Hi Trinity,
Our school district has been very good in supporting homeschoolers. The homeschoolers have the option of doing what is called dual-enrollment here with the public High School. The school system, probably more because they need extra students than because they love homeschoolers, allows the homeschoolers to take 2 academic classes and one elective class at the high school. If they take advantage of this option then they are also allowed to do extra-curriculars as well. The truth is though, they should be allowing the students to take up to 5 classes a day, but they have stubbornly held it to 3. So far we haven't had a problem with getting classes to work with his CC schedule. He takes his High School classes in the morning and his CC classes in the afternoon at the college annex in town. Eventually he will run out of classes here in town and then will have to travel about 20 minutes to the CC campus. He can also take classes on line from the CC. These have been great for classes that are required for his degree program but are not something that he needs to spend a lot of time on in a classroom. For example he is taking a basic computer course this term that is a prereq. for other computer courses he wants to take. It's also helpful if there is a class he wants to take but won't fit in his schedule. Such as a physics course he took last term.
I did know other homeschoolers who had taken classes at the CC but they were all high school seniors. When my son talked me into calling the CC to ask if he could take a course I thought they would laugh at me. He was only 11. But the Dean took me seriously and said she would like to meet him in person. So we went to the college for what I thought would be just a discussion on possible future classes. Well, she must have done some homework because when we got to the meeting she knew alot about him and had an entire orientation package waiting for him and welcomed him with open arms. She said they had never had a student that young but had confidence he would do well. After all the stone walling we got from our elementary and middle school, she was a wonderful breath of fresh air and has been great in helping him get the classes he needs.
As far as friends and relatives go, they saw his giftedness way before I did, so they thought it was only natural that he should be doing this. I think I'm usually more surprised that they don't think its odd that I have a 13yr old kid with a degree program. I don't know what his future college will be. He wants to go to MIT but I don't know how that is going to work yet. We're just taking it one year at a time.
Eileen
