As every parent knows, time flies by – we blink and our toddler turns into a teenager. When I first started homeschooling over 8 years ago, the response from friends and family was mixed, which I expected. I was definitely surprised by the number of people who asked me, “But what about high school?”
My running joke was, “Well, I think I’m going to teach my daughter to read and do basic math first!”
Now my oldest child is 14 and will be in 9th grade in the fall! I have no witty comeback when people ask me what we are doing about high school. In addition to dealing with the comments, criticisms, and concerns of others this year; I’ve had to deal with my own insecurities, questions, and generalized angst about entering the homeschool years with a high schooler.
To lessen my own worries, I have done what I usually do to lessen my own worries, I have gathered LOTS of information about homeschooling through high school! When in doubt, read a book about the topic is my mantra!
So, armed with lots of information about homeschooling through high school, I’ve come to the conclusion that FOR ME to homeschool successfully through high school, I need to change my thinking in several areas regarding our homeschool. Please note that I wrote “FOR ME.” There are just as many ways to homeschool through high school as there are to homeschool in the primary and elementary grades. The ways in which I have needed to change my thinking are just what works for me – they may not work for you!
Change from Mastery Learning to Subject Learning Within a Specific Period of Time
Inge Cannon in her Transcript Boot Camp on DVD really helped me to start making this change in my thinking. Inge Cannon pointed out that in the early years of homeschooling, most homeschooling parents focus on mastery learning. If our children don’t master an academic area, we just keep working on it until they do! Her example of potty-training helped me to fully understand this point. With potty-training, we certainly can’t accept C work – that course needs to be completed with an A+++ or we just keep working on it until the child is perfect in this area!
But, as children enter the high school years and are taking specific courses like Chemistry and English Literature, it is unrealistic to expect them to MASTER the subject. Really, they can’t master such big subjects in one course AND they can’t spend all four years working on just one area. Therefore, it is important to realize that sometimes, we need to accept a less than perfect grade/understanding and move on. Otherwise, they’ll never get through all of the courses that are typically covered during high school. High schoolers don’t have unlimited time. High school, like life, is about doing the very best you can in the time that you have.
Change From Unit Studies and Subject Areas to Specific Courses
Now, I do know that lots of homeschoolers continue doing unit studies throughout high school, but I am changing to a focus on specific courses. This was a huge switch in thinking for me. After years of combining multiple subjects in big, fun, hands-on unit studies, changing to thinking in terms of individual courses is a very different way of thinking.
Change From “Pretty Good”Records to Excellent Record Keeping
I’ve also kept pretty good records but high school calls for a whole new level of record keeping. One of the main refrains in ALL of the homeschooling through high school materials that I’ve read has been document, document, document. I have come to the realization that daily and weekly record-keeping is going to be an important part of my life during the high school years.
Change From No Grades to Grades for Courses
I’ve never given my children grades. It actually always seemed a bit silly to me. I work with them all day, I know how they’re doing in their subjects. But, high school calls for me to produce a transcript at the end, complete with GRADES. So, in addition to thinking in terms of individual courses, I also need to figure out how I’m going to arrive at a grade for each of these courses!
Change From Being the Only Teacher to Being An Umbrella School
I had the pleasure of hearing Susan Wise Bauer talk at the Midwest Homeschool Convention about preparing for college. In her talk, The Well-Prepared Student (High School): How to Get Ready for College, Susan Wise Bauer talked about how during high school a home educator needs to think of herself/himself less as the ONLY teacher for their student and more as an umbrella school. This made so much sense to me and really freed up my thinking about how I’ll handle different courses in high school.
Almost endless options exist for teaching high school courses:
- Private tutor
- Classes at a homeschool co-op
- Online college classes from a college for dual credit
- On site college classes from a college for dual credit
- Independent study courses from a correspondence high school
- Video courses
- Independent study courses using curriculum that is designed to be self-teaching
- Apprenticeships
- Old-fashioned “taught by Mom” courses
Many more options exist – once I broadened my thinking in terms of HOW high school courses could be presented, the possibilities seemed to explode before me!
Armed with lots of resources and extensive reading, I’m now facing the high school years with a bit more excitement than trepidation! For those of you who are homeschooling high schoolers, did you find that your thinking about school needed to shift at all as your children entered the high school years?
Samantha writes about homeschooling and family life at her blog, To Be Busy At Home.
Photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
My son has started 7th grade, but is doing mostly 9th grade work. I’m not counting anything this coming year as high school, but the following year with ALL his subjects 9th grade or higher, I’ll need too…and I do think of high school as a WHOLE NEW area! I plan on US keeping records through Homeschool Tracker (that does do transcripts as well) and he’ll probably eventually take foreign language from the local high school and duel enrollment courses through the university. High school is much more scary to me! LOL
Absolutely! It’s a huge shift to high school. We go from a very laid-back approach to a fairly rigorous schedule. It was totally worth it to be relaxed for those first 8 years, though!
Sarah at SmallWorld´s last [type] ..7 Quick Takes
This article is excellent in pointing out the need for adopting a slightly different approach to high school. When considering how to proceed, members of my small co-op submitted questions on how to meet the needs of their up-and-coming high schoolers. We presented these in a questionaire to others who had travelled the way before and used the data to help determine our own route. Most families from that co-op made the decision to continue.
In my region, I am fortunate to have a kind of high school co-op operating- the parents do not teach nor are they responsible for on-site cleaning, etc. The group rents from a small church which has classrooms. Homeschoolers register for classes much like a college. Classes are offered M-T-W. If I want son #1 to take chemistry, I register for the 90 minute class on Tuesday. There didactic and lab are held with a chemistry tutor hired by the group. Students are in a classroom situation with other homeschooled high schoolers. Syllabus is handed out and homework assignments are clear- about 1 hour per day for remainder of the week. Tutor tests and gives cumulative points, parent decides the grade. No transcript from the organization. But the group offers classes and guidance I would have to hunt down on my own. My kids are accountable to another adult. Many of the instructors do not accept late work. Over 300 families take advantage of the course offerings.
I may register for one class or five- offerings include sciences, composition, student government, driver’s ed and others. The courses are rigorous.
Additionally, there is a behavior code, dress code and plagerism is taken seriously.
I may not like the math curriculum, so I am free to pursue my own, suitable for my kids but I may find that chemistry is beyond my comfort level or I do not have the time and resources to purchase the equipment.
In the fall, I will be hosting a group of seniors in a faith discussion class, as well as a physical science class for 8th and 9th grade boys.
And next year, I will be graduating my first son from high school. I never thought I’d go the whole distance- but my kids never wanted to attend “regular” school. This alternative has helped us meet our kids academic needs, continue the homeschool lifestyle and surround them with other people pursuing this path. It’s a blessing
This is just what I need! We, too, are starting 9th grade in the fall….it feels like a whole different ball game!
Jenn´s last [type] ..Where I Live…
For a while I felt I had lost all the fun of homeschooling – much stricter time limits, managing more subjects and tutoring was so different from the all-in-one literature-based approach we had used before. But as I watch my high schooler teaching herself and sticking to her own schedule, I am delighted.
It is a different journey, but I am so glad to travel alongside her. Just 2 more years and she’ll be moving onwards, so time is short and very precious.
Nadene´s last [type] ..The Book of James Lapbook
For one of my kids, the ‘transition’ to high school was almost non-existent. He still hadn’t mastered some of the basics and was anti-college (not just not interested in college, but actively detesting college and swearing he’d never go). For him, we focused on life-skills. He’s almost 20 now, working and still living at home. Emotionally, he needs more than other people his age, so a lot of times it’s still just like having a 16yo around.
For the other kiddo, she actually started at the 3D high school, and surprised me one day by coming home requesting to be homeschooled again. She’d rebelled against homeschooling before, saying she missed her friends and being part of that community. Now, in high school, she had some truly awful teachers, lots of distractions in the way of drama, and simply could not learn the way some of them were teaching. Because she may change her mind AGAIN I was reluctant to homeschool like I had before – coming up with curriculum on my own. I was concerned the credits she got at home wouldn’t transfer back to public school. Coupled with an unstable situation with some elderly relatives and some problems of my own – I wasn’t comfortable committing to homeschooling her through high school. We also couldn’t afford canned curriculum or doing an online program – we thought. My daughter got online and found Oklahoma Virtual Academy – High School – free public school online. We had to give up control of the curriculum and some scheduling, but it worked for us in other ways. She’s finishing up 9th grade and looking forward to public school online next year as well. If you asked her today, she’d say she would never go back to the 3D school.
Anywho – that just goes to show that not only is homeschooling “an” option in and of itself, but that it also allows a variety of options for different families and different children, even in the high school years.
This is a great post for anyone who is considering homeschooling high school and needs to know what to think about. I’m glad my friend Jennifer shared it on Facebook.
This brings up so many issues…one of my biggest concerns in starting to homeschool elementary school is what will happen in eight years! I like the idea of worrying about that later! ;)
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