Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Winter Gear for Sports Parents

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

September 23, 2024 By Jennifer Lambert 3 Comments

I am not made for cold weather.

Many sports begin in one season and end in another. Often, there is wind and rain, even sleet or snow at the beginning of baseball season! Sometimes, it seems as if that is the same day.

I recently wrote about Summer Gear for Sports Parents. Obviously heat can be dangerous and we need to make sure we stay cool with rising temperatures. But being cold is miserable.

I want to support and cheer for my kids while staying warm and dry.

I’ve loved seeing my kids play soccer and baseball and do ice skating. I’m so proud of all they have tried and learned and how they continue to improve in their endeavors.

Baseball is normally a warm weather sport, but there have been times in early spring or late fall that have been miserably cold and wuthery. Also, ice skating rinks are often very cold for spectators. I like being prepared and staying warm.

Winter Gear for Sports Parents

Clothing

  • Under Armour ColdGear
  • Warm hats
  • Screen-friendly gloves

Blankets

  • 4-in-1 Waterproof Large Outdoor Blanket
  • Hooded Stadium Blanket
  • Wearable Blanket
  • Portable Heated Blanket

Tents

  • Tent Pod For 3-4 People
  • WeatherPod

Seating

  • Plush Camping Chair
  • Camp Chair with Heating Pad

Warmers

  • Rechargeable Hand Warmer
  • Sports Hand Warmer (like a muff)
  • HotHands Hand Warmers

Snacks and Drinks

  • THERMOS Stainless King 40 oz
  • THERMOS FUNTAINER 10 oz
  • Stanley Classic
  • Stanley Stay-Hot Camp Crock

I don’t like being cold and I am not made for winter. These items help me to cheer on the sidelines for my kids playing sports in cold weather.

Do you have tips for cold weather gear?

You might also like:

  • The Problem with Kids Sports
  • How We Do PE
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Our Curriculum for 2024-2025

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

August 12, 2024 By Jennifer Lambert 6 Comments

We had a fun beach trip to Panama City Beach, Florida.

We checked some items off our Ohio summer bucket list with several staycation day trips.

I went to a lot of fun concerts with Tori!

Check out my Instagram to see what we were up to this summer.

We often celebrate the end of summer and beginning autumn and a new school year with not back to school activities.

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow are the What Your ?-Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. His books have some problems, but it’s a great jumping off point.

See how we do history. Our main curriculum Tapestry of Grace (and the way I supplement it each year) covers all the humanities – history, literature, art, music, philosophy, government.

They are all finishing up chemistry and physics and maths.

We have been lucky not to be required to take SAT/ACT, but they do have to complete maths placement exams for university.

My kids are very active with skating/roller blading, cycling, hiking, walking, fishing, playing the Wii and Switch, in addition to their classes and sports.

Some electives the kids are pursuing in addition to sports are cooking/baking, creative writing, drawing/animation, arts and crafts, jewelry making.

  • Tori continues aerial gymnastics twice a week.
  • Akantha continues figure ice skating lessons several times a week.
  • Alex plays elite 15u baseball with Midland Dayton.

My son is “officially” 9th grade according to his age and on transcripts that I must submit to the local high school for his eligibility to play baseball. He may decide to do CCP next year, 2025-2026. I am starting over again with Ancient History Year 1 cycle.

Akantha is “officially” 12th grade according to transcripts that I must submit to the local university for their third and final year with College Credit Plus for admission next year. They’re already a sophomore. They’re taking Latin, Hindu Goddesses, writing, and Greek Magic. Love seeing their watercolors this summer and they’re starting an oil painting class! Follow their journey on their Instagram.

Tori is beginning her first “official” year of university with honors biology and environmental science, minoring in photography. She’s already a sophomore from two years of CCP.

I stilll love learning along with my kids.

We are reading aloud several classic novels to round out our education. We are finishing up The Philosophy Book.

We are reading through Discovering Life’s Story and History of US by Joy Hakim.

My eldest child is working full-time in a blood donation center.

I’m still very needed to make breakfasts and pack lunches and help getting my college kids to their campus since only one drives and their schedules don’t overlap much this year. We eat a hot dinner together almost every night. I cherish these last few years before they go off on their own.

You might also like:

  • Preschool
  • 1st Grade
  • 2nd Grade
  • 3rd Grade
  • 4th Grade
  • 5th Grade
  • Middle School
  • High School 1 and High School 2

Resources:

  • The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer
  • Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book Of Homeschooling
  • Free to Learn by Peter Gray
  • Home Grown: Adventures in Parenting off the Beaten Path, Unschooling, and Reconnecting with the Natural World by Ben Hewitt
  • Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason by Alfie Kohn
  • Untigering: Peaceful Parenting for the Deconstructing Tiger Parent  by Iris Chen
  • Parenting Forward: How to Raise Children with Justice, Mercy, and Kindness by Cindy Wang Brandt
  • How to Raise an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims
  • Raising an Adult: The 4 Critical Habits to Prepare Your Child for Life! by Mark L. Brenner
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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: back to school, curriculum, high school, homeschool

Favorite Baseball Gear

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

July 22, 2024 By Jennifer Lambert 4 Comments

My son has been playing baseball since he was a toddler.

He moved up from TBall to coach pitch to rec kid pitch to elite travel ball.

He’s played fall ball and attended camps and training days and prospect days and takes private lessons for pitching and hitting.

He lives and breathes for baseball.

I’ve witnessed him grow and learn and excel and fail. We’ve had great coaches and bad coaches and indifferent and reluctant coaches. We’ve played on “Daddy Ball” teams and he tried out for teams that didn’t choose him for whatever reason and he’s had a team dissolved after he played a season.

He’s chosen to stay on a D2 team for three years now because the coaching is consistent and fair and kind. He’s had invitations and opportunities to try out or play for other organizations and teams and he’s come home to say that he won’t continue that route.

I am so proud that he has integrity.

He’s a leader for his team, taking care of his teammates if they get injured, sick, hot, hungry, thirsty, or discouraged while always cheering loudly for all their individual and team successes.

Our favorite baseball gear:

  • Utility Tote
  • Baseball Blanket

Decor

  • Rhinestone Clay Beads for necklaces – for making team color necklaces
  • Number Necklace
  • Baseball Display Case – for game balls and signed souvenir balls
  • Baseball Bat Display Case

Training

  • Crossover Cords for warmups
  • pindaloo Original Skill Game for coordination
  • Plyometric Weighted Balls
  • Retrospec Grip Steel Club Strength Training
  • Hand Grip Strengthener Kit
  • Balance Board
  • Ankle Weights

Game Gear

  • Compression Padded Sliding Shorts
  • Rawlings Athletic Socks
  • Compression Sleeve with UV Protection
  • New Balance FuelCell Metal Cleats
  • Boombah Turf Shoes
  • Cooling Towels
  • Junk Headbands
  • Elbow Guard
  • ThumbPro
  • Spiderz Batting Gloves
  • Dirty South Bats
  • Louisville Slugger Bats

Recovery

  • Slant Board
  • Intensity Twin Stim
  • Shoulder Ice Pack
  • Foot Spa

My son needs new cleats and turf shoes every year. He needs a different bat this year and whew are those expensive. The gloves and pads and protective gear wears out quickly.

There are lots of various gear for sports and fitness. I’m glad my other kids don’t play team sports with lots of gear!

What is your favorite sports gear?

You might also like:

  • Summer Gear for Sports Parents
  • Winter Gear for Sports Parents
  • The Problem with Kids Sports
  • How We Do PE
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Summer Gear for Sports Parents

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

July 15, 2024 By Jennifer Lambert 9 Comments

I grew up in a world where only rich kids played sports or did activities before junior high.

While I longed to dance ballet, learn horseback riding, take piano and art lessons, those opportunities were not accessible to me.

I’ve reluctantly been a sports parent since my eldest was a toddler.

I wanted to offer as many opportunities to my kids as I could, so they could eventually choose what they loved. I never forced my kids to participate, but we encouraged them to finish out the season or lesson period.

I’m not a stage mom or whatever.

Liz hated TBall from the moment we signed her up and we didn’t bother forcing it or the other to play. Alex lives and breathes baseball. All my kids tried gymnastics and Tori excels at aerial arts. All my kids tried soccer and Liz and Akantha loved it until about age 12, when it became increasingly competitive. Liz and Tori loved track, but injuries forced them to quit. We took some very informal homeschool figure skating lessons years ago, and Akantha fell in love with it and takes lessons for the past few years.

I don’t post much about my kids online anymore, but I wish I could brag about how well they do in our homeschool, in college, in their activities and sports! I am a very proud parent.

Many evenings and weekends are spent at lessons, practices, and tournaments. I want to stay cool and not get overheated when there is often nary a breeze or shade. I have to monitor my coach husband and son out there on the field and in the dugout to make sure they are managing to stay cool.

Baseball is usually a warm weather sport. We have had some games in early spring and during fall season play that are quite chilly and wuthery. But, usually, we have to find ways to stay cool in summer during baseball practices, games, tournaments, and camps.

Summer Gear for Sports Parents

Wagons

Wagons are pretty essential to haul all the gear from the minivan or SUV to the field and dugout and bleachers. I’ve seen some fantastic wagons that do double duty as child strollers and tables and more.

  • Foldable Double Decker Wagon
  • Foldable Extended Wagon
  • Collapsible Wagon Cart with Storage

Sun Protection

  • Sunscreen – Alba is our favorite brand
  • Hats – Sports Sun Visor, PonyFlo cap, Boonie hats
  • UV blocking shirts
  • Athletic Sunglasses: Under Armour, Pit Viper, and more

Shade

Many families invest in shade tents and they certainly help and can be shared with family and friends.

  • Sport-Brella
  • Popup Canopies
  • E-Z Up Canopies

Seating

I love a rocking chair and I love chairs with sunshades and cup holders.

  • GCI Pod Rocker
  • GCI Pod Rocker with Sunshade
  • GCI Outdoor Rocker Camping Chair
  • Hammock Camp Chair
  • Director’s Chair with Foldable Side Table

Cooling Towels and More

  • Neck Cooling Tube
  • Cooling Towels
  • Cooling Neck Wraps

Fans

  • Portable Personal Neck Fan
  • Portable Clip on Fan
  • RYOBI 18-Volt ONE+ Bucket Top Misting Fan Kit

Snacks and Drinks

  • Our favorite water bottle is the Under Armour 64oz Playmaker Sport Jug
  • Snackle Box
  • 40 oz Tumbler with Handle
  • Liquid I.V.® Hydration Multipliers
  • My favorite coolers are hard rollers – Coleman Portable Rolling Cooler and Igloo Profile Hard Coolers
  • Igloo 5 Gallon Beverage Cooler
  • YETI Tundra Haul Portable Wheeled Cooler

These items have been great for the boys on the team, and for the coaches, parents, families, and friends to stay cool during hot summer games and tournaments.

What’s your favorite tip to stay cool?

You might also like:

  • The Problem with Kids Sports
  • How We Do PE
  • Easy Summer Meals
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Yellow Spring Hike

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

May 6, 2024 By Jennifer Lambert 16 Comments

We went on a little hike I’ve been wanting to do for years and we just never got around it for various reasons.

We finally saw the famous Yellow Spring!

We drove through Yellow Springs and parked at the main Glen Helen Vernet Ecological Center on Corry Street. It’s $10 for a day pass or $50 for an annual pass. They’re a nonprofit and no longer a part of Antioch College.

Tori and Akantha have been CCP students these past two years.

Tori took us along on a short hike Inman Trail that copied her college geology lab class field trip. She led us on a circle by the creek and to the spring and back to the welcome center.

The Dam was fascinating and looked like it defied gravity.

The Cascades and rock formations were really beautiful.

There is a small Adena Burial Mound right beside the path.

The Yellow Spring is so orangey-red from the iron and other minerals.

Read some cool history about Yellow Springs.

The hoodoo rock formation shows erosion split it in half.

The Grotto is a lovely rock cave waterfall.

After a picnic lunch, we drove to see some local covered bridges. There is another closed bridge within Glen Helen that we will find another time. Tori wants to visit all the Ohio bridges. We saw the longest one last summer near Cleveland.

We got to drive through one!

We have a fun summer bucket list before Tori starts college – “for real.”

And I don’t believe in the old criticism that “we only have eighteen summers” with our kids. I am blessed that my eldest lives nearby and we are all still close. Tori plans to live at home as long as she can commute to college. We have lots of plans for school breaks and summers and yes, while it is busier to plan with teens and young adults and all the scheduling conflicts, we still strive to make events happen.

You might also like:

  • College Credit Plus in Ohio
  • Graduation Day
  • Succeeding in College
  • Preparing Teens for the Workforce
  • Nourishing Teens
  • Teen Jobs
  • How Teens Can Spend Summer
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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: homeschool, nature, nature study, ohio, outdoors, Science

Graduation Day

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

April 22, 2024 By Jennifer Lambert 11 Comments

Well, the invitations are coming in and my graduating student is thoroughly excited to celebrate with her friends.

And I feel like garbage.

I didn’t get a copy of Oh, the Places You‘ll Go! signed by everyone she’s interacted with since toddlerhood.

I didn’t get senior portraits in a field of weeds.

We don’t have any parties or trips planned.

I didn’t do any of the trendy Instagram-worthy Pinteresting things that I wasn’t even aware of.

It’s been a rough few years, with COVID closing all our extracurricular activities for a couple years. And after that, my teens aged out of a lot of classes and camps and some never started back up after the quarantine. There have been several ups and downs with job changes and income levels fluctuating.

I feel like I really dropped the ball and the end of this year has kinda snuck up on me.

My own senior year and high school graduation week was a fiasco.

I was one of the first students in Georgia to attempt dual enrollment with high school and college. My counselor and principal refused to help or grant any concessions or early dismissal, so I went directly to a local college and enrolled as a Freshman Scholar. I was still required to complete senior English, so I had to take marketing and another elective in order to leave early. I was require to work part time retail for my marketing class.

Senior week is supposed to be a fun time with graduation practice and whatnot, and when I showed up, several students forgot I even attended the school.

Graduation itself was funny. We handed condoms to our principal as we accepted a fake diploma. Several of us brought silly string and hid it in our sleeves. In order to receive our diploma folder, we had to return our cap and gown and a silly penlight since they thought it was a good idea for some “candlelight” moment. I dropped mine so they threatened to withhold my actual diploma.

My parents decided to go celebrate my graduation in downtown Atlanta at Chops steakhouse. Then they got upset I ordered lamb chops instead of steak. I swear I have seldom been so embarrassed: they stole the steak knives from the table. As we left, I pointed to a case by the door where they sold the knives and branded merchandise. I don’t even remember getting any gifts. We didn’t have a party with my large extended family or any of my friends.

I don’t really like ceremony anyway, but I always wanted my kids to feel special and that any day of celebration for them was about them and not about me.

My first child completed our homeschool in Germany and we were so happy for her and I got some fun photos at a nearby park and I ordered a cute pink mortarboard for her. We didn’t have a party since we didn’t have anyone to invite. We had traveled to many cities in Europe so she has some special memories of her teen years. We moved back to the States and she got a part time job and started college a year early. She didn’t want her driving license until she was eighteen. She resented a lot and regrets a lot of what we had to do, but she also wishes she could have graduated college during COVID somehow like some of her peers.

My elderly parents live near Atlanta, but they don’t communicate with my family; they express no interest in my kids at all. They don’t even seem to remember that I have four children, and often lump the middle two together. We haven’t seen my parents since 2018. My husband’s sisters don’t talk to me or the kids. They live near Chicago, and we haven’t seen them since 2012. It’s lonely and sad.

But I can celebrate my child even if no one else will.

She has performed with aerial gymnastics for about seven years – silks, lyra, and trapeze.

She has a part time job at a local grocery store since she was fifteen.

She has been a College Credit Plus student at a local university for two years, so she is already a sophomore in college at high school graduation. She is accepted as an honors student there this fall and we are very proud. She plans to commute so she can have better food and the comfort of her own bed and space.

She wanted her driving license as soon as possible so we got her the mandatory driving skill classes and a cute little Prius when she turned sixteen.

She attended Space Camp last summer, which has been her dream all her life.

We’re thrilled she got invited to the local high school prom with a group of girl friends.

We are very proud of everything she has done and she has some great goals I am sure she will meet!

Yes, I know that admonition about having only eighteen summers, and I know we have had some great and busy ones and some boring not so great ones. I also feel I have a few more summers to make some great memories, and I have no intention of just sending my kids away to live their own lives without me. I will stay as involved and close as they will let me be. I am blessed that my kids still want to go shopping, attend events, and travel with me.

This summer, we have a beach trip planned, but it will be a multitasker for my son’s baseball tournament. I hope to have a few long weekends or short trips to places that are interesting to my graduating child – hiking or thrifting, art and history museums.

Graduation should be a time for celebration. It’s a huge milestone for kids on the cusp of adulthood.

You might also like:

  • 5 Best Life Skills Books for Teens
  • Graduating from Homeschool
  • How to Prepare for After High School
  • Succeeding in College
  • Preparing Teens for the Workforce
  • Parenting Young Adults
  • Learning to Let Go
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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: high school, homeschool, teen

Our Curriculum for 2023-2024

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

August 28, 2023 By Jennifer Lambert

Summer was exciting with a fun Alabama beach trip and a lake trip near Cleveland.

Tori attended Space Camp!

Akantha attended a CCAD art college preview on merit scholarship.

Summer seems shorter and shorter each year.

We often celebrate the end of summer and beginning autumn and a new school year with not back to school activities.

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow are the What Your ?-Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. His books have some problems, but it’s a great jumping off point.

9th Grade

My son is 13 and working on high school texts. I am not worried at all about his academics. I’m trying to find materials to keep him interested a few more years! We might focus more on writing this year.

  • Second Form Latin
  • Chemistry and/or Physics
  • VideoText Algebra/Geometry and/or OpenStax
  • Culinary Arts  
  • Elite U14 Baseball with Midland Dayton

12th Grade

My middle two kids will attend a local university with CCP this year. It will be their second year doing this.

Tori has her driver’s license, a car, and a part time job at a local grocery store.

Tori is in her last homeschool year and will apply to the university to continue her studies.

Akantha has two more years before they can apply to college. So they will have like a double senior year, since they’re mostly done in our homeschool.

Both have always done much of their school work and many activities together.

First semester:

Tori is taking photography, ecology science with lab, and freshman writing.

Akantha is taking Latin and drawing.

Some electives the kids are pursuing in addition to sports are cooking/baking, creative writing, drawing/animation, arts and crafts, jewelry making.

My kids are very active with skating/roller blading, cycling, hiking, walking, fishing, playing the Wii and Switch, in addition to their classes and sports.

  • Tori continues aerial gymnastics twice a week.
  • Akantha takes ice skating lessons three times a week.
  • Alex plays elite baseball.

Our main text this year would be (as soon as it’s released!) The History of the Modern World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade by Susan Wise Bauer. I also hope to find the Study and Teaching Guide: The History of the Modern World: A curriculum guide to accompany The History of the Modern World by Julia Kaziewicz. We have so enjoyed the other three books in this series!

We are technically on Year 4 in our history cycle. Year 4 covers some important near history and I cannot wait to dive deep into literature. Since this series follows a slightly different timeline than our earlier cycles, I can pull ideas from our Year 3 books while we wait for publication.

We are enjoying these books in the meantime:

  • Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting
  • The Story of Science: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim
  • The Philosophy Book
  • A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn 

See how we do history. Our main curriculum Tapestry of Grace (and the way I supplement it each year) covers all the humanities – history, literature, art, music, philosophy, government.

My eldest child is working full-time in a local hospital with the medical laboratory and phlebotomy.

I hope everyone has a great year!

You might also like to see our other homeschool years:

  • Preschool
  • 1st Grade
  • 2nd Grade
  • 3rd Grade
  • 4th Grade
  • 5th Grade
  • Middle School
  • High School 1 and High School 2

Recommendations:

  • The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer
  • Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book Of Homeschooling
  • Free to Learn by Peter Gray
  • Home Grown: Adventures in Parenting off the Beaten Path, Unschooling, and Reconnecting with the Natural World by Ben Hewitt
  • Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason by Alfie Kohn
  • Untigering: Peaceful Parenting for the Deconstructing Tiger Parent  by Iris Chen
  • Parenting Forward: How to Raise Children with Justice, Mercy, and Kindness by Cindy Wang Brandt
  • How to Raise an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims
  • Raising an Adult: The 4 Critical Habits to Prepare Your Child for Life! by Mark L. Brenner
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The problem with schooling

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

February 20, 2023 By Jennifer Lambert 3 Comments

School should be unnecessary.

Education is important, but school should not be necessary.

I realize our society is built upon two parents working full-time, all day every day, and therefore children are sent away to nurseries as soon as mothers must return to work after the birth, then to day care, and then school because nothing else is feasible. Parents must work to survive, and pay student debts, or at least to pay for childcare.

Our society’s children are essentially raised by people other than parents from as early as four to six weeks to eighteen years, when they typically graduate from high school.

Reasons people advocate for schools:

  1. Adults work full time and need child care.
  2. Adults think their kids need forced socialization.
  3. It prepares kids for the real world/workforce.
  4. Adults can’t help children with their homework.
  5. It’s mainstream.

If anything, this recent quarantine has shown Western society how little the current idea of school is necessary or useful.

Millions of kids forced home to “do school” online, with worksheet packets, with little to no actual instruction, inflated grading, little or no assistance.

Parents were stressed, ignorant, frustrated, confused by suddenly schooling their kids at home.

After decades of expecting kids to attend school and be babysat and instructed by teachers, parents suddenly had to step in and spend time with their kids? While working from home and doing household chores? GASP.

Is it that parents suddenly have a new respect for teachers?

Of course not.

Parents complain and criticize and ridicule and question teachers, not that teachers are perfect, but they are educated and trained and tested and certified to teach their subjects to students.

All the social media posts saying that teachers need to be paid more isn’t really the answer. (but of course they need to be paid more – and respected more.)

The fact that parents can’t help or complete the assignments elementary children were given says a lot about the quality or usefulness of the assignments.

It’s made many realize how difficult it is to force children to do things that are unnatural, uninteresting, and not fun. Irrelevant lessons with no real world counterparts that make little sense or have no application for kids’ futures.

The quarantine definitely exposed the disparity between rich and poor, white and children of color.

Those with the resources certainly have a higher rate of success than those who do not.

There are lots of problems with the current model of schooling.

There are equity issues. The rich kids get vastly different schooling than the poor kids. There is racial profiling in schools.

We should limit or eliminate all the testing. We are not teaching critical thinking. We are eliminating history education. We should be out of our comfort zones!

No tolerance bullying? Ha! What about the teachers being bullies? The entire system is based on humiliation and shame. Why are there cops in school?

Violence in schools is a system of a larger societal problem, but it’s very scary and no one is doing anything helpful about it.

I Quit Teaching

When I taught middle school and high school, I soon knew the system was broken, but I didn’t really have words to express it then.

It was especially hard having come out of a university program that was supposed to prepare me to teach “inner city minorities” and then see those school systems continually set those children up for failure. I was constantly up against authorities (even Black principals!) who cited the rules and traditions that made no sense to me because they obviously weren’t helping and were even harming the students. The irony of my master’s degree classmates who then went on to teach in rich white schools. My university no longer offers this teaching program. I wonder why.

I was 21 years old, and I got a job teaching high school – 9th and 10th grade. I really didn’t have enough preparation for boundaries with teens when I was barely out of my teens myself. I had no mentors to help me with anything. I was really an ignorant white girl who thought I was going to be a savior for teaching literature. I grew up very isolated and alienated and didn’t even know much slang or history or current events and I was in no way prepared for how mean teens can be to a young teacher. There was very little support and a lot of negativity and complaining.

I felt like I was constantly at war with the system just to teach my students. Other teachers would look through the class lists before school began and warn the other teachers about certain students, which was so disheartening! I loved them and I loved teaching them how to love literature. Some of my favorite moments were seeing that little light of wonder in a big tough guy’s eyes who had never been exposed to Greek plays or dystopian novels and thought all school is drudgery. I had Latino boys doing skits on Medea and they loved it. I had huge football players reciting and writing poetry. A huge win was when my student Jamarious completed an amazing writing assignment.

