Tell me it is okay not to dual enroll???

[HollyDay]

We moved to where we live now just over a year ago when dd was in 10th grade. Up until we moved here, I did not know any families who dual enrolled. It was not even on our radar. Where we live now, every high school homeschool family I know dual enrolls at a local brick and mortar community college. (Most public school jr and seniors do too). Some are taking as many as 10 credits a semester.

 

I never planned to dual enroll. Dd does not want to dual enroll. We have a high school plan that is working. She will graduate with 4 of the core, including PreCalculus and Physics, 2 foreign languages, 1 fine arts, 1 speech/communication, 1 health, 1 drivers ed, and a bunch of electives (including sign language, archaeology, art, music, etc.). She will take the SAT for the first time in March and again, if needed, in June. She will take the ACT next year. She will also start taking Clep exams. I don't know if she will go directly to a 4 year college. She is talking about a 2 year college and doing some volunteer work right out of high school. She is also looking at online options rather than brick and mortar that would fit her schedule better.

 

So, someone tell me it is okay if we do not dual enroll? I'm feeling a bit of peer pressure, "Everyone else is doing it" type thing. I have good reasons not to do it. Dd does not want to. I am capable and enjoy teaching the high school courses. It is expensive (roughly $300/class plus books and fees) and dd is not sure what she wants to or where she wants to go to college. I have concerns about credits transferring since dd does not have colleges in mind.

 

Thoughts????? Input????

 

Thanks!!

[HiddenJewel]

My oldest graduates this year and hasn't been dual enrolled anywhere. If your dd is getting the foundation she needs to follow her path, I don't see why you should need to add anything extra.

[Mouseketeer67]

I have graduated my oldest two without any dual enrollment classes. I would have loved for them to have been able to do dual enrollment, but the BP oill spill messed up our plans. We own a charter fishing service and were affected by the oil spill at that time. We simply could not afford it. In the end it all worked out. They are both doing well in college. They both made the Chancellors List!

[Sunshine State Sue]

The beauty of homeschooling is doing what works best for your student and your family. I admire you. You have my permission to follow the perfect plan for your dd. :hurray:

[elegantlion]

Ds is only in 9th grade, but at this point I don't have plans to dual enroll. It's not completely out of the question, however, we're on a tight budget and the nearest college is a state university not a CC. They have no price breaks for dual enrolled students.

[dbmamaz]

my daughter was dual enrolled for her last two years of high school, in a program i worked with the public school to do for her, customized. She started 2 weeks before her 16th birthday, and LOVE it. I had assumed I would do the same with my current teen, but realized he would not be mature enough for it. I plan on having him take 1 class a semester starting his senior year, just because i want him to get used to the pace of college - he's 2E, and i think it would be better to figure it out with just one and then maybe 2 classes, before he goes full time.

 

I can imagine my youngest not doing it at all. definitely do what works for you and yours!

[HollyDay]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I think I'm just letting the "everyone's doing it" get to me a bit. I've actually been asked if she can go to college without dual enrollment. More than 1 person has told me without a "proven transcript" from an outside source, the colleges won't look at her admission application. In know that is not always the case. I've known too many home school grads who have gone on to college without dual enrollment, just not where we live now.

 

It is odd. At our previous location, very few went directly into full time brick and mortar colleges. Many worked part time and went to college part time. Many took on apprentice jobs or volunteered for a community service for a time to gain work experience before continuing their education. The economy there was not very good so that might have had an impact on decisions. Here, it is a much more affluent area so that might influence such choices.

 

Thanks for the reminder that we do homeschool for a reason. And one of those reasons is to have a plan of education tailored to each dc. And each dc is unique in their goals, desires, maturity, and ability.

[Reya]

If it doesn't work for you, there's no reason to do it.

 

Many HS families do it as a way to introduce their DC into a classroom environment--a trial run for any kind of college experience more than a transcript-builder.

