Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: college, high school plans, highschool, non-college

This topic has 13 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 4 months ago by retrofam.

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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January 15, 2014 at 9:26 pm
Misty
Participant
I wanted to ask about your high schoolers. For those of you who know that you will not be able to pay for your childrens college education, don’t even know if you care if they go to college (I know some are in utter disbelief at that statement), wonder if college is even right for your child(ren).. what do you do for high school?
If you just want to get them a great high school education, with things to remember what does your plan look like? What are you having them study? What do you say “that’s not needed” from a typiccal HS education and throw out the windown and what do you say.. “nope you have to do that anyway”?
I am just wondering as I just don’t know what to do next year with my up and coming 10th grader. Hes’ smart and talented but college I can’t see for him. He’ll be a self-motivator or a trades kind of guy. How do you plan for that life? I mean I did just public HS, and did my dh. Between his abiliteis and my talents we live on one income and have a happy life. How do you teach that, cause to be honest it didn’t come from our parents or at least not mine.
This is a ramble I know but hopefully someone will say.. yep I knwo what you mean and enlighten me.
January 15, 2014 at 9:42 pm
TailorMade
Participant
The abbreviated days of earlier years will tend to get longer studywise. I’d say, even if you don’t see him attending college, insist that his study skills will allow for it if he decides to later on down the road. Our older three are not attending college at this time (they’ve all graduated from home.) But, they have the skills it would take for them to attend should they choose to. Our younger son will be in 9th grade and plans to attend college. He will have a very similar education, but his science studies will be a bit more rigorous due to his interests/goals. He will complete higher levels of math than his older siblings, again, due to his interests/abilities.
Solid reading, writing, and math skills are important. Certainly teach study skills, but that tends to come along with a CM education. I’d say, if he’s trades bound, have him begin researching trades, consider apprenticeships, and find out about the financial planning it will take to pursue any route he intends to take.
All of our kids study economics, personal finance, homesteading type skills, etc. These will be extremely important for their generation, as will logic imo.
Above all, solid, deliberate time in the Word is the best bet for developing the wisdom he will need to carry him through life.
January 15, 2014 at 9:48 pm
ServingwithJoy
Participant
Hmmm…interesting question. I do understand what you mean about college. I come from a family of people with higher degrees (law, doctorates, masters,etc.) but I can’t see that it has necessarily helped them fulfill their dreams or grown them to even discover what those dreams might be. I am not against college – but I don’t think it is the only or even most necessary form of education. It seems to me mostly vocational training now…and a very expensive vocational training that may handicap many people from acheiving financial independence.
Our mentor family had 7 homeschooled kids, and they were encouraged to pursue their interests and education in their own way (and with their own funding). This is how they turned out:
1 – homeschooling mom of 6
2 – Cardiac surgeon
3 – Insurance Agent
4 – Missionary and then marketing developer for large church
5 – Yacht captain
6 – Chiropractor
7 – Preschool teacher
As you can see, they all went in very different and individual directions – and they each seem fulfilled and happy in their vocations.
My gut says that you should get them as much education and hands on training as possible before they leave home and have to begin earning a living for themselves. Character training and real work, life and ministry experience are the priorities I would aim for, as well as the basics of accounting, bookeeping, sales and customer service that are common to all small businesses and trades.
Have you thought about apprenticeship? Not a formalized, industrial experience, but just coming alongside a small business man or tradesman and working with him to learn a trade? We own a small business and do this quite often with teenagers. Sometimes they get paid for their work – sometimes it is just a learning experience. The only essential is that the kid is willing to learn and the teacher has a heart to teach (and, hopefully, disciple)them. I would also love for my kids to eventually own a service based business so that they can learn the ins and outs of all that it takes to be financially independent.
There is so much out there to learn – as long as they keep their minds open to growing and developing, I don’t see why they should have to restrict that education to college.
January 15, 2014 at 10:26 pm
Bookworm
Participant
I DON’T SEE ANY REASON THAT THE EDUCATION OF THE NON-COLLEGE BOUND SHOULD DIFFER IN ANY APPRECIABLE WAY FROM THE EDUCATION OF THE COLLEGE-BOUND.

