Am I overthinking this?

[cookderosa]

The thing about choosing a major for me is that I have no real passion or burning desire to persue any particular career. I know that sounds terrible. I am currently a stay at home mom and I homeschool our 4 children. That is my chosen career. I would like to get my degree to set a good example for our girls and to be able to supplement my hubby's income should the need arise. He owns a business and things have been slow. So in trying to decide on a major I would be looking for something that has career paths that could be done from home or with flexible scheduling ie. overnight, part-time, evenings. I know that is probably the worse way to decide on a career path, but that is what it boils down to for me. So throw your ideas my way.

Thanks so much.

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Why didn't ya say so!?! I'm also a homeschool mom but to my 4 sons! We might have to get together at some point hilarious

I have to share some of my story with you.

I started taking CLEPs and enrolled in college as a means of learning the process. I debated with myself about enrolling my oldest in high school because I worried that I would be an inadequate guidance counselor for him regarding college plans. I attended a college out of high school that was strictly culinary- there was nothing to decide. I knew what I wanted, it was the best school for me, everyone took the same classes, off I went- end of story. So, all the talk about bachelor of this or that, majors, arts and sciences, credits, SATs, etc had my head spinning. I thought- my sons deserve a college education, and I don't know if I know enough to get them headed into the right direction!

I read a book called Accelerated Distance Learning by Brad Voeller. He was a homeshooled boy who used CLEP and went to one of the "big 3" for his college. I think the book might be a little dated, but the information was VERY good. I decided that these tests might be something my children can take as they get older, but I hadn't learned anything about the college process.

I decided to take a CLEP exam to see how hard they were. I had never taken a single general education class in my life. I was 36. Once I passed Human Growth and Development, I thought if I earned a little extra $ here and there, I would take a test- but only as a hobby, I wanted to keep my family first. After 6months, I was full on dead-set that I would earn my bachelor's degree. I enrolled at TESC and fast forward one year....in 10 more days I will be FINISHED! This has been a nights and weekends type of degree for me, and I started from scratch!

So- am I sending my kids to high school? HECK NO!!!!! High school guidance counselors have no clue about how to maximize the options available to children. How to maximize high school/college credit, how to best spend time and money, how to choose flexible programs - no clue. They understand the process of mainstream college enrollment, but I have a bag of tricks that I can use now to maximize each and everything my kids do while being homeschooled through high school. I promise not to get up on my soap box about how kids are "tracked" by guidance counselors.

Highlights:
* My son's high school math classes will earn him college credit (ALEKS) and be done online at his own pace at home. These are classes he would have taken anyway. This will be around 15-21 credits in math/natural science.

* My children will take CLEP exams in all of the general subjects as well as many subjects that we study anyway (US History for example) I am estimating a minimum of 30 credits this way before graduation unless he wants to do more (fat chance).

* Senior and maybe junior year I will enroll him in one or more local online courses each semester. I doubt he will do a face-to-face class unless he wants to (fat chance). I estimate 12 credits this way.

* If I were to write a goal for them (understand that when they are older they can come up with their own goals- this is just one way) they can all earn bachelor degrees through a combination of exams, online courses, and use of college's like TESC to finish their bachelor degree one year outside of my homeschool program. If they walk away from high school with 60ish credits, it won't be difficult to earn the remaining 60 in one additional year. That can be the year they enroll somewhere (big 3).

* This way, they can leave home at around age 20 to earn their Masters at Harvard on campus. The extension degrees are open enrollment and less expensive than our local university! I would like all 4 of my sons to attend Harvard unless they have a good reason not to.

So..... you should earn your degree. It's affordable, and not as difficult as you might think! (I used to be so intimidated by those who had a bachelor degree :confused: ) But the best thing of all, is that you will become WELL EDUCATED in the process- which as a homeschool mom is the most important because then you will be able to lift up all of your children to earn a higher degree than you did. For me, that's the key.

Very few people will understand what you are doing, and trust me, you'll start to want to counsel other homeschoolers about all of these great credit-granting options....but very few will listen. That's ok though, as a homeschooler, I'm sure your used to some of that! I know I am!!

Welcome to the board!