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High School Elective:Peek at Principles and Precepts of Economics

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

High School Elective. A Peek at Principles and Precepts of Economics Homeschool High School Curriculum @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
I was given this product for free and I was paid for my time. However, paid for my time does not mean paid off. All opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. Not every product will get a positive review. Too, because I carefully sort through numerous offers for reviews,  it usually means that I’m giddy about the product when I do accept it. Read my full disclosure here.

After just graduating high school, one of my most memorable adventures was staying with friends who lived in Belize. They had just purchased a house and planted trees, which produced the most delicious avocados and mangoes. When night came though, they would have to guard their new orchard as some of the Belizeans would jump the fence and raid their fruit. One local man justified the actions of his fellow countrymen by saying, “The fruit was for the whole of we.” Knowing the history of British influence on the dialect, we all understood the meaning of his reply. Whatever work you did in that country was to benefit the whole country. My friends and I got schooled that night about economics from one local view which was very different than what I learned about high school economics. Economics is about learning the history of what shaped people to think about their system of trading. So I was thrilled when I had the chance to teach my high school teen about economics using Principles and Precepts of Economics from Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum. 

When I learned that Principles and Precepts of Economics course is taught through history, I was hooked. Isn’t that what really affects how people from different countries view the economy? The past history and the present and future goals of a country shape today’s modern world. Look here at the scope and sequence of what each book covers so you can get an overview.

Understanding economics then at the high school level needs to begin with the ideas of the founding fathers and Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum (PAC) has done a solid job in presenting a foundation for a country’s trading system while presenting both good and bad ideas.

The course has three components: three soft-cover texts (chapters), three student activity books and a teacher resource book, which we put in a binder for ease of use.

The ease of use for PAC is one of its strongest features for a homeschooled home school teen | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Look at the 15 topics that come in each chapter (soft-cover text) so you can see the key teaching points and how Principles and Precepts of Economics unfolds.

 15 TOPICS STUDIED IN EACH SOFT BOUND (Chapter) TEXT BOOK.
Chapter 1

►Introduction to Economics
1. Defining Economics
2. An Economy Based on Biblical Principles
3. A Bad Experiment
4. Economics and the American Colonies
5. Tyranny of the Crown
►From Revolution to Prosperity
1. Liberty or Death!
2. War!
3. The Constitution and Bill of Rights
4. Land of Opportunity
5. Prosperity vs New Ideologies
►Modern Economic Issues in America
1. The Progressives
2. Change Comes
3. New Economies Part I
4. New Economies Part II
5. Return to Greatness

Chapter 2

►The Early Years – Seeds of Economic Liberty
1. Fleeing Tyranny in England
2. An Economy Based on Biblical Principles
3. A Bad Experiment
4. Economics and the American Colonies
5. Tyranny of the Crown
►From Revolution to Prosperity
1. Liberty or Death!
2. War!
3. The Constitution and Bill of Rights
4. Land of Opportunity
5. Prosperity vs. New Ideologies
►Modern Economic Issues in America
1. The Progressives
2. Change Comes
3. New Economics Part I
4. New Economics Part II
5. Return to Greatness

Chapter 3

►Family Economics
1. Budgets
2. Banking
3. Insurance
4. Investing
5. Government Considerations
►Starting a Small Business
1. Freedom vs. Punching a Clock
2. Personal Interest + Demand = Profit
3. Resources (Help Is Available)
4. Profit and Loss
5. Use It Wisely
►Education and Economic
1. Considerations
2. College
3. Trade Schools
4. Military Service
5. Other Options

As you can see the Chapter 2 book builds on the history of Chapter 1. The Chapter 3 book we really liked too because it gave practical value to learning economics. For example, Mr. Awesome and I had to make some decisions about a 401K in his upcoming job. After covering Chapter 3, Tiny knew what we were talking about because he really liked the sections about family economics and business ownership.

