Should We Allow a 13 Year Old to Dual Enroll?

There is an interesting article in The Orlando Sentinel today about a home educated 13 year old girl who wants to dual enroll at a local community college here in Central Florida. This particular community college has refused to allow it citing safety concerns for such a young kid.

This brings me to my former job as the advisor for dual enrollment students at a different community college in Florida and how I would feel about this case. I can see both sides of this issue as a parent and as an experienced dual enrollment advisor. On the one hand you have a parent who wants to know where to go now with a very smart and gifted student. On the other hand you have college administrators who do not want to be sued.

The parents have offered to walk to any classes and even sit in on the class and the college says no. I know that this particular school does not allow dual enrollment students to take online classes without having a few in-class courses under their belts but I believe that this student does not want online classes anyway. As a parent I would be frustrated with the system as these parents are.

Here are the pros and cons of having a very young student on campus taking courses at the community college:

PROS:
*This child needs higher level course work
*She has taken college classes online from another venue, successfully
*There is no age limit in Florida statutes, it's up to the school

CONS:
*Most of the community college students punctuate everything with a swear word, usually F*
*Heck, many professors do, too
*The course work is ADULT including possibly R rated movie sections in humanities classes. It's 4 years before she can be allowed, in the theater, to see an R rated movie
*ALL of her information is confidential even from parents. It is the law . She is 13.
*Guys will "hit on" her. Most girls seem to look much older than they are these days

I would ask parents of gifted children to think long and hard about putting their child into a college class when they are under about 15. However, if there are waivers, to be signed by parents, and a parent walks the child to the classroom and waits nearby, then I think it should be OK.

That being said I HATED it when the top dog of the community college where I worked would reverse the dual enrollment director's decision about allowing a child onto campus for classes. If a parent complained to him, he would usually allow the dual enrollment and we look like total idiots. Why the heck are there rules? This led to animosity between the parent and the dual enrollment office.

Well, read the article HERE and you be the judge! Since I don't work there, I do not need to decide, thank goodness! I can see both sides!

Dual Enrollment and Advanced Placement Blog Posts

I've noticed more activity on my blog lately and many people seem to need information about both Advanced Placement classes and Dual Enrollment. On the right-hand side of my blog page there is a list of subjects with the number of posts in each. One of these days I will clean this up by tagging my posts in a more consistent manner. Click on the subject area you are interested in and the posts will come up. Remember that the blog posts read from the bottom (oldest) to the top (newest) so to make sense scroll down to the bottom of the posts and read up!


If anyone has any questions about the posts please feel free to e-mail me at: karen@preferredlearningacademy.com

When I was working at the college in the dual enrollment department I realized that most parents did not know how the Advanced Placement classes worked and how the college credit was awarded. AP classes really are the reason I started this blog since there was such a mystery surrounding them. Also, during my time promoting Dual Enrollment for the college, I saw that MANY parents had no idea that there was a way, in Florida, for their kids to get free college classes. So sad! I cannot tell you how many times a parent would say, "Why didn't I know about this?" My goal is to educate people about what dual enrollment is and what it isn't.


Please read the blog subjects you are interested in and remember to read from the bottom up or some of them may not make much sense!

Honors Programs & Dual Enrollment

We've been extremely busy here so I have not posted in a while! My son graduated from the University of Central Florida on Saturday and then, of course, there was Mother's Day on Sunday! It is sad and exciting at the same time to have my "baby" graduate from college! Another chapter of motherhood is over and a new one can begin.


Another unschooled child has graduated from college with no stigma, no "gaps in education" and no problems whatsoever! A former friend was certain that I was doing the wrong thing by unschooling and not forcing the kids to "do work." Well here we are with both of them graduated from college with B.S. degrees (yes, go ahead and laugh, BS degrees!) and very good GPA's. My son is looking for work and planning on graduate school. He needs some more math to get into a top tier graduate school in economics so he's prepared to take a year to do it. However, if he finds a decent job before then, he will take that and postpone the grad school in favor of experience. What the heck, he has plenty of time!


I have learned quite a bit about the special advanced programs at UCF and will share these in the coming posts. As a homeschooling parent I just did not know about these programs and how to get my kids into them. I'm afraid that may cost my son a possibly good graduate school. Frankly, a lot depends on his GRE scores so we shall see. I need to do some legwork to see how homeschooled kids can get into some of these programs such as leadership and honors.


