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mariB
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| Posted: Aug 22 2008 at 6:14am | IP Logged
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Just wondering if your goals have changed for your high schoolers. Mine will be taking the PSAT and my dream was preparing him for this. He has taken the SAT in 7th grade...but the busyness of life, how life flies by so quickly has thrown me for a loop! I feel like he will be so unprepared when he goes in for this test. WE have not been focusing on this at all.
We are looking at colleges and classically educating him but I would have never have foreseen our life as it is now...
I have always been so academic minded. Maybe the pressure of being a home schooler is getting to me.
My husband and I have had to trust God more than ever this past year with our boys. Our goals seem so different now than a few years ago.
The way I school is SO different than just a few years ago. I think I'm feeling a little insecure.
Ladies, what do you think about the PSAT? Am I overreacting? I mean, I never once worried about these tests when I was in school and did fine...not great...but fine. I never opened up an SAT prep book.
So I'm stressing a bit but really enjoying how we do school now!
Any suggestions? Have any of you changed your goals and desires for your children?
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marib-Mother to 22ds,21ds,18ds,15dd,11dd and wife to an amazing man for 23 years
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MacBeth
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| Posted: Aug 22 2008 at 1:10pm | IP Logged
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Marianne, I never opened a prep book either, but these days, everyone does, and most, at least around here, take a class. Libby did not take a class, but did a bit of the prep book for the SAT. She did not take the PSAT (my fault--I forgot about it!  ). Oh well. In the end, it did not matter.
The PSAT is good practice for the SAT. Or so they say.
Our kids have their own goals, more or less. Trip is hovering between a few academic disciplines, but he is hoping to go to a challenging college. He will be taking everything: The PSAT, a class, online practice, etc. My goal is simple--I want him to be prepared in case he changes his mind.
I don't think you need to change the way you do school, but you can add a bit of test prep here and there. I really enjoy doing SAT Cartoon vocabulary books with (all) the kids, and math is always fun here, but We have never lost sight of the joy naturalness of learning together as a family in ordinary ways. No goal is bigger than that. 
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MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
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Elena
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| Posted: Aug 22 2008 at 4:54pm | IP Logged
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A friend of mine just homeschooled as always, but required her high schoolers to do a few pages from the SAT prep book every day! You might also want to subscribe to one of the word a day e-mails to make sure vocabulary is up to par too!
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Elena
Wife to Peter, mom of many!
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mariB
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| Posted: Aug 22 2008 at 6:06pm | IP Logged
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O.k. I've got the SAT prep book out I bought nine months ago and we are doing a bit of it each evening until the first week of October. Thanks for your advice Macbeth and Elena. I guess we just have to buckle down and do it! Thanks!
BTW, my husband is in charge of the vocabulary dept. His vocabulary is what impressed me about him when I first met him. It is kind of a family joke now :)
It doesn't mean I don't feel like melting down about ONE more thing to do.
Baby steps...One day at a time...I think I can...I think I can...
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marib-Mother to 22ds,21ds,18ds,15dd,11dd and wife to an amazing man for 23 years
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: Aug 23 2008 at 10:56am | IP Logged
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Seventh and eigth grade (and even into ninth) have been tough transition years here. With our first I felt under pressure in a way that I had *never* felt before. Between worrying about what she didn't learn, the plans that didn't happen, her unknown future looming, all the - um - character formation issures to be addressed, AND the questions, "So, are you REALLY going to homeschool for high school?", I feel that those, to date, have been my toughest homeschooling times. With my second now heading into these years, I have a much more realistic idea of what to expect. (I also am not being questioned about if I'm going to home educate for high school because we're already doing it and are obviously out of our minds .)
Marianne, my dd's PSAT/SAT prep has been haphazard at best - not my plan  . Interestingly, now that she has specific plans (she is at community college and will transfer to ASU based on her credits there) that don't depend on her SAT score, she is more studious about preparing for it. I guess that with the pressure off, she just wants to see how well she can do.
Not sure if this is mentioned in the archives somewhere, but for vocab she enjoyed reading
Tooth and Nail well enough, but she warns that the follow-up book in the series has crude content (I didn't think of that when I gave it to her...humbling, humbling, humbling.
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: Aug 23 2008 at 1:27pm | IP Logged
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Talk about changing goals, my boot-camp bound senior announced this week that he thinks he will go to college rather than enlist! So, after three years of goofing around in public school, he has a mediocre GPA and mediocre SAT scores and he thinks he can get into a school and do ROTC.
He will be finishing up four classes online and was supposed to be done by January to leave for boot camp in February. I foresee a stressful year ahead of us. That was not in my plan.
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Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Aug 23 2008 at 2:01pm | IP Logged
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Back in the day, I did absolutely no prep for the PSAT or SAT. I was actually annoyed I had to take the PSAT because I was missing the first half of a horse show I was entered in.I was definitely mentally elsewhere!Ended up being a national merit semi-finalist and also getting very high SAT scores. Just goes to show the standards were much lower then!LOL!
Like MacBeth says, most kids do prep now days.Some do a LOT.
My dd did absolutely no prep, did not take the PSAT (oops! I forgot, too MacBeth!LOL!) and she did smashingly well on the SAT. Enough to earn her full scholarships to 2 separate universities. She just started UNC.
So, my advice would be to prepare if you want to, but don't sweat it too much if you don't. Things have a way of working themselves out.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: Have Your Goals Changed?
