Getting Ready to Homeschool High School

Preparing to Homeschool High School
A Timeline from 7th to 12th Grade
Maureen Wittmann

I am a firm believer in "taking homeschooling one year at a time". If I embarked on this homeschool journey knowing I'd homeschool seven children from birth through high school graduation, it would've been too overwhelming to even consider. Yet, here I am, twenty-something years later, still homeschooling. I committed to just one year at a time and that helped me stay focused on the task at hand. And you can too.

Think of The Little Engine That Could. Little by little you can accomplish great things -- including taking on your child's k-12 education. Including homeschooling high school.

With all that said, it is good to do some legwork in advance before embarking on the high school years. If you're considering putting your children into a site-based school for high school, the following steps will help you make that transition as well. However, I encourage you to pray and consider homeschooling high school. It's not as hard as it sounds and it's incredibly rewarding (more on that in an upcoming blog post).

Prep Work in Middle School
First, relax. Enjoy these middle years and observe how your child's intellect and spiritual life grows and changes during this period.

Start talking with your child about special interests. What are his favorite subjects? Make sure you're getting out of the house, getting involved in your local community, and using the real world as your classroom in addition to your book work.

In the summer between sixth and seventh grade, use this Scope & Sequence form to help you put together your curriculum for the seventh and eighth grades. If your child is behind in any of his subjects, middle school is a good time to address the issue.

Here are some simple, concrete steps to take during eighth grade to prepare for high school:

• Research the laws in your state regarding graduation requirements for homeschool students. Laws vary greatly from state to state. 
• Make a list of your child's strengths and weaknesses
• Use this High School Scope & Sequence to determine your curriculum for high school.
• Between 8th and 9th grade finalize curriculum choices for 9th grade (repeat this every year until graduation).
• Make plans for extra-curricular activities and field trips.
• Relax and remember that plans can change.
• Review financial plans for post-secondary education in case student attends college or trade school after graduation.

High School
Make sure you're keeping good records throughout the next four years. It doesn't need to be complicated. Spend a few hours each quarter updating your student's transcript (click here: High School Homeschool Transcript)  You can also use this form to keep a record of specific courses or learning outcomes: High School: List of Courses.

All four years should include extracurricular activities and community work (record them on your student's transcript).

Ninth Grade

• Begin the discussion of where your child sees himself after high school graduation. There should be no pressure - now is simply the time to explore the many options available.
• Do some career studies. Have your student pick three or four careers that she finds intriguing. She should then research the careers and present a report to you that includes information such as 
• education needed
• skills required
• earning potential
• job satisfaction
• interviews with people who work in the selected careers
• a list of high school courses that will provide a solid foundation for future studies.
• Start a good homeschool writing program that is incremental and will have you ready for advanced writing by your student's senior year.

Tenth Grade

• Revise/adjust curriculum.
• Begin investigating possible colleges or trade schools. 
• What are the entrance requirements?
• What high school courses must be completed?
• What kind of recordkeeping do they require from homeschoolers?
• Do they accept dual-enrollment, AP, and/or CLEP credits?
• What is their timetable for acceptance and scholarships?
• Research dual-enrollment programs and requirements. You may be required to take college-entrance exams early.
• Start researching scholarship possibilities.

Eleventh Grade

• Revise/adjust curriculum.
• Take the PSAT.
• Begin CLT, ACT, and/or SAT test prep. Take the college-entrance exam of your choice in the spring.
• Start dual-enrollment, AP, or CLEP courses if they are in your plan.
• Set yourself up for success and do not take on too much college-level work.
• Courses can be local or online.
• Schedule visits to tour prospective post-secondary schools. 

Twelfth Grade

• Revise/adjust curriculum.
• Retake the CLT, ACT, and/or SAT in the fall. 
• Finalize post-secondary applications early in the school year, if not already done.
• Some students, once accepted into a post-secondary school will slack off on studies. Keep on top of your student and make sure grades don't slide.
• Finalize scholarships and speak with the financial counselor at the post-secondary school if applicable.
• Finalize apprenticeships.
• Continue dual-enrollment, AP, or CLEP courses if they are in your plan.
• Complete the FAFSA (if attending college) in January.
• This is the year of deadlines -- pay attention to deadlines and mark your calendar.

