How early has your child started high school and college?

[Plarka]

My kids are a year ahead in some things, a couple years ahead in others. Mostly because we school year round and they started reading really early.   I've just read the Brainy Bunch and see that we are doing some time wasting things and not doing as much as we could, and wondering who else is out there who is considering or already speeding ahead?  I don't mean pushing my kids too hard and not letting them play, I mean going at a faster pace which I think we could very easily do.   Upping my game and me not being so lazy, really!

[Laura Corin]

We did high school level things from age 11 or so and documented them with national exams.  He actually went to school for 'high school' at age 13, but had already gone wide into a variety of non-standard subjects. He started at a world top ten university at 17.

 

My other kid was different and I didn't have him doing things very early.  

 

Know your children and yourself, and follow their needs

[Crimson Wife]

I have always taught my kids at a challenging level and my oldest was able to start dual enrollment at the local community college at 13-turning-14 (semester started in August and her birthday is October). I didn't give her high school credit for anything she did prior to 9th but the college courses are validating credits. So, for example, UC-transferable freshman English at the CC validated 4 years' worth of high school English. The math sequence she took last year (which covers algebra 2 and college statistics over 2 semesters) validated her math. Japanese 1 validated 1 year of foreign language and Japanese 2 is validating the 2nd. She has also validated U.S. history and the arts course.

 

After this semester, the 3 classes (or test credits if she decided to go that route) she still needs in order to satisfy high school graduation requirements are world history, life science, and a physical science. Theoretically she could be done by May if she took both sciences simultaneously (I definitely would not recommend she do this). But she won't be done with the associate's and the general ed requirements to transfer to one of the state's 4 year schools so I don't plan on graduating her. There's no real advantage I can see to doing so.

[regentrude]

My kids have been working on high school material since age 12.Both took college courses while in high school; DD took her first college class at age 13. We were no interested in a very early graduation and early college; we rather had them learn more, as opposed to speeding through the average content in less time.  DD graduated at 17, DS at 18. 

Edited August 31, 2017 by regentrude

[Dmmetler]

We used high school materials and college materials where ready, often having multiple books in multiple levels at once, but the first classes that the cover school considered high school credit worthy were at age 8, in 4th grade, and her first college class for credit was age 12, in 7th. She was using college materials and doing labs and field trips and auditing classes before then, but it took until that point before she wanted to go for real. (The only reason she has high school credits so early is that geometry and algebra 2 have to be on the high school transcript specifically, and the cover school was generous-much more so than I'd intended being).

 

Our goal has always been to go wider and deeper, and I would prefer her not to go to residential college particularly early (I went at 16, and had some experiences I do not want her to have), and to have a full four years. But using the local schools as a chance to just plain take classes and learn until she's ready to go, and then having a similar experience in her school of choice? That I'm more than fine with.

Edited August 31, 2017 by dmmetler

[quark]

deleted for privacy

Edited September 2, 2017 by quark

[Dmmetler]

For us, it's been rather similar to Quark in that it's been DD's passion for Reptiles and amphibians that carried her through. She needed high school level math to understand the science journals she was reading and the conferences she was attending. She had to ramp up her writing and speaking a lot when she started getting opportunities to present research and do outreach. It wasn't so much going faster as doing the next thing and discovering that she had somehow developed skills I'd never even thought about teaching. For example, her first formal writing class is this semester-and is using college books, although she's not taking it at the college (one of the people we know teaches English Comp 1 at the CC, and strongly suggests DD challenge it by Exam and take other English courses. She thinks DD would love some of the English courses past that point and that they would be a much better fit). All her prior writing instruction came in having to learn to write for different audiences in her science work and outreach.

[Kerileanne99]

A timely thread-

 

Alex has really been struggling to balance her academics with emotional/2E levels. She is 'officially' starting 2nd grade this year (age 7), but will be doing her first online algebra class as well as chemistry. I just inquired at our local CC, and it turns out the only requirements for taking classes is completion of 8th grade material, and the state test.

