Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Educator, Coach, Life Strategist

Free online college courses for teens

If dual enrollment isn’t in your high schooler’s future but you’d still like your teen to take college classes, free college online could be the ticket.  At least a dozen major universities now offer “open” courses to the public — free.  These are actual college lectures from major colleges and universities that are recorded and made available online, with no obligation whatsoever, to anyone with an interest and a high-speed Internet connection.

Imagine being able to have your high schooler sit in on a History of Art class at Yale, a Psychology course at UCLA or a Chemical Engineering class at MIT.  Using open courseware, this is now a reality.

Perhaps you’re wondering how these courses might be used for homeschooling?  Offering advanced high school credit is one way. For instance, just like you’d “weight” an AP or honors course more than a traditional high school course, you can weight the college course when applying it to the GPA. (This is called a “weighted GPA”.)

A second way is to use the courses to supplement other learning going on at home.  For example, a student studying a topic at home could use as many of the college lectures as would be needed to reinforce learning, or satisfy whatever remaining hours you’ve established to award credit.

Gauging interest is a third option.  One never knows when a spark of interest may ignite in a student!  Watching online college lectures can help teens learn more about different areas and think about if these courses/careers might have a place in their future.

Lastly, there is great intrinsic value here.  Like anything else, students of all ages can watch just because they want to.  Whether one completes an entire course or just a sampling of lectures offered by a variety of different lecturers, the opportunities for learning are endless — and don’t forget, free.

Begin with these links and find others on your own:

Academic Earth

Open Yale Courses

MIT Open Courseware

If you still have questions, let’s schedule a consultation. I’d be glad to meet with you and your student to customize a program that fits just right.

To your success,

Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau is a college professor who traded in her tenure to become a homeschool mom 20+ years ago.  A homeschool pioneer and the founder of many groups and organizations, she works to advance home education, and is an outspoken supporter of education reform coast to coast.  Her book, Suddenly Homeschooling: A Quick Start Guide to Legally Homeschool in Two Weeks, is industry-acclaimed for illustrating how homeschooling can rescue children and families from the public school system, and how anyone can begin homeschooling within a limited time-frame, with no teaching background whatsoever.  A writer, a homeschool leader, and a women’s life coach, Marie-Claire mentors in a variety of areas that impact health, education and lifestyle. A conference speaker, she has appeared at FPEA, H.E.R.I., Home Education Council of America, The Luminous Mind, Vintage Homeschool Moms, iHomeschool Network, and many other events. Her articles have appeared in and on Holistic Parenting, CONNECT,Homefires, Homemaking Cottage, Kiwi, Circle of Moms, and hundreds of sites and blogs nationwide.  Marie-Claire can be reached at contactmarieclaire@gmail.com.

Block scheduling

Block scheduling is a way to schedule everything that needs to be accomplished daily for every member of the family in your charge.  Though it may not work for everyone, some of the most productive and successful homeschooling families schedule in “blocks” — usually 30 – 60 minutes at a time.  See if it can work for you, too.

Block scheduling begins by making a list of everything that every member of the family should accomplish every day and then finding a way to squeeze it all into one giant scheduling puzzle.  It’s isn’t as hard as it sounds…here’s how to create one of your own:

For starters, with block scheduling, begin with the assumption that everything must be scheduled, using either 30- or 60-minute blocks of time from waking up in the morning until bedtime at night.  You’ll schedule homeschool subjects, outside activities, social events, and everything you and your children do during the week.  You’ll also schedule meals and snack times, outside time, nap time, chore time, reading blocks, TV or computer time, baths and showers, and everything else your family does, too.  Even babies and toddlers can be scheduled to some degree.

Next is to juggle all activities until they fit (eliminating any that don’t), and writing all activities on a giant grid, calendar, white-erase board, computer spreadsheet or other display that is posted prominently somewhere in the home. 

Finally, family members should be trained to follow the block schedule.  It may take some time, but eventually everyone in the family will know what is expected at any given time of day.  Never again should children question what to do, because every block of time is displayed — along with every childs’ assigned activity – during every time block on the schedule.  (Non-readers will need help with this part.)

When the chart is ready, look it over and see what a typical day for every family member looks like.  Look for places where children can work together, by charting the same activities at the same time.  Also look for places when children can spend time apart, to give every child quiet time of his own.  Think of what mom’s (or dad’s) day looks like, too, making sure that the primary homeschooling parent isn’t needed in too many places at once.  Be sure to give parents time to make phone calls, pay bills, plan meals, check email, and other things that are important to them, otherwise there won’t be time for these things on the chart, either.

Sound excessive?  Think of it this way:  If something isn’t on the schedule, how can it possible get done?  It’s that simple.

View a sample block schedule HERE.  Watch THIS VIDEO and THIS VIDEO to hear more tips and get a glimpse of how its done.

A checklist system for teaching

Most everyone has heard of checklists.  Checklists of chores. Checklists of bills to pay.  Checklists of everything from groceries to the lumber needed to build that new deck out in the back yard.

But what about a homeschool checklist — a list of everything you’d like your child to learn by graduation day?  That can work, too.

A checklist isn’t a lesson plan.  It isn’t a curriculum either.  A checklist is actually a detailed list of everything you hope to teach, or everything you want your child to learn, from preschool all the way through 12th grade or even beyond.

Checklists can be organized by age, by year, or by grade if you want them to be.  But they don’t have to.  In fact, a true homeschooling checklist is organized by subject, and items are checked off as they are mastered, no matter when and how that occurs.