Recently Valencia Community College has allowed dual enrollment students into the honors program there. Of course it is expected that these students will stay after high school graduation and finish the AA degree with honors. This is a big deal! Many students did not take dual enrollment courses since they would not be part of an honors program, but now it is available to them! Please check the website for the requirements to get into the honors program and also speak to the director of dual enrollment, Jackie Cole.

Test Taking and College Admissions

Does your college bound child have to take the SAT? Good question with no easy right or wrong answer. Generally, yes, he would have to take the SAT or ACT test. Universities expect them and base admission decisions on these test scores. However, your student can get an AA (2-year) degree from a community college and then transfer to the university without having to take the SAT or ACT. This is for Florida since I don't know what the rules are in other states. A student with a 2-year degree from a state community college MUST be accepted into a state university. Of course it MAY NOT be the one your child wants to attend. Be aware.

Before your child enters the community college through dual enrollment or after graduating from high school she will need to take the CPT test for placement into math and English courses. This tests college readiness in English and math and is required if there are no other test scores. So a test must be taken but the CPT is not for admission, it is for placement.

Many colleges do not allow a student to dual enroll without reaching college level on the CPT test so please ask about the testing requirement.

Dual Enrollment Time

If you are a Florida homeschooling family with a 10th grade student, it is time to start thinking about Dual Enrollment. Actually, if you want your child to take summer courses then it is probably too late what with budget cuts to the community colleges. However, it is NOT too early to look into Dual Enrollment for the Fall semester! Some of the community colleges in Florida allow Dual Enrollment for students from 9th through 12th grades and some require students to be entering 11th grade. Check with your local college to find out the rules there.

Some of the community colleges allow the Dual Enrollment students to choose classes at the same time as the regular student body but others will wait a few weeks before opening the courses up for registration for the DE students. Again, check with the local schools. Either way, summer classes have either filled up or are filling up fast!

Your first step is to contact the Dual Enrollment (sometimes called Early College) office at the local community college to find out the "rules" for that school. You may need something from your school districts homeschool office to verify that your student is a homeschooling student. You will need to fill out application forms and, as a homeschooling parent, you are acting as the guidance counselor.

Please remember that your student will be in classes with the general college population and will be considered an adult. The courses may have adult content so be aware. The instructors do NOT know that your student is younger than 18 and will treat him or her as an adult.

Even though your student is younger than 18, you will NOT be allowed to have any information about your child at the school. This is a federal law so complaining to the college is useless! Hopefully as a homeschooling family your child will be close to his parents and share his grades and other information. If not, then there are other problems at work that won't be solved by talking to the college.

If your student has a problem with one of his instructors then PLEASE you MUST allow him to handle it! One great way to help your underage student with this is to role-play. Go over what he needs to say to the instructor and even go over some of the possible things the instructor may say. The instructor does not have to talk to a parent!

More on Dual Enrollment coming up.....

New Year Greetings!

Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2010 is a great year for everyone!

The school is up and running with all paperwork filed and finished! The old lawyer is gone and a new company is helping with everything! Yippee!

Please take a look at my older posts concerning:

Dual Enrollment

AP Classes

Beginning Homeschooling

Read the posts from the bottom up since that is the way they make sense.

Dual Enrollment Rules in Florida

I talked to a friend today about a quandary she is in over her son and dual enrollment. She is an unschooler, like us, and her son has been moving along with things he is interested in. There are formal classes at a university, home schooling classes at home and various other clubs and interests. His birthday is late so she is considering slowing things down and "holding him back" for another year. She was asking me how this would impact his dual enrollment at the local community college here in Orlando. My answer is, it depends. The community colleges in Florida have a lot of leeway in making their own rules regarding dual enrollment.

It all depends on the "Articulation Agreement" that the community college has with the home schooling family. I wrote up many of the articulation agreements at this community college while I was there and can only speak for this school. Here are the "rules" regarding dual enrollment at the community college in Orlando.

If you are home schooling...

1. Through the county, your agreement will state that the student with a birthday from Jan 1 to Aug 31 will have the dual enrollment STOP at the end of the Spring semester if he turns 18 during these months. If my friend decides to hold her son back for maturity reasons or because his math is "behind" then his dual enrollment would stop after the Spring semester of his junior year.

2. Through a private school (umbrella school), your agreement would be through your private school. The private school has the agreement on file with the college and it states that your student can dual enroll for his junior and senior year. Period. No age limits mentioned. (at the point when I left this school. They may have changed)

My friend has to decide if she would like him to stay in his "grade level" and dual enroll right away, perhaps a little emotionally younger than she would like. Or, should she "hold him back" and he gets only one year of dual enrollment. Or enroll in a private (umbrella) school, pay the tuition and be able to hold him back without any dual enrollment consequences. She needs to weigh the private school tuition price against the amount of savings she would have on college costs.

This is for ONE community college in Florida! Even other Central Florida community colleges have different rules regarding articulation agreements! If you are considering dual enrollment ask your local community college for the articulation agreement. Read it carefully! Some schools do not even have arrticulation agreements, but for those that do, please read carefully!

Vacation and Presentation Update

Just wanted to remind everyone that I will be giving a presentation about Dual Enrollment and College Admissions on Tuesday the 6th of October at 7PM.

The Cameo at Misty Forest
1013 East Colonial Drive (near Mills Ave.)
Orlando, FL 32803

(click the above for map)


I will be on vacation from September 24th through October 5th but of course my phone is always with me as well as the computer!

You can always reach me at: 407-484-0457
Preferred Learning Academy
karen@preferredlearningacademy.com

If you have questions please feel free to call and e-mail!

High School. Schedule part 2

The last post had a high school schedule for an 11th grade student who was going to full-time dual enroll at the local community college. This next schedule would be for the student who did not want to dual enroll full-time or in the case of a Valencia Community College student, who did not pass one of the segments of the CPT.

This is for an 11th grade student who has passed the English CPT scores but not the Math. (Both of my kids did not pass the math portion the first time around)

English - ENC1101 - Freshman Composition I - Fall semester
ENC1102 - Freshman Composition II - Spring semester
Math - Algebra or Geometry - Florida Virtual School (I recommend boning up on the basic Algebra I course through the Virtual School then retake the CPT, SAT or ACT)
Science - BSC1005C - This is a biology with lab for non-majors - Fall semester
AST1000, BSC1050 or ESC1000 - Science with no lab
Social Studies - POS2041 - Fall semester
PSY1012 - Spring semester

This would give the student 9 or 10 college credits per semester and allow her to study for the CPT math. Again, this 11th grade student will be finished with the English requirement for high school and have 1 1/2 credits of science, the half credit of American government and then the half credit of elective with the psychology.

If Your Child KNOWS What he Wants!
If your student KNOWS he wants to be a doctor, then you need an advisor to get the best selection of courses from the community college and dual enrollment! For example, he would need:
BSC1010C - Biology I
BSC1011C - Biology II
CHM1045C - General Chem with Qualatative Analysis I
CHM1046C - General Chem with Qualatative Analysis II
PHY1048C - General Physics with Calculus I
MAC2311 - Calculus with Analytical Geometry I
MAC2312 - Calculus with Analytical Geometry II
STA2033 - Statistical Methods

Plenty of courses! However, he can get his AA degree in General Studies and still get in all of these courses, plus everything else required for the AA! That's what MY job is! As your high school advisor I can also advise about college and the optimal use of Dual Enrollment!

High School Schedule

Many people have asked about an example of a high school schedule. Here is an example for a college bound student in 11th grade using Dual Enrollment. I am assuming that the student passed the English and Math portions of the CPT. (Computerized Placement Test used by community colleges)

English: ENC1101 - Freshman Composition I - Fall Semester
ENC1102 - Freshman Composition II - Spring Semester
Math: MAC1105 - College Algebra - Fall Semester
STA2023 - Statistical Methods - Spring Semester (This would be for the student who either is not sure about his major or is interested in a major in business or social sciences)
Social Studies: POS2041 - US Government - Fall Semester
PSY1012 - General Psychology - Spring Semester
Science BSC1005C - Bio for non-majors with lab - Fall Semester
or
BSC1010C - Bio for majors with lab - Fall Semester
AST1000, BSC1050 or ESC1000 - (Astronomy, Environmental Science, Earth Science) These will have no lab and satisfy a science requirement. This is for a non-science major.

