Book Review: Homeschooling for College Credit by Jennifer Cook-DeRosa

• • • • • • • ► Meet Jennifer Cook-DeRosa

I was doing college research on DegreeForum.net when I first learned about author Jennifer Cook-DeRosa. Because she was both a parent and someone who had earned a bachelor’s degree in social sciences using distance learning techniques, she had experience coaching her teens in earning college credit as well as taking credit-by-exam tests. (Cook-DeRosa has since gone on to earn her master’s degree.) I appreciated her regular posts pertaining to Thomas Edison State University, accreditation, and credit-by-exam tests such as CLEP.

In 2012, Cook-DeRosa published Homeschooling for College Credit. This 200-page book guides parents through implementing courses worth college credit into their high school students’ schedules. She begins the book by encouraging parents that teaching high school is doable and then lists some foundational, but critical, information about college courses.

• • • • • • • ► Transferring College Credits

One of the most memorable stories she shares is how the credits she earned for her AOS (Associate in Occupational Studies) in Culinary Arts did not transfer when she went back to college later in life. Not being able to transfer credits was one of my fears about distance learning, and Cook-DeRosa explains how to avoid this (see chapter 3).

Another helpful tool in Homeschooling for College Credit is her four-year high school planning templates. These are designed to schedule credit earning into your high schooler’s curriculum while meeting the requirements for high school at the same time. Essentially, they’re dual credit plans.

Later in the book Cook-DeRosa covers test resources, test-taking skills, making a high school transcript, paying for college, and taking your credit to a college. Also provided is a list of things she prefers in a college and ten colleges that meet those preferences.

• • • • • • • ► A Valuable Resource

Throughout the book, Cook-DeRosa’s experience as a parent of homeschooled children and as a distance learner give the reader plenty to absorb and put into use. Her love for learning, stretching the family’s dollar, and helping other parents jump-start their teen’s college education make this book a handy resource.

For more information about Homeschooling for College Credit, you can preview the book on Amazon.com and visit the Homeschooling for College Credit Facebook page, which is updated regularly with tips and distance learning news.

This is an unsponsored review to share a book I found helpful.

Black mortarboard from College Without the Campus

CLEP Official Study Guide

Product Review: CLEP Official Study Guide

Sometimes the hardest part about taking a credit-by-exam test is finding the right materials to use to prepare. College Board, the creator of CLEP, has made this process easier by offering the CLEP Official Study Guide. This book gives students an overview of each of the 33 CLEP tests and also provides a nearly full-length practice test for each subject. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty details.

Annually updated

The official exam guide is published yearly and updated to match any changes that have been made to each test. Without having a copy of the past year’s edition to compare with the current edition, it can be tough to tell what (if any) changes have been made. Sometimes book reviewers will note changes on bookseller websites like Amazon, or you can check DegreeForum.net for posts related to changes. If you are using an older edition of the book, you can double-check the test description online to be sure nothing has changed (e.g. an online calculator is still part of the test).

If you are only planning to take one or two CLEP tests, you may prefer to buy the individual exam study guides. The individual guides feature the same information as is in the book. You may save a little money if you only need a guide for one test: the book retails for $24.99, while the individual exam guides cost $10.00 each.

Not a study guide?

An important note is that the CLEP Official Study Guide does not provide the material to use for studying. In this book CLEP offers suggestions on which textbooks and other resources to use. This information can also be found for free by selecting a specific exam at https://clep.collegeboard.org/exams. While you’re there, you can download the exam’s resource guide to view a small selection of free practice questions.

Is it worth it?

By now you may be wondering why this guide is worth purchasing. If CLEP offers textbook suggestions and practice questions online for free, why purchase this guide? What this book can give you is a more accurate practice test experience. With the longer practice tests, students can better gauge if they are ready to take the test and get a feeling for taking the actual test. Plus, the test questions are developed by CLEP, so although you won’t find the same questions on an actual test, they will be very similar.

When you’re looking for a handy resource to get you started on learning to take CLEP tests, the CLEP Official Study Guide is a great way to start! The guide is available at bookstores nationwide, Amazon.com, and at the CLEP website.