Let me back up first though because Chapter 1 is a fast and surprisingly comprehensive overview of world history including some religious views and some about the background of the Bible.

This was unexpected by us at first because I’ve used curriculum from PAC before and prefer to add in our own worldview. It is easily done by this curriculum.

Too, we understood the context in which those ideas were being introduced. For example, to understand capitalism is to view it through the eyes of the founding fathers. It was based on individual liberty and belief in inalienable rights bestowed by a Creator.

Through the course it was clear that principles, precepts and different theories were going to be introduced. At this age, I’m wanting to be sure Tiny is introduced to other worldviews.

Chapter 1 covers from Ancient history, including Rome to the Awakening to the Middle Ages. As each world power is introduced, vocabulary words and ideologies are explained.

The layout of the book is what makes the books so easy for a middle or high school student to do independently.

Look below at one 2 page layout.

Self-teaching is promoted because everything the student needs to learn is right on the page without researching a lot of external resources.Vocabulary words are clearly defined through simple, but not busy illustrations which makes the teaching points or message memorable.

Another feature Tiny really enjoyed was the use of video throughout the book.

If you don’t know what QR codes are, I know your teen probably does. That was another unexpected very useful interactive tool we liked.

How to Easily Teach High School Economics

You can download the free QR reader scanner here at iTunes. Note this one is for an iPhone. You can also get one for an iPad which we already had downloaded.

Look at these easy directions below.

High School Elective. A Peek at Principles and Precepts of Economics Homeschool High using QR codes | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Find the QR code links in the books, use your device to scan the code (tell your teen to clean his screen for the fifteenth time, okay, okay) and then wait for the video to load on your device.This video was one learning about different types of business structures and it was my business-minded teen’s very favorite.

10 Things You Should Know About Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum

Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum (PAC) may be a good fit for your family:

►If your high school student prefers to work independently.
►If your middle school student is ready for high school level work.
►If, like me, you need to keep up with high school credit then this is one-half credit (.5) or semester long program.
►If you have a middle school or high school teen that loves history, then he’ll appreciate covering economics from a history slant.
►If you want to use this as an elective or a required course in social studies.
►If you don’t want to use an online high school. Simply choose which subjects you want your child to do and form your syllabus. Grade and track your child’s grades.
►If your teen gets easily overwhelmed with all the clutter in digital only formats, then the clean and simple black and white illustrations keeps the points being taught straightforward and challenging but clear.
►If you want something affordable and prefer to use consumable products.
►If your teen prefers activities like fill in the blank, matching concepts, marking answers true and false and circling the correct answer.
►If you want to still feed your teen’s mind with character building concepts, he’ll savor the tiny nuggets of motivational sayings or Life Principles at the end of each section.

I do have to let you know about a part I didn’t agree with. Understand too that I realize at the high school senior level parents vary about how much control they want over their young adult’s content.

I still very much feel it’s my job to shape my child’s thinking and I’ve always preferred secular resources so that I can instill my own Biblical content.

One the other hand, I’ve never objected to my teens being exposed to conflicting thoughts and views because my job is to prepare my teens for other views. But I want views to stay as that, just opinions or perspectives.

The authors write on the left side column of the page:

Evolution, as it is taught today, has itself evolved since Darwin published his tome; but the book inspired collectivists to promote their theories. While the intention of this course is not to delve deeply into scientific matters, we need to examine the evolution perspective so you can see its impact on public policy, including economics and politics. (Chapter 1, page 43. Bold emphasis mine.)

Then on the right side column of the same page the authors write:

Evolution’s counterpart, creationism, or intelligent design, was (and is today) ridiculed by collectivists as unscientific, and thus unworthy of inclusion in modern science text and classrooms. However the success of capitalism is a strong argument in support of economics based on individual liberty and belief in inalienable rights bestowed by a Creator.

