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Dynamic Reader Question

Where to Begin When Putting Together My Own Homeschool Curriculum?

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Your questions are awesome.  Where to begin when putting together my own homeschool curriculum is another dynamic reader question I have to share with you because sometimes the core curriculum is not real clear.

Look at Nicolle’s question:

I am a single mom of an incredible 6 (going on 7) year old boy.  A hands on entrepreneur with overhead still working on the business and so I am a working mom and my son comes to work with me.  though it may be difficult I work towards doing things I believe in in my heart, after long consideration.  I am very creative; however we are just making more friends and have no family where we are (my sons daddy is here p/t).  With that said and with found support in other (stay at home) home-school moms I took the leap and am just beginning to home-school my son.  I am overwhelmed though still with how to create an initial solid foundation to build a ‘core curriculum’ for him and us.  I’ve been told my style is more eclectic, unit studies, with a twist of Charlotte mason living language.  I was referred to take your course which I will.  I’ve worked on new work etc scheduling…but despite being told it’s easier to buy a curriculum (a bit expensive for me and all I want is the written curriculum and not all the books as I can attain them in a different way and which to choose?!)  I’d like to start working on my own…Where do I begin knowing the curriculum I put together (as you said in your video) will not ‘leave my child’ behind so to say??? 

Singleness can have a huge advantage when you are on the curriculum hunt.  You have time to research curriculum because you don’t have a husband’s demands to meet.  Singleness does have its freedom.

Too, using the creative and entrepreneur part of your personality are strengths and can save you money in long run.

Entrepreneurs rock and are willing to take chances and risks that others are not willing to take. This is where you can think of hands-on ideas on the spur of the moment and where you will seize teachable moments.

The side of your personality that probably needs support is with the details and maybe curbing the desire to “jump” to something different when you need to stay on course.
This is where part laid-out curriculum comes in. You are on the right track.  Just remember though that laid-out does not always mean expensive.

You can use laid-out curriculum without buying a whole boxed curriculum. Just buy each part that you need.

When looking at costs, there are a couple of ways at looking at this.
One way is that when you buy something laid-out, you don’t have the guesswork of whether you are covering the basics or not.

Another way of looking at it that I have seen is that many, many, many homeschoolers think they are saving money only to spend or waste thousands of hours trying out new curriculum in their hunt to find a perfect fit.

What price are you putting on your time to hunt for the “perfect” resource?
Understand that anything you purchase will not be perfect ever.

However, getting something that will help you to stay on task, will allow freedom for you to add your creativity and tweaking or deleting activities that make no sense to you is a great start.

I do believe you can find a balance too. One more advantage you have is that your son is very young.  Just starting out you don’t need very much at this age.

The core curriculum are basically your 3 R’s, which are reading, writing and arithmetic.

The 3 R’s vary slightly at each age, but here is the very short list of essentials for his age:

Phonics

Handwriting

Math

Reading

If you spend your hard earned dollars on these things first, then you are covering the essentials.

These are the subjects he needs to do everyday. They don’t have to be done necessarily by a worksheet either.  Again, you can add your flair to these subjects.  At this age, he needs more hands-on as well.

For example, a day of teaching might go like this: phonics may be about creating an art collage of the sounds he is working on, handwriting practice might consist of playing with slime dough after he writes a sentence or two, math could be a read aloud from a living book about math or doing a candy graph and reading could be him listening on line to a read aloud.

Using the laid out guides, you will know what he needs to learn each day and can enhance it with more hands-on learning.

With your tendency toward creativity you can add in science and history from library books and free resources.

Too, you will want to spend money on items for arts and crafts because at this age it is not just play, but it is about learning.

Used curriculum is not always cheaper. It’s worth looking at all your options.

You do not have to buy a boxed curriculum, but you can buy each of these pieces separate and still make a good fit for your son because they are still laid out.

Choose a Homeschool Phonics Program

Look at some of the choices for phonic programs that I like:

Alpha Omega has Horizons, A Beka has a solid phonics program, All About Spelling which is a reading program too, Explode the Code and Sing, Spell, Read and Write.

