Posted on 10/29/2011 12:48:22 PM PDT by STD
Dear Freepers,
Do you an older teen with Homeschooling success, I'm in need of an affordable high school program for my 15 yo son. He's troubled and anxious at attending a predominately Black High School due to threats and fights.
Thank you, STD
Calvert-(excellent)
K12-(didn’t use but I am looking into this for the future)
Liberty-(affiliated with Liberty University)
You will love it! :)
Good for you Mom or Dad. Good for you for caring and being truly invested in the safety and success of your child! Hope you get lots of great resources--especially since you know what you are looking for.
Prayers out for you and your son.
First, do a search for homeschool requirements for your state. You may not have any testing requirements for homeschooled students. Next,!! search for high school curriculum. There is an over-abundance of choices. My son is in junior high butt use a mixture . . We also go to two co-ops, you can search for those in your area, too! There is so much support out there, you can do it!
Sorry for all the typos.. . Using my phone! :)
Texas Tech has an excellent home school program - used it with my daughter. She loved it - this was early 2000’s... I’m sure it’s online now instead of all the mailing back and forth.
As long as he is schooled in the subjects, he should be able to take the AP tests to get college credit while in his high school years. I don’t know the process for homeschoolers to take the tests, but there has to be a way.
Good luck.
How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/all/1
Which state are you in (different ones have different requirements.)
If he turns 16 soon and can make the required score on the SAT, he could go to the local community college as an early admission.
Texas Tech has a decent program at a reasonable rate.
I would see if your state offers a virtual school my children took classes through the Florida virtual school from middle school all the way through the point where they decided they wanted to go to high school for the social activities. The FLVS courses cost nothing if you are a resident and now they even have a program where they can get a school district issued diploma just like an in school student. If you are still having trouble go here : http://a2zhomeschool.com/thesandwichedhomeschooler/
this is a friend of mines blog she homeschools her two high school age boys all the while taking advantage of ROTC, dual enrollment and sports through the school system.
My suggestion is that you contact Lee Binz. Her website is http://www.thehomescholar.com. Although I never used her, I am familiar with her and know that she is very good.
I have a son who is 24 now, and very well-employed. He was homeschooled except for half of 4th grade and 5th grade, due to extenuating circumstances. He pretty much managed his own high school education—by that age, most homeschoolers are doing that—with some advice and input from me. He scored 1590/1600 on the SAT, and graduated magna cum laude from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a degree in engineering physics. There was never any question about his being homeschooled—they wanted him.
In fact, you will probably discover this about every higher-level educational facility (except for weenie community colleges). They know the outstanding performance of homeschoolers, that they work hard, and their ethics. They want them as students, and they will work with you. This doesn’t mean that you can waltz in there and say, “My son is a homeschooler, you want him,” of course. But in my experience, it does make things easier.
Talk to Lee—she has been helping homeschoolers with high school for years, and is very knowledgeable.
I have two teen boys with one who just finished high school. He was accepted by all three universities he applied to. He took the SAT for college admission. We had no problem whatsoever, just kept track of his class and his grades.
We used a combination of Floridas online school and material purchased from BJU Press. The online school was good for subjects like chemistry but they give them a lot of meaningless busy work, making it difficult to motivate the kids.
You can do it, and your child will be better for it.
Just a suggestion. Besides the good advice many on here have offered, do you have a church you attend? Seriously. I’d talk to my friends who homeschool and see what they know. We have a lot of friends who homeschool - members of our church and also friends of ours. They all seem to know each other, too.
We homeschool teenage boys. We use a variety of curricula from a bunch of different sources depending on specific needs. There are a lot of good options out there. What works for one family (or even child) may not work for another, so do your research. If your first choice doesn't work, don't be discouraged. The good news is there's a good market for used curricula, so you can save some money that way AND if you find you have something that doesn't work for you may be able to recoup some of the cost.
One of my favorite places to get good deals is Christian Discount Book Store. They carry a wide variety of homeschool resources from both a secular and Christian perspective.
We used Abeka Academy and were quite pleased with the results. They’re viewable on-line and you can also send away for DVD’s instead. They supply everything: tests, quizzes, text books, novels and you have the option of maintaining your own files or having them maintain records.
Our son just wasn’t getting a fair shake at the local public school and we weren’t impressed with their academics, either. We found the Abeka program offered great teaching, interesting lectures and prompt feedback. He ended up with top drawer ACT scores and full ride scholarships offered by the colleges where he applied. There was no problem with having home schooling when we applied to universities.
Abeka is a faith-based home school, and we aren’t overly religious. Didn’t find that a problem. If you would prefer something other than faith-based, there are other top-drawer home schools. It was a great choice for us. Most areas have a strong home-school network for support. Our only regret is that we didn’t start home schooling sooner. It was much more flexible and we all enjoyed the classes and learned a lot together.
www.abekaacademy.org
Pull him out asap. I homeschooled straight through high school. Our son wanted to take precalc and Russian at age 16, tho, so we had our homeschool umbrella school make up a diploma and he graduated right then. Took the diploma in to the Jr College here in town. They didn’t blink, just accepted it and he enrolled. We have lots of 15 and 16 yr olds at our local jr college, mostly homeschoolers. They can attend there, too, if they want a class their school does not offer. If they earn a ‘B’ they get an ‘A’ — drop me a note if you want further help. I have helped other kids through homeschool/ high school too. There are ways. Protect your son!
Thought you might be of help here.
I have a junior in high school, whom I’ve homeschooled since 2nd grade. We have a lot of co-ops in our area, so he takes Science and Math in one of those programs. He takes the rest at home, we use Abeka as well as Switched on Schoolhouse.
I have heard this is good too: http://www.northstar-academy.org/academy/Introduction.aspx
I homeschooled my eldest through high school. In her junior year, I had her take advantage of a program at our local community college where highschoolers can take courses, and can opt to do their senior year at the CC taking college courses.
There is nothing that will convince a college admissions officer that your son can do college courses more than showing him a college transcript.
I pulled my son out of public high school after freshman year. Enrolled him in a very good Charter Cyber School. He redid Freshman year and finished Senior year this past June.
The Charter Cyber schools are free. They paid for my internet connection. They supplied the computer and books also. Real live teachers were available at almost any time. Monthly outings were scheduled for the kids to get together by region.
The school would also pay for AP courses at the Community College.
I Loved the Cyber School!
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