4 Steps for Planning Your High School at Home -

Summary: Planning to homeschool high school is not that hard if you know these 4 key homeschool high school planning steps.  #homeschoolhighschool #highschool #homeschoolplanning #transcripts #highschoolcredit #homeschoolcredit #homeschoolhighschoolcurriculum 

Are you homeschooling high school or thinking about doing that next year?  

I am glad that we continued all the way, as it was the best fit for my 2e daughter.  Planning for it ahead of time, well, just a bit ahead of time, lol, made all the difference for us.  

Looking back, I gathered together my resources for planning, including those for assigning high school credits, choosing curricula, making transcripts and finding high school electives for your teen. 

 Credits, Curriculum, Transcripts and High School Electives.

You know, like the saying goes...Lions, Tigers and Bears.......That's what they sounded like to me when we began thinking about homeschooling high school.  But really, if you have these 4 tools then you have all that is needed to basically plan out your homeschool for high school level.

I am pleased with our choice to continue homeschooling through high school, as it gave our daughter the chance to really explore her interests, delve deeply into topics of high interest, while preparing for college without having to deal with public school classes that would not have met her individual needs.

First of all, let's talk about high school credits....

1.  Assigning High School Credit

3 Ways to High School Credit

We found that assigning high school credit was not hard to do.  

There are three methods commonly used, including............
- the textbook method
- the hours method
- the mastery method

This article explains each of these approaches and all of the work that your teen does counts.  

This includes courses that you make yourself, volunteer and paid work hours, internships, time spent reading, etc.  And dual credit courses count as 1 year of high school credit for each quarter of college credit completed.  We did a lot of different kinds of learning, and all of it counted.  

Secondly, let's talk curricula.....

2.  Curriculum Search Resources

For any new searching. my daughter was a big part of this process.  Together, we searched the internet, our favorite blogs and homeschool catalogs, and talked with our homeschooling friends, to find new ideas.  Here are my favorite search tools for curricula:

-a.  CURRICULUM DIRECTORY at Let's Homeschool High School

This curriculum directory for high school is the most complete one I have ever seen!  And it includes TONS of links, too!   Ths includes both secular and some faith based choices.  We preferred secular, but modified a few faith based choices, like SOS, because it's quality was so high, imho.

-b.   THE CURRICULUM CHOICE

This site is full of curriculum reviews, written by a team of authors who have used the curriculum, at home with their families.  There are reviews of curriculum such as Tapestry of Grace, IEW for literature and writing, Oak Meadow, a number of Charlotte Mason options, and tons and tons of many more reviews, too.  I write curriculum reviews there, on my faovrite curricula.  To reach any of them, just click here and search "by Betsy".

Next, what exactly are high school core studies when it comes to homeschoolers?

3.  High School Core Studies and Electives

Core studies are, of course just the basic high school courses, in math, English, social studies, and science.  But as homeschoolers, most state homeschool laws give you, the parent, your choices for your teen's core studies.  This is most often up to the individual homeschool family.  

Most states do not list what is required for a homeschool diploma. If you are unsure of this, check with your local homeschool organization.  We just followed our prospective college's freshman entrance requirements for our core studies in high school.

But before we ordered anything, we spent time talking about my teen's special interests. These influenced our choices for core studies and also became her high school electives.

High School Electives

At a video competition

My own daughter wanted to learn about film making, and also had an interest in political science.  So we did some video making that one of her homemade electives. 

Here's a list of 100 high school electives and activities for high school, with links, etc, for you to browse if you like.  Some of my best memories with my teen happened during her elective and high school activities.

Now that we finished talking about curriculum, core studies and electives, let's talk transcripts...

4.  Making your Teen's High School Transcripts

Compiling our homeschool transcript was really not hard to do.  All of the details involved are listed in this link above.

High school was my favorite time to homeschool.  Really.  Watching my daughter  blossom and grow during the teen years... Well, that was priceless.  Yes, the days are long, and were long, but the years, they are short.  My "baby" is graduating college this spring, what can I say?  

Homeschooling did prepare her very well for college.   

Have you seen my High School Guide for homeschoolers yet? 

Homeschooling High School with College in Mind
 2nd Edition 

Amazon

It lays out 10 easy steps for homeschool to college, and covers everything you need to help your teen get into the college of their choice, with 7 NEW chapters. Recommended by Lessa Scherrer, a certified college counselor and a homeschooling mama of 3.

Create your own unique and nurturing high school program for your teen and showcase their accomplishments to the colleges. 

The 17 Chapters include:

>Chapter 1 - How to Start Homeschooling if you are a Newbie
>Chapter 2 - 101 Reasons to Homeschool High School
>Chapter 3 - Researching and Getting Started
  Chapter 4 - Planning High School and Making a 4 Year Plan
>Chapter 5 - Choosing Your High School Curriculum
>Chapter 6 - Three Ways to High School Credit
>Chapter 7 - Making Your Teen's Transcripts
>Chapter 8 - 100 High School Electives
>Chapter 9 - Making Homemade Courses
>Chapter 10 - Writing a Winning College Essay
>Chapter 11 - Course Descriptions and Reference Letters
>Chapter 12 - The Common Application - Your GUIDE
>Chapter 13 - Preparing Your Teen for College Writing
>Chapter 14 - Dealing with College Testing SAT/ACT
>Chapter 15 - Top Sources for College Scholarships
>Chapter 16 - Dealing with “Those Questions” from Others
>Chapter 17 - Don’t Forget the FUN!

>There are 12 downloadable high school homeschool planning printables plus a transcript form for you to just fill in.

The kind of transcript form that the colleges are used to seeing.

For more info: Homeschooling High School with 

College in Mind - 2nd Edition

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, highschool, 
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

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