Importance of a Loosely Planned High School

We unschooled but that does not mean I had no plan at all. Both of my kids were headed to college so I knew what would be expected. They would need a couple of math classes, two years of foreign language, at least two lab sciences, some history (or social studies), 4 years of English (or Language Arts, now). The Florida Sunshine State Standards also include economics and US government. Some universities require more math or more sciences but in a nutshell, this is what we needed to aim towards. The kids also needed to prepare for the SAT or ACT for college admissions.

English was easy because I have a degree in English so I LOVE it. I love reading and the kids both love reading. Writing was a little more difficult for my son since he is, basically, lazy and never wanted to write anything. After much cajoling, and telling him the evaluator would not "pass" him if he didn't, he wrote a really good paper pertaining to a certain gun used during WWII. What can I say, he's a boy. That paper was GOOD! Holy cow when did he learn to write like that? Obviously reading a lot for pleasure helped.

Lab sciences can be a problem for the home schooler but my kids did most of that through dual enrollment at the community college. We did do an earth science "course" at home by watching videos about volcanoes, earthquakes, weather, plate tectonics and rocks/erosion. There's a lot of information out there in books and on video to set up a really comprehensive "course" on earth science.

Math. Oh math. Yes, math was a pain in the butt! My son was a natural at math, still is, but has a lot of Catholic School baggage surrounding math. Sigh. My daughter decided not to do anymore math no matter how much I begged. Know what? They each decided on a college major, after taking quite a few basic college classes, and each one had/has a math-related major! My daughter was finance and my son economics. Weird! Unschooling works! You just have to let them choose and the rest will come along naturally.

Foreign language was handled differently by each of my kids. My daughter took American Sign Language at the community college and her university accepted it as a foreign language both for entrance and for the major. My son went to a tutor for German (thanks Silke!) for a couple of years working through a regular text book. Tutors are great! Also, dual enrollment at the community college is an option as long as you give enough time.

History is a snap! DVD's of History Channel shows or other instructional DVDs are great for this! Don't discount regular old books and even some historical fiction as long as it is based on historical fact. Pick a time period and go for it! My kids did a lot on Ancient Egypt. We even mummified a Cornish Game Hen. Umm, yuck. Interesting experiement but I did not consider the umm, "drainage" factor, or lack thereof. MOST of the game hen was mummified though and the people who now own our house will get a big surprise if they ever dig up one of our gardens! Nothing like a mummified game hen complete with canopic jars, amulets and a decorated shoe box sarcophagus. My son also spent a couple of years learning about WWII. Yes it was because of a computer game he was into at the time, but he sure learned a lot! There is a great video (DVD) series called "A Century of Warfare" that I know the Orange County, Florida library owns, all about the 20th century wars including WWI and II, Korea, Vietnam and the first Gulf War back in the 1990's.

US Government was covered at our house during one of the presidential elections since it was a good time to go over it. Economics was sadly absent from our home school. ooops. Anyway both kids took economics in college and my son is even an economics major so I am not losing any sleep over it.

Dual enrollment was a great great program for both high school and college "credits." ALL of the classes taken during dual enrollment are college classes with the end result being college credits that the state universities will take as transfer. Pretty good stuff!

Next up: Planning for college or how to get the most for the least amount of money!