As my family matures (read – yeah, we’re all getting older), we start re-assessing things that work and don’t work for our family. E-schooling is one of those things. Our son has been enrolled in a Virtual Academy since the middle of 7th grade. We are now in the middle of 10th grade, and thinking about college and the future.
This year, our VA offered the option of dual credit classes (up to two per semester) through UNLV, which we took advantage of. At the end of the school year, Steven will have 13 college credits under his belt and it will have cost us very little. I love the option of dual credit classes. To me it seems as if many undergraduate classes are little more than glorified high school classes anyway, so if you have the opportunity to take them while you’re still in high school, well, all the better.
In that vein of thought, we’ve started looking at two different dual-credit high school options that are available to us (besides the one mentioned above). It’s a new adventure for us, deciding which school will work best for our needs. We’re at a point where college is a serious concern – not only in how we pay for it, but honestly – how we can get our son mentally set to continue through school for four more years. As parents, we are requiring graduation of high school. It is non-negotiable. If we can get our son through these last two years with a diploma AND two years of college completed, then I count that as a huge WIN.
As we go down this new road, I will try to share our experience. Virtual education is changing education in many ways, and dual credit high schools are also becoming more mainstream. I feel blessed that we have so many options.
