How Your Child Can Make the Transition From Home School to College

You may be wondering if home schooling is a good idea for a child that has outgrown their youth and are now in their latter teens. As thoughts about college arises and it's time to think about continued education, some parents feel that attending a public or private high school is necessary for college admission. But this is not true at all.

In fact, Harvard has accepted in the past 2 kids that were home schooled into their degree programs. Most colleges are aware that home schooled kids can have educational advantages as opposed to their counterparts in high school, so they are open to the possibility of accepting home schooled kids.

Most colleges are more interested in the knowledge of the student rather than a diploma, so you should keep this in mind. In fact, some colleges prefer home schoolers because of the diversity and personality that they bring to the college campus.

Some colleges don't care about tests at all while some require the use of the SAT. Criteria will vary but you should know that a lot of college courses don't require a high school background.

Even if you think that you should send your kids off to high school, you should know that college is available to your teen via general admission or even attending college online.

Going to college online will further the home schooling experience while allowing you to continue to help your child with their work. It all depends on your child's preference and learning style. They can attend a college via the comfort of their bedroom, and come out with a 100% valid college education.

You can save on college costs dramatically using this option and your child may even learn better since there are so many audio and visual aids that they be available to them.

Going to college has it benefits and disadvantages but the biggest thing that you need to weigh is whether or not you want to sacrifice your child's social life for the cost of the education. If you're child is fine with the fact that they may not meet a lot of friends via an online school, and has the "big picture" of life after college in mind - then maybe going to school online is best for them.

Complicated subjects can be immediately handled via the use of online help and resources, so there are a lot of advantages to going to college online. To help with your child's social life, they may want to get a part-time job to earn some income and to meet new friends and mingle. This can make up for lost time at college and will definitely help with their social life.

No matter what you choose, you should know that college is definitely an option for home schoolers. You just have to get the proper paperwork out to apply and your child will be good to go. If you have prepared your child correctly for college and has taught them virtually everything they need to know, then you should have no problems. You should have them take the SAT during their sophomore or junior year to see where they stand from a collegiate level.

Be sure to keep these things in mind when thinking about college for your child. College is definitely an option.

Home Schooling During the High School Years

Home schooling during the high school years can be a fun and rewarding time for both the child and parent. This time can be used to keep, maintain and even deepen a relationship with your child during a high stress time of their lives. This can be a time to build a trust with your child so that they are willing to listen to council that you would like to share with them during this time of their lives. Also, as a Christian parent it can be the time to guide your child in their Christian walk and to help with any questions that they have so that their relationship with the Lord is their own; which will help them as new choices and decisions come their way in the upcoming years.

As your child enters the high school years record keeping becomes very important. You will want to start recording the things that your child accomplishes so that you can report them for college admission considerations. This is the time to start looking at the requirements of the top three college choices that your child is thinking about attending. This will help in knowing what they require from incoming freshman. Also, check your state requirements in what they recommend a high school student to have before graduation. Some things that we learned along the way is to start a record writing down every book read during the high school years either for school or free reading. Keep up to date with your records; this will help if you need to present them for scholarships or grants.

Keeping track and recording your child's extracurricular activities are just as important as recording the grades of the academic classes. For homeschoolers this is important because sports can also be counted as physical education credit as well as extracurricular. Colleges are interested in a child's outside activities only to show that they are a well rounded person, sports, 4-H, part time job it isn't important to a college what a student is involved in just that they have a well balanced life and are active in academic as well as extracurricular activities.

During this time of your child's development it is important for them to start learning life lessons while they are still in a safe environment and still have you as a sounding board to hear from them and have some input towards their dreams and decisions. This is a great time to teach about finances, if they have a vehicle its time for them to pay for the bills that occur from that vehicle; hopefully there isn't a payment on it; but there will be insurance that has to be paid, gas, maintenance such as new tires and oil changes. All of this is to teach them that as they get ready to step out on their own there are financial things that they will be responsible for and this is a step towards learning this responsibility.

This is a busy, exciting time for your teen. They still have their school work to keep up with; they are busy with extracurricular activities as well as many of them having jobs to help them earn the money they need for their special purchases. Its also a time for teen parents to start paying more attention to record keeping to help our teens take the next step in their educational process as well as being there to listen and give sound advise as your kids contemplate what they will do next in their lives.