S/O of Early college-how do you decide when your DC is ready for higher classes

[Dmmetler]

Outside classes, I mean-especially the across the board stuff?

 

I've tended to put DD in groups where she's in the scope of the group, but at the young end, and, at least recently, have tended to think "well, she's advanced in math, but she's REALLY not a middle school math student, because she's not writing enough"-and basically the same thing about LA.

 

Except that I have had my nieces here for their spring break-bright, articulate girls who are honors students and in the GT program at a science magnet school. And even in her weak areas, DD is substantially more advanced than her 12 yr old cousin. And, honestly, in seeing her next to both a 12 yr old and an 8 yr old, she acts more like the 12 yr old.

 

The two girls were discussing going to college and rooming together in a few years, and I'm actually wondering if DD might not be ready/capable of doing so-but if so, how do I ramp things up so that she'll actually be ready? I'm guessing our "couple of hours of mom-scheduled activities in the morning, with DD doing what she chooses (mostly spending time on Scratch, writing stories on the computer about snakes, Spongelab, and Khan Academy), which seemed fine for 3rd grade, isn't a good fit if she really only has about 6 years before college!

[Laura Corin]

I started looking at the syllabus for higher level courses. This happened more-or-less accidentally: I was looking at a middle school science programme, Calvin and I went over a few pages together, and it seemed rather superficial. I looked up the IGCSE (high school) biology course and it seemed a much better fit. So he took the IGCSE exam when he was eleven. We then looked at (I)GCSE courses and he took Chinese and classical civilisation early too.

 

Although he was entirely capable of studying at the correct level, he would not have been ready to take on a full high school load of work. I was glad that - while allowing him to work at a higher level - I didn't push him to give up his free time. I taught him the bio from a text book; we used a tutor for the Chinese; the Class Civ was a (not very good) online course.

 

He ended up going to school one year ahead of his peers and is loving the IB programe.

 

Laura

[8filltheheart]

While I won't sent my kids to early college, in our experience it is really obvious that they are ready. FWIW, I didn't do anything, ramp anything up. I simply have always and continue to simply try to meet them where they are academically and age workload appropriate.

 

However, ds is so successful in his college courses b/c he is completely self-monitoring, self-motivated, etc. I have no clue what goes on in his college courses just like when our older kids went off to college. Those are 2 areas of personal development that are necessary.

 

FWIW, as has been addressed in other threads, output/pace have to be equivalent to college level.

 

One "earlier" indicator might be if they were taking AP classes at a younger age and were successful at completing the workload/pace/deadlines independently.

 

FWIW, our 8th grade dd could easily be ready for early college in another yr intellectually (more advanced in some areas......math would be the one area where she would not be beyond high school material, only having finished alg 2) However, emotionally, she is no where near ready. She is a very private and modest young lady and "adult" themes discussed amid young adults would be completely overwhelming for her. College courses are definitely not pg-rated, especially in lit and poetry which are her 2 loves.

[retiredHSmom]

We didn't really prepare our daughter to go to college early. In fact if you had asked me if I would do that I would have laughed.

 

Basically, traditional home school high school curriculum wasn't meeting her needs. She was always finished fast and and was always right. I was simply giving her more to do until one day she pointed out that "more stupid, too-easy work doesn't make it harder it just makes it more stupid, too-easy work". At that point I knew we needed another option.

 

I began looking into online AP classes. But I was really struck by the expense. While less than private school would have cost it was still very, very expensive on our budget. Dual-enrollment at the community college wouldn't have been an option for 2 more years and I did consider fighting the age limit but I felt like we were just trading water, not making progress.

 

Another big issue was independence and maturity. My daughter really was a 20 year old in a 14 year old's body. She began to do things like say I need a haircut, I checked the calendar and thursday at 4 was clear so I scheduled the appointment. If I was out of the house and it was late afternoon I would come home to find that she had planned and started dinner and was sweeping the entire first floor. All the good did come with some bad, I really felt that she was beginning to think of herself as an adult and was chafing at some of the restrictions placed on her by life.

 

We live about 3 hours from an early admission, residential college program. She knew it was there and approached me one day with the completed application and asked me to schedule a visit. At the time we humored her figuring that we would check it out but sure that she wouldn't get in and that we couldn't afford it if she did.

 

At our visit, I could see that this was what she needed. The conviction grew as our visit continued and one problem fell by the wayside after another. 2 weeks later we found that she had been accepted and that the scholarship she earned made it possible to allow her to go. I still felt like I was jumping off a cliff without a safety net, sending my 14 year old to live 3 hours away from me and expecting her to behave like an adult.

 

2 years late, I know that I could not have made a better choice for her. She is exceeding any expectations we ever had for her. She is an active part of campus life and in a leadership position. She has a 3.97 GPA (the top GPA in the class of 2015 for the whole school) and is taking 20 credit hours of solid math and science classes.

 

All of this only sideways answers your question. I knew that she was ready academically and I thought that she was ready maturity wise. I now know how important that maturity was. The girls really need to be functioning as 18-20 year olds in order to succeed. Her entry class of 26 13-16 year old young women is down to 12 and none of them left for academic issues.

 

Academically, If I had known that my daughter was heading this direction, I would have made sure that she had some high school science under her belt before she left. She truly skipped from 8th grade to college and never took any high school science. She has gotten all A's in her college sciences and she has taken 1 semester of Biology, 2 semester of chemistry and 2 semesters of physics. Obviously she could have handled high school science earlier at home, but as I said we never expected that she would go to college early.

