Not Another Homeschool Blog

 In short.... yes.  Yes, homeschooled students can and do attend college. College admissions processes typically consider a variety of factors, such as standardized test scores, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and, importantly, academic records. For homeschooled students, this academic record may take the form of a transcript, which details the courses they have completed and the grades they have received. It's essential for homeschooled students to demonstrate their academic abilities and achievements through their application materials. This might include providing a comprehensive transcript, submitting standardized test scores (such as the SAT or ACT), and, in some cases, providing portfolios of work or taking subject-specific tests. Additionally, letters of recommendation and personal statements can help admissions officers understand the student's unique educational background and goals. It's important for homeschooled students and their parents ...

My son got his college diploma in the mail yesterday!  His GPA is good.  His GPA for his Major is impressive.  I know I've said I would not hinge his post homeschooling success on his homeschooling, but ... it is hard not to. He was homeschooled.  He went to college.  It was hard.  But he finished and finished well. Now, the question is what kind of job will he get.  All sure-fire possibilities are close to the college in a town he does not want to live in... so the search begins.  Also, his dad and I are trying to get him to consider grad school.  30 credits to a Masters degree.  He's thinking about it. Actual graduation is in December.  He'd like to skip it.  We are going and acting a fool.

Not a little boy anymore! As a former homeschooling mom, I should probably mention that my son is done with college.  Official graduation is December, so he is seeking an internship in the meanwhile. So proud.  3.45 GPA... after having a slow start, this is nothing short of miraculous. Homeschooling did prepare him for college, but I can see where he would have had a better start had we done some dual enrollment to prepare him for the AMOUNT of work that was required... once he got acclimated, he was great!

All my kids' friends are college age right now.  Some about to graduate, and a few still to enter college. From my own kids' experience and observing and inquiring into the college journey of their homeschooled friends, I have come to the conclusion that college can be difficult for homeschoolers, and while many make it through completely unscathed, very many become disillusioned quite quickly and struggle or drop out. Just starting with the fact that they are homeschooled and used to doing things in a way that makes sense to them and only them, bending to a teachers whims and quirks is off-putting and difficult to maneuver. In short, the freedom they experienced as homeschoolers, can cause problems when it disappears suddenly when they reach college. All of a sudden things that have never counted, and probably should not count are deal-breakers.  My own son was penalized greatly for things like, not using the plagarism check tool correctly and thus losing a grade point, not...

The kids are at their respective colleges and I am in the process of reclaiming and reorganizing our home.  As this is the youngest one's 2nd year at college, I feel comfortable infringing into their space a little, where necessary, and working to make the house work best for my husband and myself. For example, my son pretty much has the entire basement to himself, and I will be reclaiming the exercise room as a storage room to get rid of clutter all over the house.  I am also thinking of claiming an area for sewing, and of course what exercise equipment I don't give away, will go in the large space outside his bedroom. I will also be putting some of my daughters items in said storage room to make her room more presentable and buying a bigger bed for her room for the occasional guest when she is not here.  (Not really planning any guests... ever, but it is nice to know I have an extra clean bedroom if the need arises.) In the meanwhile, I posted about the set up of th...

I am still buried in packing bins (plastic boxes from Walmart), Ikea Bags, and Space saver bags.  My daughter asked me to help her organize her belongings, but at the same time, she is also calling me anal retentive. The good news is with careful packing, unpacking becomes a breeze as the items are organized intuitively and can just be slid into drawers or set in it's appropriate place. This is all of the hanging clothes I am sending out... less than half from last years amount, even though she has twice the closet space. The hardest part is preventing her from bringing all of her clothing to college.  So I insisted on X number of pants, shirts, dresses, skirts, etc... enough clothes to last 3 weeks, which is plenty if you do laundry twice a month.  I put each type of clothing in either a dress bag, or rolled it military style and put it in a space bag, then in a bin (all the non hanging clothes fit in one bin!) Then there are the bins for all the other stuff. ...

I'm really happy to have my college age kids home!  As much as I want them near me, I was dreading the tornado that was sure to accompany their return. But believe it or not, I came in this morning from the gym to find a clean kitchen.. and now they are organizing their college bins and belongings in the basement until August when they leave again...  #proud. I need to get my job done now and get them materials for the CLEP & DSST exams they plan to take this summer, so they can get to studying.   I wish they had taken more of them during their high school years, but they just weren't ready.   Well, they're ready now! After comparing learning from a professor vs learning on their own...  wherever possible, they would much rather learn on their own. Good for them... they're still homeschoolers at heart.

