Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Things are about to get challenging...

Here's problem with homeschooling for a year, learned the hard way at our house.

Schools won't accept courses that aren't taught by accredited institutions. I taught algebra 2 to my son last year because we didn't like the online courses we found. When he went to the local high school this year, they wouldn't give him credit for the course or for another course he did with me. So now he's behind on credits. This sounds bad, but he it could have been much worse. His counselor initially told us that they might make him repeat algebra 2! Then there was a bit of a mixup, and in its midst, he just got enrolled in precalculus. We kept our mouths shut. I should add that what I taught was way more rigorous that the local high school's course.


Local middle schools (public/private) have said the same thing about me teaching algebra to my daughter, and I'm only trying to persuade them to let her skip pre-algebra and just do their algebra course. In their minds, there is a procedure, and it must be followed. Anything off the path doesn't count.

What I've learned is that the schools can be resistant even to testing out of a course. It sounds so reasonable to just test the kid, but my impression is that they don't see things that way. If you aren't accredited, they don't trust what you've taught or what the kid has done, even if you used their book and even if the kid got a very high score on a standardized test. If you don't do all the work in front of them, it doesn't count.

I know, this is nuts.

There is the option of online classes, but quality varies widely and they don't always solve the problem (your child may have to plod through all the assignments or may get zero live instruction or assessment may be via multiple choice tests).

Hence my first comment. If that other school is really great, I would look seriously at it. Otherwise, I would hesitate to homeschool without ensuring that you know what will happen on the other side when your child wants to go back to school. Which he will, unless you're prepared to homeschool through 12th grade (which has been done, of course).