I haven’t clicked on a video so fast in a long time 😂 I’m so apprehensive about homeschooling high school so I am looking forward to hearing your wisdom
I feel like homeschooling high school should be taken seriously...but it's not something we need to be too worried about, as it's not inherently different than educating all those other years. :) Hope this video is helpful!
Even though my kid is not yet two years old, I LOVE seeing more highschool videos. Highschool can be a big scary part of homeschooling forany parents so I love hearing all the tips and advice.
Im homeschooling a 10th grader but we started in highschool. My rising 7th grader will be my first one to be planning highshool before he gets there. I like the idea of planning in middle school.
This was very helpful in making high school at home less scary and doable, I’ll also be saving this video for the future. A couple questions I have is how to determine grades and gpa, when so many people talk about not needing to test or just telling back what they’ve learned, etc. Or are projects and how to grade them part of most high school curriculums? Also, how do you go about getting them a diploma? And did you get a ceremony of sorts? Thanks for sharing all your homeschooling wisdom :)
I personally am not at all anti-test, and I think that tests are great opportunities for both the student and teacher to see what the student has learned--especially in subjects like math and science. I don't think I would want to do high school with no tests, myself. Projects and papers do tend to be a large portion of high school work, and those receive grades. Many curriculums (including Sonlight, which we use), include rubrics to help the parent with grading those assignments. For us, you finish high school when you finished 9-12th grade. None of us actually have physical diplomas because we never needed to show it anywhere (colleges want transcripts, not diplomas, generally speaking). If we had ever needed a physical diploma, our parents could have designed one on the computer using a template, printed it, and signed it. Homeschool diplomas are valid (there are special printing services that make fancy-looking diplomas if you want/need one) We aren't the most 'ceremonial' of people (at least one of my siblings didn't even attend his graduation for his bachelor's degree....typical homeschooler!)...so we didn't do all that much ceremonially. All of the girls had special senior photos taken so that we could send out graduation announcements, and we had graduation parties with extended family and friends (which served as family reunions since we would return to the USA after high school graduation to attend college, and we'd have a homecoming/graduation party at that time). My parents also started a new "family tradition" of taking the graduate on a special 'graduation trip' vacation...they only started this 'tradition' with child #5, and have done it with #5 and #6. As the firstborn in a big family, I admire the cost-effectiveness of starting a graduation trip tradition when you only have a couple kids left. :P
I take my kids education seriously and I know they where struggling with school and I want my kids to get the best future career for them and therefore I’m not sending them back to school where they don’t get the help they need!!! The 2 I kno what their possible future career is are completely different from each other!!!
I very much think that education is worth taking seriously from an early age, and I believe that homeschool gives us an awesome opportunity to give our kids an excellent education.
This was a great video. I know more people who homeschooled for high school than elementary and junior high. When we started homeschooling I was more nervous about teaching the foundational skills of learning to read, basic math skills, and writing. I feel like once they have solidified those building blocks, students take on a greater role in their own education. I sill feel that way as we are about to enter grades 5th and 7th. I will let you know if I still feel the same in 2 years when we are entering high school years.
I am so appreciative of this video. I definitely was all hyped up for nothing 🫣. My goal is to have our high school years mapped out by the end of middle school so we have a good bit of time to plan. I am definitely saving this video for a rewatch in the future. ❤
Hi Rachel! Do you have a video regarding high-school curriculum choices? I know you had stated for math your siblings does math u see along with life of fred.... what about other subjects? Thank you so much
I do have older videos sharing 9th grade curriculum choices for my sister: ruclips.net/video/WIFH1AgwaQI/видео.html For my own boys...there will definitely be a few things different because resources available change so much over time!
Rachel do you guys use MUS for high school as well? We’re looking to go from Saxon Alg 1 to MUS. My son has asked for a program that explains the whys not only the how-to of algebra. Do you think MUS is a good option?
My sister who is in 12th grade has used MUS as well as Life of Fred all through high school. MUS because it's solid, understandable, and gives good practice for mastery. Life of Fred is significantly more challenging and is also confusing at times, but she enjoys the variety. I think MUS is a very solid math program through high school. It's not necessarily the most ambitious, but solid, understandable, and consistent.
Question…ok so four years of math does it matter which math courses they take? Like do they have to have specific ones or can it be any high school level math. Or with history does it matter what kind of social studies class/history class they do?
I believe you can look up the high school state standards for Michigan--there is flexibility, but there also are those typically expected high school courses to take (Algebra 1 & 2 and Geometry) and beyond those...you can usually have some flexibility (i.e. choose Business Math or Trig, Calc). The ACT and SAT math is heavily Algebra based, with the ACT including Geometry and a small amount of Trig, if I remember right--so making sure Algebra knowledge is solid helps a lot for those tests and any future math and science...I feel like everything comes back to Algebra in the end. lol! For History, it's pretty typical that there should be a U.S. History credit, a World History credit, and a Civics/Economics credit (maybe 1/2 and 1/2 for those two, since those can be 1-semester courses). Of course, you can add credits beyond those--my sister is doing the Sonlight year of "History of the Church" right now and that's a Social Studies credit that's extra, beyond the basics. When it comes to the 'basics', I like to stick pretty close to the typical 'standard' classes that would be expected...elective and credits beyond the basic requirements are where you can really start diving into unique interests.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom! I’m currently in the “planning” stages for the high school years.
That's exciting!!
Very helpful and thorough overview of high school. Thank you so much for sharing!
Glad it was helpful!
