Homeschooling for highschool

If I am not mistaken, you are in my area (I think you are in Charleston). First, they do not do as much lab as you might think in our school system, and there are homeschoolers in the area who get together to do lab. If you can find out what specific lab requirements they do in the public school that you do not have access to, I am sure someone can help. Yet, we have found that all labs in High School can be replicated on a homeschool level and usually with greater learning. In Barboursville we had a science group that met where we did many experiments that I never did in school. Finally, there is a guy in the area who used to be a public school high school teacher and he has helped many families in our area. He is a strong Christian and very pro-homeschooling. If need, I can put you in touch with him. However, I think you need to find out what experiments they do that you want to replicate and you will find more than enough resources in our area or through other homeschooling channels.

As for mathematics, I would encourage you to look up the homeschool guru, Fred Worth (I believe he still lives in Arkansas). He writes and speaks on math as a Professor of Mathematics at a major University but also a homeschooling dad (well, all his kids are now grown up). He thinks you can provide a quality math education at the higher levels with the resources available to you. While I have had both Trig and Calculus, they are not needed to graduate from High School; most of my students when I taught college never had these advanced classes (the GED doesn't require them either). I had both Calc and Trig, but because of my major in College, I just clepped out of math and have never used Calc or Trig except for an occasional tutoring session (it was not even on the CLEP exam). If your child wants to go into a profession where Calc or Trig is required, it may be worth investing in a tutor. Yet, I can tell you I learned more about these subjects outside of the public school than inside the public school. Fred is a great resource and is extremely open to giving advise or sharing resources. While math credit is essential to graduating, that can be obtained through CLEP (College credit for math), teaching other types of math (like business math), or taking college math now. While I think you can find a way to teach your child Trig or Calc, it is not the only option. You have many options to include: 1. Taking and passing the CLEP exam. 2. Taking and passing the GED. 3. Taking College Math (which will not include Trig or Math-or may include Trig and Calc). 4. Teaching Trig and Calc at home (not as hard as you may think). 5. Teaching other types of math at home (e.g., business math, Algebra, accounting, economics, etc.) BTW, your diploma does not have to fit the public school's criteria, it is determined by the colleges based upon your transcript.

Finally, some of what you are told seem to be scarier than is real. There are many resources out there to help you and the community is often filled with people who want to help you. To give up homeschooling over two subjects does not seem the best choice. Rather, using God's resources in our area can help you overcome uncertainty.

 

When we lived overseas for a while, our oldest went to the University of Oklahoma distance high school. Fully accredited, faxed all his work, worked great. He took physics, chemistry, etc. and won an academic scholarship to college based on ACT and SAT. The lab experiments came in a package.
The University of Missouri and several others have distance high schools, too.
They are cheaper considerably than private school but more expensive than homeschooling in elementary grades.

Plus, Ruiz is right. Look into tutors. Retired school teachers or college students, for example.

 

You may want to find another evaluator. I know the lady who is the Director of Classical Conversations in St. Albans has a portfolio evaluator that is good.

You probably was less abrupt about the situation than I would have been. I probably would have told the lady to evaluate and mind her own business.

 

One advantage of going to a high school is a transcript. It can be nice to have an actual diploma backed by an accredited transcript for admission to universities. It's not absolutely essential, but it doesn't hurt.

 

Horsefeathers!

Most of the "big" science cirricullums have optional labs that you can do alongside the texts. You don't "have" to go to public school to get this stuff. Since I've been forced into hs Chris due to his health issues I have learned tons!

Veritas Press (I think I have the right company) offers online classes in lots of different subjects (a little pricy but I know one of the men that teaches some of the chemistry courses and he is good at what he does).

There are several good cirrics out there that will teach the higher levels maths for you. "Teaching textbooks" is one of them.

HSLDA offers lots of help with high school issues if you are a member. (I love HSLDA)

 

As far as math goes, check out ALEKS.com. We used it and it was fantastic. It teaches higher math very simply. Even I learned, and I was awful at math in school.

As far as labs go, like somebody else said, they really don't do labs as much as you would think.

 

http://ouhigh.ou.edu

The accredited distance high school program from the University of Oklahoma.

 

That's awesome Dr. Bob, and a great encouragement and testimony towards the art and responsibility of parenting.

 

There are some programs where a child can graduate from College the same year they graduate from High School. One program is College Plus!

 

Having two teens - one recently graduated from high school, the other on his way, I agree that more math-science, the better. In fact, our high school now mandates at least one year of physics.

You may wish to check your local junior college to see if they can provide this.

Also, I think some public systems allow home school students to take certain courses and-or play sports. I don´t know if this is an option for you or with your public system.

Lastly, I would think that a Christian school might be more attuned to your needs. Hopefully, this will be an option for you.

 

I think most states now mandate that homeschooled students be given equal access.

 

I wouldn't say most states, but some states do allow for equal access. In West Virginia, they do not allow for equal access. However, in our area there is a private school that does accommodate.

 

I knew a lot of homeschoolers that went to public school, but many have also went to Christian high school as well.

 

This is true in Florida, look at Tim Tebow. Here we pay taxes so our children are fee to use as much or as little of the public schools as we wish.