HSLDA

Dear Friends,

This edition of the high school newsletter is most likely reaching your inbox during your first or second week of school. For some of you...so far so good. For others, you may be thinking that it is going to be a very long year! Regardless of how your school year has begun, we'd like to share some tips that hopefully will keep you going strong throughout the year.

Practice Flexibility

We encourage taking time to plan everything from lessons, to field trips, to science experiments, and more! But, we caution you against rigidly adhering to those plans if circumstances suggest that something should be changed.

For example, although most students will include physical education (PE) during the early years of high school, you may elect to delay adding PE to your teen's high school plan until the later years if time is short due to the arrival of a new baby in the family or an unexpected illness. Or, it may prove helpful to delay teaching a co-op class right now because extra time...

Dear Friends,

It has been 15 years since I completed homeschooling and my last child entered college. As I look back over those years, there were special blessings I received from the Lord that I want to share with you. The first thing I want to say is that I am really pulling for you. I know you face things you never counted on when you set out on this journey. There are joys and disappointments, and for some, tragedies. The one thing I can assure you is that the Lord is with you--every day, every step. My prayer is that you will realize His presence and trust in His guidance.

My first and persistent awareness in those early years was that I was inadequate to the task. I felt like I was entering a great unknown. The outcome was so important, but there were no guarantees that I was even on the right track. It occurred to me more than once that I might be damaging my children for life. There were no studies or research about the success of homeschooling. I had never heard of scope and sequence and just figured I needed to turn a...

Dear Friends,

We love February. Being the shortest and often coldest month, we don't regret that it flies by if it brings us closer to warmer weather. February does not make you wait...but as you homeschool your teens there may be  circumstances and people that cause you to wait. What are you waiting for?

• A chance to read the last chapter of a book you began over a year ago?
• An end to your homeschooling days? (On some days it gives new meaning to "come quickly, Lord Jesus," doesn't it? :)
• A wandering teen to get on the right path or simply to show some motivation?
• A spouse to be more involved in what goes on at home?
• A result from a medical test?
• An answer to a "stale" prayer that your heart thinks has gone unnoticed?

Our goal this month is to help you gain a new perspective on waiting that will bless your homeschooling days. With help from Andrew Murray's classic book, "Waiting on God," let's peer into the...

Dear Friends,

September can be a time to turn over a new leaf. For some, the biggest challenge of homeschooling is the  academics, but for many it's the dynamics. You may be hoping and praying that you and your students will relate well to one another during this school year. Good idea! Here are some practical suggestions to get your homeschool off to a good start.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

We encourage you to begin the new school year by being a bit crazy! Fill your home with laughter, joy, and thankfulness. Buy a joke book to share with your teens, read funny quotes together, or keep a folder of trivia. If your high school at home is becoming too serious, lighten up! Hide your teen's favorite candy bar in his history book or give him an occasional day off school for a sun day. Why not? Public schools have snow days. Treat your teen to an ice cream cone for an especially fruitful day of school or tape a note to his calculator that simply says "I'm crazy about you!"...

Dear Friends,

April is a season of renewal and growth as winter comes to an end. Spring also is a time when children often get antsy (and parents too!) to see the end of the school year, counting the weeks until they complete their course work.

As one school year wraps up, you inevitably find yourself beginning to think about courses for next year. In this process, you can find guidance by taking note of special interests your children are developing, and think about how to foster those interests through projects or courses in the coming year. This month we offer some suggestions on projects and courses of study that fit closely with your students' highest level of interest--where they have the greatest desire to learn and stretch their knowledge base.

Before we begin though, here's a bit of friendly advice from two former homeschooling moms. Although specialized courses of study may be tempting to consider, you may only have the time, energy, and resources to pull off one, two, or three courses--or in some cases...

Dear Friends,

August finds some families vacationing and others finishing up those last projects before beginning a new school  year. To help you look forward with enthusiasm to September, we encourage you to take some time now to put those final touches on planning, ordering curriculum, and mapping out your school year. As you go over your plans, let's zero in on English and talk about what constitutes a solid high school English course of study. We offer the following suggestions that can easily be tailored to your individual child and circumstance.

LITERATURE

The first component that comes to mind when thinking of English is literature. Before being able to fully enjoy good books, it's important to teach your child how to analyze them by introducing and discussing the literary devices the author uses such as setting, plot, theme, etc. Providing opportunities to practice picking out these devices through a variety of genres (drama, prose, poetry) will encourage your child to better...

Dear Friends,

April is the time of year when the deadness of winter suddenly bursts forth with new life and color. The wonders of science are all around us from the blooming plants to the starry skies to the cake baking in the oven!

What conjures up in your mind when you hear the word science: experiments, chemicals, fossils, plant life, medical discoveries, or the intricacies of all of God's creation? Cathy Duffy aptly describes a proper viewing of science when she said, "Science, in terms of education, means the study of God's creation, its purposes, its functioning, and its beauty. We often limit our definition of science education to memorization of plant structure, the names of bones, the periodic table, and other such laborious data without seeing beyond to God's purposes for each aspect of creation." For many of us, science was that difficult or "uninteresting" subject we were required to study in school. However, in retrospect, we realize that without science, we cannot know God and...

Dear Friends,

November is the month set aside to express thanksgiving for our many blessings. High on most people's list of blessings is good health. Remembering that being physically fit is one component to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is especially important during the holiday season with all its festivities and feasts!

Physical activity may be the last thing we want to think about until those New Year's resolutions roll around, but it can be enjoyed by the whole family while also earning your teen some high school credit.

Physical education falls under the elective category on the high school transcript. One to two years of credit are usually adequate for most high school programs (but check your state homeschool requirements and specific college requirements for any exceptions). Evaluate credit for PE by logging 120 hours for one credit, 60 hours for one-half credit, and so forth. For many families, awarding a pass/fail grade is the easiest way to go for this elective. However, you may choose to award a...

Dear Friends,

It's time again to finalize next school year's plan for your teen. How time flies! If you had the opportunity to attend your state's homeschool convention and visit the vendor hall, you saw an exciting array of resources from which to choose. Or, as you researched course options on the internet, we're sure you found many neat ideas.

This month we are highlighting some electives which may not only spice up your plan, but also motivate your teens to enjoy learning. As we mentioned in the October 2008 newsletter, "electives are considered part of the academic course load that makes up your teen's high school program. They are evaluated and awarded credit and then included on a high school transcript. An elective is a course that is not required, but a course that your teen opts to take." In addition, these courses may augment one of the core courses (English, math, science, history, foreign language) in your program or teach a skill beneficial to your teen's future plans.

In...

Chers amis,

Si la pensee de l'enseignement d'une langue etrangere au cours des annees de lycee vous effraie, vous n'etes pas seul! For a translation, read on...

Dear Friends,

If the thought of teaching a foreign language during the high school years scares you, you are not alone! Many parents shake and shudder at the thought. If it's been quite a number of years since you conjugated verbs in another language, take a deep breath and relax. There are many options for providing your teen with the foreign language skills he may need.

Ist eine fremde Sprache erforderlich? (German for "Is a Foreign Language Necessary?")

Although many homeschoolers are not required by state homeschool law to teach a foreign language (check out your state's requirements), there are several reasons why we encourage you to do so.

Learning a foreign language is advantageous when traveling, living in...