Finishing high school & starting college early

[Sherri in MI]

I really need advice. My son, who is now 11 and is finishing up 5th grade, has expressed a desire to finish high school when he's 16 and start college early. He wants to be a vet and wants to get all his training done early.

 

I don't know where to go from here. I've been mostly following curriculum. I'm not sure how to accelerate his education. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommended resources? Is there a "list" of what kids need to know or accomplish before graduating high school and entering college? Anything that would help me develop a plan to help him meet his goal?

 

I think I personally am too curriculum dependant!

 

Most curriculum seems hard to accelerate because of the way it is set up: by grade, incremental, spiral. I am especially referring to Rod & Staff and Horizons Math. However, I would have no idea how to accelerate any curriculum since the majority of it is all set up for a year.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[2smartones]

I've accelerated in two ways.

 

(1) Skip stuff. Anything that is considered "review" isn't really necessary for some kids. Some need it, and that's fine. I even skip entire lessons if it's something I'm certain is already mastered. Why work on stuff you know when there's so much more to build on? Especially with things like R&S, there is a LOT of busy work. Assign only half or 1/3 of the work (like all the odd numbered problems, or every 3rd problem). Check the work. If the answers are right, there's no reason to do the remaining problems. If they're wrong, discuss why they're wrong and assign the rest of the problems.

 

(2) Use more time per day and/or days per year. You can do year-round schooling with 3 trimesters rather than 2 semesters like a traditional year would have. That way you'd do 1.5 year's curriculum in 1 year's time. Or, like a college setting would do, teach the regular curriculum in Fall/Spring (core subjects), and then do a condensed curriculum in summer (extra subjects).

[Guest melissak]

As for the "list", look at the actual universities that you think he will most likely attend (or just pick out a random few!) and see what their requirements are. They will usually tell you how many years and what types of subjects that they want to see. For someone heading toward the veterinary field, I would imagine you are going to want to do at least 4 years of high school math and science.

[Truscifi]

In the southeast, Auburn University has one of the best vet programs available. This page shows the prereqs for the vet program. I think it is a post graduate program, but it will still give you an idea of what he'll need.

[DarlaS]

This might provide you with some "out of the box" ideas:

 

College Without High School: A Teenager's Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College

 

 

I have this book in my amazon cart right now. It's geared toward unschoolers, but really, in his situation there may be a lot of suggestions in there that may be useful.

 

 

 

 

 

[Sherri in MI]

Hi Darla! It's me, from SoF! I didn't know you hung out here! Thanks for the book suggestion!

[ncmom2dawters]

Maybe you could look at dual enrollment or classes where he can earn high school and college credit at the same time.

[DarlaS]

Maybe you could look at dual enrollment or classes where he can earn high school and college credit at the same time.

 

:iagree: and :seeya:

 

I was thinking "Hmmmm... a Sherri in MI with an 11 yo boy... I wonder if I know her..." :D

 

Also check out college websites. MSU in particular has a pretty clear-cut transfer route if that sounds like a good option:

 

http://admissions.msu.edu/admission/transfer.asp

 

If you click on "transfer guides" in the second paragraph, it even lists a bunch of colleges and their equivalent classes. All of Baker's campuses seem to be listed as well as Macomb & Saint Claire, but not Mott. Good to know if he's considering MSU (which is only one place to go to vet school of course). If he were to start taking classes early at a nearby college, they may as well count for something other than HS credit (in my opinion anyway).

Edited May 4, 2010 by darlasowders

[MaMa2005]

I've accelerated in two ways.

 

(1) Skip stuff. Anything that is considered "review" isn't really necessary for some kids. Some need it, and that's fine. I even skip entire lessons if it's something I'm certain is already mastered. Why work on stuff you know when there's so much more to build on? Especially with things like R&S, there is a LOT of busy work. Assign only half or 1/3 of the work (like all the odd numbered problems, or every 3rd problem). Check the work. If the answers are right, there's no reason to do the remaining problems. If they're wrong, discuss why they're wrong and assign the rest of the problems.

 

(2) Use more time per day and/or days per year. You can do year-round schooling with 3 trimesters rather than 2 semesters like a traditional year would have. That way you'd do 1.5 year's curriculum in 1 year's time. Or, like a college setting would do, teach the regular curriculum in Fall/Spring (core subjects), and then do a condensed curriculum in summer (extra subjects).

 

:iagree: DS has been on an accelerated schedule this year just because he grasped concepts so quickly. For example, we have completed Horizons Math Books K thorugh Grade 2 in 9 months. Yes, they are set as a year long course, but we did way more than 1 lesson a day. Where there was tons of drill and practice, I just made sure DS could consistently do review problems and we kept on going.

 

We just started Horizons Grade 3. I had to tell DS that we would only do 3 lessons a day. Devastated him, but I don't want to start Horizons Grade 4 until August. We are schooling 'light' for the summer - just Math, finish SOTW 1 and lots of reading of books - but even by schooling 'light' we are continuing to progress through curriculum.