my choices, but his personality lends itself to have to learn things the hard way. I have to do something now that will motivate him to have a better attitude toward school work. Whether I make it myself or not. I'm just thinking that having a lot of learning on topics of his chosing will help, and then I can encorporate LA into it. Anyway, back to being scared. Even with the above mentioned book, he will still have to complete certain subject material. I just feel like I'm going to be fighting against his stubborn will and attitude about "unecessary" stuff until he leaves my home and learns the hard way that he needed to submit to the system to some degree. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Can you tell I'm mad????!!!!!!
Brooke, its okay, I had one like that too. Even though I sent him out to school he still fought it but got ggreat grades! Just get through to him that it is his JOB, thats what my dh taughtmy kids, school is a job, they have ot do it like it or not because "its the law" in our country. Now , once they hit college they can choose what they want.. though ds is learning that his choices are a bit more acedemic than he thought they would be back in high school! He looked forward to the day he got to choose for himself. USe that as a long range incentive, Use prizes at the end of a unit as short term. A new game, a trip to the movies including Pop corn for extra credit, ( have you seen the price of that stff?) whatever he wants , even have him make the goal chart up .. so many units NOT fussing ABOUT IT , GETS YOU SUCH AND SUCH A PRIZE if they fuss they loose points here. My kdis worked for a ds game last year and I forget what dd watned with her prize , I let them trade for equal dollar amount too Its a way of being paid for thier "job"... sorry its messy I have a headace and the whatdo you call it arrow thing keeps floating on my lap top today. Super senistive mouse pad? \
Brooke, I can relate! Believe me! All three of mine are VERY independent and very stubborn. *blush* it kinda runs in the family....must come from their dad. :lol::lol: Teacher mom, excellent points! One thing I kept losing track of along the way is that THEY ARE LEARNING!!! Even if they fight you, even if they complain, even if they don't do half of the assignments or spend a whole day in their room playing "catch-up" from the week, learning is still taking place! And probably a WHOLE lot more than if they were sitting at a desk in a public school! One thing that really helped me to see this was to occasionally give them a placement test. (like once a year). BJU has them available. They aren't extremely cheap, but they really reveal if there are any weak areas, where you, as a teacher, need to concentrate or supplement, and if you have missed any major concepts along the way. As long as you are just using them for your own information, you can give them yourself. I always had a friend administer mine, as I thought they would try harder for someone else. That's another thing that's nice about home schooling - you can re-cover any topic any time! Nothing says you can't skip a chapter or add a chapter! Or when or how to review! So once you find out where your child excels and where he has missed a concept or is weak in a concept, you can review or re-visit it to your heart's content!
Have you had a look at the Ascent Of Man DVD series (by the BBC)... amazing stuff for discussing and then letting your child/young adult work through issues of interest - true Inquiry Learning! Also there is a unit out that I wrote (which is why I'm hesitant to write about it) that sounds like it may be just up your alley; it's a ready-made unit and comes with the Jared Diamond DVD (by National Geographic). The unit was built to offer different levels of challenge, complexity, and to cater for different learning styles- which is why I'm mentioning it as it sounds like your query... Just Google "Successful Civilisations unit". Cheers JEAN
Teachermom...good ideas. I know this sounds lame, but we literally can't afford to have any kind of monetary rewards. There is something in my nature that doesn't allow me to reward things that are expected. Like obedience and a good attitude. His reward is that I let him live to see another sunrise. He's 13 and by now he needs to own his own attitude. We are going to be getting into scripture together a lot more than what we do. We are wanting him to own his own relationship with Jesus, but right now he falls into the catagory of helping a fellow brother in Christ in their walk when they are getting defeated. I actually think it's pretty cool to be entering that phase of parenthood. I've been continuing to go through his school work with him. On another thread someone mentioned with SOS its frustrating having to go through the entire lesson if you child has a question just to help them find the answer. So instead, I've cut down our work time immensely by just going through the lessons with him from the beginning. More work for me, but it has helped him so much to learn it and be done with it. His retention is fantastic, so it doesn't take much time at all and he still remembers it months later. It's just getting it in there. :lol: I've got the rest of this year to figure out what to do about high school. Hopefully we'll have figured it out by then. That will give me some time to look into the unit studies mentioned. I just wasn't even sure if you could do unit studies and have it fulfill high school requirements. This is my first go round with a kid this age. And I've only just begun.....sigh....
Well, Brooke, as encouragement - for me the high school years were some of the most FUN!!! I loved them! There was just soooooo much I could do with (together with) my kids when they got to be this age! My children's Jr Hi and HS years were the best years of my life, despite all of the conflict!
OH B rooke do you know that you can have the computer read it to them too? With Sos you can click I think its rightclick and you will get to choose voices eve my kids like to do this when they don't feel like reading it, they hear the words and its like me reading it for them.
:lol::lol::lol:We have listened to each voice there is and all we can do is laugh our heads off!!!! We are both auditory people--ds has always been hypersensitive to sound as well--so for us the way the voice sounds is distracting rather than beneficial. Too bad, too, because it would be a great option for an auditory learner. :roll:
