Too much of a good thing? Actually, yes. As your teen approaches 30 college credits, the goals need to shift from exploration to precision. This is the time to stop sampling courses and start following a clear, intentional plan. Early in the process, trying a variety of subjects is helpful, but by the time your teen nears 30 credits, continuing without a specific target will become costly (time and money) and could backfire.
I am the last person to tell you that your teen should never change their mind, but if your 9th-grade aspiring engineer decided to teach kindergarten in 10th grade and become a speech pathologist in 11th, a parent who is a “planner” will probably have a nervous breakdown at some point! (It takes one to know one….. and I’m THAT mom!)
The frustration is that we’ve made a plan, not that our teens have done anything wrong. In fact, people change their minds all the time, so especially as our exposure to new subjects and careers begins to ramp up. What becomes a problem, potentially, is that we allocate time (class slots in high school quickly become more precious) and resources (is this class worth $500?) and, when we have made that investment, we become frustrated that our hard work was for nothing.
I’ve walked this with my four sons, but this advice is beyond my experience as a homeschool mom. It’s been forged in this community where I’ve watched tens of thousands of parents reach success, and many also experience heartache and frustration. The chart below is a guide, but it’s not pulled from thin air. Trust the process. Trust that the most important thing early on is getting buy-in from your teen. Trust that teens earning a handful of credits will still experience benefits no matter what their plans are after high school, and also trust that if your teen starts approaching more than 30 credits, you need to either lock in a target or put on the brakes. It’s ok to stop earning college credit and “just” take high school courses.
