We set out on our homeschooling jouney when our oldest son was in 2nd grade by saying, "We're going to take this year-by-year." Well, those years went by more like days. One day we were making salt maps of Egypt, reading Where the Wild Things Are, and hanging a styrofoam solar system from the ceiling. The next day we were visiting colleges and planning proms and graduation. The journey was full of joy, but the trip seemed to have been made on an express train. As we stood breathless at "Senior Station," I panicked! What do I do with this senior?
Oh, I was not totally unprepared. I had kept accurate records, followed a good course of study, and encouraged my son to participate in worthwhile extracurricular activities and volunteer work. But in those summer months before my son's senior year, I realized that now I had to help him choose a college, make applications, apply for scholarships and be accepted. All my fears and insecurities as a homeschool parent rose up, and all of my homeschool-negative relatives voiced my fears for me: "No college will ever accept your records as a basis for admission."
I felt I needed professional help. When I was a senior in high school, we had a guidance counselor to help us with college and scholarship applications. However, as a homeschooler under a very "hands-off" covering, my son had no such resource. Then I remembered meeting a college planner at a NCFCA debate tournament (another blog, another day).
I dug out her card and gave her a call. She began to meet with us monthly and was always on call to help us weed through all of the college junk mail and Fastweb scholarships. She helped us plan and arrange our college visits and tours. She guided us in developing a professional quality resume to present to the colleges. She showed us sample application essays and proofread my son's essays as he wrote each one. Even her smallest tips about what questions to ask admissions staff or how to write personal thank you notes to each contact person on campus, made a tremenduous impact on our confidence and success.
My son was eventually accepted at one of the 50 Colleges That Change Lives -- Birmingham-Southern College, with a Trustees scholarship. We give a great deal of credit to the help given to us by our college planner, Jill Howell of N2College Nationwide Consulting in Cullman, Alabama. She has helped students all across the nation to earn over $4,500,000.00 in scholarship funds. We met with her personally, but now she has developed a College Admissions/Scholarship Binder that can be used as an at-home, do-it-yourself tool for anyone. If you're feeling the senior panic, contact Jill at n2collegeconsult@bellsouth.net. Her website is under construction right now.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Equal Access for Homeschool Athletes
My first post is the background to the video on my blog. Our youngest son is a talented athlete in both soccer and baseball. He has played on many recreational league and club soccer teams, as well as on Dixie Youth/Boys baseball teams and all-star teams.
Unfortunately, when he reached high school age, his opportunities in sports became extremely limited. The boys with whom he had played sports since he was 5 years old wanted him to play with them on the local middle school and high school teams, but in our state of Alabama, that is not allowed.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association, which regulates public school sports in the state, prohibits anyone who is not enrolled full-time in the public school from playing on that school's team.
As tax payers whose dollars go to support the public schools, we wondered why our son could not try out for the teams or even participate in other extracurricular activities at the public schools in our district. We soon found that we were not alone in our dilemma.
Other parents across the state with athletic children joined with us in supporting a bill in the Alabama legislature to allow equal access for homeschoolers to sports and other extracurricular activities at their local schools.
The bill was soon dubbed the "Tim Tebow Bill," after Florida's Heisman Trophy winning quarterback. Tim Tebow was homeschooled in Florida, but because of equal access laws in that state, he was allowed to play football for his local high school team. That's where his talent was discovered, and he became the most recruited high school quarterback in the nation.
Our bill has not seen much success thus far. Because of opposition from the Alabama Education Association and the Alabama High School Athletic Association, we have not been able to get the bill out of committee. From our lobbying efforts, we believe that if the bill came to a vote on the floor, it would pass.
Currently, 23 states support equal access in some form for homeschoolers. We believe that passage of this bill would benefit not only homeschool athletes, but also the entire education system in Alabama. After all, homeschool parents will be super athletic boosters and promoters of academic excellence.
The video on this blog was filmed by ESPN's Outside the Lines because of the growing interest in this issue across the nation as homeschooling continues to grow. The ESPN crew followed our family around for a couple of days and filmed segments for the show. It is a very positive piece. Watch it and tell me what you think.
To learn more about our efforts in Alabama, visit http://www.timtebowbill.com/
Unfortunately, when he reached high school age, his opportunities in sports became extremely limited. The boys with whom he had played sports since he was 5 years old wanted him to play with them on the local middle school and high school teams, but in our state of Alabama, that is not allowed.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association, which regulates public school sports in the state, prohibits anyone who is not enrolled full-time in the public school from playing on that school's team.
As tax payers whose dollars go to support the public schools, we wondered why our son could not try out for the teams or even participate in other extracurricular activities at the public schools in our district. We soon found that we were not alone in our dilemma.
Other parents across the state with athletic children joined with us in supporting a bill in the Alabama legislature to allow equal access for homeschoolers to sports and other extracurricular activities at their local schools.
The bill was soon dubbed the "Tim Tebow Bill," after Florida's Heisman Trophy winning quarterback. Tim Tebow was homeschooled in Florida, but because of equal access laws in that state, he was allowed to play football for his local high school team. That's where his talent was discovered, and he became the most recruited high school quarterback in the nation.
Our bill has not seen much success thus far. Because of opposition from the Alabama Education Association and the Alabama High School Athletic Association, we have not been able to get the bill out of committee. From our lobbying efforts, we believe that if the bill came to a vote on the floor, it would pass.
Currently, 23 states support equal access in some form for homeschoolers. We believe that passage of this bill would benefit not only homeschool athletes, but also the entire education system in Alabama. After all, homeschool parents will be super athletic boosters and promoters of academic excellence.
The video on this blog was filmed by ESPN's Outside the Lines because of the growing interest in this issue across the nation as homeschooling continues to grow. The ESPN crew followed our family around for a couple of days and filmed segments for the show. It is a very positive piece. Watch it and tell me what you think.
To learn more about our efforts in Alabama, visit http://www.timtebowbill.com/
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
