signing up with a school or doing your own thing

[Ame E.]

I am pretty much doing my own thing with my ninth graders this year:

Latin 200 - Lone Pine Classical School Online course
Literature - Combination of Teaching the Classics, Prentice Hall Gold Literature, and Kolbe Academy lesson plans
Grammar - Rod & Staff 9th grade Communicating Effectively
Vocabulary - Wordly Wise 3000 book for ninth grade
Math - Saxon Algebra I for daughter (with Saxon teacher DVD, Lial's introductory algebra with math tutor
Science - Apologia Physical science with lesson plans
Religion - Our Goals and Guide with lesson plans from Our Lady of Victory School
History: Outside American history class with a history teacher.

Okay.. I just signed them up yesterday with Kolbe Academy basically to have someone to bounce questions off of and for a transcript. But it seems that I am not using any of Kolbe's material.. so does it really make sense for me to sign up. I am not a great record keeper... so signing up with someone does take that load off my mind. I heard there is a place that does your transcript for $100 per child, which is good..

What do others who "design their own curriculum" do?

Thanks

[Margaret in CO]

I've done it several ways. My first dd we went with lots of college classes and a mommy transcript. The only thing that Hillsdale College really looked at were her SATs, music repertoire and reading lists. For my next, we did lots of college classes and went with NARS as USCGA required an accredited program. USNA was glad she had it. She didn't end up accepting her appointment to CGA anyway. So far, we'e doing the mommy transcript with d #3. For the NCAA we had to apply as hsers even after spending all that $$ with NARS.

[PamJH]

I've put together classes during the past two years using a variety of sources. For instance, I use Science Power Basics for earth science for both my 8th grader and my 10th grader, but I add readings and a final paper for the 10th grader.

For Language arts, I use vocab for the HS student and Vocab for the College Student, but the youngest will study poetry while the oldest will do Learning to Write the Novel Way. Neither will do a formal grammar program this year (they didn't last year, either), but I think what I'm doing will suffice.

I use a combination of texts for history/lit, but I mostly do that the WTM way. I'm also letting my 10th grader add books and videos on India to count as history hours. I won't test her on that or have her do papers. I'm trying to let her add some enjoyment to a class she doesn't really like (history).

Your lineup sounds quite good, though.

[Pamela H in Texas]

My daughter has a mix of classes (home, college, co-op, private school) with a mommy-made transcript and will have a mommy-made diploma. It hasn't been an issue so far and I don't suspect there will be.

My son? Honestly, I have so loved him doing the state virtual school. If they have it for high school, that is what he'll do so he'll have a public school transcript and diploma. If not? I haven't decided exactly what to do. We'll probably go back to traditional homeschooling as there is only one other school that looks close to what we want and we can't afford it. With traditional homeschooling, he'll have a mommy-made transcript and diploma just like sister.

[rwalizer]

We are doing our own thing but I'm kicking around the idea of using NARS when we start high school next year so ds will have a diploma. I'm just so concerned about how not having an accredited diploma will affect him if he doesn't go to college, which is likely.

[Gwen in VA]

We have just done the mommy transcript thing. All the colleges my kids applied to were fine with it.

I need to spend some time this fall investigating the NCAA thing -- ds2 is interested in being on a sailing team in college. :glare:

[Nan in Mass]

We're doing a mummy transcript with community college classes to back it up. And we're just doing SATs for testing, not SAT IIs or APs. I think. At least, the first one is going that way. We'll remake the descisions for the second one, but we probably won't sign up with a cover school. I have a fair amount of faith that the mummy transcript/CC classes combination will work fine for college applications, and I'm not worried about issuing my own diploma if for some reason my sons don't go to college. The town will give me a letter saying they've graduated if they need one.

[Ame E.]

what exactly do you use for this?

thanks

Ame

[Moni]

We will do Community College courses while still in high school, forego the high school diploma.
Community Collegeis our first choice college anyway.
Transfer to four-year Univ when 60 units are completed, or whenever the student decides. Likely he will be 18 by then and, well, they do what they wish at that age anyway *wink

No SAT/ACT tests, no high school transcript.

If a high school transcript is ever needed (doubtful), I could type a transcript up at a moment's notice
English 1, 2, 3, 4
Algebra 1, 2, Geom/Trig, Calculus
Latin 1, 2
Spanish 1, 2
History US, World, Civics/Govt

That type of thing. Straight A's across the board.

In my state I can issue my own diploma with whatever requirements I personally feel appropriate at any given moment. So I can issue a diploma a moment's notice (today, tomorrow, in two years) -- *poof* you're graduated.

We are going to rely on the CC transcript for Transfer.

I wouldn't pay for a diploma service though. Even Kolbe's says "grades given by parents" or something like that. I don't see the value.

For college, it really depends on the Test Scores. It's really all about the Test Scores. ACT/SAT, etc.

:)

[Kareni]

If you make your own transcript, what exactly do you use for this?



Hi Ame,

There are programs you can buy specifically for making a transcript. We elected however to use Excel which we already had on hand.

Regards,
Kareni

[Nan in Mass]

I looked at all the examples I could find, especially ones from my town's school system, and then wrote my own using the tables function in word. There is a great book about writing a transcript recommended in TWTM that I wish I'd seen when I first began homeschooling high school. Unfortunately, I did't get it until after I wrote the transcript, last spring. I've always had a rough list of courses completed that I type up in word to submit to the school system each spring, so writing the formal transcript was mostly a matter of formatting.
-Nan

[Alyce]

You might look at Homeschool Tracker or Edu-Trac. They are computer programs that allow you to keep track of grades. You put in the name of the course and the grades your child gets along the way. It will keep track of them and when you're ready and you need it, it will give you a very professional looking transcript. It even figures out your GPA. I would have been lost without it and it was super handy last year when I needed transcripts for my dd. Edu-Trac (which is the one I use) even has several diplomas you can pick from and it will print them out for you.

[Margaret in CO]

I need to spend some time this fall investigating the NCAA thing -- ds2 is interested in being on a sailing team in college. :glare:[/quote]

The NCAA thing wasn't all that hard...as I had very good records. With my first I had to produce a 75 page document with the tables of contents of every book we used! Ulp! She had to have several graded exams and papers by an outside teacher--no big deal with all her college credits. And then they told me to send it to the wrong place and they never got it. But her coach went to bat for her and it was all solved.

That process is MUCH streamlined now. I just wanted folks to know that NARS wasn't going to take care of it for them. Their website says that their students have gotten NCAA status. That's true, but NARS didn't help them to do it. The big trick is that NCAA doesn't take classes labeled "The Inklings: Literature of Tolkien and Lewis". They want English IV, so that's what we gave them. It wasn't a huge deal. Funny thing though--we decided to graduate my dd on her birthday, just for fun. That was great, only once she turned 18, I couldn't access her file! She ended up doing Drum & Bugle which isn't an NCAA sport, so I actually didn't find out for a semester whether or not she was ever cleared. I finally asked her to check because I wanted to know. She was. :D

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=417

[Linda in NM]

My son (the hockey goalie) is on track for playing hockey in college--he's currently one of the top four goalies his age in the Rocky Mountain District, and is playing for a Bantam AAA team and hoping to go to Nationals--we'll see. We use Clonlara School, in Ann Arbor, which does provide an accredited diploma (and we are doing English I, Biology, Algebra I and II, German I, Latin I, and World History in "official transcript language" this year). He's got tons of PE as well...and music performance (if we can ever find a viola teacher in Phoenix!)