Wanted to share -- college kid's view on influence of homeschooling

[saw]

I was talking with one of my freshman DDs the other day about course selection, possible majors and so on. She's one of those who would love to major in absolutely everything, so this was an interesting conversation! Along the way she made a point that I thought I'd share. She said that homeschooling resulted in her thinking, well, if I want to take this class/study this subject/follow this interest, then I can and should find a way to make it happen. Rather than just following the path everyone follows, she's actively pursuing her interests by talking to professors and convincing them to teach her Aramaic, let her take graduate level seminars as an undergraduate, and be permitted take a junior seminar as a sophomore (not meant as a brag -- loads of kids at her school could do the same if they just asked). Her approach is simply to think it's all possible so why not give it a try and find someone to help, an approach that she says stems directly from having been homeschooled with the attitude of, hey, if you're interested, pursue it. 

Anyway, thought I'd share as a bit of homeschool success, although this won't be news to (m)any of you. This is a bonus I'd never really considered in depth before.

[teachermom2834]

My ds that is finishing up his freshman year is similar. He seems to look at things as "how can I make this happen?" or "what do I need to do?" versus just what everyone else is doing. He said within his first month or so that he felt so much more prepared just to handle his business without anyone telling him exactly what to do.

 

He ends up advising not only his roommates but some of the older guys on his sport on academic and administrative things. That's great and all but he is just a freshman and they probably shouldn't just trust his opinion on everything. Confidence is not lacking in my homeschool kid!

[Joules]

I was talking with one of my freshman DDs the other day about course selection, possible majors and so on. She's one of those who would love to major in absolutely everything, so this was an interesting conversation! Along the way she made a point that I thought I'd share. She said that homeschooling resulted in her thinking, well, if I want to take this class/study this subject/follow this interest, then I can and should find a way to make it happen. Rather than just following the path everyone follows, she's actively pursuing her interests by talking to professors and convincing them to teach her Aramaic, let her take graduate level seminars as an undergraduate, and be permitted take a junior seminar as a sophomore (not meant as a brag -- loads of kids at her school could do the same if they just asked). Her approach is simply to think it's all possible so why not give it a try and find someone to help, an approach that she says stems directly from having been homeschooled with the attitude of, hey, if you're interested, pursue it. 

Anyway, thought I'd share as a bit of homeschool success, although this won't be news to (m)any of you. This is a bonus I'd never really considered in depth before.

 

This sounds so much like my ds.  I showed it to him to read and he said, "It's nice to know I have a kindred spirit out there somewhere."

 

He took astronomy last this past semester.  He got an e-mail from his advising group letting him know it didn't count toward his degree.  As a neuroscience major, he must take 6 core lab classes: Phys I/II, Chem I/II, Bio I/II, but not astronomy.  He explained that he just wanted to take astronomy, even though another lab class was hard to squeeze in.  It was a little harder in his meeting to explain why he *wanted* to take multivariate calc III; she thought he was crazy.  No one has yet noticed that he is registered for a nutrition class for nurses/dietitians for fall.  

 

He's taking the summer off to finally write that novel.  I'm so happy that he was homeschooled.

[Matryoshka]

I was that kind of kid.  My freshman line up was English Comp (couldn't fudge that one), Calc for Engineering majors, CompSci for CompSci majors, a 400-level German class, MicroEcon, Biology for Bio majors, and Astronomy. (And that is seven classes.  I distinctly remember taking all those freshman year... was the German class 2nd semester? or did they really let me take on 7 classes??! Most of those were part of a 2-semester sequence for which I took the 2nd in the spring, so...?)  In theory, I was supposed to be a Business major.  Haha.  I ended up with an "Individual Concentration" major which means I cobbled stuff together myself based on what I was interested in taking.  I remember I got credit (don't remember if it was just 1 or more?) for reading a huge old German novel on my own  and writing a paper.  Because I wanted to read it, so I figured I'd just ask if they'd give me credit, and they did.  I took some grad level language classes because I ran out of interesting undergrad ones (I may have been avoiding Golden Age Spanish Lit.  Don Quixote is on my shelf, unread... someday...)

 

I wasn't homeschooled, but I often look back at this and think I know how I ended up a homeschooling mom...  :hat:

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

My older kids spent a couple semesters dual enrolled before heading off to college.  One was visiting one of the colleges he was accepted to and commented how naive the other prospective students seemed.  He said that being in classes with students who were in their 30s or older gave him a different perspective on what he should be doing in class and with homework.  One of the women in his math class this semester is a retired Navy chief in her late 40s.  It just isn't the same as being in classes full of 18 year olds who have never been on their own.

 

 

[Dmmetler]

One thing that I loved about my UG school was that you paid one tuition fee for full time, so anything from 12-18 credits was the same price. Oh, did I take advantage of that! I don't know if any schools do that anymore, but I can definitely see my DD, who is treating the local community college like a kid in a candy store, really enjoying that kind of flexibility.

[Matryoshka]

One thing that I loved about my UG school was that you paid one tuition fee for full time, so anything from 12-18 credits was the same price. Oh, did I take advantage of that! I don't know if any schools do that anymore, but I can definitely see my DD, who is treating the local community college like a kid in a candy store, really enjoying that kind of flexibility.

 

My school was like that, and the schools my kids go to are too.  In the honors program, kids can take up to 20 for no extra charge. I think I took 18 almost every semester.  My kids haven't yet.  They've also both managed 4.0's so far; I did just well enough to stay in the honors program - barely. ;)  But I always wanted to take all the things.

[Nan in Mass]

I took a bunch of unrelated classes in college. The funny part is that those classes turned out to be extremely useful as a homeschooling mother. I had no idea when I took a year of classical Greek that I was ever going to have to teach Latin! I used my linguistic anthropology class when youngest was learning to read and later when I failed at teaching him French and decided to just switch to speaking it. My cultural anthropology class frames the whole way I look at the world and very useful when I had babies. My French literature class was the only real literature class I had and I relied heavily on it when we did great books. My music theory class has been extremely helpful. And so was my drawing class, now that I am painting. Random classes based on interests... Who knew? I still regret not being able to take that 6 credit natural history class, and that Chinese calligraphy class that was worth something like 9 credits. There was just no way they would fit in my schedule.

 

Nan