Today’s post is linking to you to my review of a book I recently read. Below you’ll see a screen shot of said blog post. The Write Planet is my first blog and where I choose to keep my review posts. I’ve recently revived the blog and attempted to keep it more focused than it used to be. I hope you will go check it out.
Link below.
https://thewriteplanet.blogspot.com/2026/04/coming-soon-book-review.html
As the title of this post indicates, this was my 7th school year of home educating my children. My oldest graduated last school year, his 6th and final year of education at home. He has now completed his 1st year of college where he has done very well. My youngest is completing her 7th year of home education, which is her 11th grade year by public school standards. One more year to go. Her 12th grade year is going to allow her pretty much customization in her studies. She needs to only do English and another history course to fulfill the laws graduation requirements. She is planning on taking another year of Science because she likes it. She does not yet know what she will do post graduation. It is something we are still figuring out. Not all kids have this figured out by 12th grade or even at graduation. It’s okay. If they don’t know, they shouldn’t rush into anything or randomly pick something. Getting a job that gives as many hours as possible is not a bad thing, it doesn’t matter what the job is, even that means having 2 part time jobs if you can’t find one that provides enough. Work experience is never a bad thing. One of the issues is she has several interests. She would rather do something creative, but worried about how that pays the bills. This is always the case with creative persons who enjoy artistic endeavors. Many, like myself, end up choosing to get into a different field solely because they don’t think they can ever earn money with their artistry. I won’t sugar coat it, there is a real possibility of it being difficult, not impossible, but more challenging.
So, onto what I liked and didn’t like this 7th year, my daughters 11th grade year.
Continue readingIf you haven’t checked out this entire blog, I wanted to direct you to a few resources contained here. I have a link to free forms that you can, and should use for your homeschool record keeping. You can take a look and use them or get an idea of how to create your own. I have not only renamed this area but I have updated all the forms I created. There you can find a free transcript, affidavit, evaluation letters, reading materials log, an attendance record (not required), and a simple report card if you choose to use one (if I use one it’s sole purpose is for keeping a record in their academic record). I have also included forms from other places (of which many I can’t recall from where or I’d link the source) for your generic objectives that are required to be included with your affidavit and alternate affidavit, as well as the PDE diploma and immunization record (if you wish to use it). Your 12th grade evaluator needs to sign the PDE diploma. The Pennsylvania Department of Education has approved this diploma to be the “acceptable” parent-issued diploma. My suggestion is to print it, get it signed and in the event a college or some other entity requires a copy of their diploma you’ll have it. This does not mean you can’t make and issue your own and provide your graduate with that one for them to keep, but they should keep the PDE one as well.
Below are screenshots of some of the items mentioned. Visit the Free Forms page to download them.
Below is what the home education law states about the diploma:
(d.1) (1) Notwithstanding any provision of this act or any other law or regulation to the contrary, a high school diploma awarded by a supervisor or an approved diploma-granting organization shall be considered as having all the rights and privileges afforded by the Commonwealth, a Commonwealth agency, including, but not limited to, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a political subdivision, a local agency and an authority or instrumentality of the Commonwealth or a political subdivision to a high school diploma awarded under this act, subject to subparagraphs (i) and (ii): (i) In the case of a diploma awarded by a supervisor the following shall apply: (A) The student receiving the diploma shall have completed all
Home Education Law Text
the requirements in subsection (d) while enrolled in a home education program that is in compliance with this section. (B) The diploma shall be awarded to the student on a standardized form to be developed by the department and which shall be made available on the department’s publicly accessible Internet website. (C) The diploma shall be signed by the student’s twelfth grade evaluator in confirmation of the student’s suitability for graduation. (ii) In the case of a diploma awarded by an approved diploma granting organization the following shall apply: (A) The student receiving the diploma shall have completed all
the requirements in subsection (d) while enrolled in a home education program that is in compliance with this section. (B) The diploma shall be awarded to the student on a standardized form to be developed by the organization. (2) The department shall establish eligibility criteria and an application process for approving diploma-granting organizations to award high school diplomas to students enrolled in home education programs. The department shall maintain a list of approved diploma-granting organizations and post the list on the department’s publicly accessible Internet website.
