Which of the 3 High School Diplomas Should My Child Pursue?

Do you have counselors to help with French, Spanish, or Latin?

Mr. Manuel Vicente is our Spanish and French counselor. He can be reached at 540-622-5537. Mr. Jeff Minick, who has taught Latin to home school students for many years, is our Latin counselor.

Mr. Minick can be reached at 828-400-8132. They can be reached by email at mvicente@setonhome.org and jminick@setonhome.org. Both counselors have made videos to help students. We are producing more lessons and tests online.

Does Seton have more resources for high school courses?

Seton provides supplemental material for many courses, both at the elementary and high school levels. Simply go to All Course Resources in your MySeton page; scroll down to the course in which your child is enrolled, and you can find many helpful materials in print, video, and audio format. More is being added.

Seton is presenting three academic “tracks” for high school students. How do we decide which track to follow?

The General Diploma is an option for the non-college bound student. The Academic Diploma is an option for most of our students who are college-bound. Most students on the Academic Diploma track can do this without too much parental help.

The Advanced Academic Diploma is for students who will likely go on to Graduate School or a military academy after college. These students will be taking advanced level science and math courses, and will probably need serious help from a parent or teacher. For further details, read the article “Your 3 High School Diploma Options” in the high school catalog.

Because it is important that your student succeeds, it is important to realize how much you can help your student in the different courses. If you took French in high school, your student will likely do better in French than in another language because you can help him. For the math and science courses, choose the courses in which your student can be successful because you can help your student to do well.

As high school students move through the courses, if there is any difficulty, they may switch from one course to another. Just phone a high school counselor for further advice.

Do you have tips to get our school work done by the end of June?

You can try both increasing the time you spend and cut back on assignments.

To give yourself more time, consider having the children do some classes on Saturday so they can finish up. Most students would prefer that rather than going into the summer.

For the elementary levels, be sure to cover thoroughly the important concepts so that your children will be successful in the next grade level. The subjects that “build” on previous lessons from previous grades such as religion, mathematics, reading and phonics, and English grammar and composition must be well understood by your children. Your children need to spend the time necessary to “conquer” these subjects.

It is possible to cut down the time for the lessons in spelling, vocabulary, history, and science by doing more orally. Two chapters in Spelling and Vocabulary could be done in one week. Time for history and science chapters may be cut down with more oral reading, discussion, and answering chapter questions orally.

If you find that your end of June completion date is simply not possible, add a couple more weeks onto your schedule.

What is most important to keeping up is to stick to your daily schedule.

Can the Seton counselors help my son with his daily Algebra work?

Our Academic Counselors who answer phone and email questions help parents explain math problems to their children, but it is impossible for us to provide daily counseling to students. The books teach the concepts. If students need day-by-day help that parents cannot provide, some parents obtain help from older children, relatives, or college students.

Consider joining other parents to pay a local tutor to help regularly, or to be available for daily questions. Sometimes, this can be done by email or online tutors. For more advanced courses in math or science, you might ask your pastor for names of retired teachers.

Is it possible for my neighbor’s daughter to take high school courses without enrolling or having Seton grade tests?

Your neighbor can order the books, but unless her daughter is enrolled, she won’t receive any lesson plans, tests, or obtain a report card. High school students need high school records even if they don’t plan to attend college. Without a high school record, it could be difficult to attend a business school or college years later.

How can I keep up my prayer life when I am so busy home schooling?

Keep your favorite prayer book next to your bed so you can grab it the last thing at night or the first thing in the morning. Even if you have only 5 or 10 minutes, you can start and end each day with Jesus. Also, start the school day with your children by saying some favorite morning prayers, such as the Litany of the Sacred Heart.

If you can, take your children to daily Mass. If daily Mass is impossible, you and the children can watch the EWTN daily Mass, and join in the prayers. Pray the Rosary with your children every day. It can be broken up with a couple of decades before lunch, and the last three after lunch or as a family after dinner.

Can I enroll my 8th grader in some high school courses?

If your student has finished some 8th grade courses, such as math, English, or science, she could start the 9th grade level in the same subject. Do what you can, however, to help her finish all the 8th grade courses in the summer. Otherwise, she may not finish all her required courses.

Which level of standardized achievement test should my son take when some of his subjects are in the next grade level?

If you are taking one test, have him take the lower level test. Better to do well in a few subjects than not do well in the others. Of course, you have the option to test your son on each grade level.

Some parents like to do this for their own benefit. However, additional charges will apply and these results are not composite scores suitable for state reporting.

I will have a baby next year. How can I keep home schooling?

Think about keeping the children in the bedroom or area where you will be with the baby. They can work at a table with their books and papers or on the bed while they are reading. Older ones can help the younger ones.

Consider having two children do some of the same courses, such as PE, art, and music. If two are in adjacent grades, consider having them do the same history and science courses. Ask an older child to help a younger one with one or two courses.

There are many little things you can do to make your home schooling work, but talk it over with your husband. Dads usually have good, practical ideas.

What was the response regarding your potential Grade 5 Seton math text-workbook?

We are very excited about the new text/workbook. One of the features is that children can write in the book rather than copy their work on a separate sheet of paper. There was an excellent positive response from Seton students and parents who reviewed it.

A former math teacher wrote the text-workbook, and it was reviewed by an experienced retired math teacher who gave it high marks. The text/workbook should be available by September 1st.