But why is it the English teacher seems to be the one that doubles as a counselor?

I got reprimanded multiple times for interfering or being unprofessional, when I was desperately trying to keep my students safe from their own families and social situations.

I had a student who is a Black lesbian in 10th grade confide in me that her parents beat her because she was gay, and they forced her to attend church. The actual school counselor just shrugged when I reported it.

I had a poor White student in 8th grade who was being abused and neglected at home bring a bag of razor blades to school, so I requested the help of the school counselor, but I was almost prosecuted by the school resource officer for not reporting a weapon in the school building.

I had an autistic student who loved to give me full-frontal hugs, and luckily, his mother worked in the same school, so I was never accused of inappropriate contact.

It sucked that I couldn’t be a human.

I had a student accuse me of assault when she blocked my classroom doorway and I tapped her elbow. I couldn’t hug students who very obviously needed it. I always had to be super careful what I said. I got reprimanded by administration for telling my 10th graders their essay assignment was generally “crappy” because a student’s parent complained that I was vulgar. I couldn’t have books in my classroom without someone complaining of the content. Specialists use words like “rigor” & “canon” and “literary merit.”

I didn’t feel comfortable dining out in the same town where I taught in case I was seen by students and their families, or even other employees with whom I worked.

Several 8th graders mentioned me in their online diary forum and their parents complained to administration, like I have control about what kids do outside my classroom? I cannot imagine teaching with all the technology and smartphones and social media now. There are no repercussions and teachers have no support. This Indiana teacher was filmed on students’ TikToks and received no assistance from administration or fellow teachers. And there are so many instances of teachers being filmed without permission and bullied online.

Parents were a huge hindrance when I taught in public middle and high school. They apparently criticize everything I said and did. I was forced to change due dates, allow late work, apologize for things I said or didn’t say, or for things students imagined I said or misconstrued. Administration backed everything a parent said, no matter what. I felt like I was constantly called into the principal’s office to set out fires instead of preparing lessons and teaching.

When I moved on to teach writing at a local state university, the system wasn’t much better, even though the students paid for their time there. Parents still tried to complain!

Being an adjunct English professor seems more trouble than it’s worth. My department chair came to me crying in the public restroom at my university, about 15 years ago, telling me she was stepping down from chair to professor because she was told by the dean to encourage the department to inflate grades. She informed me she respected me for giving students fair grades that the students earned and that it was going to be much harder for everyone in the future.

I have taught in public high school, public middle school, private Christian school, private tutoring, and a local university.

I ended my teaching career when I moved out of state and stopped teaching. But I do still miss it sometimes.

Now that my kids are grown and teens and embarking on college courses, I realize I can never teach again. The system is broken beyond repair.

So many different kinds of families choose homeschooling to educate their children.

I don’t want to address the issues about evaluating home schools. Yes, I realize there have been abuses. Yes, I realize there are horrible misuses of powers and evil teachings when there is no oversight. I don’t have solutions or answers for all of it.

If adults who live in the real world and work don’t understand the things that children are being taught in schools, then are they really necessary for a successful life? What is education preparing children for other than taking tests? What workforce are children being groomed for with this “knowledge”? The real world requires a diversity of talent, ideas, and knowledge – not just a regurgitated curriculum of facts.

~Happiness is Here

It was not a smooth transition for us into homeschool.

While we never began public school, there was still some deschooling to accomplish on my part, and on the part of my husband. We were both public schooled. There were some rocky beginnings.

My eldest daughter attended day care and private preschool. We experienced year one and year two of our homeschooling journey in Texas, before PCSing. Those years laid a foundation for how our family wanted to approach learning.

Not only is risky play beneficial to children’s health and development but that depriving them of it can cause harm. Risky play is nature’s way for children to teach themselves emotional resilience and learn how to manage and overcome their fears.

Peter Gray

I do realize that homeschooling is a privilege. We struggled financially in the beginning as I was unable to find work and therefore couldn’t afford child care on a never-ending job hunt. So, I stayed home and then had more children and just never looked back.

Please read this excerpt from Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto:

Consider this: during WWII, American public schools—first in urban areas, then everywhere—were converted from phonetic ways of instruction (the ancient “alphabet system”) to non-phonetic methods which involved memorizing whole word units, and lots of guessing for unfamiliar words. Whites had been learning to read at home for 300 years the old-fashioned way—matching spoken sounds to written letters—and white homes preserved this tool even when schools left it behind. There was a resource available to whites which hardly existed for blacks. During slavery, blacks had been forbidden to learn to read; as late as 1930 they averaged only three to four years of schooling. When teachers stopped teaching a phonetic system—known to work—blacks had no fallback position.

Far from production as an ideal, it was consumption that had to be encouraged. School had to train in consumption habits: listening to others, moving on a bell or horn signal without questioning, becoming impressionable—more accurately, gullible—in order to do well on tests. Kids who insisted on producing their own lives had to be humiliated publicly as a warning to others.

A pathological state of youth, heretofore unrecognized by history, was designed by G. Stanley Hall of Johns Hopkins University. He called it adolescence and debuted the condition in a huge two-volume study of that name, published in 1904. Trained in Prussia as behavioral psychologist Wilhelm Wundt’s first assistant, Hall (immensely influential in school circles at the beginning of the 20th century) identified adolescence as a dangerously irrational state of human growth requiring psychological controls inculcated through schooling.

In thirty years of teaching kids, rich and poor, I almost never met a learning-disabled child; hardly ever met a gifted-and-talented one, either. Like all school categories, these are sacred myths created by human imagination. They derive from questionable values that we never examine because they preserve the temple of schooling.

School is a religion. Without understanding this holy-mission aspect, you’re certain to misperceive what takes place there as a result of human stupidity or venality or class warfare. All are present in the equation; it’s just that none of them matters very much—even without them, school would move in the same direction. Ordinary people send their children to school to get smart, but what modern schooling teaches is dumbness. Old-fashioned dumbness used to be simple ignorance. Now it’s been transformed into permanent mathematical categories of relative stupidity, such as “gifted and talented,” “mainstream,” and “special ed”—categories in which learning is rationed for the good of the system and the social order. Dumb people are no longer merely ignorant. Now they are dangerous imbeciles whose minds must be conditioned with substantial doses of commercially prepared disinformation for tranquilizing purposes.

