Seton HS questions: Enroll or not?

[masondoggy]

Argh, I’ve hit a brickwall. Can’t decide. I’ve been researching cirriculums and I’m leaning heavily towards Seton, but have some reservations. Could use some suggestions/(name removed by moderator)ut etc. I’ll start off by describing my kids. I’ve got two “high-achiever” girls, grade 3 & 6 (next year). The oldest is sort of a perfectionist, as in does not like to get one point under 100%. They are both very smart and motivated.

8th grade son is very smart, but he’s more of a hands-on, “mechanical” interested brain. He’s also academically unmotivated and tends to be lazy. He’s more than happy to skate by with a “C”, since that means being ungrounded.

Soooo, I really like Seton’s materials. Most of them. Not crazy about their science book, though. It looks bland and boring to me. I know DS needs an engaging science program. He loves science, but it needs to be fun and interesting.

I love how Seton incorporates Catholicism into every subject. I like the price of their materials…very reasonable to some of the others I’ve seen. What I’d really like is to just buy the materials and skip enrolling because #1, I added it up last night and it would cost me about $700 in materials for all 3 kids, but $1400 to enroll all 3 kids. Not really worth it to me when all I really want out of enrolling are the lesson plans! It is irritating that they won’t sell them seperately! I feel comfortable doing this next school year, but what about high school?

I’m also concerned that a lot of people say the program is hard, time-consuming, frustrating. Would that aspect be mimized by skipping enrollment? I don’t want to stress my kids out, especially ds. I want him to enjoy this not hate it like he hates school now. But I also want them to get a good, solid CATHOLIC education that prepares them very well for college and the real world.

On the other hand, I want them to be challenged and come out of this with a solid, complete education where they can easily succeed in college.

I’ve done a lot of comparing to the Catholic Heritage program, which looks good (and affordable) but there seems to be no way to really see their materials before buying and I’m just not comfortable with that at all. I’m also concerned that they won’t be challenging enough for the high school years that are approaching.

 

[HouseArrest]

I know how you feel - I could have written this same exact post about 2 months ago, as I decided to homeschool our oldest daughter for high school.

That being said, I am not going to be as much help as a Seton user would be, but I can tell you a few things that come to my mind, and hopefully it helps you…

First of all, it helped me to stop thinking about all the years and just focus on this one coming up. You can always switch gears after your first year, with that experience under your belt.

You could enroll for one year and see how it goes. I imagine after one year you’ll be able to figure out if it is something you can do in the future without enrolling.

Also - a little riskier - you could enroll one child, get the lesson plans, and see if you could get along wtihout the plans for the other children.

Finally, can you attend a conference? That way you could look through their materials?

What about buying the plans used?

I finally broke down and enrolled our oldest in Kolbe, bought all the books, and even bought the extra help service. It was expensive, but I was worried because it was high school and I didn’t want to find out about any grave errors when it was time to apply to college. I think if I had younger kids, I’d be more apt to try without plans to save the money too…

 

[masondoggy]

I know how you feel - I could have written this same exact post about 2 months ago, as I decided to homeschool our oldest daughter for high school.

That being said, I am not going to be as much help as a Seton user would be, but I can tell you a few things that come to my mind, and hopefully it helps you…

First of all, it helped me to stop thinking about all the years and just focus on this one coming up. You can always switch gears after your first year, with that experience under your belt.

You could enroll for one year and see how it goes. I imagine after one year you’ll be able to figure out if it is something you can do in the future without enrolling.

Also - a little riskier - you could enroll one child, get the lesson plans, and see if you could get along wtihout the plans for the other children.

Finally, can you attend a conference? That way you could look through their materials?

What about buying the plans used?

I finally broke down and enrolled our oldest in Kolbe, bought all the books, and even bought the extra help service. It was expensive, but I was worried because it was high school and I didn’t want to find out about any grave errors when it was time to apply to college. I think if I had younger kids, I’d be more apt to try without plans to save the money too…

I am planning to attend a conference in June…but I’d like to have a pretty good idea by then what I want to do so I can go ahead an purchase used materials while I’m there. Don’t want to start doing that without a plan, kwim?

Is there any place to buy used Seton lesson plans? Is it even allowed? I’d love to have them starting off just to give me a little guidance/suggestions.

 

[shannyk]

I am planning to attend a conference in June…but I’d like to have a pretty good idea by then what I want to do so I can go ahead an purchase used materials while I’m there. Don’t want to start doing that without a plan, kwim?

Is there any place to buy used Seton lesson plans? Is it even allowed? I’d love to have them starting off just to give me a little guidance/suggestions.

groups.yahoo.com/group/cathswap/

 

[HouseArrest]

I am planning to attend a conference in June…but I’d like to have a pretty good idea by then what I want to do so I can go ahead an purchase used materials while I’m there. Don’t want to start doing that without a plan, kwim?