This is a full-time schedule with 12 or13 college credits per semester. This is how the credits will fall for high school:
ENC1101 = 1 credit of English
ENC1102 = 1 credit of English
MAC1105 = 1 credit of Math
STA2023 = 1 credit of Math
POS2041 = 1/2 credit of American Government
PSY1012 = 1/2 credit of elective
BSC1005C or BSC1010C = 1 credit of science
AST1000, BSC1050 or ESC1000 = 1/2 credit of science (no lab)

Your student now has two years of English out of the way, two years of math out of the way and a year and a half of science out of the way. He also has the US Government out of the way. If he started as a Junior, he is now finished with High School English and High School math assuming he has taken the English and Math in Freshman and Sophomore years. This frees up his time to take more college courses in the Summer semester and then Fall and Spring of his Senior year!

Local Community College Dual Enrollment Rules

OK, here we go!

I have been to the local Central Florida community college websites and found information about Dual Enrollment (or Early College). Each community college has some leeway when it comes to admission policies.

Valencia Community College - This is where I used to work so I know the ins and outs here. The rules:
1. Must be 16 and Junior in high school (rising Junior is OK, Summer Term B after 10th grade)
2. Must have a 3.0 unweighted cumulative GPA (basically a B student)
3. Must take the SAT, ACT or CPT test (they must have test scores in the system)
That's the basic rules. At Valencia a student does not need college level test scores in order to Dual Enroll. Even if a student has low test scores he can still take courses that are NOT English or Math.

Lake-Sumter Community College -
1. Must be a high school Freshman, Sophomore, Junior or Senior
2. Must take the SAT, ACT or CPT and reach COLLEGE LEVEL scores in order to Dual Enroll
3. Must have a 3.0 CGPA, unweighted
It is unclear if a student can Dual Enroll with a lower than college level test score. Two locations on the website differ.

Seminole Community College -
The website is extremely vague. I know it can be done! I will need to call them to find out the specific requirements! The website does show that DE students can register in mid-December for their courses which, sadly, would give them the bottom of the barrel. Most of the other students would already be registered for classes by this time.

Brevard Community College -
This website is also vague. I will call them as well to find the information!

Valencia allows DE students to take up to 19 credit hours per semester and the student can register at the same time as any other student.

Next post: Update on the rules for BCC and SCC and the test scores required for taking classes at each community college. (they differ somewhat!)

Dual Enrollment, Get Ready 10th Graders!

After much legal wrangling and sleepless nights the school is totally READY! Hip-hip-hooray! I have a little more paperwork but it does not affect the school's day to day running. Yippee!

My plan is to have a couple seminars about home schooling in general and getting your child ready for college in particular. I can set up a room at the NEW Cooper Memorial Library on the property of Lake Sumter Community College in Clermont, Florida. I will announce this on the blog and the school website as soon as I get the Lake County Library to give me the room. I would like to set something up in Orange County and am in contact with a home school support group based there. These seminars will be recorded so I can put some of the content on my website.

If anyone is interested in attending please contact me through my school website:

Preferred Learning Academy

NOW is the time for 10th grade students and parents of 10th grade students to prepare for Dual Enrollment! Students can Dual Enroll as rising Juniors, in other words, Summer term B after they are finished with 10th grade! Valencia Community College in Orlando starts Summer registration in February! So please, please start thinking about what you will need for your student to get him ready! Budget cuts have limited the number of classes offered and new students register on a first come, first served basis after the open registration date.

My next post will have the rules and regs for Dual Enrollment admission!

Another Post About AP courses

My AP posts have been very popular! You can look at them here:

Four Blog posts about Ap classes : Read from the bottom up, it will make more sense!

I thought I would just make a list of things to consider about AP courses.

1. Your child gets the college credit only if he passes the AP test. ONE test given ONE day. If your daughter has cramps, oh well!

2. Your child can get credit for more than one college class with one AP course, such as AP English Language, IF she passes the AP test with a 4 or 5. The highest scores. For the AP English Language example, she would get ENC1101 and ENC1102 for her year of that AP course IF she passes the one test with a 4 or 5.

3. If your child dual enrolled, she could also have ENC1101 and ENC1102 during the course of the school year as long as she passes the entire course and not just one test.

