Hi Ladies,

I have been home schooling a long time-since 1993. Currently I have my youngest three at home, the eldest being a girl of almost 17. I have just finished using TOG for my second year.
We are Canadians living in the United Arab Emirates(since 2003), where there are no libraries, so I have to order ALL my resources from the US. She is the only home schooled girl her age, the closest in age is 14.

Though she is going on 17, she acts more like a 14 year old. She is immature, insecure, non-academic and rebellious. It is a constant battle for me to get her to complete her schoolwork, and when she does, it is often poorly done. Lots of mumbling and non answers, or "oh I was just going to finish that".Over and over and over. AAck

I started out using Rhetoric level with her (Year 2) , just the History, because she is doing Englsih online with The Potter's School. She found the Rhetoric history reading too intense, so I agreed to lower the level to Dialectic, but still assign church history and philosophy from Rhetoric, and at times tailoring to our needs, adding Canadian content at times. She is much more comfortable at this level, where she mostly just does the reading.

I fail miserably at evaluation and discussions. I read here what people are doing with their kids and feel like such a fraud. I have had discussions with her but it ends up me doing most of th talking, and I am not even sure she is listening.I have tried to get her to highlight, take notes, answer questions. Sometimes she will come with the photocopied question sheet/scrap of paper with a few chicken scratched answers on them.But then, because the discussion outline does not always follow the accountabilty/thinking questions, her answers and the discussion do not necessarily fall in together nicely, so she gets frustrated with the whole thing-as in"why did I bother?" She will have read the assignments but can not articulate a discussion, more than a few interjections here and there.In my ideal world, I would love it if she could narrate what she read, or better yet, write up a paragraph or two about what she read, a cross between "A Thomas Jefferson Education" and Charlotte Mason approach. I do not live in that world!

In an effort to get some sense of what her actual ability and learning has been this year, and because it feels so hodge podge, I have assigned her to write two end of the year 2000 word essays, one of on an event and one on a person, each from a different era, her choice. She has chosen American Colonization, with subtopics Jamestown, Plymouth and Pennsylvania. I am having her structure the essay according to Excellence in Writing's super essay, where 3 smaller essays are grouped into a larger essay. So, for example, she would have an essay each for her sub topics, then group them together witha overarching intro and conclusion. Though I tried to break down the essay writing process in small steps (defining how to organize and essay, defining her topic, choosing subtopics, making an outline, etc) she is floundering. I can see it will be a shallow not very insightful essay. I think perhaps I should go through the process of writing the essay with her. I don't know how much hand holding to offer, and how much she will accept.

I am not sure if I have accurately portrayed our situation, but I could use some perspective and encouragment and advice(and prayers!)
Could someone please help me regroup and get on the right track with her? Should I do a review (we have done 3 units this year: Y2/U3&4, Y3/U1)), should I still have her go through the essay writing process? And if she does not write these essays, at his point in the year, how do I evaluate her, ensuring she has "passed" this year in history?
I appreciate you input.

Rebecca L
Abu Dhabi

Rebecca,

There are plenty of people that just do the history reading and still pass their child onto the next year in history. Remember that TOG is a very academic curriculum that needs to get tailored to your student.

I have two older students. My 16 year old is very academic and history/literature oriented...he does lots of TOG and loves it. My 15 year old tolerates it...he will do DI level I'm thinking all through high school.

I would just keep plugging away and ask God to show you what to do for your dd. You mentioned that she is immature and non-academic. I would go from there and not expect what you would expect from a mature 17 year old. Some students just need longer to make connections in discussions.

About the questions and discussions not matching up....help her to realize that the SAP questions are designed to help her think about her reading. If she has read the material she should be able to answer the accontability questions. Then...help her on the thinking questions...do them together if you can. Then add in the discussion questions.

Hope that helps.

Blessings,
Barb

I think, if this were my daughter, I would start by working with her on reading and note-taking skills. I might sit beside her while she did her reading. She could read a paragraph, tell me what the paragraph said, and then tell me how she was going to take notes on that. I could then guide her to a better understanding of the paragraph and how she might take notes on it (if that was necessary), and then she could write that down.

This would take a while, but hopefully wouldn't have to be repeated too often before she began to understand a little better about how to read and take notes. I think that if she improved this part of the process, the discussion part might really improve in time.

Incidentally, my oldest is academically inclined, and I still can't get her to write a good essay on historical topics. She really struggles to support a thesis with historical data. I have a feeling that if a student can't participate in weekly discussions well, a 2000-word essay might well be out of her reach.

The hardest thing in this situation is assigning grades. As far as her education is concerned, what's important is to identify where she's weak and strong and move from there. I don't know how to assign grades to this - it's something I constantly struggle with.

So what does she want to do with her life? Is she a person who is not going to go to college but instead do something else. If so, maybe staying at your current level is fine. Instead you might focus on skill acquisition in the area she is interested in. If she wants to go to college maybe downloading some applications of schools she is interested in for her to examine might be helpful as would a discussion with someone familiar with the admissions process.

Thank you so much, ladies, for your responses.It has given me some things to consider.

Thanks,
Rebecca L.