Anyone afterschooling a teenager who went to high school from homeschool?

[Laurie4b]

My two oldest entered public school for the first time this year. It's a hybrid school in which students can take community college courses for free once they are done all their core courses. Oldest is fine--he's taking all cc courses. Younger one is taking what is billed as honors American Lit. They have been in school and month and this is a block system, so they're over 20% of the school year. All they have done is The Great Gatsby. They wrote a 4 paragraph essay, did a movie poster, and are now watching the movie in installments. :glare:

There is no syllabus so I have no idea what else will be taught. I would like to supplement what he's getting. He is not going to be enthralled with the idea!

Is anyone afterschooling a high schooler? How about a reluctant high schooler? Any tips?

[Barb F. PA in AZ]

Yup. My 9th grader, also on a block schedule, has Honors Algebra I for 90min (and even though she has already taken it twice another course isn't an option), Lit for 90 minutes (no books yet!), Choir for 90 minutes, and Theater for 90 min. That's it. She is studying American History and honors level Bio with me after school. It's pretty easy to fit it in because she rarely has homework. As soon as she is done with the afterschooling courses she'll take the SATII's to quantify her studies. She will likely come home next year, but in case she doesn't, I'd rather have her take Bio or US History at the AP level and a paper trail will help. Like Mr. Twain, I don't agree with allowing her schooling to interfere with her education.

Barb

ETA: Oh and mine is fairly reluctant, but I agreed to allow her try school as long as she worked for me at home so many hours a night. School is what she has chosen to fill her free time..

[HistoryMom]

Me too, kind of. He's always been in PS and we've just started afterschooling over the summer. He's significantly less resistant than I thought he would be. We did some work all summer, so it's not brand-new with the school year. When his attitude starts to get really bad, we take a break and talk about the benefits to him of doing this work. Math will be much easier next semester, and he acknowledges that he's just not being challenged in our PS system.

He's also on a block system, which means no math this semester. We're doing Life of Fred, and I'm considering incorporating him into the history study I'm doing with my pre-schooler and 1st grader. He likes history anyway, and if he doesn't start to get any more homework than he's been getting, we'll have plenty of time to do it.

[Laurie4b]

So you're planning to have her take AP's with the material you cover at home?

[Laurie4b]

That makes sense to continue the math in a semester when there is none. Math and foreign language really need to be year long courses.

Still, I'm wondering about what the reaction of my son will be to my suggestion that he do more reading. He's got very little to do, too, though when Odyssey of the Mind starts, he'll want to devote a lot of his attention to that.

[Shawn On the Border]

At some point I would like to afterschool (or perhaps summer school) my son. He started at a Catholic high school last month. He has 4 pre-AP classes, but most are quite easy. He is taking pre-AP Geometry, and almost never has to bring home homework. He does it in class. The teacher seems to take 2 days to do the section in the book. After he does the lesson, he gives them the rest of the class to get the homework done (6-15 problems).

It seems to be the trend for the teachers to teach for part of the class, and have them do homework for the rest of the class. Perhaps, this gives the teachers time to grade papers.

I gave my son some flash cards for Spanish vocabulary. His teacher has been very slow to teach any Spanish. At first he was upset, but then he agreed that he needed to work with them.

If his classes continue to be so easy, I will give him some extra work. I'm sure he won't be happy with the idea!

[LibraryLover]

We are all about 'enrichment' here,

At this age---when you want them to become good readers who can understand literature on a deeper level---I don't believe that reading many books is better than reading fewer. Do you know if he is learning *how* to read? To learn to read well, that is, to ' mine for meaning' , make inferences, draw conclusions, make descions on whether one agrees with an author or not, a reader needs to understand what the author is trying to communicate. Understanding literature doesn't require that a huge number of books be read at the age you're talking.

What kind of discourse is going on in this class? What kind of discourse might you offer? What is he not learning reading The Great Gatsby that you wish he would learn? What is missing that you want to include? Before I added to the load of a student this age, I would want to be clear about what sorts of gaps I am wanting to fill.

