When I got onto the blog this morning, I noticed that I had a couple of hits from a Sonlight blog. I was a little skeptical about a comment we had received from, Luke Holzmann, the author of the blog, but I am beginning to think he might have actually read what we wrote. Even though we are big fans of Sonlight, yesterday’s post about their Core 100 US History program was anything but positive. I am quite impressed because they linked to our post anyway. All that got me to thinking about what could be done to improve the program.
We have a problem. We have homeschooled for just about six years now. Over that time we have met and continue to communicate with a good number of homeschoolers on both coasts and a bunch of places in between (Oregon, California, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Indiana, Arizona, Kentucky, and probably a few others I am forgetting right now). Many of them have the same problem. There are good solutions to the problem, but we have found no one who has put such a solution together and offered it as a product in the way that Sonlight has offered their very effective “soup to nuts” solutions for grades 1-8. Somehow, they and others are missing the boat in high school.
The problem: Many, if not most, homeschool children perform at an academic level that is significantly higher than their peers in traditional schools. That is rarely true because they are more intelligent than their peers. It is because they received individualized study plans and tutoring by people (their parents) personally invested in their success. Many of them can perform college level work by the time they are freshmen in high school. There is a common discussion I have with other homeschool parents with kids in this boat. How do we keep our kids at home, but give them a study program that challenges them and for which they can get college credit for their work. There are as many ways to approach this problem as their are homeschool parents. We have arrived at a solution that we like very, very much.
A solution: We have found that our children respond well when they have three things. First, they have to have materials that are engaging and that thoroughly cover the required subject matter. Second, there has to be a measurable goal that can demonstrate that the subject matter has been mastered. Third, there has to be a way to receive college credit for the work. An example of how we put a program together that works for Kelly is one that started with the absolutely stellar Apologia Biology program offered by Sonlight. This year Kelly is working her way through that program. We have read through a several additional books that complement the program. These included Understanding Intelligent Design and Explore Evolution. Finally, we purchased the REA CLEP Biology study book that Kelly will use to prepare for the CLEP test which she will take toward the end of the year.
This mechanism has worked well for us so far. We used this exact same approach with Spanish (Rosetta Stone combined with REA CLEP Spanish–12 semesters of college credit earned), College Composition (Easy Grammar and other books combined with REA CLEP Freshman College Composition–6 semester hours of college credit earned), and US History (this was described in an earlier post titled U.S. History: Deciding not to use Sonlight. Even though we were not very happy with the material, Kelly earned 3 semester hours of credit). With this approach, Kelly plans to prepare for and take CLEP tests in Psychology, Sociology, Biology, and US History II this year. Christian is in preparation for several of these same tests. He will take his first test, Freshman College Composition, next month.
The benefits:
- The kids study the material at a depth that is much greater than what is generally available.
- There is a mechanism by which they can know when they are ready to take the CLEP test (The REA study book practice tests).
- They receive college credit for their work when they pass the CLEP test.
- They can finish their associate degree at a local community college early–sometimes a year or two before they would graduate from a traditional high school.
- The CLEP tests are super preparation for college entrance exams like the ACT and SAT.
- And, probably the greatest benefit, it inspires the kids to receive college credit for their work and study at a college level.
The opportunity: Why wouldn’t Sonlight or some other homeschool curricula provider package some CLEP study books with some in-depth college freshman level texts for those (many) homeschool kids who are ready to take on that kind of material. I would have bought all of these if they were available to me. I know a lot of others who would do the same.
On another note: Last night, Christian and I finished assembling the printed circuit board for the ham radio. It is very, very cool. We should have it all in the case and buttoned up for a photograph by Thursday evening if things go right. Then we start work on tweaking and tuning. Christian has done almost all the soldering, winding, and assembling. He is certainly improved his skills in all that since we started.
Ken, I really enjoyed your thoughts on this.
Lynn
Thanks Lynn. I was over at your blog this morning and am totally envious about your ability to draw birds. As a result of all that, I think we are going to try to start doing some color this summer.
