How To Homeschool High School – Episode 367

Are you new to homeschooling, or perhaps entering those high school years? Do you wonder how to homeschool high school? In this episode, Felice Gerwitz and Vicki Tillman (The Homeschool Highschool Podcast) discuss how to get started and the information you need to know!

Visit Vicki Tillman and the 7-Sisters at 7SistersHomeschool.com

SO you want to know how to homeschool high school…well, you came to the right place. Today’s wonderful guest is a supercharged knowledge bank of information, Vicki Tillman!

Thanks to our sponsor CTCMath – visit CTCMath.com for more information and a current offer of a free subscription. These offers tend to change so hurry to grab your set.

Be sure to check out Vicki’s list for high school students to discern what track they should take.

Vicki Tillman does everything homeschool highschool! Transcripts, encouragement, and everything in between. Vicki started homeschooling about thirty years ago and times have changed yet if there were not opportunities they started them. If there were enough of us moms we’d start co-ops or debate teams or cinematography teams and, choirs. We began an umbrella school that was registered with the state of Delaware so that the high schoolers could get a transcript approved by the state.

Homeschooling opens doors. What the universities have found in this early generation, especially my older kids is that homeschoolers know how to rock things. They know how to study, they know how to motivate themselves and they actually often have better social skills than their traditionally schooled peers. So they often were campus leaders in organizations. That is so true.

Yet parents have so many questions:

1. Will this work for us?
2. Is this something that will be longterm?
3. Will our kids be able to get into colleges?
4. What kind of transcripts do I need?
5. Where can we get our books?

How do you start homeschool high school?

1. Start by joining the homeschool legal defense organization HSLDA.org 
   • At the HSLDA website, they have all the information for state requirements for high school.
2. There is no one right way to homeschool. All kids are different. What works for one may not work for the others.
3. If the student needs a transcript, they need to have a piece of paper that they graduate with that will follow them to college or even into the workforce. Employers can ask for them even ten years later
4. Know what credits you need to graduate.
   • Typically four language arts credits, between two and four maths according to what their goals are and what the state wants. They’ll need somewhere between two to four sciences. And the same with social studies. They usually need a couple of world languages. Phys ed, usually a health and then usually a fine arts credit.
   • Every state varies. That’s why we send you to HSLDA, look at their state map for more information about your particular state.
   • Sometimes God calls some kids to go into the trades or into some kind of artisan work. If that is the case they don’t need to kill themselves doing super-duper academics in high school.
   • The college-bound kids, especially if they’re going after scholarships or going to a state or a more competitive college, will want to go to the high end of things and do more vigorous curriculum.

Overview of Four Years:

1. Go over this with your teens. Sit down and discuss it, what you want to have accomplished by the time they graduate.
2. Knowing how many maths, if they’re going to a competitive college, then they need all four math.
   • So they’ll need Algebra one to Geometry, Precalc or if they’re going into a stem subject, they need the Algebra in, in middle school and go for the higher math and as Statistics.
3. For Literature. Ask do you want a free for all literature where the kids just randomly pick and you pick and you have a mixture of, of different kinds of literature? Or do you want to focus on American Lit, one year in British Lit, one year in a whole year of CS Lewis, American or World Literature? You can even concentrate on poetry for a year.
4. There is no one right way to homeschool high school. You can focus on a student’s interests. For example the histories, etc.

Career Exploration ~

Here is a list of questions high school students can ask themselves, pray and think about, from Vicki Tillman!

1. What are my strengths?
2. What are my weaknesses?
3. What is important to me? (education, just enough education, LOTS of education, working with my hands, serving my country, 9-5 working hours, travel, time for family and friends, climbing the corporate ladder, fame, predictability, time for church and volunteering, good benefits?)
4. What things have I done in life already that are interesting? (Career-focused or not)
5. Who are the most influential people in my life? What do they do for a career and volunteering?
6. What has God already shown me about me? (Career-related or not)
7. What careers might be interesting to me? (Do I already know? If not, what can I do to try on some new hats? Field trips? Volunteering at new places? Reading some biographies? Interviewing people in various jobs?)