This is an unsponsored review to share one of my favorite CLEP products. 🙂

Evergreen trees at Bennington Lake, Washington

Product Review: Writing Courses from the Institute for Excellence in Writing

• • • • • • • ► After writing my book, I’ve been surprised to look back at my schooling and see that I wasn’t explicitly preparing to write a book. In fact, writing wasn’t one of my favorite subjects. But, boy, am I glad it was important to my mom that I learn to write!

I remember doing a unit study on snails. I had chosen the subject myself, and I was very excited to read books about snails, sketch snails, design an essay outline, and finally, write the essay. I even had due dates for various steps of the unit study. This project made me feel very grown-up, and I remember it vividly.

During this timeframe, I remember feeling confused about how to put words down on paper. I didn’t know how to organize my words, how to decide the flow of ideas, or how to add variety to my sentences. This made writing frustrating.

In middle school, my mom started using materials from the Institute for Excellence in Writing. The course I remember was led by Andrew Pudewa. The taped lectures were held in a live classroom setting with students following along off-camera. Mr. Pudewa had a large wipe-off board to demonstrate his concepts.

I dreaded watching these videos. Why? I dreaded having to write. Though I’m smiling at this now, I was not smiling then. Mr. Pudewa would explain about persuasive essays, the very short sentence, sentence openers, and other writing techniques, and with clipboard and lined paper in hand, I scrawled away at his assignments.

After much practice, I began to see some light. The writing structure and various techniques slowly felt more natural, and I began to find freedom in this structure. Andrew Pudewa’s tips helped me write my essays for the SAT, the ACT, and CLEP’s English Composition with Essay (now replaced by College Composition), as well as other informative and persuasive essays during high school and college.

Ironically, the writing DVDs I wished would disappear have given me some of the most lasting skills from school. I still use Mr. Pudewa’s techniques, as they give me a framework to begin writing with. Do I need to explain a concept? Start with a 5 paragraph essay. For a longer work, simply expand the same essay format to write a 5 paragraph essay for each of three subtopics relating to the concept. Pudewa’s framework has the capacity to be stretched and tailored to fit many writing applications.

He also gives helpful advice for writing the persuasive essay. I know I asked myself, “Why would I need to know how to write a persuasive essay? I’m not on the debate team. When will I need to persuade someone with my writing?” In fact, this is something used all the time. Of course I needed to know how to write a persuasive essay for the SAT and the ACT.  However, we also use persuasive writing to share our opinions, comparing our thoughts to those of others and substantiating those thoughts. We even use persuasive language just to convince someone to read what we have written. For me to learn how versatile the persuasive essay is might be the best reward of using Teaching Writing: Structure and Style and the Advanced Communication Series.

If you are a homeschool parent looking to give your children writing tips that can carry them from school papers to college classes to life beyond formal education, I highly recommend courses from the Institute for Excellence in Writing.

As an experiment, I wrote another review right after finishing the one above. This time I used the techniques I remembered from the writing courses.

• • • • • • • ► It was another afternoon on a school day. We were preparing for our writing session, and I was dreading it. Why did I need to learn these very specific writing methods? I knew how to write a paragraph. And if my assignment was longer than that, I just put several paragraphs together. But something inside of me didn’t agree. I didn’t like the uncertainty I felt when writing. I wanted to know how to make a flowing article, how to grab my reader’s attention, and how to feel confident when I began writing.

Difficulties in writing

As a youngster, I found writing frustrating. I seemed to never quite know how to write. Should I just put down some words until the word count was reached? How did I not make all my sentences sound the same? Where was the fun in writing? I remember my mom firing up the Student Workshop DVD included in the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style course for writing time. My mom, sister, and I, clipboards and lined paper in hand, would sit and follow along with Andrew Pudewa as he demonstrated his writing techniques. I was overwhelmed by some of the ideas he presented. Did I really have to remember to write an outline, vary my sentence openers, and include a very short sentence?

Practice makes writing comfortable, faster

Despite my reservations, I began to get the hang of these techniques. Through repetition, I could see I was building speed and confidence in my writing. It was easier to write! I began honing my persuasive essays for the SAT, ACT and CLEP tests. I no longer felt lost when I was given an assignment: I had a backbone structure that could be adapted to my needs. Did I need to give my opinion? Time for a five-paragraph persuasive essay. Was it time for me to explain something? I would pull out the five-paragraph explanatory essay. If I needed to write in greater detail, I would just create a five-paragraph sandwich, with three subtopics each receiving their own five-paragraph essay to support the main topic.

