Back in September 2011, when friends and family {and even strangers} first learned we planned to homeschool, one question came up repeatedly: Will you be homeschooling through high school?
At this point my oldest child was entering kindergarten, my middle child was three years old, and my youngest had just turned ten months. I still had another round of potty training to tackle. Chemistry, algebra, and college applications were pretty far removed from my brain.
Fast forward ten years, however, and now the once long-off idea of homeschooling through high school has become our reality. And I’m going to share with you why it’s not as scary as you may have been led to believe.
Before we dive in, I feel obligated to remind you that my oldest is nearing the end of 9th grade and beginning to plan for 10th. Which means not one of my students has officially completed high school. Yet.
It is entirely possible I have zero idea what I am talking about and I will have major hashtag regret for pretending I do. Mostly what I can offer comes down to ideas and camaraderie. So if you are in a similar place, know that I am right in the thick of it with you, and willing to learn as I go.
Contents
Stay On Target
The first thing I am going to ask you—and I say this with the utmost respect and love—is to please, please CTFD.
Seriously, much of your worry will probably turn out to be unfounded. Homeschooling through high school will not be the complex monster you may have envisioned.
Since most folks don’t decide to begin homeschooling at 9th grade {although it does happen, and if that applies to you, welcome!} you have likely been doing this for a long while. You have the experience of facilitating learning from kindergarten through eighth grade behind you. That knowledge and expertise will greatly benefit you in the next four years.
The truth is, not much will change. Yes, classes will be “harder” so to speak, and your expectations may be higher. But, in reality you will simply be carrying on with business as usual.
For us this means maintaining our focus on child-led learning. While the subjects may differ and the complexity may increase, keeping our students’ interests at the forefront of our home education remains essential while we plan for homeschooling through high school.
You will continue guiding your student{s} along, putting one foot in front of the other, working your way toward your ultimate goal of homeschooling.
If you still feel unprepared or nervous, go ahead and ask yourself: What is the worst thing that could happen? You’ll probably find that even your self-imposed worst case scenarios are not that dire after all. And if you are still really concerned, there are easy-to-find solutions out there for just about every dilemma.
Keep your mindset concentrated on what’s really important—developing a positive relationship with your children and encouraging them to love learning—and the details will fall into place.
A good example of something that tends to get blown out of proportion is the creation of a high school transcript. If your student plans to attend college, in all likelihood they will need a transcript as part of their application. This is a one-page summary of classes completed, along with a grade and the number of credits accumulated.
If you have kept even the vaguest of records, you have all of this information at your fingertips. You can find myriad samples and suggestions online. If you have grave concerns, there are websites that can walk you through it.
But honestly, this receives so much unwarranted pressure. You have taken on the immense responsibility of educating your offspring; I think you can handle composing a Word table.
Consider All Options
The end of middle school may seem a tad early to start considering post high school possibilities, but really, it’s not a bad idea.
This doesn’t mean that you need to have a step-by-step plan and a career path already figured out. But somewhere around ninth grade it’s not too early to start contemplating choices.
Many of us have been conditioned to view attending a four-year college as the logical post high school step. But what if it’s not? Here you might need to do some thinking outside the box.
Maybe you want to work toward having your students being ready {academically} for dual enrollment by their junior year. Have they considered community college? an associate degree? learning a trade?
Perhaps there is somewhere local where they can gain experience through volunteering. Do they want to investigate what it would take to start a small business? become a tutor? write a book?
Of course, for many homeschool students attending a traditional four-year college will be the goal. In that case you can easily find out what they expect from homeschoolers {and all applicants} by simply checking their website. The prerequisites will be fairly uniform for most universities.
Keep in mind that some things you may have always thought of as critical may not be any more. For instance, many colleges are now making standardized test scores like the SAT and ACT an optional part of the admissions package.
A couple additional things to remember here:
- Sometimes it is helpful to think about where you want to end up and work backward. This might help if you tend to be the type of person who needs to have an endgame in mind.
- You don’t necessarily need a curriculum {unless you want one}. It is entirely possible to build a secular, eclectic plan of study by pulling from a variety of different sources.
- Much of what you will be doing with be the same as it always was—working together to find resources and develop plans as you go. This does not need to change as your children age.
- You don’t need to know everything. You can “teach” high school even if many of the topics are hard for you. Advanced math seems to be one area that trips up the most well-intended home educators. You can learn together, and always remember that outside resources {an online or in-person class} can also be options.
Plan Out Specifics
Okay, so maybe you have made peace with knowing homeschooling through high school will not be as terrifying as you originally thought. And perhaps you have considered a few alternatives you hadn’t thought of previously. However, it will still be comforting to have a plan.
When I wrote about planning the homeschool year, I included several places you could research what to teach at different grade levels. You may want to start by taking a look at what each grade typically addresses, to see how you are doing at covering all your bases.
This does not mean you need to do everything these resources list. But they can be a useful tool—a guideline—for evaluating what you have been up to so far and how it compares to outside suggestions.
In planning for high school coursework specifically, you may want to ask the question: What skills do you want to have mastered as an academic foundation by the end of 8th grade?
You can develop a four-year plan, or simply take it year by year. I personally found it helpful to look at our local school district’s recommendations for credits in grades 9-12 as I began planning our 9th grade year. That way I at least had general idea of what goals to work toward.
Many high school credit requirements will be very similar. In our case we learned a diploma from our local school requires 26 credits: four each in math, language arts, science, and history; three credits in a foreign language; two credits of health/PE; one credit each in fine arts and economic/finance; and three credits of electives.
Note that what is considered one high school credit can vary among schools. I have seen ranges from 120 hours up to 150 hours and beyond. Our school district equates one credit with 140 hours.
This {approximately} works out to be a course and that meets Monday through Friday for 45 to 50 minutes during a traditional 36-week school year. A half credit course would obviously only need to meet a few days a week—or for only half the school year—in order to reach the 70 credits hours.
Looking at what we have tentatively planned so far, the only adjustment we might have to make is to incorporate a specific economic/finance course. Which, honestly, it’s something we probably would have done anyway.
Pass the Reins
The transition to having your student complete more work independently will likely be later and slower than you anticipate. However, by about middle school most children are probably ready to complete at least some of their schoolwork without quite so much direct supervision.
Around this time you may also want to start incorporating basic life skills into your daily activities.
At some point, of course, your homeschooling tenure will wrap up, and your student will be {at least technically} an adult human responsible for their own education.
I say technically because I think far too many people have this notion of parenting “ending” at some predetermined point. Sometimes parenthood can be perceived as a “project” that must be completed by a certain time. Spoiler: it’s not.
That said, you will reach a point when do you want to have your child take on the bulk of responsibility for their schooling going forward. Really what you hope at this point is that they have developed a lifelong curiosity and love of learning. Ideally you want them to see exploring the world and discovering new information to be a desired challenge, not a dreaded chore.
This may or may not include formal higher education. Handing over the reins to your students might also include encouraging them to read lots of good books, helping them to fully appreciate their strengths and weaknesses, and passing along vital time management skills.
Homeschooling through high school can be an enjoyable endeavor for both you and your students. Stay calm, take an honest look at the choices before you, research the logistics, and before you know it you will be congratulating your graduate.
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