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mooreboyz
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I'm doing some evaluating of how high school is done in our home and am wondering how much you actually "teach" your high schooler. What I mean is do you give them lectures daily or just let them read through texts on their own and then ask if they have questions and then quiz them occasionally to check proficiency?
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Jackie
7 boys - 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17 years
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Barb.b
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Hmm - no, lectures here. How we do things varies with the subject:
MATH - daily we grade previous days lesson and read new one together.
LIT. - depends on the book and study guide. Usually we meet occasionally to discuss her answers to study guide questions and then she usually has a writing assignment with it.
HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY - I have a "syllabus" that has time frame of her reading through chapters and when tests are - no lecture - she reads and studies to be prepared for the tests. I don't tell her how many pages per day to read - just how long she has to be done with it.
GRAMMAR - now is all about SAT/ACT prep so she just goes through whatever material we bought for this - by now there should be no need for actual instruction in this.
SCIENCE - the one thing she goes elsewhere for. The teacher has a class once per week and the kids read/study/ do assignments other days.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS- can be in LIT or HISTORY and are thrown is throughout the year. We quickly meet after each stage of the writing process for me to give direction.
I think homeschool is great for highschoolers! It is where they learn to be independent. To take a text and read, study and know it - without too much direction. This is what prepares them for college. Sure, in college there are lectures - but it is up to the student to KNOW the stuff. To pace themselves and figure out HOW they need to study. We will give them a big advantage if in highschool they can take a textbook chapter - read, study . . . on their own so they KNOW it and can ace a test. They will be at a big advantage in college. Most of the public school kids are used to be spoon fed a study guide before a test that tells them exactly whats on a test. Now, some professors still do this in college - but that is rare. I like to give my kids a variety of types of tests throughout their high school experience so they can see that they need to study differently for a multiple choice test then an essay test.
Independence is GREAT in the home school high school. Sure - make sure he is doing the work - and at 15 some kids aren't ready for what I describe above - but it is a goal to keep in mind and work toward as they progress through high school. Look to see where your ds is now and what you and he could do to get to where he needs to be by senior year. Each kid is different. My current high schooler (dd age 15) I can trust much more to be independent and get the work done then when my oldest (now 20 and very successful at college) was at 15.
Barb
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SallyT
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Well, we're increasingly outsourcing high school, as more and more we take advantage of classes at Belmont Abbey, where professors have welcomed our kids, so my current high-schooler is in situations where he is receiving actual classroom teaching (in biology and German right now). I appreciate someone else's doing that work and acclimating my son to consistent accountability, which latter thing I'm . . . . not so good at, though so far this hasn't been the problem it might have been.
So at this point my high-schooler is away from home four days a week, on campus with his dad, who does a lot of my work by carrying on conversations about reading, classes, and so forth. My MO generally in high school is to set up a syllabus of reading, with writing assignments, and to teach through conversation and feedback. My current high-schooler is very independent and self-directed: In algebra 2, for example, he teaches himself completely and grades his own work, and I trust him to do it, because he hasn't given me any reason not to trust him, and his test scores at the end of the year thus far have borne out my trust.
So I guess we're in the maybe-weird position of being very academic in a formal, structured way but also very unschooly, in the sense that once the work is agreed upon and planned out, it's the student's to do, and what I care about most, particularly in the humanities -- the part of the program I'm most personally invested in -- is what goes in, in terms of reading. But then, I have the luxury of being that way, knowing that my son (and his sister before him) are also having actual classroom experiences which require them to develop skills like following a syllabus, producing work on demand, studying for tests, etc. If the burden were on me to work at that side of things, then obviously I'd have to do more in that direction.
My college daughter has commented that one of the things she's been most grateful for as a university student -- aside from the fact that I made her read The Iliad and The Odyssey and Beowulf in high school -- is the ability to be self-motivated and manage her time, rather than depending on someone else to manage it for her. She also took both co-op and college classes in high school, but in many areas the work was hers to do, and because she was motivated by the thought of going away to college, she stepped up to the responsibility.
