How to Get into College as a Home Schooler

Over the years, I have worked with many different home schools and I was very

interested in what was the next step for kids who were home educated throughout high school.  Were they destined to be stay-at-home parents or blue collar employees?  Were they going to inherit their parents' business or go on to a vocational school?  I never imagined them being college bound.  

However, the tide has changed and now many home educated children are entering four year academic institutions.  How you might ask? Well through several avenues...the most common is taking classes at junior colleges to create a transcript history.  This is accomplished most of the time prior to graduation.  By taking classes at the local community college, the student is able to take courses that will be accredited to them as general education and build their academic resume for the university of their choice.

Another road traveled is the home school college counselor.  This is the latest out reach into the home school community.  A college counselor who specializes in home school students will be able to direct them in the best possible way to increase their chances into being accepted into a four year institution.  The counselor makes sure that the family is looking at schools that welcome home education.  They prepare the student in the areas of the application that need to be stressed in order to make themselves more appealing to the application boards.  A family who utilizes a counselor who specializes in home education will by-pass many of the mistakes and red-tape made navigating the collegiate world.  

TLP Education has been helping home education get their kids into college for several years now.  We hope to see our home educators and home school students this Monday at Ontario's Home School Fair.

Join us for the 30th Annual Homeschool Fair
Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 2019
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Ontario Christian High School
931 W. Philadelphia St. Ontario, CA

Life Learners

I have heard for many years now that we must encourage our children to be "Life Learners."  As noble as this catch-phrase is, I find that the only time in our lives that we real dedicate to learning is childhood and early adulthood.  After our jobs and families set in, we put learning aside.  We might dust off our thinking caps for mandatory CE's, but as a whole, we settle in quite comfortably in the "old-dog-can't-learn-new-tricks" category.  Learning is essential for our brains.  They need to be used in daily analysis, evaluation and creating in order for each passing year to be purposeful and stimulating.

Taking-in information, storing that information and then applying it to new situations is the process of creativity or learning.  Learning is not passive but deliberate and active.  When you are conceptualizing, applying,synthesizing and evaluating information/skills for the purpose of reaching an answer, conclusion or outcome, your brain is doing what it was meant to do.   In other words, it is a conscious systematic and analytical search engine better than "Google." 

You want to make dinner tonight.  You have chicken and pasta.  You have no idea what you want to do with both ingredients that has not been made before ad nauseam. The database in your computer has endless amounts of information ranging from the gestation period of chicken to the best restaurant in Venice, Italy.  All this information is there, but not all is needed for your problem.

Now the search in on! The purpose of a search engine is to analyze, to evaluate, and to apply for you.  It searches through the mass amount of information on the internet based on key words you have imputed to sort out what is applicable.  This analysis of information has purpose.  The computer knows only to return a list of documents, i.e., recipes for your specific problem.  Our brains work the same.  We move through stages of searches and steps of elimination of information to achieve the right answer to the problem...we learn.

Just like the new upgrades in apps and software, we need to continue introducing our brains to new information.  Keeping the process of learning continuous helps our brains "upgrade."  Any skill/knowledge or advancement in a familiar skill/knowledge, as silly as you might think it is, works.  Reading literature of a modern author then discussing it with others, taking a foreign language, learning how to paint or dance, constructing or shaping artwork can engage your mind and make you a true testament of being a "Life Learner."

Embracing New Ideas

How many times have we worked with individuals that are reluctant to any change?  I remember my family room had white walls.  I did not choose this color or desired to have white walls;  that is just how the builder painted them.  After years of staring at "eggshell" white, I decided to paint my walls.  My newly-wed husband was reluctant to paint the walls due to an irrational fear of change.  He couldn't fathom what he would do if he didn't like the color.  This reluctance was the topic of many discussions.  His inability to embrace the new idea, painting the walls, kept him from moving through the higher levels of critical thinking.  He was unable to come up with a solution...a compromise.  When we are unwilling to embrace new ideas, we find ourselves pigeon-held.   Conclusions cannot be reached. Innovation cannot be created.  Problems will not be solved. Interpersonal skills are not practiced.  Next time you shut down a new idea, think about what you might be losing...the next Social Media phenomenon or super tech or maybe a trip of a life-time.

