How We Plan to Homeschool High School
So this is happening, y’all: This fall, my homeschooled daughter starts high school—and we’re planning to homeschool all the way to graduation.
We’ve always tried to leave the decision about whether to continue homeschooling up to our kids—as long as they’re actively engaged in their learning, it’s their call whether to keep homeschooling or look at a more traditional school environment. There was definitely part of me that hoped, as we visited hybrid schools and Montessori high schools over the past couple of years, that my daughter would want to continue homeschooling, but apparently there was also an equally sized part of me that hoped she’d find a school she loved, because when she made her decision, I had a little bit of a panic attack. High school is scary, and the stakes feel really high. It’s definitely taken me some time to get comfortable with the idea, and if you’re in the same boat, I think it’s important to give yourself that time. Freak out. Panic. Spin your wheels. Get it out of your system so that you can focus because once you do, homeschooling high school is not that different from any other grade.
Going into high school, we have two big goals. The first: We do not want to lose all the things we love about homeschooling just because we’re keeping serious transcripts. I’m not willing to give up lazy mornings and readalouds and afternoons of crafting and conversation in exchange for workbooks and homework. Our second goal, which may seem contradictory, is to make sure we cover the bases so that my daughter can do whatever she wants college-wise after she graduates. Since she’s not sure whether she wants to be an astronomer or a You Tuber or a graphic designer when she grows up, covering our bases should keep us busy!
To keep things simple, we’re making sure to cover these bases, which most liberal arts schools seem to be looking for, over the next four years:
4 years of English
2 years of a foreign language
3 years of mathematics
2 years of a laboratory science
2 years of a social science
Some of these classes we’ll do as proper classes; others may happen more organically as part of our regular homeschool lives. My job is going to be to keep up with what we’re doing and write everything down so that when the time comes to make that official transcript, I have all the information I need and then some.
As usual, my daughter and I had our annual planning meeting, exchanging ideas and book lists for 9th grade over chai lattes at our neighborhood coffee joint. As has become our way over the past two or three years, she led the conversation, and while I may have double-checked our academic requirements list a few times, I let her lead. Here’s what we’ve landed on for her first year of high school:
Japanese. After six years of Latin, my daughter wants to try something new, so we’re giving Japanese a whirl. I’m not sure yet what resource we’re going to use for this—I’m sure as heck not going to try to teach it myself—so finding a good beginner Japanese class will be my summer project. (Suggestions welcome!)
U.S. history and literature. My idea is to teach a U.S. history class that prepares my daughter to take the AP U.S. History test, but we’ll see how it goes. I’ll likely use my battered old Norton Anthology of American Literature as the spine for the literature part of our class.
Comparative literature: Studio Ghibli’s adaptations. This class was my daughter’s idea, and I think it’s genius: We’ll read books (Howl’s Moving Castle, When Marnie Was There, The Borrowers, etc.) and then watch Studio Ghibli’s film adaptations of them, looking for similarities and differences and thinking about what they mean.
Physical science. I’m not sure what resource to use for this either. Good secular high school science is hard to find.
Math. Now that our daughter is in high school, Jason is taking over her math lessons. He’s kind of famous in our homeschool circles for what I call his “kitchen sink” approach to math—he’ll cover a hodgepodge of algebra and geometry over the next two years, and then our daughter can decide if she wants to try something like trig or calculus.
Etc:. We’ll continue our Craftsy crafting adventures with a more advanced crochet class for amigurumi makers—my daughter is hooked. (No pun intended!) She'll also join her littler brother and me for art and nature study when she wants to, and she'll continue with her music practice. She'll also still memorize a poem every week or so. She'll also take one of our online classes this fall—probably history or philosophy, but she mentioned that statistics and probability sounded interesting, too.
As you can tell, we’re covering our bases by ticking off items in our goal list, but we’re still doing things in a way that allows my daughter to plot her own educational course. I’m sure we’ll hit bumps and roadblocks, that we’ll need to course-correct along the way, and that I’ll forget something really, really important until it’s almost too late, but that’s par for the course with homeschooling.
What about you? Are you homeschooling high school? How is your planning shaping up?
