DS is considering taking a high school class and doing a sport

[northcoast]

Tell me your experience of putting your child in a public high school class and doing a sport after homeschooling full time.  What are the pros and cons?  DS has only done rec league type sports.  He wants to run XC; training shouldn't be an issue due to current running habits.  We are considering a math and/or science class (pre calc and physics) and continuing MFW for Bible, history, English, and electives at home.  Thanks!

[Sunshine State Sue]

Ds played basketball for PS in 7th-12th grade.  He has a passion for basketball, and we're glad that he was able to play for the local PS.  There were some hoops to jump through.  Communication was not always wonderful.  He never made any great friends on the team.  OTOH, he was challenged and learned and progressed way more than being the best on the rec team. Overall, the pros far outweighed the cons.

 

In 10th grade and 11th grade, ds took 2 classes at PS.  He took Spanish and PE (and 1 semester of Law Studies).  In 12th grade, he took PE first semester and didn't bother second semester.  Academics at the school were very poor.  I would not have allowed it, but I am often outnumbered in my household.   :tongue_smilie:  

 

HTH!

[Sunshine State Sue]

oops

[Jamee]

My son will be doing two classes at the high school and maybe tennis. He's not very competitive but enjoys the sport. Curious to see how it turns out.

[snowbeltmom]

Both of my boys have played for the high school sports team.  The year my oldest played, he had to take a class at the high school in order to be eligible. Now, homeschoolers don't even have to take a class at the high school - they just have to live in the district.

 

It has been a positive experience for both of them.  They have known many of their teammates since they were 5 and 3 years old, so it has been fun to be able to play for the same high school team.

[In The Great White North]

We have.  Sports works well.  They were before school (crew) and in the evening (swimming), so they didn't disrupt the day.

 

When they took a class, unless it was first thing in the morning, it disrupted the entire day.  

[northcoast]

It's a requirement to be in class at the public school all year to play sports.  I think the biggest problem I have with will be the loss of flexibility/freedom being tied to the school calendar which is different than dh's work calendar at the local college.

 

It's nice that many of you aren't required to take any classes in order to do sports.  That would be my ideal.  :)

 

I think I have a good idea of the time commitment with the sport.  I'm wondering what other questions I should be asking the school.   Did anyone look at the textbooks before deciding on a class?  Meet with the teachers?  We have met the guidance counselor and principal.  It would be nice to hear more pros and cons of a class & sport vs continuing to homeschool full time and just have ds run on his own to be healthy....

 

 

[RootAnn]

At the local PS, kids (boys and girls) who participate in sports also have to do the weight-lifting/training before school in order to be considered for the team. This is in addition to their actual practice time. If they have something else before school (band), they have to make up the weight training some other time.

 

Don't be surprised if there aren't textbooks. Will your kid need a tablet/smart device for the class(es) he wants to take? (Some schools in the Big City issue these to their full-time students and expect them to use them for assignments and contact with teacher.) It would be good to meet with teachers as you might find one that is not supportive of homeschooling.

[NancyNellen]

My two oldest kids decided to take some classes at the local classical public charter school here in CO. (This is a charter school, not a homeschool charter.) We've never lived in a state where this was an option, so it was kind of fun and daunting all at the same time. My oldest took Physics, AP Lang. & Comp., and Engineering: Robotics. He also ran Cross Country and Track. It was a FANTASTIC experience. Like you, I was worried about how it would impact our schedule, primarily the flexibility we had gotten used to. That was an adjustment, but we figured it out and got used to following someone else's schedule pretty easily.

 

We met with the administration ahead of time and heard parent reviews of the classes we were interested in, but did not meet the teachers. They turned out to be really, really solid teachers, thankfully. My daughter's experience was similar, although she did have one teacher who was a bit green - just out of college. My daughter could definitely tell that she was figuring it out as she was going along. But it was still a great class and experience.

