{"id":1009,"date":"2014-06-04T09:21:47","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T14:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2015-08-11T17:42:02","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T22:42:02","slug":"online-courses-wkolbe-academy-summer-2014-2015-registration-is-open-why-jen-likes-kolbe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/06\/online-courses-wkolbe-academy-summer-2014-2015-registration-is-open-why-jen-likes-kolbe\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Courses w\/Kolbe Academy &#8211; Summer &#038; 2014-2015 Registration is Open + Why Jen Likes Kolbe**"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>(I had to wait to post this until I got my kid registered, lest y\u2019all fill up the classes he needed.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kolbe.org\/online-courses\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/kolbe.org\/files\/4513\/9315\/8217\/OnlineCoursesFlyer.png\" alt=\"OnlineCoursesFlyer.png\" width=\"331\" height=\"428\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Those who followed me over here know I have this thing for <a href=\"http:\/\/kolbe.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Kolbe Academy<\/a>. I wrote my own curricula the first few years of homeschooling, but by the time the eldest were in 4th &amp; 6th grade, I needed to outsource a bit of the work. \u00a0Of the major Catholic curriculum providers, all of which are excellent, this was the one that best fit what we needed. \u00a0How I picked:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The overall syllabus was closest to what the spouse &amp; I would have put together on our own.<\/li>\n<li>I looked into the high school program, and found it was pretty close to perfect for us. \u00a0I knew I wanted serious structure for high school, so I went with a program that I thought I\u2019d probably continue with the whole way through.<\/li>\n<li>The amount of handholding was perfect: What I needed were day-by-day course plans, and that\u2019s what they do very, very well.<\/li>\n<li>The amount of flexibility (100%) was also the amount I needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Over the past several years, my eldest two have done approximately 60% \u2013 80% of their classwork per the Kolbe plans, and we\u2019ve substituted other stuff here and there as appropriate. \u00a0(Two of my favorite alternate sources \u2013 textbooks from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.setonbooks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Seton<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/chcweb.com\/catalog\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Catholic Heritage Curricula<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>All this to say: We\u2019ve never done the online courses before, so maybe they\u2019ll be terrible. \u00a0(I doubt it, or I wouldn\u2019t post this.) \u00a0But when I got to planning the boy\u2019s 9th grade, it came to my attention that me schooling him 100% was going to be a lot of work. \u00a0Which work I was willing to do.<\/p>\n<p>After having made the decision that I\u2019d suck it up, clear my calendar, and be the virtuous homeschooling mother he needed, the online courses happened to jump back in front of my face again. \u00a0Since he\u2019s a pro at all this internet connectivity stuff, I knew that managing the \u201conline\u201d portion would be no trouble for him, and way more efficient for our family than me carting him all over three counties to various highschool-a-la-carte programs available in our region. (When the boy learns to drive, I\u2019ll reassess.) \u00a0The pricing is similar or a little less expensive than if I\u2019d farmed him out to local instructors.<\/p>\n<p>So that\u2019s the story.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I was happy to see that the <a href=\"http:\/\/kolbe.org\/online-courses\/course-offerings\/summer-2014\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">summer program<\/a> offers, in addition to some fun stuff, courses geared towards 9th-grade-readiness<\/strong>. \u00a0Between this morning\u2019s evaluation of his literature essay rough draft (\u201cLooks like a great start for a submission to Dr. Boli, but I need something a little more academic for your portfolio, please? If you ever mean to play another video game again in your life? Yes? Child whom I love??) and my recollection of the difficulty of being thrown into a completely different school system with no tutorials on how to \u201cdo school\u201d in the new system, I was very glad for the warm-up courses.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019re doing that, and then come fall the boy is registered for the online courses in everything but foreign language and some electives. \u00a0Which frees me to be just the homework assistant, which role is about right for me at this time. We\u2019ll see. \u00a0If my life sounds sorta like your life, you might check it out and see what you think.*<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>*My only caveat is that Kolbe\u2019s courses are rigorous.<\/strong> \u00a0One advantage of Kolbe Off-Line is that you the parent can make substitutions per your child\u2019s ability. \u00a0If you don\u2019t want to read the Illiad in 9th grade, you can read something else. \u00a0If you need fewer papers and more math problem practice, you can do that. \u00a0 In contrast, the online courses work like a regular classroom-class, in which you are expected to actually do the work assigned, when it\u2019s assigned and how it\u2019s assigned. \u00a0So I advise you to read the course descriptions and think about your student\u2019s ability to handle the course load before you commit. \u00a0(The courses happen to suit my boy quite well, so not a problem for us.)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>**I like St. Maximilian Kolbe the saint, too. Because who wouldn\u2019t? \u00a0Except the Nazis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>Random other thing:<\/strong> I was thrilled when Kolbe said they\u2019d come to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.midlandshomeschoolconvention.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Midlands Homeschool Convention<\/a>. \u00a0Kolbe enrolls a lot of non-Catholic families, it turns out, so an ecumenical conference is of interest. \u00a0This is handy for me, because in my talk on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.midlandshomeschoolconvention.com\/homeschooling-fundamentals-curriculum\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">successful homeschooling despite a decidedly distractible streak<\/a>, which I am slated to give at said convention, exactly these kinds of solutions are among those I propose. \u00a0I\u2019ll also be talking about the unschooling option, which for a certain contingent is a viable solution to the parental-discipline problem. \u00a0But not for everyone. \u00a0Lots of ways to handle that problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Calendar image courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/kolbe.org\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Kolbe Academy<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(I had to wait to post this until I got my kid registered, lest y\u2019all fill up the classes he needed.) Those who followed me over here know I have this thing for Kolbe Academy. I wrote my own curricula the first few years of homeschooling, but by the time the eldest were in 4th [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeschooling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Online Courses w\/Kolbe Academy - Summer &amp; 2014-2015 Registration is Open + Why Jen Likes Kolbe**<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(I had to wait to post this until I got my kid registered, lest y&#039;all fill up the classes he needed.) 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