Critically Speaking about Thinking

     The classroom is a place where academia and character are taught.  As educators, we are not interested in shoving an extraordinary amount of information in the heads of our students so that one day they can win at "Trivial Pursuit."  We are concerned with the development of the whole person.  My years teaching foreign language were filled with lesson planning and grading.  However, I had decorated on my wall each and every year the same objective..."Intelligence Does Not Equal Character." Of course, I wanted my students to excel in Spanish, but more than that, I desired that they would take the information presented and use it critically in all aspects of their lives.
      Countless faculty meetings and parent-teacher conferences echoed the same complaint; they are NOT critically thinking.  The honor students to the barely-getting-by students were all demonstrating a lack of self-sufficiency.  Parents were inevitably over-compensating for their children, and teachers were conveniently "spoon-feeding."  Now "what is best for the child is not always convenient for the parent [or teacher]."  After twenty-some years in the traditional classroom, I had middle school kids enter my class with no idea how to problem solve.  Preadolescence does lend itself to some quirky personalities, but as a whole, I had to deal with moving students through the
stages of Bloom's Taxonomy on a daily basis.  I gave them the toolbox, the lesson.  I gave them the tools, the stages of learning.  Nevertheless, I had to help them know how to use each tool for its most efficient purpose.  See, if you use a saw like a hammer, you might be able to pound in a nail.  However, it will not be as efficient as using a hammer.  It isn't that the saw can't be used to pound in nails; it is just not its best function.  I purposed each September to instill that my students were using "saws to cut and hammers to nail."  I was certain that in the future someone would expect my students to know the difference between a "saw" and a "hammer," at least metaphorically speaking.

Cap + Gown= Adult?

I apologize for the delay in writing, but I have to say February was a busy month.  I think if you are the parent of a senior in high school, you are seeing graduation closer than ever now.  Your child is going to be a part of the "adulting" class.  The day is coming where they will need to fend for themselves in such a way that has been defined as an "adult."  So as I pen these thoughts, I would hope you all take the time to run through the checklist of last minute "adulting" items.

1. Can you soon-to-be adult navigate a banking website?
2. Can they write a check (if need be)?
3. Can they send a letter or package in the mail?
4. Can they return a purchase online or in a store?
5. Can they drop off and pick up a prescription?

For the seasoned "adulter," we often forget that our children might not know how to do these very necessary activities because they have been done for them or we just assume they know because they are computer savvy.    However, it is in fact, our responsibility to mentor our children into this long stage of life.  There are nuances that come from experience and not from a textbook.  They might not master it all before graduation but starting now will at least get them thinking about "adulting."

Healthy Competition

Everyone knows that person who is a sore loser or worse a sore winner.  Those do not know healthy competition.  Whether you compete against others or with yourself, the gauge must be set on healthy.  How do you know if your competitiveness is constructive and productive?   Consider the following questions: 

1.      After a competitive bout, do you dwell on your failures or your success to the point that no other topic can be raised?

2.     Does the focus of your free time involve some aspect of compensating a failure in your abilities to compete?

3.    Are you thrilled in the defeat of your opponents?

4.    How long do you see your competitive career lasting?

After answering these questions, examine closely your responses.  Do they seem balanced? If another responded like you have, would you want to associate with them?  Now, think of your children.  Are you instilling the competitiveness that will make a reasonable adult?

Learning by Numbers

     Why doesn't my kid get it? Why are other kids so much more ahead of the curve? Why can't he read faster, spell better or just learn his multiplication tables??? WHY???

     Learning, anything, is developmental.  The process of learning is about moving information or skills into your long-term memory.  We can do this with repetition.  The more often we see/ use/ hear the word or task, we learn it.  As a foreign language teacher for over 25 years, I have to remind my students of all ages that the target language will come but it depends on the number of repetitions necessary to move the vocabulary into their long-term memory.

  I, as the instructor/facilitator, can only guess how long it will take.  Each person has a set amount of times necessary for the transfer of information to be placed into the recall section of the brain.  Recalling is being able to draw information without hesitation.  As you are able to store and retrieve without hesitation, then innovation can take place.  INNOVATION. CREATIVITY. NEW IDEAS...Critical thinking.

     If you want to learn more about critical thinking in the classroom to the marketplace, please email me Liz@TLP.education for a copy of my booklet: Thinking Outloud.