Help For Choosing High School Homeschool Curriculum

If there is ever a place that a homeschool parent feels uneasy, it’s heading into high school. I know I have been at that place. Nervous and excited all at the same time. But I am here to encourage you that it is an amazing blessing to be pouring into the lives of your young adults. The high school years are such an important time for our children! But just how do you do it and with what resources? We are here to help with choosing high school homeschool curriculum!

Can You Homeschool High School? Yes, You Can!

Our authors here at the Curriculum Choice have many, many years of experience teaching high school between them. We’ve joined together to help you feel confident teaching high school, too! Our author, Betsy, even offers advice and resources for planning a high school track for the college bound.

Here are some special posts just on high school:

• Preparing for Homeschooling High School
• Homeschool Curriculum Choices by Grade Level
• How to Homeschool High School to College

Choosing High School Homeschool Curriculum

Below are some of the many high school reviews our Curriculum Choice authors have written.  You’ll be amazed at all the resources available to you and your high schoolers!

• Traditional English Sentence Style Helps Prepare Students for College-Level Composition
• How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren
• Marie’s Words: Vocabulary for High School
• Daily Grammar (free!)
• Rod and Staff Grammar
• Take Five! for Language Arts
• Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay
• Favorite Poems Old and New
• Wordsmith
• No Fear Shakespeare Series by Spark Notes
• English Literature for Boys and Girls by H.E. Marshall
• Latin in the Christian Trivium
• Presidential Penmanship
• Excellence in Literature: Reading and Writing through the Classics (IEW)
• No-Nonsense Algebra
• Math on DVD Pre-calculus by Steven Gottlieb
• Consumer Math Success Kit
• Money Help for Teens
• Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett
• Setera – Learn World Geography While Having Fun!
• Understanding Government DVDs
• America: Covenant and Calling – High School Humanities Curriculum
• All American History: Civil War to the 21st Century
• Creation Science Studies – Biology Review
• Human Anatomy Models and Study Aids
• Basic Physical Science Note Pack for Middle and High School
• The Fallacy Detective by the Bluedorns
• Art of the Argument
• Manners Made Easy
• Psychology: A Christian Perspective
• Service Learning: Hands On Opportunities to Reach Out to Others
• The Notebooking Publisher from NotebookingPages.com
• French is Fun
• Digital Photography Unit Study by Amanda Bennett
• A Simple Start in Chalk Pastels Art Curriculum Review
• High School Homeschool English Courses
• High School English Help with Dover Thrift Editions

Be sure to browse our high school tab for all the latest high school reviews.

Homeschooling Towards College

Betsy, Curriculum Choice author:

There are many different ways to homeschool high school.

Some teens aim to complete their high school years at home, then go directly into the world of work.

Others go to community college and earn dual credit or work towards an AA.

Other teens are homeschooling high school and planning to apply to a four year college. My 17-year-old daughter is one of them. This has been a major factor in our curriculum choices in her high school years. Right now, we are in the midst of choosing courses for my daughter’s senior year. Below you will find a few tips for choosing curriculum when your teen is homeschooling towards college.

RESEARCHING COLLEGE REQUIREMENTS

Our first step in planning was to look at the admission requirements for the colleges that my daughter was interested in. This information was easy to find, just by looking at college websites, under entrance requirements. They typically would have a list of required courses, such as:

• 4 credits of Language Arts
• 3 credits of Math
• 2 credits of Social Studies, etc,

….or something like that. Each college is a little different.  More on this is in the 3rd chapter of my book mentioned below.

Once you have your list in hand, the next step is to find the textbooks, living books, and/or online courses, etc. that would fit with your college’s entrance requirements. One thing that made it easier was that most of the requirements were quite similar from college to college!  I have high school planning printables that you can use for this step, just by filling in the blanks on the planning form, included in my NEW book, below.

Making a 4 year high school plan is not hard to do, after you gather this information.  If you are starting your planning in junior year, then of course it will be a 2 year plan. Planning High School with College in Mind and Making a 4 Year Plan.

Next, I looked at my student’s learning style and tried to match my curriculum choices to her needs. I asked myself, did she do best with textbook, online, or a literature based approach, such as Charlotte Mason, or Classical, etc, then chose your courses accordingly. My teen was a big part of this process!

HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCES:

Most of our colleges required two lab sciences. We found many choices for science including Apologia, Abeka, Switch-On-Schoolhouse (SOS), etc. We made sure that our choice included a science lab component. We decided to look for a structured course that included regular test-taking. Getting used to test-taking would help my daughter to prepared for later test-taking in college!

Check out www.thecurriculumchoice.org for high school science reviews, such as Daniele’s Science Roots Vocabulary for High School Biology review, below.

HIGH SCHOOL MATH:

Most of our college choices required Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 for their applicants. (Or the series that Saxon offers, which is equivalent). There are many other great math options as well, such as LifePacs, Switch-On-Schoolhouse, Math-You-See, Aleks, Abeka, etc. Some families choose Teaching Textbooks and love it as well! ALEKS is reviewed by Annie Kate. Look for the one that fits your student. We found that having a structured math course helped my daughter to also prepare for the SAT!