[quark]

A timely thread-

 

Alex has really been struggling to balance her academics with emotional/2E levels. She is 'officially' starting 2nd grade this year (age 7), but will be doing her first online algebra class as well as chemistry. I just inquired at our local CC, and it turns out the only requirements for taking classes is completion of 8th grade material, and the state test.

A found that a good amount of CC work was repetition. Sad but true. But there were exceptions. The trick was not to go in at entry level after finishing 8th grade material but to work at home on deep material and place at the higher, transferable classes.

[Jackie]

Merging the original question and the last couple posts...

 

DD did her first MOOC when she was 5 years old. That was supposedly intro college level, though the particular course seemed simpler by my own judgment. She regularly (at 7yo) uses middle school or high school level material (and intro college level material) for input, but not output. She is nowhere near the output required.

 

So, to the OP, what do you mean by "starting high school" or "starting college?

[lewelma]

My ds invented algebra at the age of 6 while at the time I had him 'only' playing shop.  I had no idea that he was so far advanced.  He liked shop and so did I. He was so cute and little, and we would make change and buy little treats.  We set up a table and made up little signs for the cost of each item.  And then he invented algebra.  How do you respond to THAT?  Back then I didn't have this board, and I did not know what was possible, and honestly I didn't change all that much.  No MOOCS, no online classes, no algebra textbooks. I just did not know back then what was out there and what was possible. But I did buy him Singapore grade 2.  haha. That was a joke.  Then it was grade 3 then 4.  He just raced through them.  By 9 he was studying AoPS intro algebra completely independently, reading all the text, checking his work and learning from the solutions manual, pacing himself, learning by himself.  It was really humbling.  But high school?  I really did not need to label it as such, and never have labelled it as such. He was just my son doing what he was able to do, and I never ever assigned a level to it, because what was the point?  It was only in math that he was just so far ahead. Like other posters, I found that he was working at so many levels both within and between subjects.  There was just no reason to say he was high school in English, and middle school in Science, when actually he just loved to learn and was learning at his level and pace. We simply did not identify with a school-level approach for the learning that he did.

 

Ruth in NZ

Edited September 1, 2017 by lewelma

[Runningmom80]

My 10 year old (11 in November) is starting high school literature, history and science this year. He's doing a run through of AoPS pre-A this semester and starting Algebra 1, which I believe starts high school math, in January. (He did pre-A last year as well, which is why we are going so fast. He's seen most of the pre-A book before, he just needs to learn the "AoPS" way.) I'm expecting to get him to high school level essay writing by the end of the year.

[madteaparty]

For parents of not-very-gifted-kids who may read this in the future, not all classes or schedules are created equal. One college level language class with a bazillion opportunities for "extra credit" is not the same as a physics class with lab is not the same as a great books class when the only grading opportunities are two exams and two papers per semester. And the most important thing that doesn't need pointing out but I will anyway: taking one or two classes at a time very different from carrying a full load.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I don't even know.  I am not entirely sure at what point we were doing high school level work.  My older kid took his first college course at 13.  He plans to graduate when 16 (he'll take the TASC so he can matriculate at the local CC).  So this is his last year of high school I guess.  He'll still be at home though for the first two years of college.  I'm not sure he is quite ready to go away somewhere (or maybe it is that "I" am not ready for that). 

[Dmmetler]

In general, any course that is non-credit or would normally be taken in high school should probably not be taken at a CC by a gifted student. DD has been advised to attempt to skip both introductory biology and English Comp 1, and to take a higher stat course than required by her majors even though they're college level classes because they tend to be courses taken by kids who are just ticking the "go to college" box,

 

