My dd is completing 8th grade at the end of May and I am planning a "graduation" party for her. I would love to give her a diploma and am looking for a good one to make up and print. Any good websites to use? DD will be homeschooling for high school and I have several questions. Should I get a boxed curriculum for her? Is an eclectic one OK? Should I keep good records and transcripts (how much detail?)? I have done portfolios right along but I am wondering if that will be enough for high school? Thanks!!!
KEEP GOOD RCORDS FOR TRANSCRIPTS!!! I have just transfered Rachael from "my" homeschool to on-line public school so she can take college classes for free her Senior year. It wasn't enough for me to say she passed Algebra 2 with an "A". They wanted to know the name of the book, resources, topics covered, AND how many hours she spent doing it. HUH...? Like right now Faythe is making a quilt, and I plan on giving her sewing credit for it. So I need to come up with a system to record how much time she spends on it. YUCK!!! Even if you homeschool her all the way through, it will make it easier to keep her transcripts up to date for college. I don't do boxed curriculum. It's just not my style. I pick and chose for each subject.
My dd will be 9th grade next year, too. I can relate to what you're going through. I'm a layed back homeschooler and it make me nervous about high school. I switched to SOS this year hoping I could use a set curriculum for all subjects and decided it won't work. Kids love doing school on the computer, but some subjects aren't working out. I've heard lots of people use multiple sources in high school, so I'm gonna try it too. We are using SOS for English I, Bible, and Spanish I, Thinkwell for pre-algebra (she's a year behind in math), Plato online by CyberEd for science and MOH for history. If MOH doesn't work out, I'll switch to something more structured. SC only requires 3 history credits, so I can experiment next year. I joined the yahoo group homeschool2college that someone suggested on here. It's all about high school and college entry.
Yes, record keeping is essential if your dd will be attending college. When we were going through the college admission process, I was so grateful for the continual admonishments by our local HS homeschoolers group to keep up with our records. What I found to be the most helpful was to keep lists of basically everything in order to put together a transcript and resume. Specifically: Reading list-All literature read Textbooks and Curriculum with publishers Education- all co-ops, academy classes, Community college etc. Extra Curricular Activities Community or Volunteer Service Awards and Honors Employment, Interships, and Summer Activities Skills, Talents, & Achievements I also kept portfolios, but found that although a few of the colleges did want to see examples of academic work, all requested a transcript and resume. I hope this helps.
http://www.homeschooldiploma.com/ You might try www.donnayoung.org... I couldn't get it to work just now but she's usually johnny-on-the-spot.
