Geography Credit

[Renae in AZ]

If I assign the geography and maps for year 4, would this constitute a quarter credit hour for Geography? Over the 4 years, could I then give a full credit?

Renae

[Marcia]

Renae,

There are two basic approaches to giving credit for homeschooling families. We call them "Traditional" and "Alternate."

Traditional credits are those that most college admissions officers are used to seeing. Typically, in traditional high schools, there are the major courses (typically 5 of them)--History (includes some Geography), English (combines Literature and Writing assignments), Math, Science, and Foreign Language. Then there are electives. These typically last for one semester, and give 1/2 credit. Typical electives: Musical instrument study, or band, or voice lessons, Art History or studio art, Drama, and Shop. Many such electives are graded "pass/fail."

Now, many homeschoolers feel that they don't want to assign significant work and call them "electives." So, they want to give 1/4 credits that accumulate into a full credit if the students have done a lot of hours. Thus, we offer an "alternative" scheme for figuring TOG credits. You can break out, for instance, Writing and Literature. You *can* break out History and Geography.

You'll have to justify your Alternate schemes when applying to colleges. They'll want book lists or other documentation of the substance of your studies.

Does that help?

[Renae in AZ]

Yes, this does help. So what your saying is that I could either place the Geopgraphy in with History or I could accumulate Geography credits as an elective. I would just need to document what was involved in this course to earn the credit given. Right?

Thank you, Renae

[Marcia]

Right; and stay consistent with either the traditional approach or the alternate approach for all four years.