When public school fell short, Meghan’s family turned to homeschooling, just to get through the year. What followed was a remarkable academic transformation. Through planning and early college credit, Megan earned 50 credits, found her passion for architecture, and was accepted to her dream school with 48 credits applied.
I’m thrilled to share this letter I received from Patti, a Homeschooling for College Credit parent. She asked me to remove a few personal details, which I have honored.
Good Morning, Jennifer!
My student, Meghan, started homeschooling with the Covid public school debacle. She was in 7th grade March of 2020 and the options the school was offering were wholly inadequate. I was closing out my career and retired at the end of April 2020. Prior to Covid Meghan was dancing ballet 5 or 6 days a week, often not getting home until 10:30 or 11 pm. She was ready to pursue ballet seriously. She continued dancing through Covid and beyond but ultimately stopped due to injury.
We are in [state], and there can be some serious difficulty getting your kid back into public school if they are homeschooled in 9th grade or after. The schools have the discretion to deny any or all homeschool high school credit. We decided 8th grade was a great time to try homeschooling. If it didn’t work out, she’d go to public high school smoothly. Early in this transition, I found your book and Facebook community.
Well, it worked out beautifully. She loved the focus and flexibility. I am not saying every class/curriculum or enrichment we tried worked perfectly but she was willing to do the work and learned SO MUCH MORE than she did in public school. We got connected with local classes for math and science.
She tried her first Arizona State University Universal Learner (ASU UL) course in her freshman year, spring term. It did not go well, but we learned more about what she needed. Sophomore year fall term she took another ASU UL course and nailed it. Spring term she took two in person courses at the local community college, French 1 and Music Appreciation. She did wonderfully and learned so much about being in the college setting. Early success set her up to spend her junior and senior years of high school earning a total of 50 college credits.
She figured out what she wants to pursue, and found a university that offers her course of study in the environment she knows she can thrive in. Summer between her sophomore and junior years, she went to the summer program put on by her major department and fell in love with the school, and program. This focus permitted me to tailor her courses to the degree plan.
She wants to be an architect. This is a professional path that requires she take the studio courses in order, in sequence. There is not a way to shorten the time to get the professional credential. Our focus on dual enrollment was to fully demonstrate her ability to be successful in college, and to create an opportunity for her to take courses of interest to her.
She is heading off to [her dream school] University in about a month to study Architecture and she is hopeful that the 48 credits they accepted will allow her to fit in enough History courses to double major. 42 of those credits directly check a required course box for her degree! The two that do not were taken knowing they probably wouldn’t transfer. One was that first ASU history course, and the other was another ASU UL course she took with a younger friend so she could mentor the friend, and they’d have a reason to hang out. Well worth it as far as I’m concerned.
Thank you for everything you are doing to help families like mine be successful moving through this complex and ever-changing educational world. I purchased and read your book, took your transcript class, joined multiple Facebook groups and received consistently helpful feedback and information to make this possible.
Thank you and all of your volunteers!!
Best,
Patti