[CyndiLJ]

You know, there is all kinds of pressure to conform in just about any setting. To me, and I know I might very well be in the minority, the whole dual enrollment thing is yet another sign of trying to rush our kids through their childhoods. While I do understand that some kids (and indeed, when I was that age I would have been one of them) might be really ready for college courses in high school, and I also get the need to try and decrease college costs after high school graduation, it seems to me that dual enrollment is another way in which we Americans seem to need to have adulthood enter into our children's lives at younger and younger ages.

 

I am really being a stickler on this one in our home, mainly because several of our kids already lost half their childhoods to being institutionalized. They need high school to be high school, and college will still be there when they graduate. We may need dual enrollment for math for our youngest near the end of high school because he will run out of standard curriculum, but that is it.

 

Don't feel pushed into something! There may be some benefit, but that doesn't mean you have to do it. In life, there is always a benefit to another path, but we can only take one...so have confidence in your plan and don't let other's make you feel you should veer from it!

[ilanao]

When my older two were homeschooling, it would have still been possible to dual enroll. However, the economy in California has tanked, and there is little money for schools. The chances of getting classes at the local CC while still in high school is nil. I don't think it's necessary to dual enroll, but it would have been nice to have the opportunity to take lab science. So far this year, none of the chemistry experiments have worked for us. We have mostly been watching others do the experiments on YouTube and then writing up the lab reports. I hope the second semester goes better. Sorry I digressed from the topic a little. Like I said, I think it's great for individual classes, but not absolutely necessary.

[AngieW in Texas]

I seriously doubt that my youngest is going to go to a 4-year university. Her interests are not along that path and a degree will not help with any of the things she is interested in doing.

 

I do still plan for her to take dual enrollment classes (because two classes/semester are free here), but they aren't going to be core classes like my other girls took. She will do two semesters of sign language and the rest of her classes are likely to be photography or music related. She plays country music, not orchestra, so a degree would not be at all helpful.

[G5052]

I teach at the local CC, and I don't universally recommend dual enrollment. I get a lot of homeschooled kids in my class because the parents know me, and about half of them fail. Yes, they fail a class that really isn't that hard. Sometimes they don't want to be there, sometimes they aren't ready for a rigid schedule, and sometimes they're just plain lost about the whole thing. Sometimes the parents decide to put them into 3-4 classes with no transition, and it doesn't always work very well.

 

Mine will probably take the computer literacy class I teach from another professor, the student development class (i.e. career planning, how to study, etc.), and Spanish. I don't want them in the humanities classes until we have a little more parental input on those subjects, and I don't want them in science at the college level until we've done it thoroughly at home. We're doing some CLEP and AP as we go which will knock off a few basic courses, but not a lot. Basically I see it as a resource in a few selected areas, but not as "the answer."

[flmom]

I really needed to stumble upon this thread today. "Everyone does it" is also how the homeschoolers where I live seem to be, but as I've been working on our homeschool high school planning this past week (starting 9th this fall) dual enrollment is not something I am considering for my son. I don't believe he is mature enough and will have to see major changes in that area and his attitude before I will even consider going that route for even one class. I know we still have time to see if that happens. I do want him to be aware of what dual enrollment would be like, however. He has never been in a classroom setting of any kind. An acquaintance of ours teaches biology at the local community college. I'm going to take him one evening to sit in on her class soon as a guest just so he can see for himself.

[elegantlion]

This is another recent thread on the general board about the elimination/reduction of dual enrollment in some areas. I think it's prudent to watch the trends in your area as what is true now can change in a few years.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/448725-community-colleges-ending-dual-enrollment-due-to-over-enrollment/

[Photo Ninja]

As hsers, we have a lot of options. We have to assess the options and choose what is best for each individual child. I don't care what 'everyone else' is doing. They can make their own decisions for their own dc. I will make decisions for my dc. Too many people, hsers included, do what everyone else is doing because of peer pressure, indecision, desire to be included, fear of unknown or fear of making a decision that is different from what their friends are doing, or simply because they don't know there are other options.