There. I said it. 🙂
I think our kids need to be educated to the fullest extent possible–and that includes traditional formal academics, and lots of time pursuing interests–ways to make a LIVING and ways to make a LIFE. There are a few t-s to cross and i’s to dot if you have a reasonable belief that a child will go to college, either right away or in the future. But they don’t really make the EDUCATION different, they just involve tests, scholarship prep, ways to make a kid attractive to a college.
And not every kid will end up in the exact same place at the end of twelfth grade or whenever you decide to “graduate” him or her. And that’s OK. I mean, who really cares which kid walked at 8 months, which at 12, and which at 15? I think a critical part of each child’s high school should be a nice long session with mom and dad and possibly a trusted mentor and assess what that child might be capable of and what he or she might be needing. Can the child make it through calculus? Great! Would a better goal be the end of Algebra II? Great! All children should have a meaningful relationship with literature, with history, with music, with art–this is how to make that LIFE as opposed to the LIVING for most kids, but these things not only make one a better, deeper person, but they give one “something to think about while doing the ironing.” 🙂 EVERY kid should explore skills and interests that might help him or her with possible desired occupations. Technical education. Apprenticeship. Compiling a book of good and healthy recipes for feeding a family. Part time jobs. Economics and financial education. Shadow a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, an engineer, a nurse, a teacher. Work part time in one of these fields. Volunteer! Become well-rounded–learn to fly an airplane, throw a pot, hike the Appalachian Trail, learn to play electric guitar, serve others in a service or missionary capacity, design a dress, decorate cakes, learn to fix a car, install drywall–whatever! The specifics don’t matter nearly as much as whether the young person is fully engaged in the life of his or her mind, body and spirit and is looking toward the future in some way, knowing these years are preparation, and the more and better the work done now, the better will be the future. This does not necessarily mean the future will be richer in material ways–but there should be adequate preparation, since we can’t really do WITHOUT material goods entirely! But what we really want is the richest possible life for our children in the ways of satisfaction.
January 15, 2014 at 10:58 pm
LindseyD
Participant
Well said, Bookworm. Couldn’t have said it better myself. 🙂
January 16, 2014 at 12:24 am
ServingwithJoy
Participant
Very well said!
January 16, 2014 at 2:22 am
blue j
Participant
Agreeing with Bookworm. 🙂 I have seen this occur in our own family now… a child who didn’t think she would go to college but instead went to a trade school, of sorts, is now working her way through ECD. You never know where God will lead them.

January 16, 2014 at 12:55 pm
Misty
Participant
thanks ladies for your advice.
January 16, 2014 at 3:20 pm
Doug Smith
Keymaster
In addition to Bookworm’s excellent thoughts, I believe it is useful for most students to be exposed to some business and marketing concepts. That could come through books, mentors, apprenticeships, or starting their own businesses while it’s safe to fail and learn under your protection. The skills learned from those things are useful in almost any profession, or even for the stay-at-home mom assisting her husband or running her own micro-business for a little extra income.
January 16, 2014 at 9:54 pm
cherylramirez
Participant
When we began homeschooling one of my goals for my children to accomplish before they graduated was to start and run a small business. My dd is going to start working next year as an archery coach…not exactly an entrepreneur, but she will be a contractor so I will have to content myself with that.
January 17, 2014 at 12:55 am
Kristen
Participant
I would just like to add this; when I was in high school I did not plan on going to college but rather into the military, (which I did), so in high school I only took the minimum requirements to pass. Then after the military and a few years of work in a chicken factory and a burn accident, I decided I wanted to go to college. I couldn’t get accepted to some because I never took high school geometry. So, I have decided that even if my kids dont want to go to college, they are still going to be prepared for it.
thats my .02 cents worth.
January 17, 2014 at 1:26 am
Benita
Participant
I had no desire to go to college – even into 12th grade. I wanted to be a wife and a mommy! That dream was shattered when the boy I thought would marry me decided to take a different path after high school. My parents wanted me to go to secretarial school and go to work on Capital Hill. My father would be able to help me find a good job there. But that was not what felt at all natural to me. I ended up going to college – against my parents original wishes. But, they were proud of me when they saw me excel in college. The girl who took the general track, wanted to be a homemaker, and never took geometry got into college and graduated cum laude, summa cum laude in my major – education. I went on to teach until finally becoming a mommy 10 year after I thought I would! Anyway, all that to say that I think leading our children as much as we can is good, but we must be rational about their giftings. And, if they really want to go to college, they can make it happen.
January 17, 2014 at 3:29 am
missingtheshire
Member
Agree with Bookworm and Doug….educate as if they were going….as best as you can….let them develop their individual interests along the way….and let them think outside of the box as well….if they don’t choose to go or if funds are not available at the end of 12th grade – it makes no difference, there is a lifetime to go should they want to, and should finances become available. Is college for everyone, no it most certainly is not….but the best education available certainly should be for everyone….so strive and plan for that would be my advice.
January 17, 2014 at 3:21 pm
retrofam
Participant
When I looked at requiring highschool subjects such as geometry, my husband and I discussed whether each subject had merits for non-college students. Geometry is very practical, even for a construction worker or playing golf! I do not require Algebra 2 for non-college or two years of the same foreign language or physics for now. I hope that my kids get a good general understanding of physics even if I don’t require an actual high school curriculum. Other than that, the rest looks the same but the actual curriculum may look different for struggling learners, gifted, etc.