In reality, both evolution and creationism are unprovable, from a purely scientific standpoint. Science observation and experimentation are necessary parts of the scientific method, neither evolution or creationism can be proved scientifically. If creationism is true, nobody alive today was around to watch it happen, and if evolution is true, no one can live millions of years to observe it happening. Likewise if God created everything in the distant past, we cannot recreate that in the lab. Neither can one recreate evolution in science labs. (Chapter 1, page 43. Bold emphasis mine.)

Whether I agree or not if evolution or creationism cannot be proved scientifically, I would have preferred that the second paragraph on the second column above not be included.

I feel this would have been more in line with the authors’ intention of not delving deeply into scientific matters because I want to be the one helping my teen determine our scientific standpoint.

Overall it was an excellent course for the number of lessons covered and that part didn’t hold us back from covering the rest of the very useful and practical information.

Too, I think you’ll love how all of their courses are useful and practical to use. We’ve had an overall positive experience using them. Look at my post where we used Paradigm Accelerated World History Curriculum.

Then don’t forget to use the coupon code below for such a well-laid out course.

Follow Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum.
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How to purchase it.

►Product Name: Principles and Precepts of Economics. Full course kit which includes texts, activities and teacher’s resource kit.
►Website: Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum – Principles and Precepts of Economics.
►Suitable for grades: 7th to High School.
►Formats: Print version, audio enhanced and digital download.
►Worldview: Secular friendly and easy to implement your own worldview.
►Cost: $59.55 print version.

Also, check out 14 Fun and (maybe Frugal) Homeschool High School Electives, Successful Entrepreneur-3 Best Homeschooled Teen Resources and Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

3 Unique Things a Homeschooled Teen Learns From a Teacher’s Manual

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

3 Unique Things a Homeschooled Teen Learns From a Teacher's Manual @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

When your kids are middle school or high school level, beginning to homeschool can be tough. For many years they have been away from you and have been conditioned to learn one way.

And though homeschool moms who’ve homeschooled their teens from the beginning may find it easier to hand over the teacher’s manual to their teens because they know what standard they have set day to day, they can still find it challenging to teach study skills.

Regardless of whether you’ve homeschooled from the beginning or jumped into homeschooling with teens, there are 3 things a homeschooled teen learns by you handing over the teacher’s manual.

One/ A teen learns that you won’t control them. This may not seem important to you, but to a maturing teen it’s everything.

This is not as paramount as they grow older, but in the early teen years with my boys, it was important for them to see me as a confident, not controlling teacher.

Hear my whisper and feel my gentle nudge, failure is a good teacher for your teens. More on that in a minute.

As my sons grew older and became more confident, we didn’t clash about control. However, when they were entering the teen years, I tried to not it let it get to that point. I simply handed over the teacher’s manual so they could dig in it on their own.

Giving them the teacher’s manual is not about a power struggle, but empowering them to learn.

Two/ Forget independent learning skills, they need to learn how to study first.

I’m not against independent learning skills, but at this time in their life is when a teen learns how to study. In the rush to prepare our teens for adulthood, we expect independent learning skills without teaching them how to to do it.

You can’t expect your teens to be independent until they have practiced how to study or have a few trial runs.

Now, I know you may be thinking that your teens will look straight at the answers and write them down without studying. They may.

Lessons I Learned From My Homeschooled Teen

My teens tried it a few times with some problems they couldn’t solve in math and language arts.

Let them think they are getting away with something if that is how they feel. However, here is the secret!

They have to be able to tell you back what they learned.

If a teen can’t tell you back what he has learned without looking at the book or the material he has studied, he hasn’t mastered his material.

So if my boys chose to look at the answers first and work back from that how to solve it, I didn’t care.

At first, I was apprehensive letting them have that freedom, but too I have never spoon-fed my boys or thought the only way to learn was a question answer format. I’ve always allowed them to learn, even in reverse if necessary.

I learned that if they were to be independent learners, I had to quit being the teacher and be the coach to guide them.

Three/ Problem solving skills are learned in middle school or high school where they should be and not in college or on the job.

