CM through Jr. High and Sr. High
by K. Felicidario
I feel so terribly under qualified to begin to even attempt to speak on this subject since we have just begun our journey down this road. Jr. High was a wonderful time for us to discover what kind of learner my oldest daughter was and what her interests and talents were. I suppose for families that have homeschooled from the beginning or at least started before we did, (6th grade) this would have happened earlier, however, for us, we tread through the jr. high years in search of many answers.
My eldest is entering into 9th grade this fall and not only has she decided that she will continue to homeschool, she has also made it known that she wants to try to graduate within 2 years!! Now my job is to convince her that though she may "whip" through some lessons in some of subjects we are studying, she will fair much better if she will spend time lingering through the classics getting to "know" the material to mastery as opposed to just long enough to pass a test...
About 6 months ago, I started having a severe panic attack about homeschooling through high school. Thinking that I am going to have to change most everything I do know how to do gave me such a fright that I strongly considered putting my daughter into public high school. Somehow, the Lord has given me many nudges, some subtle, some not so subtle, which have convinced me that He has called me to homeschool through these years and instead of dreading them or operating out of fear, I needed to realize that because of His calling, I was going to need to trust in Him that He will qualify me. Now, to the average person asking, "So, how ARE you going to do high school?" and me replying, "with God's grace!" I may sound like I need to have my head examined or at least have the authorities called for my daughter's sake! But I truly feel this way. I truly believe that God has called me to walk down this path hand in hand with my daughter, ( of course she wouldn't be caught dead holding my hand, but that is another story!!)
What I have learned in the research I have done since this first panic attack (with many more to follow I am sure) is to find out what is REQUIRED of me to issue my daughter her HS diploma.
Amazingly, I have discovered that HS is not as difficult to get through as one might imagine. Most of the dilemma with creating a CM curriculum for your high schooler is not WHAT to study, but rather, WHICH books to use and where to plug them in. We should not try to recreate what public schools are teaching. Just as in the younger grades, MORE is not necessarily BETTER. What is more beneficial is again, the RELATIONSHIP which the teen develops with the subject matter and to what degree that relationship is taken. Therefore, I am finding that my goal as a parent/educator is to help my children become self-directed learners. We began working on this in the early years, continue through the middle years and jr. high years and hopefully by the time they reach 9th grade, they are pretty independent, self-motivated, clear-thinking individuals who enjoy learning the subjects they have before them. I suppose this explains why colleges are more and more agreeable to accepting hs'd students than ever. They are finding that these students know how to study or rather, LEARN! They do not need to be "spoon fed" the information over the course of the subject. They know how to research and locate information. They are self-directed learners. And isn't this what we want our children to become? Let's face it, no school anywhere can teach a student everything there is to learn about a subject, but we can teach our students how to look up information, how to take in that information, how to process and how to utilize that which they have learned. We, in this room are all, self-directed learners. There is not a "school" of how to teach using CM's methods, yet here we are, all sharing, learning, and using them. This is the gift we try to pass on to our children. We choose to use the BEST materials we can to achieve this goal. We choose living books, real books, apprenticeships, real-life situations as opposed to text-books and Hollywood as reference materials.
So what exactly is required of us to issue HS diploma?
Texas has recommendations for High School, but that is all they are, recommendations! You
can choose to follow them, but you do not have to. It would be a good idea to have a general
list of what subjects you would like to cover. My personal recommendation would be to look
at the potential colleges your child might attend and plan your list of courses from that.
The Texas Homeschool Coalition has stated in their "Frequently Asked Questions"
section on their web site:
"Homeschools in Texas are considered Private Schools and
therefore set their own graduation requirements. There is no set age requirement for
graduation."
With this in mind, I have, with the help of an umbrella school, planned my daughter's next two years of education. I have enlisted the help of an umbrella school mostly for the resource information they have. I just don't know all of the books available to me and frankly, I don't have the kind of time I'd like to pre-read all of our school materials. Also, this umbrella school is very CM ish and understands that my daughter has a very different learning style. Her curriculum is suited specifically to her and only her. I will probably never use this for any of my other children, as they all have different interests and talents. It has been suggested to me that I require HER to keep daily records of what she is learning. She can do this through a variety of methods:
1. Student Journaling
2. Weekly assignment sheets which she fills in,br>
3. Notebooking (read Cindy Rushton's books!)
4. A personal resume
5. Letters of reference from any outside classes/volunteer work/employers.
6. Portfolio of narrations and essays.,br>
Think about the education that you really want your child to have. Ask him/her what they
would like to learn about and set your goals together. Then keep records that reflect that
plan.
Here is a link which I have found very helpful:
CM High
School
I think even more in the High School years than ever before, the home must become a learning environment. Learning must become a lifestyle, a lifestyle that is loved by all.