GUEST POST: 4 Tips For Preparing Your Homeschooled Child For College

Carlie Kercheval

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By Guest Writer, Nadia Jones

If you’ve homeschooled your children their entire lives, since they were in kindergarten up until they were teenagers, you know from first-hand experience what an incredibly rewarding experience it can be to guide your children through their foundational education. Now, however, your child is approaching her final years of her home education, and you are likely considering sending her to college.

Evidence demonstrates that homeschooled children tend to thrive in a university environment, often outperforming their traditionally-schooled peers. Still, making that transition from homeschooling to attending a university away from home can be difficult. Here are a few tips for preparing your kids for a college experience they’ll enjoy.

  1. Help your child prepare for standardized tests well before college application deadlines. Since homeschooled children won’t necessarily have a high school “transcript” that is standard for traditional schools, the most important piece in the college application process that will help admissions committees decide on your child’s academic abilities is the standardized test. As such, it is doubly important to study for these tests well in advance. Since the SAT and ACT  are not necessarily designed to test intrinsic talent or ability, but are rather created to measure how well you can take a test, practice is really the only way to do well.
  2. Practice with your children independent schoolwork. Whether your child is homeschooled or traditionally schooled, the one aspect of attending college that ever student initially struggles with is being responsible for his or her own schoolwork and academic performance. Most teens get constant reminders from both teachers and parents (in your case, teacher-parent) to finish their homework and study for tests. Once they enter college and those reminders are no longer given, students often falter under the weight of having to manage their own time. Give your kid an early start by easing up on the reminders and help with time management.
  3. Have your children do tasks that they’ll have to do on their own in college. Just as time management is an issue for most teens when they enter college, another problem that teens typically have when they leave home is learning how to care for themselves. If your teens don’t as yet know how to cook, or if they haven’t yet made it a habit of doing their own laundry and budgeting their money for personal expenses, then start having them practice now.
  4. If you haven’t already, have those “serious” discussions you’ve been putting off. Even though we love our children dearly, there are certain discussions as parents that we may find awkward. Still, it’s important for your child to be aware of the fact that they’ll encounter things like binge drinking and drug use in college that they won’t have any experience with as homeschooled children. Talk to them about these dangers and how to handle them.

Of course, your children, with the proper guidance afforded through home education, will likely do just fine once they get to college. But a little preparation can go a long way. Good luck!

Author Bio:

This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at online college about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics. You can reach her at nadia.jones5@gmail.com.

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