Whether your teen chooses a college or career track, the ability to solve problems when an answer isn’t correct is critical to flourishing in the real world.

It can be easy to identify a problem, but solving it is another skill set.

Learning how to attack a problem with a plan or order for determining importance, finding the right and wrong assumptions and then determining a solution is something that even adults struggle with.

Here and now when your child is a teen is when they learn such a valuable skill that will boost their college or career track.

I mentioned before failure is a good teacher. Your mom voice doesn’t have to be brittle or harsh when your teens don’t want to listen to you. I’m not talking about tolerating a disrespectful attitude but allowing your teen to disagree with the way you teach.

You have nothing to prove.

Give your teen the manual and if he can’t explain back what he learns without constantly opening the book, then the material needs to be reviewed. Learning is that simple.

Don’t try to be confrontational. If they don’t get the point that they have to redo the material if they don’t understand it, then encouraging them to do it again with the teacher’s manual teaches them to not give up.

After a few times of doing it that way, my boys would work many times without cracking open the teacher’s manual. After they completed their work, they self-graded and reviewed from the teacher’s manual.

How to Stay Motivated While Homeschooling Teens

They can surprise you too when you gently guide them. My boys, without my prompting, would rework their problems or redo their work to be sure they understood it.

They need to understand that this is their education and they have the right to learn in a way that benefits them the most.

Fast forward many years now, I recently asked Mr. Senior 2013 if that was the right thing to let him have the teacher’s manual. He absolutely agreed and added that if he didn’t get the problem correct after checking the teacher’s manual, it made him rethink how he solved his problem. I loved what he said because that it was what every homeschool parent wants – to equip their child for the real world.

Do you have a teen that you’re butting heads with? Try this and let me know if he or she flourishes.

Also, look at these other helpful articles. Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School, Homeschool High School Readiness and Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2.

Hugs and love ya,

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Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

How to Homeschool If You Don’t Have Time

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

How to Homeschool If You Don't Have Time @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusLiving in a society that is more connected than ever before with smart phones, tablets, and computers, those devices have made life easier than it did for our parents. Unlike our parent’s time though, demands on our time have not lessened. Life now is more frantic and fast-moving than ever before.

When Time Gets Slipping Away

In the beginning of my homeschool journey, we didn’t have as many time saving devices as we do now.

Now, in the latter part of my journey, we have many conveniences at our fingertips, but I still find it hard to make time to homeschool. Can you relate?

Today, in sharing how to homeschool if you don’t have time, I want to share a few sanity-saving tips that have helped me to have forward momentum.

Remain schedule focused.

Come what may in terms of apps, planners and devices, my schedule is the only thing I have control over. And in the spirit of keeping it real, I’m not talking about controlling those moments in life that just happen. I do mean that success happens when your schedule becomes a habit.

Hard is an understatement for training wiggly, active and low attention span boys to learn study habits. But as S L O W as my progress was some days, I cut out time from other things to maintain our schedule.

If I am on the computer, on the phone or still cleaning when it was time to start school, I am not modeling the right study skills for my boys when they are young.

It’s a SWEET payoff now that I am down to the last kid and he starts school on his own while I enjoy extra coffee time, extra time on a walk or on the phone.

My boys have been trained to get started for the day by me modeling what I wanted from them. All I can think of now is back to the time when I started homeschooling and seasoned homeschoolers would say the time goes by fast. It does!

By taking time to model what you want first in the morning, you are freeing up thousands of sweet moments later. It’s been worth every effort of sticking to my schedule!

I demanded chores to be done.

In this world of don’t-require-anything-of-me-because-you-might-break-my-free-spirit attitude, I rejected that thinking and stuck to my guns when it was time to do chores both for the family and individually.

The home is a place shared by many individuals and doing a few chores every morning has been one key to maintaining sanity. The important tip though has been accepting a kid cleaned house and getting started for the day.