 

I found the school to be great at communication - the coaches not so much. They rely a lot on making announcements at school if times or schedules change. Beacuse my kids were only there in the afternoon they always missed the lunchtime announcements. This caused a problem a couple of times when we showed up late or missed a practice entirely. My son just had to keep asking to be emailed or texted if things changed. Eventually, it was all figured out.

 

Track was a different story, as there were 5 or 6 homeschooled kids on the team, many of whom were awesome athletes. Therefore, the coaches made every effort at effective communication.

 

All in all, I am so happy that we made the choice to try it out. I have five kids, had just moved to a new state, and have a husband who travels weekly for work. I needed to outsource something. Science and math are not my strengths, so it was wonderful to have the opportunity for the kids to be taught by people who love the subject and are exceedingly more competent than I at teaching it.

[angela in ohio]

My dd wanted to play softball last year, and you have to be enrolled 2/3 time to play a varsity sport in Michigan. She took her math, science, band, and Spanish at the school for that year. It worked out pretty well, but this year she wanted to move up on her robotics team, so she dropped the sport, as they had overlapping seasons.  She still goes to the PS for Spanish and band, and they pay for her DE classes no. I don't like being tied to their schedule or the negative academic influences, but she likes to be around more people than my other two, so it works out for her.

[Lori D.]

Tell me your experience of putting your child in a public high school class and doing a sport after homeschooling full time.  What are the pros and cons?  DS has only done rec league type sports.  He wants to run XC; training shouldn't be an issue due to current running habits.  We are considering a math and/or science class (pre calc and physics) and continuing MFW for Bible, history, English, and electives at home.  Thanks!

 

Both DSs played on the tennis team at the local public high school. We were not required to also have them take a class. There were no problems at all; we paid the fee (about $50, I think) that everyone has to pay to do the sport, and I had to turn in a transcript of current classes every 4.5 weeks to show their GPA met the minimum standard (this is a district-wide policy for all students participating in sports). The season was only 12 weeks long, so I only had to do that a total of 3 times.

 

DSs didn't have any social problems with team members, but also didn't really connect with anyone, either.

 

While we didn't have to take any classes, and the practices were after school hours, it did mean cutting out something else at home to carve out the time to be gone from 2pm-5pm every day for practices, and then even longer on game days. Esp. for the away matches -- 2 schools were 2 hours away, so DSs had to be at the school at 1pm to ride the bus with the team, and didn't get home until close till midnight. So that day, and the next (recovery day), were kind of trashed for accomplishing very much.

 

However, it was only for a total of 12 weeks, and it was such a great extracurricular opportunity (and we could count it as PE credit), that I'm very glad we did it for 3 years! One DS even got to go to State and participate in the State championship matches! (He got knocked out in round 2, but had lots of fun staying in the hotel over night. ;) )

 

We also had similar communication issues as previous poster -- the coaches didn't remember to email us, so we were always asking each day of practice if there was anything we should know for the following day or for the rest of the week. Usually they knew in advance about any changes or cancellations, so they would let us know during the practices, so we ultimately didn't have any troubles there.

 

Here, the "big" sports of football, basketball, and baseball are packed with the school's students, who are also given priority in playing time, and so homeschoolers (unless they are sports super stars), tend to "warm the bench" for the whole season. Less popular sports (tennis, golf, track, cross-country) aren't a problem.

 

Classes that would be good to choose from would be things that you find difficult to do at home -- most people find that math, science or foreign language are what they most want to outsource.

 

If your DS is at all considering participating in sports at the college level, be sure you are following NCAA regulations for eligibility all through high school -- that includes what credits you need to accomplish, and *how* you accomplish them. Sports in college can mean scholarships! So if your DS is an eager runner and good at it, take a very serious look at NCAA rules and what options that might open up for your DS for colleges. Sue in St Pete who posted up thread can help you there -- she just graduated her DS who has a basketball scholarship to play in college.

