Menu Monday for 1/29/18

 So I created this plan on Friday. At the time I believed I was over the hump of this sickness that I've been struggling with. The shopping was done on Saturday morning. Saturday night's dinner was a planned "eat out in" meal. As I drove to get the food, I was becoming certain that I was not feeling right. After dinner I finally had time to take my temperature. Fever. ::sigh::  Now I don't know if I'll be up to preparing all these meals this week. But... Here's the plan I'm going to be trying for...

Saturday (1/27):

Fried chicken, French fries, cole slaw, rolls

Sunday (1/28):

Crock Pot Brisket, carrots, mashed potatoes

Monday (1/29) (Troop Mtg.):

Salmon, spinach, noodles

Tuesday (1/30):

Pan fried chicken, broccoli, orzo

Wednesday (1/31):

Tacos, tostitos

Thursday (2/1):

Sausage ziti, salad, TX toast

Friday (2/2)

Dinner out

 

Making Your Transcripts Stand Out to Colleges

The first thing you would find helpful is the basic answer to "How to Make a Transcript" in the first place, right? Well, my first student graduated in 2003. I created a one-page transcript template to use and created the transcript based on the courses completed, course plan was created around state expectations for high school graduation.

High School Credit Report

Student Name:                                                                     Date of Birth: Social Security #: Address:

We hereby affirm the completion of the following courses by our child. Date: ______________________ Father: _________________________   Mother: _____________________________

Subjects and Required Credits

Ninth Grade Year:

Tenth Grade Year:

Eleventh Grade Year:

Twelfth Grade Year:

Description                 Grade Credit

Description               Grade Credit

Description             Grade Credit

Description            Grade Credit

Bible / Christian Service

3

English

4

*

Math

3

Science

3

Social Studies

3

Physical Ed./ Health

1

Elective

4

Elective

Elective

Elective

Total Credits by Grade

Requirements on this form are based on the graduation requirements for the state of Maryland.  These requirements should be filled in according to your state.

   

The transcript is actually long-ways left to right, but this gives you the basic idea. So next I filled it in with things like "English 9", 10, 11, 12, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Biology, Chemistry, etc. For social studies we were doing Tapestry of Grace, so my titles were like "History of the Ancient World," "History of the Middle Ages", "History of the 19th Century," and "History of the 20th Century". Then I realized I could also tweak some of my other course titles. I added in student-specific electives and changed some other things. Schools like to have parent signatures on home school transcripts.

Name of Homeschool

Address Line 1

Address Line 2

Official High School Transcript

Student Name:    _________________________       Date of Birth: ___________ Social Security #:    __________________          Phone Number: _____________ Address: _________________________________________________

We hereby affirm the completion of the following courses by our child. Date: ______________________ Father: _________________________   Mother: _____________________________

Subjects and Required Credits

Ninth Grade Year: 2000-2001

Tenth Grade Year:  2001-2002

Eleventh Grade (CURRENT) Year: 2002-2003

Twelfth Grade (FUTURE) Year: 2003-2004

Description                 Grade Credit

Description               Grade Credit

Description             Grade Credit

Description            Grade Credit

Bible / Christian Service

3

*Bible Survey/History of the Early Church

P

1

*Church History: Medieval to 1800

P

1/2

*Church History: The 1800s

P

1/2

*Church History: The 1900s

P

1/2

English

4

*Classic Literature of the Ancient World, Composition &  Grammar (Honors)

P

1

* Classic Literature of the Western World: 500-1800 AD, Com-position & Grammar (Honors)

P

1

*Classic Literature of the Western World: 1800s, Composition & Grammar (Honors)

P

1

*Classic Literature of the Western World: 1900s, Composition & Grammar (Honors)

P

1

Math

3

Algebra 1

P

1

Geometry

B

1

Continuing Algebra Concepts

P

1

Science

3

Biology

A

1

Chemistry

B

1

Anatomy (Adv. Biology)

A

1

Social Studies

3

*History of the Ancient World  (World History I) (HONORS)

P

1

*World History II (Fall of Rome to Colonial America) (Honors)

P

1

*World History III: America in the 1800s  (Honors)

P

1

*History of the World IV:  America in the 1900s

P

1

Health/PE

1

Health

P

1/2

Phys Ed:

P

1/2

Phys Ed/Drivers Ed

P

1/4

Elective

4

Latin 1

A

1

Latin 2

A

1

Music Theory

P

1/4

Elective

Introduction to Computers/Keyboards

P

1

Work/co-op: Lashof Violin Shop

N/A

1

Work/co-op: Lashof Violin Shop (current)

N/A

1

Advanced Computer Applications

P

1/2

Elective

Violin 2

P

1

Violin 3 and Montgomery Symphony Orchestra

P

1

Violin 4

P

1

Home Economics

N/A

1

Elective

*History of Fine Arts: Ancient World

P

1/2

History of Fine Arts: Medieval to 1800

P

1/2

History of Fine Arts: the 1800s

P

1/4

History of Fine Arts: the 1900s

A

1/4

Total Credits by Grade

21

Ninth Grade

7

Tenth  Grade

8

Eleventh Grade

7-1/4

Twelfth Grade

6-3/4

*TOG - Tapestry of Grace Curriculum, Years 1 - 4.  See www.Tapestryofgrace.com for more information.

