I was on this forum for some time before I realized Jennifer had written a book. I homeschool and my kids were approaching the age to look at high school and college credit for them, so I bought her book. It has changed my perspective and approach to homeschooling in high school in so many positive ways. I think of the book more as a high school advisor’s book, rather than a degree planning book. She has a very down to earth, practical approach to earning college credit in high school, without completely railroading their high school education in the quest for a degree. This forum tends to spend a whole lot of time looking for ways for adults to earn credit fast/easy/cheap, because most of us have life experience, we are in careers and we have all graduated from high school. Maybe it was a good education, maybe it wasn’t, or we didn’t take it seriously enough, but we still have more knowledge than the average 13+ year old. The approach needs to be different for kids, who naturally lack that foundation, and she has found a niche.
There are a few other authors out there who have written about this topic. I bought some of their books too, because I like to see all points of view, if possible. I’m a fan of her book, because my over-achiever nature initially allowed me to think my oldest could just follow the path laid out on degreeforum and rapidly earn a degree. Jennifer had already blazed that trail and shared with us why she felt this wasn’t the best approach for a high school student. Looking at our situation with the knowledge of her own experiences has helped me develop a solid high school education that also, sometimes earns college credit.
Most homeschool parents are very nervous about continuing into high school. It is critical for our kids’ futures that we get high school right! It may mean the difference between college or no college, debt or no debt. Homeschool parents are willing to pay for knowledge and experience to help guide them — to help them get it right on the first try. Many of the students are going on to traditional brick and mortar schools, and hope to bring inexpensive CBE and/or dual credit courses with them, to reduce overall cost and potential debt, while learning and completing high school requirements. That is not really the focus of this group. It IS the focus of Jennifer, Danika and Jenny’s business. I’ve often pined for a group specifically targeting homeschoolers and college credit, where we could talk freely, and discuss things specific to homeschooling. Now we have it. I’ll add that, while there is a cost to their course and full service advising, there is no cost to join their Facebook group. They have setup free “units” to give a “leg up” to people who are willing to put in the extra effort to work on this themselves. I’ve done most of the units and I can say that it is generous of them to provide this info for free, and save parents valuable time searching the internet for answers, good or bad. It’s a quick summary of the info they might find here in the free wiki’s and so many posts or elsewhere online, but tweaked for high school students. They’re not selling the info from this group - it’s free in a lovely infographic form in their group, but modified for younger students’ needs. They also answer questions at no cost every single day. Yes, parents could do that here too, but the parents would also get some advice primarily intended for adults, not kids, and then need to sort through that info to find the right path for their child. The approach is simply different. They’re selling their own specific knowledge and experience to advise homeschool families, and help them plan out their students’ high school years optimally.
I think we can all agree that while they may have gained some knowledge from this group, the knowledge they continue to share with this group is extensive. Further, I think we can agree they spend quite a bit of their own time researching independently to help others find answers, which they still freely share with this group. The sum of their knowledge and experience is simply being targeted at a specific demographic whose needs are somewhat different than this group, and are time sensitive. There is no time for mistakes in high school. We get one chance to do this right...and we do so amidst the doubts of family and friends, and our teenagers’ occasional rolling eyes and sighs.
I am grateful for their labor of love, support, and ongoing generosity in this group and their own Facebook groups.
And...Happy New Year y’all! Peace, love and prosperity to you all!
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