 

That said, my dc did want to take concurrent enrollment classes, and it was the right decision for them. It was the right decision for some of their friends. It was a bad option for some of their friends. They are all good students, going to college, and succeeding.

 

Don't let what "everyone else' is doing sway you. Investigate the options, then make informed decisions.

 

And yes, your dd can still go to college without having taken any dual enrollment classes.

[CupOCoffee]

I don't have much else to add; I agree with everyone here who has said that "everyone else is doing it" is not a reason for your family to do it. There will be no dual enrolling here; it's not desired and it's just not possible either. I know how hard it is to feel like "well everyone else is doing it and if I don't, I am shortchanging my kid"...I used to feel like that every time I read these forums here on WTM. I am over that now; I don't have to keep up with what Hivers are doing -- I can't anyway, my circumstances to not permit it. And I am perfectly OK with that, and my kids will still be better off than if they had attended the PS around here.

 

It sounds like you are doing just fine and there is no need for dual enrollment. I, like a PP said, give you permission to NOT dual enroll!

[mamajudy]

Do what's best for you and your child. Dual enrollment and online classes have become so common among homeschoolers, that it's becoming a rare thing for a student to be entirely homeschooled (at least from what I'm seeing). And it's setting a precedent that causes misconceptions and misinformation. My children who were entirely homeschooled had no difficulty getting into college and doing well, both academically and socially.You sound quite competent to teach your child through high school. "Everybody else" sends their kids to public school, but you don't. You are doing what you feel is best, and if that means not doing dual enrollment, then that's your business - not everybody else's.

BTW, my dh teaches at a community college and has WAY too many dual enrolled sudents. He says most of them are not ready for college-level work. He can't stand those classes with immature high schoolers who think they are in a high school class.

[Ellie]

Of course it's ok not to. Many homeschoolers don't. I don't know the statistics or anything, but I'm sure the majority of homeschoolers don't, even if you happen to live near lots who do.

[In The Great White North]

DS did not, and is doing just fine at USAFA.

 

The local CC is useless. Dartmouth does allow high school students to take a course per trimester but they must have first exhausted what the local high school offers (ie. after French 5, dd took a term of French at Dartmouth; for math, one would have had to have taken Calculus as a sophomore, then the Math Modelling and Stats the high school offers as a junior, before going to calc II at Dartmouth as a senior; the chem class has a calculus pre-req, freshman English is not open to high school students, etc)

 

It is out of reach for 95% of the high school students.

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

My two oldest did not dual enroll. They are fine!

My next is dual enrolling because I think he needs it and we can afford it.

 

Here in Middle Tenn "everyone" (except us) is involved in co-ops, tutorials, enrichment, and out-sourcing in some way. I think we are sometimes viewed as not being rigorous enough because we do not out-source anything. We just do not have the money.

[Tullia]

Do what works best for your family and I'll add my permission--if that helps. :cheers2: IME, when a person tries to exert peer pressure on someone else, it's probably nothing more than an indication of their own insecurities and most likely unintentional. The people questioning you are probably doing so out of fear they've missed something important--or they want to make sure you don't miss out on a good opportunity. We did very little dual enrollment and ds was academically prepared for college. He did need some work on time management skills, but that was because he chose not to focus on that in high school. He figured it out eventually, but not before I had the chance to shrug my shoulders and say, "Sorry 'bout that!" when he fell down on the wrong side of a deadline a couple of times. Life is the greatest teacher of all. :nopity:

[foxbridgeacademy]

DH is in an industry that his particular job is in high demand, so he gets offers all the time from all over the country. In my top ten of considerations for will we/won't we move is dual-enrollment. It's important to me. That doesn't mean I expect anyone else to consider it a priority, many of my friends don't. Nor should anyone be looking at you funny for not making it your priority.

What I do suggest is that you ask yourself how would it benefit(exposure to classes, cheaper then a 4 year) you and your child, does that outweigh the detriments(upfront costs, academic pressure/stress) to your family? Let that make the decision for you not what your neighbors or all of us think. Good luck.