I talked about how homeschooling is all done and I'm ready to move forward, but am I really, really, ready to move forward?  I honestly and truly want to help them navigate their way through college. When I was in college, I wasn't exactly first generation in my family, but I was the first person to not go to the college down the road. I was the first person to strike out on my own, and the first person to live with roommates, and the first person to not get financial aid, and so I had to also work my way through college. I amassed a lot of information during that time, and I made a lot of mistakes and miss steps.  I would love to be able to help my kids with this and to help them ask the right questions, so they can navigate better, and even then ask the right questions for their own kids in the future. Hovering looks different where my two kids are concerned. Let's start with the oldest.  He's all business.  He's serious.  He's hard

What an adventure!  So daughter and I went to NY for her college spring break.  I don't know how many times I have left to get her all to myself, so I grabbed onto this opportunity while she is still under 18. We saw Lion King, and If/Then, a new play starring Idina Menzel (Adele Dazeem per John Travolta).  We also met with some friends, had dinner with my dad, and shopped until we literally dropped. The thing that stood out to the most in my week with my daughter who is 3/4 of the way through her freshman year in college is that she is all grown up.  She makes decisions easily. She navigated NY like a pro, dragging me along. And thank goodness, her sense of direction is better than mine. She makes wise food and shopping choices, and she's got a quick wit and off-beat sense of humor.  I love being around her. I know that our week was just a snapshot of things to come because she fully  intends to move to NY when she finishes her degree to get a MFA ...

It is tech week.  That means my daughter is in a play, and she has been in dress rehearsals all week, followed by numerous showings from Thursday through Saturday.  Normally during tech week, I fill up my car with gas, and prepare myself to fill it for a second time.  That is followed by buying tons of fast food as she will be "living" at the theatre that week, and also helping out with the productions costumes.  In the past, this also meant that my son was living in the tech room of the theatre, and so they were involved in the same activity. This tech week it is something else entirely, as it has nothing to do with me.  Yes, she is living at the theatre, but I am not driving her anywhere.  I am not buying fast food. I am not working on costumes... at the single most crushing aspect that I am having a hard time to swallow- I am only going to see the show once!  Normally, even if there are 5 or 6 shows in 3 days, I see every single show and make it a...

... And I thought teaching them was taxing. From dealing with son's financials, which are a mess due to late application and etc over the summer, and dealing with daughter's roommate issues, I am exhausted. Son's money is straight now and he will have his cash for the semester shortly.  Next year, I will just save up money over the summer and skip the loan.  I'd rather be broke for a minute than to be treated like I am trying to get a handout when I am still paying back the stinking loan, so that is that. Daughter's roommate moved out before you can say "hello, my name is..."  As a mom, I was pretty unhappy, seeing as they met last winter, hit it off, and decided to pair up.  But ex roomie wanted privacy, and they are still friendly, so that is that. Hopefully new roomie will be quieter than my kid suspects cause little homie has a scholarship and needs quiet study time.   On the plus side, my kids are having an easy time with academics so it's a...

Yes, why yes I did. I guess a homeschool mom's work is never done. Last year when my son started college, I introduced him to my Grammarly account which I use to help me with editing.  Since he is an intensely private person, I knew he didn't want me reading his papers, but I knew that he (we all) could use a second set of eyes on his work. This year, I instructed daughter to use the college writing center, as she would gladly let someone else look at her work, but since they are not opened yet, this early into the semester, she sent her papers to me for an extra set of eyes.  Instead of making a correction for her, I used a tool in Microsoft Word that let's me make comments on the side of the page. This way I could point out grammar issues without changing the meaning or intended meaning of anything she wrote. I really enjoyed being called upon for a little help from my girl, though I realize these requests will become fewer and further apart over time. I don...

I am talking to my kids daily at this point, so I still feel pretty connected, but as I said to my daughter last night... I miss your face. It is a line stolen from an online news personality, who at the end of his news updates says "I love your faces", and my daughter and I love the sentiment, so we have made it ours too. I am going to visit them tomorrow because they forgot stuff (yeah... because they forgot stuff), but mostly to see their faces. Meanwhile, I am still not crying, but hubby is a wreck!  He has talked the boy, now 19 into taking his road test so we can get him a car... just for our own peace of mind that he's now hitching rides from crazies. That is all. Have a nice day :-)

The day you drop your kids off at college they hand the kids an orientation schedule and they hand the parents an orientation schedule. A big part of the parents orientation is THE TALK.  It goes something like this.   Your kids are adults now.  Your relationship with them is going to change.  It is not going to be easy but they are going to be fine.  They also advises us on FERPA laws that state we need our kids' permission to access their information.  Where the talk from each school differed is in the level of involvement they want from the parents. At son's first university last summer, they told us to back off... Give them space. Don't visit too much.  Don't expect or request phone calls. They are our responsibility now, and we will take care of them.. We listened, and for my son... This was bad advice. He is now at a new school.  His new school said, talk regularly and gave us advice on how to phrase questions to make sure every thing is OK....

