Senior High: A Home-Designed Form+U+la (1999 edition)

by Barb Edtl Shelton

Homeschool Seminars & Publications

Barb Shelton has been assisting home educators for many years through her writing and seminars. Her animated personality is obvious in her writing style. We can just hear her exclaiming, emphasizing, and joking as we read through her material. Senior High is fun to read, but it is a lot more than that. It is a manual full of “stuff” to read, “stuff” to use, and “stuff” that will help you make it through those intimidating high school years.

Section headings give you a good idea of what Barb covers in this book: “Out of Fear and Into Freedom; Requirements, College, Promotion & Graduation; Record-keeping System; Potpourri of Curriculum Supplements; Grading Guidelines and Portfolios; Personalizing All This Stuff; Formulating Your Framework; Designing Your Classes; Organizing Your Materials; Completed Class Plans; Lifestyle of Learning Applications;” and “Resources, Reviews, & Glossary.” There’s also a Jumpstart Plan section at the very beginning for brand new homeschoolers who need to quickly figure out something to do until they have time to investigate their options more thoroughly.

The “how to’s” receive much attention while curriculum recommendations are minimal. Barb provides a smorgasbord of convenient charts for record keeping (including charts for logging hours) to use as is or to use as springboards for our own ideas. Her Completed Class Plans—samples and “how to’s”—are very helpful.

About one-fourth of the book is the “Potpourri” section, where Barb shares practical teaching, learning, and motivation tips plus helpful forms. Among the many gems in this book are assignment check-off sheets for numerous courses that give us great ideas for structuring our own courses.

Barb walks us through all of this in great detail, without slipping into school-at-home mentality. This manual shows how to take the sum total of all the student’s learning experiences—via books and real life—and not only get the most educational value out of them, but also document them and translate them into a form and language to which the academic segments of our society can relate.