4. Some of the college courses given for AP classes are NOT OFFERED at many of the state universities! If your child attends a state university that does not offer the class, he does not get the college credit there. The same holds true for Dual Enrollment but a good DE advisor will tell you which classes will transfer to the university of your choice. Many high school counselors either do not know or will not tell parents this truth.

5. In Florida, the state universities can NOT discriminate against Dual Enrollment courses for admission consideration. If your child has AP English Language and passes the test with a 3, the university MUST gauge it the same as your child taking ENC1101 for Dual Enrollment.

6. Dual Enrollment classes have the same weight as AP classes on a high school transcript.

I hope many of you find this information helpful! Any questions please feel free to call, e-mail or respond to this post. My information can be found on my school website:

Preferred Learning Academy

Homeschool Memories, Dual Enrollment Rules

Finally feeling much better after a surgery and then complications from said surgery. Fun.

Schools here in Florida are starting up again this month, and one county started Monday! Wow! I grew up in New York state and we went to school the Wednesday after Labor Day. Those first few days would be hot as summer and then the cooler weather would come in. By mid-September the weather would be crisp and cool in the morning and then heat up to maybe 75 during the day. Those are great memories!

As a homeschooling mom I would start gearing up towards the end of August with school supply purchases (during the sales) and figuring out what we were going to do "for school" that year. Unschooling is extremely flexible, of course, so we did whatever we were interested in doing. The kids read a lot of books, we traveled a lot, we watched interesting videos about interesting topics and we did science experiments. Some days we didn't get out of jammies until lunch! Those were the days!

Locally, college classes start around the 24th of August so many students are getting ready to dual enroll. For all parents with Dual Enrolled students please, please read these simple "rules" for the homeschool parent. (or ANY parent)

1. Let your child handle the paperwork, advising and course registration - you told the college he is as mature as an adult, so allow him to be!
2. If there are conflicts in the classroom, let your child handle it! He must first talk to the instructor. After that he can talk to the department. But PLEASE have your student talk to the instructor first! Alone! One way to help is to role play what he needs to say when he talks to the instructor.
3. Do not call the Dual Enrollment office or any other office at the college to get information about your child. They can't tell you. It is illegal! There are privacy laws in place that protect the privacy of the student no matter what age.
4. This is a public institution and your child will be in a classroom with adults. Religion is not taken into consideration. Also, instructors can swear, show R rated movies, nudity and discuss adult topics. They are allowed. The students are adults as far as they are concerned. The instructors have no idea that your child is Dual Enrollment. They don't have a list or anything. As a parent, look at anything along these lines as a learning experience. If your child tells you she was watching some nude scene in a movie in Humanities, then you can discuss it! Great starting point for discussion at home!
5. Stating the obvious. Do not do his work for him!
6. When talking to the Dual Enrollment office or Advising, let your child do the talking! If he wants to be a fireman, but you think he should be an engineer, well, too bad! Allow your child his own dreams! Sure he may change his mind later, but I have seen pushy parents get bitten on the butt when their kids end up dropping out and getting a fast food job!

Designing a College Plan

If your child is 16 and getting ready to dual enroll or 18 and finished with your high school program, he will need to plan out his college classes. When my kids were in dual enrollment I looked at the classes like a buffet. A little of this, a little of that, then see what they like. I knew some of the requirements back then, but was unconcerned about the other classes figuring they were free (except for books). We could have saved money down the road had I really thought about it! I know many kids just don't know what they want to major in at that age. Or they know, and then change their minds. My daughter, from the time she was 16 until college graduation, changed her expected major three times! The second time was while she was in London on a study abroad program with FSU.

Some of my dual enrollment students knew what they wanted and seemed pretty set on reaching that goal. I designed many programs for students who wanted to get into a "pre-med" style program. However, most of my students did not know what they wanted AT ALL! That's ok, my son changed his mind twice as well. He thought about maybe Psychology and then had a general business major planned. After he took his ECO2023 class (Fundamentals of Microeconomics) he knew what he wanted! By this time he had been in college for two years through dual enrollment.