And just to be aware-sending your kid to college part-time as a commuter early is kind of the worst of both worlds on the parent side between homeschooling and PS. This is especially true if your local school adds extra rules-when DD did science labs, she wasn't allowed to even walk from the science building to the library or coffee shop alone. Now, at 12, that's no longer an issue, but I'm still the one in the driver's seat to get her there, But the number of hours differs drastically from day to day, and sometimes from week to week depending on group projects, study sessions, and club meetings. And I have basically no academic control. If your high school kid cuts classes or stops turning in work, the school will let the parent know. Not so for a college student. It's a BIG jump from homeschooling. For us, it's been worth it. It was worth it to audit unofficially at age 8-11, even when it meant driving 3 hours each way to do a lab session. It's been worth it for her to start taking college classes for credit. But I have to say, I kind of miss having that control and being the driving force in her education, and while in the earlier days I knew all her mentors and was actively very involved, now I don't get much of that. If you actually enjoyed homeschooling, you may not like having an early college kid very much. I only have one child, but I imagine it would be even harder if you had to homeschool or coordinate school schedules for siblings.

[SoCal_Bear]

In general, any course that is non-credit or would normally be taken in high school should probably not be taken at a CC by a gifted student. DD has been advised to attempt to skip both introductory biology and English Comp 1, and to take a higher stat course than required by her majors even though they're college level classes because they tend to be courses taken by kids who are just ticking the "go to college" box,

 

 

This is so true. I took biology to get a science credit at CC because I didn't want to take it at Berkeley where I would be in class with pre-med and science majors and would have to put in a fair amount of effort. It was incredibly easy. Easier than my high school courses and I went to a small town high school where only 10% of the kids go on to 4 year college. I only needed to check a box and didn't need it for my major. 

[SkateLeft]

My oldest started taking high school classes on campus through a local university program at 10. She started full-time at the community college at 14. She went off to an out of state university at 16.

[EKS]

Both kids did Algebra I at age 10.  The older one took two years to do it.

 

The older one (who has dyslexia) started high school science (biology) at age 11.  He did high school level everything else at age 13.  He started at the CC at age 16.

 

We put the younger one in school at age 10 partly to slow him down.  He was ready to start high school work at age 10.  He did 6th and 8th grades (so skipped one then two grades) and had a three year math acceleration (did Algebra I and geometry) at the school.  We homeschooled for two years after that.  He did all honors level high school work at age 12 and a mix of honors level and college level work at age 14.  Then he insisted on going to the public high school last year as a 9th grader.  From an educational standpoint, it's been a waste mostly though, to their credit, they did place him appropriately in math.  

Edited September 1, 2017 by EKS

[SarahW]

My kids are a year ahead in some things, a couple years ahead in others. Mostly because we school year round and they started reading really early.   I've just read the Brainy Bunch and see that we are doing some time wasting things and not doing as much as we could, and wondering who else is out there who is considering or already speeding ahead?  I don't mean pushing my kids too hard and not letting them play, I mean going at a faster pace which I think we could very easily do.   Upping my game and me not being so lazy, really!

 

 

Just realized this is your first post. Welcome!

 

We have extensively discussed The Brainy Bunch on this forum in the past, so we bring a lot of history of those threads with us. But generally, we're pretty negative about it. I am very much negative about it. There are some fundamental mistakes she makes about test results. And I was turned off by her attitude that education consisted of collecting pieces of papers (degrees).

 

 

But - yes, I think many kids can do without the redundancy present in many boxed curriculums. Especially if you school year around, yes, you can probably skip the easy review sections at the beginning of each grade level. But there's no need to then just keep moving up in the same boxed curriculum. 

 

I "school" year around (now afterschooling) and seriously, even when only homeschooling, I've never started my kid with a whole new set of books in August. I think of the school year as fall-summer, but within that there's movement from one thing to another, adding things in, taking things out, doing units on certain science topics or books. And cutting redundancy, yes, but then using that time to explore more things. So we don't spend more time on finding parts of speech, because he's got that, so we read some poetry instead and talk about that. When we're done with doing poetry (finish the book we're using, or just plain done doing it) we do something else. It's easier to do this when there's only one student! And somewhere in the middle of the year I sometimes despair that we're not moving forward and start gazing at boxed curriculum with a set schedule with longing, lol. 