Choose a Homeschool Handwriting Program

A Reason for Writing and I like workbooks by Zaner-Bloser.

Too, add in plenty of copywork and dictation starting off with like one sentence to copy and expand to longer ones.

You don’t need to teach formal composition until later grades, which could be another long topic here on my blog.

For now, at this age you are teaching the mechanics of how to write.

Most children don’t have control over their fine motor skills until about halfway through first grade. That is when I started teaching cursive to each of my sons.

Choose a Homeschool Math Program

Math is a fun subject too. There are a lot of wonderful programs to choose from as well.

Besides something rigorous which is a given, I prefer bright colored pages for this age too.

Horizon Math is advanced, Singapore is right there too and so is Math U See.
Each one has a different approach.

Choose a Homeschool Reading Program

If he is not reading yet, then you want some phonics readers that enhance your phonics lessons. I used Pathway readers because they were rigorous and inexpensive.

Too, when I taught my oldest son to read, I went to the local teacher supply store and bought an inexpensive set of phonics readers. It focused on one sound in each book and then I added in way more free stuff I found on line and hands-on art to focus on that sound for three or four days and then added in another book.

If he is reading, then you want to look for living books, which means they are not textbooks. You can also save a lot of money by making regular trips to the library to get books on his reading level.

Keep in mind if you use a program like Sing, Spell, Read and Write or All About Spelling which is called All About Reading, readers will be included.

I also loved Christian Light Readers too. They are inexpensive and beautifully written.  It does not hurt to have phonics readers and easy books for beginning readers a plenty.

Though I see this long scrolling list of subjects that new homeschoolers have for their children, the core curriculum or basics are the bones or framework of an excellent education.

Stay the course by doing them each day in every grade, adding in spice along the way by varying your teaching methods and curriculum and you will have a great beginning.

You might also want to look at these posts:

8 Components of a Boxed Curriculum
How to Use a Boxed Curriculum without Giving Up Your Homeschool Approach
How To Choose Curriculum Other Than the Looks Good Method
Stop Switching Your Curriculum, Switch Your Course of Study 

Hugs and love ya,

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If You Need A Homeschool Planner If You Are Figuring Out Your Own Curriculum? Dynamic Reader Question

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I am eager to answer your dynamic reader’s questions because all of your questions are just the best.  Too, I couldn’t wait to dig into answering this dynamic reader question if you need a homeschool planner if you are figuring out your own curriculum.

Leesha said:

“I’m curious, do moms generally need planners if they are figuring out their own curriculum?  I read so much about planners but I’m a little stymied…I’m just not sure how or why I would use one.  I use a few different curriculi that pretty much map out exactly what we need to do (or I just decide, ie. math–4 pages per day kind of thing). We generally figure out at the start of the year which subjects need to be done however many times per week and we’ll write that down to reference until it’s memorized. I’m just wondering if I’m missing out on something important I should be doing?”

There are many reasons why you would use a planner and just as many ways deciding how to use it.

WHEN A HOMESCHOOL PLANNER ROCKS

Whether you are using one curriculum completely or making your own lesson plans, there are 3 reasons worth considering using a planner.

  • When a Planner is more Journal than Planning. One feature of planners that is not given enough attention is the journaling or record keeping part of it.

In the beginning when I used a planner I was using more put together curriculum. Each day, I wrote down what we did for the day.

What we did for the day versus what was in the lesson plan often times ended up being totally different things. Some days, we did more and other days we struggled to complete even one lesson.

A huge advantage to plotting each of my children’s day was that a picture emerged of their strengths and weakness. For example, I could see how much one son was actually not completing in math because of his struggle with the subject.

In the future this know-how helped me to determine a pace good for him when I switched programs or when I started doing all my own lesson planning.

Little did I know that my journaling in the beginning would help me to not only keep a good pulse on what we were able to do each day, but to track my children’s progress.

  • Completion versus Comprehension. That brings me to the second benefit I have received, which is understanding the difference between a child completing a lesson plan (in laid out curriculum or not) or comprehending.

When I used boxed curriculum, I started making notations on side margins in the teacher’s manual of what my sons struggled with and did not master or comprehend even though the lesson was completed.