Of course, include your student in all these steps. Get him a planner and have him mark important dates, including deadlines, testing dates, course completion dates, test prep dates, etc.

Let us know in the comments what you would add to this checklist, or what you would do differently.

Free Reading Journals / Logs for Your Homeschool

I like to give high school students a reading journal or diary to record their favorite books. (Such as this one at Amazon - affiliate link.) Not just my own teens, but the teens in the high school book club I've led for more than a decade. Even after they grow into adults and move out of their parents' houses, some continue to keep their journals up to date. It’s a great habit that encourages reading for enjoyment.

Keeping a reading journal helps you recall which books and authors you love, as well as hate. It’s great to pull out when talking books with friends or when you’re trying to decide what to read next. Like any diary, it’s fun to go back years later and see what you were doing then.

I have created several templates so you can create a homemade reading journal. They can be downloaded here: Free Homeschool Planning Forms. Scroll down to "For the Love of Literature Resources."

You can choose the journal that works best for your child’s grade level. Print out on three-hole-punched paper to keep in a binder. Children can then fill in the blanks as they read new books. I also suggest having children decorate the binder so that it’s something that begs to be read.

Additionally, this little tool will help you with your record keeping and planning.

Note: There are many other free homeschool forms for you at the link above.

6 Forms for Successful Homeschool Planning

Homeschool Planning

Maureen Wittmann

(If you’d like to read more on this topic, see “Scheduling: Finding Order in Chaos” by Maureen Wittmann in The Catholic Homeschool Companion [Sophia Institute Press].)

Every homeschool parent approaches planning the school year a little differently. The following ideas and forms are only suggestions. Take what works for you and your homeschool. Tweak and adjust until it fits your family dynamic.

I suggest setting aside dates on your calendar or daily planner for your homeschool planning days. It is a task that takes considerable time and thought. Plan ahead so you can block out time to meet with individual children. You'll also need alone time. See if you can have your spouse or a grandparent take the children for extended periods of time so you can have quiet time to peruse your homeschool catalogs, review online classes, check with local support group leaders about co-ops, etc. Then, put it all to paper.

Here are a series of forms to help organize your school plan for the year. Each form includes instructions and examples. They will automatically download as Word (docx) files. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions or suggestions.

6 Steps for Successful Homeschool Planning:

STEP 1. As the current school year begins to wind down, take time to prayerfully reflect on the success of your school year. Write down what worked well and what didn’t.

Use this form: Reviewing Last Year

STEP 2. Before the beginning of the school year, put together a “course of study.” I suggest June, when everything is fresh in your mind but you’ve had a chance to reflect on the year. Your “course of study” will include all of the courses you want to tackle throughout the entire school year. This is a broad plan. You’ll write down goals, books to be used, and enrichment ideas.

Use this form: Annual Course of Study

STEP 3. Take your annual goals and break them down month by month.  By looking at the year month by month, you can make arrangements for holidays and preplanned events.

Use this form: Yearly Schedule: Monthly Goals

STEP 4. At the beginning of each quarter, write out a quarterly course of study. This is similar to what you did for the year, only with more detail. This gives you the opportunity to review your current achievements and make adjustments for any unforeseen events. You can also make adjustments for children who are advancing at a different rate than expected.

Use this form: Quarterly Course Plan

STEP 5. The final scheduling form is the weekly itinerary. Every weekend, sit down and complete the plan for the next week. If your child is older and self-directed, then he or she can complete this step alone. This itinerary is then given to each child on Monday morning. They can check off tasks as they are completed.

Use this form: Weekly Itinerary

STEP 6. If you are scheduling your day hour by hour, then I have a daily planning form for you. This is important to use if you have time commitments such as live, interactive online classes, lessons outside the home, club meetings, etc.

Use this form: Daily Itinerary 

Note: I am not the original creator of some of these forms.  A friend gave them to me when I began homeschooling twenty-something years ago. Ever since, I’ve been tweaking them, sharing them far and wide, and making excellent use of them in my own homeschool.  It is my hope that you will be able to make excellent use of them as well.

