As parents, we all hope that our children will learn from other's
examples rather than make the same mistakes it seems a percentage
of college freshmen make every year. The temptations are many, running
up enormous phone bills, maxing out the credit card financial institutions
are so eager to give college students, or spending too much time
enjoying college life and not enough time studying. So many traps
to avoid while simultaneously adjusting to a new work load, facing
an accelerated learning curve, and being introduced to new ideas,
concepts, or beliefs. You hope that you've prepared your child academically
to critically weed through the new ideas and maintain his bearing,
but as the time draws near to see him walk out your door, you wonder
if there are other resources to help him.
Academics
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is a non-profit, educational
organization whose mission is to help college students understand
the values and institutions that sustain a free society: limited
government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, free enterprise,
and Judeo-Christian moral standards. ISI Books has published a series
of student guides to various college disciplines. Each guide is
a short introduction to the discipline with a focus on what to expect
from college professors and the resources for pursuing the discipline
from a classical, conservative perspective. Guides are available
for US History, the Study of History, Philosophy, Political Philosophy,
Liberal Learning, the Core Curriculum, Economics, and Literature.
Each guide is short, less than 100 pages. While the are of obvious
use to the student interested in a particular discipline, they are
even more essential for the chemistry student who must work his
way through a series of humanities classes. We all want our children
to matriculate from college able to discuss the important issues
of the day with clarity and understanding. The guides for liberal
learning and the core curriculum are especially important as they
focus on getting the most out of a liberal arts education at the
university. Reviews of each of the guides have been posted in our
Product Reviews department. You'll find them all available in the
Publisher section under ISIBooks.
Study Skills
If your homeschooled child has never taken a class at the local
community college, they have yet to experience the typical college
lecture. Some professors make noting very easy, but others follow
no logical order, test over minor points while skipping points they
spent much more time covering, or make it difficult to understand
anything they say by mumbling or talking to the blackboard. Professors
will give students a list of books they must read, several of which
are no longer in print and must be read in the reserve room of the
library. They may never mention these books in class, but they will
still have questions on their content on the final exam. Other professors
will require four eight-page papers. I can remember a literature
professor who would teach a particular short story spending a great
deal of time going over all the literary devices employed by the
author and then require his students to write a paper about the
short story which had to be based on new ideas not covered in his
lecture. This was a daunting task for any college freshman. Fortunately,
there are some terrific resources available to help college students
with their note taking, test taking, essay writing, and organizing.
A short list of study skill websites is available below. I'd also
like to recommend a book that Renee Mathis, our former homeschool
advice columnist, recommended in A
Helping Hand column when answering a question about study skills
for college students. She recommended What Smart Students Know.
This book deals with learning to learn efficiently and was written
to help the average student become a top student.
Study skills websites:
Managing Finances
Most teens today have a level of disposable income that I only
dreamed of when I was their age. Food, clothing and shelter are
all guaranteed by their parents, so the pay from their $6.50 an
hour job can be spent on non-essentials. Soon these non-essentials
become necessities. A $125 biology text or two later, and the money
a college student had planned to spend on fast food or new clothes
is quickly used up. That shiny new credit card is a real temptation.
It's supposed to be used only in emergencies, but isn't this an
emergency? Up to this point their money management has been based
on buying what they had the funds to purchase. They've never experienced
the need for self-control, because no one has ever allowed them
to spend more than they actually had in hand. Larry Burkett has
written an excellent book that covers all the essentials of money
management for college students. In fact, that's what it is called,
Money Management for College Students. This is a workbook
that teaches kids how to balance their checkbook, deal with credit
cards and make budgeting decisions. It gives them a peek at real
life before life becomes too real. Again, it's a lesson we hope
they learn from example rather than the school of hard knocks.
Social Pressures
Homeschool parents are often accused of sheltering their children.
Critics are certain that once exposed to the rigors of normal societal
interaction, they will collapse. There are a number of books written
for prospective Christian college students with the intent of helping
them maintain their Christian faith in secular society. Interestingly,
these books weren't written for homeschooled students. They were
written for all those high school students who have received thorough
socialization in a public or private school. It's my experience
that most homeschooled students don't go wild at the university.
They've spent years becoming independent thinkers, while their peers
our herded along in a system that requires conformity. I'd tell
any homeschool parent the first order of business if this is your
fear, is to relax. If that doesn't help, then purchase one of the
following books for your child: College Bound by Kathleen
Winkler, Faith at State: A Handbook for Christians at Secular
Universities by Rick Kennedy, or How to Stay Christian in
College: An Interactive Guide to Keeping the Faith by J. Budziszewski.
Books suggested in this article are all available in the Preparing
for College section of the Eclectic Homeschool Resource Center.
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