Click here to enlarge

Thanks to Homeschool Math Blog for this great link!

CLEP Tests...

For a fun summer project, Neal, Ken and I will be taking the Information Systems and Computer Applications CLEP exam next month or so. The tests are free for my husband and I, and cost about $100 each for the boys. That's pretty cheap for three to six college credits, not to mention the savings in gas, time, etc.



We got a CD-ROM with an information outline and practice tests. I looked over the outline for a few minutes and then tried the exam. Eighty-one out of 100. Not bad, especially considering that sixty is passing!

CLEP / AP Courseware - Information Systems & Computer Applications


So now I'm going to offer the boys a prize if they can beat my score on the actual test. And maybe they can do dishes for a week if I win!

My Mad, Mad Love for The Teaching Company

When kids make the transition into True Teenhood, it can be hard to satisfy their innate curiosity without boring them to tears : that is, the format in which they learn may bore them excruciatingly.


For instance, while Neal may love to read, he finds that most textbooks are mentally anesthetic. They give stock answers to unenticingly-asked questions, then proceed to make it sound as if all the answers have been found. This make subjects like science, which are intrinsically  fascinating, into Butt-blasting Boredom with a capital 'B' or two.


Happily, Neal has taken quite well to dvds and such from The Teaching Company (no $$ or free products have exchanged hands here, : we have really, honestly used and enjoyed them after paying with our own hard-earned monies.) We've used ones on Algebra, history (we're currently using The Early Middle Ages set), World History (the ones for High school are great fun and very memorable) and science (cosmology and more.) Neal gets college-level teaching that respects his curiosity and caters a bit to his need for a bit of entertainment and variety. It works well all around.


The DVDs are pricey, but watch the site for sales. All of the sets go on sale quite regularly at amazing discounts. Occasionally, used ones are available on Amazon or Ebay. They have a great resale value also!

Deciding Whether to Homeschool High School

Homeschooling High School can be fun and rewarding, especially if you have a teenager who wants to learn. It can also be difficult and stressful. Here are a few things to consider before you take on the challenge:

• Research your local school's policies on admitting homeschoolers later in the education process. In the state in which we live, one school may accept all a homeschool's courses as transferred credits, while another may insist on stating all students as Freshmen (first-years). In one case, the school took all of the credits that the student had some evidence for...except Physical Education! This can mean that, once the choice has been made to remove the child or homeschool high school, it can be difficult to decide to put a child into high school.
• Consider your child's maturity level and ability to teach herself. Some young people are quite comfortable with directing their own education from age thirteen on, while others need a kick in the pants to do anything. The self-starters are easy to deal with: the less self-directed may offer more challenges. Sometimes making it clear to the child that the time has come for them to take more responsibility will change their approach to things. A bit more maturity is also a key factor!
• Think about the resources available in your community. What could you use to add to the educational experiences? What could you use to teach the subjects that you are not proficient in? Online courses are available everywhere, community colleges often welcome younger students for a course or two, as in post-secondary classes, where they give credit for both high school and college for the same class. Maybe a grandparent or friend, or paid tutor would be able to help out.
• Discuss your child's vision for her future with her. College? Trade school? Apprenticeship? Starting a business? Help her to see how what is available and what it will take to get her where she wants to go. Can she shadow someone to learn about a possible career? Can she try out a part-time job in a field that interests her?
• Keep good records of his academic life...and anything remotely related. From clubs to volunteer work to courses completed, document it all. Check out various college pages on homeschooling to get an idea. For instance, the USAF Academy has a clear picture, as does Mary Baldwin College and Amherst. Keep in mind, though, that many colleges are not nearly so strict: all our local community college required was that my son be basically literate. Most colleges are very happy to help homeschoolers, though, so don't be intimidated.
• Be sure to keep your child's desires in mind. Many homeschooled kids who start in school are not very happy with it within a short period of time, so maybe a happy medium is in order. Some public and private schools will allow a student to enroll part-time, so this option could be considered.
• For a very bright, motivated student, consider the option of skipping high school and starting college online. Many online schools don't require a high school diploma to take courses, and all the courses don't have to be taken from one school. Here are a few very respected, fully-accredited colleges that can be good for homeschoolers:

Charter Oak State College’s motto is "Degrees Without Boundaries." Headquartered in New Britain, Connecticut, they will take homeschooled students beginning at age 16, though students may take courses from other schools earlier and transfer the credits. The cost of advisement and 12 credits per year is $3750 for one year for an out-of-state resident.

