Parents sometimes approach homeschooling the high school years with some trepidation. It can be daunting to think about making sure your teen is ready for what lies ahead, whether that’s college or a vocation of their choice. Prepping for homeschooling high school can seem overwhelming.
Parent’s Guide: Prepping for Homeschooling High School
Here at The Curriculum Choice, we have lots of resources for the high school years. The Homeschooling Parent’s Guide to Prepping for High School is a hub for you to gather all the information you need about homeschooling in the high school years.
Heather from Blog, She Wrote
At Blog, She Wrote, I’m all about helping families who homeschool out of the box teens! Find out how you can work with your neurodivergent, sick, and struggling teen to homeschool high school well and still do big things post high school.
How to Start Homeschooling a High Schooler– all the information you need to get started with homeschooling high school whether you are homeschooling for the first time or you’re ready to take your homeschooling into the last four years with your teen.
Homeschooling High School with a Four Year Plan– this post contains credit hour information and a freebie to help you get started on record keeping for a transcript.
Strategies for Scheduling High School– tips for building a sustainable high school schedule with your teen
Scheduling Time for Creative Pursuits in the High School Years– how to build in this foundational time for your teen. This is so important for creative teens and the more you start there and build out their schooling, the better!
How to Choose Homeschooling High School Curriculum– how to work with your teens to determine the criteria for choosing curriculum. Once size does not fit all!
Earning Credit with a Project Based High School– how to create and plan for an experienced based course in high school
The Big List of Ideas for Homeschooling High School Online– your guide to outsourcing high school classes. Why you might want to and why you might not want to along with the details on the different ways your teen can do this.
10 Myths You’re Believing about Your Out of the Box Teen that Are Holding Them Back– this free guide will help you to learn how to turn what you think are learning obstacles into learning opportunities
Dream Big & Take Action: Goal Conquering for Teens– this is the course to help you mentor your teen through the goal setting process. This 12 video course will lead your teen through the process of figuring out what their about and what they would fight for in the world of learning. I love to hear from moms whose teens make big moves into places they never thought would happen!
Homeschooling High School by Design– a course on how to plan for a unique high school experience for your teen with everything from planning core and elective classes to working with neurodivergent teens. This course will help you to lay the ground work for an amazing experience with specific tasks and planning pages to help you create a complete program with your teen.
Homeschooling High School by Design Membership– this membership provides you with ongoing mentoring for working with your out of the box teens. Membership includes two live teaching calls a month along with an online community, planning and transcript workshops, and a membership library. We also have a support group for moms homeschooling sick and neurodivergent teens.
Betsy @ BJ’s Homeschool
Getting started with high school is often a time of worry for many of us homeschooling moms. But it need not be. I homeschooled my daughter through high school and am so glad that I did! She benefitted from it so much, even being able to do nature study as a homeschool high school elective. Assigning high school credit is one of the most commonly asked questons in my homeschool high school Facebook group, called Homeschooling through High School.
High School Helps FREEBIE This FREE PDF does not require an email.
It goes directly to your FREE PDF on High School, to keep beside you as you plan and do your high school at home. This includes my very top articles on planning your high school, choosing your curriculum and much more.
In addition to that, I also offer my very FRUGAL guidebook to planning your high school, which is below.
Assigning High School Credit and Planning High School at Home lays out 3 easy ways to assign high school credit. And all of their work counts. Making homeschool transcripts is also a common topic in our group.
Making Your Teen’s Homeschool Transcripts Here is my tutorial on making those transcripts, with lots of information on the particular questions that often come up.
4 Steps to Planning High School at Home I wrote this to serve as a guide to getting started, full of the information that I had wanted when my husband and I began planning our high school years. Of course, next one would want to know what will be needed regarding high school curriculum. Here are some of my favorites for that.
Homeschool High School American History – Free and Frugal Resources We made our own history course, using a number of these frugal resources. My daughter just loved it.
Frugal Homeschool High School English Curriculum These courses are made my experienced homeschool moms, who already graduated their teens. They offer a wide variety of frugal resources, including literature guides, English courses, writing courses, and much more. Then there are always questions about high school math, and the good thing is that you do not have to recall your previous courses from your high school years!
Teaching Textbooks vs. Monarch We used both of these curriculum resources, and now that there are so many alternatives for teaching high school math, it is really not hard to teach at all.
Nature Study for Teens and How to Make it Into a High School Credit We had so much fun doing nature study through the high school years. This article shares many ways to make your teen’s nature study into a high school credit. Would you like a free PDF full of encouragement and tips on planning your high school at home?
Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition
This is my “baby”. I always wanted to write a book, and felt the calling from God to do that, just after my own daughter graduated from our homeschool. Tricia, owner of this site, wrote a review of it for me, back then. Thank you, Tricia. Then 3 years later I republished it to expand it and add in new resources, such as the Common Application Guide and more. Then I worked with a certified college planner, who felt led to recommend it and kindly wrote the preface to me book.