The next year, I would hunt for those notes to reread because it was important to me to see if my sons were progressing.

However, as organized as I tried to be, it was tough to put my hands-on the correct teacher’s manual because of the numerous amounts of teacher’s manual that grew each year.

It was just too hard to keep everything from one year and not overflow with clutter.

I realized that having my notes for all my kids in one spot to jot down my concerns, write about my fears with tears, be specific in my notes about what was not understood in one subject and jump for joy when learning took giant steps forwarded was a must for me.

One book per year for all my children was a much more streamlined process because I could easily glance back at my thorough notes.

  • Planner or Self-Checking Teacher Tool. My planner became a self-checking tool for me as a teacher because I could check for mastery and push myself, when needed, outside of my comfortable teaching zone because my notes were so clear.

I couldn’t blame anybody else for my lack of teaching ability because I had jotted down so carefully what didn’t work for my children.

The accomplishments in their learning can’t be minimized either because I jotted them down too.

Each year when I got discouraged, I would go back and read my notes. Part of my dogged determination to not returning to public school was reading about those tiny celebrations in my planner.

You know what I am talking about. Those light bulb moments for your children that are small but monumental and that only another teaching parent can understand. When a child reads his first word, then sentence, then paragraph, then chapter book, you can’t keep that excitement bottled up. For me, it started with reading my notes in my planner.

I didn’t need the approval of anybody else to homeschool because I wasn’t just checking off boxes on a teacher’s manual, I was tracking the progress of my sons from PreK to High school by daily journaling.

I can’t personally answer for each homeschooler what works best for them to see both a big picture and fine details when it comes to the progress of each child.

I just know what has worked for me and it is hard at times to just use the word planner because it implies that one is using a planner only for purposes of planning when in fact it can be so much more.
Whatever you decide, whether it’s using an app, typed out or hand-written, a planner should be a tool that fits your personality, brings a breath of fresh air to your day and should be molded to fit the way you want to track not just lessons, but forward momentum.

Hugs and love ya,

 

Check out these other tips!

Gauging Homeschool Progress – Masters of their Material?

Lesson Plan or Lesson Journal?

How to Write a Simple But Effective Homeschool Lesson Plan

Homeschool Lesson Planning Backwards Part 2 of 2.

How to Catch Up When Your Homeschooled Teen Tests Below Grade Level

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You have had some great questions lately and I can’t help but to ask you if I can share them with my other readers.  Today the dynamic reader question: when your high schooler tests below grade level is one I feel some of you may also be wondering about. 

Homeschool High School Teens

This is one of those questions that you may think that you are alone in asking, but you are not.

Check out Suzanne’s question:

Hi Tina. I just started this homeschooling adventure with my 16 yo/10th grade son…this week! My question is, his assessment says he’s at a 7/8th grade level in Language Arts! He’s feeling kind of bummed out about it. How do I get across to him that this is just the beginning, and he may breeze through this 8th grade work quickly as well as the next couple of levels to get him caught up with actual 10th grade work? I hate to say it, but I didn’t realize it was this bad and he had been “pushed through” these last few years! I’m very upset with our public school system here, and so glad to have this chance to help him. I just want to help him anyway I can.
Thanks for your advise!

First, thank you for asking me!  I know this can be a sensitive subject because as the parent, we may have a tinge of guilt feelings. 

But I am here to tell you that even if you rocked along happily homeschooling on grade level that life could throw you an unwelcoming event.  When the Mr. had his heart attack, I found it more helpful to focus on what I could do to help Mr. Senior 2013 get caught up in high school and not focus on what we had lost.

Help Your Child to See Not All Goes As Planned.  Your attitude in helping him to see that this was not all his fault will help him to not only cover language arts with more focus, but it teaches him that we have to roll with life’s punches. 

View this as an opportunity to turn this into a lesson about more than language arts.  How he deals with this set back is preparation for adulthood and high school. 

He is old enough to appreciate that sometimes because of no fault of our own, we can get behind.  This helps him to focus on a “fix” for the solution and keeps it positive.

