Dual Enrollment Notes

[bugs]

My daughter is in the middle of her first quarter as a DE student at the local cc. She has told me, begrudgingly, that some of the things she had learned at home have actually been helpful :D. But then she said she thinks that my classes were harder than her cc classes, thus far. I am not sure wheather to be proud or concerned.

 

That's all - just had to share.

[Gwen in VA]

Be proud. She learned well in your homeschool!

 

Community colleges are all different. My ds2 maintained straight A's last year in all of his CC classes (8 total), doing approximately 1.5 hours per week of homework TOTAL for ALL subjects. He thought it was great, since he was used do doing a BIT more for me at home... :glare: He obviously didn't learn much academically, but he learned how to handle group projects, how to learn from teachers who taught poorly, and how to juggle tight schedules -- all worthwhile things.

 

Congrats to your dd!

[Brenda in MA]

Be proud. She learned well in your homeschool!

 

Community colleges are all different. My ds2 maintained straight A's last year in all of his CC classes (8 total), doing approximately 1.5 hours per week of homework TOTAL for ALL subjects. He thought it was great, since he was used do doing a BIT more for me at home... :glare: He obviously didn't learn much academically, but he learned how to handle group projects, how to learn from teachers who taught poorly, and how to juggle tight schedules -- all worthwhile things.

 

Congrats to your dd!

:iagree:

 

Isn't it amazing how once they leave your nest for another teacher, they realize that they had it pretty good at home? Congrats to your dd on making a smooth transition to CC learning.

 

Brenda

[creekland]

You should be proud. ;) We had the same thing happen at our cc... but it still proved useful for letters of recommendation to colleges. Oldest (going where credits didn't matter) used his cc credits and is happy. While the 4 year course would have been tougher, it really doesn't matter. Middle (going to a more selective school) isn't using his credits and is happy. There's no way the courses are the same where he's going.

 

In either case, the letters of recommendation were super valuable and both were able to get high school credits.

 

So, to be proud? You gave them the foundations to get the good grades. I feel for those coming into cc without the foundation.

 

(NOTE: Some have been exposed to the foundation, but don't have the personal drive to actually remember what they are taught or to study for the higher grades. It's not ALWAYS a fault of the student's previous education. But... at other times it is. I see it.)

[G5052]

I'm a tough homeschooler. We pulled my oldest out of local classes some time back because he slacking with high A's and getting done with everything at noon. In some cases, that is fine, but not for this one. I wanted some meaningful struggling going on. And I expect them to check their own math, and then come to me and explain what they did wrong. I read their writing with a fine tooth comb.

 

But I also teach at the local community college. This is a decent community college with a high percentage of those who get a 2-year going on to a 4-year, and a fair amount that end up at "public Ivies" and do fine. I know which professors are appropriately challenging. And I know that mine will find parts of it easy. That's OK, then I've done my job. :001_smile:

Edited November 10, 2012 by GVA

[8filltheheart]

Congrats!

 

One 20 sec experience has made all the yrs of hard work homeschooling the kids worth it. When our oldest was a freshman, we hardly ever heard from him. One day the phone rang and when I answered it, it was ds. He simply said, "Mom, I have something I want to tell you.......thank you." He and I had butt heads constantly in 11th and 12th grades b/c I made him do work that I thought was appropriate. His friends did very little comparatively and other homeschoolers were telling him that I expected too much. As they struggled, he succeeded.

[regentrude]

But then she said she thinks that my classes were harder than her cc classes, thus far. I am not sure wheather to be proud or concerned.

 

Both. Proud that you did an amazing job in your homeschool, concerned about the academic quality of the CC.

[regentrude]

Our DE experience is different. We do homeschool for academic reasons and do rigorous coursework at home, but the courses DD takes at the university are way more demanding than anything we have ever done at home.

The rule "two hours of outside work for every hour in class" definitely applies to the courses she takes, and ending up among the 15% of students who will get an A in calculus based physics does take a huge effort.

I don't expect her to ever say that home courses were harder.