Lifelong benefits

I finally understood why I had needed to learn writing structure. From this framework, I could explain a topic clearly to my reader and access several trusty techniques to draw on when my writing well ran dry. I had been awakened to the fact that persuasive writing happens all the time! I needed persuasive writing to persuade my reader to take time to read my collection of words. I needed to learn how to organize my research in a comprehensible explanatory essay. In short, Teaching Writing: Structure and Style and the Advanced Communication Series taught me that writing is versatile. It is a tool that can be wielded to great results.

Worth the effort and time

I’ve been using these techniques to write this review. I have forgotten some of the rules I learned, but the framework remains. I am able to use writing to express a point of view, to share a review, and to better demonstrate why I feel the way I do. These techniques go far beyond school tests—they help at work and online. With these results, I can highly recommend the Institute for Excellence in Writing to homeschool parents and others who wish to bring a sense of command to the area of writing, either for themselves or their children.

• • • • • • • ► For more information, see the Institute for Excellence in Writing’s website: http://iew.com.

This is an unsponsored review to share one of my favorite resources.

Door in Leavenworth, WA

Finding Your Way after High School

I remember a most welcome discussion at Hollywood Video with a hilarious family friend in his late 30’s. He knew I was graduating from high school soon.

“What do you want to do next?” he asked.

“I don’t know for sure,” I replied.

“Well, that’s okay,” he said, suddenly becoming thoughtful. “I’m grown up and I still haven’t decided what I want to do!”

His words encouraged me. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what my life’s focus would look like in terms of a career.

Start with the end goal—where do you see yourself?

I always admired those students who knew, in high school or earlier, what they wanted to do as a career. They had discovered a passion or found a cause that they wanted to devote themselves to. I, on the other hand, liked many different fields and could see my life going in several directions.

When it came to college I wanted to leave some options open. This is why I chose to take CLEP tests during my freshman year of college: I could explore the various disciplines typical of general education courses to improve my skills and knowledge without going into debt. However, another option would have been to job shadow in several fields.

Find the professionals. How did they get there?

When students job shadow or intern, they are able to preview what the day-to-day in their potential career is like. After I read There Is Life After College, I realized that viewing job goals from the end result would help students reach those goals.

Let’s say I want to be an electrician. Because my dad is a licensed journeyman electrician, I have a go-to source of someone who can tell me exactly how he achieved the skills for this certification and also this job. When I begin with the end in mind, I can plan for the experiences I’ll need to be successful.

Dealing with uncertainty: If you don’t know what you want to do

It’s great when you do know which career you will pursue. But if you still have several options on the table, you may want to try out a few jobs in different career fields to see which you enjoy the most.

Many of my peers were interested in nursing. I have friends who chose nursing school after interning at a hospital. I also have friends who volunteered at a hospital or began nursing courses and found it wasn’t for them. By testing the water in a certain career, you’re making progress toward the end goal of learning where you thrive. You’re also giving yourself the opportunity to change your mind while the risk and cost is low. You may have to try various things and take more time to reach your goal, but you are more likely arrive at the right destination.

Make choices to reduce stress.

The most frustrating parts of high school and college is the uncertainty. Even if you know exactly which career you want to choose, you may not know how to get there. Add to that the pressure to not fall behind peers or disappoint parents, and this time of transition may be quite scary. During this time it’s a good idea to try things. Try things that leave your options open, that encourage you to keep learning and growing without saddling yourself with debt. Perhaps you’ll:

  • enroll in a college course during high school,
  • take a CLEP or DSST test,
  • do a short-term internship,
  • volunteer for a few months,
  • take a job,
  • and/or travel.

All these things can help you build your experiences before you narrow your options and spend the majority of your time pursuing one. With your eye on the endgame, you can reduce stress, gain experience, bolster your résumé and learn more about yourself to prepare for a job you love. And when you love your job, you won’t have to work a day in your life.