This book is offered as a FRUGAL resource, either in paperback or as a kindle ($5.99 kindle) and includes all planning steps essential for putting together your own high school at home, including college prep and the college application process in 17 chapters as follows:
>Chapter 1 – How to Start Homeschooling if you are New to Homeschooling
>Chapter 2 – 101 Reasons to Homeschool High School
>Chapter 3 – Researching and Getting Started
Chapter 4 – Planning High School and Making a 4 Year Plan
>Chapter 5 – Choosing Your High School Curriculum
>Chapter 6 – Three Ways to High School Credit
>Chapter 7 – Making Your Teen’s Transcripts
>Chapter 8 – 100 High School Electives
>Chapter 9 – Making Homemade Courses
>Chapter 10 – Writing a Winning College Essay
>Chapter 11 – Course Descriptions and Reference Letters
>Chapter 12 – The Common Application
>Chapter 13 – Preparing Your Teen for College Writing
>Chapter 14 – Dealing with College Testing SAT/ACT
>Chapter 15 – Top Sources for College Scholarships
>Chapter 16 – Dealing with “Those Questions” from Others
>Chapter 17 – Don’t Forget the FUN!
If you would like more information on the book, I invite you to click here. I am so happy that we continued through the high school years as it gave our daughter lots of time to explore her interests and find her God given gifts, which she then could explore in depth in college.
Heidi Ciravola @ Starts At Eight
Many people fear homeschooling high school. All always get asked questions about how confident I feel about teaching upper level subjects and how I go about it. My response is usually something about how I don’t teach most of it, I just use amazing programs that do!
There are so many resources out there now for homeschooling, and there is even a growing number of resources for homeschooling high school specifically – which used to be a very shallow pot!
My first recommendation is to plan ahead. I started planning in middle school for my children’s high school years. Using this 4 Year High School Plan FREE Spreadsheet Printable helped me lay out a plan that I could be confident was covering all our bases!
Another part of planning for high school is high school electives. I created a Plan Your High School Electives FREE Printable Pack that walks you through how to do this and helps you narrow down your choices. Each of my kids helped choose their own electives, everything from Photography to Psychology, and even Equine Studies! We also put a lot of value in Life Skills such as laundry, food prep, house maintenance and more. I created the Life Skills as High School Electives: Home Economics and Shop Class just for this reason! Prepare your kids for life, and get high school credit doing it!
The last big part of planning is the year by year, week by week, day by day, nuts and bolts of executing the 4 year plan. I have used many styles of planners with each one of my kids. I find the simpler the better. My son liked it really short and sweet so I created a Homeschool High School Plan for my kid who “Just Wants to Get it Done”
High School is also a time for considering testing options such as the PSAT and SAT. These are things you will want to prepare for if the path your child has chosen will include taking these exams. Be sure to check out
Tricia of Hodgepodgemom and You ARE an ARTiST
Thinking About Homeschooling for High School? – Don’t let high school scare you. It’s super fun! It’s a great time to be with your child, helping him or her develop into an awesome young adult who desires to serve the Lord. So many teachable moments happen when you homeschool your teens all the way through high school.
A Weekly Homeschool Planning Meeting – this makes a huge difference for us! My young adults own their responsibilities and continue to grow in independent learning. This planning time is a gift in building a skill they will use the rest of their lives.
Homeschooling High School: Learning Styles – When prepping for homeschooling high school, consider your young adult’s learning style. This is a huge part of how we design learning for success!
High School Homeschool Video Courses – I want to tell you about some resources that have blessed us big time in the high school homeschool years. I had never really considered high school homeschool video courses until…
Night Classes and Other Benefits of Homeschool – Create a coffee house type atmosphere with hot chocolate, tea and treats and finish up learning together for the day. This offers a great space for discussion. Younger siblings are tucked in bed and tougher subjects and topics can be tackled.
With homeschooling high school, you have the freedom to design a unique high school year. We needed to do this for our third high schooler’s senior year due to concussion. There are so many freedoms with a homeschool schedule.
Homeschool Graduation Favorites – It’s never too early to start thinking about what you might be planning for your homeschool graduate!
This is How You Can Earn an Art Credit for Homeschool High School – (includes a printable Visual Art Credit Tracker). Many states require one visual art credit for the completion of high school. As fellow homeschoolers, we know that homeschool families like to plan their own way! That’s why You Are An Artist is an excellent fit for your visual art credit needs. Our flexible path to a visual art credit with chalk pastels allows you the freedom to plan; however it best suits your student.
Integrated Art for Homeschooling High School – As more and more complex learning is expected for high schoolers, for many students, there is a need to access learning in a different way. Not all learners respond well to the traditional textbook, worksheet, lecture style of traditional learning. In fact, most do better with a more multisensory approach to learning. Integrated art essentially takes subjects we traditionally teach in a more formal way, and immediately adds a layer of accessibility and hands-on learning.
More Prepping For Homeschooling High School Resources for Parents
Preparing for Homeschooling High School– another round up post on getting ready for the high school years
How to Homeschool High School– lots of posts from authors here at The Curriculum Choice
Choosing Homeschool High School Curriculum– more information about how to choose curriculum with your high schooler
Celebrating Homeschool Graduates – a round up of favorite resources for celebrating this special time
We hope that this extensive list will help your in prepping for homeschooling high school!
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