electives

For non-geeks, let me explain first that cosplay is a contraction of two words, costume and play. It means dressing up as a fictional character. Most ...

The nice thing about homeschooling is that you can create almost any electives for your child under the sun!  You aren't limited to electives that a teacher is interested in, and you aren't limited to electives that you feel comfortable teaching.The bad part about homeschooling, is that when you recognize you can teach any elective under the sun, you have to somehow find the materials for your child to use!  Donna was talking to me about...

Have you ever struggled to document your students co-op classes? I’ve had a few questions lately from homeschool families who are struggling to do this very thing. All co-ops have particular elements that make their classes unique and it can be hard to develop a class description for these classes when you weren’t the one teaching your student, but you want to make sure and get all of your students credits on their high school transcripts....

My Facebook Friends helped me create this great list! "Ideas for Volunteer Leadership and Community Service"Melanie ~  5 K walks and runs, local shelters, United Way, Food Pantry, Red Cross, Nursing Homes, Animal Shelters, Assisted living Facilities, Salvation Army, local Libraries and volunteer tutoring or babysitting for younger kidsAnimal Shelters and Animal rescue clinics.Dana ~ Your local community access cable station (they film things like town meetings and high school concerts) probably uses volunteers for their...

How many credits approximately should a college-bound homeschooler have in electives?~KittyDear Kitty,Thanks for the question!  There are two answers to that: 1. College bound students should have as many electives credits as it takes to add up to 24 or more total high school credits when combined with their core classes. OR 2. High school students should have as many electives as they WANT to have based on how much time they spend on their favorite...

 Have you ever wondered what the "Social Sciences" really are?  What does it even mean?  Most of the time students will take US History, World History, Economics, and American Government.  But there is a whole world of other social sciences you can explore!My brother in law is a teacher at a public high school.  He taught "The History of Baseball" as a social studies class.  (He also taught "Sport Communications" as an English course.)  When I...

Audrey asks:How do you balance what you feel they need to know and do with what they feel they want to know and do? There are not enough hours in the day!This question is actually TWO questions!Q1: How can you get more hours in your day? To some extent, homeschoolers will ALWAYS feel like there aren't enough hours in the day!  It's part of parenting, and even more a part of homeschooling.  There are some things...

At this time of the year, friends are discussing their curriculum choices for next year. I have been asked by several people what we used during the high school years. Every child is unique, of course, but here is a snapshot of our freshman year:These are the things I made them do: American Literature & Composition (Sonlight 100) American History (Sonlight 100) Biology with Lab (Apologia) Algebra 1 (Jacob's Algebra) Fine Arts 1: American Art (art...

Whatever you end up using for a foreign language curriculum, supplement with some fun activities. About once a week we would watch movies in a foreign language. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and others, all come with Spanish and French language, both spoken and in subtitles. You don't have to understand everything they say on the movie, just understand what's happening and listen to the spoken words. My kids loved that! You can also find ways to...