Lessons

Tips to Organize Your Homeschool

Whether you are a new homeschooling family or have been at it for years, you will find that organizing your homeschooling life is important to your household. Following are some tried-and true organizational tips:

Effective Time Management Tips For Homeschooling Success

There are many factors that go into creating and maintaining a successful and effective distance learning/homeschooling program. Curriculum, experience, and even simple materials all contribute to success, but nothing can make or break a homeschooling program faster or easier than poor time management. Distance learning programs are intended to be flexible, but if they are not managed properly, a great deal of energy, effort, and time can be easily wasted when it doesn't have to be.

Homeschool Grading

Every family that decides to homeschool must tackle the issue of grading. Do grades help you assess your child's progress? Or is the whole reason for grading a throwback to a content standard in public schools that is not really relevant to homeschoolers? Every state has content standards that can be obtained from your local superintendent's office.

College Credit for Homeschoolers With CLEP

If your homeschooled students is looking for college credit while still in high school, the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) college level test is a great resource. The CLEP is a subject test, which measures one subject at a time, and there are 33 CLEP subjects. Because it's a subject test, it will not meet your state's annual assessment requirements. Many colleges will accept these tests and give credit for them, so check with your individual colleges to see whether they do this.

CLEP test scores range from 20-80; a passing score is anything above 50 for most tests. A college itself will decide what is the acceptable score that is required for them to award college credit. Foreign languages may have a higher testing requirement, such as a 60 or 65 in order to get college credit.

Homeschoolers and College - How to Find the Right Match

Searching for just the right college can be a difficult and time-consuming process. Knowing how to go about it and where to start is a step in the right direction.

Step #1- Go to a college fair

There are many college fairs available to high school students. When you look at all the colleges, pay attention to yourself and consider the reasons why you skipped a certain college. That will tell you the kinds of colleges that you might be interested in.

You will want your kids to look as well, because there may be something about that college that they have never realized before. You are going to find out fascinating things as you look.

Homeschool to College - February Checklist

If you are one of the many homeschooled seniors with a college application pending, here are four things you should do in February:

1) Contact the college admissions office to find out which officer is in charge of your application. Be proactive. Be business-like, but do ask if your file is complete or if more information or clarifications would help.

2) Try something new. Enter a scholarship contest. Add an impressive activity to your list. Volunteer more. And let the college admissions office know. Colleges welcome genuine news of accomplishments or special interests which didn't make it onto the application. This shows that you are still engaged. A note with the update also shows the college that you are interested enough to make a little extra effort.

Homeschooling High School and Thinking About College

Many people do not realize that colleges are recruiting homeschoolers. We often think that because we are homeschooling, we are pretty different and unusual. We wonder how we are going to convince the colleges that they want our children. It usually ends up being the other way around. Colleges are looking for homeschoolers, although they find us a little hard to locate.

If you look through your homeschool magazines you will find ads that are placed there by colleges. If you're on Facebook, you will see advertisements for colleges that want your homeschool kids. They are everywhere.

Tips For Getting Your Homeschooled Child Into College

For a long time, homeschooled children were at a disadvantage when it came to applying for and gaining admission to the country's top colleges and universities. Parents struggled to provide their children with an education that was considered equivalent to the curriculum of traditional public or private schools. Even when parents did provide an adequate curriculum, colleges often failed to recognize homeschooled diplomas as official or accredited.

Slowly but surely, homeschooling has become more and more accepted by colleges and universities across the country. As parents become certified homeschool teachers, and as online distance learning programs seek and receive accreditation, homeschool education, diplomas, and students have been legitimized and are now looked at under a whole new light.

Homeschool High School - Will a Perfectionist Do Well in Community College?

Dual enrollment (that is, enrollment in high school and college at the same time,) may not be the best option for homeschoolers, especially if your child has perfectionist tendencies.

A common pattern works something like this:

 

  • high-achieving teen feels unchallenged at home and goes to community college
  • gets straight As with little or no effort
  • then starts college at a real university
  • works as hard as they did at community college (i.e., not much)
  • gets poor grades because they used the same skills as when they were at community college
  • teen feels stupid because of poor grades
  • parents notice sadness, become concerned

 

Homeschooling College - Are CLEP Exams Graded?

Homeschoolers today are homeschooling through high school - and even PAST high school! Called "homeschooling college" it is fast becoming a popular path for many young people. One very popular way for homeschool students to get some quick college credits is to take CLEP exams. The College Level Examination Program (CLEP) offers a wide variety of tests that measure a college amount of learning. These exams are graded pass/fail, with a score above 50 considered passing. One of the questions I am often asked is whether CLEP exams factor into the student's college GPA.

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