Plan B

Back in the beginning of the year, we had Harrison signed up for an online school called Mountain Heights Academy. It is a very academically rigorous school, and great if you have a student who wants to be intellectually challenged and prepared for college. The teachers are really great, and Harrison really liked all the teachers he had.

Harrison is very smart, but because of his ADHD he really struggles when things aren't step by step organized. In January we realized that Moutain Heights wasn't working for him and he was literally flunking out. So, we enrolled him in a school called Utah Online School (formerly called Washington Online, because the county it is based out of is Washington county in Utah. I think they changed it for obvious reasons, the main one being it was confusing.)

UOS isn't as challenging for Harrison, and that isn't a great thing, but it's not bad either... because we realized some things... UOS works better for Harrison because he has to check off an assignment before he is able to move on to the next one. So, no missed assignments or tests! It has also helped us notice there are some things that Harrison really struggles with for some reason. A big one being foreign language. Because our plan included him going to college, he was signed up for Spanish. That has been an interesting experience. One that has helped us learn that maybe college isn't on his immediate path. Originally we wanted him to almost or completely have his associate's degree earned by the time he graduated from high school. After this adventure, we learned that we needed to focus on what Harrison could do and would excel at.

So, the plan changed. Harrison loves to weld. Since he has only welded for about five hours tops when Shane was teaching him the basics, he will take a welding class when he goes to high school next year. Depending on how that class goes, he has the option of going to the local trade school and working on a welding certificate. If he does this, the high school will pay the tuition for the classes he takes at the trade school. Because he learns the online school topics pretty easily, he will have more time to take classes at the trade school. The more we discussed this, and thought about it, the more we realized that this would be a good way to go, if it's what Harrison wants. (At this point he does, and he has a natural knack for it.) As an added bonus, by the time he graduates he could have a welding certificate and the possibility of a decent paying job.

We anticipate that he will go on a mission close after he graduates from high school, and once he gets back from his mission, he could go on to college if he wanted to. He loves math and could possibly get a degree in manufacturing engineering with an emphasis in welding. If he didn't though, he would still have a job skill that would make enough money to provide for a family.

I have to tell you, that while this sounds pretty easy peasy and like we just magically came to it, it really wasn't that way. It was noticing that he was struggling with certain things, and then realizing that there may be an alternate path to achieving the same thing. It didn't help that there was a preconceived stigma to get over that Shane and I both had from high school. When I was in school there were two paths, trade school, or college. I wish we had been given a third option...trade school, college, or trade school/then college. Having a student graduate with a skill that would help put them through college!

So, it's an interesting path. We'll see how it all pans out. If it doesn't, there will always be a plan C. ;)