So I got up again at 6am this morning, and drove 2 hours to my son's new (State) college to make sure his money was processed.  Honestly, this issue could have been handled by phone, but they are seriously short staffed, so I drove all the way there, wrote my name on a piece of paper, after a bunch of other people, waited an hour and 45 minutes, and then we got to speak to the financial aid counselor. I am going to stop here and say something that might sound elitist.  There should be a separate office for people getting loans than the one for people getting state grants.  Firstly, the knowledge base is different, so there should be different specialists.  Second, the demeanor of the clients is different.  Most of the people getting free money were showing out, when the people getting loans sat calmly and waited their turn.  Yes, I know who was who, because everyone was being counseled out in the open where you could hear their business... but I digress. ...

Please excuse my absence.  I have been up to my eyebrows in taking care of college stuff for my eldest who has transferred from a private to a public college. I can tell you this though.  Private colleges make the payment and financial aid loan process soooo much easier.  Based on working with two private colleges, and one public, I feel like the public college is completely clueless and non communicative. Right now I am fearful that classes and dorm rooms will get cancelled because of some paperwork that did not get processed correctly, and I am seriously exhausted trying to figure it all out. Sooo.. if you are looking at a public college for your kids, I will first say start early, very early to make sure all the t's are crossed, and i's are dotted.  Then, keep checking on things because stuff can blow up at any moment!

I have been in a bit of a tizzy this week because my son has had some issues in college.  In my mind, success of homeschooling would be based on success after homeschooling.  This means I have tied the job I have done, and even my self worth to their success.  But life has a way of kicking you in the butt doesn't it?  So when son announced that this semester was not going as well as he thought and that a school transfer might be in order, it was as if someone had punched me in the gut. FAILURE.  That was all I heard.  Not my son's failure, because he wasn't doing THAT bad, he wasn't on academic probation or anything.  He was just having a hard time. But was the failure mine for not adequately preparing him for college.  That's how I felt. When I decided to homeschool, it was clear to me that if the kids continued on the track they were on that they would never-ever even make it to college.  This particular child had taken to not speaking ...

Son just cut off about 10 years of hair growth (10-20 inches).  No more long carefree braids.  He has a professional looking haircut now. After the haircut we spent the day driving to a state college to check out the campus.  It was pretty close to the school my daughter is going to, so we then drove a couple of routes to see how long and what was the best way to get from one school to another.  Chances are (though not definite) that my son will transfer colleges for fall.  Filling out application now. The transfer will be even cheaper then where he is, even with scholarships.  The only reason the school was not considered before is that the program had been a 2 year program for a AA in New Media, now it is 4 years, with a BA in New Media. The school is so inexpensive in fact, that we may be able to swing a car that they can share if he actually changes colleges. I hate that he is transferring so soon, but he was just tolerating his current school, ...

My son's freshman year of college is almost over.  Hubby and I drove up the the school yesterday to bring home a load of items that he would not be using this week, to make our Wednesday run to pick him up easier.  We discussed grades and GPA and he admitted that he struggles with the size of his course load.  He would like to take some CLEP exams over the summer to knock some of the liberal arts classes out of the way, allowing him a smaller course load next year.  I am in agreement, and called the school to check it out.  He just needs his advisors permission, so that is almost settled. With summer jobs scarce in my area it is more likely that my college bound daughter, and my college boy will be homeschooling over the summer, taking CLEP exams that their school allows so they can have an easier time next year. I doubt they will need much help from me, or any nagging at all, but it is good to know they still have a little homeschooler left in them. FREE...

I've had the pleasure of noticing a glut of articles and email list advice about guiding children to the "right" majors and careers.  It kind of floors me that homeschoolers have also jumped on this bandwagon. I know we all want to make sure our kids become financially secure, but career engineering, in my opinion, will not help our kids. (Yes, I am biased. I am a creative person and so are my kids, so do with this advice what you will.)  Still, If we point all of our kids to the top 10 college majors for top earners, within 10 years that career choice will be overpopulated. That is just the obvious problem. The other problem, as I see it is that not everyone is wired for those top earning jobs. This means they won't be competitive in their field. They will be at the bottom of the pile professionally and financially. That also won't do much for their emotional well being either.  Meanwhile, that kid that was wired for one of those touchy-feely caree...