You can do a search on topics such as curriculum, transcripts, reviews, portfolio, etc and find articles I’ve written since I began the blog in 2017. Please always make sure to follow the latest article for the most up to date information. There is a drop down list for you to select months/years of articles made as well as a tag block for you to click directly onto the topic of interest. Keep in mind that the blog may look different on different devices. You can always view the blog on your browser in desktop mode. I will be working on making the blog easier to navigate so keep an eye out for those changes. I plan to keep the blog current for as long as I have a child that I am homeschooling in the state of Pennsylvania. After that time remains to be seen. Rest assured though that I still have one remaining teenager with 2 more years highschool to go, so updates will continue, Lord willing. Everything I offer here is free to use, however as I am the content creator of the articles, I do retain the copyright to the articles I post. Please do share with others anything you find helpful but always supply the link to this blog. I receive no compensation for the information I have shared. My blog is only to help others navigate home education in the state of PA and perhaps my reviews can be helpful for anyone. Please do check out the other resources I have supplied for you in the Resources section of this blog.
It’s November! The leaves have changed and already fell off most of our trees here in the mountainous region of Pennsylvania. We are three months in to beginning our curriculum for 10th and 12th grades. I wanted to make a post to review how it’s going so far. What I like, what I don’t like, what they like, and what they don’t like. See my previous post where I detail what curriculum we decided to use this year. I find homeschooling highschool quite easy. I know so many parents (by what I see in homeschool groups) feel so intimidated with these years but I find it to be a lot less work for me personally as they quite literally work independently and it should be encouraged for them to do so. The only parts I am still heavily involved in is Bible study, adding curriculum as needed, and grading work and keeping my files up to date and organized. This has afforded me more time for doing basically whatever I want to. I’ve personally been teaching myself to play the ukulele since June. If, by the way, that interests you or your children, YouTube has so many very helpful people who post content on the basics of playing. Then of course there is a ton of online information as well as books you can buy. The hardest part is picking your ukulele.
Let’s start with Science – they have been using the Master Books kit called “Survey of Science”. It includes, The World of Mathematics, The World of Physics, The World of Chemistry and The World of Biology. They have completed The World of Mathematics so far. I don’t feel like they learned anything new really, but I feel like it was foundational to the rest of the curriculum. It’s math and neither teen enjoys math, so not their favorite. Master Books lists this as for grades 9-12. I think that is pretty on par. My 10th grader didn’t struggle too much and my 12th grader still had some challenging math but overall I think it’s probably best for 9th-10th grade unless your teen generally has more trouble with upper level math and better suited once they master it. It’s my opinion though that this is foundational to the rest of the series, but I may have a better idea of that as they progress. So even if it’s review it will probably be helpful. The next book is The World of Physics. No review yet as they just started. I do feel like a lot will be review for them only because they have been exposed to Physics in previous years with other curriculum that covered all areas of science. You could really consider this course a General Science course for 1 credit of Science. If it didn’t also include Biology you could call it Physical Science, but Biology is not generally included in such a course, but you’re the supervisor, call it what you like. It only matters if you’re creating a transcript that can be used to give to prospective colleges.
Continue readingToday I am going to attempt to give an update on how 9th and 11th grade is going in what is now our 5th year of homeschooling in Pennsylvania. My last post I gave my first impressions on our choices in curriculum. It’s been almost 2 weeks now using the courses. We cracked open the books on August 30, 2021. So far, so good. This is our first year not using anything from Master Books. I have nothing against the publisher. I really like Master Books, but they just didn’t have what my children were interested in doing this year or that I felt needed to be done this year to work on completing our course requirements set forth in by the PA homeschool law. As per my last post, we are using a writing and grammar course from Bob Jones Press, a Geography and culture course from Bob Jones, Marine Biology from Apologia, and CTC Math for Algebra 1 and 2. Those are the core subjects. Electives are Bible (which is required in my homeschool), Computer Programming (for my son), Home Ec (for my daughter), PE, and they are doing a literature book study (1 to start with) and possibly Art again. I do not use formal curriculum for PE or Art (though I have for Art).
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