Helping Your Home Schooled Child Prepare For College
By Mimi Rothschild
From an academic standpoint, preparation for college should begin very early for home schooled children. Middle school is not too early to lay the foundation for the high school levels that your child will need if she is to be a competitive applicant for colleges and universities. Indeed, if your child is up for it academically, you may want to prepare her to learn algebra in 8th grade, as many gifted students in public and private school are. Furthermore, middle school is a great time to introduce foreign language into your child’s home school curriculum if you haven’t done so already. Both of these will give your child a head start in preparing her to enter college.
Because you and your home schooled child won‘t have a guidance counselor to depend upon, it is important for you to remain very organized with regards to the courses your home schooled child will need to prepare for college. Your home schooled child will need 4 years of language arts, including composition, American literature, world literature and English literature. Your home schooled child will also need 3 to 4 years of math, including algebra I, algebra II, geometry, trigonometry and pre calculus. The completion of algebra II should be the lowest level of attainment you and your home schooled child should consider if you are serious about attending a good university. History and geography are important parts to your home school curriculum and should include classes like American history and world geography. Sciences that include a laboratory are also important and universities will expect 2 to 4 years worth. It includes subjects like chemistry, biology and physics. Your home school curriculum should also include a few levels of foreign language study with intermediate proficiency, and at least one year of art, dance, drama, or music. In short, your homes school curriculum should be just as rigorous, if not more so, than the college preparatory programs at good local public and private schools.
Many colleges and universities welcome home schooled students with open arms. They value the time management skills, social skills, and diversity they bring as students. Universities have also come to expect that home schooled students will be among their finest from an academic standpoint. However, admissions committees want to see that the home schooled child is proficient in the areas in which they expect traditionally educated children to be proficient. Home schooling parents and children should start looking at target colleges early to make sure they are on track for completing the entrance requirements to be competitive applicants.
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