Your Questions Answered: Can We Add Electives Mid-Year?

Our high school student is moving quickly through her core subjects. Can we add electives mid-year?

Yes, adding electives is an excellent way to broaden a high schooler’s learning experience, keep them engaged, and advance their completion of the 22 total credits needed for graduation.

Seton provides a variety of electives, including Keyboarding, Accounting, Computer Literacy, and World Literature.

If you are interested in enrolling your student in one of our electives, you can contact our Admissions department (admissions@setonhome.org; 540-636-2039) or submit an online enrollment form.

Sean O’Connor – High School English Counselor

How can I motivate my active 5th-grader to read? He does not want to sit down to read his book report.

You could read part of the book with him, taking turns reading the paragraphs. Encourage him to read about some “events” in the story that appeal to him.

Be interested in the story yourself, even commenting or asking questions like: What should he do? Is he a good Christian in how he talks or acts toward others in the story?

Before the internet and smartphones, young and old spent time reading, thinking, and discussing. Today, with everything so quickly presented, including opinions of right and wrong, good and bad, many young people want to avoid taking the time to read and think about the message in their reading.

Consider rewarding your son for reading a story to a younger brother or sister. See if your homeschooling group has or would start a book club. Many libraries have children’s book clubs, encouraging the reading of good books and even offering ice cream “rewards” for young readers who give a brief “book report” to the librarian.

Another idea is to ask your son to write a short story about a favorite activity, such as playing a sport or fishing with Dad. He could read it to the family after dinner.

Seton Staff

Is a Seton diploma an indicator of success in college?

College professors expect students to spend a minimum of two hours working independently for every hour spent in class. Seton students develop these skills early on.

Colleges also expect students to have excellent research and writing abilities. Unlike most freshmen, Seton students enter college with the skills and work habits of college upperclassmen.

The Seton curriculum builds top-level research and writing skills, and the Seton English program helps students develop the analytical and critical thinking skills that colleges cherish.

The success of Seton students in college is well documented. Their average SAT and ACT scores far exceed those of most public and Catholic schools, and many Seton graduates receive college scholarships.

Seton graduates are sought after by all of the Seton partner colleges, such as Christendom College in Virginia, Thomas Aquinas College in California, and Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Ontario, Canada.

Seton graduates have been accepted to top-level universities and colleges such as M.I.T., Ivy League colleges, and many others around the nation. Many Seton graduates have also been accepted into the national military and service academies.

Seton Staff

Do I wait until the end of the quarter to submit our work?

If you submit elementary work through the mail, we would like you to have a complete quarter in all subjects before sending it to us for grading. For high school, send complete quarters of high school work by subject or all subjects together.

Processing is more efficient, and you’ll have a full quarter report card when it is all graded.

However, if you are submitting items online for grading or your child is taking online tests, you do not have to wait until the end of the quarter.

I strongly recommend that you DO NOT! If the test is taken online, upload the assignment as soon as it is completed! If the test is written or typed on paper, scan (or take a picture) and upload the assignment as soon as it is completed!

That way, there is no chance that you will lose it. It also allows our graders to grade things as they come in, and overall, there will be a shorter waiting period to receive your assignment grade.

It also allows your child to correct future work based on the feedback that he receives from earlier assignments. We will give the full quarter grade once all the required Seton-graded assignments have been turned in.

You can provide parent grades at any time. If you enter them after the quarter grade has been assigned, we will re-calculate it with the parent grades.

Some of our lesson plans still include the verbiage “…and send it to Seton at the end of the quarter.” This instruction is leftover from when everything was mailed to us. We are trying to eliminate that phrase in the lesson plans since it is no longer applicable if you upload your child’s assignments.

Laura Clark, Academic Counselor