Notes from Informational Meeting, Part III

Parental Flexibility

You can always add enrichment activities to your calendar to expand a student’s learning.  Sometimes you might give you an extra assignment that a teacher did not schedule.  

For instance, in my Physical Science class, a student prepared a research paper and thought that I didn’t want her mother’s review regarding her rough draft and final paper.  That is absolutely not the case, as home schoolers and as a writer, it’s extremely valuable for students to have their papers graded and regraded by their parents and their teachers.

In another class time, after one of my students answered over half of the questions from a test on India, I asked her to return her blank test and gave her an “A.”  She didn’t need to take the test if she already knew the material.  Home schooling provides flexibility.  We want our assignments and tests to have meaning for our students and you as parents.  

We want them to grasp how to learn, how to write, and how to speak.  We want them to be able to succeed in any college setting so we strive to give them that atmosphere.

You will help your student focus on not falling behind in their course load.

Final grades will rest with the parent, but teachers will give grades based on their assessment.  For middle school and high school, grades 7-12, we assign grades based on several factors, at home tests, class participation, in class quizzes, complete homework and lab assignments, projects completed, essays, research papers, etc.

Student Involvement

We recommend you do not have your student in more than 6 hours of class time, which is usually 4-6 classes, particularly for students younger than 7th grade.  More classes than this and you may have rebellion on your hands due to exhaustion and overworked kids.  Our classes are meant to be a challenge for students, but not an overwhelming one.

For high school students, we assign work to be completed before classes begin in August, course work during fall breaks, and work to be completed after our last class in May.  If you have a high school student, you may already know that to receive a full high school credit, students must work a minimum of 150 hours in a subject.  With our arrangements, your student will have enough work to receive a full credit, but we do depend on you to make sure your student completes their work in a timely fashion.