Parents can make checklists for anything they’d like a child to learn in homeschool, from sewing complex garments suitable for wearing to mastering all of the ideas traditionally covered in high school chemistry.  If the educational goal can be put into words, and the individual objectives required to reach that goal can be put into writing, a checklist is born! 

Using pencil and paper works fine, but taking advantage of computer software or online list-making tools and free list-making web sites makes the process much easier. Checklists may also be purchased, such as the excellent example you’ll find HERE.

Subjects you can’t (or won’t) teach

One of the things new homeschoolers sometimes worry about is teaching subjects they don’t know anything about.  Whether it’s math, writing, wood-working, video editing or anything else, potential homeschoolers and newbies may fear courses they cannot teach.

There is also the matter of topics that parents just don’t want to teach on their own.  For me, it was animal biology lab; for you, it could be something else — take sewing, drawing or computer programming, for example.  Personally, the thought of dissecting earth worms, frogs, and fetal pigs made me cringe.  And though I secured a virtual dissection program, I just didn’t feel it would offer the same experience as hands-on.  Finally, when a friend suggested I get free eye balls from the butcher to save money on lab specimens, that cinched it.  I wasn’t teaching biology lab.

Many parents have courses that they’d just prefer not to teach.  The fact is, not everyone is going to be good at teaching everythinganyway.  It’s just silly to think that homeschool parents can do everything themselves.

So what if your children like a subject that you can’t teach?  Or what if your kids love a topic that you simply find distasteful?  And — worse – what if one of those courses is required?

Here’s the good news — homeschooled kids don’t have to miss out on courses just because parents aren’t able to teach them.   In today’s world of homeschooling, there are many, many other ways to learn material than from just mom or dad.

In my case, I decided to farm out the biology class.  Given my experience during the “bug years” (during which I blocked out most unpleasant memories but do recall being appointed to do things like dig entire ant colonies out of the ground and look for the queens under rocks at dawn), I decided this would be the best course of action for my family.   Because the creepiness factor was multiplied exponentially for biology in my case, having my children learn the subject from someone who was enthusiastic about it was very important to me, especially because I knew some of them would really like it.  So, I combined books with cooperative experiences and an honors biology course.  And we had a much better result –just ask my kids.

With the myriad of options available to homeschoolers today, parents needn’t worry about teaching something they can’t.  The hundreds of curriculum products, virtual course options, private classes and at-home study programs make it simple for homeschoolers to learn in many different ways.  They’ll not only learn from an expert, but receive much more comprehensive coverage and in-depth study than learning from someone whose heart isn’t really into it.  They’ll be proud to have completed the experience entirely on their own (or maybe with another sibling?) rather than relying solely on mom or dad to help.  Plus, once an older child has completed a course this way, he’ll be able to help younger siblings when they reach the course — a guarantee that mom or dad will never have to teach it again!

Should kids still learn cursive?

It wasn’t very long ago that learning all of the loops and curves of cursive was a required part of any good second or third grade writing curriculum.  Students would spend many pain-staking hours practicing on worksheets and specially ruled papers, all the while being reminded that their success was dependent upon it, since cursive was what was used in the adult world.

Is there any reason to continue teaching cursive today?  Some parents and teachers are now beginning to wonder.  There are two sides to every argument but this one hasn’t been decided just yet.  It also isn’t clear whether homeschoolers will follow suit. 

On the one hand, cursive is generally easier to learn than the rigid ball-and-stick lettering of manuscript print.  Once mastered, the smooth movements and blending of cursive letters makes it quicker to write, too.  Because of this, writing in cursive is believed to increase learning since the focus on the process is removed and students are more able to concentrate on the content itself.  Cursive writing is also thought to help reading, since blending written letters helps to reinforce the blending of common sounds and patterns found while reading.

Other benefits of cursive include greater support for left-handed students, some benefit for students with disabilities such as dyslexia, and allowing for greater personal expression, both in writing and also artistically.  Besides, supporters say, students are not always near a computer so they’ll always need to know how to write neatly, no matter what.

As a matter of fact, staunch cursive supporters actually believe it should be taught first, rather than after manuscript printing, when certain writing and pencil-holding habits that are difficult to break have already been established.

On the other hand, the widespread use of computers and word-processing software has caused some to wonder if anyone needs cursive any more at all.  For students in schools as well as adults in the modern workplace, handwritten work is no longer very acceptable.  Anything of real importance, like a term paper, an annual report, or a letter to a teacher or client, is expected to be typed, not handwritten.

The argument from teachers is that teaching all of the new topics and meeting new standards makes it impossible to find time for cursive instruction during the day.  In lieu of learning cursive, today’s students learn to use technology and conduct Internet research among other things, areas thought to be of greater value than developing ones own personal style of writing or developing an artistic signature.

Further, those in favor of pushing cursive aside believe that most people eventually develop some hybrid of manuscript and cursive altogether on their own, and don’t always stick entirely to either method anyway, no matter what level of instruction they may have had in school.  Besides, it isn’t all that hard to come up with a signature, even if that remains one of the important reasons for learning cursive today.

Homeschoolers can find many ways to teach manuscript printing, cursive handwriting, and hybrids like italics and other cross-overs, in books and materials found on web sites and in school supply stores.  It will be interesting to follow this debate to see whether cursive is eventually re-discovered as an art form or abolished completely in favor of typing and texting skills.

[This article originally appeared HERE.]