Homeschooling High School isn’t so hard. You just have to keep adjusting to the changes and do what works for your family. This phase of letting go is harder on mom than it is on the kids… but the teen years are definitely a challenge for all. Take zits for example… and hormones… and having to remind someone six thousand times about something they already know. The point is to just keep adjusting – and moving forward – one path-blazing step at a time… and to cherish the moments and cheer them on because the time is slipping away.

This school year we did something we haven’t ever done before. Mama took a break from being “the only teacher” and my teens took once-a-week classes and online classes with other teachers that held them accountable for their school work being done. I took on more of the “cattle-prod” role, with a hefty dose of “not-going-to-tell-you-twice”.

I decided it was time to let them feel the pain and take responsibility for their assignments getting done. It was hard to watch them fail when I knew they were smart enough to succeed. There were tests bombed, homework assignments undone, books lost, missed deadlines and late points taken off… but it was a learning experience I felt they needed for their future. Not everybody out there in the real world is gonna be as nice as their mama… (or even as nice as their co-op teachers, sorry to say). You can’t shelter them forever.

We faced our fears (mostly mama’s fears) and struggled to tread water all year (amazing that other teachers dole out just as much work or more than mama did). And here we are… just weeks away from the finish line.

Below is a review of each subject and class my teens took:

Biology…

We used Apologia – which I highly recommend. Apologia was a very thorough curriculum and my kids are still doing labs after buying a dissection kit with a slew of animals. We will be done for the most part with Biology at the end of May, and I’ll be going over their test grades to write up a transcript.

My daughter recently found a site online where she can quiz herself over the material. She hasn’t ever been much of a science nut, but my 16 year old LOVES science. He really likes the Apologia curriculum – and he would tell you he likes it much better than A Beka, which is what we used when they were younger. I wasn’t comparing them side by side, however – since we only used the elementary and junior high material they put out.

My teens have dissected a squid, a worm, a grasshopper, a crawfish, a fish, and numerous flowers so far. They missed the week that the teacher dissected a frog, but have done it vicariously numerous times on the iPad.

I was kind of disappointed that the teacher for this class was only facilitating labs, making microscopes available and reviewing material on their study guides and not grading and testing. Part of the reason I didn’t teach this year was to give myself a break from the record-keeping so that I could spend more time with the little boys doing preschool stuff.

If I had it all to do over again, I would want them to do the online Apologia classes with a teacher passionate about that field of science and have them turn in their work to be graded (make it official) so I wouldn’t have to grade anything. We are looking at doing this next year for Chemistry – unless there’s a co-op class available with some minor changes in procedure. Definitely sticking with Apologia, though, regardless of how we take the class.

Writing…

The objective this year for English was to teach my teens the basics of report and essay writing for college, and to provide deadlines for them to work within. When mama has taught them writing, I have been more lenient than what a college professor would be, so I wanted them to have an unbiased force pushing them along to excel. Both of my kids are extremely good readers and able to communicate a message even better than I can most of the time… but getting an organized paper written hasn’t been their strong suit. I think the class has helped them this year, but I felt that they had too much time to get papers written and think they could use more practice with this next year. I’m thinking their teacher is going to move towards creative writing next year – which also has a purpose – but I want to make sure they are still required to do college level writing projects as well.

Spanish 1…

I can’t say enough about the Spanish teacher and her rigorous class this year. I’m planning to follow her where ever she teaches in the next two years to make sure my children have at least two more years of her instruction. Both of them have whined all year that she is too hard of a teacher, but they have learned so much that I am more than happy about it. I also love that she grades the class and expects homework to be prompt. We used Rosetta Stone previous to our joining this class, but the kids have made a lot more progress having memory work each week and oral presentations required in front of peers. It also helps that the teacher speaks fluent Spanish and knows excellent Spanish grammar – requiring them to write a lot. I think doing both Rosetta Stone and this class would be ideal, but their heavy class schedule and our finances didn’t permit me to double up this year.

Drama…

Both of the kids were in a production at the middle of the school year near the Christmas break, and my daughter dropped Drama to focus more on her other classes in January. My 16 year old son stayed in drama this semester but regretted it because he has felt overwhelmed with the amount of work he has had to get done overall and with our family distractions by way of health troubles. Because he got the lead role in the play, he was unable to back out and is going to be in his final production next week. He’s told me he doesn’t want to be in drama next year, even though he has enjoyed the experience. I should have limited them to one elective per semester, but I over-scheduled this year. You live and learn.

