This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast, a special replay: How to Get Homeschool Transcripts Exactly Right!

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast we are talking transcripts. Actually, we are RE-talking transcripts. This is an episode we did four years ago (can you believe it?!) However, we have been receiving requests for this same information, so we decided to reshare.

As you know, Sabrina, Vicki and Kym have seen their twenty-six kids through homeschool graduation. In fact, the 7Sisters have not only graduated their kids, but through their umbrella school (where 7Sister Vicki and Marilyn have served as academic advisors), they have helped hundreds of teens graduate and head successfully into adulthood.

So, they know a lot about homeschooling high school and creating great transcripts!

Do you want to know how to get homeschool transcripts exactly right?  Do you fear that it is one right way or else? Well, we have good news for you! There’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school and there’s not ONE right have to handle transcripts.

Transcripts are important for all homeschool high schoolers. College-bound teens need a good transcript to get into college. Even teens who are not college-bound will often need to show a transcript for trade schools or the military (and sometimes for new jobs). We love to share the things we have learned learned about successful transcript creation. (And even more transcript information in this post in our Authoritative Guide series).

Transcripts are proof that education happened. (Our culture believes that if there is not a record on paper that something happened, it did not happen.) They open doors for college and career. (And it is fun to keep a record for yourself about what a great job you and your high schoolers have done.)

There is not really a magical formula or necessary downloadable form from your state government that you must fill out. You must create your own. However, there are many templates available. For instance, 7SistersHomeschool has an editable transcript form along with a detailed guide about what to include.

However, these tips are a good place to start.

As always, we 7Sisters believe there’s not ONE right way to handle transcripts. However, one thing to think about is that many college admissions officers are used to thinking in the traditional year-by-year format. Therefore, if you have a yearly transcript rather than subject oriented transcript, you might make their job easier.

So, that’s how you do get the homeschool high school transcript exactly right, with the the exactly ONE right formula…Oh, right! There’s not ONE right way to do a homeschool transcript. These are simply the tools that we have used over the years on the transcripts of our own kids and the hundreds of homeschool high schoolers in our local umbrella school who have graduated and gone on successfully to the next phase of life. Adapt our information and ideas to your teens’ needs! Let us know your ideas.

Join Sabrina, Vicki and Kym for this informative episode.

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This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooling in Imperfect Circumstances.

Have you noticed that real life does not actually look like:

If you are like most of us (well, ALL of us 7Sisters), then your family looks like a real family living in real life, real circumstances. SO let Sabrina and Vicki offer you a little homeschool real-life encouragement for you.

Recently, Sabrina had a conversation with a person who has been working through some challenging circumstances. Through this unasked-for time of growth, he has learned to frame the way he is handling life by saying:

Circumstances being what they are and me being who I want to be, I have decided to…

Notice what he has discovered: We know in imperfect circumstances, we humans can tend to think this way:

Circumstances being what they are and me being who I am…

See the difference? If we focus on who we are right now, we can become focused on our limitations. On the other hand, if we focus on who we want to become, we open the door to possibilities and even more availability to God working in and through us!

(However, remember to keep things balanced. God made us in special ways and each person it unique. When we remember and build on our God-given gifts and personalities, we are available to making good things happen.)

While we are working on balance, then, think about who you are and who you want to be at the same time. With that in mind, hold onto God’s grace and allow him to help you grow.

Most of us are homeschooling in less than perfect situations. That is just life! Here is some encouragement for some challenging situations.

Have you noticed how much FABULOUS curriculum is out there. Oh man! If we could only buy a fraction of the cool texts, courses or programs that are available to our homeschoolers, our kids would have an amazing education!

However, money is often tight. In challenging financial times, we can say:

Financial circumstances being what they are. And me being the flexible and create person I want to be, we will be creative with what we can afford and trust God for good education.