Maintain Your Balance In Test Results.  Without knowing what type of test he took, it is hard to assess it (no pun intended).  Though a lot of research goes into standardized testing, there are some tests that are not worth taking.  Remember to not be so quick to assign them validity.

Too, curriculum providers vary from grade level to grade level when it comes to language arts. For example, Rod and Staff, which is one of the most rigorous grammar programs that I have used has a student completing grammar by eighth grade. 

It wasn’t until recently (say within the last 5 to 7 years) that they came out with a high school program. 

Other providers, like Bob Jones High School prefer to use a spiral method of teaching some of the same concepts taught since 4th grade all the way to high school.  Does he really need that much review?

Testing your son using various resources like both the online tests (free or otherwise) provided by language arts provider as well as standardized testing gives you a much more broader view of his capabilities and skills.

Dynamic Reader Question When Your High Schooler Tests Below Grade Level

Language Arts Consist of 4 Skills.  Then after having received a much more clear picture, it is important for you to understand that language arts consists of basically 4 different skills.  This will help you to hone in on the one or two skills that need immediate help. 

The 4 basic skills of language arts are Grammar, Reading, Writing(Composing), Spelling.

Others come into use too like vocabulary, which generally is best learned within a literature or reading program.  Sharpen the skills that are more vital now.

For example, though grammar is important, it is a tool that helps us to navigate while composing thoughts.  If a highschooler is behind in knowing how to master the basics of composition or how to communicate his thoughts effectively, then he will be hampered life-long.  So what I am saying is that not all skills, even under language arts deserve the same amount of time at this age.

It does not mean that he should not work on them, but give the best or earliest part of his day to the most critical skills that he needs so that he is able to master them quicker.  Spelling too can be learned right alongside what he is writing.  For example, hold him accountable to spell each word correctly that he uses in his essays. 

If you do this, (hold him accountable for each language art skills), you will see that on one essay, he will work on all 4 basic language arts skills more effectively. This is a feat to cover each week and he will make rapid progress.

In addition, an online course where a child can go his pace AND get credit is sometimes the solution. Look at this Online Homeschool High School Poetry (No Teaching Involved) course that one of my teens did.

Set A Limit.  I found too in working with highschoolers that having clear cut guidelines as to when something needs to be completed by gives him the encouragement and hope to know that it’s not always going to be like this. 

Most teens like to know clear cut guidelines and a stopping point.  When a teen works with no clear cut goal, though we think we have a goal of catching them up, it’s not a finite goal to them.  Most teens will work harder knowing that they will accomplish their first goal.  Anybody works better knowing they have accomplishments.

If need be, cut the assignments in half and especially if he his quickly catching up.

Highschool Graduation “On Time” is VERY Possible.  I learned a very valuable lesson with my first son that I am now practicing with my second highschooler and that is to have a backup plan. 

With Mr. Senior 2013, I had planned all of his high school courses.  Then when we got side swiped, I didn’t have a back up plan.  We had to step rapidly to finish our set course by high school graduation.

With Mr. Awesome, I felt like I have had the best of both worlds,  which is where I lesson planned 2 years of his high school and used part planned for the other 2 years. 

Using an online school, I didn’t want Mr. Awesome to have the unnecessary stress that Mr. Senior 2013 did in that all his course planning came to a halt when I was at the ICU and taking care of the Mr. during Mr. Senior 2013’s high school years.

So what I am saying is that using a very basic high school program like Penn Foster or American School, where they review remedial skills can be a life saver when needed.  Most easy high school programs like that take only two years to do. 

Again, by using part of my courses I selected along with the ones the online school offered, I feel like Mr. Awesome still has a unique high school experience.  It was the perfect compromise for my situation.

Finite goals by both the online school and your courses gives your teen a goal to look forward to and can help close any gaps in his learning.

Being behind is a very grown up and adult issue.  It does not have to be a negative experience, but can be an experience for rapid growth and maturity in how to deal with what comes at us as adults.

Too, don’t forget learning doesn’t stop at high school graduation.

It has been my experience in helping hundreds and hundreds of homeschoolers that these kids are bright, caring and motivated when giving the right reason to be. 

