Your family's hs graduation plans

[Kathy G]

I was inspired by the long recent thread about accelerated learning vs accelerated schooling. It got me to thinking about graduation requirements. Certainly most of us here could have our children graduate hs very early if we used the bare minimal (dare I say it)dismal public school and state standards. However, there are few if any here who succumb to that plan of attack.

 

My oldest is 13 and 8th grade. He takes a college class and a precalc class at the high school, and homeschools the rest- all the rest would be considered about 10/11th grade level classes per state standards. We don't teach to any standards, but use textbooks and supplement heavily in weak areas. We have chosen thus far to keep them at their traditional grade level when filling out state forms. The end result is that they will still be living with us and finishing hs when they are 18. They will likely have many college credits by that time, and would potentially graduate college early. This plan is by our design, because we want them at home until 18. We recognize that there are many families who send children to college early and we support that, because every situation is different. Some children may have the maturity to live on campus at an earlier age. I have not seen signs of that here yet;)

 

So, how you plan your graduation date and/or how has that worked in reality? I can' t even say I have a true plan yet, because we have learned not to plan very far ahead.

 

Also- what obstacles? I wonder if I will run into a time where he can't get college credit without having a hs diploma. It hasn't been a problem yet.

[quark]

:bigear: :001_smile:

[snowbeltmom]

We have decided that our three kids will also graduate from our homeschool when they are 18. Homeschooling has made that decision easier since grade levels don't have the same restrictions at home as they might in a brick and mortar school.

 

The one piece of information that I have been told is if your child may be interested in medical school, not to take college level science classes at a community college or four year university while in high school. AP sciences classes are fine to take.

 

Also colleges have different policies on whether they consider a student that has taken community college classes while in high school a transfer student or an incoming freshman. You will want to investigate that issue if your kids decide to take cc classes while in high school.

[regentrude]

So, how you plan your graduation date and/or how has that worked in reality?

 

We were not sure whether we wanted DD to skip a grade, but during the school year following her 7th grade, she successfully took two semesters of college physics at the university (by instructor consent; administrations did not know what to do with us and could not formally enroll her) and finished top of her class - so we decided to skip 8th grade and call it high school :)

 

This means that she will be graduating one year early, at age 17. She has always been very mature for her age, and I have no trouble imagining her living on her own.

Our graduation standards are oriented at the admissions requirements of the most selective universities: four years each of math, English, history, science, and foreign language.

She has started formal enrollment at the university during 10th grade and took French. This year for 11th grade, she continues French and also takes a calculus based physics at the university, both four hour classes with a high work load. In math, she is currently finishing doing calculus 2; during her senior year she will study multivariable calculus and differential equations.

 

So, instead of getting an average (or mediocre) education in much less time, she gets a much more rigorous education (and still saves a year).

 

DS is not showing the same maturity as his sister; he will follow a similar educational pattern, but not skip a grade. He will graduate at age 18.

 

ETA: For college classes during high school, we prefer to have them take classes at a four year university and not at a community college, because the quality of classes is better.

Edited September 7, 2012 by regentrude

[2smartones]

:bigear:

 

Still trying to figure out what the heck we're doing. Ours should be finished (at an AP level) by age 15... but we don't want them leaving home early. I'd like to bury my head in the sand as long as possible, but I can't, so I just keep listening to threads like this one. Thanks for starting it. :lol:

[Kathy G]

 

ETA: For college classes during high school, we prefer to have them take classes at a four year university and not at a community college, because the quality of classes is better.

 

 

Yes, we totally agree. My son's experience this year is a college in the high school experience and an AP class, because we felt he wasn't ready to be on a campus. (funny how he thinks he is ready)

 

Next year he will do more AP and potentially classes at our university here.

