This past week our family finished up a huge project that required everyone to pitch in with their individual skills and talents, when they could, to get the job done.
But everyone had different schedules, different availability, and different working preferences. It’s a little like herding cats. We’re all a tad independent.
So for the last five weeks, that’s meant a huge amount of coordination, communication, and twice a week family meetings to ensure we all were on the same page, working toward the goal.
Josh, my oldest son, was recruited early in the process to coordinate the people side of the efforts. Cuz, quite frankly, he’s the best at “herding cats” and making sure communication flows.
It was lovely to see his leadership skills and his communication skills shine during this process.
And it was very cool to see his brother, Z, who struggled for many years to communicate orally, show up and contribute his ideas, experiences, and ideas to the process.
As a mom, it makes my heart happy to see those communication skills, those collaboration skills, all come together and make a huge difference in getting real life stuff done.
Our project finished up on Friday, culminating in one final family meeting with thank yous and pizza to celebrate.
And now it’s done.
But the skills they brought to the process are even more developed, with more experience and confidence to go forward with. And that’s a cool thing.
During their high school years, these are the type of experiences I made note of to package up either under English, Leadership, or Communication Skills.
And most definitely these experiences fall under the Texas public school criteria for Speech, which we discussed during our February Q&A call.
(If you missed it, see the [33:59] mark in the replay)
In a schooled environment, these types of skills have to be trained in a constrained classroom environment, which rarely provides the opportunity to apply them in a real life context.
Some students get a chance to practice them in school or activity leadership roles or outside of school in their activities and volunteer work. But many don’t get this practical experience until they leave public school.
But as homeschoolers, our teens are out participating in the world. In our families. In their activities. Collaborating in the friend groups on projects, interacting with all ages as they pursue their interests and deep dives. For most of us, our teens are actively involved in our family projects, and in their volunteer projects.
Generally speaking, our teens have a LOT of opportunity to develop and practice communication skills in context.
I encourage you periodically to put on your school administrator hat, and look back and ask yourself:
Over time and over the course of doing life, where has your teen practiced and engaged their communication skills? Shared ideas and thoughts with others – individually and/or in a group? Collaborated, listened, and/or applied problem solving and critical thinking to get a job done or goal accomplished?
This is all fodder to support either English, Leadership, and/or communication skills credit. And for some, possibly more than one.
If you want to look at the details I shared during the QA Call, plus my rabbit trail of Speech credit options Texas public schools are allowed, be sure to check out the February Q&A Call replay link. The additional resources are listed below the video replay.
Hope this weekend finds you well.
Until Next time, Happy Learning!
~Shannon
P.S. If you would like me to look up the public school speech credit options in your area, I’d be happy to do so. Just email your local public high school’s name and your state to me at Shannon (at) CapturingCredit (dot) com
P.S.S. The replay and resources will be in the Free Resource Library until the end of February. After that they’ll be in Getting Started with Homeschool Resources.