HIGH SCHOOL LANGUAGE ARTS:

When looking for a high school English program, most colleges want something that is strong in literature and composition. There are many options out there for your family. We chose a publisher called Oak Meadow, which offered Literature and Composition, American Lit, and English Lit. Please see my review of Oak Meadow Literature and Composition II. Its focus was on reading good literature, literary analysis and essay writing. We wanted to be sure that my daughter got lots of essay writing practice!

In junior year, we found the wonderful English curriculum by 7 Sisters Homeschool.  They offer both literature and writing courses and each avoids any busywork.  They even have lots of different literature based courses to choose from! More on that is here – Our Favorite Homeschool High School English Courses.

7 Sisters also offers lots of high school electives and many more core courses, too.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Our college choices wanted three credits of SS, but did not specify which courses, so could choose from a wide variety of subjects, such as World History, US History, Geography, Economics, etc. As each college is different, I recommend checking with your college specifically. We decided to focus on History and Geography, and used resources from Oak Meadow, Rainbow Resources, etc. Please check out my review of Short Lessons in US History, and Economics (a great section on Cindy West’s Our Journey Westward site).

More on favorite choices for Frugal Homeschool High School Curriculum is here .

High School Electives

Electives are a big part of high school curriculum, too.  One of our favorites is offered by Tricia Hodges.  Here is more on that – Frugal High School Art and How to Make it into a High School Elective.

Plan Your High School Electives FREE Printable Pack is a free resource offered by our managing editor, Heidi Ciravola over on her personal blog, Starts At Eight.

Do you want more ideas for high school electives for your teen?  I gathered together 100 high school electives and now that is a chapter in my NEW book – which is a guide to college for homeschoolers.  I wrote it to encourage moms of college bound teens.  There are many homeschool friendly colleges out there.

Whichever way homeschool high school, it has been shown that a homeschool education is a great way to prepare for a successful college career. And there are many families out there, homeschooling high school with you. There is, in fact, a yahoo group called Homeschool2College, which deals with this subject, supporting 1,000’s of homeschool families on their journeys.

Betsy blogs at BJ’s Homeschool about high school, and  college and all the fun of homeschooling the early years too.  As a veteran homeschooler and the mom of a college student and homeschool grad, Betsy also offers free help to homeschool families,   She is the author of Homeschooling High School with College in Mind – 2nd edition. 

More Encouragement from Our Authors

Most of the Curriculum Choice authors have active blogs where they share all kinds of homeschooling advice and experiences.  Below, you’ll find links to helpful homeschooling high school posts from a few of our veteran homeschooling authors.

Cindy West from Our Journey Westward:

Cindy admits that she both loves and loathes high school.  She loves that high school kids are ready for the real meat of academic subjects and can do much of their work independently.  She loathes that high school tends to get a little more “bookish” and the learning naturally falls away from the family time it used to be.  Cindy’s high school curriculum is still full of fun and life, though!  She has chosen to share some of her plans off the beaten path.

• Economics in the Homeschool
• Teaching the Value of Purity
• Homeschool Service Projects
• In-Depth Nature Study for a High School Student
• Co-op Class Ideas for Older Students
• Homeschooling High School Science

Tricia at Hodgepodge:

Tapestry of Grace – Tapestry of Grace is a classical approach, Biblically-based, unit study curriculum for the whole family. Tapestry covers eight subjects. Everyone learning together – each child on their own learning and skill level.

Homeschooling High School at Hodgepodge – And since these two children are young adults, they choose where they work best. At the chalkboard desk, sitting in the big chair in the school room, stretched out on the family room couch, sitting and pondering on the backyard swing, gathered around the kitchen table or relishing the quiet of a bedroom.

Homeschooling High School Update – I have been nervous and excited about this high school adventure. And now, here we are half way through the year. How has it gone? What has it been like? Honestly, I haven’t noticed a huge difference except maybe in work load. Hers and mine. A widening of course work, experiments, writing assignments and a whole lot of books. Then there is the record keeping on my part.

Triple 1070 Biblical Finance Curriculum – Practical, life skills are so very needed in a high school education. But just how can you teach your young adults about finances without it being BORING? Triple 1070 offers a media rich adventure to Biblical Financial Empowerment. With this DVD-based curriculum, follow four young adults – of various ages, backgrounds and ideas about finance – on a practical learning experience. These young people travel across the country talking with financial experts, visiting banks, learning about job planning, taxes, avoiding debt, government, investments and much more.

You ARE An ARTist Arts Plans for Art and Music Appreciation – this type of enrichment is pure delight. It might just be what your homeschool needs too.

Visual Latin – Warning! The free lessons you may download and watch will have you hooked. Watch them with your children only if you want to hear…Laughter. Soon followed by, “Can we watch another?” Then after the second introductory lesson, “Can we watch just one more?” “…better to make students laugh than yawn.” ~ visuallatin.com

How Nature Study Mixes with High School Biology – Many thanks to prompts and encouragement from Homeschool Nature Study! And to Apologia for high school Biology studies.