Kenneth,
I always have a little trepidation when I post for the first time on someone’s blog, especially if I just found them. That’s probably why I’m not as warm as I normally am (or, at least, try to be [smile]). But, let me assure you, I do read the posts I take the time to comment on [smile].
Hmm… after getting more feedback, and seeing your responses to my comments, I do see how I need work on sounding less automated [laughing]. I’ll need to work on that. There’s always more to learn!
Truly, thank you for your feedback, and the further clarification today. We do offer an SAT Study Guide, so I could see us carrying CLEP prep books in the future. I’ll pass along your idea.
~Luke
Thanks, Luke. We very much appreciate your coming by. I am really glad for your good humor in all this and even more glad that I haven’t been talking to a machine all this time! 🙂 We are looking forward to seeing any future additions to your offerings in regard to this post. We are strong advocates for the Sonlight Curricula having gotten three families started there on our explicit advise as well as influence on other homeschool families. We are glad to know our confidence is well placed.
P.S. I visited your blog, added a link on our blog roll, and will be visiting you regularly.
Ken,
With regard to CLEP, do you primarily use these as the basic text, or do you use these for supplementation and for the practice tests? Also, I have read that you have to make sure the community college you are gaining units at via the CLEP accepts those tests and that even if you gain the units at a community college, the school you transfer to has the final say on whether they will transfer those units (courses) earned via the CLEP way.
Any thoughts or have you even heard of this?
Isn’t Sonlight a Christian based curriculum (I have not used it, but have some friends who do)?
Is the information in the CLEP exams (especially in the Social Sciences, Humanities and Science areas of study) consistent with your values?
I ask because I have not used CLEP, though I am looking at an REA CLEP Freshmen College Composition book in my bookshelf that someone passed to me, and have no idea the contents of the information. I was thinking that perhaps that is why people who homeschool may not think of using the CLEP study books. I am just musing here.
On another note, we are very happy here at the Graham household. Our Internet has been either slow or down or off and on for weeks now and this morning a guy came, and voila!, we are off and running again with greater speeds than we have ever experienced. Yipee!
Right now I am dealing with a smart 6th grader who doesn’t want to write his math problems down on his paper and only wants to do them in his head, or in his book (then erase them), or at the bottom or back sides of his page with a number indicating the rabbit trail I am to follow to understand how he got the answer he did. He has a thing about having a neat looking paper. Maybe Kelly could psychoanalyze this.
Oh, the joys of homeschooling!
Ken,
Estoy sorprendida que este hombre te escribio personalmente. Hiciste un buen trabajo en informarle que el material se esta acabando y que por eso vas a cambiar. Por otro lado no entiendo ni papa lo que esta gente escribe, asi que mejor te dejo y nos vemos en un rato 🙂
Lorena.
Ruthie, Thanks for the great note. We are happy to hear that you are full speed ahead with your internet connection these days! As for the other comments, the Sonlight material we used, matched our worldview fairly close until we got to the Joy Hakim materials. There was some stuff we ran into now and again that did not exactly align with what we believe, but Sonlight is good about telling you where that is and it gave us good opportunities to talk about opposing worldviews.
It is funny that, even though CLEP is very secular, it did not present as much of a problem as the Hakim material. With CLEP, we have checked with the community colleges around us and the Universities we are considering. We have tailored the list of CLEP tests the kids are planning to take to what the schools generally accept. It is funny that we do not want the kids to have to deal with the nonsense they might learn in a freshman psychology or sociology class at a young age in a state university, so we are having them CLEP out of those classes. The worldview of a lot of the material does not follow our own, but they have to take some of those classes to get the degrees they want, so I figure it is good for them to get the credit while we are around to discuss the material with them when they engage in it.
As for the math thing and your 6th grader. We have dealt with that problem for a long time. We kind of felt sorry for Christian because on the one hand, we wanted him to excel on the Singapore Math “Mental Math” exercises (doing everything in his head) at the same time we expected him to write everything down for every other math problem. I think a little psychoanalysis by Kelly IS definitely in order.
