Today I’m sharing an updated version of my 9 Simple Steps To Help You Plan Home High School. I’ve now used these steps not once, but twice to successfully create two of my children’s home high school plans! I have to be 100% honest with you though. Part of the reason I’m doing this is because I have four more children I intend to home school through high school so….I’m also doing this for myself as well as you, my homeschooling readers!
I also want to clarify that although I’ve consulted with quite a few homeschool mom’s who’ve “been there done that” as well as a teacher friend of mine, you’ll want to continue your own research. I’ve included some excellent resources below to help you continue research though.
Lastly, I want to state that although these steps are simple, it is a bit more challenging preparing home high school if you are planning for additional children as well.
VIDEO
BTW & great news! 9 Simple Steps To Help You Plan Home High School now has a corresponding video to go with it!
Intro
Prior to creating my oldest son’s high school plan a couple years ago I was dreading it. I always heard so many homeschooling mom’s that have been through teaching the homeschool years say “it’s not so bad”. But do any of us mom’s that haven’t gotten that far believe them? I don’t know anyone who does prior to going through it!
As I now finalize my second child’s high school plans (second child starts this summer) I can honestly say that the planning part is relatively easy. A couple years ago I wrote 9 Simple Steps To Help You Plan Home High School and recently used these same steps for my second child’s plan and they worked a second time around.
The part that has proven difficult for me, however, is record keeping for the transcripts and this was in part due to one little oversight in my planning process (more on this below)!
So I updated this post and it’s even more packed with tips and resources than it was before as I’ve been learning how to keep records for transcripts along the way.
Before you start planning high school you might enjoy, 25 Tips For How To Plan A Homeschool Year either before or after reading this post. It would be helpful used in conjunction with this post for planning.
Before I get started, and just for fun, I thought I’d give you a peek into our earlier homeschool days vs now, just for sweet memories sake! Time goes by so fast!
They were Egyptians….This was during a WONDERFUL year using the Weaver (unit studies) curriculum.
(I wouldn’t know homeschooling without a baby or toddler in the mix)
In the picture above we had just had our fifth child and we were able to get an addition put onto our home which enabled us to make a real school room. This was the year our third son started K and our fourth son began showing interest in school.
(Above) More babies entering our school! FYI newborns and toddlers are the most curious yet demanding pupils.
(Above) our son went from hating math in elementary and early middle school to loving it. He’s now more advanced than his parents. Our secret was finding a curriculum that “spoke his language” so to speak and time.
(Above) This was the year I learned that not just one, but two of my 6 kids so far have their mama’s ADHD and one has an additional learning challenge.
It’s okay. We’re still super cool.
(above) The oldest and two youngest on a field trip.
They were studying state history together <3
9 Simple Steps To Help You Plan Home High School
1. Establish a Support System
If you don’t have a good support system, now is a good time to get one! Get your group of mom’s who’ve been there, done that! It helps to have some mom friends that are in the same phase as you too so you can compare notes. Both mom’s will prove value to you in this journey.
I also highly recommend these Facebook groups for support depending on your needs;
- It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School
- Homeschooling Middle and High School
- ADHD Parents Homeschooling ADHD Kids (For ADHD parents/kids)
- Homeschooling our Aspergers, ADHD, ODD, etc. (if you have a special needs child)
These groups are great places to ask questions, request help, and even get information on colleges in other states from people that are familiar with them. You can ask credit questions, grading questions, and even post pictures of your child’s transcript (blurring their personal info of course) and gain input and tips.
2. Get Organized
What to get….
At this stage I recommend investing in two things. The first one is good planner (I’m a huge fan of Plum Paper Planners, FYI I have a video review of them too, watch it HERE).
The second resource is Janelle Knutson’s Home School High School Forms Pack. In Janelle’s pack she has course description forms you’ll want to use. Janelle also has a great video series on how to homeschool high school. FIND IT HERE.
Create A Binder
I also recommend you purchase a binder to store important papers in and tabbed dividers for the following:
- Grading Scales, sheets and information
- Graduation Requirements
- Plans
- Accomplishments/Finished
- Transcript information
- Test Results
- Course Descriptions
- Extra Curricular Descriptions
- Special Requirements/Needs
- Reading List
- Notes
You may also want one binder per year to save samples of your child’s best work. You’ll want this for their sake, but also some colleges do request to see samples.
NOTE; You may not want to use both Jannelle’s forms and an in depth planner like Plum’s, you might be able to do one or the other but I prefer both.
3. Get Your States Requirements
The second thing I like to do is look up our states graduation requirements. In our state there are 24 required credits in 9 subjects and a credit is 120 hours of study or 160 forty-five minute sessions-but I’ve learned via my groups that this can vary by state.
If your child is college bound this is an important step as most colleges will require at least 20 of the generic credits. Usually requirements include credits in the following;
- English
- Math
- Science
- Social Studies (world history, government, civics)
- Arts
- World/Foreign Language
- Health & Fitness
- Career Education
- Electives
4. Make a List of Your Requirements
Are there any finishing subjects you’d like for your child to graduate with? Personally I would like my children to take a finance course, perhaps an extra history elective, horticulture, hopefully logic etc…
5. Discuss Future Plans With Your Child
It’s likely your kids have interests from dance to music, art, and more. These are all things to put on that final list for extra curricular or career education.
Funny Story. When I was creating my son’s high school plans he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Four weeks later as I was finalizing his plans we had a discussion and suddenly he came up with an idea. Then I had to go back over the plan and adjust it before we even got started. It’s a good thing I’ve learned to always use a pencil when creating plans, lol!
This would be an ideal time to start peeking at college requirements if you have an idea of where your child is headed long term. I suggest that between each of the high school grades you touch base with your child and make adjustments to the following years plans as some kids this age change their mind quite often.