Here's How to Start Planning: (Florida specific, assuming the student will attend a state university)
1. What are his interests? If he hates math, well, he probably won't be in Engineering.
2. Will he go to the community college for two years? Will he take some dual enrollment classes and then bring those to a university? Will he go to a state university?
3. Pick General Education Classes - These are the required classes that every student needs to get a degree in that school. Choose the classes that most of the state schools will accept as General Education.
4. Start backwards when choosing a major and courses. What? Yes, start backwards. If he wants to go to medical school, start there. Which majors do they usually like to see? Which specific classes? Take those! In the undergraduate major they want to see, which classes can your student take at the community college? Take those!
5. If your student wants to go on to get a graduate degree, say a master's degree in Economics, find out what the school would LIKE him to have before applying for the master's program. Ask me how I know this! My son will take a year off to take those pasky classes he didn't know were sort of required, although it never states this in the college catalog, to get into the master's program. Sigh.

These are some basic ideas when choosing college classes. Students at my school can expect to have as much (or as little) advising as they would need on an e-mail or telephone basis. Also, high school students and their parents can have up to four one-hour advising sessions with me per year to help them plan out high school and college classes! Don't fall into the "buffet" trap with dual enrollment classes! Look at these classes as $$$$! If your student takes a class he does not need, here in Florida at Valencia Community College, right NOW, that three-credit course would be like throwing away $262.08! Here, lets take 10 $20 bills, a $50 bill and toss in a $10 bill, a couple singles and some change! There ya go! Toss it in the trash! Well, I hate to say how much I "tossed away" with both of my kids in college classes! Sure it is free, but your student needs 120 credit hours to get a B.A. or B.S. degree at the state university here in Florida. Why waste your money with unnecessary classes?

To AP or not to AP

Chances are good that you have read or heard about the virtues of AP classes. AP, or Advanced Placement, might get your child college credit. Most likely, it won't. MOST of the students who take AP classes do not pass the AP test, so no college credit. Here's how it works:

Your child signs up for the school-year-long AP class, let's say AP English Language. Your child will have a LOT of work in this class. OK that's not bad, right? No problem. Your child gets an "A" in the class. Wait! That's not the end. He still has to take the AP test at the end of the school year. Passing the test with a score of 3, 4 or 5 will give college credit. Here in Florida, if he gets a 3, he will get credit for Freshman Composition 1, ENC1101. Great! In two college semesters he received the credit for ONE college class. Let's say he gets a 4 or 5. He will then get the college credit for ENC1101 and ENC1102 (Freshman Comp 2). So, in other words, in two college semesters he gets credit for two college classes. OK, Dual Enrollment can do that. And he would not have to pass ONE test to get the credit! Lets say your child takes AP English Language and does NOT get a 3, 4 or 5 on the AP test. Maybe your daughter woke up with cramps that day, or she is under the weather in some other way. Too bad, the test is the test. If your child takes the AP class and does NOT get a 3 or higher on the test, she does NOT get college credit. That's how it works.

Next scenario. She gets the credit for ENC1101 by taking AP English Language and getting a 3 on the AP test. Great! She could have done that in half the time, but no matter. The following year she is encouraged to take AP English Literature. She takes the course and again gets a 3 on the AP test. She then receives the credit for ENC1101. Wait! She already HAS that from her AP class last year. Oh well. No on told her, or YOU, the parent, that is the way it works. Now this is for Florida public colleges so I can't vouch for any other state or for any private colleges here in Florida.

Now lets say your child takes the Geography AP class. She receives a 3 on the test. Well, she gets a college class but some of the colleges do not offer it! In other words, she CAN get the credit for the class, but only if her college offers it!

All of the Floridians are now saying, "what about UF (University of Florida)?" UF likes to bill itself as the exclusive state university here in Florida. Well, in Florida, a state university can NO LONGER weigh AP classes higher than a Dual Enrollment class when considering applicants! Now, Dual Enrollment is given the same weight as AP classes both on high school transcripts and for consideration when applying to a university!

Did I mention that the tuition for Dual Enrollment is FREE here in Florida? In the above scenario the student took AP English Language and AP English Literature which would take the same amount of time as 4 college semesters and received ENC1101 for her effort!

Please feel free to e-mail or call, the number is on my school website www.preferredlearningacademy.com, for any clarification!

Planning for College, Start Early!

This seems timely.

Do you have a high school freshman or sophomore? Planning for college starts now! If you have boys chances are you are looking at them and they appear to be your babies still. I understand that. Many of them still sleep until noon and play online games until all hours of the night. They certainly don't look like college material. No way! There is a BIG difference between 15 and 16 when it comes to boys. It seems like they "wake up" during the 16th year and by the time they are 18 they appear to be totally human! Amazing!

