So, I just finished listening to an episode of the Growing Bright Podcast called Navigating the Path to College as a Homeschooler featuring Dr. Thom Golden of Golden Educational Consulting and I just had to share about it with my homeschooling and unschooling community. As an unschooling parent currently in this phase of life with my oldest, I have been thinking about it a lot more recently.
I actually started thinking about it several years ago when the kids became teenagers and I realized that if they wanted to go to college, at some point I was going to have keep better track of what they were doing since nobody else was going to do it for me. I think many homeschooling parents have that “oh sh!t” moment at some point, lol. At first, I was a little nervous about it because homeschooling/unschooling was still newish for our family and I was in the process of learning about educational styles and how each of my kids learn, and all of the different options there are for EVERYTHING. But, as I really leaned into unschooling and started letting go of all my societal conditioning around education, I knew that everything would be alright, and it would all work out. No matter what path is chosen, there are lots of ways to get there and you just have to find the right one for you/your child. None of the paths are wrong…they are just different.
Fast forward to now… My son just finished his second semester of dual enrollment and his junior year of high school is over. He is actually a senior now (mind blowing! because I swear he was a toddler like not that long ago) and we actually have to figure out what he is going to do because he does want to go to a four-year college. I think we have a plan, but there are a lot of factors that play into choosing a school and it’s really important to find the right fit.
About a month ago, I scheduled a consultation with Dr. Thom and ironically the appointment is tomorrow. And today, I just listened to the podcast that I told you about and got excited about our appointment because Dr. Thom has worked with families like ours for many years. His words of wisdom will ease your mind about the process of college applications for homeschoolers and he gives great tips and advice. So, take a listen ASAP – you will be happy you did!
You can find the podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/growing-bright-podcast-by-modern-parents-society/id1743500887.
And, I will continue to update about our personal experience with figuring out college as an unschooling family.