 

If you have a kid who picks things up quickly, with this method you'll end up "ahead" of expected grade level, yes. But there's no end to the things to learn in the world, so I'm not sure if that matter too much. Unless, of course, you eventually get to the point of trying to move them into a school, and have to find a place for them that matches their level. That can be hairy.

 

But, in general, I don't recommend starting "high school" until the child is able to do "high school" level work as far as output and maturity in discussion and learning. And I don't recommend starting "college" until the child has exhausted all "high school" level work in that subject, and, again, have the college level output and maturity in thinking. Where the distinction between high school and college is is debatable, and when a student is ready for them is highly individual. So in this I think it is very YMMV.

 

But unlike the Mom in The Brainy Bunch, I don't think this is something any kid can do, and I don't think she's hit upon a great way for all homeschoolers to "trick" the system. But if you have kids who can move forward quickly, yes, it's beneficial to run to try to keep pace with them. And this brings its own set of issues! Finding advanced curriculum resources that are also developmentally appropriate and kid-friendly is one thing (a typical 17yo can read Of Mice and Men for English, but maybe an advanced but sensitive 9yo should read something else, kwim). If you have questions about how to provide more challenging curriculum, or how to start utilizing CC or other alternatives for kids who are topping out at a subject, please post! We discuss stuff like that here all the time.

[mumto2]

My kids are a year ahead in some things, a couple years ahead in others. Mostly because we school year round and they started reading really early. I've just read the Brainy Bunch and see that we are doing some time wasting things and not doing as much as we could, and wondering who else is out there who is considering or already speeding ahead? I don't mean pushing my kids too hard and not letting them play, I mean going at a faster pace which I think we could very easily do. Upping my game and me not being so lazy, really!

Somehow I missed the whole Brainy Bunch thing. I have to admit my dh just ordered the book! :lol:

 

We followed a pretty child led path which is the thing to remember. We always schooled year around so basic curriculum accelerated somewhat naturally. Accelerating hugely at times. Trying to find the right fit for both kids. When we discovered Coursera our style changed hugely. Suddenly things like MIT math classes came into view. But they could also "sit" in classes and give them a try. We had some surprises, learned they had academic strengths we never anticipated. It's been good.

 

Fwiw, we did go on to convert much of our mooc style learning in to Clep, SAT Subject exams, and AP exams during "high school". My kids enjoyed it. That's the important thing to remember.....enjoyed.

[Donna]

It took me awhile to find a good fit for dd (curriculum where she was actually learning and challenged) when I started "officially" homeschooling her at 5, then we schooled mostly year round until the last couple years, when summers got too busy, so acceleration came naturally and at times we slowed her down by going off on bunny trails and adding in additional "courses" and unit studies to follow her interests. 

 

Dd started Algebra at 10 then continued through high school maths. Though we used high school level materials for nearly all subjects around that time, I did not consider her "in high school."  I simply followed her lead and used materials that challenged and interested her...online coursework (Coursera/EdX/Thinkwell/PA Homeschoolers, etc...), Teaching Company courses, and books.

 

This year, she will be taking a couple online courses through the CC, using a tutor for language arts and Irish, and doing French using a curriculum at home though we may add in a tutor for that as well or she may decide to do it at the CC next semester. She comes up with independent projects each year...two years ago she planned/completed an Irish history course using videos, books, and an online college course, last year she started writing a novel and produced a charity CD and this year she has been putting together concerts/performances for the CD, continuing work on her novel, and is planning another recording project. I am currently challenged to find her appropriate level work that is also easy to take along when traveling due to her performance schedule so it gets a bit tricky but she will remain a "high school student" until she would normally graduate if in ps (CC courses are at a discount this way anyway so graduating early would be silly).

[zaichiki]

My older two have been doing accelerated coursework (high school level work at younger ages and college level work in high school), but not all at once. It's been subject-by-subject. Then there's the question of "what IS high school level work?" and "what IS college level work?" because there are high schools out there that offer a level of challenge often found in colleges and middle schools out there that regularly teach what some high schools teach.Then there's the question of "which country's level?" My 11 year old enjoys his sister's geometry review for SAT prep... but not sure if that's really high school level (he has been using Singapore Primary Math, which in grade level 5 and 6 teaches three quarters of what the US teaches in a one year high school Geometry course).