[G5052]

Our DE experience is different. We do homeschool for academic reasons and do rigorous coursework at home, but the courses DD takes at the university are way more demanding than anything we have ever done at home.

The rule "two hours of outside work for every hour in class" definitely applies to the courses she takes, and ending up among the 15% of students who will get an A in calculus based physics does take a huge effort.

I don't expect her to ever say that home courses were harder.

 

I fully expect that mine will skate through Spanish, the humanities, and computer literacy courses. Frankly with four years of Latin, being able to write well, and truly learning Microsoft Office, they'll be fine.

 

The math and science will be tougher because those are mostly pre-nursing and transfer courses with a stricter rules.

[bugs]

:iagree:

 

Isn't it amazing how once they leave your nest for another teacher, they realize that they had it pretty good at home? Congrats to your dd on making a smooth transition to CC learning.

 

Brenda

 

Thanks.

 

This child wanted to go back to ps in 9th grade but I said 'no'. Now she says things like..."I'm so happy I didn't go to that high school...blah blah blah":glare:

 

So, to be proud? You gave them the foundations to get the good grades. I feel for those coming into cc without the foundation.

 

 

Thanks, this is what I feel good about.

 

Congrats!

 

One 20 sec experience has made all the yrs of hard work homeschooling the kids worth it. When our oldest was a freshman, we hardly ever heard from him. One day the phone rang and when I answered it, it was ds. He simply said, "Mom, I have something I want to tell you.......thank you."

 

This is what I look forward to as well.

 

Both. Proud that you did an amazing job in your homeschool, concerned about the academic quality of the CC.

Yep, that's it in a nutshell. But I guess, she's allowed to be "grown-up" in a controlled environment, so I figure it's just one more way for her to get in practice before she leaves.

[Tokyomarie]

Community colleges are all different. My ds2 maintained straight A's last year in all of his CC classes (8 total), doing approximately 1.5 hours per week of homework TOTAL for ALL subjects. He thought it was great, since he was used do doing a BIT more for me at home... :glare: He obviously didn't learn much academically, but he learned how to handle group projects, how to learn from teachers who taught poorly, and how to juggle tight schedules -- all worthwhile things.

 

The "soft skills" aspect of managing the classroom learning is the main reason I enrolled ds in a full-time program last year- he was turning 17yo. My girls did just fine adapting to the college environment in their time, but ds has some additional needs and I felt he needed something more than even a couple of dual-enrollment classes per semester.

 

The program has been pretty successful for this purpose. But I have been disappointed that he has lowered the bar for himself based on the fact that even with his dyslexia/dysgraphia/executive function issues, he is still outperforming most of his peers. He doesn't understand yet that- except in math- the actual workload is far less than what was required of my girls in similar college freshman level courses at their 4 year schools. I'm also feeling frustrated because I ended up giving up my goals in literature and history when we enrolled him and I'm not happy now about that. He has read exactly one- get that, 1- full length work of literature since Sept. 2011 and he has had NO history at all.

[Teachin'Mine]

i

I fully expect that mine will skate through Spanish, the humanities, and computer literacy courses. Frankly with four years of Latin, being able to write well, and truly learning Microsoft Office, they'll be fine.

 

The math and science will be tougher because those are mostly pre-nursing and transfer courses with a stricter rules.

 

Yes. More and more desks have been empty in the math and science classes than at the beginning of the semester.

 

It's been our experience that while a couple of the first classes were easier, the more we ramped up the academics, and the more we purposely chose teachers who were good, but not easy graders, the more challenging it has become. Like high school, the more rigorous their CC classes, the better prepared they will be for university. Or at least that's our thinking.

[G5052]

 

Yes. More and more desks have been empty in the math and science classes than at the beginning of the semester.

 

 

About 75% of the students at the community college I work for start out on either a pre-nursing or transfer track. So the math and science is hard, and there are no "science for non-majors" classes. If you take chemistry there, you take it with the pre-nursing students. So indeed, I don't recommend those courses for dual enrollment unless they did a rigorous high school class first.