Not so easy to do when you want to go behind your kids and do it again yourself to be sure it’s done right. That is the difference between success and failure.

Consistency is the key to homeschooling and parenting (you know the two concepts are inextricably linked) and I want my sons to be the kind of people that other people want to be around and have as friends and marriage mates later.

Considerate, clean and being conscientious are skills learned when chores are required.

Counting the Cost of Trivial Time Pursuits

Did I mention the feel good moment when your adult son’s room mate says your son is one of the best room mates he has had? This gives me a good glimpse into how he is around others when I’m not around. You respect others when you keep your surroundings clean.

Don’t be always ready to share your time with others in trivial things.

It may sound harsh, but like any long term career there is a cost to homeschooling that goes beyond dollars.

Some, not all, homeschoolers are the social kind that needs interaction with friends on a daily basis.

While homeschooling is not asking you to make a choice between your kids sand your friends, it is about making your kids priorities. Especially if friends are non-homeschooling friends, they may not understand why you may decide to not exercise your homeschool freedom right then by visiting or running errands with them.

Be willing to limit your time on devices too.

I don’t ask my boys to do something that I am not willing to do.

Many times throughout the years, I have been tempted to slip away to check email or texts while my boys are busy writing. When they were young, it was more important that I did not do that. Now that my baby is in high school, I have more time to do things like that.

By limiting my internet time in the beginning, my sons learned to do what is important first.

Not getting caught up in the hype of frantic living takes effort nowadays.

Turning off the TV and sitting down in the floor like we still do to play a family board game is a battle, but once we get started, it’s hard to stop our family time. Homeschooling is no different and requires just as much effort today.

Don’t get caught up in the fast-paced, more is better attitude that can saturate our lives right now. Knowing that you made each morning a priority in learning brings sweet peace and progress.

How do you shove back when your life becomes hectic?

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Also, grab some tips from these articles:

Stop the Homeschool Time Drain
Divide And Conquer The Ever Growing List of Homeschool Subjects
The Sticking Power of a Homeschool Schedule
3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Linking up @ these places:

10 Tips When Teaching Grammar to Your Homeschooled Child

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

10 Tips When Teaching Grammar to Your Homeschooled Child @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

When should you start teaching grammar? How much grammar is enough or too much? What is the purpose of grammar?

When I started homeschooling, I had more questions about grammar than I got answers for when I was in school. And though I would not call myself a total grammarian, like Kelley, who feels like all writing is the beginning of a treasure hunt to unearth errors (oh the sheer delight), I do love me some grammar.

Look at these 10 tips when teaching grammar to your homeschooled child because I hope to lighten your load about the stress of teaching grammar and give you some helpful insight.

1. Grammar is not too late when you start later.

Although I started teaching grammar in third grade, quickly I learned that teaching grammar could have waited until fifth or sixth grade because it’s easier then to grasp complex issues of grammar rules.

It does not mean that the mechanics of writing like spelling and capitalization should not be immediately corrected. Modeling correct grammar is a good teacher.

2. Grammar is not really about improving ideas for writing.

Yes, I know this may sound far-fetched. You can, however, have a child that is an advanced writer but lags behind in grammar structure. A child or an adult may clearly communicate his thoughts but may not be aware of proper tenses.

Too, roles can be flipped. For example, I know people with a linguistic background who can make my writing shine in no time. Their eye to detail is unmatched and I love that about them.

However, they would also be the first one to admit that knowing technical details doesn’t always mean that you can write well or with confidence.

Creating worthy and valuable writing content is a learned skill.

I often wonder if people with a strong English background fear writing less or more than somebody that does not have a strong grammar background? It still intrigues me.

3. It is important to learn the vocabulary of grammar.

The vocabulary of grammar was something I did not learn in school. And like any language, English too has beginning vocabulary terms like is what a basic tense and advanced vocabulary terms like conditional tenses.

This brings me to my next point.