Art…

The art class they took this year was “Mixed Media 2” and they focused primarily on different art mediums and techniques they could use in an “altered book“. Because both of my kids are natural artists and have been drawing and painting since they were little, this was the easiest and most rewarding class for them this year. It was more like “down time” and relaxation than school work, and they really enjoyed it. I hope I can afford to add art to our class selection next school year, but even if we don’t, they will no doubt continue to work on their altered books, create artwork for our Etsy shop we hope to open this summer as a family project, and draw and paint as much as they can regardless.

Photography…

The Carver Museum in Austin offered a free black and white FILM photography class this year with dark room lab time. I jumped on board (as you might expect from a photography lover) and spent countless hours driving downtown and sitting in the car with my toddlers so the teens could experience this lost art. The course was about 12 weeks long and the classes were on a weekday afternoon (bad timing for commuting home in traffic). They alternated photo walks with dark-room and classroom time every other week. They provided my kids with film cameras and two rolls of black and white film for each photo walk and at the end of the course, they framed two photographs from each photographer and put them on display in the museum.

I was kind of upset that I didn’t get an email about the reception, and I wish we got a framed print of the final pictures they hung, but that’s besides the point, right? My daughter took the photo on the far right – a picture of her friend Maya and a tree. The photo double exposed because the film was not rolled properly and it created an instant work of art. It was so fun to see them working with my old medium – since I took Black and White Photography in college. I loved getting to visit the dark room again and watch them hang up wet prints to dry.

While we won’t join this class again next year because I can’t justify the time or gas expense, I will say that my eldest claimed it was his favorite class of the school year. Since he’s getting his driver’s license soon, I have given him permission to sign back up with it again once he is able to drive himself there. Both my kids are active iPhone photographers and enjoy Instagram, so they will continue to grow in this area, I’m sure – even though we won’t be doing Photography as a formal class in 2013-14.

British Literature and Medieval History…

We joined an online class this year called CM Live! and my kids have read many books on the time period we had hoped to cover for this school year. While I enjoyed the class, they had a lot of technical issues getting and staying logged in, conflicts with our schedule that prevented prompt participation, and because the class was not graded, they did the bare minimum requirements for the class. The teacher (who I adore) wanted them to narrate something every week, do internet challenges, and read the assigned materials each week. They would have really gotten more out of the class if they had participated the way it was designed.

While I can attest to the online format being a bit difficult to navigate and it was new to them, our main problem was lack of user participation. Most weeks my kids barely got finished reading their books before struggling to get logged in. I felt that the peer discussion ended up being more of a chat box than anything. I originally planned to pair Mystery of History with the class and get more of a solid historical foundation along with the literature, but this didn’t materialize because of our extremely packed schedule.

Next year we are looking at either joining Classical Conversations for history and using Tapestry of Grace as our spine, or going back to Mystery of History and reviewing (ie: cramming) the second half of book 1 – Greece/Rome, book 2- Medieval, and beginning book 3 at a slower pace. I really love MOH, so while I am interested in Classical Conversations, the drive to South Austin to participate in CC is making me nervous. Driving was one of the main “black holes of lost time” for us this school year and I’m feeling the desire to nip future schedule overload in the bud by eliminating all the external commitments we have and simplifying our homeschooling to get the most out of it. Read: less is more.

Bible…

The beginning of our school year started off with weekly Bible study and because of our over-scheduling, this didn’t last long. We slowed and eventually stopped our studies mid-year. We borrowed a Beth Moore study called “Breaking Free” and are still not finished with it. My plan is to finish it over the summer as soon as school is out and return it. It is a great study, but the dragging out of the material has made it feel less than coherent. Next year I’m planning to use another Beth Moore study called “When Good People Do Bad Things” or something like that. I don’t want to borrow another set and keep it this long (feeling major guilt over this). We are also planning to read devotional books and continue our prayer journals. Mama has felt convicted that Bible – which was once a major player in our homeschool – has taken a spot on the dusty shelf this year. This needs to be remedied.

Math…

We started the year out with Teaching Textbooks Algebra (16yo) and Math U See Pre-Algebra (14yo). We had numerous problems with the Teaching Textbooks program and lost or broke our CD that it requires to run. I loved that it was grading my son’s work, but the laptop he was using died, I wasn’t able to see my son’s work since there wasn’t really a workbook, and we had so many technical issues, that I am not sure I will use them again in the future. My kids didn’t feel the pressure of being as consistent with Math because mama was overseeing it – and not some other teacher they respected (sadly) – so they didn’t stay on track with their curriculum to finish it by the spring. We’ll be dropping Teaching Textbooks, switching to using exclusively Math U See, and catching up over the summer.

