• When the college sends you tests, books or assignments, yet they do not arrive on time, whom do you contact?
• Will this person then contact the registrar's office, the teacher and anyone else involved?
• Do any future test or assignment due dates depend on the previous delayed item? Whom do you need to contact to make further arrangements?
• Are there seasonal ebbs and flows? Is the staff off for the summer, not working for the Christmas holidays, on Spring Break? This will affect the return of the assignments. Clarify beforehand.

Typically the beginning of each semester is busy for onsite professors, so your response time from them might be slower. Additionally, summer and Christmas holidays are usually vacation time for the teachers and school. Communicate with the college about these times and plan your schedule accordingly.

Assignments
When you receive the actual books and assignments, please look through the entire course with your child. While taking a study skills course from a reputable Christian college, we ran across some things that were unacceptable for our standards. The teacher worked with us to change assignments (substituting acceptable videos for the television viewing portions, watching a Christian program rather than regular talk shows, etc.). But, I had not foreseen the horror of the library assignment which asks the student to look at the covers of magazines. It seems harmless, enough, right? Until you read the list of magazines to be viewed: Cosmopolitan, Redbook, McCall's and Esquire. I had sent our early-teens daughter into the library to do her assignment. When she came home, she was troubled. When I asked what was wrong, she told me the blatant sexual content of the magazines, by the titles on the cover. I apologized to her, and we contacted the college. I encouraged them to write their own curriculum for the course, because their reputation was on the line. What you can do:

• Preview assignments for the complete course.
• Ask for alternate assignments, if some are unacceptable. You might not want to leave the alternate choice to the teacher's discretion, but come up with a list of acceptable substitutes to offer.

Conclusion
When we found out that there was no one overseeing the math correspondence courses, we had several choices: wait until the college found another teacher, ask them to have an upper-level student fill in and grade the assignments or request a refund for the course. When you run into a problem, be creative in your solutions. The best plan of action is to stay in communication with your child and the correspondence institution. Sometimes you may become your child's advocate and need to arbitrate reconciliation or future action. Know what your goal is, speak respectfully, get everything in writing, and stand firm.

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Mark & Kym Wright have homeschooled since the mid-80s. She is a homeschool speaker and author, www.KymWright.com They have 8 children, having graduated four. Kym pens the "Learn and Do" unit studies. You can visit her website at: www.Learn-and-Do.com. First published in The Mother's Heart magazine, a premium online publication for mothers with hearts in their homes. Visit www.The-Mothers-Heart.com for more information.

List of colleges which have correspondence courses and have worked with homeschoolers:

Exelsior College: 7 Columbia Circle, Albany, NY 12203-5159, Call toll free: 888-647-2388, http://www.regents.edu/

Thomas A. Edison College: 101 W. State St., Trenton, NJ 08608, (609) 984-1100, http://www.tesc.edu/prospective/undergraduate/credit/portfolio.php

Thomas Peterson: http://www.petersons.com/distancelearning/

References:

Bear's Guide to Earning College Degrees Non-Traditionally and College Degrees by Mail by John B. Bear, Ph. D

Barron's Guide to Distance Learning: Degrees, Certificates, Courses by Pat Criscito

Peterson's the Independent Study Catalog by Peterson's.

Kaplan Guide to Distance Learning by Kaplan, et al

College Online: How to Take College Courses Without Leaving Home by James P. Duffy

Campus Free College Degrees by Marcie Kisner Thorson

College Degrees by Mail & Modem 1999: 100 Accredited Schools That Offer Bachelor's, Master's, Doctorates, and Law Degrees by Home Study by John Bear, Mariah Bear

How to Get a College Degree Via the Internet: The Complete Guide to Getting Your Undergraduate or Graduate Degree from the Comfort of Your Home
by Sam Atieh

Get Your Degree Online by Matthew Helm

Complete Book of Distance Learning Schools by Jerry Ice, et al

How to Be a Successful Online Student by Sara Dulaney Gilbert