As a freshman in high school (or age 14-ish) you should be discussing college and interests. Sure he may want to be something totally off the wall. Heck, when my daughter was 16 she wanted to be in the music industry because she LOVED music! She wanted to take the community college version of music technology. I said, "sure." Luckily the A.S. degree required some of the usual basics for all college degrees such as Freshman Composition 1 and 2. Thank goodness! I knew she really wasn't all that interested in the music industry. She was interested in meeting the guys from N'Sync, the popular boy band from the late 90's and early 2000's. Had I mentioned this to her at the time I would have received the scathing look and eye-roll of that age group. Several years later she laughed and admitted that she only wanted to meet famous bands and N'Sync in particular.

So number one: talk interests and do NOT minimize ANYTHING he or she may say. Go along with it since he will most likely change his mind later anyway. Get books on the subject (like, how to be a Music Producer) and talk about career options. Obviously if your child is tone deaf but wants to be a singer, well, that is a problem.

Number two: Talk colleges and start taking some trips to see them. HUGE university or smaller. State university or Ivy League. Talk budget since your kids have NO clue about money at that age. Oh they may have a general idea but they will have total sticker shock when they see tuition and BOOKS! (Please set aside several hundred dollars for books per semester!)

Number three: Start looking into dual enrollment and this is going to be specific to Florida here. Each community college has it's own rules regarding dual enrollment. Each school has rules regarding GPA requirements and age. (quick note to unschooling parents. If you do not test and have GPA info. then give your best guess. Be realisitc. We want your child to do well there!) Some only allow a few courses, some allow a full load. Find out the "rules" of the one closest to you. Many times home educated students do not have to go to the CC that is in their county. If heading to Valencia is doable, then you can go there even if you are in Seminole County. Check the Articulation Agreement of your local community college. The dual enrollment office should be able to give you that information.

Number four: Start preparing for the CPT test. Again, this is Florida specific. You can purchase study materials at the community college book store. Get them and use them. The "Reading" portion of the CPT is weird. Your student should be familiar with the style of the questions before taking the test.

Number five: By the time February of your child's 10th grade year rolls around, you should have him apply for dual enrollment. I know Valencia allows rising juniors (in other words, 10th graders who just finished 10th grade) to take Summer Term B courses. This will allow your student to have Summer B semester, Fall and Spring of Junior year, then summer A and B between Junior and Senior year, then Fall and Spring of Senior year. Do the math. Lots of semesters and they are FREE tuition! Your child, if his test scores are good and he is motivated, can get his AA degree by the time he graduates from high school! And the tuition is free!

Number six: prepare for the SAT or ACT test. Look at the requirements for the Bright Futures Scholarship NOW and begin planning. (Florida specific, sorry)

Number seven: Have your student set up a Fastweb account. (www.fastweb.com) for scholarship info. This is a clearinghouse for scholarships that will be e-mailed to your student based on a very long survey he fills out. Good luck getting him to actually DO any of the scholarship essays. My kids look back now and wish they had. Those student loans do not get paid with "I wish I had"'s.

I hope this has been enlightening! This is the reason I have set up my school. I am a good adsvisor and my boss still asks me to come back! Any questions please visit my website:

Preferred Learning Academy

Importance of a Loosely Planned High School

We unschooled but that does not mean I had no plan at all. Both of my kids were headed to college so I knew what would be expected. They would need a couple of math classes, two years of foreign language, at least two lab sciences, some history (or social studies), 4 years of English (or Language Arts, now). The Florida Sunshine State Standards also include economics and US government. Some universities require more math or more sciences but in a nutshell, this is what we needed to aim towards. The kids also needed to prepare for the SAT or ACT for college admissions.

English was easy because I have a degree in English so I LOVE it. I love reading and the kids both love reading. Writing was a little more difficult for my son since he is, basically, lazy and never wanted to write anything. After much cajoling, and telling him the evaluator would not "pass" him if he didn't, he wrote a really good paper pertaining to a certain gun used during WWII. What can I say, he's a boy. That paper was GOOD! Holy cow when did he learn to write like that? Obviously reading a lot for pleasure helped.