My kids hate math, and I can’t really blame them because I did, too. They are a bit behind with math just because they don’t like it. Next year we are planning to do Geometry and Algebra, and possibly a financial math course by Dave Ramsey that I have to review, but haven’t been able to find time for yet.

Service Projects and Community/Good Citizenship…

I like to include acts of service in our school year as a rule. Texas actually requires a course of “Good Citizenship” to be taught to homeschooled kids – but doesn’t really define what that means. For me, I take it to mean learning how to be a productive, actively involved member of society and to genuinely care for others. Of course, we already participate in church activities, but we wanted to reach out and do more this year. I know that volunteering should be done out of the goodness of your heart, but it also helps in the motivation department that most colleges look favorably on teens who are engaged with their community in acts of service. { Read: better chance of admission and scholarship. }

My daughter was in American Heritage Girls for most of the year and she ended up having to drop out when her photography class clashed with the time for AHG meets. They went camping and she worked on different badges and skills with her troop just like you would at Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts. Both my 16 year old and 14 year old volunteer at THSC in the summer. They also worked all year at the food pantry each week and helped to unload and organize grocery items, and participated as often as they could with our local county’s Teen Court program. Teen Court has the added benefit of teaching them public speaking skills, how the legal system works, and what a lawbreaking teenager might encounter if they are prosecuted for a crime. Before Teen Court began for this school year the kids attended a crash course on public speaking and debate, too.

We hope to continue with the food pantry and Teen Court, but will be dropping AHG for next school year. The time and money required to continue it and the amount of schedule overload it brings – makes it not feasible for us. Sad to let it go, because we love the Christ-centered fellowship with AHG, but we have to buckle down and focus on finishing high school right now – and protect our time and resources to do so with the least amount of stress possible.

Music…

This year we tinkered with piano and ended up not having time to work something up for the recital. Both my kids continue learning new songs and doing impromptu lessons with grandma (who teaches piano for a living), but they didn’t take regular classes this year like years past. We began our year doing the Quaver Music program, too – but didn’t stick with it like we needed to. I love the videos – teaching music history, theory and genre. My mom taught a class to some younger kids in our co-op with them that was going on during my kids’ Biology class. The goal was for us to bring the videos home and do them with her Thursday nights, but this proved to be a poor plan. I’m planning on finishing this program over the summer once she returns my box and DVDs.

My daughter asked me numerous times this year to get her a voice coach so she would be able to become a singer… but that wasn’t in our financial cards – nor was the time available with so many other things on our radar. If she had one class next year she could hand-pick, though, I’m pretty sure it would be private voice lessons. Can’t imagine where the funds or time for this would come from… but you just never know.

Life Skills…

I couldn’t begin to tell you all the things my kids learn and do each school year that don’t fit in to neat subject lines. Helping with babies, gardening, cooking, gun safety and target practice, nutrition and fitness, etc. My kids are very capable of helping with almost any chore, babysitting, making a meal from scratch (well – my daughter is – I have work yet to do on the 16 year old boy), and helping with most tasks in the garage with dad. Our goals this year in this arena are working on intrinsic motivation and duty/responsibility, and putting some of our skills in action to begin to use them for profit (running a business on Etsy). My oldest is also going to tackle Driver’s Ed this summer or early next school year, being already 16. { Mom is going to tackle TRANSCRIPTS. ACK. }

So that’s our school year review in a nut shell. I’m dreading and looking forward to planning out next year.

It isn’t just fun and games when you see the finish line in the distance. I feel like the weight of the world is on my back some days.

Right now, with dress rehearsals, deadlines for projects looming, classes ending in May, and summer school plans, we are still very much DOING SCHOOL. I was hoping that this year we would actually get a summer break (for a change), but it looks like a light schedule of Bible, Math, Music, Art (+business), and Driver’s Ed is better than nothing.

Now if I could only figure out how to get that Big Bad Wolf costume sewn by next Tuesday…

{ How was your year? Have you looked back over the pros and cons of each course and curriculum and decided what to continue with or drop for 2013-14? }

In Him,

Heather

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Disclaimer: I received Math U See, Apologia Biology and Quaver Music as review items but was not compensated for my honest opinion.