Homeschool Planning: Reviewing Last Year

20 Questions to Ask Before Planning Your Homeschool Year

Before beginning to plan the next school year, it's important to first review the current year. Here is a form to help you reflect on your successes and failures: Reviewing My Homeschool Year (will download as a Word file). By honestly answering these questions, you can begin the process of making next school year your best year ever!

Here are 20 questions to ask yourself about this school year:

• What were our greatest successes? 
• Where did we fail? 
• Am I happy with our homeschool “philosophy”? 
• What was our best homeschool day? 
• What was our worst homeschool day? 
• How was my time management?
• What subjects were completed successfully? 
• What subjects are still uncompleted? 
• Does my husband have any concerns? 
• Do my children have any concerns? 
• How was discipline handled? 
• How was our home management? 
• How was our spiritual life intertwined into our homeschool?
• What was each child’s greatest success? (List out each child.) 
• What social activities benefited our family and our homeschool the most? 
• Do any of my children have special needs or learning disabilities that needed to be addressed? 
• Did I experience burnout? 
• Did the children experience burnout?
• Did we utilize local support? 

And finally ...

• Why do we homeschool? List all reasons, big and small.

Top-10 Tips for Homeschool Planning for High School

Over the next week, I'll be writing a series of posts on planning the school year. Once the series is complete, I'll pull the posts together into one cohesive document to share on the website. I will also include actual planning forms to give you solid, practical help.

To start, here are some basics for making a multi-year plan along with the first of the planning forms:

Top-10 List:
Planning the high school years with Homeschool Connections.

1. Determine what courses are needed to meet basic graduation requirements. Here is help to get you started: Basic Scope and Sequence for College-Bound Catholic Students. You could also use your state's requirements as a base to start.
2. Review your child's coursework to date. On your scope and sequence, cross off courses completed so far.
3. Make a list of courses still needed for graduation. Determine how you will spread them out over the remaining high school years.
4. Ask your child about future goals. A student who wants to be a programmer will take different courses than a student who wants to be a chemist. 
5. Determine your student's strengths and weaknesses. For example a student who struggles with language, but learns well using a multi-sensory methods (dyslexic children often fall into this category), may do better with American Sign Language than with Spanish. 
6. Take into consideration your student's loves. An example here is a student who loves to write stories. That student should take more of our fiction-writing courses. They will still learn important writing skills in addition to learning litererary analysis. The bonus is that they will enjoy learning it more in a creative-writing atmosphere. 
7. Once you have taken the above steps, you will have a strong idea of where you want to go in the future. Now open and save the HSC course catalogs and review all the options available to you. 
8. Look for other resources to help you and your child meet goals. Books; websites; local co-ops; other online course providers; etc.
9. Seek out advice from other homeschooling parents. If you're having trouble with a needed course or can't decide on the best path to take, go to your local or online support group. We're also here to help you at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com
10. Free planning forms can be found at: Homeschool Planning Forms

Use this form to complete these steps successfully: Planning High School with HSC (Word document will download automatically).

Homeschool Planning

It's that time of year again. Many of us are looking back over the school year and thinking about our plans for the next. Some have already laid their 2010/2011 plans in stone. Others are putting it off until September.

In a beautiful effort to help us all with this task (that some of us love and others of us loathe) Jenny Bales presented a webinar series on the topic last year. Those webinars were recorded and can help you get it together this year. Prayerfully.

Jenny's homeschool group holds a Day of Reflection for moms in preparation for planning the next school year. They developed a self-evaluation survey for the mothers to complete with questions covering personal spirituality, successes and struggles from this year, and goals for the next year.

Jenny brings that experience to the entire Catholic homeschool community via two free webinars. These are ones well worth your time.

Prayerfully Reflecting on Last Year
Here is a chance to really step back from the busy-ness of family life and pause to reflect on the previous academic year's highs and lows. The focus will be to take some time to ponder our personal spiritual growth and our successes and challenges from the past year of homeschooling with a goal to prayerfully discern what, if anything, needs to change for next year. Participants are provided with a thorough self-evaluation survey at the close of the webinar to complete on their own time, which has been an inspiring process for all who have done it, so far! This webinar is part one of a two part series, continuing with Prayerfully Planning for Next Year but one can be attended without the other, if desired.

