High School Homeschooling; What I didn’t expect
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High School Homeschooling; What I didn’t expect
I knew starting high school would be different. I knew it would come with its own set of homeschooling challenges like transcripts, harder subjects, and longer hours. But quite a few things surprised me this year as we started my son’s freshman year of high school. I didn’t expect a few things that actually happened though. Let’s have a chat about homeschool for high school.
High school homeschooling is a different animal. While it feels much the same, there’s also distinct differences that I didn’t expect.
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Homeschooling a High Schooler
I almost made a $500 mistake. I’m preparing my son’s transcript so that he can go to either the community college here locally, or if he chooses, the state university. I didn’t realize that they had certain classes that these schools want to see in specific grades. Going off of just the department of education website, my son needed 3-4 history credits. “Okay cool,” I said, not realizing that the college would want him to have specific history courses during freshman, sophomore, and junior year. I got off lucky, he did the one he needed for 9th grade. But, I almost spent $500 on a new history curriculum that he didn’t need….but luckily I caught it before I checked out of the website.
First point…CHECK THE COLLEGE REQUIREMENTS before you buy curriculum. Don’t do what I did. It’ll save you money and frustration.
Next, the price of books are going to go up. Prepare yourself.
Not only do you have your main 4 subjects (language arts, math, science, history), but you’ll have electives, labs, foreign language, extra curriculars and more. Did I mention driver’s ed? That can also cost you.
Elective courses are not cheap. I still spent the same amount of money on elective courses that I did for main subject courses (and yes, that’s normal). I about had sticker shock when it was all said and done this last year. Luckily, I was able to get most of our books used which helped on cost. However, I want you to be prepared that you’ll spend more in the high school years. It doesn’t get easier or cheaper homeschooling a high schooler…it just gets more expensive till college. So start saving now if you have kids in middle school.
Check out more things that I discovered about high school homeschooling in the video below.
Homeschool for High School
Homeschool High School Transcript
As of now, I’m making my son’s transcript on an Excel document until I’m finished adding all of his courses and credits.
There are services and websites out there that will make you a nice diploma for your homeschool student and transcript services as well. I’ll most likely use one of those when it comes time. For now, I’m learning how to calculate his GPA, add everything in, and make it look as professional as possible for him to use in college admissions.
I’m probably overcomplicating the process (I’ve been known to do that), but I want it to look good for him.
If you’re the parent of a homeschooler, tell me what you’ve discovered in the comments. I feel like we all need to stick together!
Until next time,
Soli Deo Gloria,
Mandy