 

We really enjoy using high school science texts and then supplementing. I think our preference would be to do that over an AP science class as that might teach more to a test. Maybe we will do both. I was a chem major and DH an engineering major, so we have difficulty with any science text living up to our standards. ;)

[regentrude]

We really enjoy using high school science texts and then supplementing. I think our preference would be to do that over an AP science class as that might teach more to a test. Maybe we will do both. I was a chem major and DH an engineering major, so we have difficulty with any science text living up to our standards. ;)

 

I have found extremely few high school science texts that I consider acceptable. We prefer to use introductory college texts for non majors. DH and I are both physics professors.

[a27mom]

Since we are just starting school, this is all very theoretical for me. Take it with a grain of salt.

 

But, we are blessed to be surrounded by colleges and universities. If my daughter went to our public high school she would start some college classes around 10th grade since that is how they advance students there currently. I am 99% sure our girls will live at home untill they reach traditional high school graduation age. However they could possibly start at university a year early if they chose one of the 4 within commuting distance, and have some direction for their studies. And, likely they will start taking some college courses earlier than that. It will depend on what they want though. No pushing to finish early.

 

Of course I am dealing with MG or HG kids here so I don't see them being driven to take university classes too young. hopefully depth will satisfy them.

[Kathy G]

I have found extremely few high school science texts that I consider acceptable. We prefer to use introductory college texts for non majors. DH and I are both physics professors.

 

That is a great idea. We may do that next. We are pretty much doing chemistry as we make it up this year and using a book for a rough outline of topics so we don't miss something.

 

What college introductory physics and biology texts do you prefer? I am a physician and we have used parts of my med school texts at times for projects. (some are outdated now-I feel old!)

[regentrude]

What college introductory physics and biology texts do you prefer?

 

For physics, I like College Physics by Knight, Jones and Field. It is an algebra/trig based text for life science majors that I use in my class.

For biology, we used the medium Campbell: Concepts and Connections. (The high school level Campbell: Biology- Exploring Life is actually pretty good, just not as much material.)

[kiana]

The one piece of information that I have been told is if your child may be interested in medical school, not to take college level science classes at a community college or four year university while in high school. AP sciences classes are fine to take.

.

 

I was also told that this applies especially to courses which are required or strongly recommended for med school -- i.e. taking ecology and meterology would be fine, but not organic chemistry.

[Jenny in Florida]

So, how you plan your graduation date and/or how has that worked in reality?

 

Also- what obstacles? I wonder if I will run into a time where he can't get college credit without having a hs diploma. It hasn't been a problem yet.

 

My kids have each taken different paths to graduation. My daughter accelerated radically from pretty early on, finished her high school requirements at 12 and then went directly to a residential college program.

 

My son is taking things a little slower, both because he doesn't care all that much about school and because he isn't in a hurry to leave town. We expect he will complete his high school requirements when he is 16 and then spend a year doing community college courses locally before heading out into the world.

 

Our graduation requirements, which are more rigorous than the college prep track at our local public schools, include:

 

- four credits of English

- four credits of science, including two lab courses

- four credits of social sciences, including American and world history and government

- four credits of math, algebra I and above

- two credits of foreign language

- total of at least 24 credits

 

It was no problem for my daughter to meet these requirements (including taking honors courses and one AP course through FLVS) in three years. After that, she went into an early entrance program that did not require a high school diploma. So, we submitted her transcripts and course descriptions, and she was on her way.

 

My son will probably start community college as a dual enrollment student, officially. So, he won't need a diploma for that. And none of the colleges in which he's currently interested demand much extra from applicants, especially if they have a few college courses on their transcripts already. I don't expect it to be terribly problematic.

[JennW in SoCal]

So, how you plan your graduation date and/or how has that worked in reality? I can' t even say I have a true plan yet, because we have learned not to plan very far ahead.

 

Also- what obstacles? I wonder if I will run into a time where he can't get college credit without having a hs diploma. It hasn't been a problem yet.