Lab sciences can be a problem for the home schooler but my kids did most of that through dual enrollment at the community college. We did do an earth science "course" at home by watching videos about volcanoes, earthquakes, weather, plate tectonics and rocks/erosion. There's a lot of information out there in books and on video to set up a really comprehensive "course" on earth science.

Math. Oh math. Yes, math was a pain in the butt! My son was a natural at math, still is, but has a lot of Catholic School baggage surrounding math. Sigh. My daughter decided not to do anymore math no matter how much I begged. Know what? They each decided on a college major, after taking quite a few basic college classes, and each one had/has a math-related major! My daughter was finance and my son economics. Weird! Unschooling works! You just have to let them choose and the rest will come along naturally.

Foreign language was handled differently by each of my kids. My daughter took American Sign Language at the community college and her university accepted it as a foreign language both for entrance and for the major. My son went to a tutor for German (thanks Silke!) for a couple of years working through a regular text book. Tutors are great! Also, dual enrollment at the community college is an option as long as you give enough time.

History is a snap! DVD's of History Channel shows or other instructional DVDs are great for this! Don't discount regular old books and even some historical fiction as long as it is based on historical fact. Pick a time period and go for it! My kids did a lot on Ancient Egypt. We even mummified a Cornish Game Hen. Umm, yuck. Interesting experiement but I did not consider the umm, "drainage" factor, or lack thereof. MOST of the game hen was mummified though and the people who now own our house will get a big surprise if they ever dig up one of our gardens! Nothing like a mummified game hen complete with canopic jars, amulets and a decorated shoe box sarcophagus. My son also spent a couple of years learning about WWII. Yes it was because of a computer game he was into at the time, but he sure learned a lot! There is a great video (DVD) series called "A Century of Warfare" that I know the Orange County, Florida library owns, all about the 20th century wars including WWI and II, Korea, Vietnam and the first Gulf War back in the 1990's.

US Government was covered at our house during one of the presidential elections since it was a good time to go over it. Economics was sadly absent from our home school. ooops. Anyway both kids took economics in college and my son is even an economics major so I am not losing any sleep over it.

Dual enrollment was a great great program for both high school and college "credits." ALL of the classes taken during dual enrollment are college classes with the end result being college credits that the state universities will take as transfer. Pretty good stuff!

Next up: Planning for college or how to get the most for the least amount of money!

Dual Enrollment in Florida

OK here it is! Dual Enrollment or sometimes called Early College is when a high school student attends college classes and earns both high school and college credit. Here in Florida, the college classes are free for Dual Enrolled students. For private school and home schooled students books are NOT covered although public school students are covered for books. My tax dollars at work.

The state of Florida has guidelines regarding dual enrollment but each college can set rules regarding number of classes per semester, the types of classes and also when the dual enrollment student is allowed to register. With budget cuts at all of the community colleges, a very good question to ask is, "when does the dual enrolled student get to register for classes?" For the community college that allows dual enrollment students to register AFTER the other students, well, it will surely mean that many students will not get a class, or at least the class of their choice.

There are also requirements regarding age, test scores and overall GPA, unweighted. Please talk to the dual enrollment office of your local community college.

Why not AP classes? I know that MANY of the high schools are all about the AP classes. Frankly, MOST students do not pass the required AP test to receive AP credit. BUT the school receives the MONEY for having these students in the class. Your student can get an A in the AP class but if he does not pass the AP test, then he will not get the college credits. Another aspect of the AP debacle that had me very concerned as the dual enrollment advisor was that sometimes two of the AP classes will give the student the same college credit. For example, if your student takes AP English Language and passes the AP test with a 3, he will receive the credits for ENC 1101 (remember, this is a Florida course number). If your student takes AP English Literature the following year and also receives a 3 on the AP test, he will receive the credits for, ENC 1101. Which he already has from the previous year. MOST students and parents do NOT know this! What a waste of time and resources! In ONE year (two semesters) your student can take ENC 1101 and then ENC 1102 at the community college and receive the college credits for both.

Here in Florida the universities MUST weigh AP classes and Dual Enrollment classes the same! UF can no longer weigh DE classes the same as honors while AP classes are weighed higher. Nope. Not anymore! For a high school GPA, AP and Dual Enrollment classes are weighed the same!

Please contact your local community college dual enrollment office for the details.

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!