X-Post from AL Board: Thoughts?

[hippymamato3]

Hello,

My DD is 11 and two years (technically, but actually more) accelerated in an online charter school. This places her starting high school this fall, which concerns me socially. She is mature for her age, but that doesn't mean she's ready for all that high school entails. We agreed to the acceleration hoping it would give her a challenge, but she's still not really challenged and is currently taking all high school honors level courses. We have a few options: homeschool next year and start high school the following year; send her to a very prestigious prep school this fall for high school; continue in her charter school; investigate local private schools, likely religious. I don't think it makes sense to hold her back a year, because academically she'd be extremely bored and with severe ADHD I'm not sure that wouldn't lead to behavior issues like chatting too much, etc. We would like her to have more opportunities to make friends, which is why in-person school is appealing. She is leaning toward continuing in her charter school (knowing she can do DE college classes through them), but is open to other ideas. Doing that would have her potentially graduating HS in just 3 years or less.  Any thoughts?

Thanks

Edited March 2, 2021 by hippymamato3

[wendyroo]

To me, it seems like her current online charter is the worst of all worlds - no challenge, graduating too soon, and limited opportunities to form friendships.

For my 11 year old, who is working about 4 year ahead and also has ADHD (and autism and anxiety), we have chosen homeschooling. I don't have to slow down his academics (he is earning 3 high school credits this year), but he won't be pressured into graduating early because I can always offer him broader and deeper things to learn. And finding peers is not a challenge for us - around here, my kids could be doing meet-ups, field trips and homeschool extracurriculars every day if they wanted.

What is the homeschool community like in your area?

[hippymamato3]

8 minutes ago, wendyroo said:

To me, it seems like her current online charter is the worst of all worlds - no challenge, graduating too soon, and limited opportunities to form friendships.

For my 11 year old, who is working about 4 year ahead and also has ADHD (and autism and anxiety), we have chosen homeschooling. I don't have to slow down his academics (he is earning 3 high school credits this year), but he won't be pressured into graduating early because I can always offer him broader and deeper things to learn. And finding peers is not a challenge for us - around here, my kids could be doing meet-ups, field trips and homeschool extracurriculars every day if they wanted.

What is the homeschool community like in your area?

The homeschool community (which we belonged to until 2 years ago) was thriving before COVID. Our co-op ended when it lost the space we had previously used and I don't think that will come back (that was a year before COVID.) Homeschooling through high school isn't common here, and it would not provide many social opportunities.

I don't know that she'd be pressured to graduate early through the charter, but would definitely end up doing community college classes online through the charter if we kept her in there for high school. She likes the wide range of courses she is able to take, and at any level, but she would also be able to do that at the prep school or even the local high school. 

Edited March 2, 2021 by hippymamato3

[Lori D.]

@Dmmetler's accelerated DD started dual enrollment community college at age 12 for the academic challenge she needed, but has done age-level community activities such as cheer squad, music, and other things for the socializing and friendships.

[hippymamato3]

Just now, Lori D. said:

@Dmmetler's accelerated DD started dual enrollment community college at age 12 for the academic challenge she needed, but has done age-level community activities such as cheer squad, music, and other things for the socializing and friendships.

This is something I'd like to look into also. I know here it goes by grade as reported to the state BOE, so she'd be with high school kids in the fall - but for something like Track & Field that would probably be fine. 

[Dmmetler]

Club sports, which is what we did, tend to be grouped by age, not by grade. It did lead to a kind of interesting situation, where L was possibly the only Super Junior in the USASF (Super seniors are kids who are still eligible to cheer for a year after graduating high school, due to birthdate and cheer cutoffs sometimes coming before school ones). L, at the time, was a 12 yr old on a junior (14u) team-but was also a college student, and we had to turn in the college transcript to demonstrate GPA. 

We did leave the official status as dual enrollment and kept filing as a homeschooler because no one was quite sure if graduating before age 16 was even legal in our state. This also kept eligiblity for freshman scholarships, although most schools have accepted a lot of credits. 

 

Until COVID, it was a nice balance. Friend activities, sports, music, etc with age peers, academics at the college level, in the honors college at the community college, ticking boxes on the high school transcript, but also taking a lot of courses that just sounded interesting. 

[8filltheheart]

I'd be even more concerned about early graduation with a younger student with severe ADD.  College takes a lot of executive functioning and maturity that may lead to more problems, not fewer.

My accelerated kids have gone very deep and broad in their areas of interest.  One of my kids studied 3 languages, took history and literature courses in  French.  She translated a fairy tale from Russian to English.  She read epic poetry (which she loved).  Another took multiple sciences every yr and designed courses around astronomy and physics.  One of the classes on his transcript was on black holes and dark matter.  He had courses in philosophy and theology.

There are innumerable topics that can be studied outside of the traditional brick and mortar sequence.  Instead of just moving forward through what schools offer, you could offer her a wider range of subjects that offer challenges that most students don't get the opportunity to ever study.

[hippymamato3]

8 hours ago, 8filltheheart said:

I'd be even more concerned about early graduation with a younger student with severe ADD.  College takes a lot of executive functioning and maturity that may lead to more problems, not fewer.

My accelerated kids have gone very deep and broad in their areas of interest.  One of my kids studied 3 languages, took history and literature courses in  French.  She translated a fairy tale from Russian to English.  She read epic poetry (which she loved).  Another took multiple sciences every yr and designed courses around astronomy and physics.  One of the classes on his transcript was on black holes and dark matter.  He had courses in philosophy and theology.

There are innumerable topics that can be studied outside of the traditional brick and mortar sequence.  Instead of just moving forward through what schools offer, you could offer her a wider range of subjects that offer challenges that most students don't get the opportunity to ever study.

These are great ideas! Thank you. I am really not excited about her graduating two years early.

Edited March 3, 2021 by hippymamato3