What class would be a gentle intro. to dual credit?

[ThelmaLou]

My son will likely be enrolling at our local CC for one course in the fall. He'll turn 16 this summer. What would be a good first class? I'm thinking about Foreign Language, especially Spanish. He's just finishing up his 2nd year of Latin (about to complete Wheelock's) so he has HS foreign language experience. How hard could it be?

 

Any other suggestions would be great. Writing, maybe?

 

Lisa

[Reya]

What college does he want to go to fulltime, and what major? Choose something that counts! For example, he may have to have college level FL, or maybe the years in HS will be enough.

 

There are few hard and fast rules. Sooooo much depends on the teacher. Psychology is pretty much the only one I can think of that's just about guaranteed to be very gentle.

[Sunshine State Sue]

My homeschool evaluator always recommends this class first:

SLS 1101 - The College Experience

This course is designed to strengthen skills essential to success in college, with further applications to post-college plans. Included are study and test-taking strategies; effective interpersonal skills; time management techniques; creative and critical thinking skills; college services and resources; educational policies, procedures, regulations and terminology; and library resources, research strategies, and information skills for online, blended, and traditional learning environments.

[Brenda in MA]

There are few hard and fast rules. Sooooo much depends on the teacher. Psychology is pretty much the only one I can think of that's just about guaranteed to be very gentle.

 

This would be my suggestion as well.

 

Brenda

[Nan in Mass]

Wow! Your idea of gentle introduction is very different than mine GRIN. Our CC's advice was to take something fun while they get used to being in the classroom, having a teacher, having classmates, etc., something that they were guaranteed to be successful at. They suggested drawing and it worked really well. Speech was another suggestion. To my amazement, my children thought speech sounded useful. That, too, worked very well. It taught them how to do a paper without involving the actual writing of the paper. They got to hear the speeches of other students and get some idea of what is normal work, something that doesn't necessarily happen in other classes. Neither class involved textbooks, something my children haven't had much experience with. Both classes were more friendly and talkative than the usual academic class. (You would get that with Spanish, too.) After that, they went (will go) on to take chemistry and composition and math. I think it is hard to over-estimate how strange a classroom seems to a student who is homeschooled in a rather loose manner. I'm glad we started with such easy classes.

 

The classes weren't wasted, either. Drawing has turned out to be useful in real life, for entertainment and for communication purposes. It counts as a humanities elective. They can both discuss artwork now, something that I utterly failed to get them to do at home. I think they had to make the art in order to be able to discuss it. The older one is using this to help him write his humanities papers. And speech, of course, is always useful.

 

I don't think mine would have done well even in psychology. Even with the Latin and French they've had, I think they would have struggled in Spanish. YMMV, though. We needed something super easy LOL. I'm not sure we are that unique, though, judging by the advice of the advisors, who have had some experience with homeschooled highschoolers. They did not think my idea of one of the easier science classes was suitable. They really pushed for something fun so that the student could just get used to being in a classroom.

 

I think the college experience class suggestion is a good one.

 

-Nan

[Grace is Sufficient]

My daughter is taking a class in Digital Photography this semester. She's a young 11th grader (just turned 16) and one advantage of that class is that it's not all 18 year olds -- a fair number of the class are adults, so the dynamic is better.

 

Debbie

[Melissa B]

My dd is going to start with Microcomputer Skills. I remember it being very easy when I was in school. I think solid computer skills will help her in her other classes, there is very little reading, writing or discussion and it is required for her AA degree.

[kiana]

Really, anything he likes and does well in.

 

Oddly, psychology was going to be my first suggestion too. Many students haven't been exposed to it and find it fascinating.

 

If he wants to do Spanish, that's okay -- but it may be hard because, by necessity, it's a cumulative course. So is math, and so are many sciences. If he doesn't understand or gets a little bit behind at the beginning, he will be floundering all semester to catch up, so that's something you should be careful about.

[Ellie]

Really, anything he likes and does well in.

:iagree:

 

My dd's first class was life drawing. I went with her...she was just 13, had her 14th bday in class. :) The following semester she took Latin, as she had been doing Latin at home with Mary Harrington (co-author of Latin in the Christian Trivium; my dd, and other hsers in the area, were Mary's guinea pigs :)). She aced that and the other classes she took (I don't remember what they were as it was an eon ago, lol).

[Angel]

My dd's first class was life drawing. I went with her...she was just 13, had her 14th bday in class. .

 

Ellie,

 

What exactly do you mean "you went with her?" Could you elaborate for me?

 

Thanks!

[Photo Ninja]

Two dc took Spanish 1 as their first cc class.

 

They had no background in Spanish, so the course was a lot of work for them. There were long lists of vocabulary to memorize weekly. It was okay for them and they had no problem adjusting to a class situation even with all the students much older than they were. My dc have taken many cc courses.

 

Other courses I would recommend for a first cc course would be

 

Public Speaking (sometimes the content of some students' speeches could be controversial or offensive, but that is not possible to predict.)

 

Art History

ASL

Physical Science

Psychology (my dd took this as a 6 week cc summer course and loved it)

Algebra or Statistics (if they test into the right math levels)

Cultural Geography, U.S. or World history courses (my dc all found history courses to be very easy because they had such a strong history background already.)

[Alyce]

We have studied the bible so much they pretty much knew it left and right. Dd took into to old testament and said it was the easiest course she's ever taken. Ds said the same thing about Intro to New Testament. Both are going to a state school and they both count as one of the basic college requirements. This is not a religious school so we didn't expect it and got a nice surprise.

[newbie]

My dd took Anthro and Philo. She thought she would love Anthro but it was a lot of work. Turns out she aced Philosophy and even got 100 on her final.

[Irene Lynn]

My dd took Sociology, Color and Design, and Microcomputers. The two colleges that my dd was most serious about both indicated that the first two classes would transfer with no trouble. I didn't mention Microcomputers, because she is currently taking that class and I don't really expect that it will transfer. We recommended that class for her own benefit rather than for college credit.

 

I will mention that the Color and Design class was very time consuming, totally worth college credit! (Took her about 13 hours a week with all the projects.) The Sociology class took some time, but was not overwhelming.

[Ellie]

Ellie,

 

What exactly do you mean "you went with her?" Could you elaborate for me?

 

Thanks!

I mean exactly that: I enrolled in the class and we went together. It was, in fact, the only college class I've ever taken (we both got A's, BTW. :D)

[AngieW in Texas]

My oldest dd took psychology as her first course during the summer between 10th and 11th grades. In the fall she did Japanese I and Drawing I (both strong interests). In the fall she did Japanese II and Drawing II. She did Digital Imaging over the next summer. This year she's been taking courses to fulfill the general ed requirements for her major at the school she'll be going to in the fall. She's going to finish out her English, math, and science requirements at the cc.

 

My middle dd will be starting at the cc this summer. She plans to take psychology. This is actually her major interest. She'll take English I and II along with Spanish I and II next year to fulfill general ed requirements. The next year she'll do Government I and II, probably both biology and chemistry for science majors, and something else (probably one more semester of Spanish along with something else that she's interested in like ethics or sociology or something like that).

[Angel]

I mean exactly that: I enrolled in the class and we went together. It was, in fact, the only college class I've ever taken (we both got A's, BTW. :D)

 

Thanks! I thought that is what you meant. ;) I have a dd with Asperger's and she has not been planning on cc classes but has a strong interest in photography (which I do to) and I had wondered if it would be weird to just sign up and take a class with her to see how she would react.