Whew! As of today my son is half way through his first College class! I have been bugging him to write something for our blog. But, he's been really busy with the class...So I am posting for us!
Today my son came home and told me that the teacher asked him if his mom taught him how to write. (At the 1/2 way point of the class he is pulling a strong A! YAY!) When he answered "Yes." the teacher replied "My mom taught me to write too. We would write together and that's how I learned." I thought it was SO awesome that he would tell my son this! I thought it was really kind of him. The class has been going really, really well! Not just the assignments and the fact that he's acing it. But, the whole experience.
I really didn't know how he would be accepted as a 16 year old in a College class. What would they think? Would they even know he was homeschooled? So the very first day the teacher had them go around with a list of questions to ask each other as a mixer. One to the questions was "How many kids were in your High School?" LOL So when my sons answer was ONE it quickly became a topic of conversation! The teacher got wind of his answer and asked (in front of the whole class) how he had only one kid in his high school? He responded with "I'm homeschooled." The teacher replied that he use to not be sure about homeschooling. But, now as a College teacher he found that the best students in his classes usually turned out to be homeschooled. Then a student from Turkey chimed in that he didn't understand homeschooling. He said "In my country the government says everyone must go to school. American and Canada is the only place people don't have to go to school." I told my son that he should have said "Well, in American we have a thing called FREEDOM!" Then my son said he was glad at the moment that I wasn't there! LOL Ironically a few days later my son got matched up with the guy from Turkey for a project and they got along just fine. (Although the project was very, very hard because of the language barrier.)
All in all everyone has been great to him. I know it may not be this way in every class. But, I am glad his first experience is a good one. He is learning a lot of "other" interesting things too. He's surprised by how nonchalant many (most) of the other students are. The amount of drops and absences. (They were told that NO absences would be allowed because this is a 9 week class in 6 weeks already. So you just can't miss.) The fact that he LOVES the teacher and everyone else seems to think he's mean and too tough. ("If they think he's tough they should meet my moms!" LOL) There is one student in particular that is keeping my son entertained and shaking his head. On the first day of class he introduced himself and announced that he was just there until his basketball career took off. He also informed everyone, including the teacher, that he was just "shooting for a D in the class." Then for one of their assignments they had to interview someone and write a profile on them. So this character did his profile on a drug dealer! For his "research" he rode along on drug deals. Wow! Of course as a homeschooled student my son has never met a person with an attitude or lifestyle like this! Needless to say he's learning a lot more than how to write!
So overall it's been a great experience. It's weird not having him home as much and it's weird when he has assignments that conflict with things I have planned. But, he's learning, growing and fitting in just fine. Just like I always knew he would!
Happy Homeschooling,
Mom