Steve at Hodgepodge:

Apologia Biology Flashcard App – There is a section for each chapter in the Biology text. There are four drill modes included. Your student can choose from four different review types:

• Word – When given a word, select the proper definition;
• Definition – When given a definition, select the proper word;
• Spell – When given the definition, spell the word;
• Random – A randomized selection of the drill modes.

Lynda.com Online Training Library – Lynda.com is a subscription online training library. For $25.00 monthly, over one thousand courses can be viewed online.

Barb at Harmony Fine Arts:

Human Anatomy Models and Study Aids – With the models we could touch, see, and imagine how each part fits together after taking the models apart and then putting them back together again. The models sat on the desk near the computer so they were accessible during breaks in other work. The skeleton was always there, smiling at us as we typed on the computer keyboard.

Sonlight Ultra Microscope: Investing in High School Science – Most homeschoolers are very frugal and must make their homeschool budget stretch as far as possible. My family is no exception and I think long and hard about investing in curriculum and tools for our learning experiences. My two youngest boys are very science oriented and are naturally inquisitive about the world around them so purchasing a quality microscope made sense as we entered the middle school science years. Our family aims to get the most value for the dollar. So which microscope would we buy?

Annie Kate at Annie Kate’s Homeschool Reviews:

For the third time in this week’s Choosing Curriculum series, I want to mention the most important resource, Cathy Duffy’s guide, 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, which helps you determine what curriculum suits your family.  I recommend it to all new homeschooling families and use it regularly myself even after 17 years of homeschooling and 4 years of reviewing curriculum.  The older version, 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, is still useful, but does not mention some of the great new curricula available.

For academically minded students, I have not found a science program to beat Apologia even though this year we really needed to tweak it.

As a math supplement Math on DVD delivers the most value for your money.

We really enjoyed Dave Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance Curriculum for high school.  It’s full of information, funny, and memorable.

While it is not a curriculum, homeschooling parent of teens are advised to look at The Comprehensive Record Program to help them present their teen’s work in a way that university admissions officers will understand.

How to Raise Your High School Grades by Half a Point in One Semester – Teens need to think about thinking, studying, time management, and the future. There are all sorts of serious, sober, and expensive approaches to these topics. However, if your family has a sense of humor and likes outside-the-box ideas, Gary North’s free study course might work for you.

Apologia High School Science – These excellent, Creation-based courses are clear enough to be essentially self-teaching, even though they cover difficult material.  In fact, as a scientist, I am impressed by the breadth and depth of these texts as well as their clarity.

Daniele at Domestic Serenity:

High School Four Year Planner by Well Planned Day – Setting out to homeschool high school for the first time, we found ourselves looking at lots of curriculum – from biology to language and vocabulary – everything was new to us. Along with academics came a need to organize daily assignments.  High school is a necessary time to learn skills of keeping up with one’s work load a little more independently than before.

Civics Education: Pocket Law Firm App – Created by iCivics, Pocket Law Firm app turns the user into the owner of a law firm determined to defend the US Constitution.  As the one in charge, you handle clients, helping to match their cases to just the right lawyer.  Not so fast though – first, you need to have set up your firm correctly or to do so along the way.

Science Roots – Vocabulary for High School Biology – Science Roots was designed to be keyed with vocabulary encountered in Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Biology course.  While it could be used with any biology study, the words are introduced in the same sequence as they are studied in chapters of Apologia’s book.  A great plus since we’re using this program!

Even More High School Resources!

Curriculum Choice High School Pinterest board and Colleges and Universities Accepting Homeschoolers board (oh there are so many wonderful resources pinned here for helping you choose high school homeschool curriculum from our authors and around the web – you could spend hours!)

MORE HOMESCHOOL RESOURCES!

Be sure to also check out The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Homeschool Curriculum.

As well as our full collection of homeschool curriculum broken down by subjects and ages – The Incredible Index of Homeschool Curriculum Options

And even our full guide to homeschool methods – What do Homeschool Methods Look Like in Real Life?

Our Curriculum Choice review team features a topic monthly. You can see all that our authors have shared on electives, math, curriculum choices and more under Review Team Features.

Our Curriculum Choice Pinterest boards! reviews of all kinds from our archives and more.

Five Days of Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

This is just one of our posts in this Choosing Homeschool Curriculum. Be sure to check out the others for all your homeschooling needs!

• Monday – Choosing Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum
• Tuesday – Choosing Elementary Homeschool Curriculum
• Wednesday – Choosing Middle School Curriculum
• Thursday – Choosing High School Homeschool Curriculum (This Post)
• Friday – Choosing Homeschool Curriculum for Multiple Ages

What wonderful homeschool resource have you found for high school? What questions do you have?

~ Originally published June 2017 , Hosted by Tricia~ Homeschooling for over a dozen years now, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children from preschool to high school. She shares a mixture of art lessons, recipes and helpful homeschool habits at Hodgepodge. She and her husband, Steve (who writes app and technology reviews), are co-owners of Curriculum Choice.