So now that we are pretty sure that we want to homeschool Joey at least part of the time, we need to figure out exactly how and to what extent we would keep up and document his acceleration. It is clear from the data available regarding homeschoolers (see earlier post) that homeschooling often leads to acceleration, even for non-gifted children, and despite the fact that many homeschool curricula 'follow' rather than 'lead' a child's progress and can be rather unstructured. There is just something about avoiding the traditional school environment, where so much time is spent in what I call 'crowd control' activities, that saves time. And of course, for these children who can learn faster than average, there is nothing holding them back when they are homeschooled. This is why many have time to develop interesting hobbies which, apart from stellar scores on standardized tests like the SAT, earns them spots in Ivy League universities. There's a very interesting article regarding why homeschoolers get into these schools. Also, if you happen to be on the homeschool2 college yahoo group, you will see that getting into MIT or Harvard (and many others) is also relatively commonplace for children with this type of background. So.. how to get there?
In order to figure out a tentative plan, I looked at the minimal requirements from top universities. For example Harvard U. states 'an ideal four-year preparatory program includes four years of English, with extensive practice in writing; four years of math; four years of science: biology, chemistry, physics, and an advanced course in one of these subjects; three years of history, including American and European history; and four years of one foreign language'. MIT requires 'one year of high school physics; one year of high school chemistry; one year of high school biology; math, through calculus; two years of a foreign language; four years of English; two years of history and/or social sciences'. Washington U. states that 'most candidates’ transcripts include: four years of English; four years of mathematics. (architecture, Business, and Engineering strongly recommend calculus); three-four years of history or social science; three-four years of laboratory science (engineering strongly recommends chemistry and physics); at least two years of a foreign language'. So the bottom line is that most competitive universities have the same quantitative requirements (X years of Y), but of course not a the same level: the more selective the universities, the more AP courses are encouraged, and the better a student needs to do on these and standardized tests (some universities also require the SAT subject tests) to have a chance to get in.
For homeschoolers who do not take outside courses (like JHU-CTY or others), their progress is more challenging to track than for those who do, but this is far from being impossible. For example, certain homeschool curricula (like Calvert, a highly rated program), offer interactions with teachers who also grade assignments; another option is to take achievement tests, such as the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test or A Beka Testing. Of course once you reach the level for standardized tests and AP exams, a student can document his/her achievements that way as well.
Our current plan is to continue with JHU-CTY, provided Joey qualifies again when he reaches the age when he would normally finish the second grade (see previous post). Starting at our current level, and assuming that Joey maintains his current acceleration, I figured that he would finish all his high school requirement in time to enter college at 15 years of age. Going this way is not inexpensive, but it will save us ~$20K over full-time private school in our area.
See below:
For a better view or to save, select and copy all the cells into your own spreadsheet. If anyone knows how to present more user-friendly and attractive spreadsheets/tables in blogger, please contact me!
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