[askPauline]

Before I added to the load of a student this age, I would want to be clear about what sorts of gaps I am wanting to fill.
:iagree:

[Jenny in Atl]

So far with Mac's work load, I'm unsure I could after-school her. Just two weeks into the year, and she's averaging about six hours of homework a night! I'm wondering if this is a cleansing period, where they are trying to get kids to drop out of certain classes? She's going to a Charter/Magnet which is on a mix of block and straight time (M, Thrs, Fri.. all classes) (Tues/Weds.. block).

We're both exhausted.

[Carmen_and_Company]

There's no way I could afterschool with Storm now that she entered high school this week & taking several honors courses. Her work load is just too heavy to add any additional material. That said, I did supplement during the summer with a bit of literature, history, biology, and chemistry along with an introduction of the math text for the following year--lots of TC DVDs. She took some fun writing courses through The Loft, and participated in a Jane Austen book club. I had a lot of input from Storm as to how we should proceed as I wanted her to enjoy her summer.


I also requested a reading list of complete literature texts for the coming school year (school is based on TWTM). Any book for the high school Ancients rotation I felt Storm should read, we did so over the summer. I also had her read SWB's HOAW, TWEM, and HTRAB (zzzz). Oh, she also reviewed the Teaching Company Super Start Student DVDs.

Storm's school works on trimester/semester/ block scheduling--I know, confusing.

She takes Humanities (1.5 hrs. LA/History), math, and biology as trimester classes for the full year, music and art each for a semester, and block scheduling for music/art, Latin & Rhetoric--but for the whole year via A, B, & C days.

[iluvmy4blessings]

Yup. My 9th grader, also on a block schedule, has Honors Algebra I for 90min (and even though she has already taken it twice another course isn't an option), Lit for 90 minutes (no books yet!), Choir for 90 minutes, and Theater for 90 min. That's it. She is studying American History and honors level Bio with me after school. It's pretty easy to fit it in because she rarely has homework. As soon as she is done with the afterschooling courses she'll take the SATII's to quantify her studies. She will likely come home next year, but in case she doesn't, I'd rather have her take Bio or US History at the AP level and a paper trail will help. Like Mr. Twain, I don't agree with allowing her schooling to interfere with her education.

Barb

ETA: Oh and mine is fairly reluctant, but I agreed to allow her try school as long as she worked for me at home so many hours a night. School is what she has chosen to fill her free time..

Is she a full time student? I'm confused. Did you only enroll her for the classes that she wanted to take? My dd went back this year for 9th but in order to graduate she has to take certain classes.

[Barb F. PA in AZ]

Originally Posted by Barb F. PA in AZ View Post
Yup. My 9th grader, also on a block schedule, has Honors Algebra I for 90min (and even though she has already taken it twice another course isn't an option), Lit for 90 minutes (no books yet!), Choir for 90 minutes, and Theater for 90 min. That's it. She is studying American History and honors level Bio with me after school. It's pretty easy to fit it in because she rarely has homework. As soon as she is done with the afterschooling courses she'll take the SATII's to quantify her studies. She will likely come home next year, but in case she doesn't, I'd rather have her take Bio or US History at the AP level and a paper trail will help. Like Mr. Twain, I don't agree with allowing her schooling to interfere with her education.

Barb


Is she a full time student? I'm confused. Did you only enroll her for the classes that she wanted to take? My dd went back this year for 9th but in order to graduate she has to take certain classes.

Semester 1 of 9th grade they take:

English 9A (which is a joke)
Honors Algebra I (or half of Alg I on the regular track)
Elective
Elective

Semester 2 they take:

English 9B
Honors Geometry (or the other half of Alg I on the regular track)
PE
Integrated Science (no other choice)

Each class is 90 minutes for a total of six hours of scheduled instruction time per day. There is no option for honors classes outside of Algebra. Well, you can request Honors English, but I recently leaned that there is no difference between that and regular English except for harder tests. The class is mixed, the material is exactly the same, but the tests are different. That is all. At the end of the year they officially have 8 credits. Which the exception of her Algebra class however, these block classes are NOT worth a full year's credit of material IMO. They wouldn't be in my homeschool.

Barb

[Pat in MI]

It feels like I am afterschooling my ds (9th grade), but really we are only doing his homework! He is requiring a ton of help.
Blessings,
Pat