Is there any place to buy used Seton lesson plans? Is it even allowed? I’d love to have them starting off just to give me a little guidance/suggestions.

Yeah - I know how it is - you need to go to a conference to buy, but also to look to see what you want to buy - almost need to go twice.

I am on Cathswap as well but I don’t know if I remember seeing Seton lesson plans. There are always CHC and MODG lesson plans. I never see Kolbe lesson plans, and finally figured out why. They specifically ask for you not to copy or sell them used because their sales help fund their non profit organization. So while I am sure they can be found… it’s their stuff… I don’t want to do that if they’ve asked us not to. Anyway, you could even cruise around on the Seton bookstore and see if it says anything about that, or you could call and see if they encourage or discourage it.

 

[masondoggy]

groups.yahoo.com/group/cathswap/

Thanks, I just signed up!

 

[HouseArrest]

NO Seton LESSON PLANS allowed to be posted for sale as these are copyrighted
and belong to Seton. You must return them to Seton.

Just copied the above from Cathswap. There is a “banned” list of items for sale on the site that includes copyrighted items and “notorious anti Catholic materials”.

It’s still worth joining, though!

 

[masondoggy]

NO Seton LESSON PLANS allowed to be posted for sale as these are copyrighted
and belong to Seton. You must return them to Seton.

Just copied the above from Cathswap. There is a “banned” list of items for sale on the site that includes copyrighted items and “notorious anti Catholic materials”.

It’s still worth joining, though!

Ok, good to know. I’ve poked around quite a bit on Seton’s site and didn’t see anything about it but may have missed it.

I don’t know…I really have my reservations about going without them. But then, is it really worth the extra $700 just because I want the lesson plans? That’s a lot of dough I could spend on supplements, field trips, pens, pencils, papers…heck, I could even buy an extra computer for the kids!

Those who do Seton, do you think I’d really be missing anything without them?

Another question…any suggestions on a good, solid, Catholic science book/cirriculum? The science books I see on Seton’s site just look boring to me. I like the apologia books, but I just read an chapter on their site that deals with the history of science that I’m just not comfortable with. It’s not that I think it’s anti-Catholic or anything, but it’s purely written from a protestant viewpoint and I’d just rather not deal with that. I don’t want to feel like I have to constantly check his lessons like I do with his public school science class! Ds needs something colorful, lots of pictures, fun experiments…he loves doing stuff like that.

 

[HouseArrest]

Ok, good to know. I’ve poked around quite a bit on Seton’s site and didn’t see anything about it but may have missed it.

I don’t know…I really have my reservations about going without them. But then, is it really worth the extra $700 just because I want the lesson plans? That’s a lot of dough I could spend on supplements, field trips, pens, pencils, papers…heck, I could even buy an extra computer for the kids!

Those who do Seton, do you think I’d really be missing anything without them?

Another question…any suggestions on a good, solid, Catholic science book/cirriculum? The science books I see on Seton’s site just look boring to me. I like the apologia books, but I just read an chapter on their site that deals with the history of science that I’m just not comfortable with. It’s not that I think it’s anti-Catholic or anything, but it’s purely written from a protestant viewpoint and I’d just rather not deal with that. I don’t want to feel like I have to constantly check his lessons like I do with his public school science class! Ds needs something colorful, lots of pictures, fun experiments…he loves doing stuff like that.

Martha (Rob’s Wife) who participates on CAF is a Seton user. She’ll tell you what she likes and doesn’t like about it. She has 9 kids and has been with them for years. She could answer all your questions and then some! She also has a homeschool message board. The link is in her sig.

Just search Rob’s Wife and a post will come up.

 

[masondoggy]

Lol, I am officially busted. I haven’t said anything to the kids about this because I haven’t made a decision yet and I’m still in the “convince DH” mode (he’s getting there…I think)…UNTIL DS opened up the laptop and saw the searches I did on homeschooling.

Y’all should’ve heard the conversation at the dinner table today, lol. “Mooooommmmmmmmmmm, I am NOT gettin’ homeschoooooooled”…X 3, in unison.

I’m in trouble.

 

[fellowChristian]

masondoggy-- Hello I’m a Seton user.

We have an 7th. grader & a 9th. grader.

The 7th. grader ended up with 11 subjects,(I don’t know why? I need to ask them that question.) But the books are great,we’ve actually stopped using the lesson plans. I let him decide his pace…if he gets lazy then I sit with him and encourage him along. The Spelling,Vocab.Math,religion,english, & science books are all broken into chapters. We decide how many ch. we want to do.Then he has Art,P.E.,History,Reading & Music. We started in Jan. the lesson plans are loaded with a lot of “extra” work that makes it to much. We have 5 other children and I’m trying to decide if I just want to use the books minus the lesson plans & enrollment. But then you don’t get the quizes or the tests. I could just use the books and make up my own curriculum? Yup I’m still trying to decide that myself. Meanwhile our son is still learning stuff he never learned in public school.

