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High School of America understands that planning to finish high school at home is a big responsibility, especially if you are pursuing a homeschool program for the first time. To help guide parents and learners through the complexities of coursework, transcripts, and diplomas, we’ve pulled together essential information you’ll require to know. You’ll also want to browse the High School of America’s school curriculum overview for detailed descriptions of the available homeschool programs.
Homeschooling Programs for High School – What’s Different?
The approach for how to homeschool high school can vary in many ways from previous homeschool years.
The approach for how to homeschool high school can vary in many ways from previous homeschool years. There are numerous reasons that the elementary and middle school years’ methods should change as your child enters high school.
First of all, the use of a simple curriculum taught in a one-on-one manner in the home probably will not offer the breadth of stimulation and experience that high school learners require.
A second reason for the modification is that the subject matter becomes much more in-depth. Many homeschooling parents find themselves shifting from the role of a subject-matter expert to a role where they are more of a facilitator. Parents often broaden their use of outside resources to include online programs, courses at local colleges, and sometimes at their local high schools for courses like driver’s education.
A third reason that homeschooling in high school can be different is that learners are acquiring skills and credentials for career and post-high school education needs. This means that in addition to complying with minimal requirements for homeschooling, parents start considering the requirements their students will require to attain a homeschool program for high school, to gain acceptance to college, and to be prepared for the job market.
In many ways, homeschooling in the high school years is an extension of threads that have been woven into your general homeschool experience. You perhaps joined with other parents for sports, art, and music projects as early as preschool and elementary. By late elementary, you may have supplemented at least one curriculum subject with an outside teacher. In middle school, you likely seek outside knowledge to support math and science. By the time a homeschooler reaches high school, he or she is comfortable enough with external resources to make consistent use of them to meet educational goals.
Planning your Homeschool Program for High School
Creating the link between career goals and preparing for those goals is one way of planning your high school homeschool program.
So, how should you go about planning your high school homeschool program? Our advice is to start in seventh grade and then primarily in eighth grade, by:
- Creating the link between pursuing career goals and preparing oneself for those goals. By recognizing interests early and incorporating them into a high school education plan, students gain a vested interest in the program and its success.
- Plan your teenager’s future with them. Ask them what their post-high school plans are and use those goals to help tailor their coursework toward the future they need to pursue.
- Research college admission requirements and the array of standardized exams your student will require to take to qualify.
- Consider your choices for taking AP and college courses to earn college credit. For instance, some homeschool high school learners take some courses using interactive curriculum and mix it with courses taken as dual enrollment at local colleges. Completing a homeschool program for high school can be your primary way of getting a homeschool diploma, or you can use a hybrid approach.
- Look into homeschool-friendly colleges and universities. With the number of homeschoolers rising steadily year after year, many colleges and universities have admission policies specific to homeschoolers.
- Explore college alternatives. Not every learner will be interested, ready, and a proper fit for a college degree. If this seems to be true of your learner, then take time to research the different college alternatives available to graduates, such as military service, vocational apprenticeships, entrepreneurial endeavors, and volunteer corps.
- Understand the differences between homeschooling and distance learning with an accredited school. With homeschooling, the parent is the school and educator of record, taking full responsibility for structuring and supervising the learner’s high school program. This comprises signing the diploma. This is different from a distance-learning option in which the student enrolls in an accredited school program which they work with through the internet. Of course, many families blend these approaches, taking some classes from schools online, others at local colleges or high schools, and teaching some themselves using resources like textbooks.