Prayerfully Planning for Next Year
Regardless of what stage of planning for next year moms have completed, this will be an opportunity to consider our plans in light of God's will through prayerful discernment. Having evaluated the previous academic year in the webinar Prayerfully Reflecting on Last Year, our goals for this discussion are to ask the Lord for guidance in choosing materials and preparing lessons for next year and setting some goals for ourselves, our family, and each individual child that truly reflect our priorities. This webinar is part two of a two part series but one can be attended without the other, if desired.

Presenter's Biography
Jenny is a richly blessed homeschooling mother of two children, with a baby boy due in June. Her daughter is finishing second grade and her son is finishing pre-Kindergarten. Previously a middle school and high school English/Language Arts teacher, youth retreat director, and strategic planning consultant (among other things), her enthusiasm for and experience with personal and curriculum planning has been a great asset to her own homeschooling way of life. She cannot wait to share with you the process she developed with her local homeschooling group to evaluate each homeschooling year and make plans for the next year all focusing on God's will for our families and raising holy children in Christ-centered homes!

Catholic Daily Planner (School Year)

Michele Quigley's Family-Centered Press Catholic planners are ready to order for the 2010/2011 school year. You may recall that Michele was our presenter for the free webinar: Time Management for Moms 101.

If you're in the market for a school-year planner, you should check these out. They now include both the Ordinary (New) and Extraordinary (Traditional) Forms of the Liturgy with the liturgical colors proper to the day. They are very nice! And, you can choose from nine different covers. You do need to pre-order so visit Family-Centered Press's website to learn more.

The student planners should be available soon as well.

Homeschool Planning and Organization

Do you have all your ducks in a row?

The first day of school is just around the corner. Are you scrambling to get your curriculum plan together? Have you been putting off getting the classroom organized? Are you still wondering what you're going to do for high school science? Well, we're here to help. To find high school online classes, click here.

And here are links to free webinars on homeschool planning and organization:
Prayerfully Reflecting on Last Year
Prayerfully Planning for Next Year
Choosing Worthwhile Homeschool Materials
Time Management for Moms 101
Homeschool Organization 102
Organizing Your Classroom 101

Homeschool Plan for Upcoming School Year

Have you been putting off planning for the upcoming school year? Is it on you're to-do list? Have you already done the footwork but having doubts? Well. Jenny Bales has graciously offered to help us all with this task that some of us love and others of us loathe.

Jenny's homeschool group holds a Day of Reflection for moms in preparation for planning the next school year. They developed a self-evaluation survey for the mothers to complete with questions covering personal spirituality, successes and struggles from this year, and goals for the next year.

Now Jenny is bringing that experience to the entire Catholic homeschool community via two free webinars. These are ones well worth your time. Make sure to mark the date on your planner so you don't miss it.

Prayerfully Reflecting on Last Year
(ADDENDUM: The live event was fabulous! I could not believe all the positive responses. I've corrected the link above to take you to the recorded event.)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009
8:30 PM Eastern (7:30 Central)
Here is a chance to really step back from the busy-ness of family life and pause to reflect on the previous academic year's highs and lows. The focus will be to take some time to ponder our personal spiritual growth and our successes and challenges from the past year of homeschooling with a goal to prayerfully discern what, if anything, needs to change for next year. Participants will be provided with a thorough self-evaluation survey at the close of the webinar to complete on their own time, which has been an inspiring process for all who have done it, so far! This webinar is part one of a two part series, continuing with Prayerfully Planning for Next Year on July 15 but one can be attended without the other, if desired.

Prayerfully Planning for Next Year
(ADDENDUM: The live event was fabulous! I could not believe all the positive responses. I've corrected the link above to take you to the recorded event.)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
8:30 PM Eastern (7:30 Central)
Regardless of what stage of planning for next year moms have completed, this will be an opportunity to consider our plans in light of God's will through prayerful discernment. Having evaluated the previous academic year in the webinar Prayerfully Reflecting on Last Year on July 7, our goals for this discussion will be asking the Lord for guidance in choosing materials and preparing lessons for next year and setting some goals for ourselves, our family, and each individual child that truly reflect our priorities. This webinar is part two of a two part series but one can be attended without the other, if desired.