On the flip side our 9th. grader is doing swell. She has only 5 subjects. She doesn’t really need me for anything. I lay out what needs to be done for the quarter then she does it. We refer to the lesson plans alittle bit more then with my son.

There’s a conference in May in Seattle, i think we may be going to that. Does this help? Oh yeah my kids all were against being homeschooled too. As soon as they hit a bump in their school they changed their minds. Our son has so many allergies that telling him he could eat anytime he wanted here at home, convinced him. Plus the fact he could still play sports at the school. When his older sister heard that she could eat whenever she wanted and get up at 9am instead of 5am she started leaning more towards the idea. They’re both bean poles but they both had started skipping lunches at school because they’re gross. My Goddaughter came over to visit with my sister and they “caught” both of our kids in their pjs stretched out in the family room doing their lessons, my sister called me after dinner asking me all about homeschooling her daughter said they looked so peaceful.lol. Got more questions?

 

[masondoggy]

masondoggy-- Hello I’m a Seton user.

We have an 7th. grader & a 9th. grader.

The 7th. grader ended up with 11 subjects,(I don’t know why? I need to ask them that question.) But the books are great,we’ve actually stopped using the lesson plans. I let him decide his pace…if he gets lazy then I sit with him and encourage him along. The Spelling,Vocab.Math,religion,english, & science books are all broken into chapters. We decide how many ch. we want to do.Then he has Art,P.E.,History,Reading & Music. We started in Jan. the lesson plans are loaded with a lot of “extra” work that makes it to much. We have 5 other children and I’m trying to decide if I just want to use the books minus the lesson plans & enrollment. But then you don’t get the quizes or the tests. I could just use the books and make up my own curriculum? Yup I’m still trying to decide that myself. Meanwhile our son is still learning stuff he never learned in public school.

On the flip side our 9th. grader is doing swell. She has only 5 subjects. She doesn’t really need me for anything. I lay out what needs to be done for the quarter then she does it. We refer to the lesson plans alittle bit more then with my son.

There’s a conference in May in Seattle, i think we may be going to that. Does this help? Oh yeah my kids all were against being homeschooled too. As soon as they hit a bump in their school they changed their minds. Our son has so many allergies that telling him he could eat anytime he wanted here at home, convinced him. Plus the fact he could still play sports at the school. When his older sister heard that she could eat whenever she wanted and get up at 9am instead of 5am she started leaning more towards the idea. They’re both bean poles but they both had started skipping lunches at school because they’re gross. My Goddaughter came over to visit with my sister and they “caught” both of our kids in their pjs stretched out in the family room doing their lessons, my sister called me after dinner asking me all about homeschooling her daughter said they looked so peaceful.lol. Got more questions?

So both of your kids are enrolled? How are the tests? Are they really hard or are they reasonable? I like the idea of testing them but I don’t want to stress them out, either. I feel like I need to test them to make sure they are paying attention to what they’re reading. They have a tendency to go read something I tell them to read, skim through it half-fast and insist that they read it (we already do religion classes at home). This is another concern I have about Seton, I’ve heard it’s very reading intensive. Which is good, the reading is good for them. But if I hand them a history lesson that’s all reading, how am I going to know they really paid attention to what they just read, kwim?

 

[masondoggy]

Another question…about how long does it take your kids to complete their work every day? Do they feel overwhelmed? Do they seem to enjoy it?

 

[kristacecilia]

I’ve done a lot of comparing to the Catholic Heritage program, which looks good (and affordable) but there seems to be no way to really see their materials before buying and I’m just not comfortable with that at all. I’m also concerned that they won’t be challenging enough for the high school years that are approaching.

Sorry, I can’t help with the Seton stuff because I just don’t have the experience.

I can help you a bit with the CHC questions. I have used them for PreK-2nd grade so far. I know there are ways you can view the materials online, too.

For example, here is a link to the third grade lesson plans: chcweb.com/catalog/ByGradeLevel/ThirdGrade/CHCLessonPlansThirdGrade/product_info.html

If you click “learn more” or “view sample” you are taken to a separate window with links to indpendent reviews, pictures, images of the lesson plans, etc.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the main third grade lesson plans page, you will find a video you can view that demonstrates the product. Just above where the video is there is a link to “take a tour” which takes you to an interactive guide for the lesson plans… you can move through them page by page to see what it’s all about.

They are just starting to offer these interactive tours and videos of their materials, though, so don’t know if you can get them for every product you are interested in.