Vicki recalled when she was homeschooling her kids in the early days of homeschooling. In those days, there was not much variety in the homeschool curriculum market. Not only that, but the curriculum that was available was expensive. Unfortunately, the marketing for those curricula was guilt and fear oriented: IF you do not use our curriculum, you are not homeschooling correctly!

In those early days, there was so much pressure to homeschool “right” because there were truly “truant officers at the door” occasionally. However, Vicki’s family had five homeschoolers and a very limited budget but she knew (especially for homeschooling high school) that she wanted to do a good job!

Circumstances being what they are. And me being the good homeschooling parent I want to become, I will trust that God has our family where he wants us. Not only that but it is “right” for me to create our own curriculum that fits our kids’ needs (and not be whiny and complain-y person while I was at it).

Vicki’s homeschool mom-friends were in the same boat at the time. They were thinking the same thoughts. Together, they began creating curriculum for their kids and co-ops. Because their kids are all encouraged to have well-thought-out opinions, they gave feedback on the curriculum. Thus, it was refined until they ended up with the materials that became 7SistersHomeschool.com‘s  curriculum offerings.

SO, good can come out of financially challenging circumstances!

What if you are a mom who wants or needs to homeschool (maybe because of a global pandemic) but you do not feel competent because:

Here is a suggestion, think about saying to yourself:

Circumstances being what they are, and me being who I want to be, I can learn to work creatively and model a growth mindset for my kids. I can farm things out and develop resources for my homeschoolers.

Sabrina shares about her own experiences homeschooling her family. She felt concerned about whether she was competent to homeschool her kids because she only had a year and a half of college. Not only that, but she severely struggled in her college math class.

Her math struggles haunted her as she began to homeschool her kids.

Circumstances being what they are, and me being who I want to be (a wise and calm mother who is creative with her resources), I will find a different solution to the math problem!

Then she realized that she could swap resources in her local homeschool co-op and umbrella school. Sabrina is a wonderful literature teacher. She swapped teaching literature to the homeschool high schoolers, while another mom taught her kids math! It was perfect!

In any circumstance, you can choose to become the person that God created you to become. He is working in and through you, to make you a model of creativity. trust and growth mindset for your kids. So keep saying:

Circumstances being what they are and me being who I want to be, I have decided to…

So in the brokenness of your imperfect circumstances, you can trust God to help you become the homeschooling mom he wants you to be. Share your stories and questions with us here or on our 7SistersHomeschool Facebook group, please!

Join Sabrina and Vicki for encouragement about homeschooling in imperfect circumstances. You CAN do it!

The post Homeschooling in Imperfect Circumstances appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Handling Difficult People During the Holidays! This is a special replay of a popular episode.

Holiday get togethers are memorable…but not always because of the fun.

Dreading those tough moments at holiday gatherings when someone makes everyone tense, irritated or embarrassed?  It’s not just you. There are obnoxious people everywhere. However, we don’t need to sacrifice our family’s health (mental or otherwise), to appease the folks who make life tense. Join Sabrina, Vicki, Kym and Eagle (the Seeing Eye Puppy) for a comfortable chat about uncomfortable people.

We all have a set of Rules for the way the Universe should run. If we stubbornly try to cling to our Rules for the Universe, and the universe isn’t running by our rules, we will make ourselves sick.

Take for instance, Vicki’s Rule: *Everyone I care about should be okay all the time*. Unfortunately for Vicki, she can’t control that. She has to leave everyone’s okay-ness in God’s hands. (He going to run the universe the way He sees best, anyway- regardless of our Rules.)

What are YOUR Rules for the Universe? Some of our favorites are (and we must give up on):

Ask yourself: Is it necessary for that person to attend if they are dangerous to the well-being and safety of the rest of the group? If the person is not a safe person, must they come? Think about that seriously. The idea that all people must be present at important holiday events is simply one of those internal Rules for the Universe.

Stop and take a moment to read the following posts. You deserve it:

Gathering with folks is important at Christmas but we are healthier when we have addressed questions about the ways we’ll handle trouble-making people at the events.