Why, then, do we allow schooling to remain the way it currently exists?

Culture of learning by Racheous:

  • What are you interested in learning more about?
  • What do you want to learn about that specifically?
  • What projects have you been thinking about doing?
  • What would you like to create?
  • What skills would you like to improve on?

I am very concerned about what is happening in the Florida school system, removing and banning books, not allowing history education. An entire state changing policy for a national testing program. What happens if these ideas are adopted in other states? in our whole country?

The entire modern education system has basically been a colonizing exercise in white studies. We have been and continue to be trained to see and value ourselves and others, our ideas about intelligence and language, our relationship with the natural world, our connection to past and future, our notions of leisure and our sense of happiness, beauty and security through the prism of the white monoculture mind. Everything outside of this is essentially seen as inferior, ‘cute’ or antiquated. Even the term ‘global’ (as in ‘think globally’ or global networks and global solutions) is a masked way to extend and legitimize the arrogant spell of ‘whiteness’. In our collective struggles to decolonize in this historical moment, are we ready to dismantle and re-imagine the military-industrial schooling system and its inherent knowledge/cultural hierarchy. Or are we content with calls for more ‘inclusion’ and ‘reform’ in the same old game?

Manish Jain

Schools are designed around bullying, manipulation, humiliation, constant evaluation. There is no freedom or encouragement for critical thinking or enjoying learning. It kills everything interesting.

Kids are people, and they respond just as adults do to micromanagement, to severe restrictions on their freedom, and to constant, unsolicited evaluation.

Peter Gray

As adults, we assume that we have the right to decide what does or does not interest us, what we will look into and what we will leave alone. We take this right for granted, cannot imagine that it might be taken away from us. Indeed, as far as I know, it has never been written into any body of law. Even the writers of our Constitution did not mention it. They thought it was enough to guarantee citizens the freedom of speech and the freedom to spread their ideas as widely as they wished and could. It did not occur to them that even the most tyrannical government would try to control people’s minds, what they thought and knew. That idea was to come later, under the benevolent guise of compulsory universal education.

The requirement that a child go to school for about six hours a day, 180 days a year, for about ten years, whether or not he learns anything there, whether or not he already knows it or could learn it faster or better somewhere else, is such a gross violation of civil liberties that few adults would stand for it. But the child who resists is treated as a criminal. With this requirement, we created an industry, an army of people whose whole work was to tell young people what they had to learn and to try to make them learn it.

John Holt, Escape from Childhood

My husband and I were talking the other day about how little worries this girl has. All of the girls, really. But particularly thinking back to when we were 11, or what we hear of other children her age (last year of primary school). She honestly has very little worries or stress. The only thing she is slightly worried about right now is that we won’t be able to go on our annual camping trip with friends this year.

Her experience is so different from what we know and it is so great to witness. By now children usually have so much on their shoulders. Keeping up with schoolwork, tests, a strict schedule, social dramas, just to name a few things. They have been trained to focus on the future, rather than the present. The next class they have, the next assignment, the next test they have to study for. An 11-year-old without that pressure is able to rest in the present moment. Sure, she fantasies about what her life will look like when she grows up, but there is no worry about it (even though she is naturally quite the planner!). She wakes up each day and does whatever her imagination tells her. Following her interests, discovering herself. It IS all preparation for the future, but the experience she is having compared to mine at her age could not be more different. And from what I can see the pressure has gotten a lot worse for kids these days.

When you first start out with a toddler you have no idea what an unschooled 11 year old will look like! There are not many examples. You wonder if you’re making the right decision. Will things work out ok? But now I can say… YES! It’s brilliant! YES we have protected her childhood. YES she is happy and thriving and learning. YES she has heaps of friends. YES she is confident and independent and capable. YES she still loves to learn. YES she is connected to her family. YES she is passionate and inspired. YES she is carefree and happy. So many things I wished for her, mostly that she was free to be a child and free to be herself.

It’s happening. There is another way, you just have to be brave enough to take it.

Happiness is here

In “developed” societies, we are so accustomed to centralized control over learning that it has become functionally invisible to us, and most people accept it as natural, inevitable, and consistent with the principles of freedom and democracy. We assume that this central authority, because it is associated with something that seems like an unequivocal good – “education” – must itself be fundamentally good, a sort of benevolent dictatorship of the intellect. We allow remote “experts” to dictate what we must learn, when we must learn it, and how we must learn it. We grant them the right to test us, to measure the contents of our brains and the value of our skills, and then to brand us in childhood with a set of numeric rankings that have enormous power over our future opportunities to participate in the economic and political life of our society. We endorse strict legal codes that render this process compulsory, and in a truly Orwellian twist, many of us now view it as a fundamental human right to be legally compelled to learn what a higher authority tells us to learn.

– Carol Black http://carolblack.org/occupy-your-brain

Ironically, I got good grades in school. My kids who attend college are getting good grades. But my kids have never attended regular public school, so they didn’t learn to jump through hopes or hate it.

Yes, maybe my children would get good grades at school. I’m really not interested in that at all. Being “good” at school doesn’t mean it’s not damaging.

Happiness is Here

In 1886, John Milton Gregory authored his most well-known work The Seven Laws of Teaching, which asserted that a teacher should:

  • Know thoroughly and familiarly the lesson you wish to teach; or, in other words, teach from a full mind and a clear understanding.
  • Gain and keep the attention and interest of the pupils upon the lesson. Refuse to teach without attention.
  • Use words understood by both teacher and pupil in the same sense—language clear and vivid alike to both.
  • Begin with what is already well known to the pupil in the lesson or upon the subject, and proceed to the unknown by single, easy, and natural steps, letting the known explain the unknown.
  • Use the pupil’s own mind, exciting his self-activities. keep his thoughts as much as possible ahead of your expression, making him a discoverer of truth.
  • Require the pupil to reproduce in thought the lesson he is learning—thinking it out in its parts, proofs, connections, and applications til he can express it in his own language.
  • Review, review, REVIEW, reproducing correctly the old, deepening its impression with new thought, correcting false views, and completing the true.