So far, that's how we've done it. I could see myself being far more teacherly with my younger two, however, because they've always seemed like more of a "class," and have responded better to "learning together" with me than the older two ever did. So we'll see what changes as time goes by . . .
Sally
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sunshinyliving
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Jackie,
As you'll see, we're all different :-) I have a lot of opinions, but this is just how I see it. I know many successful homeschoolers who do it exactly the opposite of me!
I am actively involved with almost all of my highschooler' classes (9th & 11th), and treat their education in a more traditional "school" style manner. I feel like the subject matter we're covering is so important to their spiritual and psychological development that I can't leave it to chance. In fact, because of the time involved, I've sent two of my younger children to the local Catholic school this year (once they're in 6th grade, I feel it is important to teach them at home, but not necessarily before).
Math- I teach the lessons, then assign homework (check homework with the student during the next class and correct missed problems together)
Lit (what our society considers important)- on their own, they work through a Holt-Rineheart Elements of Literature each year (there is one book for each grade in high school, we use the older editions)
Lit (what I consider important): We read this together and discuss this together, they have daily vocab etc with this (this year:Dante's Divine Comedy)
History- They read text on their own, filling out a very detailed study guide which I have prepared; when done with the chapter, I review with them and cover all the interesting and/or important topics (Christendom series by Carroll)
Grammar- this is intertwined with Latin, which I teach "school" style
Theology- taught "school" style by father
Catechism- done online
Philosophy- I teach "school" style, also a few online recorded courses at Homeschool Connections which a listen along with them and write out quizzes :-)
Writing- for papers designed to teach a particular writing style or research process, I take them through it step-by-step "school" style; (current example: research/position paper on the topic of whether or not it is OK for a Christian to read fantasy fiction)
Science- each child does a cursory study of one field of science each year, on own (our philosophy studies cover a lot of natural science, along with the reason (n.) of science, which I do teach "school" style)
Electives- usually on their own, but not always
When they were young, we did a "Living" style education which I believe works very well for that age and type of information. Now that they are older, however, their thinking is matured and they are considering life-questions. This is the time of their lives that I think it is important to be the most actively involved in what they are learning and thinking. I'm sure they could do most of the work independently, but that is not my goal in their education. My main goal is to prepare their minds.
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Diana, wife to Brad, Mom to dd18, dd16, dd13, ds10, dd7, ds5
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lapazfarm
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The only thing I actively "teach" my son is biology, and that is only because I love biology and enjoy sharing it with my kids.
The rest is a combination of independent study with discussion (or him coming to me if he has questions), DVD's watched together and discussed, etc. He reads a lot, we talk a lot, we write together, share poetry or lit selections that strike us, talk about what we have learned from the internet or elsewhere, do art projects as a family...and so on.
It's more of a learning collaboration than a top-down model of education.
And this isn't unique to high school for us. It is pretty much how it goes from the time they can read independently onward. In the younger years there is more guidance from me, more checking in,so to speak, but really what I am striving toward is interest-driven education, with the child at the helm and me just there for support and guidance.
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LaPaz Home Learning
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JodieLyn
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I consider my role with a high school student to be facilitator and quality control. I help them learn the information.. but I'm not lecturing. I help with questions. We have discussions. If I do present some iformation (usually in the relgious/growing up/life skills areas) it's generally in a discussion format rather than lecture format.
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All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Erin
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I'm a mix of all the above.
With a large family of a wide age range, I encourage independence and yet, I also like to touch base with my older ones regularly as that is also important.
Formal teaching is more the Language Arts, essay writing, literature analysis and dictation. But I do ask them how they are progressing with their other subjects. And I always love the chat time particularly faith questions.
This year for the first time we are also outsourcing our son's sciences to an Open University course as he is passionate about this area.
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Erin
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leanne maree
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I have encouraged independent learning too.
