The Academic Thread

[Mhera]

I partly agree with Sierra on school squelching curiosity, but I'm blessed with parents who are willing to let me temporarily drop anything to explore new topics. Homeschooling is fun .

Speaking of homeschooling, I said I'd go a bit further into how my family goes about it, so here's a somewhat random memory dump on it:

First, we have to meet the various credit requirements just like every other high schooler has to do to graduate. However, there's no strict curriculum we have to use or any government monitoring in our state.

Next, here's a cursory breakdown of my schooling:

0-6 years- Some stuff about shapes and crayons. Most of the learning at this point came from just exploring stuff like every other kid. I learned that paper seems to get smaller when you crumple it, cactus is prickly, you can make cakes in shapes that aren't circular, that the Confederates wore grey and the Union wore blue, and that Chuck-E-Cheese's is a creepy place, among other things. Read my first chapter book (either Mister Popper's Penguins or Hank the Cowdog) during this time.

7 years-9th grade (you shall not know my age! )- I can't remember too much of these years except that I somehow skipped a grade in math and science, acquired my deep-rooted loathing of English, spent a lot of time in 4-H and homeschool co-ops (more on this later), and that every spare moment was spent with my nose in a book. Also took three or four standardized tests during this time, ingraining the vital bubble-filling skills necessary for success in the SAT/ACT . 

9th-11th (current grade)- I'll go a bit deeper into each course here:

Science: we use a curriculum called Apologia, which teaches science from a Christian perspective. The actual course is very straight forward as it's just reading from a textbook, testing after each chapter, and all the experiments are laid out. We've also got a good microscope, slides (both prepared and blank), and and buy various dissectables (pigs, worms, etc. and yes I just made "dissectables" up ) when needed. Basically, there's a lab sitting on my shelf.

Economics: just a textbook and tests.

History: nothing at the moment. I'll probably take a class at local community college this summer.

Latin: textbook and tests. I also took a year of Spanish with a tutor but later switched.

Math: textbook and tests again, as well as CDs that have each lecture on them as well as explanations for each problem. Admittedly, I never use the CDs, but they're a good example of an adaption to a course that was made with homeschoolers in mind.

English: I'm currently taking a once-a-week English class. We go over whatever it's time to learn (for example, we just finished going over satire and irony) on class day and then get a week's worth of homework.

Co-op: a once-a-week course of two or three classes that goes on for two months twice a year. The classes range from being ridiculously easy (bread making) with no homework to being something with substance that can actually be put on a transcript (speech).

Field trips: we incorporate these into road trips. I've been to D.C., the Alamo, stood on the Continental Divide, and saw where the Lincoln-Douglas debates took place, among other things.

That's about all for now, though I might think of more to add later. This is just a sort of brief overview of my experience with homeschooling, so feel free to ask questions if you have any.

[Delthion]

We use Apologia!

And have you ever tried Omnibus for history?

[Mhera]

No, never even heard of it. 

What Apologia course are you in now (General, Physical, etc.)?

[Delthion]

Physical.

And Omnibus is an extremely rigorous history course that takes you through history by reading the books of that time period. Right now I am in the Middle-Ages and Early Church Fathers. You read the Song of Roland and The History of the Kings of Britain. Both books I have mentioned extensively on here.

[Mhera]

Physical science was a lot of fun. I take it you've already covered the plate tectonics module by your comment in the Religious Q&A thread?

And for history, I admit that that's probably my weakest subject. At this point though, it's probably better for me to enter an actual college class and get some dual credit during the summer than to do more at home stuff now. That said, we've got I-don't-know-how-many historical books on the shelves and it's quite possible we own one or both of the ones you mentioned.

[Skyblade]

It's great that you learn a Christian-based science. I go to a public school where I get bombarded with all of these different un-Christian viewpoints. It's like a test of my faith or a challenge just to go to school.

Anyway, this is the Academic thread and not the Christian thread. I don't want to start a fire that burns this whole thread down

Homeschooling sounds really cool. It's nice to get a look into it, so thank you all for posting plus, one of the characteristics of an IB student is open-minded.

[Mhera]

It's great that you learn a Christian-based science.