HTH!

 

[fellowChristian]

Hi again im back

yes both are enrolled.No the tests don’t seem to be that hard. Each child has his likes and dislikes. They both seem to like the math. Yes it’s alot of reading. My son hates to read…so im glad he has to read. i have been pushing and stressing,im still trying to get the hang of this.i have to remind myself to breath. I work a full time graveyard shift at a hospital and altogether we have 7 kids in the house plus our oldest moved back in with our son in-law & grandbaby thats on the way…so if i can do it i think u can too but money wise? i made a down payment and broke the rest into monthly payments.

oh and i found this…

setonhome.org/newsletter/usinglessonplans.php

hope im helping

 

[kristacecilia]

Sorry, here is a direct link to the 3rd grade lesson plans ‘take a tour’. As you go through, there are LOTS of links throughout the tour to give you examples of the other books and materials, so move your mouse over everything to see if the little blue box pops up for a link!

chccatalog.com/index.cfm/catalog/3rd_Grade_Interactive_Guide

 

[fellowChristian]

it depends on each child and how well they learn the subject. they enjoy being home with their family. I set the tone …so if im stressing so are they,if im relaxed then they are too. My son sat down and did 2 weeks of vocab in 2 hrs? it just depends on the student.

 

[masondoggy]

Sorry, I can’t help with the Seton stuff because I just don’t have the experience.

I can help you a bit with the CHC questions. I have used them for PreK-2nd grade so far. I know there are ways you can view the materials online, too.

For example, here is a link to the third grade lesson plans: chcweb.com/catalog/ByGradeLevel/ThirdGrade/CHCLessonPlansThirdGrade/product_info.html

If you click “learn more” or “view sample” you are taken to a separate window with links to indpendent reviews, pictures, images of the lesson plans, etc.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the main third grade lesson plans page, you will find a video you can view that demonstrates the product. Just above where the video is there is a link to “take a tour” which takes you to an interactive guide for the lesson plans… you can move through them page by page to see what it’s all about.

They are just starting to offer these interactive tours and videos of their materials, though, so don’t know if you can get them for every product you are interested in.

HTH!

I did check out some of the tour videos but I found it hard to really look closely at the material and not all of it was available for viewing. I tried to view the 8th grade language art books and it just took me to a viewing of one of the elementary levels…um NOT helping, lol…there’s a big difference between 4th grade and 8th grade! Their website is not very user-friendly.

I just can’t bring myself to invest so much $$ (and a whole year of education) into materials that I can’t look through carefully, kwim?

I’m thinking what I might do is go ahead and buy the materials from Seton that come with the first four weeks of lesson plans…then re-evaluate at the end of the four weeks. If I feel like I can go without them the rest of the year, I can…or just enroll at that point. Would I be able to do that with them? Enroll after I’ve already bought the materials? I’m assuming they’d just adjust the price, right?

Then again, I may change my mind completely after attending the conference.

 

[Katholish]

I am a huge Seton fan.

One thing I thought worth mentioning about the cost of enrollment is that if you enroll 3 children at a conference, you save $90. Seton takes off $30 per child at conferences.

Which conference in June were you planning on going to?

 

[Kindness]

Hello everyone, I looked at the Seton materials on-line and really liked them. I’m sure when I looked at them a few years back they didn’t seem to appealing but I see many of their own products/curricula have new editions.

I did homeschool for a while but without a set curriculum. I was only educating one child as my other two were under 5 at the time. They now attend an International school here in Germany which is secular. I would like to supplement with some of the materials from Seton for two reasons.

1. The Catholicity of the materials.
2. To be sure my children have met all requirements for their grades in the US.
   At this stage we do not know how many years we will be here but at least another two. There any many things I like about their school, it is small and although they teach in English they have an hour of German every day. The majority of students are German so my children are picking the language up quickly. Once they get to middle school they add French and Spanish. They use the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program ibo.org/pyp/ which is academically interesting and challenging. However, naturally I want to make sure they are grounded in their faith and also that if we transfer back to the states they will not have any gaps in their knowledge

As their school is quite relaxed in the way it teaches and is based on “Units of Inquiry” which last six weeks at a time, I think the workbook format of Seton will work well as a counter balance. From what I see they could easily do a lesson from one of the books after school - they have no homework so it won’t be overloading them.

As far as I can tell the books such as “For Young Catholics” are all self contained and I could ask a child to do a lesson in the book, is that correct? In that case, and because this would be a supplement and not the core of their schooling there doesn’t seem a need for me to register for courses. Can I just buy the books and work from them?

I would appreciate your feedback. When I looked at the materials I was also happy with the standard of academics, has this been your experience? Also my eldest daughter is reading about 3-4 grades ahead of her grade (3). Is it easy to mix and match materials?