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CURRICULUM
PLANNING
Your advisor will review each of your student's assessment results
with you, and then work with you to personalize our program to your
family, then to each of your students. We will move skill levels up or
down per subject; organize the whole family into the same science,
history and religion cycles; combine students into the same or
compatible texts; help you find central focuses for each of the
students in each of the subjects according to their academic needs and
styles; make recommendations and comments on alternative choices; etc.
Our advisors are experienced homeschoolers and subscribe to the ideas
and methods found in such books as Susan Schaeffer MacAulay’s For the
Children’s Sake, Dorothy and Raymond Moore’s Home Grown Kids and
The
Successful Homeschool Handbook, and Laura Berquist’s Designing Your
Own Classical Curriculum. After you receive the assessment
evaluation and curriculum guides from your advisor, call to schedule a
telephone Course of Study Planning Appointment with your
advisor.
During the Course of Study Planning
Appointment your advisor will discuss with you:
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the assessment test results
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suggestions of materials to purchase
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how to layout your homeschooling week
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how to grade your student's work
If you enrolled in our Report Card
& Transcripts Option, your advisor will also discuss:
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how to assign quarterly grades
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how to quarterly report for report cards
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various other points such as standardized testing, high school credit
tracking, transcripts, & diplomas
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answer any other questions you may have
ORDERING BOOKS
After the phone
appointment with your advisor, you will be ready to order your books.
In our curriculum guides we list the easiest to use
source for each book or program, its price and order code. Books take
two to eight weeks to arrive, depending on the time of year
and—voila!—you are ready to school, with confidence and competence--or
at the least with a firm starting point, a clear set of goals and a
friend to help you along the way!
Books can cost as little as $150 for one child and as much as the
moon, depending on your family’s interests and income. We recommend a
beginning budget of $300 per student for the smaller family, and less
per student for the larger family.
We strongly advise our families wait to order books until after the
curriculum planning appointment so you can be sure to get the
appropriate levels. This is especially important since St. Thomas
Aquinas Academy is not a one-size-fits-all program. Your advisor will
help tailor our program to meet your family's specific academic needs,
not just assign a grade level and ISBN numbers to match. It'll be
worth the wait!
The main books for each grade level are listed on our website. Please
feel free to click through to the catalogue providers and order
catalogues, or preview their comments regarding the materials on-line.
Too, you might watch for a homeschool conference in your area; most of
our books are mainstream homeschooling material, easily available and
widely used, and are displayed at most larger homeschool conventions.
Do keep in mind that the summer and early fall months are "crunch"
time for homeschool and book suppliers so the earlier you get started
on your ordering the more likely you will be to have all of your books
ready for the beginning of the school year. We would encourage our
families who are anxious to get started to pick up the The Paideia
Program: An Educational Syllabus by Mortimer Adler and order, buy, or
borrow from the library some of the books on Mr. Adler's lists. Spend
time reading aloud to and/or with your children, discussing the
stories, virtues the characters may or may not be displaying, and
drawing pictures of the characters and action.
Here are some of our favorite suppliers that we refer you to:
St. Thomas Aquinas Academy Online Bookstore
Rainbow Re-Source Center
RT 1 Box 159A, 50 N 500 East RD, Toulon, IL 61483
1-888-841-3456
Emmanuel Books
POB 321, New Castle, DE 19720
1-800-871-5598
Our Father's House
5530 S Orcas ST, Seattle, WA 98118
(206) 725-0461
GRADING STUDENT WORK
Grading is an art rather than a science, especially in the home school
where we do not have the luxury of grading “on the curve.” Our
programming gives clear instructions on how to start developing your
own grading style with regard to your student’s aptitudes, but
content, work load and grading is left firmly in the hands of the
parents.
Most of our materials include answer keys and/or grading instructions.
Additionally, our program packet outlines a variety of grading methods
to motivate students to greater accuracy and accomplishment.
When it comes to grading student compositions the materials we use
were chosen because they clearly state the assigned objectives for
writing, making the work much easier to accomplish, making the grading
much easier to do. Also, many of our materials have specific
evaluation tools and methods included, and we include a number of
recommendations and options for evaluating written work too. And
always, your advisor is available to work through these kinds of
questions during regular office hours or by appointment.
If you enrolled in the Report Cards &
Transcripts Option, we do “eyeball” quarterly work samples and standardized testing as
they come in and contact the family when we see obvious difficulties,
i.e. student achievement is too low to merit the grades given, Mom is
too demanding, the level of mastery is set too low or too high for the
student, etc. And our families are always welcome to call for feedback
regarding a student’s quarterly reporting, as they feel the need.
QUARTERLY REPORTING
Quarterly Reporting is not mandatory for STAA families. Indeed we even
offer suggestions as to how to keep your school years well documented
without quarterly reporting. But to qualify for transcripts, reports
cards, and diplomas issued by STAA quarterly reporting is required.
We provide you with a handy form to summarize your courses, hours
spent, grades and progress, and then ask for a student work sample to
support each grade petitioned for. There is bit more to it, but it is
all explained in detail between our program packet, curriculum guides,
and appointment with your advisor meaning that you, the teaching parent,
will be well prepared for it by the time you are ready to send in your
quarterly reports. And that goes for tracking high school credits. As
daunting as such tasks seem, with our experienced advice you will be a
pro at such tasks in no time!
CONTINUING SUPPORT
We do not just send you packets, talk with you once, and leave you by
your lonesome for the rest of the year. We have experienced
homeschooling advisors available Monday - Friday by phone or e-mail to
help you with the little questions. If your call will require longer
than fifteen minutes or your advisor’s familiarity with your family &
curriculum plan, we will set up an appointment to speak to you at
length regarding your concerns. Remember, we want to hear from our
families. Your homeschooling success is important to us!
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