4. Advanced grammar helps with learning foreign languages.

When teaching Latin to my first son, I realized that if I had not used Memoria Press, which guided us with basic grammar tips and then connected basic information to advanced, I would have struggled notably with helping my son study a foreign language.

What I am saying is that it is hard to compare a foreign language with your native tongue if you don’t have a full scope of advanced English terms.

The beauty of learning grammar is clearly shown when you start teaching and learning a foreign language.

In helping my son study a foreign language, I learned more details about my native English language than I did in just studying it each year.

5. Writing classes can improve grammar.

Writing classes should focus primarily on content, creativity of ideas and clarity.

Applying grammar to troubled areas like their vs they’re and our vs are makes grammar a crucial part of writing. But this doesn’t mean that writing curriculum should stifle the creative writing process or overshadow it with many rules.

Is this why so many kids hate writing? Again, grammar should enhance writing and help a budding writer choose words more carefully.

6. A well-written grammar course can be completed by 10th grade or so.

Using Rod and Staff English in high school helped me to understand that studying grammar as a separate subject didn’t have to span all four years of high school.

Of course, stopping a formal study of grammar would depend on how much previous grammar instruction your child had in school.

Grammar is Alright (oh, oh, scratch that, I meant) All Right

Too, I learned that if I chose an advanced grammar course in the beginning high school years, then the next few years could be focused on helping my student find his writing voice while applying grammar as a priceless tool.

7. Attack grammar with the same powers of observations used in science.

I vividly remember a tip shared many years ago by an intuitive homeschool mom. She said studying grammar should be like a scientist examining something under a microscope.

By magnifying a feather, salt or sand, a scientist brings items up for a closer look. Zooming in on them gives them a different perspective and shows how the pieces fit the whole.

Attack the parts of grammar with the same enthusiasm that a scientist scrutinizes infinitesimal pieces under a high powered lens until you get comfortable teaching grammar.

8. Basic grammar is vital to an excellent education.

Don’t get caught up in all the hype of advanced grammar that you don’t teach your child the essentials of grammar.

Teaching concepts like the parts of speech and effective sentences and paragraphs are mainstays of grammar. From there, a child can build on it in later years.

Fearing that I would make a mistake in each sentence I wrote, I overly stressed about writing. That mindset trickled down to teaching grammar.

9. Don’t make grammar boring and blah.

When grammar is learned through games and with a group, it can be fun.

I did treasures hunts in my home for the parts of speech when the boys were little.

We still do mad libs when we have had enough of formal grammar and I buy copious amounts of grammar games at conventions when I can find them.

10. Practice good grammar every day.

Don’t let the fear of grammar hold you back from letting your writing ideas overflow or trickle. Practicing good grammar each day makes it easier to pen your thoughts to paper or to share what you know with others.

I still struggle with grammar but the basic human need to communicate is a powerful motivator to learning complex grammar concepts. Find the joy in teaching grammar because it should be exhilarating and not exhausting.

What has been your experience with teaching grammar?

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Linking up @ these places:

Should I be Teaching Spelling to my Homeschooled High Schooler?

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

Should I be Teaching Spelling to my Homeschooled High Schooler @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Now that two of my sons have graduated, I have tweaked my thinking about spelling several times throughout the years and want to share a few tidbits of my experience.

I have been asked, “Should I be teaching spelling to my homeschooled high schooler?” Well, it depends.

I know, maybe not the exact answer you wanted to hear. But then again, we are homeschooling to teach to each child’s strengths and weaknesses and that same mindset goes for teaching high school spelling.

Should We Do Away with Grade Levels in Spelling?

First, I think it’s important that as homeschool moms of high schoolers that we abandon spelling mold thinking.

Though teaching and mastering advanced levels of spelling is ideal at the elementary grades, sometimes a teen just needs more time.

One mindset that we need to not be swayed by as moms of teens is that spelling should only be taught at the elementary grades.

