Prairie~Phlox Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 I need to make a decision soon, but ds will be 17 in November & I'm thinking it might benefit him more if I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 I have graduated one kid early (not last minute) and am not graduating the other early because there is not compelling reason. What are your DS' plans? Why do you think it would benefit him to graduate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie~Phlox Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 I have graduated one kid early (not last minute) and am not graduating the other early because there is not compelling reason. What are your DS' plans? Why do you think it would benefit him to graduate? He is very mature and could file for Financial Aid and start taking classes at the community college sooner. He could take them as a "senior" but would have to pay oop (he's not willing to pay for his own classes like his sister was and we just don't make enough to help him and the financial account that he does have that my fil set up, can't be touched until he's 21.) Since he's not willing to pay, he would just wait another year and I really feel he would be better off to get a head start on CC. He thrives more when he knows he's learning something that will get him somewhere and does have plans on getting a technical degree. Plus he would be able to work more sooner, he's all for getting done early and we are having some testing done next week to see if that's a feasible thing to consider. I have a friend that did this with her daughter last year as well, and another friend that did it with her son a few years ago, so really that's what got me thinking.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 (edited) As far as filing with the county, my youngest is in 11th grade. But all along she's been strong in her academics, and we thought early graduation was a strong possibility. So I kept her transcript as though she would graduate early and told her we'd decide. And indeed we have. She's very ready to move on and has a number of friends graduating at the same time, some of them early. They'll be together at the community college, which is what she wants. This is a strong community college with an honors program and a transfer agreement to the 4-year that has the unique program that she wants. Her brother has been there the last two years, and we've been pleased with all but one of his professors. She has multiple AP's and four years of Latin. Plenty of credits. She'll be a little short in math. We had to repeat Algebra II, so she'll have Pre Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II. She should test fine for the math she needs for her liberal arts focus. Her brother had the credits and could have graduated early, but we chose not to. He was less focused on a major and had zero interest in graduating early. He was also half thinking of engineering, so I wanted to get in pre-calculus and a good physics class before he graduated. His 12th grade year was tough on both of us. He was just very reluctant about everything associated with moving on in life. Thankfully things cleared somewhat just before graduation, and we decided to send him to community college with a tentative business major even though he had been accepted to several selective schools. And that was definitely the right choice. He's done very well and has clear goals now. It is so important to listen to them and figure out what will be best for them in the long run. I mentioned the concerns about my son to our piano teacher because she is a very kind, thoughtful lady who loves teens and had all four of her kids in college at the time. And she told me about a friend of her oldest who was pushed to a very selective school even though he didn't have goals and really just wanted to live at home and go to the same community college where my son is now. At the selective school he became very depressed and didn't do at all well, and ended up flunking out. It was such a big issue at home that he ended staying with our piano teacher's family for a year. So her advice to me was to listen to my teens and to realize that there are many paths to adulthood. Edited October 28, 2016 by G5052 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 I graduated ds early mainly because our lives were chaotic, DE was not free, and we qualified for need based aid. In our case I was a full time college student at a school 30 minutes from home, my dad was sick, and I was in the midst of divorce. The best plan would have been DE, which is discounted but not free, then graduate on the planned schedule. After some panicked posting here, we opted to have him graduate a year early, made the decision in late October. Since we have no reporting in our state, it was easy to pull what was high school level from 8th grade (most) and just call that 9th grade. We arranged his transcript by subject and he started at the same college I attend in fall of 2015. For us, it was the best decision. He needed more direct math instruction than I could give him. He's had great math instructors and is now considering a double major with physics and math. He was NOT shooting for top tier schools and will have to transfer to finish his degree, but it was still the best decision for us at the time. We also went into it realizing that, mostly because of his math level, it might take him another year or two to graduate. We weighed those options from all angles. One of my goals was to help him find a professor that could guide him more efficiently. He's developed a nice rapport with a couple of professors. He turned 18 the week after starting college. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 He is very mature and could file for Financial Aid and start taking classes at the community college sooner. He could take them as a "senior" but would have to pay oop (he's not willing to pay for his own classes like his sister was and we just don't make enough to help him and the financial account that he does have that my fil set up, can't be touched until he's 21.) Since he's not willing to pay, he would just wait another year and I really feel he would be better off to get a head start on CC. He thrives more when he knows he's learning something that will get him somewhere and does have plans on getting a technical degree. Plus he would be able to work more sooner, he's all for getting done early and we are having some testing done next week to see if that's a feasible thing to consider. I have a friend that did this with her daughter last year as well, and another friend that did it with her son a few years ago, so really that's what got me thinking.... Does he have a strong sense of what he would like to do? Majors can change of course, but with him not wanting to pay for courses, it does make me wonder if he at least has specific goals he'd like to work towards, or if he's undecided right now. Will he be willing to work hard at his classes? Since he won't be paying, I'd look at other factors to help decide if he's ready maturity-wise to go--academics are not the only consideration with graduating early, and I think in general it helps if there's some kind of motivation there on the student's part, if that makes sense. (And there may be, I just couldn't tell from your op, and him not being willing to pay stood out to me as a possible sign he's not quite ready yet--though not necessarily.