 

My youngest son is a 17yo freshman at a small liberal arts college on the other side of the country. Even though he had been a full time student at the community college for the last 2 years and could have transfered to a state U this fall as a junior, it was his choice to apply as a freshman. He wanted the 4 year experience, wanted to finish growing up among his age-peers. Neither he nor I could have predicted this path when he was 13. 2 years ago he had planned on the transfer route, but changed his mind when we started visiting schools.

 

He knew going in this fall that he would have to wait for some of his classmates to catch up with him academically as he was already used to the pace of a college class, used to being responsible for managing his study time. But after 2 years of being the youngest kid in the classroom he really is happy being among his peers and after 2 weeks already has a great group of friends.

 

The best thing about homeschooling is that we had the flexibility to make this choice the spring before application season. It meant a crash course in college counseling for me, and fitting in standardized tests that he hadn't originally planned to take. But since I had always planned on high school including 4 years of English and math, 3-4 of sciences, 2 of a foreign language and the standard California social studies requirements, putting together a transcript to meet admissions requirements for most colleges was not difficult. If my son had been bound and determined to go to an Ivy, we might not have been so cavalier about his path. But he is in an excellent school with a generous merit scholarship and I couldn't be happier for him.

 

My son chose his community college classes based on what I couldn't offer, specifically advanced math and science. He preferred Spanish in a classroom setting, too. He had a kind of California diploma, not quite a GED but similar, so had no obstacles to taking as many cc classes as he wanted. The private liberal arts colleges didn't care that he had so many credits, but won't necessarily count them all as transfer units.

Edited September 7, 2012 by JennW in SoCal

[idnib]

That is a great idea. We may do that next. We are pretty much doing chemistry as we make it up this year and using a book for a rough outline of topics so we don't miss something.

 

What college introductory physics and biology texts do you prefer? I am a physician and we have used parts of my med school texts at times for projects. (some are outdated now-I feel old!)

 

I was on the editorial team for the Campbell books in the 1990s so I'm biased. I worked closely with Neil Campbell before he passed away. But they really are good books. We spent a lot of effort and had lots of good reviewers who gave helpful feedback. Before joining the editorial team I had a chance to use Campbell at my university as a student and really enjoyed it.

[Barbara H]

 

Also- what obstacles? I wonder if I will run into a time where he can't get college credit without having a hs diploma. It hasn't been a problem yet.

 

Could you clarify this question a bit - are you concerned that he will exceed the allowable number of dual enrollment credits or that a college would not accept him for full enrollment if he graduates as a homeschooler?

 

I was just reading the Swann book that was free on Kindle recently and I can see how this may be inspiring some of the acceleration threads we've seen here recently. It was a different time but what the family was considering a high school education would not meet contemporary minimum state requirements for public school students. It was very light on core academics. I know you get this distinction Kathy but I just wanted to mention it for others who are just beginning to consider acceleration.

 

I agree it is important that rather than "skipping" that the student to complete rigorous graduation requirements. For some this can happen years before traditional graduation age but as a homeschooler you still have flexibility to decide what to do at that point - more depth, more breadth, more dual enrollment, internships, full time college enrollment, etc. There is no one size fits all because kids are all different and we all have different community resources. So, I would take it a year at a time and see what happens. One consideration for our family in timing these decisions was planning for the PSAT junior year for National Merit qualification purposes. So, we decided to take it a year at a time until we were sure we were two years off high school graduation and implement skips at that time.

[Barbara H]

I was on the editorial team for the Campbell books in the 1990s so I'm biased. I worked closely with Neil Campbell before he passed away. But they really are good books. We spent a lot of effort and had lots of good reviewers who gave helpful feedback. Before joining the editorial team I had a chance to use Campbell at my university as a student and really enjoyed it.

 

Wow, cool. We used Campbell. I am a geek, but not a science person... however I liked the book enough that I didn't resell it because I want to read more of it.

[Kathy G]

Could you clarify this question a bit - are you concerned that he will exceed the allowable number of dual enrollment credits or that a college would not accept him for full enrollment if he graduates as a homeschooler?