Lorena, estaba bien padre que nos escribió. Quien sabe si van a hacer unos cambios pero vamos a ver.?Estuve medio asustado porque hice una buscada por medio de Google y estuvimos uno de los primeros sitios del web que salio cuando usa las palabras Sonlight y test. Estoy viendo mas a mas gente llegando aqui después de haber hecho una buscada por medio de Google. Yo creo es por causa de platicas como esa.?Otros padres que están haciendo escuela en casa se enfrentan con los mismos problemas que nosotros entonces vienen aqui para ver que hemos escrito.
En otra nota, yo quiero que tu empiezas a escribir unos de tus propios escritos aqui en nuestro blog. Todos estarán bien contentos leer lo que tienes que decir. De verdad, yo creo que mucha gente estarian encantados con oir lo que estas haciendo en tus proyectos y en que pasa que es interesante durante tu dia con los niños en la casa. ¿Que crees tu? Siempre esta pasando algo chistoso. ¡Yo se que me encantaria a mi leerlo! También, Kelly debe de empezar en escribir notas en español. ¿La puedes corregir, no?
I AGREE with you KEN! We need to start reading more of Lorena’s voice on your family blog! Por favor, amiga mia!
Ken,
You have a fun blog, and your thoughts on bundling CLEP study books with curricula make a lot of sense to me. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Sean. I went over to your link. It looks very interesting. We are going on to our third language in six months or so and, even though we have great success with Rosetta Stone Spanish, our understanding is that it is not as strong with the two languages (Mandarin and Russian) that we are considering. We will check out your stuff!
Great suggestions! We are constantly trying to get feedback from parents on what would make their homeschool experience better, and your thoughtful and specific suggestions are so helpful!
If you might be interested in another “AP” type of course for the time being, please look for our new Psychology course in the 2009 catalog coming out in April. It’s designed to prepare students for the AP psychology test for college credit (AP is a registered trademark, so I have to be careful not to claim it here).
Jeff Corson, the man who designed our course, has had an excellent percentage of students achieve college credit in psychology. He’s passionate about the subject, seeks to give students an even MORE thorough preparation than they would typically need for the test, and he’s a strong believer who seeks to weave a Christian worldview into the critical thinking process as he leads students through a study of modern psychology. I won’t explain all here, but it might be worth checking out come April 1 🙂
Blessings as your teenagers continue to take on challenges and prepare for college!
Laura Lee
(a writer at Sonlight, former homeschooler, and a soon-to-be-homeschool-mom)
Thanks for your great input Laura. We are very impressed that Sonlight has taken the time to consider our input! It convinces us the more to continue advocating for the use of Sonlight during the K-8! The AP suggestion is a very good one. We considered taking the AP route, but went with CLEP because the normal way to take an AP test is to sign up as a student at a government or private school. The CLEP tests seem to serve the same purpose with less hassle for homeschoolers. Of course College Board is the organization that produces both the CLEP and the AP, so I believe the materials for AP test preparation would also be well suited for CLEP. We are actually going to test that concept out next year when Christian starts in on US History.
Hey there, I discovered your site a little while ago and have been reading through all the info slowly. I thought would post my comment and just say hi there & let you know I really enjoy your site so far. Will definately be stopping by to read more when I have a bit more time !
Thanks,
Mary
Thanks a lot for both reading and taking the time to drop us a note, Mary. I ran over to your site and saw that it is something that could be very helpful to people like us.
Have you looked at My Father’s World? Their high school material is fairly new. But they encourage prepping. I’ve been hoping for some unbiased review of their materials.
Hello KLM. Thanks for the note. I looked at My Father’s World. It looks like it might have been a good match for us, but we are now moving out of the era where we might have used that material and on to college. I really like the fact that they have integrated CLEP as part of the study materials. Doing CLEP in parallel with our other studies has helped us a lot. In the brief time I took to look at this, it appears that the history/literature part of the material might have been a good match with our family.
We are homeschooling a high schooler as well as K, 3rd, 8th and we are trying to learn as much as we can about earning college credits in high school. I agree with the above post, I have seen more CLEP preparatory items with MFW, none with Sonlight. Thank you for writing this post!
Thanks for the post. I went over and checked out your marvelous blog. It looks you have your hands full and are doing a marvelous job.