Has anyone's ds made the transition from HS to high school

[cjbeach]

ETA- DC not DS, sorry

 

(public or private) and adjusted well?

 

I have the feeling we will never be getting out of the area we are in. Our elementary and middles schools are in a sad state. They do have good scores but due to budget constraints are struggling. For example, gifted in PS here consists of using materials from the following grade - 3rd grade gifted merely means using regular 4th grade materials. Period. This is all due to budget.

 

We homeschool because my oldest is an Aspie and just does not fit into the cookie cutter mold here. We have no other option for him. My younger two are homeschooled simply through experience with my oldest's homeschool education and our experiences with PS here. We have found overall at this point, the elementary school education in PS here cannot compare to education they are receiving at home.

 

We do have a good local high school. It is nationally ranked and offers IB. I believe it is the largest IB program in North America. It is the bread and butter of this community. We are in a small coastal town in Florida and having this high school rank within the top 100 nationally is *huge* for this community (I'm wrong, it actually fell to 120th nationally). It seems as though life in this town revolves around the high school. (Maybe it is like this in most smaller towns? I have nothing to compare it to as I was raised in a major city.)

 

It is not unusual for children who have been in private school up until 8th grade to be pulled out to attend this public High School *if* they can get into the IB program. From what I understand it is a challenging program.

 

Dh and I had a conversation about the dismal educational system here last night. He shocked me by stating he would be pleased if our dc attended the high school, for the IB program. I stated that I can only imagine it would be a really difficult transition, especially considering the size of this high school. Ugh.

 

Thoughts?

 

Have your children successfully transitioned to high school from homeschool?

 

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

Kathy

[Heather in the Kootenays]

My dd went to public school in Grade 10. She graduated this year with very good grades and was voted the Valedictorian. Her transition wasn't too bad - a bit stressful but it was OK.

 

Ds is now going into Grade 10 this fall. I hope his transition goes as well.

 

Dd thinks she would have been more challenged at home but I think it was worthwhile for the other things she learned.

[missmoe]

My dd has loved her high school experience so far. She received good grades and fit in socially. My ds has also thrived in his high school. I would say the biggest adjustment was in time management. Also, in figuring out which projects needed the most attention. At home, everything was important, but at school some things are worth 10 points and some are worth 100points. My dd had a hard time figuring out that those 10 point projects only deserved a small amount of detail compared to the 100 point projects.

[Susan in TX]

I have had 4 of mine transition very easily and smoothly from homeschool to public school: one in 8th grade, one in 10th grade, and two went in as 9th graders. They have all done amazingly well in high school. Two are graduated and went on to good colleges. The two that are currently in high school are doing exceptionally well.

 

Our local high school has 4000 students. They have lots of problems with unruly kids and fighting so the security level is like a prison. Pepper spray has become a household word. However, there is an AP program there that is excellent and there is no way my kids would have the education they have, or be where they are now, if I hadn't let them go to public high school.

 

Susan in TX

[Jenny in Atl]

We've just started this journey/experiment. We are only on day three, and she's feeling a good bit of stress and pressure. Mostly it's a complete loss of freedom. Her time is no longer hers, from the moment she's up till she passes out for the night. I could here her last night, in her room, going over and over her Honors English assignment. She wants to do well so badly, and in a way it worries me that she will take every misstep way too hard. She already bombed a first day pop quiz, which doesn't count towards her grade, but she said it was like her mind when numb. Still, she surprised the same teacher with Latin and Gandhi quotes. I know it's just going to take some time for her to adjust, and for the holes to pop up (things we missed and getting over test anxiety).

 

I feel like I'm going through it with her; I'm just as nervous and tired. :tongue_smilie:

[LibraryLover]

It's not unusual for children hs'd all of their young childhoods to attend high school. The ones I've known who wanted to do this have transitioned well.

[Krista in LA]

After homeschooling from the beginning, my dd started public high school last year. She just slid right in with no problems besides the typical minor things like figuring out how the cafeteria worked, etc. It helped that she had friends from various activities who went there. She loves it and gets good grades. It's not perfect, but neither is our homeschool. My ds is in 7th grade and doesn't plan on going to high school, but we'll reevaluate that when the time comes.

