College Update

My second child and oldest daughter homeschooled to and through high school, supplementing with classes at Logan High. We dropped her off at college in Aug to begin that leg of her education and I wanted to report on that.

The two of us, with her dorm room unpacked, and just before I left.

For a bit of background, she did not get a diploma from a public High School. She got a homeschool diploma, took multiple CE classes at a local high school, and submitted a homeschool transcript. She was awarded a scholarship to her college based on her GPA. She elected to ATTEND this particular college because of this scholarship AND because they offered her chosen program, Commercial Music (and it's one of the few 4-year programs there), and because they offered her an additional music scholarship based on an in-person audition she attended.

I mention the above because that is what I think parents are curious about - how the process of college admissions works, the kinds of classes one takes to prepare, etc.

I wanted to add a few observations that were surprising and were NOT on my radar. These may be of curiosity to families just beginning the homeschool journey. (They certainly would have been to me!)

So when we dropped this daughter off, one thing that struck me was how much more MATURE she seemed than the other incoming freshman.

That's a sweeping statement with multiple caveats: 1. I hardly had a broad sampling in the few hours I was on campus, nor have I had the experience at other schools to contrast incoming freshman classes. 2. I SPOKE to even fewer people than I saw, so this was a snap judgement on my part. 3. Her college is a very small and rural school that generally only offers associates degrees, so that may be related to the maturity level of those who choose to attend.

But on the first two points, when I shared with my daughter this observation after she'd been there a week and spoken and spent time with many more students, she agreed that she also felt more mature.

Though I'd heard many homeschool moms claim that homeschooling better prepared kids for college, a) I was skeptical that was true, and b) I was MORE skeptical it would be true for MY kids, mostly owing to our very casual approach.

So, IF she really IS more mature than many incoming freshmen, I'm the first to be SHOCKED! (Though I didn't explicitly tell her, I was happy with her choice to go to Snow specifically because she is such a YOUNG 18-year-old - her b-day was exactly 1 month before we dropped her off - and I thought she had a lot of maturing to do!)

So we began together to try and understand where that added maturity came from (IF it is real), and we have a few theories - the stuff that was NOT on my radar that I thought was worthy of sharing.

1. 1. She has been managing her time and life for years. I was too busy to keep track of her varying high school schedule, so she would remind me when I needed to take her, pick her up, etc. Simultaneously to academics, she was in serious pursuit of her passions, so she managed her time on her own to move those forward too. And none of this has been "on the beaten path." There's not a single program we've 'plugged into' that's met all the needs and had all the boxes checked off alongside peers in the same program.
2. 2. Her passion has been music. Music is exacting and demanding - not something that can be mastered quickly or faked. It requires ongoing discipline, but the same could be said for sports, dance, etc.
3. 3. Our family travel. Yes, she did some time away from our home for girls camp, for FSY, to do a brief nanny stint for my brother's kids, and she attended a Shakespeare camp. But lots of kids do this. And I never thought our family travel would have an impact on the kids' maturity because they had their PARENTS managing all the logistics. BUT she was able to watch capable adults navigate in unfamiliar surroundings, make new connections, and pursue unique and cool experiences in new locations.
4. 4. Finally, because homeschooling meant she was HOME more often, she was able to participate in a broad swath of adult life: shopping, meal planning and prep, cleaning, etc. I think this has led her to a deeper confidence that she's got this "life thing" and has nothing to fear.

Another caveat: this may just be HER. Her personality - a fiercely independent spirit pretty much from birth?

AND OF COURSE, the year has just begun. What will her grades be? What will her challenges be? Will she be able to suck up all the learning from ALL the aspects of life and emerge a more capable human being that has more power to be a benefit to the world? Time has yet to tell!

But if you are wondering if it's OK that as a homeschooler, you spend less time on academics in favor of your kids diving deep into something they love, or making them help around the house, or having an amazing family adventure, or that you have so much on your plate that you neglect to manage their time all the time, the answer MAY be something like this:

Not only will your kids be fine, these may just be the features of your homeschooling experience (NOT the bugs!) that make a big difference in the confidence your kids gain to face the world as adults!

He Made It!

My oldest is now a man! Whoa! And as of this spring, he has achieved his dream of joining a professional ballet company.

Photo Credit: Beau Pearson
Kai as the Prince in Ballet West's Family Series, "Beauty and the Beast"

Did homeschooling play a role? YES! And I find myself telling aspiring dancers more and more often that most who land careers exit the traditional system at some point prior to graduation. (Though many go on to earn college degrees or pursue other careers while holding down their professional dance job.)

I'm glad we homeschooled Kai (now over 18 so he can assume his public identity!) because we had so much time together before he left our home in pursuit of this dream. But homeschooling also meant he could put dance in the premier position of his education. And it meant he wasn't bullied in public schools about being a male dancer.

He remains an avid reader, is still studying Chinese on Duo Lingo, he learns everything quickly (so helpful when it comes to choreography), and he is curious and kind. 

Is he perfect? NO! Not by a long shot. Is he WISE. I'm hoping after some hard lessons he's been through that he is STILL gaining wisdom (like the rest of us!). I would probably change things if I could go back. But would I still choose to homeschool him? Absolutely!