 

Earliest for us:

Ds took a college level engineering class his freshman year of high school (age 14) and actual college classes in science, history, English, and math in high school each year after that.

Dd advanced to conservatory level music theory work in middle school (age 13). Music is her only college level coursework. Everything else is still high school level.

Ds 11 has been using a high school level Latin curriculum since age 10 (or perhaps at 9, a few months before turning 10). He does beginning Algebra 1 and Geometry, but I'm not confident that should be considered high school math as it is commonly offered in middle schools across the US and is commonly taught at the middle school level in other countries.

 

Edited September 6, 2017 by zaichiki

[quark]

For parents of not-very-gifted-kids who may read this in the future, not all classes or schedules are created equal. One college level language class with a bazillion opportunities for "extra credit" is not the same as a physics class with lab is not the same as a great books class when the only grading opportunities are two exams and two papers per semester. And the most important thing that doesn't need pointing out but I will anyway: taking one or two classes at a time very different from carrying a full load.

 

Very true! I decided to go back and delete my post...I do that a lot because I overthink about sharing too much and overwhelming people, as well as for privacy reasons because you know, mine was fine with me sharing things when younger but these days, with teens, you never know how they are feeling about something on any given day.

 

It's also very true that you can take 1 college class, sometimes just a 1-unit PE class, and announce to the world you are taking college-level courses (as did some middle school kids at a badminton class at the CC...cute!). And then even those 1-unit courses are not created equally. I was so intrigued because my kid took a few 1-unit classes that required so much more intensive work than the 3 and 4 unit classes. As in hours and hours of practice and improvisation/ composition work for jazz band/ theory. The kid would come home exhausted and do the homework for the 4-unit class to relax. :glare:

[madteaparty]

Very true! I decided to go back and delete my post...I do that a lot because I overthink about sharing too much and overwhelming people, as well as for privacy reasons because you know, mine was fine with me sharing things when younger but these days, with teens, you never know how they are feeling about something on any given day.

 

It's also very true that you can take 1 college class, sometimes just a 1-unit PE class, and announce to the world you are taking college-level courses (as did some middle school kids at a badminton class at the CC...cute!). And then even those 1-unit courses are not created equally. I was so intrigued because my kid took a few 1-unit classes that required so much more intensive work than the 3 and 4 unit classes. As in hours and hours of practice and improvisation/ composition work for jazz band/ theory. The kid would come home exhausted and do the homework for the 4-unit class to relax. :glare:

Don't delete your posts! Our experiences don't cancel each other! We have very different kids. And we totally started with a single, already-somewhat-proficient-in-the-language class ;)

[Dmmetler]

We started with a single, not very intense math class (basically college algebra for teachers). Which is about the same as starting in College Spanish 1 when you've done four years of Spanish at home and are pretty fluent.

 

I also freely admit that we're kind of stacking the deck up front. With her plan to get a teaching major along with her bio major, there are a lot of options to take classes that can be heavy in workload, but which she finds fun. I see no reason to have her take the classes that tend to make college bio majors flee the profession quite yet when she can take classes that involve playing board games with friends of various ages for hours and then writing a paper on "Games as a method of math skill evaluation in children age 6-12".

[zaichiki]

For parents of not-very-gifted-kids who may read this in the future, not all classes or schedules are created equal. One college level language class with a bazillion opportunities for "extra credit" is not the same as a physics class with lab is not the same as a great books class when the only grading opportunities are two exams and two papers per semester. And the most important thing that doesn't need pointing out but I will anyway: taking one or two classes at a time very different from carrying a full load.

