Make A Course Of It

High school doesn’t have to be all textbooks and formal classes.

Here’s something creative we did a few years ago that combined interests and needs with life skills, and also counted on the transcript.

At 14, my daughter was hired for her second year of providing childcare during a weekly moms’ Bible study group. It was a nice opportunity to earn spending money and to make babysitting gig connections.

When the other sitter had to back out, the coordinator asked if I would take that place. I’d been driving her there and picking her up anyway, so staying wasn’t a big deal.Then they asked us to provide some kind of “lite” program for the group that ranged from babies to preschoolers, typically 6-8 kids.

Hmmm. Getting complicated. This was high school and both of us taking a morning off each week for this job was one thing, but having to prepare some kind of program on top of that was another.

Then I had a lightbulb moment. How about Before Five In A Row? Yes, that would be perfect. BFIAR is a program for 2-4 year olds where a different children’s book is read each week and accompanied by learning activities related to the story. I had used it with my daughter when she was little. It’s the kid brother to FIAR that I posted about here.

It seemed like something we could adapt for this situation by simply choosing a couple of the activities that would work in our situation and time frame. Still, I was not particularly looking for one more thing to do.

Then it occurred to me - okay I had another light bulb moment -my daughter could do it and we could work something out to count it as Early Childhood Education.

It was a go. She read all the information in the BFIAR curriculum book and she planned and carried out weekly lessons, with my oversight and teaching help, gathered and packed supplies each week – the whole shabang. We had the kids make a little booklet of their own each week that summarized what we did and had some ideas for parents to do at home if they wanted to.

I also bought a course called Career Exploration: Early Childhood Education from 7sistershomeschool.com that she worked through at the same time. She was able to study different views, notable styles like Montessori and others, how young children develop and learn, and more.

For an in-person component, she interviewed an author from our homeschool support group who has published a book on education, regarding her thoughts on the early years. And since she had to learn how to do an interview for that, I kept those notes and added that experience to her English credit.

All in all, with the learning and teaching she did, we counted it as a one year course in early childhood education because she got the book work done along with the extensive practical experience, and all the extras.

Having “Career Exploration” in the title gave it one more boost because it is important to show that young adults are sorting out options. BTW, she decided that was not something she wanted to pursue and crossed it off her list, which I think is just as valuable.

Okay, even more layers of benefit – it was a job, so she got paid! I did too. She bought herself a laptop and I put mine toward paying off her braces.   

The parents and the church’s coordinator were very happy with what we did and provided a letter of commendation for my daughter’s high school file.

A note on letters like that: Ask for it. And ask right after the experience, so memories are fresh. Be bold and ask the person to include specific points about what your student did, her reliability, feedback from participants, etc. You want it to have some meat. Most people are not experienced at writing this type of letter so after you ask, follow up with an email or note so they’ll remember what you want them to touch on. They’ll most likely appreciate the help.

Last thing. Because she was also doing a speech class that we put together, I took advantage of the opportunity of a captive audience at the year-end party and had her do a re-cap presentation for the 60+ ladies in attendance.

That’s what I mean by thinking creatively and using what you know to meet new challenges.

I think you could say I “squeezed a dime out of nickel” with this experience!

For more on creating courses based on enhanced life experiences, keep watching.