Read the new about his promotion here: DANCER HIGHLIGHT: Kai Casperson | Ballet West

College Acceptance!

My two daughters have been enrolled part time in High School. They love the electives that I wouldn't be able to come close to duplicating: swim team, theater productions, debate. I love that through Concurrent Enrollment classes, they can be earning college credit AND experiencing something like that academic standard.

As I've mentioned earlier, enrolling them part-time has NOT been challenging. The schools (they are in two different ones in different districts) are very open to that, and the counselors have been great. There has been no issue participating in all the classes and extra curriculars they want and NOT taking the ones they don't. The biggest challenge is the schedule: finding classes that are back-to-back - so I don't need to make multiple trips to the school each day - takes some effort. And it can feel like our lives revolve around school: I've missed the freedom to go and do what we want when we want and not have to worry academic commitments.

Anyway, my older daughter is now done with that experience. She did NOT graduate from her public high school because she did not take the required classes for graduation. (She took theater for all 4 years, debate for 3, stage craft for 1, sewing for 1, and she has taken something like 4 or 5 concurrent enrollment classes.) Additionally, she has taken piano and voice lessons in our home, participated in after-school performing programs, and done classes with one homeschool co-ops and groups

This coming fall she will be attending one of the state colleges on a half academic scholarship, with an additional scholarship for her field of study: Commercial Music, with an emphasis on voice. It is one of the handful of state schools that will accept ALL applicants. It also is one of the few who has the particular program, and we have heard great things about it.

The transcript we submitted was only a list of all the classes she did take for her 4 years of high school. We included her lessons and her classes with the co-ops. We included her classes at the high school, indicated that those were offered there, and sent in their record of her grades. For her co-op classes, because no grades were given, I assigned her grades based on what I observed of her diligence and reference to what she'd learned. (Because she learned a lot she was excited and passionate about mastering, there were a lot of A's. But sometimes I didn't think she put in a lot of effort or blew things off, and those classes got lower grades - though I don't think I gave her LESS than a B.) She was not a perfect student in high school either. AND I should note that because she took almost ZERO science and very little math, her "transcript" did not include those subjects beyond what she DID take. However, whatever that combined GPA was (we did the math and assigned it a number), unbeknownst to us, it was high enough for an academic scholarship, and she was awarded that BEFORE she was accepted into the music program.

For that acceptance, she attended an in-person audition where she sang a piece of her own composition and another she'd worked on with her voice teacher. She also submitted what they called a portfolio (but they only required 2 pieces - not much of a portfolio IMO). These were her own works we had her record in a recording studio - one just piano, and one with piano and her singing. (She submitted these to another school with this same program that ALSO happens to accept all applicants, and she was accepted into their program as well, but NOT given a scholarship. She is considering transferring there after 2 years in her first school.)

I share all of this detail for two reasons. The first is that I do not know how much of our experience having a homeschooler accepted into college is based on the circumstances unique to us (though I expect, given the timing of everything that the acceptance and scholarship had nothing to do with the rest). And second, to demonstrate that there ARE advantages to NOT putting all of one's eggs in the traditional academics-in-high-school basket. If she had done school full time, I suspect her music would not have advanced to its current level, nor would she have had the other classes and experiences which have shaped her current direction.

How will she do IN college? How on earth will she survive the math class required for her major? Is she prepared for greater academic demands? These are open questions. She discovered taking an online concurrent enrollment class, which she failed, that she did not like online classes. She'll avoid those. The other concurrent enrollment classes DID seem sufficiently academically rigorous to prepare her for college classes, and she loved those. We also THINK/hope she has some level of mastery over managing her own time and projects - she's juggled speech writing with line memorizing, with voice, piano, and other homework, without her butt in a specific seat, without someone telling her what to do and when to do it. As for math, hopefully she can find some skilled tutors!

And I don't know if anyone these days is fretting about it anymore, but yes, she does seem sufficiently socialized - I wouldn't credit her time in school with this skill set. Through all of life - plays, church, school, homeschool, clubs, etc., she has had the opportunity to interact with others, and she has been fine to do so.

So is this a homeschool success story? NO CLUE. I don't know yet because life has yet to reveal what this daughter does NOT know and has not yet sufficiently mastered. (I ASSUME when those insufficiencies are revealed, she'll work on them and do fine...?) Beyond that, will she make good, moral choices in her life ahead? Will she be kind and serve others? Will the skill set she is pursuing in college be a financial asset to herself and her family? Will she be sufficiently wise to make a good decision on one of the most impactful choices in life: who to marry? When do we arrive at success sufficient that we can call it that? And how would we know it ALL came from homeschooling? No clue.

What I DO know is that homeschool CAN produce kids able to be accepted in collge, kids that are bright, fun, articulate, and talented. And so up to this point, 16 years in, homeschooling continues to be a blessing in our family!

No, it's not a typo! Gradulation is not graduation, but we are celebrating the close of one chapter and the beginning of another! (The backside of this announcement featured her accomplishments - from winning first place at State in Speech to being a big sister -  and take-aways from her various life experiences.)