Oh yes!  I remember a few years ago a professor at a CC in my state was offering to arrange a non-credit history-discussion class for homeschoolers. It would meet *at* the community college, but would be open only to homeschoolers and there was no pre-requisite. He also stated that he would not require college level output of the kids. Some of the parents I knew who took advantage of this class proudly exclaimed that their children were "taking a college class!"

 

My ds, who was 12 at the time with a long-time, passionate interest in the topic (WWII-era history) was adamant that he did not wish to take the class. He had found out that some younger kids, with whom he was familiar (he knew something about their maturity level and their reading interests), would be taking the class and realized that the class would not be taught at the level that he was looking for. At that age I am sure he would have been able to handle an actual college-level class on this topic (based on his many years of deep interest and the amount of reading and discussion he had put into the topic *and* based on his writing ability/output level at the time). 

 

I remember being awed that certain parents had the... chutzpah... to go around announcing that their kids were now going to be taking a college level class. I so badly wanted to denounce them! LOL But I just kept my mouth shut and walked away. I realized that this group was not going to be the right social fit for me and my family.

[madteaparty]

We started with a single, not very intense math class (basically college algebra for teachers). Which is about the same as starting in College Spanish 1 when you've done four years of Spanish at home and are pretty fluent.

 

I also freely admit that we're kind of stacking the deck up front. With her plan to get a teaching major along with her bio major, there are a lot of options to take classes that can be heavy in workload, but which she finds fun. I see no reason to have her take the classes that tend to make college bio majors flee the profession quite yet when she can take classes that involve playing board games with friends of various ages for hours and then writing a paper on "Games as a method of math skill evaluation in children age 6-12".

This and like quark said, keep that drop date front of mind.

Another reason to take it easy is that your kid may run out of classes to take. True story. My DS (who as I keep repeating here, is not on any sort of level with quark's or dmettler's kid, and I have the paperwork to prove it!) was told by one prof that he can't go to that school for that subject. He would've finished the major-required classes.

So I'm in this dilemma now of him needing to go to a somewhat selective school because those are the ones offering classes he can take, and him probably not being admittable to those schools. We don't know what to do so we are going travelling a while :)

[madteaparty]

Oh yes! I remember a few years ago a professor at a CC in my state was offering to arrange a non-credit history-discussion class for homeschoolers. It would meet *at* the community college, but would be open only to homeschoolers and there was no pre-requisite. He also stated that he would not require college level output of the kids. Some of the parents I knew who took advantage of this class proudly exclaimed that their children were "taking a college class!"

 

My ds, who was 12 at the time with a long-time, passionate interest in the topic (WWII-era history) was adamant that he did not wish to take the class. He had found out that some younger kids, with whom he was familiar (he knew something about their maturity level and their reading interests), would be taking the class and realized that the class would not be taught at the level that he was looking for. At that age I am sure he would have been able to handle an actual college-level class on this topic (based on his many years of deep interest and the amount of reading and discussion he had put into the topic *and* based on his writing ability/output level at the time).

 

I remember being awed that certain parents had the... chutzpah... to go around announcing that their kids were now going to be taking a college level class. I so badly wanted to denounce them! LOL But I just kept my mouth shut and walked away. I realized that this group was not going to be the right social fit for me and my family.

Good call. It's not good to try and deprive people of dearly-held delusions ;)

[Dmmetler]

Very true! I decided to go back and delete my post...I do that a lot because I overthink about sharing too much and overwhelming people, as well as for privacy reasons because you know, mine was fine with me sharing things when younger but these days, with teens, you never know how they are feeling about something on any given day.

 

It's also very true that you can take 1 college class, sometimes just a 1-unit PE class, and announce to the world you are taking college-level courses (as did some middle school kids at a badminton class at the CC...cute!). And then even those 1-unit courses are not created equally. I was so intrigued because my kid took a few 1-unit classes that required so much more intensive work than the 3 and 4 unit classes. As in hours and hours of practice and improvisation/ composition work for jazz band/ theory. The kid would come home exhausted and do the homework for the 4-unit class to relax. :glare:

Jazz Improv and Jazz theory is hard. And music classes tend to be 1 credit hour classes that require 10 hours plus in ensemble and practice/week. It's one thing that makes music a tough major-because everything takes so much time-even the "easy" classes.