Do your teens need to vent about those obnoxious folks? Give them a cathartic writing assignment: Holiday Family Narratives.

Enjoy this empowering chat with Sabrina, Vicki, Kym and Seeing Eye Puppy, Eagle. And enjoy these posts:

https://7sistershomeschool.com/perfect-time-to-write/

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This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: What Should Homeschool High School Look Like?

Do you ever feel pressure to make sure you are homeschooling the right way??? Are you feeling pressure to be keeping up the right homeschooling “appearances”?

We have been receiving questions about what homeschooling high school should look like. Therefore, Sabrina and Vicki decided to take an entire episode and talk about it.

SO, before we even start, let’s put this whole “pressure to do homeschooling the right way” to rest. Let us tell you the 7Sisters philosophy of homeschooling: There’s not ONE right way to homeschool (especially high school)!

First off, let’s talk about some things you can (lightly read “should”) do to help.

When we talk about formats, we mean the way our teens’ courses will be taught. For instance:

It is possible to have a successful homeschool while being a working mom. For instance, Vicki has been a working homeschool mom for many years. (She is a counselor.) Here are a few tips to help:

No.

Whatever works! For instance:

If your teen likes that kind of thing, yes. However, most teens do their schoolwork all over the house. Talk to your teen. Do they need:

They need to observe themselves and actually notice what works for them. It is so good for teens to know themselves.

So, as you see, there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school. Therefore, you and your teens do what is best for you! The deal is: Is your homeschool meeting needs and moving you toward your goals!

Join Vicki and Sabrina for a fun discussion about what homeschooling high school should look like.

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This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: How to Earn Service Hours for the Homeschool Transcript.

One of the blessings of homeschooling high school is the freedom to build a lifestyle of service for your teens. Volunteering and service mindsets help build good character. Not only that, but they build a good transcript!

Adding service or volunteer hours to a transcript gives it sparkle, which makes transcripts college-attractive. Admissions officers are often looking for students who understand how to build into a community because this can help build good college culture. That is, colleges like to know that homeschool high schoolers are not just sitting at home, but know how to contribute good to the world around him.

However, for non-college-bound teens, why not add your teens’ service hours to the transcript? When you show your teens’ full high school experience, it gives them a more accurate record of their high school years. In this case, transcripts become good memory holders. Not only that but it helps homeschool graduates remember things they can talk about in job interviews:

Tell me about yourself.

Well, not only am I prepared for this job, but I also have a history of being involved in my community…

As you know, there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school…or to handle homeschool transcripts. However, I will share with you how we handle recording service and volunteer activities.

At the foot of the transcript, we include a section called “Service Hours”. In it we simply record the total number of hours our teens have done service or volunteer work.

This is similar to the way some traditional schools handle recording service on their transcripts. They have a “required number of service hours” for their high schoolers and they simply record the number of hours each teen has earned (equal to or above the required number).

We homeschooling families do not usually need a “required number of service hours” for our teens, since volunteerism is often part of our family lifestyles.

Anyway, you can simply have a section on the transcript titles Service Hours and simply record that total number of hours.

We list our teens frequent activities in the Extracurricular section of the transcript, along with the school year(s) they were done. For instance, if our teens volunteered in the church nursery each month for their junior and senior years of high school, we would list as Extracurriculars:

Church nursery volunteer, 11th and 12th grades

We do this because it shows commitment and consistency in at least some of their volunteer activities. This does not mean that they should not participate in one-off service projects. Of course they should! However, those are not recorded as Extracurriculars.

There’s not ONE right way to earn service hours for the homeschool transcript! That is because there are so many factors in making decisions on how to serve. For instance:

Make this part part of your homeschool planning times and include your teens in a discussion on what they would like to do. Think about and discuss:

As you discuss this together, you both come to good ideas. Not only that, teens start building their confidence and personal meaning as they think about and begin volunteering.

Join Vicki for a discussion on service for the homeschool transcript.

