Allow me to introduce myself....

My name is Karen and I live in Central Florida. Yes, land of Mickey and Minnie! My kids are actually grown but I still keep in touch with what is happening with home education. I have started a private school for home schoolers here in Florida which is also known as an "umbrella school."

Up until around Thanksgiving, I worked at the local community college in Central Florida as the Dual Enrollment Academic Advisor. Dual Enrollment, or early college, is extremely popular in Florida since the tuition is totally FREE for basically two years of college classes. A student can take one class or six classes per semester, at my particular community college, and again, the tuition is free. Dual Enrollment starts at the age of 16 and ends at 18 for home education students who are registered with the county.

While advising students about their high school and college classes I noticed that many students and parents, home schooled, private schooled or public schooled, needed more information about college than "which classes do you want to take" and "what is your major."I ended up spending too much time with each family, much to the chagrin of my boss, but I felt that I could not give only partial information. These parents needed my help so I decided to start a private school to help them. I am also in the process of setting up discussions about college with various home school support groups in my area.

My kids are 24 and 21 and doing great! My 24 year old daughter graduated from Florida State University with two BS degrees and is now married. My son, 21, is currently a senior at the University of Central Florida majoring in economics.

We were total unschoolers during our time home schooling. Sure I had some nail-biting moments, but I can see now that it worked!