He is not studying language arts just for the sake of catching up, but he is studying language arts because he needs those coping skills as an adult. 

And oh good grief, if I could only answer your questions without writing an online book then I would be happy.  I hope this helps you. 

Give your son a lot of praise, a great big hug and working hard never hurt anybody, but builds strength, character and determination.

You’ll love some of these other tips:

Hugs and love ya,

Dynamic Reader Question-How to Begin Notebooking?

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You know I love answering your questions and when I get one that I think others can benefit from, then I like to share with you.  The dynamic reader question-how to begin notebooking is one I want to share today.

Look at Karen’s question:

I realize this may sound silly, but I have thought of using notebooking pages in the past and have never really understood how to go about it. Now my kids are 6th grade and 9th grade, I feel we need a drastic change. If it’s not too late to start notebooking…can you suggest how do we begin? What and how do you decide to use these wonderful printables? How would I incorporate notebooking into high school?

It’s not silly at all.  As creative teachers, we want to push ourselves outside of what we feel comfortable with when it comes to teaching. 

Not only will your children love this, but you might discover some hidden talents among you and your children.

Dynamic Reader Question - How To Begin Notebooking

Notebooking Needs to Be Tweaked for Your Family

Notebooking is a tool, which means we decide how it best suits our family.  Often, I am told that notebooking is for older kids and lapbooking is for younger kids, but I don’t hail to that thinking.  I think each tool can present challenges and win-win situations.

I think one of the best ways to describe notebooking is to tell what it is not.  It is not a worksheet.  Oh you can make it a worksheet, but notebooking is about your student showcasing his work in a format that is easy to understand.

Some homeschool moms encourage just writing or text on the page.  I do not.  Each of my sons are different learners which means the page needs to be suited to meet each of my son’s needs.

Notebooking is about making the page come alive and organizing content in a way that your children understand.  For example, other things like drawings, sketches, collections (examples like leaves and shed skin of a snake my son collected) can go on the notebooking pages.

Each child is different in how they best recall information learned or how they want to showcase mastery of it.  Your job as the teacher is to help them (as needed) to organize it in a way they understand, not you.

French Revolution Game - French Revolution Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus Native American Lapbook @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Do not limit what your child wants to include from printable board games to minibooks.

How to Begin Notebooking?

Basically, notebooking is about your child taking charge of the way he wants to remember his information.  While he is young, there is nothing wrong with you helping him to lay out his page.

For example, part of the page can be writing, part of it may be illustrations.  Depending on the ages of your children, the page may look more like a drawing. 

To begin notebooking and keep it easy, use pages created by others.  There are so many free notebooking pages found on homeschool blogs and websites that you want to use them to save time and utilize work by other hardworking moms.  Also, the basics of any notebooking pages are just boxes or shapes which contain bits of information.

If you have the basic skills to use any program like Word or other free document creating software, you can create a few boxes on topics your family chooses to learn about. 

Really, with the ages your kids are, just let them create boxes, circles or graphs depending on what you are studying.  

Also, my sons remember key points best by funny sayings or mnemonics.  We used divorced-beheaded-died-divorced-beheaded-survived to remember the fate of the wives of Henry VIII.  So sayings like this can be added by your children as a way to remember information.

What and How Do You Decide Notebooking Printables?

I like to use notebooking pages or lapbooking pages as much as possible though it takes more work.  I view notebooking and lapbooking as a significant return on our learning efforts.  Paying upfront so to speak by taking more time in prepping pages equals a huge return later because the pages are something we can visit and use year after year.  They can always be added to as your child grows and learns.

I like to use the pages too when I want the boys to remember something important or when they find something that interests them.  Because they do take longer to do, it also means that your child has a tool that can be used over and over again to study. 

Studying something your child prepares allows him to take ownership for learning instead of memorizing boring worksheets created by others.

Try to remember that less means more sometimes.  The public educational system would have us think at times that “more” equals productivity.  It may mean more busywork and not meaningful productivity. 

Making the notebooking pages meaningful and focusing on the delight of the topic at hand will make your children masters of their page. 

Master of their pages and content is your ultimate goal and not a mass of pages that have no meaning to your children.

