Ask BOHS
August 9th, 2007I just purchased two of your books and am looking for some guidance. Our girls are 13 and 11, they are in Iowa public schools, they both rank above the 95 percentile on the Iowa Basic Skills Test, both at the top of their classes.
I have not been happy with the level of instruction - particularly in writing skills - and we have a tutor who supplements their education in this area.
The other problem has been scheduling of athletic and music activities. Their school is 7-7.5 hours and it leaves little time for tennis training and music lessons. Both girls are nationally ranked tennis players.
I am concerned about many of the homeschooling alternatives - and would not do any type of homeschooling without tutors to assist us. I don’t like being the one to provide grades and diplomas. If I was a college admissions office, I would not give that much credibility.
I have researched many of the curricula, schools, academies online, but it is very difficult to find reliable reviews. Missouri looks like a possibility, but how do you know? Any suggestions would be helpful. Also, it would be interesting to know what top universities think of these schools.
Thanks for your help!
P.C.
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I think that you have several strong possibilities. Given their academic abilities, I would seriously consider one of the university-based programs, like Missouri, that offers a dual credit program. Your girls could be taking high school courses that are rigorous enough to be counted as college credit. However, that only works for when they get to high school (because Missouri is a high school only program).
One piece of information that you offered was intriguing and made me think of one particular school. You said that your daughters are nationally-ranked tennis players. Laurel Springs School has created a niche for itself in providing a quality education to children who are actors, athletes, musicians, and more, and for whom traditional public school is not a good choice. There is something to be said for this type of specialization. They are quite accustomed to meeting the needs of these types of students.
And should you like to continue this discussion, I would be happy to do so. We can take it into the forum. I think your daughters have some great options available to them.