Once your child is fairly sure of what they want to do (if that happens) or around 10th-11th grade it’s a good idea to request an information packet from the colleges they are considering so you have some time to look it over and make sure you’ve included any requirements they have into your high school plans if need be.
Make a list of all the subjects, required and the choices you and your child have added.
6. Choose Your Courses
This part can take awhile! There are 1000’s of courses to choose from. Here are some resources that might help you as you are researching and choosing curricula;
- Cathy Duffy Reviews
- The Facebook groups mentioned above (for asking questions about curricula)
- YouTube (there are so many homeschool reviews and flip throughs by other gracious homeschool moms there). HERE’s ONE OF MINE for 9th GRADE ADHD. I’ll have a non ADHD version soon.
- I HIGHLY recommend taking a Christian Liberty CAT test around 7th and 8th grade to discover your child’s weaknesses so you can compensate for them a little through high school. Also, if you have a special needs child or if you need curriculum suggestions because you’re new or struggling, opt in for their Recommendation Service. It’s 30.00 but friends, it’s MORE than WORTH EVERY PENNY! Their counselor on staff is phenomenal.
As you are deciding curriculum this is a great time to start using Janelle Knutson’s course description forms. The evaluation criteria section, for example, is really important and it is a step I missed when I was planning for my son the first time around and missing this step made it very difficult later!
7. Pull It Together
With all the courses decided and credits gathered now is a great time to put everything together on one sheet (below). This will be a helpful reference for you through the 4 years.
This is the part that does take awhile. Use a pencil because you may have to finagle things so as not to overload any years.
FYI, it isn’t recommended to do .25 credits anywhere. If you have .25 credits over two years it’s better to combine them into one and put them on one year.
8. Grading Resources & Tips
Knowing how you are going to grade a course before you begin it is an important key I missed for my son’s 9th grade.
One of the area’s that mystified me was how to grade and log courses in area’s like electives. Some courses specify the number of credits or how much of a credit they are and have grading and tests outlined, but a few don’t. HSLDA has some great articles on this, and in Carols book she has excellent education in this area as well.
- How To Grade a High School Course
- How To Use Rubrics to Assess Your Childs Work
- How to Calculate A GPA
I found this handy GRADING CALCULATOR that I’m excited about because using this will simplify life a ton and save some time! Here’s another GRADE CALCULATOR I like too because it shows letter grades (nice if you don’t have them memorized yet). I keep these on my phone’s home screen so they are easily accessible.
Here’s Berkeley GPA calculator that will save you a TON of time!!
Here’s a printable grading scale chart that I find is super handy.
9. Scheduling & Record Keeping
After loosing the transcript work I had done to a computer crash I decided to go old school with templates from HSLDA. GET THEM HERE.
HERE’S A FREE SPREADSHEET YOU CAN USE IF YOU PREFER TO KEEP YOUR RECORDS ON A COMPUTER– but if you don’t like this one there are many others out there including FAST TRANSCRIPTS which I’ve heard great things about!
Also, in Carol’s book she has transcript and other templates you can use as well.
Don’t forget to log your child’s hours spent studying as these add up to credits!
FYI Fast Transcripts has great email subscription with tips!
Stay on top of grading. Plan time to grade and keep good records because-you don’t want to fall too behind in this. If you do it will be difficult to remember everything that was done!
Final Tips
I’ve got a list of 6 final tips that I’ve learned it’s important to keep in mind through the high school years;
- Try to start planning when your child is in 7th or 8th grade.
- If your child is going to need more than 4 years in high school you can consider either adding a 5th year (recommended by my teacher friend) OR you could do a subject based transcript.
- Some colleges don’t accept a subject based transcript but I’ve been informed most do. Research the college you are considering for more information.
- If your child is taking longer to finish high school they can still get good scholarships so try not to stress about that part!
- Invest in a good planner. You’ll need one for keeping track of when assignments and tests are due. You may want to get one specifically for your high school student as well so that they can stay on track themselves without having to ask you “what’s next” all day. Using a planner will help your high school student with time management, goal setting, and prioritizing as well. Set aside a day at the end or beginning of the week to plan with your high schooler.
- In high school some courses are grade specific, but some are not. This can be helpful to keep in mind as you are planning.
- If you have two kids that are close in age and will be in high school you may be able to put them in some of the same courses that aren’t grade specific together which might help them and simplify life for you as well. If you start planning in 6th or 7th grade you’ll find it easier to plan courses they can take together PLUS your younger child may be able to start some high school courses early and earn double credit for them.
- Once you finish the 9th grade transcript consider showing it to a teacher friend or to some of the mom’s in the FB high school groups. Not only can they help you make corrections but in my case there were exciting spots I wasn’t leveraging that made my son’s 9th year transcript far more impressive!
A Word About Credits
I’ve learned that it’s common for homeschoolers to complete closer to 40 credits through high school and I believe this. My son completed 17 in his 9th grade year (unfortunately the majority of them were in digital arts and music so I can only count a couple towards graduation). I’ve asked in groups and also researched it and learned that homeschool mom’s generally scale down the credits because they fear the truth won’t be believed. BTW, in my personal opinion that is SAD to think we as homeschoolers have to pretend we are doing LESS on transcripts! On the positive note, yay for homeschooling, right?!
Closing
In conclusion I just want to state that I’m not a pro at this, I’m sharing 9 Simple Steps To Help You Plan Home High School because these have helped me and I’ve had some requests that I share, but I am also sharing for myself so that I can come back and go through these steps (since I have more children and need the refreshers)!
I will continue to come back and edit this post with more information as I continue to learn.
I hope if you are at this stage in your homeschool (or getting ready to enter it) that by my sharing my journey it’s helped give you confidence and get you excited as you proceed in your plans! If so, leave a comment below!
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