The post How to Earn Service Hours for a Homeschool Transcript appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

What Counts as Phys Ed

What Counts as Phys Ed

The post What Counts as Phys Ed appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: What Counts as Phys Ed for Homeschool High School?

As you know, homeschool high schoolers need some physical education credit in order to meet graduation requirements in most states. They also need those PE credits to give them a well-balanced lifestyle (and transcript).

You may also know that 7SistersHomeschool released a fitness/phys ed curriculum that is so useful that that it has become popular for many homeschooling high school families!

While we are talking about what you already know: you already know that there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school OR to earn Phys Ed credits. So let’s get creative and talk about ways to earn those credits.

Many states only require one credit of Physical Education for graduation. In our area, teens need two credits of PE for their transcripts. However, teens who are going into a sports or fitness related career will most likely benefit from earning a full Phys Ed credit of some kind each year.

Graduation requirements are not the only factor in deciding how many credits of PE a teen needs. That is because every teen is different!

Physical Education is not a core curriculum course like English/Language Arts, Math, Social Studies or Science, so it can be easy to make it a low priority. However, there are some important benefits of including in the homeschool schedule PE or fitness in some form.

7SistersHomeschool’s Fitness curriculum helps students understand the physical benefits of spending time on PE. When teens understand why PE is important, they are more likely to engage a healthy fitness program.

Physical benefits of PE are not the only reasons to prioritize fitness. In Vicki’s job as a counselor, she has learned that young people who get aerobic-type exercise. (This means that they have walked, played, danced, worked out, etc until their heart pumps harder. This, in turn, increases blood flow which helps the brain work better. That is because the more blood a teen’s brain gets, the more oxygen and micronutrients go to the brain. These are the foundational elements that make a brain work!

Also increased oxygen from physical activity combats stress hormones. When stress hormones are reduced, teens feel less anxiety and depression! Not only that, the reduced stress hormone levels tend to help teens sleep better.

There are lots of ways to earn PE credits! That is good news because there are lots of kinds of teens. Remember: there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school (or earn a PE credit). Here are a few:

One way to earn a high school credit is to log 120-180 hours of educational experience (the number of hours needed to earn a credit varies by state or supervising organization such as an umbrella school).

Logging the required number of hours for Phys Ed credit(s) can be done over the high school years…as long as you do not loose those log sheets! Here are some ways that our local homeschool high schoolers have logged PE hours:

Don’t forget to log all the walking time your teens do on family vacations or homeschool co-op field trips.

Then, when enough hours have been logged over time, the teens earn a credit of Phys Ed.

There’s not one right way to grade PE. However, if you are using a textbook, graded assignments and tests will give you a grade.

That’s up to you! Many homeschool high schoolers do not include PE as part of the GPA because it is not a core course. However, it is okay to include it in the GPA if that works well for your teen. Including GPA would be most useful for teens who want to go to college to study a subject related to fitness or sports.

Join Vicki for a discussion on what counts as Phys Ed for homeschool high school.

In the meantime, check out our fellow podcasters such as:

The post What Counts as Phys Ed for Homeschool High School? appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast a special replay: How to be Thankful-er!

Gratitude is important, whether it is Thanksgiving time or not. In this episode, Sabrina, Vicki and Kym are together to talk about gratitude and how to be more thankful!

Thankfulness is a healthy life skill for homeschool high schoolers (and their parents) to learn and practice. So let’s get started:

We are thankful to you, all our 7th Sisters and 7th Siblings. (Who are our 7th Sisters? Well, there are six of us 7Sisters: Sabrina, Vicki, Kym, Allison, Marilyn and Sara. That means YOU are our 7th Sisters…or 7th Siblings for you dads out there.)

Max Lucado says in his book, Anxious for Nothing, that teenagers’ average levels of anxiety are comparable to the anxiety of people who were in inpatient mental health programs in the 1950s. Did you catch that? That is shocking information- so much pain for folks in America these days.