We have our own busines, so its necessary at times
I have a list of expectations for the week, the term and we go through those to make sure dd knows what is expected, but often its English were we converge together.
I am needed at times to video biology experiments.
Leanne
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mooreboyz
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I'd like to thank you all for your thorough and thoughtful responses.
This came up over the weekend when I was talking with my oldest about his biology and geometry and the fact that he needs to spend time "studying" these subjects, not just doing the daily assignments and expect to do well on the tests.
He has always been one of those kids who learned quickly and has a great memory. He'd seriously just have to scan over spelling words an vocab lists and ace his tests. Anyway, I'm trying to show him the importance of studying as he will need to do this in college and I want him to learn how to effectively do it now. He's not doing terrible in these subjects; but, he's not grasping a deep understanding because he's spending the least amount of time necessary, IMO.
So, being a teen, he shifted the blame on me and said, "well, it's not like you "teach" me anything". What I do is give him assignments each day in either texts that I specifically picked out because they are for independent learned like teaching textbooks or through courses I specifically create for him over the summer that I know something about that he asked to learn about, like marketing and entrepreneurship. When I correct his assignments and I see there is a problem I discuss it with him. We spent a couple weeks working through geometry problems together until he told me he'd rather do it alone. With biology I went with science shepherd which is really nice; but, is challenging as it is an AP level course. It comes with a teacher's edition with key points to review after each reading section and that is what we did for the first couple months this year...until he said he'd rather do it alone.
He likes to work independently and gets very frustrated when I am going over something with him and we get interrupted by one of the little ones. I do "teach" the sciences and histories at the elementary and middle school levels and in his last year of this he told me he'd much rather read stuff on his own then to sit in listen to me...I think he feels he could learn it faster this way which I can understand as I remember being bored in school listening to teachers.
So, that brings me to my original post. I don't think he really wants me to lecture him as he never has liked this. He likes to work at his pace. I think he is just frustrated because everything isn't just coming for him like it always has in the past. Honestly, I don't think I could "teach" him this biology without a lot of prep time learning it myself. The geometry I could; but, it really would be basically doing exactly what is on the disk and on the text.
He wants to spend his time talking with people online and I think this is what is really going on here. He wants to spend as much time as possible doing this and if he has other things to do like studying that cuts into this and makes him upset. I'm not sure how this compulsion got to this point. He bought his own laptop 2 years ago. I think I need to cut his time online. This is not fun. He gets very upset when I do this. I took his lap top and he can only use it in our main living area (his bedroom is in the basement) for the school subjects he needs it for (for research and such). IMO he needs to get out of his online world and be back with the living family right in front of him. With such a large family I guess I let him sneak away for too long down in his bedroom alone. It's time for me to mom up and do what is best even though it won't be easy.
Sorry this was so long; but, thank you for being here.
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Jackie
7 boys - 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17 years
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SallyT
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That does make a lot of sense, Jackie, and the whole "Oh, wait, I have to *study*??" thing is a revelation to a lot of kids. This is where outside classes have really helped us -- having someone else besides me holding the student accountable for really *learning* the material takes a lot of that particular conflict out of our relationship, and it's given them skills that have transferred to their work with me as well.
We skewed towards independent learning partly because I really do believe in facilitating people's development as proactive *learners*, but also because my first child, even as a nine-year-old, strenuously resisted being taught anything by me. So having begun by having to work around that, that's how we've continued. I do shape somewhat how people interact with the things they read via the writing I assign, and we spend a good bit of time in informal conversation/discussion, but I'm mostly interested in drawing out what they come up with from engaging in the text (so we're very sideways Charlotte-Masony -- I guess these are stealth narrations we're doing!). But again, this began as a strategy for not having my entire life be about fighting with my child. I can really sympathize with the need to work around that kind of conflict, especially with a teenager, while at the same time dealing with accountability for how he spends his time.