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 (edited) Does he feel strongly that he would like to do this and do you think he could handle it? I had three kids who really, really wanted to graduate early. The first one was our oldest, and I just wasn't comfortable with it. I didn't understand enough about it at the time, and it seemed like he was so involved in activities here in town as a high schooler that I didn't think it was necessary. By the time our next one wanted to graduate early, it made more sense to us and we were more comfortable with it, so we let her do that. But then when another wanted to graduate early, we weren't as comfortable with it. With her, her reasons felt less practical. She wasn't strongly into academics and didn't have any plans; it was more that she was just tired of school. So, we didn't graduate her early. So, that has all been several years ago now, and these are our conclusions... I think we should have graduated our oldest early. I think it would have been to his benefit as he was really very ready to move on. Our daughter who graduated early has never had any regrets, and we can see how well it worked out for her. I also wish we had graduated our other daughter early even if she didn't have the academic motivation. We would have figured out something for her to do next, definitely, and I think it would have put her on a good path, instead of dragging her through one more year of high school. Not sure if that helps at all, but those are our experiences. Edited October 28, 2016 by J-rap 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 We are still trying to decide about this currently. For the same reason, we pay oop for DE & next hear ds plans to take almostall of his classes at the CC, which will be difficult to pay for for us. I wont have him move away to college early, but he could go fulltime at the CC & live at home for another year of maturity before hes off on his own If we graduate him early (he'd have to take the new Tasc/ GED in our state to do it, they dont recognize homeschool diplomas), then he can get financial aid at the CC or apply for one of their free tuition tech scholarships. Deadlines are looming though for scholarship on the program he wants. Right now I'm leaning towards not doing it, because hes starting an engineering internship for the rest of this year & if we can line one up for him for sr year, he'll have the time if hes still a high school student doing DE, but not if hes fulltime at the CC, I dont think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 (edited) My youngest wants to graduate early. I don't think she has particularly sound reasons it's mostly that her sisters have both gone to college this year and she just feels ready to move on like they did. But she's one stubborn kid and she's adamant, so if she can manage to get enough credits in on time I'll see if I can make it work for her. Her decision isn't completely last minute but it did appear about halfway through 9th grade so I've definitely had to shuffle things around to see what a workable plan could be. The plan includes her going to a local state school where she can transfer her DE credits and not be too far from home. Edited October 28, 2016 by Matryoshka Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renai Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 I haven't, but helped a friend who did so this past spring. Her 16 year old had been tutored through the high school courses (she was advanced), and mom was having her tutored to pass the GED. I helped her work through the options to either dual enroll (free in our state) or just graduate her early. She didn't realize she could issue a homeschool diploma. She discussed it with her daughter, felt her daughter was ready to move on with her life, and even doing dual enrollment while remaining in high school perpetuated the stagnation they felt. So, she graduated her, and proceeded to enroll her (in the same community college she could have dual-enrolled for free). She knew her daughter was ready to move on, and could handle the coursework. Since the college is nearby, she didn't have to leave home. It was a good decision for this student. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie~Phlox Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 Does he have a strong sense of what he would like to do? Majors can change of course, but with him not wanting to pay for courses, it does make me wonder if he at least has specific goals he'd like to work towards, or if he's undecided right now. Will he be willing to work hard at his classes? Since he won't be paying, I'd look at other factors to help decide if he's ready maturity-wise to go--academics are not the only consideration with graduating early, and I think in general it helps if there's some kind of motivation there on the student's part, if that makes sense. (And there may be, I just couldn't tell from your op, and him not being willing to pay stood out to me as a possible sign he's not quite ready yet--though not necessarily.) He does know what he wants to do, either Advance Automation & Robotics Technology or another technology degree. Our local CC has anything that he wants to do, the main reason he doesn't want to pay out of pocket unless he absolutely has to is because his sister did for dual enrollment and then this year when she was able to apply for financial aid, did not have to pay anything. Now there's a chance down the road that they would only get partial aid, but we don't make much and so chances are, they will get financial aid. I do believe he would work hard, since he would see an end goal and be doing something that he wants to do. Since he's worked, he knows he needs further schooling to make enough to live on. He does have a desire to get started, because he sees getting done earler and getting in the workforce sooner. He's held a part time job the last two years, but it's seasonal, so he's not as busy now and I do think it would be a good time to push through and finish up. I just go back and forth, I'm praying about things and hopefully once I have some testing done next week, that will tell me if he's really ready and we can move forward or wait. It will also tell me what he needs to work on, if anything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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