Our fast-paced, photoshopped, achievement oriented culture has put a lot of pressure on teens, such as;

We need to learn gratitude! The University of California’s Greater Good Science Center has studied things that make people feel better. They have found that people who practice written gratitude tend to improve in mood and health.

One study that Greater Good Science Center did found that people who did a written gratitude list experienced:

Imagine that! Science and research catches up with Scripture. We know that Scripture has been reminding us to be thankful for thousands of years!

Kym recalled that being in seventh grade started a new school. It was a different setting than she was used to: from a school in the city to a suburban setting. On her first day there, she was feeling nervous. On her way back from gym class, she realized,

“Wow! I could just be positive and it would make my life better. Not only that but it might make life better for someone else!”

Kym is so grateful today that God wired her for gratitude. It has helped her through stressful times and struggles ever since that time. Here is a resource Kym finds inspiring:

The books of Jon Gordon. He is a person who was naturally negative but learned to be positive after being challenged by his wife. One of the thankfulness practices that Kym learned from him is to take a daily “thankfulness walk”.

Sabrina points out that Kym has been a gratitude inspiration to her and her son-in-law during a beach trip their families all took together. In fact, Sabrina’s son-in-law told her that when he “grew up” he wanted to be Kym because she was so enthusiastic and noticed the good things in life. Sabrina noticed that Kym was even blessed by seeing the well-done lines in a parking lot!

Vicki also mentioned she enjoys the encouragement of books by John Maxwell.

Sabrina has found that whenever she is troubled about something, she wants to pray about it. However, she found that when she starts the prayer with “thank you”, she actually feels better than starting with the troubles.

It is much harder to angst and spazz when standing before the throne of God if you start the prayer with gratitude!

Teens sometimes think parents are irritating if they lecture about any topic. However, you can model gratitude for them!

You can also ask them about ways they could practice being a grateful person. (They might have an app for that!)

Also, be sure that you:

Join Sabrina, Vicki and Kym for lots of tips on how to be thankful-er.

What are some good resources that you have found for learning or practicing gratitude?

In the meantime, enjoy a few helpful posts from Vicki’s coaching business and 7SistersHomeschool.com!

The post Special Replay: How to be Thankful-er appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on the Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Helping Teens Have Healthy Relationships with Food, Interview with Kassandra Baker.

Note: The topic of food can be a trigger for some people. This episode contains an encouraging discussion with our friend Kassandra Baker in which she discusses healthy relationships for teens with the food they eat.

Vicki was happy that she could tackle a tough topic with a new friend, Kassandra Baker. Kassandra and Vicki met at a conference a couple of years ago and have been discussing the importance for teens of healthy relationships with food, as well as healthy body image. They were finally able to connect and record this episode.

Kassandra grew up in a Christian home. In that faith-filled family, she accepted Christ at the age of four while watching a Billy Graham crusade. From the outside looking in, things looked perfect. However, from the inside Kassandra experienced some struggles.

Having a highly sensitive personality can be hard on young people, especially middle schoolers and high schoolers. Kassandra was one of those kids. This sensitivity is a gift but also challenging because she felt emotions and compassion so deeply.

She did not necessarily look “that certain way” in her eyes. Thus by the time she was in middle school she began to wrestle with body image. Then she started dieting.

Soon this body image insecurity and dieting routines began to develop into a binge eating disorder. Then by the time Kassandra was in her early twenties, the struggles created a disorder called orthorexia: an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. Interestingly, Kassandra’s orthorexia developed out of her trying to eat healthily but then becoming overly attached to the affirmations she was receiving for her “healthy lifestyle”.

To Kassandra, Ed and the Gang felt like a huge rock on her, pushing her into the ground. It felt overwhelming to her.

As a young teen, Kassandra’s “Gang” led her to a very high performance, especially academically. She strove the be the valedictorian of her school and other high-achieving accomplishments. This was not hard for Kassandra to do…for a while. She could work, work, work. Then she would “hit a wall”. By the time she would get home from school on those “hit a wall” days, she would crash on the couch, watch television and eat.