Too, it’s important that we teach our teens to do a self-analysis of their spelling strength or weakness.

High school teens need to learn to not follow what is considered the norm for teen learners either.

For example, one of my boys told me he would just use spell checker when typing. Maybe so.

But as I have learned through the years, as I graded their essays; learning how to spell correctly is inextricably tied to advanced vocabulary skills and writing skills.

High school years are where the most basic of skills really count as teens get ready to emerge into the adult world.

We can’t tout on one hand that a teen can only use spell checker and on the other hand that we want extensive writing practice in the high school years. It can be a partnership. Embracing technology cannot cost our highschool students to use it.

In my case, I had a teen that couldn’t even get close to the right word when using spell checker and that is how it works. So it was of no use to him at certain times.

What are we to do as moms who want to prepare our teens for the adult world where spelling counts?

Look at these 3 tips that helped me.

Don’t grab a spelling program so quickly.

With some families I helped through my New Bee Homeschooler program and that was the same in my case was that my teen had a few spelling rules causing the problems.

In my case, my teen had problems with the ie/ei rules. Also, he was confused with their, there, and they’re.

Knowing this, he kept a notebook and when he had problems with a word when writing, he would note that word in his notebook.

Instead of him feeling defeated and thinking he needed a spelling program, he honed his problems and focused on those areas only.

Too, he felt like he could keep making progress and this gave him a sense of accomplishment with spelling.

I didn’t want him to be an adult and hate spelling. I did, however, want him to tackle his weak areas with the same positive attitude he tackles other things that he doesn’t do as well.

Copywork is great for high school too.

Something else I did was to have him pick a book of his choice and do some quick copywork.

His choice was within reason though because it had to be a book with good literary quality. This gave him a break from writing like it use to when he was a little boy, but it still provided a model proper spelling, use of apostrophes and punctuation.

Just a few well written sentences each day was a nice change to the day and reinforced correct spelling in addition to the reading he did each day.

Keep the focus on writing.

Another reason I chose to not use a formal spelling program was because there are only so many hours a high school teen has in the day and time needs to be doled out wisely.

With more time to practice writing and not worrying about having to do “another subject”, my son could actually focus on spelling more because he could use it in its natural context.

At the high school level, learning spelling separately did not help my son as much as increasing his reading and writing.

Too, for a teen who wants to make his own choices about what he wants to read and write about, this was a perfect solution. He could increase his spelling skill and write about what interesed him.

Holding him responsible for errors by making him correct his spelling mistakes then in his draft was key at the high school level.

When I was teaching him how to write and teaching him beginning composition in the younger grades, I didn’t hold him responsible for spelling errors.

I don’t regret doing that because if had I held him responsible for spelling errors then too, it would have completely quashed any passion for writing. The focus in the earlier grades was on fostering a love of writing.

He loves creative writing to this day and so I know my method of handling spelling errors worked for his age at the time.

The bottom line is that you simply cannot work on every skill in the younger grade and expect your child to be a master of them all.

Some skills can wait to high school to hone.

Besides with the age or maturity of high school, my son could both laugh at himself when he made a spelling mistake and didn’t view spelling as another nonsense and useless subject to learn.

One book I did use and let the boys use as a reference for their independent learning was The ABC’s and All Their Tricks: The Complete Reference Book of Phonics and Spelling.

Both of them seemed to like it and used it as a reference when they didn’t search on line.

If you feel like your teen would benefit from a spelling program, then discuss it with him and use one. Remember, if it’s a subject they struggle with, then we need to forget what the rest of the world thinks is the norm and do what is best for our child.

However, most of the time I have found that normally a few rules or sounds cause the spelling confusion and with a heightened sense of awareness, a teen can usually correct the problems.

Does your high school teen struggle with spelling?

What tricks have you pulled out of your hat?

Hugs and love ya,

 

Also, check out:

When a Homeschooled Sophomore Struggles
How a Homeschool Mom Grades a High School Essay

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