Excelsior College, formerly known as Regent’s College was founded in 1971 by the Board of Regents of The University of the State of New York as an external studies degree-granting program. They also have a very useful Credit Banking service which will, for a fee, allow you to keep all your credits from various sources on one transcript, which can be useful when documenting educational experiences for employers or colleges.

Thomas Edison State College works mostly with those twenty-one and over, but they sometimes accept younger students with college credits already banked up. A non-New Jersey resident will pay about $5800 for a year of up to 36 credits, earned in many ways, and $5100 for subsequent years.

Time For College!

It used to be that homeschooling families approached colleges with some fear and trepidation. The path to admission was quirky and nonsensical, and the hoops that needed to be jumped through were often ridiculous…if the school would even consider accepting a non-traditionally-schooled person. Homeschoolers had no access to federal scholarships, and colleges rarely gave any money to them.

Things have changed, and definitely for the better. Homeschoolers are entering college in record numbers, with higher test scores than their public school counterparts.

“Home educated students generally score at the 65th to 80th percentile on achievement tests, 15 to 30 percentile points higher than those in public schools,” writes Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. of the National Home Education Research Institute. They also tend to stay in college and finish on time, often with above-average grades. This makes them very desirable students.

The Financial Aid picture has changed also. Thanks to the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998 (Pub. L. No. 105-244), the student is eligible for Federal Aid if “the student has completed a secondary school education in a homeschool setting that is treated as a homeschool or a private school under state law. That’s all that is necessary. No GED, no special tests, just a homeschool diploma. The law also discourages colleges from discriminating against homeschoolers, and encourages them to accept students on the basis of their ability, not the accreditation of their school.

This played out very well recently when I took my seventeen-year-old son to our local community college to enroll him in their computer science program. I went armed: copies of my letters from the county board of education to prove that we were legal, a homemade high-school transcript to show what he’d studied, results of a recent standardized test, and a copy of the state homeschool regulations.

I didn’t need any of it.

I dropped Evan off to take his entrance placement tests to see which level of classes he needed to start with. Evan hadn’t studied much, but he felt ready for the challenge, and it could be retaken if he chose.

An hour and a half later, I went to pick Evan up. He was not in the testing room, and he’d left only about two minutes before. I wandered around the campus, wondering how I could lose someone twice my size. After a nice long walk, one of the ladies in the testing room said that maybe they’d sent him to the academic counselor.

When I finally caught up with Evan, all there was to do was pay.

He’d registered, been accepted, and signed up for three classes (no remedial needed).

It was a bit more complicated five years ago when his older sister, Claire, applied to a small, private, heavily academic college. She had a few small scholarships to the school from some church programs she’d participated in, but she was only sixteen, so we doubted she’d make it. On the other hand, she had an excellent ACT score.

This school, like may now, had a user-friendly program for admitting homeschoolers. They asked for a list of courses taken with books used, test scores, a student essay, and recommendations. It was easy to navigate, and the admittance office was very helpful. All-in-all, though, it took a few months, not counting the dishearteningly long FAFSA application.

When all was said and done, though, Claire was offered most of her tuition paid in scholarships and a very low-interest loan for the rest. She graduated last year, second –and youngest- in her class!

A few useful links for all college-bound students:

All Info About Non Traditional College

College Board

Colleges that admit homeschoolers

Fastweb

Petersons