 

Make A Solar Oven Pain Au Chocolat

The pages can include photographs of experiments and activities.  You can see that it not only becomes a valuable and fun way to memorize information, but a great way to keep a portfolio of your child’s work each year.

Because notebooking pages can be decorated by them, (or not) they take ownership of it.  Some kids thrive on being crafty, others do not find satisfaction that way. 

Again, this is an advantage of notebooking because their page reflect personality in style and set up.

How Would I Incorporate Notebooking into High School?

Notebooking is especially good in high school when note taking becomes more important.  Doodling should be permitted on notebooking pages because if it helps them remember a key point, then it’s important. 

The rule is there is no rule for how a page should be set up at this age.  As they enter adulthood, they need to hone in on the best way they learn information and it is an art on how they should lay out information on a page.  Too, I know many adults who do not know how to easily convey their thoughts and ideas to others.

High school becomes a time when they not only learn how to review their notes and organize thoughts but how they articulate it to others.

At first, it may seem strained or take time to refine information to a page, but after you have done notebooking for a while, you see the freedom in creating pages either like a timeline page, illustration page, text page or even an art page.

Older Teens Learning

In high school give them superior resources to choose from to add to their unique pages. The pages may include timelines, bits of information from primary sources and include their own feelings about perceived injustices on certain controversial topics like government and religions.

A lot of high school students, including mine, struggle with how to streamline content.  Notebooking reminds me a bit like outlining because your students have to decide how to narrow down the key point to remember.

There could be no more important skill to learn in high school than to streamline content AND more importantly to be able to look at their visual set up and recall critical information.

I have one son who wants more text and one who wants less when creating their pages.  We have successfully used notebooking when I have sat down with each of my sons and spend a bit of time creating with them to suit their learning style. 

A bit of guidance in the beginning helps the highschooler who wants clear guidelines of what they are doing.  Once they understand that notebooking is about helping THEM recall and display information learned instead of meeting your requirements, they feel the freedom.

Also, you can use notebooking for your expectations and grading.  They will be called on plenty of times in college to manipulate information and present it in a clear, concise and organized manner. 

Really, college bound or not, honing in on key points when explaining to others is a valuable communication skill for any adult.

Free Resources for Homeschool Notebooking, Any Ages!!!

I think the queen of notebooking is Jimmie Lanley at Notebooking Fairy.  You need to scoot by her site and check out her free pages for all ages.  You will love how easy she makes notebooking for all ages!

Check out some of these other free notebooking pages.  I listed just a few and a variety of them so that you can see what you can find on line for any homeschool subject.

http://harringtonharmonies.com/2013/06/free-state-notebooking-pages-2.html

https://www.tinasdynamichomeschoolplus.com/world-wars-to-today/geography-country-studies-timelines-2/

http://www.livingandlearningathome.com/2013/09/animal-kingdom-science-notebooking-pages.html

http://thesetemporarytents.com/2013/09/11/wassily-kandinsky-notebooking-study/

http://www.brightideaspress.com/2013/01/amelia-earhart-pages/

http://imanshomeschool.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/human-body-notebooking-pages-5/

http://museofthemorning.com/homeschool/2014/02/07/free-basic-notebooking-pages/

http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/free-pages/free-sonlight-world-history-pages/

http://ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com/2013/03/m-is-for-monkey-printable-notebooking.html

Don’t forget to check out my blog category for my free learning printables.

https://www.tinasdynamichomeschoolplus.com/category/1-my-learning-printables-any-topic/

And finally, remember that minibooks are part of notebooking too which is why I think lapbooking and notebooking overlaps so much. Minibooks can be glued on any page.

When you glue minibooks on pages, the variety of setups are then endless: minibooks with part text, minibooks with part graphics, all minibooks and no text, minibooks and nature drawing or minibooks and shapes.

Don’t make notebooking boring and your kids won’t be bored with it!! 

Give it a try!

Hugs and love ya,

 

2012Tinasignature When you step back . . .

Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I answered a question today, homeschool high school how to log hours for high school. Also look at my page How to Homeschool High School.

I luv your questions.

