High School cruiser schooling

[GalaxyGirl]

Hello all,
I have been considering pulling my kids out of school to cruise. My original plan was to live at the dock for a few years while most of them finish High School and take trips when able, but now I may have a change of heart.

Wondering if anyone has experience with High School home schooling and how colleges view the home schooled kid?

My kids are not in High School yet, but will be very soon.

[Teknav]

Are you qualified to teach all subjects covered in High School? I suggest that you let your kids attend a normal High School. If they get excellent grades, they can be admitted to the college of their choosing with full scholarships and grants. In addition, the social interaction in HS is nowadays necessary for college admissions. Mauritz

[haw1961]

What do your kids want to do?

[GalaxyGirl]

Originally Posted by haw1961

What do your kids want to do?

All but 1 of them are ready to go. They know that it is a big lifestyle change, but they are excited about the adventure.

The 1 kid who is not on board, my oldest son, can stay with my family and continue with his land education, which he is fine with. He's a social butterfly. Home schooling I'm sure would be better for him academically, but I would never strip him of his social life which he loves.

[haw1961]

Well, there is your answer. I have found that if they are onboard with the plan it usually works out. Good luck

[GordMay]

See the OFTP’s “University and College information for homeschoolers”
➥ University and college information for homeschoolers

And the various universties Home-schooled Admission Criteria

ie:
Brock U ➥ Home-schooled Admission Criteria | Brock University

Stanford U ➥ Home-Schooled Applicant Guidelines : Stanford University

[Mimsy]

My sister home schooled her girls through high school. The eldest just graduated from university summa cum laude. She did not use a canned curriculum but instead pulled together a curriculum from different sources.

A detailed record of subjects covered is important, but for admissions to university with a non-typical education excellent scores on standardized admissions tests is crucial. You will need to ensure your kids have access to a proctored testing facility (if attending in the US) but universities are pretty good at spotting academically talented kids regardless of whether they attended a traditional school or not. I will say that my niece had more scholarship money given to her because of her non-traditional schooling.

[Boatguy30]

It would seem to me if you have never homeschooled, high school might be a hard place to start. I'm personally not a big fan of home schooling especially in an urban setting,mbut is certainly necessary for cruising. We plan to do it for part of elementary school and see how it goes. We have no plans to try it for high school, but will see how it goes.

[letsgetsailing3]

Is this about them, or you?

While cruising with your parents is a cool experience, so is going to high school.

[cfarrar]

I've not yet home schooled, but I am a 9-12 educator, and I understand that while some students thrive in a traditional, structured classroom of their peers, participating in afternoon sports and activities with other kids, others may thrive in a hands-on, project-oriented learning environment, perhaps a sailboat that's travelling the world.

Here's an important question: will you have time to oversee their education while underway, in addition to managing your responsibilities as skipper, chief engineer, and parent? I suspect these responsibilities will keep two parents occupied full time, if you're doing it right.

[GalaxyGirl]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It is a very difficult decision. I will have to do more research on homeschool high school curiculums and decide if it is something that will work for our family. I do believe that world travel could be extremely beneficial to their real life education which I am a firm believer in. But I also see the benifits of long term peer relationships and community.

[Kahuna George]

My two oldest children were home schooled K-5. Then to public school. My son did not do well in either and got his GED. My daughter did well in both and went to college. Both parents must be educators and my ex-wife's was more into the babysitting mode.

I think now, you should do what is best for you. When you live your life for your children you will be disappointed. YMMV & YOLO

[rebel heart]

A guy I worked with on a sport fisher sailed for four years with his wife and two high school aged girls.

They both got accepted to great universities, it wasn't a problem at all. They did great on the ACT and SAT and whatever curriculum they were on had paperwork to back it up.

They also had a jet ski crash into the boat, holing it, and had to flee the island because apparently it was the local police chief's kid.

[ohdrinkboy]

It boils down to how good a teacher/head master you will be and how motivated your kids are to schoolwork with all of the other distractions. Layer on to that the social interaction differences of cruising vs. normal high school.

[Tellie]

We home schooled and boat schooled our daughter since third grade. She is now going into the her third year at the University of Vienna. She speaks good French and excellent high German. My wife and I speak neither. There are plenty of misconceptions about home schooling, some of which are mentioned above. For the most part homeschooled kids are far more "socialized" than public schooled kids. It's the nature of not being around only one age group 5-7 hours a day. Universities are actively seeking home schooled kids. The last home school convention I attended had recruiters from at least three Ivy league schools. Businesses in my area are constantly putting out ads in the homeschool network in the area I live in seeking homes schooled kids to work for them from part time summer jobs to full time positions because they are finding a greater sucess rate with home schooled kids and their values than many from the local public schools. Every kid learns differently than the next. Structured environmental teaching leaves many kids out of the loop. Home schooling allows you to discovery your kids best method of learning and apply it where you child gets the most out of what they do learn. Home schooled kids are not taught to the test as far too many public schooled kids are and where cheating is becoming more the norm as recently discovered. Even the best teachers, and there are many in the public school system, are becoming more and more disillusioned with the system. Teachers have 30+ kids in the classroom and any individual child would be lucky to get 20 minutes of individual attention on any given day. Home schooled kids get hours a day of individual attention. The best educated and trained teachers are in the public school system yet many private school teachers don't even have a teaching certificate, But comparatively private schooled kids do better as do home schooled kids. I could go on for pages. But understand again no two kids are alike. The learning environment you place them in is only as good as you are willing to make it. You don't need to be a teacher, most home schooling networks are full of people who can help in areas you feel concerned about. In Broward county the public school system is actually very good at assisting home schooled families as are many more schools across the country. Long gone are the days when home schooling was the butt of jokes and ridicule. Now it is growing in popularity by the tens of thousands each year. Your kids will thrive and will more than likey surpass your knowledge and begin a life long process of continual learning as the basis you set for them is how to learn on their own, or learning how to learn for the rest of their lives.