I've been thinking about something I've written about before, and that is the reality that merely being really busy with school does not equal getting a good education. Some endeavors are more akin to busywork than solid intellectual exercises. When dealing with an educational option that is heavily marketed, it is important to realize the goal is a great number of customers, and so it needs to be presented in a way to reach the greatest number. If you feel you are educating in a 'select few' manner, but something rather large is pushed as being for the 'select few'...stop and dig deeper. How many 'select fews' can there be? Enough to fund a million dollar company??
Something I've seen in homeschooling during high school is that often the student goes one way while the family goes another. A pastor's wife I knew would complain that the route they chose for their oldest daughter didn't allow her any time for ministry. Others I know complain that their student is 'always doing schoolwork'.
This begs the question: does a high school student need to be swamped with schoolwork all the time to be getting a meaningful education?
Before I go further, let me say that if a homeschool is rather lax during the grammar stage, the ramp up in to the rhetorical and dialectic stages is going to be painful. It takes a couple of years to be able to manage one's time well for the necessary increase in work as students age if a careful plan of increase hasn't been applied.
It is just something to think about as our students get to the point of leaving the grammar stage of learning. What do we want our kids to have time for? Do we want them to only have time for people they are in classes with or do we want them to have a varied group of friends? Are there certain skills we want them to have time to learn as they move toward moving out of our homes? Do we want to foster close family friendships and if so, is our educational route going to promote that?
I absolutely believe school needs to take longer as our kids get older, and I think it should increase in the level of them being challenged, but a plan helps it to not crush them. It also helps Mom handle the necessary increase. There is no reason to drown during middle and high school. Who you are influenced by in your homeschool journey really plays in to what you believe it should be like. It is similar to overall parenting expectations: spend time with people who have teens with attitude problems and then think that is how it HAS to be...so you accept it in your own children.
How do you get a plan? Look at where you want your child to end with math and science in high school for one thing. A benchmark for math is that most good public schools and Classical schools have kids taking Algebra I in 8th grade. Kids who are very good with math and plan to be engineers or doctors are sometimes taking Algebra I in 7th grade. Governor's school will not have Algebra I past 8th grade. This an easy starting point to back down from. Algebra I in 8th grade means your student can have Calculus in 12th grade, which is very good. It is not the end of the world to have Algebra I in 9th grade by any stretch, but for students who are going into a math or science field, that is not really the way to go to have them on the best footing for starting college amid their peers.
Science--again, see where you want your student to end up. This matters in 6th grade because if you don't do General Science in 7th, and Physical in 8th, you won't be set to take Biology in 9th, which could mean not having time to take sciences beyond the basics for college entrance. College isn't the end all, be all, but there is a general level of knowledge our students should have and those standards for classes help achieve that.
I hope this helps you make a plan. :)
Something I've seen in homeschooling during high school is that often the student goes one way while the family goes another. A pastor's wife I knew would complain that the route they chose for their oldest daughter didn't allow her any time for ministry. Others I know complain that their student is 'always doing schoolwork'.
This begs the question: does a high school student need to be swamped with schoolwork all the time to be getting a meaningful education?
Before I go further, let me say that if a homeschool is rather lax during the grammar stage, the ramp up in to the rhetorical and dialectic stages is going to be painful. It takes a couple of years to be able to manage one's time well for the necessary increase in work as students age if a careful plan of increase hasn't been applied.
It is just something to think about as our students get to the point of leaving the grammar stage of learning. What do we want our kids to have time for? Do we want them to only have time for people they are in classes with or do we want them to have a varied group of friends? Are there certain skills we want them to have time to learn as they move toward moving out of our homes? Do we want to foster close family friendships and if so, is our educational route going to promote that?
I absolutely believe school needs to take longer as our kids get older, and I think it should increase in the level of them being challenged, but a plan helps it to not crush them. It also helps Mom handle the necessary increase. There is no reason to drown during middle and high school. Who you are influenced by in your homeschool journey really plays in to what you believe it should be like. It is similar to overall parenting expectations: spend time with people who have teens with attitude problems and then think that is how it HAS to be...so you accept it in your own children.
How do you get a plan? Look at where you want your child to end with math and science in high school for one thing. A benchmark for math is that most good public schools and Classical schools have kids taking Algebra I in 8th grade. Kids who are very good with math and plan to be engineers or doctors are sometimes taking Algebra I in 7th grade. Governor's school will not have Algebra I past 8th grade. This an easy starting point to back down from. Algebra I in 8th grade means your student can have Calculus in 12th grade, which is very good. It is not the end of the world to have Algebra I in 9th grade by any stretch, but for students who are going into a math or science field, that is not really the way to go to have them on the best footing for starting college amid their peers.
Science--again, see where you want your student to end up. This matters in 6th grade because if you don't do General Science in 7th, and Physical in 8th, you won't be set to take Biology in 9th, which could mean not having time to take sciences beyond the basics for college entrance. College isn't the end all, be all, but there is a general level of knowledge our students should have and those standards for classes help achieve that.
I hope this helps you make a plan. :)
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