Sally
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Barb.b
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Oh - the distractions ! Yes, had to limit my oldest computer time when he was 15 too! Then gradually give it back so by senior year he is in charge of his time. So hard. I used to think: "ok, he's here at 'A' and I need to get him to "B" by the end of high school". It takes some thinking, praying, planning and discussing to do this. But for me it wasn't the thought that I HOPE to get him ready of college it was HOW am I going to.For me that meant that 9th graders are really still very much middle school in terms of maturity and some just aren't ready for the independence they will have senior year and in college. I do remember - in 9th grade I had him check in with me before AND after every subject. HE was goofing off to much. He hated that - but I told him it was necessary until he could prove he was trustworthy to do what I asked. So, I gradually got him to see his learning is up to HIM now. That meant if he is online too much, playing computer games during school, reading magazines - then he needs to check in often with me and at times I made him come out to the room his younger siblings and I did school. The check in with me system works because he knew if I saw he was doing what he is supposed to then he would gradually earn independence back (even studying - he needed to show me how he spent his time studying).
Barb
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Martha
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History/religion/science/English/lit - They follow the lessons on their own and we have a weekly discussion on it and I grade it several days a week, going over any issues as I grade.
Math - they are mostly on their own, with me grading it a couple times a week. If they get stuck on a concept we cant seem to help with, I have they call a tutor.
I discusses their outside classes daily. Mostly touching base to be sure there are no social problems and they are staying organized and on top of assignments.
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Martha
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pmeilaen
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Barb.b wrote:
Oh - the distractions ! Yes, had to limit my oldest computer time when he was 15 too! Then gradually give it back so by senior year he is in charge of his time. So hard. I used to think: "ok, he's here at 'A' and I need to get him to "B" by the end of high school". It takes some thinking, praying, planning and discussing to do this. But for me it wasn't the thought that I HOPE to get him ready of college it was HOW am I going to.For me that meant that 9th graders are really still very much middle school in terms of maturity and some just aren't ready for the independence they will have senior year and in college. I do remember - in 9th grade I had him check in with me before AND after every subject. HE was goofing off to much. He hated that - but I told him it was necessary until he could prove he was trustworthy to do what I asked. So, I gradually got him to see his learning is up to HIM now. That meant if he is online too much, playing computer games during school, reading magazines - then he needs to check in often with me and at times I made him come out to the room his younger siblings and I did school. The check in with me system works because he knew if I saw he was doing what he is supposed to then he would gradually earn independence back (even studying - he needed to show me how he spent his time studying).
Barb |
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We had a similar problem when we started high school: My son got distracted by every bird that flew by (birds are his favorite thing on earth) and by every lesson I would present to my other children. He didn't just get distracted, but he also commented on what we were doing. His own work got neglected. So we finally decided to give him assigned work in the mornings from about 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. He spends this time on campus (my husband is a college professor). He sits with some of the college students in a reading room with no windows, close to my husband's office. My husband checks on him, helps him if he needs it, and makes sure he gets some breaks. They come home for lunch, then I do a one-on-one teaching time just with my son while the others read. That lasts for about 90 minutes (half the time I present a topic and half the time he does some activity related to the topic). During that time we also work on memorization, singing German songs, recorder, and sometimes spelling. Our afternoons are less structured, there is time of ballet, French, German, Latin, handwork, art, outside time, walks, etc. So far this is working quite well. 
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Angie Mc
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mooreboyz wrote:
So, being a teen, he shifted the blame on me and said, "well, it's not like you "teach" me anything".
He wants to spend his time talking with people online and I think this is what is really going on here. He wants to spend as much time as possible doing this and if he has other things to do like studying that cuts into this and makes him upset. I'm not sure how this compulsion got to this point. He bought his own laptop 2 years ago. I think I need to cut his time online. This is not fun. He gets very upset when I do this. I took his lap top and he can only use it in our main living area (his bedroom is in the basement) for the school subjects he needs it for (for research and such). IMO he needs to get out of his online world and be back with the living family right in front of him. With such a large family I guess I let him sneak away for too long down in his bedroom alone. It's time for me to mom up and do what is best even though it won't be easy.