I haven’t clicked on a video so fast in a long time 😂 I’m so apprehensive about homeschooling high school so I am looking forward to hearing your wisdom
I feel like homeschooling high school should be taken seriously...but it's not something we need to be too worried about, as it's not inherently different than educating all those other years. :) Hope this video is helpful!
Even though my kid is not yet two years old, I LOVE seeing more highschool videos. Highschool can be a big scary part of homeschooling forany parents so I love hearing all the tips and advice.
Glad this is helpful!
Im homeschooling a 10th grader but we started in highschool. My rising 7th grader will be my first one to be planning highshool before he gets there. I like the idea of planning in middle school.
It's always helpful to have a chance to begin mapping it out ahead of time!
This was very helpful in making high school at home less scary and doable, I’ll also be saving this video for the future. A couple questions I have is how to determine grades and gpa, when so many people talk about not needing to test or just telling back what they’ve learned, etc. Or are projects and how to grade them part of most high school curriculums? Also, how do you go about getting them a diploma? And did you get a ceremony of sorts? Thanks for sharing all your homeschooling wisdom :)
I personally am not at all anti-test, and I think that tests are great opportunities for both the student and teacher to see what the student has learned--especially in subjects like math and science. I don't think I would want to do high school with no tests, myself. Projects and papers do tend to be a large portion of high school work, and those receive grades. Many curriculums (including Sonlight, which we use), include rubrics to help the parent with grading those assignments. For us, you finish high school when you finished 9-12th grade. None of us actually have physical diplomas because we never needed to show it anywhere (colleges want transcripts, not diplomas, generally speaking). If we had ever needed a physical diploma, our parents could have designed one on the computer using a template, printed it, and signed it. Homeschool diplomas are valid (there are special printing services that make fancy-looking diplomas if you want/need one)
We aren't the most 'ceremonial' of people (at least one of my siblings didn't even attend his graduation for his bachelor's degree....typical homeschooler!)...so we didn't do all that much ceremonially. All of the girls had special senior photos taken so that we could send out graduation announcements, and we had graduation parties with extended family and friends (which served as family reunions since we would return to the USA after high school graduation to attend college, and we'd have a homecoming/graduation party at that time).
My parents also started a new "family tradition" of taking the graduate on a special 'graduation trip' vacation...they only started this 'tradition' with child #5, and have done it with #5 and #6. As the firstborn in a big family, I admire the cost-effectiveness of starting a graduation trip tradition when you only have a couple kids left. :P
I take my kids education seriously and I know they where struggling with school and I want my kids to get the best future career for them and therefore I’m not sending them back to school where they don’t get the help they need!!! The 2 I kno what their possible future career is are completely different from each other!!!
I very much think that education is worth taking seriously from an early age, and I believe that homeschool gives us an awesome opportunity to give our kids an excellent education.
This was a great video. I know more people who homeschooled for high school than elementary and junior high. When we started homeschooling I was more nervous about teaching the foundational skills of learning to read, basic math skills, and writing. I feel like once they have solidified those building blocks, students take on a greater role in their own education. I sill feel that way as we are about to enter grades 5th and 7th. I will let you know if I still feel the same in 2 years when we are entering high school years.
I actually also lean more to the side of finding teaching those foundational skills more intimidating than the advanced subjects of high school.
I'm still feeling a little intimidated about homeschooling high schoolers, but these are great ideas!
I am so appreciative of this video. I definitely was all hyped up for nothing 🫣. My goal is to have our high school years mapped out by the end of middle school so we have a good bit of time to plan. I am definitely saving this video for a rewatch in the future. ❤
That's definitely a good goal to have! And high school definitely is NOT as scary as it can seem!
Hi Rachel! Do you have a video regarding high-school curriculum choices? I know you had stated for math your siblings does math u see along with life of fred.... what about other subjects? Thank you so much
I do have older videos sharing 9th grade curriculum choices for my sister: ruclips.net/video/WIFH1AgwaQI/видео.html
For my own boys...there will definitely be a few things different because resources available change so much over time!
Rachel do you guys use MUS for high school as well? We’re looking to go from Saxon Alg 1 to MUS. My son has asked for a program that explains the whys not only the how-to of algebra. Do you think MUS is a good option?
My sister who is in 12th grade has used MUS as well as Life of Fred all through high school. MUS because it's solid, understandable, and gives good practice for mastery. Life of Fred is significantly more challenging and is also confusing at times, but she enjoys the variety.
I think MUS is a very solid math program through high school. It's not necessarily the most ambitious, but solid, understandable, and consistent.
Question…ok so four years of math does it matter which math courses they take? Like do they have to have specific ones or can it be any high school level math. Or with history does it matter what kind of social studies class/history class they do?
I believe you can look up the high school state standards for Michigan--there is flexibility, but there also are those typically expected high school courses to take (Algebra 1 & 2 and Geometry) and beyond those...you can usually have some flexibility (i.e. choose Business Math or Trig, Calc). The ACT and SAT math is heavily Algebra based, with the ACT including Geometry and a small amount of Trig, if I remember right--so making sure Algebra knowledge is solid helps a lot for those tests and any future math and science...I feel like everything comes back to Algebra in the end. lol!
For History, it's pretty typical that there should be a U.S. History credit, a World History credit, and a Civics/Economics credit (maybe 1/2 and 1/2 for those two, since those can be 1-semester courses). Of course, you can add credits beyond those--my sister is doing the Sonlight year of "History of the Church" right now and that's a Social Studies credit that's extra, beyond the basics.
When it comes to the 'basics', I like to stick pretty close to the typical 'standard' classes that would be expected...elective and credits beyond the basic requirements are where you can really start diving into unique interests.
@@SevenInAll You’re the best! Thank you