Homeschool school & dual credit or early college?

Question

My 10th grade son wants to leave his private school. Public not an option because of the school. His options are a very small Classical 1/2 day non accredited homeschool school with the option of taking some dual credits at our community college to start working on AS. The other is a program at our community college that begins in 11th grade

and by graduation he will have a diploma and AS degree. It is free and he gets a laptop and free books.

Sounds great right, but he is ADHD and a rather average student and will have to carry 5 classes. His PSAT was low and he hasn't even had Algebra 2. He wants to meet people and is not fitting in where he is but refuses to return. He will be 17 though this summer but I don't know if he's got the maturity. He wants to try the college and if it doesn't work, go to the homeschool school. I worry that he might fail and grades will be on his record plus the college is semesters and the homeschool school is trimesters. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Agree with YSN on this one.  Community Colleges in our area are very accommodating to high school students from public, private and homeschool.     They do give a placement test before enrolling you in the dual enrollment  courses.   That will tell you if your son is ready for the class he chooses.  

The other program you describe sounds like what our area calls "Early College/Middle College" .  Our public school started that 2 years ago and it is actually designed for underachievers.    It has a high success rate but is very demanding.    

My stepdaughter  graduated from public high school and went to community college for a tech class after graduation.  She had to take several remedial courses trying to teach her to read and write well enough to take a tech course.   I'm telling you this so you won't be discouraged if he does not do well on placement test for dual enrollment.

Our son is 15 and we have a sample test supplied by the CC to help us "study for the test" like they do in public school.  Our son wants to take a few classes along with homeschool.  Our style is relaxed eclectic and studying for the test goes against everything in me, but we do what we have to do.

   The CC want our business because they do get money either from you or the government when your son is enrolled.

Answer 2

He sounds really young to be taking college classes especially if he is just an average student and not at the maturity level to be able to handle it. Also most people who go to homeschool and didn't start out in homeschool or have the willpower to actually do the work don't typically learn as much in this situation. Is there any way that you could get him more involved at his current school? If he could get involved in extracurricular activities he might be more inclined to go. Most people think that the 10th or 11th grade is too late to start any extracurriculars, but it really isn't. I would check those out first. You could try the homeschooling, but I would check to make sure that he was keeping up with his work and at the first sign of doing poorly I would tell him to go back to regular school. You are his parent, so you have that option.

Answer 3

Why does it have to be completed in 2 years?  Go for a three year plan and start slow - perhaps 1 class the first semester to get his feet wet and see how it goes.  Accelerate from there.

CCs in our area have programs designed to help kids with various challenges such as ADHD.  Check with your CC to see if they do.  You might also want to talk directly with them about your concerns and see what advice they might be able to give you.