Ad always try to make time to put them in my blogging calendar. You are one of the reasons I blog.  Look at the one I want to help you with today. 

I can never answer questions like this with just a short answer. Why? I want you to always be in the know. 

I’m giving you a heads up now that I got long winded have many details today.

“Hi there Tina!!

Good Morning to you. Can you give any advice on how to log or track hours for high school/ high school credits? What was your system?  Laura”

How to Log or Track Hours for High School? Click here to grab tips for a no fear homeschool high school year.

Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School

This is a very important question. Because you don’t want to be cheating your teen.

Or over complimenting him either when you log hours or assign credit.

Before you can log hours though there are two things to determine.

1.) How to determine time? You think this is easy enough.

But not so fast because even the professionals in college didn’t give me the same answer.

2.) And based on what criteria will you assign credit?

I will break both of these down.

There is no need to feel overwhelmed and not get a simple answer. 

The answer though will depend on what courses you want your teen to do in high school.  You have a lot of flexible so be sure to remember that too.

High School Hour Basics

For most courses, you count either 1.0 credit or 0.5 credit.  Some special occasions you can count 2.00 credits, but that is another post.  All of my courses were the standard 1.0 or 0.5 credit.

A very basic rule of thumb and easier to remember without all the educationalese is that one high school textbook or course equals to about 1 credit.

Think about that and it makes sense.

If you take either Algebra I or II for example, it takes normally about one school year to finish.

A high school publisher knows it will take that long to finish math.

If your child studied it every weekday for 1 hour in a 5 day week for a normal school year.

A normal year can run anywhere from a 120 to 180 days.

{Side point here, but remember I use 180 days in my lesson planner to give you a boost in helping you to remember a school year.}

Fast forward to the end of the freshman year.

If your child took about 6 courses to use as an example, then that would equal about 6 credits.

That is for their freshman year. Or 6 1/2 if you added a fun course that only took 1/2 as many hours like ballroom dance, or speech or maybe art.

Then 6 times 4 which is the number of years for high school if you do a 4 year plan would equal about 24.05 credits. 

That is a pretty good number of credits for high school.  It can be higher for a college bound student.

But again anything between about 21 to 24 credits is good for high school completion.

Eazy peazy and you don’t have to track actual minutes and hours.  This was by far the easiest method for me to determine credit for Mr. Senior 2013.

Determine to Avoid Time Keeping Confusion

Where I went wrong in the beginning was when I was reading too much about high school.

Ad giving myself one big giganto headache.

I was tracking every waking minute or thing he did. 

For example, he did ballroom dancing for a fine art elective and if we missed a week for some reason I freaked out got a headache recalculating.

If only I realized sooner that we did this year round and so he had so many more hours than the 0.5 credit I assigned for that type of elective.  I gave up tracking the actual hours because we were way above it and just assigned the 0.5 hr for the year and did not worry about counting the actual hours.

A history program I love to revive the love of learning for a teen because it covers history in broad strokes.
Read Why I Love and Use BrimWood Press History Here

You can see how quickly I realized that it was more easier to track the core subjects by completing the book or course than it was at times the electives or other projects I assigned.

Just to summarize to this point and not lose you, 1.0 credit is normally given for doing 1 hour per day of school each week day based on 120-180 hours which is a school year.

Credits for Completion or Passing

While not wanting to split hairs or overwhelm you either, I do want you to be aware of a very fine point and it is the difference in how you assign credit.

Using only the “completing a course or book equals 1.0 credit” mentality can have a slight hiccup if your student does not pass the course. 

So you can see this topic dovetails on setting a standard about how you grade and expecting a passing grade before you assign that credit too.

  I have some examples of a grading system you will want to adopt too on my page Step 5a. Choose Unique Forms JUST for You

Balancing this thinking for you, I want to throw in one more counter weight and that is about how I counted Bible study. 

It is not a subject he will ever complete and never come back to like say Algebra I.

  So I had to come up with some way of tracking it though and I did that by covering certain topics each year that I assigned. 

However, I did keep up with hours, but more than that my standard for him was one of my very own that had nothing to do with a grade. 