 

.

 

 

I was actually wondering if there was a maximum number of dual enrollment credits. However I phrased it that way, because there might be ither obstacles that I haven't even begun to consider as he is only 8th grade.

 

Thanks everyone for posting- this is all great stuff to consider. I am excited to look up all these books!

 

Kathy

[Melissa B]

We plan for dd to graduate high school at the standard time (age 18) or perhaps one year earlier. However, here dual enrollment is free so it makes sense not to graduate earlier. We also do online AP classes through the state virtual school and have been pleased with the level of the classes so far. With four years of dual enrollment at the local university and four years of AP classes, dd will actually be only a couple of classes short of her BA when she graduates high school, but her plan following high school is to apply as a freshman to a program that doesn't allow DE (Creative Photography) and then graduate around the same time as her age peers with a double major in English and Creative Photography. I'm not sure how useful either of those degrees will be in this economy :D but she has a plan and we are very lucky to be in a state where she can earn both degrees at almost no cost to us so dh and I fully support her in this path.

[higginszoo]

We still haven't completely planned graduation dates, but like your ds, some of our dc will likely have quite a few college credits earned while they are still high school aged and living at home. Right now, we are keeping our options open -- our local community college has an early college start program where students can enroll in a couple of courses per semester free of charge as dual credit. We also live within reach of commuter campuses for a couple of bigger state universities. Our state also has a residential program for high school students at one of its universities (this may not be a good fit for oldest, second has decided to pursue an international baccalaureate diploma at a local traditional public school, but the third, who is only in 6th grade now, might thrive in that environment in 5 more years). Since they've started on high school-level work when they were ready (about 11), they will have many options open to them, including early graduation, but we definitely have reservations about that plan unless they have a concrete reason to do so/a plan on what they're pursuing after.

Edited September 10, 2012 by higginszoo

[a27mom]

. One consideration for our family in timing these decisions was planning for the PSAT junior year for National Merit qualification purposes. So, we decided to take it a year at a time until we were sure we were two years off high school graduation and implement skips at that time.

 

That is interesting. The PSAT is an important consideration. I was a National merit scholar and I figure I earned about $20,000/hour taking that test. ;)

[Parrothead]

Dd will graduate at 17 but that is because of her fall birthday rather than skipping/accelerating. Within a few weeks of starting freshman year she will be 18.

 

We live in an area that offers 2 free college courses per year for the state school to high schoolers as duel enrollment. Hopefully she takes the state up on that. It is in the plan but as she gets older the decisions will become more hers than mine.

 

The plan is the more rigorous 4 each math, English, science, language, history route. She is taking a couple high school level courses this year in 8th grade.

[Colleen in SEVA]

:bigear:

[KAR120C]

I was inspired by the long recent thread about accelerated learning vs accelerated schooling. It got me to thinking about graduation requirements. Certainly most of us here could have our children graduate hs very early if we used the bare minimal (dare I say it)dismal public school and state standards. However, there are few if any here who succumb to that plan of attack.

DS is at a point where academically we could claim that he's met the minimum requirements for high school graduation: Math through Calc 1, huge quantities of science, Latin and Spanish through 3rd year each, lots of Lit/Comp and History (high school level? well... depends on who you ask.) If our only choice was the local PS we'd probably either continue to homeschool or graduate him early, or both. It's not a bad school, but he'd have about one year there before he was doing all dual-enrollment classes... not all bad, but not really the "high school experience" either.

 

So instead we're looking at some private prep schools. Some local and some boarding. In some cases the private schools don't have anything more than our local PS, but in some cases they really do look like he could get four whole years out of them without running out of classes. (Here's hoping that what's on their website and course catalog reflects what's offered and not just vague possibilities...) Plus there are semester abroad and year abroad offerings, and connections to resources I just don't have.

 

Basically the plan as it stands right now is in lieu of early college, send him to the best high school he can get into.... probably boarding.