I am so excited about today's post! My favorite blog writer is sharingwith us today. Carol Anne Swett is a very dear friend of mine, and she has lots of wisdom to share. Carol Anne has walked the special needs road as well as having already graduated her oldest son and brought the younger son half way through high school. She has a heart to encourage other moms and gives selflessly. I just know you are going to love her as much as I do– and you will definitely want to go connect with her at her blog and on Facebook.

So grab your cuppa and sit back for some encouragement from Carol Anne…

 

 

I’m like most other homeschool moms facing high school academics. There are one or two subjects I think I just can’t teach. I’m weary of some of the others I know I can teach. Just like my son, there are days I just want this journey to be o.v.e.r. Can I get a witness?
 

I know you’ve heard the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
 

I like to say, “Motherhood creates the necessity of invention.”  Never was the latter more true for me than when we hit the high school years of homeschooling.

 

 

As our younger son approached high school, I looked for opportunities that would allow group interaction without opting into the standard co-op model. If I told you the truth, I’d have to admit, I wanted something that would meet my needs as much as his. And, this momma needed some breathing room.
 

Dual enrollment looked a long way off from age fourteen. So, I looked for something to fill the gap. We kept him busy with youth group, bass lessons, and working out at the local church gym where he played pool with octogenarians when he was through.
 

To prepare for dual enrollment classes, I felt he needed to meet academic standards set by an outside teacher. Online charter schools didn’t seem the right fit nor did private school options allowing homeschoolers to take a class or two.

 

 

I got so desperate I considered enrolling him in a local public charter school. In the midst of my angst, one of my friends and I began talking about how to ‘do co-op’ without ‘doing co-op’. We kept on talking till we decided to try and coordinate a new opportunity.
 

We wondered: how could we offer the best of a co-op model without the negatives involved like the budget busting tuition or negative peer influences? (And yes, the latter occur in Christian co-ops as often, if not more often, than in public schools.)
 

Out of those discussions came ideas for our Literature group and Writing Lab. My partner, Anne Campbell of The Learning Table, was formerly a high school English teacher and now homeschools her three sons. She plans the activities. I manage the administrative details of the classes and act as chaperone during class meetings.
 

Our Literature group reads a book per month and meets twice a month. The second Tuesday of the month, we discuss the book, and Anne shares information about the historical period, author, literary styles, etc. The fourth Tuesday of the month, the kids complete a project or take a related field trip.
 

Parents receive a list of suggested follow up activities, so they can document class participation for portfolio review. My son has written a number of papers comparing and contrasting one book to another, one main character to another, or one theme to another. He has also taken quizzes to document his mastery of the material.  

 

 

Our students have visited World War 2 Veterans, a ninety-one-year-old survivor of the Holocaust, and area museums to connect their reading to related historical and cultural events.
 

The Writing Lab met every other week this semester. Students worked on a research paper of his or her choice. Topics included service dogs, computer technology, censorship in film-making, and the validity of Christian metal music as a ministry tool for disaffected youth. Some were as short as five pages and one as long as fifteen.
 

Anne provided a grading rubric for the parents after walking the class through the process of outlines, note-taking, source cards, quote cards, drafts, works cited pages, and citations.
 

We consider this last couple of years our ‘Beta testing’ as we’ve figured out what works best for us, our students, and their families. Plans for next year are already underway.
 

If you are facing high school thinking, “I just can’t do this,” remember:
 

Motherhood – especially homeschooling motherhood – creates the necessity of invention.
 

The homeschool community is both resourceful and mutually supportive. Do not be afraid to embrace the high school experience vs feeling as though you have to move on to traditional schooling to ‘do it right’. 
 

Somewhere close is a friend willing to partner with you to create an affordable solution to the situation you think is insurmountable. You’ll never know what you can put into motion until you take the time to brainstorm and wonder, “What if,” together. We sure didn’t!

 

 

 

 

 

HomeSchool High is sponsored by Apologia.

I hope you'll tell them a big "thank you"!

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Now it's your turn. What have you been doing this week with your high school teens?

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HomeSchool High…

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Ideas, Resources, and Friends…
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