My first student graduated in 2003, so I've had a lot of time to learn new things since then. I learned most of my best stuff from a woman named Lee Binz, The Homescholar. She gives free video teleclasses, but also has some fabulous products that she sells. I invested in her products.

Total transparency here, I am NOT an affiliate. I share this information because I am constantly amazed by the number of people I come across regularly who have never heard of Lee Binz.

Here is a very helpful video for you. You can also go to YouTube and search for "Lee Binz" to find more.

 

If you sign up for her emails, she will send you links to her blog, invitations periodically to teleclasses, and sometimes links to wonderful ebooks on Kindle that post briefly for free for you to download. I invested in The Comprehensive Record Solution, and for a while, The Gold Club. Lee helped me make my son's transcript shine!

She also challenged me to give my son some credit for things I hadn't considered. For example, my son has a hobby tthat was driving me crazy because he wouldn't do the school work I had assigned but was always working on his hobby instead. He likes to make whips out of paracord. So why did I not give him an art credit and call it "Creative Crafts" -- a lot of public school students have such classes and credits. So I did! Lee also asked me why my son had only 1/2 credit in Health and 1/2 credit in Physical Education. Well, it was because that's what the state requires for graduation. But Lee said, "Your son is an Eagle Scout and is active in Civil Air Patrol. He's been camping and hiking, got a Personal Fitness Merit Badge, is marching in CAP, as well as their "Drug Reduction Push" training. He can probably have four credits in PE and several credits in Health." So I evaluated these subjects and increased his credits, although not to as many as she had suggested.

 So using my original transcript template, I came up with an amazing transcript for my son, one that colleges are happy with:

 

High School Credit Report

Student Name:                                                                Date of Birth:   Social Security #: Address:

We hereby affirm the completion of the following courses by our child. Date: ______________________ Father: _________________________   Mother: _____________________________

Subjects and Required Credits

Ninth Grade Year: 2014-2015

Tenth Grade Year:  2015-2016

Eleventh Grade Year: 2016-2017

Twelfth Grade Year: 2017-2018

Description           Grade Credit

Description                    Grade Credit

Description                Grade Credit

Description                   Grade Credit

Bible / Religion

4

Archeology and Poetry of the Bible

A

1.0

Old Testament History

A

1.0

English

4

Literature and Composition with Grammar

B

1.0

Literary Analysis, Composition & Grammar

B

1.0

MC ENGL 102: Critical Reading, Writing and Research

A

1.0

MC ENGL 101: Introduction to College Writing

B

1.0

Math

4

Algebra I

B

1.0

Algebra II

B

1.0

Geometry

IP

1.0

Science

4

Biology with lab

A

1.0

Chemistry

A

1.0

MC BIOL 101: General Biology with Lab

A

1.0

Social Studies

4

Ancient Civilizations

B

1.0

Early American History

B

1.0

MC HIST 114: The World in the 20th Century

A

1.0

MC POLI 101: American Government

A

1.0

MC SOCY 100: Introduction to Sociology

B

1.0

Physical Ed./ Health

1

Personal Fitness with Health 1

A

1.0

Personal Fitness with Health 2

A

1.0

Personal Fitness with Health 3

A

1.0

Foreign Language

2

Conversational Spanish

B

1.0

MC SPAN 101: Elementary Spanish I

A

1.0

MC SPAN 102: Elementary Spanish II

B

1.0

Elective

Videography

A

1.0

Music Appreciation

A

0.5

Guitar

A

1.0

MC ACCT 221: Accounting I

IP

1.0

Elective

Sculpture Technique – Modeling, and other Handicrafts

A

0,5

Sculpture Technique – Construct, and other Handicrafts

A

0.5

Contemporary Crafts

A

1.0

MC ECON 201:  Principles of Economics I

IP

1.0

Elective

Driver’s Education

A

0.5

Total Credits

Ninth Grade

8.5

Tenth Grade

8.0

Eleventh Grade

7.5

Twelfth Grade

6.0

Certification: Each credit represents one or more of the following: (1) 150 hours of class time, not counting homework; (2) successful completion of at least ¾ of a

standard high school textbook, including all publisher-prepared problems,  quizzes, and tests; (3) private high school courses worth one traditional  credit; (4) community college courses worth at least two credit hours; or (5) private courses taught by a private school teacher.

 Next Lee challenged me to stop using my own transcript format and instead use her Comprehensive Curriculum Package, which I did. It has a table of contents followed by a transcript by year AND a transcript by subject. Then following the transcripts, I had to create (using Lee's template) a course description page for each subject my student was receiving credit for. The course description pages were followed by work samples. I can't show you pictures because these formats are Lee Binz's.

After my son had applied and been accepted by several colleges, some of the colleges were wanting to see the course syllabi for courses my son had taken in college through the dual enrollment program. I plugged these in where I had previously had the work samples.

I hope this post has been helpful. If you'd like my blank template for a transcript in Word format, drop me a comment below with your email in it and I'll send it to you. I can't encourage you strongly enough, though, to follow the links to Lee Binz. Some of her programs cost $99-$199 or so, but there is also so much free stuff that you won't regret it!