[KarenNC]

I haven't read the Brainy Bunch book, so can't comment from that perspective. My kid is gifted in verbal/language-related areas, but not profoundly gifted by a long shot. In our case there was a definite need to sort out academic from emotional and social maturity , as well as math-related vs humanities-related, and honor her levels in all of those. Most gifted kids are not on the same level across the board, even academically, which makes homeschooling  simultaneously more challenging and easier than having the child in a school setting.

 

I started pulling in high school level and some college-level materials in certain subjects into the classes my daughter was doing by 5th grade (age 10), but it wasn't a college class as I wasn't expecting college or even high school level output. She was ready for the input but not the output yet. We tended to go broader or deeper rather than faster. This continued and increased during middle school and by late middle school we were using primarily college level materials for everything but math and science. Her area of giftedness does *not* include math! :) Because she was doing a couple of classes per semester in 9th and 10th through a free online program from the public school, we did supplement some of that with college level material even though it was honors level. She's done the ACT every year since 7th as our state-required standardized test and done very well.

 

Her first official high school level class (one for which I gave her high school credit) was an online Spanish class in 8th grade, and she did some CLEP tests in 9th and 10th. Her first official college class was 11th, when our state allows dual enrollment with no tuition. Academically she could handle the material earlier, but I don't think she was truly ready emotionally to be put into a full-blown regular college classroom until then (average age in the community college classes here is 25.9). At that point she was eager and loved the experience. Many of her classmates thought she was closer to 20 than 16. She's done all but math there for junior year and is doing all her senior level work there. I believe she really benefited from the amount of scaffolding we did in executive function areas like time management, interacting with teachers, basic organization, etc in her middle and early high school years. She won't graduate high school with a full associate's, but she will have 40+ official college credits. Thanks to the program in our state, they are guaranteed to transfer to the state universities as general ed requirements rather than electives.

 

Another issue to consider is cost. Official college courses are extremely expensive. Even though our community college tuition is free through the state for juniors and seniors, I'm paying at least $500 a semester in fees and books. If you add in tuition that would rise to thousands, especially if you are talking university courses. There are lots of ways to bring in higher level material into your homeschool when the student is ready much less expensively via used college texts, Coursera, edX, etc.

 

I'll second dmmetler that it's not a bed of roses and it would be really challenging to fit the schedule I have in terms of transporting her in with homeschooling other children, since she doesn't yet have her license (because we can't really afford to put her on our insurance). I really enjoyed homeschooling, all the planning, pulling in things from various sources, etc and once she started the college courses I became much more of a taxi driver. Even with her online high school classes, there was a lot of collaboration in the particular program and I was much more involved. She's also an only, so that part of my life is now in the past, and I'm rather wistful. A foretaste of what it will be when she actually goes off to a residential 4 year school next year, I suppose. 

Edited September 8, 2017 by KarenNC

[luuknam]

Oh yes!  I remember a few years ago a professor at a CC in my state was offering to arrange a non-credit history-discussion class for homeschoolers. It would meet *at* the community college, but would be open only to homeschoolers and there was no pre-requisite. He also stated that he would not require college level output of the kids. Some of the parents I knew who took advantage of this class proudly exclaimed that their children were "taking a college class!"

 

 

I don't know the situation, so I don't know if this is possible, but I'm the kind of person who might, depending on the audience, make a joke like that (not that we've been in that situation). 

 

Just wanted to point out that there exists a possibility you could've misunderstood. Or not, of course... some people are completely delusional. 

[TerriM]

High school level math at grade 6 (11yo) because that's when we found a school who would let him take Algebra/Algebra II.   9th grade he'll start college level math (assuming Calculus is still high school math).

 

I expect that he could do community college or public university classes right now (in 8th grade), but he's happy at his school now.  It's possible I'll enroll him for something over the summer.