Tuesday, February 5, 2008 - I wrote a REALLY long answer to a question about electives...

...over on the Sonlight forums. I decided to share it here as well since it was getting some good discussion over there and some of you may not have access to it.

The question "Sandy" (I changed her name) asked was this..."We have to have 8 electives...where do I find time for that when he's doing Sonlight, which is such a full program?  After he does the  Core and Language, Math and Science, there's not much time left. He takes tennis lessons and he'll do a health course, so that covers PE. Obviously History, English, Math and Science are easy to cover.

But, what about those 8 credits of electives we need to have?

I have no clue how to get them or what there even is out there for electives for a homeschooler."

And...can Bible be an elective?
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Here is my response:

Needing 8 credits does not mean you need to do 8 electives! Some courses are worth more than 1 credit a piece. Are you calculating the credits based on hours or work or what? (There are different methods to calculate them so that is why I am checking.) (Added: The resource below has
information on figuring Carnegie units and more)

As for ideas...driver's ed is something most kids end up doing and could be worth 2 or more credits. This year we are doing ASL and Life Skills (focusing on godly relationships). Art, music, theater,
photography, sports, PE, Bible, economics, government, etc can all be electives. Anything that is outside the required basics can be counted as an elective.

I recommend Barb Shelton's resources  as a MUST READ! It truly helped me get our first two through highschool and in to college without losing my mind. She helps you see all the things your child is already most likely doing and how to view it and turn it in to "educationese" as she refers to it. This way the education system can understand what your child has been doing. We used our dds' scouting experiences, extracurricular activities, etc and counted it ALL toward credits. I kept track of the time they spent on things on a simple chart that I maintained during their highschool years and totalled it up to give proper credit. Sometimes it appears as though it took them 4 years to complete an elective but
in reality they may have done 40 hours one year, 20 over the summer, etc. Once I determined how many credits were required in each area for graduation, I took things that were left over and added them as extra credits or electives. For instance, we require our girls to do 4 years worth or 12 credits of English. (Each year is worth 3 credits) Our second daughter LOVED Shakespeare and was heavily involved in a local production company and performed in 3 productions over a three year period of time. I gave her credits for English Literature (Shakespeare) and Performing Arts (Drama and Theater) and counted them as electives.

I hope this makes sense and helps you. Please feel free to contact me directly or via my blog if I can do anything else. Honestly, my daughters' highschool years were the most rewarding of our homeschooling adventure...for all three of them and me as well! I wouldn't trade them for anything!

Later on I added this:

Mary and Sue (names changed by me)
You are both absolutely correct. That is why it's important to keep track of the hours spent on things. Use every single one for something.
Sheila (name changed by me again), if you were responding to my comment about using our dds' scouting for credits, let me expound on that a bit. Our oldest earned her GS Gold Award (which we added in "Achievements" on her transcript. She ended up accumulating FAR more hours than needed for the award and so we used some for a 1/2 credit (if I remember correctly) for Communication/Public Speaking. She had to do LOTS of that and it seemed a good fit. But the time she built up doing research and actually completing the project was NOT counted toward a class. She did however, have many hours of photography (for the project) that we were able to transfer over to a Fine Arts credit. (She did other things toward that as well) I hope this helps explain a bit better. I think the example Karen gave of her son's tennis being PE and tournaments, etc as extra curricular.
All this is meant to reassure and encourage Sandy that more than likely there will be PLENTY of things to count toward electives without much additional course work.

I would love to know if YOU have any comments or other questions on this topic or other high school issues. I wasn't blogging through my older girls' highschool years so don't have much of those earlier years documented in a manner in which I can easily share it with you. HOWEVER...I LOVE to answer questions on this topic and am more than willing to share with you what worked (and didn't work!) for us. So ask away!