Patti's Homeschool Mentoring

Straight to College: Homeschoolers Skipping High School

What If You Don't Do High School OR Get a GED?

 

More and more homeschoolers are skipping the high school option - including the GED or Graduate Equivalency Diploma - and heading straight to college ... community college, that is! No, I'm not talking about dual enrollment either. Just pure old college credits!

 

College INSTEAD of High School? 

Is it okay to skip high school?

 

Some homeschool families are choosing to not choose high school, but to bypass it altogether. No high school transcript, no dual enrollment, no GED (high school graduate equivalency diploma). Instead, they just begin acquiring college credits from community college sometime around age 14 to 16, ending with a smooth transfer of credits to a four-year college or university at some later time. With 60 hours of college credit from a junior college or community college, a high school transcript is not even requested when one transfers to another college! (Note that community college may be available at different ages in different states.)

 

 

Albert Einstein

Einstein dropped out of college and tested into the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and of course went on to become a Nobel-prize winning physicist.

 

 

The Teenage Liberation Handbook 

How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education

 

Here is the original teenage manifesto from Grace Llewellyn. Teens are not older children, they are young adults, and are capable and smart enough to be charting their own path without recourse to a cookie cutter education. Not limited to homeschoolers, Llewellyn urges teens everywhere to quit school and start living their real lives.

 

 

 

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education

 

by: Grace Llewellyn

 

Amazon Price: (as of 02/24/2011)

This is a very dangerous book. It contradicts all the conventional wisdom about dropouts and the importance of a formal education. It is funny and inspiring. Do not, under any circumstances, share this book with a bright, frustrated high-schooler being ground into mind fudge by the school system. This writer cannot be responsible for the happiness and sense of personal responsibility that might result. ~ Bloomsbury Review

 

 Is High School Necessary? 

Or is it just busywork to keep our young adults off the streets?

 

Are high school classes just a waste of time on things that could be better learned in college or college at home?

 

~ High School Dropouts ~ U.S. Presidents

 

George Washington

Abraham Lincoln

Martin Van Buren

Andrew Jackson

Zachary Taylor

Millard Fillmore

Grover Cleveland

 

also:

Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Paine

 

Who Skips High School? 

And why would anyone want to?

 

I met a girl who told me she had not graduated from high school nor taken the GED, and yet here she was, taking university classes. She had not been homeschooled, but did her junior year of high school as a transfer student to New Zealand. When she came back to the States, her school board decided they were not interested in figuring out how her credits should be transferred to her high school transcript. Instead, they wanted her to just redo her junior year during what should have been her senior year. Instead she dropped out of high school and worked as a nanny for a year, since her state did not allow her to enroll as a full-time student in community college until age 18. At 18, she enrolled in community college and acquired 60 hours of credits; then transferred directly to a university in another state. No one ever asked to see her high school transcript.

 

Immediately, this became my plan for my own children, I already knew I would homeschoo). Now that I homeschool, I am becoming aware that many of my homeschooling friends with children older than mine already know about this exciting option and are taking advantage of it - and doing incredibly well!

 

 

~ High School Dropouts ~ Millionaires & Billionaires

 

Thomas Edison

John D. Rockefeller Sr.

Andrew Carnegie

Henry Ford

Walt Disney

Dave Thomas (Wendy's)

Ray Kroc (McDonald's)

Harlan Sanders (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

George Eastman (Kodak)

Amadeo Peter Giannini (Bank of America)

Frederick Royce (Rolls Royce)

Jim Clark (Netscape)

Jimmy Dean (Jimmy Dean Foods)

Kemmons Wilson (Holiday Inn)

 

College Without High School 

A Teenager's Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College

 

 

Blake Boles shares what homeschoolers have known for decades: teens are thriving everywhere without attending school! Blake will inspire you to seize the day and live well now, with every bit of confidence that the doors to college will be wide open to you. I am thrilled to have another messenger trumpet the truth that school is optional. I recommend all parents and educators to acquaint themselves with this information.

~ Kenneth Danforth, North Star Self-Directed Learning for Teens

 

 

 College Without High School: A Teenager's Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College

 

by: Blake Boles

 

Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 02/24/2011)

It is possible to pursue your dreams and gain admission to any college of your choice. The guidebook shows how to fulfill college admission requirements by proving five preparatory results: intellectual passion, leadership, logical reasoning, background knowledge, and the capacity for structured learning. The author, who leads teenage unschoolers on educational adventures, offers several suggestions for life-changing, confidence-building activities that will demonstrate those results. Students begin by defining their goals and dreams and then pursue them through a combination of meaningful and engaging adventures. ~ book description

 

How Do They Do It? 

How does it work?