We have come a long way from early schools in western society. We don’t encourage kids to think; we just require kids to regurgitate information for testing.

I don’t have answers. I am not a policy maker. But I know what I experienced as a student and as a teacher and now as a mother of kids in college. I have heard stories from other moms about their kids’ experiences in K-12. The system is broken.

I know the answer isn’t eliminating art, music, recess, all the fun electives. I know the answer isn’t longer days, fewer breaks, year-round school.

I know the answer isn’t adding Bible teaching or prayer in schools. The answer isn’t arming teachers. The answer isn’t more testing.

Resources:

Ending Curriculum Violence

Children, Learning, and the ‘Evaluative Gaze’ of School by Carol Black

How to Deschool YOURSELF Before Homeschooling Your Kids

Schooled Culture

6 Ways Schools Disempower Children

1.7 Million Students Attend Schools With Police But No Counselors, New Data Show

Black Kids Are 5 Times Likelier Than White Kids to Be Locked Up

We protest police in the streets, so why do we let police in our schools?

5 students tell you why they want police-free schools

Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin

Teachers are Not the Heroes by Thomas White

How Teaching Interferes with Learning by John Holt

It seems we as a society never became comfortable to ask WHY SCHOOL?

You might also like:

  • Homeschooling as a Military Family
  • How We Learn
  • My Educational Influences
  • Stop Making Everything So Educational
  • Homeschooling During Quarantine
  • Secular Curriculum
  • High School Homeschool
  • Not Back to School
  • What if kids ask to go to school?

Linking up: Anita Ojeda, Growing Garden, LouLou Girls, Suburbia, Jenerally informed, InstaEncouragement, Eclectic Red Barn, Pinch of Joy, Create with Joy, Silverado, Grammy’s Grid, Random Musings, Homestead, Pam’s Party, Jeanne Takenaka, Ducks in a Row, Fluster Buster, Joanne Viola, Soaring with Him, Ridge Haven, Penny’s Passion, Try it Like it, Slices of Life, Imparting Grace, Katherine’s Corner, Modern Monticello, Lisa Notes, Momfessionals, Answer is Chocolate, Pam’s Party, CWJ, Pieced Pastimes, Mostly Blogging,

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Our Curriculum for 2022-2023

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

July 11, 2022 By Jennifer Lambert

Summer was exciting with camps and comic cons and a King’s Island membership.

Tori attended Air Camp on milkid scholarship. Akantha attended an art camp on merit scholarship and a fun traditional camp for trans youth. Alex attended a couple baseball camps.

This year will look very different for our family with only one child left to homeschool. I hope to keep him from getting too bored or lonely without his siblings!

We often celebrate the end of summer and beginning autumn and a new school year with not back to school activities.

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow are the What Your ?-Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. His books have some problems, but it’s a great jumping off point.

8th Grade

My youngest will almost be alone this year as his siblings head off to a local college with CCP. I’m looking into field trips, classes, museums, and group activities to keep him from getting too bored or lonely.

  • Second Form Latin
  • Spelling Workout F
  • Biology
  • Math 8
  • Studying God’s Word H (I bought the whole set long ago and even though it’s a bit problematic, we’re completing the comprehension parts, but not the indoctrination parts)
  • Culinary Arts with 100 Million Years of Food: What Our Ancestors Ate and Why It Matters Today by Stephen Le and Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Cooks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter  
  • Elite U13 Baseball

11th Grade

My middle two kids will attend a local university with CCP this year.

First semester:

They’re taking Art History I and Classics together.

Akantha is taking freshman Writing and Tori is taking Environmental Science and Lab.

Second semester:

They’re taking Art History II together. Tori is taking another Environmental Science and Lab. Akantha was invited to an advanced Classics course!

  • Tori is continuing Russian and Greek
  • Akantha is working on Latin Forms and various other languages and mythology
  • Tori continues aerial gymnastics
  • Akantha takes ice skating lessons

Tori works part time at a local grocery store. She took the Ohio driving classes and passed her driving test. We bought her a Toyota Prius. She loves the freedom and is very responsible and helpful.

Together

I will miss our morning read alouds together for religious studies, church history, natural history, world and American history, and multicultural literature. I’m not sure how to continue, except maybe some of the most important and favorite reading at bedtime or weekends.

While I want to continue our history studies and other work, I also don’t want to stress out my middle kids with too much. Their college courses will take priority. They’ve done more than enough in our homeschool.

We are on Year 3 in our history cycle. Year 3 covers some important near history and I cannot wait to dive deep into literature.

Our main text this year is The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople by Susan Wise Bauer. Also the Study and Teaching Guide: The History of the Renaissance World: A curriculum guide to accompany The History of the Renaissance World by Julia Kaziewicz. My middle kids complete the critical thinking questions for each chapter.

We anxiously await the final book in the new history of the world series by Susan Wise Bauer!

See how we do history. Our main curriculum Tapestry of Grace (and the way I supplement it each year) covers all the humanities – history, literature, art, music, philosophy, government.

My kids are very active with skating/roller blading, cycling, hiking, walking, playing the Wii and Switch, in addition to their classes and sports.

Some electives the kids are pursuing in addition to sports are cooking/baking, creative writing, drawing/animation, arts and crafts, jewelry making.

I don’t stress over progress or worry much about my kids’ academic futures. I don’t care about testing. My eldest three have done CCP and if they need tutoring for the math placement test or ACT/SAT, we will cross that bridge. They all three passed the writing assessment with top scores!

I know this year will be busy and different and a part of me looks forward to it, but another part of me longs for the simplicity and freedom we had when the kids were little.

It’s bittersweet watching my kids grow up and do more and more on their own.