[Ravin]

I'm going to put my two bits in as someone who started college early. I attended the Texas Academy of Math and Science at UNT my junior year of high school. The program housed the high-school aged students together to give them age-appropriate supervision, but we attended regular classes at the university, include Classical Core English classes and a rigorous math/science courseload.

 

The math and science I was ready for. The English classes, not so much. It wasn't because I couldn't write, but that I lacked the maturity to put more depth in my writing. I might have been fine in a regular Freshman Comp 101 class, but not in the pseudo-honors track in which I found myself.

 

The other thing that impacted my performance was the social shift. I grew and matured a lot that year, and I had social opportunities I'd never had before in my small town. And that's where my energies went--to my social life/development, not as much as they should have to my classwork. I also lacked study skills that I really needed at the university level, because public high school had never challenged me enough that much actual study was necessary. For that reason I made lousy grades and had to go back to high school the next year.

 

I didn't get those study skills until I joined the Navy and they were expressly taught to us in Nuke school and enforced with logged study hours.

 

So, in evaluating if a child is ready for university early I'd look at:

 

1. Academic readiness for all subjects, not just certain ones

2. Solid study skills and self-discipline

3. Sufficient social maturity and readiness for the transition to greater independence

[retiredHSmom]

 

So, in evaluating if a child is ready for university early I'd look at:

 

1. Academic readiness for all subjects, not just certain ones

2. Solid study skills and self-discipline

3. Sufficient social maturity and readiness for the transition to greater independence

This is exactly what I was trying to say, but expressed much more succinctly.

[8filltheheart]

 

This is exactly what I was trying to say, but expressed much more succinctly.

 

 

I agree! I would add a #4, though, addressing maturity to handle adult themes in a large group of people with very diverse views and little censoring of discussion.

[kiana]

Another big issue was independence and maturity. My daughter really was a 20 year old in a 14 year old's body. She began to do things like say I need a haircut, I checked the calendar and thursday at 4 was clear so I scheduled the appointment. If I was out of the house and it was late afternoon I would come home to find that she had planned and started dinner and was sweeping the entire first floor. All the good did come with some bad, I really felt that she was beginning to think of herself as an adult and was chafing at some of the restrictions placed on her by life.

 

We live about 3 hours from an early admission, residential college program. She knew it was there and approached me one day with the completed application and asked me to schedule a visit. At the time we humored her figuring that we would check it out but sure that she wouldn't get in and that we couldn't afford it if she did.

 

 

This is the exact type of student who does brilliantly in early programs. The one who has the self-motivation to find id and do all the work to get there, and the maturity to make use of it once they are there.

 

Self-motivation and knowing what they want are enormously, enormously important. If the student is still needing, for example, help from mom in getting work done on time, early college (rather than dual enrollment) is just not a good choice.

[kohlby]

Our plan is not to send our oldest to college early - but there's an amazing 11th and 12th grade school that has challenging college courses at it for math and science - and it's a boarding public school. So the perfect transition for a gifted student for between homeschooling and college. Since I feel that school will meet his needs, that's our goal, not early college. My daughter may or may not skip. She is very advanced as well - but she's only 7. My son is almost 10. IMO, they're way too young to figure out if early college makes sense. On average, girls mature faster than boys too - so I'm more comfortable with skipping my daughter over my son for that reason. However, it comes down to meeting their needs. I figure that as we go along. It's impossible for me to know down the road what my child would be ready for. Homeschooling is wonderful in that I don't have to call my son several grades above his real grade. He's a 4th grader, on an advanced 9th grade math level easily, but a strong 6th grader for language arts. But he's still a 9 year old boy. Being advanced academically doesn't change that. If I find that my plan of that challenging public school isn't a good one for him, then we'll figure it out.

 

Ramping up would just mean to make sure your child has challenging enough course work at this point. I wouldn't push with the goal of early college, or hold back with the goal of going on-time. Instead, let your child take the lead, but present her with opportunities to be challenged.

[quark]

(cross sub-post)

Linking two other related discussions for future reference.

How Can A Child Go To College Early

Early College and What After College?

OP, is it possible to tag your post title with the same tag used for the other discussion, namely, "going to college early" or maybe "early college"?

[StephanieZ]

Well, IME, my kids have been academically accelerated always, rather dramatically so in math especially, but across the board as well to a significant degree . . . But, around age 11, their brains take a major detour into some deep dark hormonal abyss. I swear their IQs drop 10-20 points a year for a few years there, then they seem to be (hopefully) returning to their pre-pubertal IQs around age 16 . . . However, at 16 there is the time-suck of friends/"boys"/etc, so even though her brain power is returning, her time management is abysmal . . .

 

So, anyway, my policy is to get them to learn as much as they can while they are able, and then to try not to lose my own mind during the hormonal years when they can spend MONTHS learning nearly nothing as they are too busy staring at their navels to do their studies . . . And to hope for the best, take it year by year, and keep my fingers crossed. :)

 

I remember when my oldest was still pre-pubertal, thinking about how could I possibly keep them all learning pre-college level materials for so many more years when they were already so accomplished . . .Then hormones kicked in, and I struggle to get my oldest through what I consider a modest but challenging college track high school plan . . . So, now I don't get too worked up about how my 10 yo is ready for Algebra, and oh, what will I do with her 5 years from now when she's "learned it all" . . . because I figure there is a good chance we'll lose a few years to hormones in there somewhere.

 

:)