What About College?

How do you homeschool high school? It's really not as complicated as it sounds.  When my kids started high school, I panicked a little. I ran through the questions that most homeschooling mothers ask themselves. Can I homeschool high school? What about electives? What about extra curricular activities? Aren't they going to miss out on something? What about prom? How are they going to get into college? All of these questions are valid because we have all been raised in a world that glorifies the high school experience.

Yes, you can homeschool high school. You just have to be a little more aware of what they need for college and organize yourself and you child. The wonderful thing about homeshooling high school is they can be mostly self directed. They can make informed choices, organize themselves, they know how to prioritize, and they understand work and reward.

The key is knowing your rights and knowing your state laws. My state happens to be one of the most homeschool friendly states in the nation. There aren't any real requirements and I don't have to meet any kind of criteria. I just have to be responsible for my children's education. Armed with this knowledge, I have an idea of what my choices are and where I want to go in educating my children.

Currently Peaches and Pinkie are my only high school age students. At the end of each school year I have a pow-wow with each of my children and we talk about what they want to learn the following school year. My high school students and I discuss their goals, dreams and where they want to be in by the end of the year. We structure their curriculum around those goals. Peaches wants to get into fashion design. She's not big on math but knows that she needs it if she's going to be designing and sewing clothing. She thinks about how math applies to her future career and when putting together a project, she uses the math skills she has learned to help her in designing and creating her fashion works of art. Peaches also likes to sing, play the piano and write music. Currently she is taking piano lessons, she attends the local high school for choir and we schedule time for her to write and play around with her music. She also uses a lot of math when she's writing her beautiful melodies.

Pinkie is really interested in becoming a nurse or a forensic anthropologist. Currently she is studying biology and will be adding anatomy and physiology. She is taking a lot of sciences because they pertain to her goals in her future career.

I require all of my children to do all of the core subjects. We stress reading, writing, math, history and science. We have discussed these requirements with my children and they feel just as strongly about building their knowledge and skills in those subjects as we do. My older children also take a foreign language and any other elective they feel will help them reach their goals. We use Mango Languages through our library for free from our computer and tablets. If you choose to use Mango, be sure to check with your local library to see if they have this product available. There is a good variety of foreign language programs you can use. With a little research, you can find one that works for your family. Have fun and get creative with the electives. The wonderful thing about homeschooling is that they have time to add as many electives as they feel they can handle. Some of the electives my children have chosen are art, music, home ec., choir, foreign languages, child development, work study, family finance, family relations, dance, piano, guitar, gardening and needle crafts. They are also part of youth groups and they serve in their community. These are all things that are going to look good on college applications. (please know that these are electives chosen by several of my children and not just one child. I didn't want to overwhelm anyone.) Many of the electives can be taken care of just within your normal every day living. For example, we do home ec. while we are cooking dinner, doing chores, taking care of younger siblings, planning our two week menu and grocery list and budgeting. We include our children in these activities and use them as teaching moments. Life sciences that are no longer taught in schools can be taught at home.

What about college?  What college does your teen want to attend? How can they get into college without a high school diploma? Do they need to take the GED? A lot of these answers can be answered at HSLDA.com.  Search their website and get to know your state laws and the process for college admissions.

My children have chosen to go to BYUI and they are planning on attending a local community college for a couple of semesters first and then transfer to BYUI. The acceptance rate is higher when the student has attended a community or junior college and maintained a good GPA. Our local community colleges don't require an ACT or SAT score or a high school diploma for admission. They do require a placement test called the Compass test in order to determine placement in the core classes. This test only tests for math, reading and English. They also require a list of subjects studied during the high schools years and some require some sort of a transcript. This is not hard to create on your own. Just keep good records. Here is an Excel spreadsheet I use for documenting grades and subjects studied. If you just open it, it will not work as an editable document. However, if you save it and you have Excel on your computer, you will be able to use the document and edit it to fit your needs. I assign a subject to each tab and the last tab is for the final report card for the year. We do three semesters because we also count Summer as a semester. If you only do two semesters, you can always delete the third one and still make it work for you and your family. This has helped me keep accurate records so I will not have a problem just printing out the report cards to use as transcripts for college admissions. Each state has different requirements and each college has their own specific requirements. Look into the college your child has chosen and find out what you need to do in order to prepare your child for admission.

As we all prepare our children for important stages in their lives, we need to remember we also need to prepare them for adulthood and living in the real world. I give my children as many opportunities to be responsible and work for what they want and sometimes what they need as much as possible. Of course, when doing so, I have to make sure that those responsibilities are age appropriate and match my child's is maturity level and abilities. These milestones come at different times for each child. The point is to be flexible when assessing your child's abilities and needs. We have stepped away from trying to make them fit the world's mold and instead we are teaching them to be happy and confident with the mold they have created for themselves. Our job is to give them the tools they need, teach them how to use them well so they can be independent adults and contribute to society.  The hardest part is trusting in the process and feeling confident in the things we have taught them.

High school is a fun time for kids. Your teen doesn't have to miss out on anything. Many co-ops have their own prom. Our local schools allow homeschoolers to attend all of their extra curricular activities. Our kids go on  creative and fun group dates when they are 16. They have parties with their homeschooled and public schooled friends. They attend church dances and other youth activities. My teens feel that public schooled kids are the ones missing out because they are tied down with homework after being in school for 7 1/2 hours. My teens are finished with school by noon most of the time and have plenty of time to hold a job, go shopping, to movies, the mall and hang out with friends. There are many times when they choose to spend their free time reading. :) I guess it's all in how you look at it and in the opportunities you may or may not take. I have found that homeschooling my teens has been a lot easier than homeschooling my little ones. They are self directed and self motivated. They grade each other's papers and turn their summary sheets into me at the end of each day. Once in a while I will check their corrected work to be sure it was done correctly.

Don't be afraid to homeschool high school. It can be a fun experience and a great way to teach your teen to be more independent. For the last couple of years we have had our teens create their own daily schedule and then sit down with us and discuss whether or not it will work for them and then work out any kinks. Most of the time, they do better at creating their schedule than I do and they are more likely to stick with their schedule when they have put forth the effort to do the planning. We also have them set goals throughout their school year. If a goal is not met, we reassess and set another one. When a teen is actively involved in making decisions regarding their education, they become more motivated to accomplish their goals and learn skills they will need in the workplace and college.