"I've decided to go ahead and switch my major from Finance to Accounting," Julianna informed her daddy and me one evening. We had been praying with and for her on this decision for several weeks.
"Well, if you think that's God's will,..." I began.
My husband shot me a look. The look warned me to not share my personal feelings about accounting.
I had mentored a younger Christian girl in college who had majored in accounting. She hated it and I hated it for her. She worked faithfully as an accountant for ten years, married to a college professor, eventually pursuing another field. Her experience put a bad taste in my mouth. Not wanting to see my little girl suffer, I had my hesitations. I have since had to adjust my thinking on accounting. While not all people will enjoy accounting, it is not the boring task I once envisioned.
How thankful I am for people who crunch numbers and are good at crunching numbers. Since starting my own business, I see how important accounting is--how it can even make or break a business. My personal philosophy of educating my children includes training them to start and run their own business. So, when Professor in a Box sent me their Financial Accounting Class, I was excited to check it out. However, after looking it over, I decided to take the class myself so that I can grow in the area of managing my own business. Interested? Let's take a look at this "course in a box."
What's Inside the Package?
Michael P. Licata, Ph.D. is the creator of this accounting course, Professor in a Box: Financial Accounting, for homeschooled high school students. He is an accounting professor at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania. My guess is that he is a popular professor because of his practical teaching style. Everything he taught had practical application with companies that young people can relate to.
Accounting, the language of business, is introduced to the high school student through lectures, homework problems with solutions available, and exams. Taught from a non-traditional approach, there is not a big fat accounting textbook to read. Instead, 12 chapters are divided into 2 or 3 flash lecture slides each. The flash lecture slides include a description of each key concept with discussions of all the important concepts and sample problems with step by step illustrations of how to work them out. The slides are bright and cheerful, easy on the eyes, but very informative and easy to understand. I learned a lot by reading them for this review. They were very impressive.
Investigating the Class
To get a feel for this course, I opened my black box to find five CDroms, including one CD for the instructor. Immediately inserting the first lecture CDrom into my computer, I was soon viewing chapter one's slides and listening to Professor Licata lecture on accounting. It was great! I followed the lecture easily, finding the slides extremely helpful! I printed the Key Concepts & Terms pages and the Problems pages. With a love for history and English along with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, I have taken many college courses for credit or just for fun! But, I had never taken a business or accounting course until this course! I wish I had taken it sooner.
College Level Course
This course is definitely a college level course taught by a college professor. There is nothing cutsie-wootsie, just straightforward information about accounting. With that said, the professor is a good teacher. Everyone that I had go through the chapter one lecture understood the material, though the younger teens found it hard to follow the accounting worksheets and do the problems.
Junior and senior year would be the best time to study this material, along with a course on how to start and run your own business. I loved this course! Not only will I have my kids take this course in high school now, I plan on finishing the course, since I've already gotten started. After all, who says God can't change my heart about accounting...in fact, I think He already has!
A Course for Life
Doing this review makes me realize how valuable basic accounting knowledge is for a person to have. Certainly, if your teen wants to start her own business one day, this course would be a good investment. Maybe you have, or are planning to start your own business and are interested in taking this class yourself. That might not be a bad idea!
Managing our personal and business money is just one more way that we can glorify God. There was nothing Christian in this course and that was my only disappointment. I always want to see Scripture principles applied in every subject, including accounting, but, of course, this would not be hard to do. You could simply study the book of Proverbs while you work through the course.
Be Blessed!
Merey (Meredith Ludwig Curtis)
College Level Course
This course is definitely a college level course taught by a college professor. There is nothing cutsie-wootsie, just straightforward information about accounting. With that said, the professor is a good teacher. Everyone that I had go through the chapter one lecture understood the material, though the younger teens found it hard to follow the accounting worksheets and do the problems.
Junior and senior year would be the best time to study this material, along with a course on how to start and run your own business. I loved this course! Not only will I have my kids take this course in high school now, I plan on finishing the course, since I've already gotten started. After all, who says God can't change my heart about accounting...in fact, I think He already has!
A Course for Life
Doing this review makes me realize how valuable basic accounting knowledge is for a person to have. Certainly, if your teen wants to start her own business one day, this course would be a good investment. Maybe you have, or are planning to start your own business and are interested in taking this class yourself. That might not be a bad idea!
Managing our personal and business money is just one more way that we can glorify God. There was nothing Christian in this course and that was my only disappointment. I always want to see Scripture principles applied in every subject, including accounting, but, of course, this would not be hard to do. You could simply study the book of Proverbs while you work through the course.
Be Blessed!
Merey (Meredith Ludwig Curtis)
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