Presenter's Biography
Jenny is a richly blessed homeschooling mother of two children, so far, a daughter entering second grade and a son entering pre-Kindergarten. Previously a middle school and high school English/Language Arts teacher, youth retreat director, and strategic planning consultant (among other things), her enthusiasm for and experience with personal and curriculum planning has been a great asset to her own homeschooling way of life. She cannot wait to share with you the process she developed with her local homeschooling group to evaluate each homeschooling year and make plans for the next year all focusing on God's will for our families and raising holy children in Christ-centered homes!

Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Alicia VanHecke's webinar last week was great. She used Catholic teaching to guide us through the process of how to choose worthwhile curriculum for our homeschools. I loved it -- it was one of the best webinars yet!

If you'd like to watch a recording of the event just go to: Choosing Worthwhile Homeschool Curriculum. Scroll down and click on View. Once the recording comes up, make sure to look for the chat and video icons in the top right hand corner. Click on those to get the full effect.

And it's FREE!!!

Oh, yes, I should let you know that we are able to bring these webinars to you free thanks to our very generous sponsors:
Love2Learn
Emmanuel Books
Please make sure to visit their websites and thank them for bringing this valuable resource to you.

Choosing Worthwhile Materials for your Homeschool

Update: You may watch the recording of this excellent webinar at Choosing Worthwhile Materials.

Alicia Van Hecke of Love2Learn fame is giving a free webinar on choosing curriculum on Wednesday. There are still a few seats left, so if you're available that evening head on over there to register. If you're busy during that time (8:30 PM Eastern), it's okay as all live webinars are recorded so you'll be able to watch it after the fact. Either way, Alicia will share with you loads of wonderful ideas, tips, and wisdom.

We are able to bring this webinar to you for free thanks to the generosity of Emmanuel Books. Please visit their website and let them know you appreciate their sponsorship of Homeschool Connections webinars.

Time Management for Moms

I'm am so very excited to announce that Michele Quigley of Family Centered Press recently recorded a FREE webinar: Time Management for Moms 101 (scroll down and click on View). She did an awesome job. I really appreciated her real life approach, recognizing that most of us can't live up to the perfect ideal but we can take steps to make life run a little smoother and a little more joyful.

If you don't know Michele (if that is possible), she produces those ever-so-lovely planners for Catholic moms, dads, and students. We all use them here at my house and I highly recommend them. Though, you do need to order them early. Michele only prints so many since they're date sensitive and they seem to go fast since they're so beautiful as well as functional.

Michele is also co-author of the free Catholic Charlotte Mason curriculum Mater Amabilis. Thank you Michele for all that you do!

Now, for the sound bite on Michele's free webinar:

Effective time management is the key to getting the most out of your day and avoiding burnout. As moms we have an office that never closes and an inbox that never empties, whether we work outside the home or not.

Michele will share her strategies for prioritizing tasks, overcoming procrastination, improving concentration and dealing with frequent distractions.

Prayerfully Approaching Homeschool Planning

UPDATE: Jenny Bales took her group's experience and created a 2-part series of free webinars for Homeschool Connections.

One thing that I really need to remember to discuss in future organization/planning webinars is the importance of prayer. I just read about a homeschool group that recently held a Day of Reflection for moms in preparation for planning the next school year. This is an awesome idea!

They developed a self-evaluation survey for the mothers to complete beforehand. They were to do so prayerfully, preferably in front of the Blessed Sacrament. The questions covered personal spirituality, successes and struggles from this year, and goals for the next year.

This is to be done before you sit down and plan for next year, to help put things in perspective, and is something they encouraged the mothers to take to their Holy Hours and spend several weeks completing. It was a tremendous blessing to everyone involved.

This is the Catholic homeschooling community working together at it's best. We are here to build one another up and support each other in our vocation.

You can read more here: Heart of a Mother: Day of Reflection for Homeschooling Mother