My standard was more about how his heart was moved as we had Bible discussions.  I simply marked it passed on that study. 

So even though Bible study is an going life time habit, you will still want to put some measurable system in place for the sake of counting it in high school.

As you  can see, you have a variety of ways to assign credit which are the core subjects, electives and things that you specifically assign which are important to your family.

Outside of the Textbook Credit Counts too

High school is about the time in your teen’s life that he needs to explore, investigate and well grow up.  So there will be some things that you will want to assign as projects for the year. 

This is perfectly normal. Both public and private schools have these options too.

For example, I assigned a 10 page essay for Mr. Senior 2013 as his final exam on the topic “What is Love?” where I expected him to break down verse by verse First Corinthians 13: 1-13. 

Out of all the subjects I assigned him to write about, I couldn’t think of a topic more worthy to his heart and his eternal benefit to remember than the true meaning of love. 

I won’t try to go teary eyed on you, but it was my last official writing assignment to him in high school.

homeschool geography quest

{Geography Quest where Mr. Senior 2013 prepared a majority of notes and visual presentation on Turkey and directed his younger siblings on what to say too.  He was graded on all 3 aspects.}

So look at some of these other ways to assign 1.0 or 0.5 credit.

  • It could be some kind of apprenticeship.
  • It could be  some kind of community project.
  • It could be any area that he demonstrated what I call a went “far and beyond” attitude to learning something.
  • It could be an essay or other long-term project that goes to the very heart of why you homeschooled.
  • It could be for helping you to keep up with his records, learning about the computer and doing self-learning, which is called orientation in some distance learning programs. (more on that below)

All families are different and their goals in their courses and projects should reflect that. 

Some families are sports minded, others have children who want to be professional dancers or music players, others are scientific minded or want college academics in high school too. 

So you can see that beyond the 3 R’s you have room to tailor your high school program to fit your family’s values or goals.

Praise for the Paper/Pen Method Despite Digital World

The best way I kept up with what we did the first year was simply to journal it in  Microsoft Word. 

At the end of the year was a better time to assess his credit based on what I kept up with during the year. 

As I sat down each time whether it was daily or if I skipped a few days because of life, I simply typed up what I thought was important to know about that day or week if it was something beyond the 3 R’s.

Now, I use part of Evernote with Mr. Awesome too because I can access it with any device, but a simple method is best. 

All the fancy forms can’t substitute for plain old journaling your journey. 

I probably made way more notes than I needed to, but I also had it all. 

I did eventually put it on the forms I made on Step 5a. Choose Unique Forms JUST for You.

Too, having helped lots of homeschool families prior I knew that many of the high school distance learning programs give a 0.5 credit called orientation as they introduced the students to using a computer and learning about high school when they enrolled. 

Since Mr. Senior 2013 could help me too by keeping up with his student planner, and my curriculum planner and typing down some of what he did as he learned the parts of the computer, I could at least give him that credit too.

Though it may seem a lot to keep up with, it can be pretty straightforward if you will remember to not worry about counting actual hours if your child is using a high school course or textbook and it equals about a year. 

Tracking Time Easily

If he passes, then that part is already done for you and you only have to keep up with the hours he worked on electives or other projects you assigned.

Beginning_woodworkHome_economics_i_lu_setLIFEPAC® Windows® 7 Set

{Elective courses like woodworking and home economics from Christian Light Publication and learning about computers from Alpha Omega.}

Even some of the electives can be easy to figure out too like the one we used by Christian Light Publication called Beginning Woodworking. 

It flat out said it was one credit. 

Easy enough to figure it out by choosing from publishers like Christian Light Publication, Alpha Omega Publications and Bob Jones because they specifically state the credit hours for the elective.

I hope this helps you some and don’t be too rigid about counting hours.  As you can see sometimes it is hard to put a “time or hour” on reading lists. 

Your teen needs to be worried about earning his grade instead of you worrying about getting it exactly right. 

Just use the same grading system and way of determining credit throughout all of high school and it will be consistent.

Hang in there as you homeschool high school. 

It really is a huge achievement and one well worth all the information you glean along the way.  I hope I added to your empowerment today.

Hugs and love ya,