[Donovans4]

We homeschooled our daughter from 3rd to 8th grade and she started attending the local public high school last year. This is a well regarded school and has the IB program as well as lots of other educational choices for the students. The transition went well, especially considering the school has more than 2,000 students (2,200, I think). My dd knew lots of kids from church, dance, and other activities, as well as other previously homesschooled kids, so the social aspect was fine. Our two biggest struggles were the very early start time, 7:30am, and being on top of long term homework projects. When we homeschooled, there just weren't a lot of assignments besides written papers that were due other than the next day. I am hopeful that this year she can be more aware of scheduling out long term assignments, and will be willing to go to bed at a decent hour so she won't be grumpy in the morning!

[PuddleJumper1]

My oldest homeschooled Pre-K through 8th and transitioned to our local high school last year for 9th. He's done great. The transition was fairly easy for him. There were one or two minor things for him to adjust to. School started back for him on Monday and he's having a blast.

 

I had always planned to HS straight through high school but now I'm thrilled with the direction we went for him and so is he.

[bettyandbob]

My oldest ds is entering 11th grade at a public high school. He is officially IB diploma track--they don't declare this until the end of 10th b/c of some IB requirement on which I am not fully versed.

 

Ds is not aspie, but has nonverbal learning disorder and has some issues which manifest similar to aspergers. The transition was much smoother than I imagined.

 

What helped?

Ds skipped a grade and was also advanced in classes within his grade. So, he went into school knowing no one (anyone in town he knew at that time was a year behind) and he was in class with upperclassmen for Alg 2, French and Computer Sci. 1) Even though ds is immature in his own behavior, his classmates were older and had reached a maturity point that made them not desire to make fun of or scapegoat him. This would not have happened had we made this move in middle school. 2) ds was ready for IB French 1, but that's not permitted so a very flexible teacher created a class for him and put him in with the IB 1 class. He took the IB 1 class for real this year and said teacher made new and more challenging assignments for him. 3) ds found a lunch group the first week of school, that he enjoyed whenever he was not eating with the math teacher (see below) 4) Ds had an amazing English teacher who turned him into a skilled writer.

 

Trouble spots first year.

2 difficult teachers (out of 7)

Algebra 2 teacher was so awful ds was almost convinced he should go the "Math Studies" route for the IB diploma. I've asked around, 90% of the students who had this teacher had parents who said it was an awful year. Ds spent lunch and after school in the man's class daily and did not join any clubs. A Biology teacher did not want to accomodate ds's documented fine motor needs and said he was lazy.

 

Despite not being involved at school, ds kept up his music lessons outside of school (rock, drums).

 

I thought first year was successful. Ds gradually learned how to manage himself. He still struggles with time management though.

 

Sophomore year was better.

Ds decided to embrace his nerdiness. He joined the chess club. He checked out debate. His major extracurricular was Model UN--a great place where he could pontificate on his own political opinions. He also joined the guitar club. Ds started attending football games and theater events. He didn't go with anyone. He met up with whoever happened to be there and was comfortable with himself doing that (I never would have gone alone to anything in high school). He also started to develop better organization. His teachers have mostly "got" him. Without asking some of these teachers sent regular progress reports, so I could quickly find out if ds was missing assignments. One teacher didn't like him this year. It was AP Gov't. She wanted to say ds wasn't a good student and would not be able to do History of the Americas IB, however ds got a 5 on the AP exam through his own prep. The students in her class mostly did poorly on the AP exam while the student the other teacher did well. HMMM. Government is a graduation requirement not an IB requirement so it is the only class offered AP and it is given in 10th grade.

 

Other things that help: ds has a huge ego--a little too much, so he is not intimidated when he recognizes a put down. Due to NVLD, ds may not always recognize a put down so this may help too. And there are guardian angles too--the teachers who 'get' him and a neighbor who thinks ds is funny. Said neighbor is a different race and moved here 2 years ago from a bad urban school district. When some kids of that race wanted to hassle ds, neighbor stepped and said "leave him alone, S is my boy".

 

I have every reason to believe this year can continue the improvement. Ds enjoys almost all the books he is requirement to read (some of the English titles he disliked). He loves the level of class discussion. He has no desire to take regular track classes because he believes there would be very little intellectual stimulation.

 

Ds was well rounded in all subjects before high school, with huge depth in history and science. At our school it is important to have a start on a foreign language before high school for the IB track. I don't know if it's the same everywhere.

 

Does ds have the best grades? No, still working on organization. But he did some college research this summer and now knows Mom isn't making up all this grade stuff. Does ds have friends? Not that I can tell, but he does feel comfortable. He makes a lot of use of Facebook and I think that helps him feel less lonely. For my quirky kid this is so far so good.