Do you have a homeschool to college transition plan? As we homeschool our children, we are often highly focused on getting them accepted into college. But what about preparing them to actually succeed in college? They are different issues. What those of us teaching at the college level demand and care about are wildly different from what the high school of homeschool teachers care about. We need to prepare our kids for the professor.
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Key Aspects in Preparing to Transition from Homeschool College
1. Seek truth. While not everything that goes on in college is evil or a lie, much of what your kids will hear will be with great authority and from new sources – professors and other students who suddenly have tons of freedom and think they also have great wisdom. Teach your kids to find the truth and sort it out from the lies. Rarely are the lies alone – usually they are mixed with enough truth so that confusion results.
And I am not only talking about a religious view here. I also mean more everyday truth and lies. Things like “to get a job in this field you must….”. These kinds of statements spoken with authority from faculty are most often innocent views from the limited persecutive of a faculty member.
2. Prepare your children to be self motivated. Empower them today to take control. At the university, the faculty member will not hold their hand. It will be up to your child (now a college student) to take the initiative of their studies, the college, and their career. If they show up waiting on someone to help them, they are already behind.
3. Time management. You kids need to know how to manage a calendar and multiple priorities coming at them. Unlike the homeschool parent, who is aware of other demands and will make adjustments, the college professor neither is aware of the other demands nor will they care. Your child needs to be able to learn the skills of managing time and commitments.
4. Teach them how to study. Study skills are not meant to be hard. In fact, my first few years in engineering school were wasted on a lot of procrastination called study. When I learned how to study, I got better grades, studied MUCH less, and had more fun. Some real skills in how to consume information fast are in order here.
5. Teach them how to skim. With a massive amount of reading that will be required, the art of skimming is a true life saver. Teach them now.
6. Teach them to understand what others expect. This is the most important skill they will ever get from college. Understanding what each professor wants and cares about and how to deliver. This skill has little to do with college, but everything to do with reality. The rest of their lives they will be working for and with other people – customers, bosses, coworkers,etc – and working to quickly determine what others expect and how to deliver will yield them success in many levels in life. And, this skill alone allows you to focus on others as yourself.
Coming Soon – Preparing for the Professor
We will soon be releasing our new teaching plan that helps college bound kids get prepared to meet the world in which the professor rules. Whether a homeschooler or a student in public or private school, this course will give you those things you will wish you had – but did not know to ask. It is a course in succeeding in college.