You might also like to see our other homeschool years:

  • Preschool
  • 1st Grade
  • 2nd Grade
  • 3rd Grade
  • 4th Grade
  • 5th Grade
  • Middle School
  • High School 1 and High School 2

Recommendations:

  • The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer
  • Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book Of Homeschooling
  • Free to Learn by Peter Gray
  • Home Grown: Adventures in Parenting off the Beaten Path, Unschooling, and Reconnecting with the Natural World by Ben Hewitt
  • Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason by Alfie Kohn
  • Untigering: Peaceful Parenting for the Deconstructing Tiger Parent  by Iris Chen
  • Parenting Forward: How to Raise Children with Justice, Mercy, and Kindness by Cindy Wang Brandt
  • How to Raise an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims
  • Raising an Adult: The 4 Critical Habits to Prepare Your Child for Life! by Mark L. Brenner

What’s next year look like for your family?

Linking up: Eclectic Red Barn, April Harris, Silverado, Suburbia, Pinch of Joy, Create with Joy, Random Musings, Ridge Haven, God’s Growing Garden, OMHG, InstaEncouragements, Penny’s Passion, Momfessionals, CWJ, Slices of Life, Imparted Grace, Answer is Chocolate, Katherine’s Corner, Modern Monticello, LouLou Girls, Jenerally Informed, Soaring with Him, Homestead, My Life Abundant, Fluster Buster, Bijou Life, Anchored Abode, Lisa Notes, Simply Coffee, Pieced Pastimes, Pam’s Party, Mostly Blogging,

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College Credit Plus in Ohio

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure.
Please see my suggested resources.

March 10, 2022 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

I started college early and took several courses before I graduated high school. It wasn’t easy to navigate in the mid-90s and it was a new concept. I am glad I did that and would do it again. It was good for me to ease in to college. I attended a local college – now called Clayton State University, then Georgia State University to complete my bachelor’s in English and master’s in education.

Every state and school district and college have different requirements for early college. For homeschoolers, sometimes it’s easier and sometimes it seems more difficult.

I have homeschooled my four children for over sixteen years.

One graduated our homeschool and started early college classes. I did pressure her a little, but she wasn’t as motivated as I would have liked. I wish I could go back and be more gentle.

Two are starting early college classes this upcoming fall semester. This is their choice and I’m excited to help them.

One kid left to go! He’s only twelve and has so many options and interests and we aren’t pressuring him at all.

Information about College Credit Plus for Homeschoolers

Students must be Ohio residents to participate in College Credit Plus. As a military family, this was tricky for us the first year we PCS’ed here from Germany.

View all CCP FAQ’s here.

Students in grades 7 through 12 can qualify for dual enrollment or early college courses.

Earning college credits while still in high school can reduce the time and cost of attending college after high school. It’s great to ease in and get a taste of college courses before committing to enrollment.

The College Credit Plus Program includes courses taken during the summer term also.

Be aware: classes failed or withdrawn with an “F” (or equivalent failing grade) will receive an “F” on the high school and/or college transcripts and will be computed into the high school and college GPA.

Many entry-level courses earned at an Ohio public college are guaranteed to transfer to any other Ohio public college.

In Ohio, there are lots of higher education options:

  • 14 universities with 24 regional branch campuses
  • 23 community colleges
  • More than 70 adult workforce education and training centers statewide

Check with the institution of your choice if they offer College Credit Plus and what their special requirements might be. This interactive map shows you which option might be near you.

Homeschoolers are responsible for purchasing or renting textbooks and supplies. It’s been noted by many that homeschooled students don’t seem to receive as many credit hours as they request or not as many as public and private schooled students.

Note that colleges are not required to modify course content based on the ages of the students. Some content may be for mature audiences.

Students will be expected to follow the rules and regulations set by the college/university. 

Transportation is the responsibility of the student. This can be sometimes difficult since we homeschool parents always chauffeuring our kids around to activities. I try to plan their courses only two days a week to limit travel.

The state education website breaks down the CCP process into four steps.

College Credit Plus applications open in February 1 and close April 1.

How to Navigate College Credit Plus

Step one: Set up a parent OH|ID account as soon as possible and save that login information.

Step two: After February 1, start state application for tuition funding for each child.

We usually request only 15 credit hours for the first year or two so they’re not too stressed. You can request up to 30 credits for the year, but I feel they won’t grant homeschoolers more than 15.

You have to upload your homeschool intent letter received from your school district.

Step three: Apply to college(s). The applications should be free for high school/CCP students. Pay attention to details like sending transcripts or test scores and if permission slips or extra forms are required. We had to sign maturity forms and permission slips.

Some common college choices:

  • Wright State University
  • Sinclair College
  • University of Cincinnati
  • Miami University
  • The Ohio State University
  • Ohio University
  • Kent State University
  • Cleveland State University
  • University of Akron
  • University of Toledo

Step four: College admissions office should contact you and/or the student with a tentative admission letter to send to the state to process tuition funding so there’s no holdup on that end. Upload these letters to state CCP files and submit before April 1!

Sometimes, there are additional requirements and instructions from the colleges depending on several factors such as age of child, test scores, transcripts.

My first child took the SAT, but the math score wasn’t high enough for her to take the college math class without a remedial course or placement exam. This also affected her ability to take some science courses.

My middle child hasn’t take any standardized tests in her life, and the placement exams were waived based on her age and transcripts. But she took the college placement tests to streamline her ability to take college writing and math without remediation.

My third child is deemed too young and is required to take college placement exams for admission into CCP, even though their transcript is almost the same as my middle child’s.

Step five: Funding letters from state should be received about the first week of May, before 5/6. Make sure you send that letter ASAP to the bursar at the college or you’ll be responsible to pay tuition!

Step six: Receive admission letters from colleges and instructions how to register for classes and student IDs. Usually, a physical appointment is required with a registrar to ensure all is understand and done correctly and they release the hold on registration. Only certain core classes are usually available to CCP students. Wright State advisor stated that students can request to take a class and it’s at the discretion of the dean.

It’s an exciting time for our homeschooled teens to enter into adulthood and attend college. We can learn to let go and let them navigate their education and future. It’s great to ease into it and determine if that’s the route they want to go.

I feel CCP allows homeschooled students to make decisions for themselves and preview college which could help them determine their direction for the future. It might make it easier to enroll in the college of their choice later, after high school. It’s a great opportunity!

You might also like:

  • Homeschooling in Ohio
  • Homeschool High School Credits
  • 5 Best Life Skills Books for Teens
  • Graduating from Homeschool
  • How to Prepare for After High School

Let me know if your homeschooled child has done CCP!

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