Unfortunately for her, this was not simply “emotional eating” (which can still be dysfunctional), it was more uncontrollable eating. Binge eating is the kind of food intake that cannot be controlled. It feels like the need to eat is a compulsion.

Next she would feel ashamed and so she would extremely food-restrict (eat very little). This would lead to her body feeling that it was facing famine or starvation because she was not taking in enough calories to survive.

This led to feeling deprived. Next, the deprivation led Kassandra to another binge-eating event.

Kassandra was so obsessed with her healthy eating that she would either not eat at events with her peers, or she would bring her own food. She missed out socially on so much in this rigid lifestyle! Even when she was not eating, she was thinking about food. In reality, she had simply moved to a different kind of eating disorder.

What brought Kassandra to a wake up moment was a traumatic event. In 2014, she experienced a traumatic brain injury and ended up in the hospital in the trauma room. Over night, she could not do all her “healthy behaviors”. In fact, she could not even get up and go to work.

As if that was not enough, Kassandra experienced three more traumatic brain injuries within a two year time period. Unfortunately, this led to chronic pain and vertigo. Thus, she simply could not do all the “behaviors”.

Fortunately, she had already started a Bible study about the underlying wounds that made her more vulnerable to her eating disorders. While Kassandra did not experience any “big T” traumas (things like abuse, natural disasters, family crises), she did experience many “small T” traumas. Like many of us humans, we encounter painful things through our growing years that teach us a fragile self-concept and anxiety. This Bible study helped her work on healing those pains.

BTW- When teens, or adults, are experiencing pain, anxiety, depression or trauma, counseling is so very helpful. Take it from Vicki, who is a counselor and has been through her own counseling. Therapy is a road to health.

In experiencing healing from her childhood pains, Kassandra had more energy to start recovering from her eating disorders.

Intuitive eating is a self-care framework that integrates instinct, emotion and rational thought. To help her reorganize her relationship with food and become more intuitive with her eating, she worked with a dietician who specialized in helping people learn those skills.

Kassandra describes her life before recover as living in “black and white”. However, with the freedom from the bondage to Ed and the Gang, she feels life is now “in color”.

A diet is an external program. It tells you from the outside how you should eat. On the other hand, intuitive eating helps you understand how your body is specifically created. Then learning how to eat according to what your body needs. These needs can be different at various times. For example, when Kassandra had the traumatic brain injuries, she had different needs for food. In fact, her brain communicated differently with her body due to the injury.

Thus, she had to learn to be aware of her needs for food and care in new ways. It was rewarding to Kassandra to learn to be gracious to herself and her body in every stage of life.

This is different than the current American diet culture, which tells us to look a certain way (thin) and must live your life working on becoming thin. Intuitive eating allows you to be your healthy weight and size (which often is not diet-culture thin). God created everyone’s body to be different and to be beautiful in the way God made them. For Kassandra, her healthy size and lifestyle is not “skinny”…it is allowing herself to be the person (body and soul) that God created her to be.

With this in mind, Kassandra has a heart to minister to church teens and women about healthy relationships with food and with body image. She has found that sometimes our American diet culture has invaded the church, informing women that the only way to be healthy is to be thin. Thus the only way to please God is to be thin. This gives so much shame and guilt.

Food for thought from Kassandra: If God created the elephant and ant, why would He create all women to be a size 0?

It IS important to take care of our bodies, however, you cannot tell if a person is truly healthy by looking at them. That is God’s business.

Today Kassandra Baker is now certified as a health, life and mental health coach. If you have questions about helping teens with a healthy relationship with food, visit Kassandra at KassandraBaker.com or [email protected].

Join Vicki and Kassandra for an encouraging and helpful talk about helping teens find a healthy relationship with food. Here are some other resources:

The post Helping Teens Have Healthy Relationships with Food, Interview with Kassandra Baker appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Healthy Relationships with Food, Kassandra Baker

Healthy Relationships with Food, Kassandra Baker

The post Healthy Relationships with Food, Kassandra Baker appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.