Apologia really is a great science course, but it can be annoying at times. For instance, at the very end of the chemistry textbook, there's a paragraph saying that the course is designed so that a C average means you're well prepared for college, and an A or B indicates that you should consider a career in a chemistry related field. Getting an A in that course was, academically speaking, the hardest and most frustrating thing I've ever done, and seeing that little blip at the end kind of made me want to burn the book .

I go to a public school where I get bombarded with all of these different un-Christian viewpoints. It's like a test of my faith or a challenge just to go to school.

Regarding the secular influence in science classrooms, I am expecting college to hurt a bit in that area. According to my dad the best thing to do is keep your mouth shut and remember that you're being tested on what's in the textbook, not your actual beliefs. I think I've got the latter part down...

Anyway, this is the Academic thread and not the Christian thread. I don't want to start a fire that burns this whole thread down .

Don't worry, I'm not looking to start a debate. As hard as it is to believe, I'm pretty much all debated out at the moment . I'm just trying to talk about a shared science course .

Homeschooling sounds really cool. It's nice to get a look into it, so thank you all for posting plus, one of the characteristics of an IB student is open-minded.

Glad I could help!

Heh, I had a question to ask you but I forgot it. Whoops! I probably think of it later.

[Wylder Treejumper]

I am doing my best to get back into homeschooling. I hate public school so much. I spend 7 hours a day in unproductive activities. We spent a week in math learning stuff I could have learned in 30 minutes. In AP World history, I don't read the textbook or take notes in class,and I have an A. Chemistry is amazing because of my teacher, he is the best teacher ever (Mostly because I can distract him by asking a question about antimatter or space exploration or California or politics, and then we have an awesome tangent discussion for like 30 minutes), but I don't take notes or read in that class either, still got an A. English is evil. Nothing new there. Band is good, we play awesome songs there, and JROTC is OK, I'm really in it for the extracurriculars. Really though, high school is eating my soul.

My brothers and sisters are smart too, and my sister in middle school recently passed the hallmark of the gifted kid: Realizing that school does not help you learn- it hinders you.

I sound super pessimistic here, but I'm just sick of it all. Everything goes so slowly, with so much unnecessary stuff tacked on. With what I'm doing now, I'm pretty sure I could have graduated high school when I was 12.

Well, here's my rant for the day. Guess I'll go look for recent articles and try to find literary connections in them with the Silmarillion for my English assignment.

[Mhera]

In light of Wylder's statements, the best way I can summarize homeschooling (or at least my family's approach to it) is that the focus is more on learning than schoolwork.

[Gonff the Mousethief]

I have stated before that I go to a Christain School. It's pretty good, but I feel like some of the stuff we learn there is either just busy work or stuff I wont need to use. The basic classes (English, History, Math, Science, and Bible) is the same used in grades such as 8th and 9th in other schools, so that's a plus. I would want to home school, but I am overly lazy and procrastinate too much. It sounds fun being able to study one thing for a while that I would be interested in instead of learning how to diagram an adverb clause with the subordinating conjunction being in the indirect object, while the prepositional phrase intersects the two which adds extra words that may or may not be valid in the statement. Flaws it may have, but I enjoy my schooling.

[Mhera]

[D]iagram an adverb clause with the subordinating conjunction being in the indirect object, while the prepositional phrase intersects the two which adds extra words that may or may not be valid in the statement.

Ohh another example of stuff I learn in homeschooling...not this^

Really though, there's no better education system beyond the one you like best. If you enjoy what you're doing and making progress then that's fantastic.

[The Mask]

I go to a Christian School. The only non-Christian school in my town is incredibly bad. I must say, I really dislike it. It's like the opposite of what Sky said, I'm constantly having to do forced praying; listening to the bible; going to services and often, being told I'm going to hell. I think they should tone it down a little. Yes it's a Christian school, but they know what the schooling situation in my town is.

[Mhera]

Well...I dunno. I want to ask some stuff about that but as Sky said this the Academic Thread. If it helps any I don't agree with forcing folks to pray, though I'm not even sure that's actually possible.

Anyhow:

This seems representative of many of my English experiences .

[Kitsune]

That is one of the many beautiful things about stories and poems: you can interpret them in a countless number of ways.

[Banya]

@Mask: I'm sorry you dislike your school but feel stuck in it.  Your school seems like a contradiction.  I hope you have some great friends to be through it all with you.