Sorry this was so long; but, thank you for being here. |
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You are doing A LOT of work for this student! My main goal as a homeschooling mom of high schoolers is to GIVE THEM THEIR BALL! So if they come back to me (and they do) to say anything remotely like I'M not doing enough, or doing it right, or whatever, I'm (now) quick to reply, "You are right. I'm not able to (fill in the blank.) How are YOU going to make up for my shortcomings? This is YOUR life and you'll live with the consequences, not me. If I could be perfect for you, I would. But all I can do is my best and trust that God will make up for the rest!" From my experience, they don't want to hear this too many times  so they back off of blaming or focusing on me as we all put the focus back where it should be - on them  .
While there are concerns with teens and online media, our family has worked to integrate it into our family life. It would be MUCH easier to just say "no media" (and I support those who do) but we have found it worth while to suffer through it together. Be careful not to make it feel like you see your teen as choosing ONLINE over his family. Teens want it all and all at once, this is developmentally normal. It can be very discouraging to them if they feel they are failing the family. It is their job, especially our young men, to "leave" the family. It's really more that they are leaving their childish ways behind in order to become adults. This takes time and they need encouragement to know that they are normal in wanting to leave.
Every family is different, but perhaps your family can talk about what each member of the family is doing online and how you can all help each other to use media for life-giving reasons. For example, my teen son is helping ME not to stay up too late on twitter! I'm helping him not to be on his phone when talking face-to-face with others. This way, we're in it together with empathy.
ETA: Creating a Family Media Agreement
Love,
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Angie Mc
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Angie Mc
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Forgot to answer the original question!
I teach writing.
I discuss everything else.
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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Kristie 4
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I find I am just a cheerleader (on my good days  ) but feel badly that I am not connecting more with them. They are very good self learners, but slow right now and in pretty lousy routines. That is where I ma pitching in- with keeping folks (the highschool ones) on track. My senior is pretty much done everything her needs so he is just focusing on AP English but it takes a LONG time each day....but my dd 15 is a fairly untraditional learner so we have to be creative! I do some reading aloud with her still (dyslexic), and we do the stealth religion history/doctrine/saints/discussions with Papa, around the breakfast table.
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Angel
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I think that, like Sally, we're moving in the direction of including more outside/online classes. Right now both my teens are taking a Latin class online, and all I do for that class is to check in weekly with them about their quiz grades and whether they've done their homework. But I think at this point they both know it's their responsibility and I'm not going to rescue them if they screw up. (I'm actually not too worried about them screwing up because they've always had to work independently, but last year we did have problems with my dd -- who was 7th grade at the time taking a high school level course -- not studying or keeping up with her quizzes toward the end of the year, so she had to work *really* hard in May... and I think this taught her something.)
Having at least some outside classes (or tutors) seems best for my 10th grade ds because he tends to ignore any lesson plans I try to invent for him, and he's not always capable of having the kind of drive to really pursue a "course of knowledge" on his own, particularly if it's something he probably will need to pursue his career goals but isn't all that interested in. (Biology is currently fitting this bill.) But he's very good about getting all his work done for somebody else. And to be honest, I'd rather just have discussions about books and writing and stuff.
I *do*, however, have a read aloud period with my teens (and under if they want to say) focusing on literature we can all listen to (faith-based read alouds included), because a) we mostly enjoy it and b)we have some really good discussions that way, but I don't think of it as *teaching* really. And I try to teach writing, but then -- I like to write. For math, I am available for questions and I grade quizzes and tests. My dh has taken over government and economics, and my kids respond much better to his assigning them work. They rarely complain; they just do it.
Neither of them spends that much time chatting online, though... but I do think that in that case, having some outside classes might help you out. I think it's easy for kids to find our "mom guilt" buttons and give them a push, but it's much harder to do the same for an outside teacher (or a father!  )
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: How much do you "teach"