[MicheleinMN]

Ds played a sport for all 4 years of high school.  We are not required to take any classes to participate just pay the regular fees and have the same sports physical as everyone else.  The one downside, which you will probably not have but we did, was that we often didn't get notification of changes in a timely manner.  By not being at the school during the day, we were out of the loop for time and/or program changes which I found quite frustrating.  I was signed up to receive all the same notifications by text or cell phone, but somehow I didn't receive notices when I should have.  We got most of our information second or third hand, but the actual participation in the sport was fine.

 

If I had a choice about signing up for a class, I would pick the one closest to time for the sports practice

 

HTH.

[In The Great White North]

 

 

At the local PS, kids (boys and girls) who participate in sports also have to do the weight-lifting/training before school in order to be considered for the team.

:thumbdown:    Is this a state rule of the local school?  It's a horrible, injury-prone idea.  Weight-lifting is developmentally inappropriate for most high schoolers and needs a lot of supervision.

 

That would eliminate it for me altogether.

[northcoast]

Thanks to all that posted about not being in the loop with communication.  That is very helpful to know as is NCAA stuff.  I wasn't even thinking that far ahead.  He just started running this year.  He's a little afraid that a sport will take too much time.  I think he'll learn to adapt.   We can always just do one season. 

 

Thanks again for all the replies.  You can still chime in if there are more thoughts. 

[RootAnn]

:thumbdown:    Is this a state rule of the local school?  It's a horrible, injury-prone idea.  Weight-lifting is developmentally inappropriate for most high schoolers and needs a lot of supervision.

 

That would eliminate it for me altogether.

 

I think it is a local school rule, but I don't really have any other relatives/friends in other parts of the state to know if other schools do this, too. The local PS is really huge on sports -- esp. football, but I know the cross-country, volleyball (girls), and basketball (girls & boys) kids all have to do it. I don't know anyone whose kids are in the other sports, but I assume they also have to - based on what I've heard. It is billed as "strength training."

[Lori D.]

He's a little afraid that a sport will take too much time.  I think he'll learn to adapt.   We can always just do one season. 

 

Yes, just try it and see if you like it! DS#1 did 3 years (10-12th grades). DS#2 also did 3 years (9th-11th); he really didn't want to continue for senior year, so we didn't. That opened the door for other things, such as dual enrollment classes at the community college. So, it's all good. :)

 

We ended up more heavily weighting the schedule with our academic credits in the fall and early spring, and then easing up for the 12 weeks of the sport. A few summers we went a few weeks into summer to finish up math, but there were other factors other than sports participation that contributed to that.

 

We did some of the Lit. reading aloud together on the weekends and in the evenings to free up a bit more time during the day.

 

But really, we just worked hard and steadily in the mornings/early afternoons, knowing that the sport was coming that afternoon and that we just needed to get done. It really didn't require too much time-juggling. :) The only thing that may be problematic is if you're also doing any online classes, dual enrollment, or other local class options, as then your schedules for the various things start to conflict…

 

 

That is very helpful to know as is NCAA stuff.

 

 

If interested, check out post #5 of the pinned thread, Transcripts… College Prep… past threads linked here -- there are a number of linked threads all about NCAA that are very helpful, with lots of real-life tips and experiences. :) And here is a very helpful FAQ on college cross country running.

 

And here's an interesting article on college scholarships for cross country runners, plus a chart on # of scholarships available to cross country runners.

[mckive6]

My dd started cross country in 9th grade. Our town does not required to take classes in order to participate. She really enjoyed the experience, and the team. She made two close friends, who are now in college, but always run with her when they are home. She's fairly quiet and has just a few close friends so this was wonderful. And, practice didn't start until 3:00, even though school was out at 2:00. This year, she did decide to take honors chemistry. She knew the teacher because she attended all the meets. She also talks to other students about the classes she's interested in, and finds out what the teachers are like. She likes to be sure the class will be challenging. That is a benefit to getting to know the school kids.

 

Her class was first period which was great because it forced her to start school at 7:20am. That really helped. With a schedule full of AP classes, honors, etc, and participating in varsity sports all 3 seasons, It was hard for her to do her electives daily, so we are finishing them now.

 

Pauline