Fast forward now to 2018. My oldest son, the "guinea pig child" graduated from home in 2015. He took a gap year to gain some more knowledge and take some time to figure a few things out. He started community college in 2016. He's just completed two years but will do an extra semester this fall in order to transfer full credits to a four year college to finish his degree. Community college is less expensive, smaller classes, and a great fit for him. He's aiming for a degree in creative writing. He's done well and is thriving.
My middle son will graduate from our homeschool in 2019. This past year he took two college level classes for full credit. He will be taking two classes a semester this coming year. He's already signed up for the fall semester. He's going to a local four year college. This child of mine wants to be a pilot. He'll be going to a local university and this degree program is one of the most expensive in the state and the most expensive at the college. By taking these early college credits, he will be saving time and, more importantly, money for his degree. His classes this fall include his private pilot's ground school. He will be doing his flight school in the spring (on our dime - yikes!). He will enter college with 19 college credits already done. We've navigated this program at three different colleges so far. It's not as scary as it sounds and I'm so glad we jumped in to it!
By now I hope you see how different education can be for each child. My youngest starts high school at home this fall. We will continue to take advantage of a phenomenal online homeschool co-op for some of his classes like math and science. I will continue to teach the rest here at home. We've started to consider the possibility of trying out the local technical classes at the nearby high school once he's a bit older in order to allow him to "try on" some potential careers.
This is the thing I love the most about homeschooling. It's not a "one-size-fits-all" education. It can be tailored to meet the individual needs of each child in order to help them thrive and grow. That's the best type of education in my opinion.
Be watching the blog for more information on some of the things I've mentioned about (ex. the Maine Aspirations early college program and the online homeschool co-op). I'll be sharing how they work soon!