Monday, February 13, 2012

High School Ponderings/Gedanken zur Oberschule

It's time to choose a high school program for Jonathan!  Live Education! ends with grade 8 and we are thinking about enrolling in one of the Catholic high school programs out there.  We want to choose a program that allows us the flexibility of adding our own materials and courses, but that also involves some kind of accountability besides parent and standardized testing.  We are currently looking at

Each has strengths and weaknesses, two are accredited, one is not.  We have already used materials from MODG and OLVS.  Catholic Heritage Curricula would also be a possibility, but you cannot enroll.  Many things to think about.  I think I'm leaning towards MODG, but I haven't yet decided and am asking other mothers about this.  Once Jonathan is 16, he will also be able to attend classes at the college my husband teaches at.  That will be also a valuable experience.     

Wir müssen uns für ein Oberschulprogramm für Jonathan entscheiden, da die Anmeldungen jetzt stattfinden.  Live Education! hört mit Klasse 8 auf.  Im Moment überlegen wir, ob wir Jonathan bei einer der katholischen Hausunterrichtsprogramme anmelden wollen.  Wir wollen ein Programm, das uns genug Freiraum für unsere eigenen Materialien läßt, doch gleichzeitig möchten wir auch eine gewisse Kontrolle haben, die über die der Eltern und der objektiven nationalen jährlichen Prüfungen hinausgeht.  Im Moment sehen wir uns die folgenden Programme an:
Jede dieser Möglichkeiten hat Vor- und Nachteile.  Wir haben schon Materialien von MODG und OLVS benutzt.  Eine andere Möglichkeit wäre noch Catholic Heritage Curricula, aber man kann dort keine Schüler anmelden.  Da habe ich noch viel zum Nachdenken, doch die Zeit drängt.  Mir gefällt MODG im Moment am besten, doch sammle ich noch Meinungen von anderen Müttern.  Wenn Jonathan 16 ist, kann er auch Kurse bei dem College, bei dem mein Mann unterrichtet, belegen.  Das ist natürlich auch sehr hilfreich.  




6 comments:

  1. Tough choice because they are all so good! I know you will be lead to the right choice for you both.

    St. Thomas Aquinas Academy seems very masculine to me, although I see they offer a softer degree which leans less toward the heavy classic logic and reason. I think STAA offers a challenging intellectual degree, which could be very exciting for children who love to exercise their mind in this way. It's well laid out too - very logical.
    Alexandra

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  2. Thanks for your input, Alexandra! MODG is the most expensive of all, that really annoys me. OLVS demands quite a bit of testing and giving grades for everything; very different from our teaching style so far. STAA seems to have a strange mix of materials. Some are very advanced, some are quite simple for high school. I don't like their lower grades so much, but I found out that they take the student's learning style into consideration and also evaluate the student before recommending any materials for you. I have been writing back and forth with OLVS so far about the possibility of switching some of their materials, but I think it's sad they don't have a chronological approach to literature. They are very open to adding my own courses, though. I'm not so sure if Seton would work for us, although I know that many people in our Catholic homeschooling group use them.

    Have you made any decisions about next school year for your son?

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  3. You are welcome. I got the impression that STAA is flexible, overall, as well.

    What are we doing? Hmmm...that is still a little murky, but I have a general idea. In general, I'd like to try a mix of prepared curriculum materials for math and science, and allow for reports and summaries for history, English, and literature. I'll purchase self-help student guides along the way and use the internet for help. I'll focus on classics and use some resources from Seton for History. A some point, my son will probably transition to College-Plus, a college program which allows for CLEP the first year classes. Basically, it's homeschool college which saves money and time. My son is very interested in this approach as well. http://www.collegeplus.org/

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    1. I've heard of College-Plus on 4Real! Jonathan could take college classes for free here and get credit for them once he is 16, but I'm not sure if I want to do that. Maybe in French. I don't want to push him too fast into college life -- although we have a good small Christian college here. You have to post what you are going to use when you know. Then we can compare. Does your son know what direction he wants to take in college? Mine doesn't so far, but he wants to go to college.

      I've been having good "conversations" with OLVS so far. They seem to be very flexible as well.

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  4. Sure, I'll share with you. Jeremy does not know what he wants to study either.

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    1. I don't think I knew at that age. Even after grade 13 I went back and forth between many possibilities. Life is so open at that age, there are so many paths one could take. It is an exiting time for a young person I think.

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