 

Of course there are teens, and even younger, who enroll full-time in college or university. That is not exactly what we're talking about here. This discussion is about the teen who, while living at home, begins to take community college classes one or two at a time. Often they will begin with a class of high interest, whether it will count properly toward a degree or not, in order to get used to the college atmosphere without the added pressure of a stressful class. Moving from art or clay or language into literature and math and science, the student begins to accumulate college credits that will eventually count toward a degree. There is no rush to "finish" anything by age 18; neither a high school transcript nor a transfer to a full university.

 

Many homeschoolers choose the option of dual enrollment. This is where a high school student attends community college and gets dual credit, for both high school and college credits. If this is the only option available, okay ... but I'm not sure I see the point. If one is getting college credit for a class, what is the point of getting high school credit too? It seems like a total redundancy to me.

 

 

What Do You Think? 

Is it okay for homeschooled kids to skip high school altogether?

 

~ High School Dropouts ~ Artists & Musicians

 

George Gershwin

John Philip Sousa

Claude Monet

Irving Berlin

Ansel Adams

Duke Ellington

Jack Benny

Count Basie

Louis Armstrong

 

Favorite Latin Curriculum

For SAT prep use The Latin Road to English Grammar is great.  This program does require the parent to learn and work with the child. http://www.thelatinroad.com/latinroad/ 

 Review from Cathy Duffy Homeschool  Reviews:

http://cathyduffyreviews.com/foreign-language/lively-latin.htm 

Forget direct comparisons to other Latin programs; this one is really different. It combines instruction in English grammar with Latin, eliminating the need to use anything else for those subjects in most situations. The author states that students as young as fourth grade level have successfully worked through Volume I, although it will be more appropriate for most students who are at fifth grade level or beyond. It should work well with students beginning at junior or senior high levels

 

We also like English from The Roots Up, and these days we just use the flash cards, to rave reviews by the kids who love studying this way, as a game in our Mom School Latin Study Group.http://www.amazon.com/English-Roots-Up-Vol-T/dp/0964321033  

 

 

Review from Amazon Reviews: 

Amazon review: 

 

This review is from: English from the Roots Up, Vol. 1: Help for Reading, Writing, Spelling, and S.A.T. Scores (Plastic Comb)

English From The Roots Up is an excellent vocabulary and spelling tool for any age student--including the child who is learning to read, especially with phonics, and can write or the high school student trying to prepare for college entrance exams. It develops words from Latin and Greek roots using simple nemonic devices--index cards outlined in red for Latin or green for Greek, which you make yourself. Students learn one root at a time, and from that root are given examples where it's used. Recognizing Greek or Latin roots in English words enables the student to determine the definition and spelling of unknown words. The exercise is consistent for each root--learn the definition of the root, learn words that have that root and the definitions of those words as well. The lessons build on one another. Elementary children think it's fun, believe it or not, because they find themselves discovering big words that don't intimidate them anymore. They also have fun making up new words based on the roots they've learned. I have my 1st grader working through the lessons along with my 4th grader. We learn one root and the words associated with that root, master it and move on to the next at their pace. The book calls for making the cards on 3x5 index cards, but 4x6 or even 5x7 would be better in my opinion. I can't even write small enough to get the words with the root and their definitions on a single 3x5, much less a 5 or 9 y/o child.

 

I've just discovered Lively Latin and,  it is all the buzz in the Classical Liberal Arts Home School Community because students can self study using this program. I've read many great reviews,and Cathy Duffy's is the best, giving much detail.  We just purchased this program for our fourteen year old, and will let you all know how it goes. 

http://www.livelylatin.com/site/index.php  

 Review from Cathy Duffy Homeschool Reviews:

http://cathyduffyreviews.com/foreign-language/lively-latin.htm

After years of teaching Latin to homeschooled students with existing curricula and doing a lot of adaptation, Catherine Drown decided it was time to create her own program for teaching Latin to students in the elementary grades.

There were a number of elements she decided were essential for her ideal program:

• Study of English derivatives so students "could use their Latin knowledge to become more articulate and attentive to meaning in their own language."
• History of Rome incorporated into the course with related activities such as maps, timelines, internet links, and review.
• Use of traditional methods for learning Latin—recitation, chanting, parsing, and translating, but with a bit more fun and variety than in other programs.
• An  online component for students to play vocabulary games and connect with other students.
• A program that is easy for both parents and students to use--requires minimal preparation and presentation time from the teacher and allows students to do a great deal of their work independently. 
• Assumes no prior Latin study by the parent.
• Allows you to choose either ecclesiastical or classical pronunciation.

All of this available at an affordable price without having to purchase extra components!

In my opinion, Lively Latin lives up to its name. Even though the methodology is quite traditional, the mix of multi-sensory learning methods and use of stories and art should be more appealing to most students than most other options trying to cover comparable material.