Harvard

In the realm of online learning, “OpenCourseWare” is the new kid on the block, one worth checking into if you have a homeschool student who does well with virtual classes.  OpenCourseWare (OCW) includes coursework and materials shared freely with anyone via the Internet.

Universities such as MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard, to name a few, all offer OCW, although there is no credit conferred for completion of any courses.

I think it’s wonderful that these courses are free. They are extremely helpful for kids that are ready for this kind of college learning, but a word of warning: sometimes homeschoolers will sign up for OCW and then find out that it’s hard.  It is college level material, and if you take it from a college like MIT, which is an extremely difficult school to get into, the material will be even harder!  However, if your student is ready, I think it’s great to take classes.

For transcript purposes, you can count each class as a high school credit. If you’re interested in getting college credit for the course, look into CLEP or AP or Dante’s subject area tests.   If you’re looking for OCW at the high school level, I suggest you look at Kahn Academy, since they have a lot of links to classes that are high school level.

 

What do you think of OpenCourseWare?

The easy part of earning admission to Harvard is being a homeschooler.  The hard part about getting into Harvard is the same thing that makes it hard for every other student to get in.  Harvard accepts homeschoolers, and if your homeschooler has an eye on the Ivy League schools, don't worry that homeschooling will hold them back.  Here is a story about one family and how they educated for excellence, with excellent results.

Here is a YouTube interview with the student and her father.
Homeschool to Harvard: one student's amazing story - Dakota Root with father, Wayne Allyn Root on Fox News on 5-23-10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBxCJ43uwkA

You can read an article by her father called "Homeschool to Harvard."
http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/homeschool-to-harvard/
Homeschooled her whole life, "Dakota Root achieved her lifelong dream. She was accepted at both Harvard and Stanford. She was also accepted at Columbia, Penn, Brown, Duke, Chicago, Cal-Berkeley, USC and several more of the elite schools in America, an unheard of record for a home-school kid."

Going from homeschool to Harvard is not a new phenomenon.  In the book Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax
http://www.amazon.com/Homeschooling-Excellence-David-Colfax/dp/0446389862/ref=as_li_wdgt_js_ex?&linkCode=wey&tag=thehom-20
authors David and Micki Colfax describe being homeschoolers on their ranch in the 1970s and '80s. They taught their four sons at home and three of them got into Harvard.

Just remember, if your child wants to go to Harvard, being homeschooled is NOT a hurdle they have to overcome.  It's everything else that Harvard requires that's difficult!



Homeschooling is NOT the same as doing schoolwork at home.  There is LOTS of freedom!  My Gold Care Club will give you all the help you need to succeed!

Being a Mom is like being a juggler - you always have lots of ball in the air. Your goal is to not drop the ball!  Preparing students for college admission is a lot like being a juggler.  You can be successful if you don't drop the ball! Each spring I get frantic phone calls from parents, asking for help getting their kids into college. Their Suzie or Jimmy wants to go to Harvard, has never taken math, and didn't hear about SAT testing, and they want to know what I can do to help.

At that point, there really isn't much I can do!

I encourage people to plan ahead, and don't drop the ball.  In my newsletter, I have calendar reminders to help you remember things as you go along.  Reading those reminders will help you stay on track.  It just takes a little bit of attention, just once in a while, to make sure those balls stay in the air!  Keep it up, you can do it!



Your best strategy for keeping all those balls in the air is preparation.  The HomeScholar Gold Care Club will give you the comprehensive help you need to homeschool high school.