We decided homeschool thru highschool!

It was both an emotional and a logical decision. We've homeschooled our kids from day one. Our oldest is almost 15 and we're at a point of deciding what to do about highschool. Tonight my friend C.B. and I just had a long and intense talk on "what to do with our three teens for highschool." These are some of the issues we examined emotionally and logically:

• To get a diploma or not
• To let them learn "whatever they want" or not
• To put them through a formal curriculum or not
• If not, how to approach "true education"
• How to give them work experience
• How to help them learn to earn money
• How to help them to bypass the diploma and onto a college
• How to help them develop social and expressive skills
• How to set up co-op opportunities
• How to encouraged them with their God-given creativity
• How to facilitate them in their interests and self-initiative
• How to prepare them for university course work if that is what they want.

I came home and started to research online universities. What a treasure trove of opportunities and options! There is such a sheer bulk of knowledge online, and knowledge that is dynamic too. Our kids of this generation were born into this; they are SO ready for online learning. It's US who need to calm down! It's US who need courage to go down a path where so few go.

I found a directory of online schools and distance learning programs here.

I'm going to click through to a few of the schools to request catalogues and info. I need to check what courses and degrees are offered. This is just the beginning of our research.

What we DID decide was that if we do this together we will succeed, and more importantly, our kids will succeed! We figured out that this is a natural progression of our kids' elementary "Adventure Club"/unit studies format. One of the first things we will do is assign them "What Color is Your Parachute."

Time will tell what our direction will be. Stay tuned. Your input and experience welcome!

Bye for now,
Janet